Harking back to the Reinforcements thread we had going three weeks ago:
One thing I didn't have time to write (didn't have time to remember to
write, that is :-/ ) before I went to England was that the simplest way
of simulating obsolete ships is to not use all of the available weapon Mass.
Treat the unused Mass as "cargo holds" in the various ship design
spreadsheets, but don't actually put the "holds" on the data panel.
As long as the unused Mass doesn't exceed some 10% of the
non-hull/engine Mass of the ship, the NPVs seem to be pretty OK as well
- ie, as OK as any FB NPV is <g>. If more than 10% non-hull/engine Mass
is unused, the ship starts getting overpriced... but of course overpricing is
a pretty good way of showing obsolesence in the game <g>
Later,
> Oerjan Ohlson wrote:
> One thing I didn't have time to write (didn't have time to remember to
Actually, the easiest method is to just an obsolete ship of size 100
(say) has the same capabilities _and cost_ as a modern ship of size 80
(say). Or even 50 if it's not just obsolescent but obsolete.
"The Mk XVIIa Mod 7 Heterodyned Phased-Array Lasers on the "Venerable"
class cruisers easily out-shot their opponents of the day, and weighed
in at a massive 300 tonnes each, much of which was for their all-round
firing capability. In terms of Gigawattage, they're about the equivalent
of the Type 1 Unsupercharged Compact rotating-mirror mount, which weighs
less than 200. Similarly, the Dynamix FTL drive massed over 600 tonnes, but
used less Unobtainium than modern drives, so cost was about the same
as a modern drive of equal ability (eg the 300-tonne JumpMaster 2-300)"
> Alan E and Carmel J Brain wrote:
> > One thing I didn't have time to write (didn't have time to remember
If it has the same offensive and defensive capabilities as well as the same
cost as a modern ship of lesser nominal size, it is *identical* to that modern
ship from the viewpoint of the player. It is not obsolete if it gives you
exactly the same bang per buck as a modern design, so this way of doing it
doesn't simulate obsolesence at all IMO.
If you give the ship the same *offensive* abilities as the smaller modern ship
but the *defensive* abilities (ie, the hull strength) indicated by its "real"
size, you've done almost exactly what I
suggested - except that you put the cost of the ship too low, whereas I
tend to make it overpriced if I remove too much of its weaponry.
Regards,
Sounds like a simple way to do it.
Question...because the old ship has the same "mass" as the modern vessel
(ie:
oldship=80mass, newship=100mass) would the old ship have just as many hull
hits as the modern one?
BTW, I like the "Mk XVIIa Mod 7 Heterodyned Phased-Array Lasers"
entry...
Donald Hosford
> Alan E and Carmel J Brain wrote:
> Oerjan Ohlson wrote:
> "The Mk XVIIa Mod 7 Heterodyned Phased-Array Lasers on the "Venerable"
> Donald Hosford wrote:
Because of improvements over time in materials technology - eg use of
nanonmeter layers of neutronium instead of thick diamond foam lattice, an
"obsolescent" ship of mass 100 would only have the same number of hull boxes
as a "modern" ship of 80.
> BTW, I like the "Mk XVIIa Mod 7 Heterodyned Phased-Array Lasers"
entry...
Ta. Guess I've been hanging around military hardware too much...