Re: Why big ships are too good...

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"I just don't know, I'm not all that sure that the
1000-point-100-ton-fleet
is going to stomp on the 1000-point-cruiser-fleet.  They may win, but I
don't think it will be one sided.  Taken without screens and a thrust of
two a 100 mass ship costs 5 points per mass while a 36 mass cruiser
costs
4 points per mass.  Now granted you are only buying screens one time for
a
100 mass ship while you are buying them (sort of) three times with an
equal amount of cruiser mass.  I guess part of the problem I am having
blindly accepting the big ships are too good argument is that in the
campaign we are running one of the players (Mike) chose to build two 200
mass ships in his starting fleet.  They haven't seen combat yet (he is
holding them back as a surprise, his racial "bonus" was that he could
build super ships while others could not), but just looking at the
points
that were spent I don't think they were that good of a deal.  I would
have
rather had cruisers.  I just don't see it being that simple: large ships
are too good."
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Yes, but would you take a 1000 points of Escorts agianst a 1000 points
of
Capitals? Or 1000 tons of Escorts agianst 1000 tons of Capitals? As you
point
out, the problem is not, so much, with the offensive system construction
costs.
Escorts are at a range disadvantage against Capitals, but this is
(somewhat)
offset by Escorts' better maneuverablility. The problem occurs because
screens
on Capitals save them so much more damage than a similiary protected
Escort. (Is
it that simple? Not quite, but close). If screens had a cost equal to
1/2 the
ship mass per level or a mass of 1/20 the ship's tons per level, it
might be
more even. In addition, Escorts reach the threshold points much too
quickly in
proportion to Capitals. Threshold rows should be filled in straight
across and
max out at 5 per row (Each ship would have tons/10 rows). This would
give
smaller ships a more even chance.

Brian Bell
103311.1205@compuserve.com
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/fthome.html