Re: Descriptive design system idea

At 03:41 PM 3/10/97 +0000, you wrote:
>I like this idea  a lot, and when you think about it, point costs are
more
>or less arbitrary anyway.   Since FT points don't really mean much
except
>for comparing two forces, I don't see any reason why a descriptive
design
>system wouldn't be adopted.
>	 [Slightly off tangent topic warning] While I'm on the subject
of
>point costs, what are everyone's feelings about them?	Points seem to
be a
>measurement of relative combat value, not necessarily an assessment of
>material worth or technological advancement.  This is all well and
good, but
>I've been trying to come up with campaign rules, and I don't think that
the
>point system, as it is now, accurately reflects a ship's consruction
cost,
>only how it will generally fare in battle against another ship.  Does
anyone
>have any quick and dirty ideas on this?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Tre
> 
	That's what I've been thinking for some time now. Campaign cost
should reflect the amount of economic/industrial effort required by the
"purchasing" civilization/government to build the ship. As for thoughts
on
how to adjust cost to mean this more than how well ships compare
tactically,
I guess the difference would be in what you intuitively (or could PSBS
justify) as being increased costs of construction: larger hulls might
cost
more proportionately than smaller hulls especially if shielded, troop
holding cargo spaces should probably cost more than 1 per mass as it
probably is rather expensive to feed and maintain a large body of
fighting
men and their equipment, advanced electronic systems such as sensors and
ECM
and shields should probably cost a lot more than lower tech systems like
submunitions. Then again, you'll probably have to cost submunitions and
missiles in a campaign system for reloads so it balances out. As David
has
brought up, FTL and cargo bays are worth next to nothing tactically but
are
worth more than their weight in gold-pressed latinum strategically. I
imagine a "strategic" point system would wind up being costed in a very
intuitive manner.

	James
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