Re: [DS2] Vehicle Design

Hi,

On 1-Aug-04, at 6:29 PM, David Brewer wrote:
>
> I can't make out exactly what the proposal is here.

Probably because it hasn't quite made it to the formal level of
"proposal" ;-)

> If I understand correctly (correction welcomed) the vehicle has
> capacity points, of which a certain number are consumed as a power
> plant to provide power points. Systems require either or both or
> capacity and power points, armour requires capacity points and
> movement requires power points. Is that right?

Nearly. Movement would be affected positively by the power available
and negatively by the capacity used by systems.

> If capacity points are directly exchangable for power points
> during the buying-power-plant step, then power points can be
> eliminated from the design system. Everything (systems, armour,
> movement) just requires capacity points, whether in the form of
> capacity, or in the capacity that's being traded in for power
> points.

I like this idea, although it has to prevent the designer from
creating large, extremely fast vehicles by spending most design
points on movement. Something like FT where the movement
costs a percentage of total mass may work.

So I think that having only a single "design point" is a good idea,
but I don't think that the way they are spent should be linear
on each of the three axes, or that each of the axes should necessarily
be independent.

> The current design system stumbles by not penalising increased
> armour levels except in points value.

Yes, but there are other "problems" too. The limited movement values,
the strict armour ratios, the "points-only" cost of stealth, etc.

> -- 
> David Brewer

Cheers,
Tony C.