DS2: Questions

Oerjan Ohlson wrote:

>When drawing damage chits for a weapon with "All/2" chit validity, do
>you round fractions and if so which way? (Personally I'd say "don't
>round at all", but I want other opinions. The authors are welcome to
>chip in as well - hint, Mike! ;-) )

If you're adding together then div by 2 I say just round off.
Since you either get a whole number or .5. If you div each chit leave as
is.
But anyway, what are you doing firing a DFFG at long. :-P

>Can someone explain the difference between Stealth and ECM to me?
>Not the effects in game terms, I'm well aware of those, but in the PSB?

Stealth is the general dampners, camo etc. To stop people
firing at them in the first place.

ECM is a EM pulse weapon that fries the electronics of hostile
objects, approaching within a specified distance and not
displaying proper IFF.

(Yes i know i can talk crap at times :-P)

>In the current rules, ECM works against GMSs but nothing else (should
>work against MAK artillery too, though), whereas Stealth works against
>just about everything except missiles and artillery. By coincidence,
>level-1 Stealth gives pretty much the same protection against
>direct-fire weapons as Basic ECM gives against GMSs, level-2 Stealth
>corresponds very closely to the effects of Enhanced ECM, and level-3
>Stealth to Superior ECM. There's no ECM equivalents to level-4 and
>higher Stealth, of course - not yet, at least <g>
>
>So... we have two complementary systems with very similar effects
>against their respective "targets", and which seems to have rather
>similar PSB. Baking them together into one system would make it *much*
>easier to determine their proper points values :-/

I think the point you need to keep in mind is that DS2 is a game
rather than a simulation of reality. Balance is hence far more
important than the question of it being perfectly acurate to
reality and technology.

If you combine stealth and ECM you turn GMS into the weapon of
choice.
Since either make the stealth+ECM cost high and it becomes too
expensive it to be used, and hence all shots effectively are
against a poorly/undefended target.

Or you make the stealth+ECM cost low and everyone has it
meaning that their is now no point having direct fire weapons
and GMS is the cheaper alternative.

Or you turn GMS into a direct fire weapon that is also affected by
ECM,which
means infantry turn into dog food since they now
have no long ranged anti-tank weaponry.

And anyway adding stealth + ECM makes calculating points harder not
easier since
rather than having to balance two independant
weapon/defence combos you add to the number of combinations.

>Do you have any feelings for how much high mobility is worth in DSII,
>de-coupled from weapon types used etc?
>
>That is to say, assume that two forces have identical vehicles, except
>that one uses (say) Hi-Mob Wheeled and the other Fast GEV mobility.
>Further assume that the two commanders are of roughly equal skill. How
>many more (or less) vehicles will the Wheeled side need to have an even
>chance to beat the GEVs?
>
>I know that this is a very artificial set-up and that few people would
>willingly fight such a battle... especially enough times to determine
>the force levels necessary for balance :-/ 
>Unfortunately this is one game balance aspect which is utterly
>impossible to do any meaningful mathematical analysis on, which means
>that the only data I have at the moment is my DSII gaming experience
>and that of the other locals... I'd much prefer to have a considerably
>larger sample of opinions than this, from as many people as possible
><g>

I have a regular opponent who uses nothing but hi-mob wheeled in his
army.
The problem with your question is that decoupled from weapons hi-mob
wheeled
should be free (or close to it). But certain
weapons counteract its short-commings. Gary (my opponent) uses
GMS/H and HEL's all of which have a long range without any
range detremental brackets. Basically long range stuff.

So as far as i can answer your question. The wheeled needs
between .25 and 4 times as many vehicles as the opponent gevs.
Depending on terrain and equipment

I think you can do a meaningful analysis if you use a base movement
system as
your reference point and have a look at how
much better the other systems are compared to it.

ie. using lo-mob wheeled as base point.
hi-mob wheeled. 
added:	+2 inches move

Grav
added:	+7 inches move
	+terrain in easy
	+terrain in normal

Then just add a sensible points factor to each event.
eg. each 1 inche increase is worth 5% or each terrain added to
the normal group adds 10%

Well i've rambled to much
talk to you later
Graeme

ps. Oerjan, this ain't FT you can't look at the components in
isolation to each other.