Re: [GZG] FT:XD changes, part 1

Robert Mayberry wrote:

>It seems like the core problem is that fighters are being costed out
>as a ship-level asset, when they're actually a fleet-level asset.
>
>Fighters' effectiveness increases exponentially as you add groups to
>your fleet. Adding your first fighter group is less powerful than its
>points value as components in capital ships, but your eleventh fighter
>group is far MORE powerful than its points value suggests.

Well... close, but you miss one very important feature: the value of 
your fleet's fighters depends very heavily on the ratio between how 
many fighters you have and the amount of anti-fighter defences 
(including defending fighters) the ENEMY has. If the enemy brings 
enough PD firepower to handle twenty fighter groups, your eleventh 
fighter group is worth very nearly as little as your first one (ie. 
close to zero) and the exponential value increase doesn't really set 
in until you buy your *twenty-first* group.

Of course there are plenty of other weapons system that varies in 
value depending on the enemy fleet design (eg. beams vs screened 
targets), but due to the very steep PD firepower gradient (ie., with 
the FT2/FB rules a little more mass spent on anti-fighter defences 
can improve your PD firepower a lot) the fighters are at least an 
order of magnitude more sensitive to the opposing fleet design than 
any of the others. This means that an exponential fighter cost scheme 
will only work if the opponent obliges by taking precisely the amount 
of anti-fighter defences the scheme was designed for: if the enemy 
brings too weak defences your fighters will still be seriously 
underpriced, while if he brings stronger defences than expected your 
fighters will be way overpriced instead - which is pretty much the 
same situation as now, only with a more complex points system :-( Of 
course you could develop multiple exponential fighter cost schemes to 
cover different opposing PD strengths, but then you'd depend on your 
opponent to tell you beforehand how strong his anti-fighter defences 
are to allow you to pick the right cost scheme for your fighters...

Regards,

Oerjan

_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@mail.csua.berkeley.edu
http://mail.csua.berkeley.edu:8080/mailman/listinfo/gzg-l