Re: Questions

In message <200005122158.XAA17355@d1o960.telia.com> "Oerjan Ohlson"
writes:
> graeme.bradbury@btinternet.com wrote:
> 
> >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.
> 
> This last bit is completely false. 
> 
> First, combining Stealth and ECM into one system (with 4 or 5 levels,
> including "None" and maybe "Brilliant") *reduces* the number of
> combinations compared to the current situation.

Not by as many as you think...

> In the published rules
> ECM has 4 levels and Stealth has as many levels as the vehicle's
class,
> and these can be combined any way you like - eg., for a Size-5 vehicle
> there are 20 possible combinations of ECM and Stealth. Last time I
> checked 4 and 5 were both somewhat smaller than 20 ;-)

In both cases (combined/not-combined) we're dealing with five
possible levels of *signature* (which is *not* stealth, but is
adjusted by stealth), and four (or five) levels of ECM.

With five levels of signature, and four of ECM, there are 20
valid combos if Stealth/ECM are seperate and 14 valid combos if
they are combined. (With "Brilliant" ECM, it is 25 and 15
respectively.)

What gets complex is that, if combined, the relative value of
"superior" ECM to a very small vehicle is less than for a large
vehicle, because a very small vehicle already has the best
possible signature... so whatever multiplier is derived for
combined stealth/ECM must vary not only by the ECM value, but by
the size of the vehicle. This sounds awkward to me... you may find
it as easy to leave them seperate.

[...]
> If instead the defensive system only works against some enemy designs
> but not at all against others, it is rather difficult to set a "fair"
> for it - because it will be worth its weight in gold at some times but
> completely useless at others. It is impossible to balance it properly
> against all foes; you have to choose between taking a rather arbitrary
> "average" value or balancing it against the few systems it can counter
> - which makes it horribly overpriced if the enemy doesn't bring those
> particular systems to the battle.

This will always be the case. If I buy a v. small vehicle a
superior combined stealth/ECM and you have no GMS systems, I've
been burned just as much as if I had bought uncombined superior
ECM. In both cases my vehicle is as easy to shoot at with basic
guns.

This is much like buying point defence in Full Thrust... if the
enemy didn't bring fighters/missiles(/whatever) you got burned. 
I'd say that this sort of scissors-paper-stone problem will crop
up in all points systems for all non-trivial games... we must
always assume an element of gambling.

--
David Brewer