From: John Card II <jcardii@a...>
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2000 00:36:05 -0600
Subject: Sa'Vasku balancing (made ya flinch)
Hey everybody, Ideas have appeared half formed in my mind that might help to balance the Sa'Vasku, and might instead make everything more complex than playable. The following have not even been played out on paper yet, and I still don't know if the SV really are unbalanced. First the PSB. Stinger nodes doing multiple dice of damage fire for a longer period of time during the turn than "normal" beams. A) Fire from a single stinger node will use a split damage resolution, 1/2 of the dice (rounded up) when initiative calls for it, 1/2 at the end of the turn after other ships have resolved damage. A1) This means increased record keeping. A2) Maybe the ratio should be different. Every third die waits, or every fourth. B) At "long" ranges, at least one point of energy must be allocated to the M pool (some of which is used for "micromaneuvers") to keep stinger nodes on target. This energy point may be used for acceleration or maneuvers as normal. If at least one M point is not allocated, the 2nd half damage resolution will be skipped. B1) If multiple stinger nodes are available, then at long ranges, energy can be split between nodes for more effective fire, and to be able to skip the 2nd half damage. B2) Maybe at least one point of thrust needs to be generated instead of one point in the M pool. B3) Maybe this applies only to ships over a certain mass; eg ships with a PP cost of greater than 1 for 1 thrust. B4) Exactly where "long" ranges start is unclear to me. 10"? 12"? 18"? 30"? C) Any hull damage done to the firing ship subtracts from the energy in the second damage resolution phase. On a 1 for 1 basis, one point of damage will subtract one point of energy allocated to every stinger node in the 2nd phase. C1) Maybe this should only apply to damage done from natural 6's or other penetrating damage (eg big KV guns)? C2) Maybe the ratio should be higher, 1-3 points subtracts one energy, 4-6 subtracts 2, etc? C3) Maybe instead of this mechanism, an additional threshold check is required for beams which are "on target" to remain on target for the 2nd half resolution. (i.e. if a threshold check is passed for a stinger node that might do 2nd half damage, a second threshold check must be passed for that node to keep the energy focused and continue firing.) D) If a firing stinger node is destroyed during the turn before the 2nd half damage phase, the 2nd half damage is not applied. D1) If a different, unfired stinger node is available in arc, maybe the 2nd half fire can be shifted to the different node. Or maybe not. E) If a power generator is lost during the turn, the SV ship must immediately subtract the generated energy from any combination of pools (rebalance the energy). This may mean there is not enough energy for a 2nd half firing. (Someone else in an earlier message suggested that power should be rebalanced during the turn.) An example: The Fo'Vur'Ath (heavy destroyer) "Mooncrater" allocates 7 points of energy to the A pool, 1 point to the R pool, and 1 point to the M pool. During the "ships fire" portion of the turn sequence, a range 20 shot is declared against a human frigate. Since there is only one stinger node that bears on the frigate, the SV player decides to use all 7 points of energy for this shot. At range 20, 2 points of energy are required per die of damage, so 3+ dice are available. The SV rolls half rounded up (2 dice) immediately. A little later, the Mooncrater takes a 3 points of damage. The 2 points of armor on the Mooncrater are destroyed, and 1 hull hit is taken. At the end of the turn, the energy for the 2nd half firing (7 points, less the 4 already resolved) is reduced by 1. There is still enough energy for the range 20 shot, so it is immediately resolved. Any feedback before I go and try this out? Will this address the situations where the SV are apparently undercosted/over powerful? What are those situations?