Re: [FT] Machine People

>Laserlight said:
>(My Mass 100 ship was just an example, I've not thought a great
>deal about what the "real" defaults would be.	And the MP would
>need some new weapons and/or defenses).

OK.

>> 1) Have the Hull pool be all hull initially
>
>Why?

First, it would be inefficient use of MASS to have all that armor
sitting
there when not needed, and you're not going to need it against all
opponents. It also gives the DCPs something to do during the approach if
it
turns out that you do need it.

>>- I'd say that armor would have
>> to be fabricated, but at an accelerated rate, like deconstruct
>10 hull &
>> then make 10 armor out of it - rather than 1 point at a time.
>
>I'd think it would be slower.	Actually, I'd think it probably
>wouldn't happen, I'm sure there will usually be better things to
>do with your limited DCP resources.

Initially there might not be. I'd imagine that a "generalist" MP ship
would
be pretty well off "out of the box" to deal with more threats.

>I'm somewhat leary of letting people change back and forth
>between drives and weapons but it might be ok.

Otherwise you're limiting your ships to one thrust rating - EVER, and
that
seems too restrictive. The thing that I think is kind of neat about the
MP
is their ability to do just that: use MASS to build whatever's needed at
the time.

>I know standard FB designs have a mix of beam types but I've
>never understood why.	One would think we were still waiting for
>Dreadnought to be built.

The same reason that destroyers still have deck guns: designs have to be
generalist, able to deal with any eventuality - not just slugging it out
with the big boys.

Now I'll admit that it's tempting to mini-max designs solely for game
play,
but I prefer to keep the spirit of "flawed" designs.

>Actually, someone--Brian Bell?--suggested the MP get 1 DCP per 10
>mass.

I'd suggest tailoring the abilities of the DCPs to keep the 1 DCP per 20
MASS. It keeps things simple, and it's much easier to adjust the
abilities
of the DCPs. If you want them to be able to do more, then make them able
to
tinker with 3 or 4 MASS.

Schoon