[FT] Hull strength and Stress

Just to throw a new thread into the mix...

The Fleet book has freed up many aspects of the ship design system,
allowing
easy creation of a more varied array of ships.	This, IMHO, is a good
thing.
One aspect of the design system that bugs me, though, is the hull
strength
issue.	Basically, for any given Mass, there are 5 hull strengths you
can have
(10-50% at 10% increments.  For extremely small ships, some of these
levels may
actually be the same due to rounding concerns.)  So a mass 100 ship can
have
10,20,30,40 or 50 hull points.	Why not 35?  Is there some magic in the
breakpoints where they are.

What I propose (I don't know if anyone does this) is to allow a ship to
be
designed with any hull value, with a minimum of 10% or 1 (whichever is
more) The
hull rating (fragile, weak average, strong, super) is determined by
comparing
against the standard % values. So the above mass 100 with hull 35 is
Average
(because it does not yet reach 40%.)

** Hull Stress Ratings **
So now, what good are the named hull strengths?  Obviously 2 ships of
equal mass
and different hull values are not constructed equal, and the difference
is not
in internal armor (because, ummm, that's what armor is for).  So it
seems the
increased hull is an indication of structural strength,
'over-designing', etc.
I would think this could have additional, hopefully interesting, effects
on play
(though it may invalidate a few designs as currently envisioned).  Thus
the
concept of Stress Ratings. This is more difficult to explain than it is
to use,
so bear with me.

Stress Rating is simply defined as the maximum thrust your ship may
_safely_
withstand.  It is initiall equal to (Hull Integrity / 5% mass).  So
Fragile=2,
Weak=4, Average=6, Strong=8, Super=10.	Damage will reduce the Safe
Stress
rating of your ship.  Take your initial Stress, and mark ratings in the
DP
track, just like crew points (see FTFB page 8). The first mark equals
your
initial rating-1 (example time!)

FSE Jerez CA (Mass 88, Hull 26 (average) Stress=6)
26/6=4 1/3 round up to 5 to 1 mark every 5 boxes
The last box will always be the S.R. 1 box.

Original     With Stress
OOOOO*O      OOOO5*O
OOOO*OO      OO4O*OO
OOO*OO	     3OO*O2
OOO*O*	     OOO*1*

So When the Jerez has taken 5 hits it may safety thrust only 5 pts. This
reduction does not it any way represent a loss of drive capability, but
a
reduction in the integrity of the ship's hull.

** Overstress **
Note that in the above discussion it is noted that the Stress rating is
the
thrust your ship can _safely_ withstand. You are more that welcome to
expend
more than this rating (assuming your drive is currently capable of it).

On any turn in which you apply more thrust than your current Stress
rating, Roll
1d6 for each point in which your thrust exceeded the Stress rating. 
Score these
dice as beam dice with no re-roll, unless you are feeling particularly
mean. (no
shields, of course, unless you wish to use ST 'Hull Integrity Fields')
and apply
this damage directly to the hull.

Note that these dice are rolled when you move the ship, and damage is
scored
immediately. You still make your complete move, regardless of the
outcome of the
damage (unless, of course, your ship is destroyed by the damage.)  Since
the
damage is immediate, if a resulting threshold check cause the loss of
weaponry,
you are out of luck when the time for combat comes around.

That's it for now - Comments?

Jared