Re: FTIII/classes redefined

Phil P. wrote:
>Mass		Class		 Cost			    Thrust
Factors
>0 to 6 	  Boat		    1 X Ship's Mass per Five Thrust
>7 to 12	  Corvette	  1 X Ship's Mass per Four Thrust
>13 to 24	 Frigate	  1 X Ship's Mass per Three Thrust
>25 to 36	 Destroyer	1 X Ship's Mass per Two Thrust
>37 to 66	 Cruiser	  2 X Ship's Mass per Three Thrust
>67 to 96	Heavy Cruiser 1 X Ship's Mass per One Thrust
>97 to 116     Battle Ship	4 X Ships Mass per Three Thrust
>117 to 134   Battle Dread    2 X Ship's Mass per One Thrust
>135 to 156   Super Dread    4 X Ship's Mass per One Thrust
>157 to 180   Star Ship 	8 X Ship's Mass per One Thrust
>180 to 200   Battle Station  16 X Ship's Mass per One Thrust

This reminds of one big area I would really like to see changed in FT -
classifying a ship type based only on its mass.  I think it should be
the
player's decision as to what type of the ship, the ship actually
represents
based on its role, etc.  I think a more efficient system would be to
assign
an identifier to each mass range for helping with identification and
ship
construction.  One example is trying to represent races where the beings
in
question may be of different sizes compared to humans.	A race of beings
much larger than humans might have a scout as large as a human battle
cruiser, etc.

Example using Phil's size listing:

>Mass	      Size Class
>0 to 6 	  A 
>7 to 12	  B 
>13 to 24	  C 
>25 to 36	  D 
>37 to 66	  E 
>67 to 96	  F 
>97 to 116	  G 
>117 to 134	  H 
>135 to 156	  I 
>157 to 180	  J 
>180 to 200	  K 
:
etc.

A ship of say 96 mass might be considered a battle cruiser, a strike
cruiser, a scout, a dreadnought etc.  The ship type should be based on
the
its actual role, not just its size.  Many of todays modern destroyers
and
cruisers are built on similar hulls and have similar tonnage, but they
are
not all called destroyers or all called cruisers.  They are primarily
classed on their role.

Mike Miserendino