Re: FB2 Fleets (or "How I Learned to Hate the Savasku")

Alan Brain wrote:
 
>The SV are too powerful vs the KV. You're not being too whiny, the
>play-testing was inadequate.
> 
>I speak as one of the play-testers.

This is one of the surprisingly few FB2 issues where I and Alan
actually agree <g>
 
>OK, so what is the solution? Things currently being tried are:
> 
>a) Spicules come from the Defensive energy allocation pile. (Good as
>far as it goes, but not enough)

a2) Pods come from the R pool, just like the other activities which
consume biomass (ie., repair and drone-growing).

Since the Interceptor Pods are the main SV line of defence against
enemy fighters/missiles/plasma bolts, these two modifications together
force the SV to think a bit more about their power allocation when
faced by these weapons. (Missiles and plasma bolts can of course be
defeated by using extreme thrust levels as well, but that also reduces
the power available for the A pool quite a bit.). The drawback with a2)
is that it makes Lance and Leech pods weaker.

>b) Cost of Stinger fire increased by 1 pt per die ( so at range 36" it
>costs 4+1 = 5, at 12" it is 1+1 = 2) *OR*
> c) Range brackets for Stingers decreased to 8" or even 6" instread of
>12". So it costs 1 pt at 6, 2 at 12, 4 at 18 etc.

b) pretty much locks the SV into the "fast long-range sniper" box.

c) looks promising. During the past few weeks I've also been trying out
an idea we had early during the FB2 design:

d) Require the SV to readjust their power pools *immediately* whenever
they lose a Power Generator, reducing the amount of unused power by the
amount supplied by the PG (or to 0, whichever comes first). "Unused"
power is power which has not been used during the battle - ie., power
used for movement, to activate screen nodes or Spicules (or even
Interceptor Pods), all of which happens before the ship can take damage
- cannot be discarded in this way. It is usually the A pool which takes
the hit (or possibly the R pool, if the ship has planned repairs or
drone growing). 

This change addresses exactly the problem Sindre brought up earlier
today, ie. that the larger SV ships usually don't lose much firepower
from threshold hits until the *next* turn. It swings the other way
instead - the first threshold becomes even nastier for the SV than it
is for the other races. The main drawback with it, and IIRC the reason
it was dropped, is that it increases the paperwork further - but there
have been several other simplifications as well since then.

Regards,

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry