RE: The dreaded parity thing (again)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mikko Kurki-Suonio [SMTP:maxxon@swob.dna.fi]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2000 3:46 AM
> To:	Ground Zero Games mailing list
> Subject:	The dreaded parity thing (again)
> 
> OPIONION ALERT: If you can't agree to disagree on matters of opinion,
> please don't read this.
> 
[snip]

> OTOH, there's zero-average balancing. That means to take advantage A,
you
> must take disadvantage B. An average combatant, while outclassed in A
has
> a perfect opportunity to exploit B (i.e. you don't need a specialized
> B-exploitation design).
> 
> How does this apply to FT? Benchmarking. Lacking anything else, we
might
> call the "official" FB designs the benchmark. (Sorry, ship registry --
> electronic only doesn't count)
[Bri] Exactly right. The FTSR is not meant to replace the fleet books,
only
to suplement them. The ships in Fleet Book 1 & 2 (including the
variations
mentioned in the text, but without SSDs) should be used as a benchmark.

> Thus, any kustom killa design should have a reasonable counter in the
> published official designs. 
> 
> If there isn't, soon all you see is everyone flying kustom killa's of
> their own and one begins to wonder what's the use of the "official"
> designs? Examples of bad designs? A way to spank newbies? 
> 
> (Car Wars used to have this problem. You just couldn't compete with a
> sheet car. I could also mention a previous edition of a certain space
> combat game, but shall leave it unnamed...)
[Bri] And Battle Tech, and most other games that offer "official"
designs
and a custom design section. "Official" designs tend to be more
multi-purpose and usually are not built to exploit a particular system
or
rule. Custom designs sometimes are built to this purpose.

[snip]

> -- 
> maxxon@swob.dna.fi (Mikko Kurki-Suonio)	    | A pig who doesn't
fly
> GSM +358 50 5596411 Tel +358 9 8092681	    | is just an
ordinary
> pig
> Länsimetsä 3B1 02300 ESPOO FINLAND	 Hate me? Try | 	- Porco
Rosso
> http://www.swob.dna.fi/~maxxon/      hateme.html  |
> 
> 
My comments marked by [Bri]
---
Brian Bell
bkb@beol.net
http://members.xoom.com/rlyehable/ft/
---