Re: [FT] Hardened Systems

On 14 Jan 99, at 19:07, Oerjan Ohlson wrote:

> <sigh> OK, a very compacted version of the correct statistics:

Heh, I just started doing the statistics correctly too, but decided to 
read more posts just in case someone beat me to it. :)

> The cumulative chance to lose a system is
> 
> 1st: 16.7%
> 2nd: 100% - 83%*66% = 44.4%
> 3rd: 100% - 83%*66%*50% = 72.2%
> 
> ie, the probabilities are multiplicative and not additive.
> 

[snippage]

> 
> So, if you get ~25% more use out of the system, the mass penalty
should
> be 25%. Simple as that :-)

Ok, you got the stats right, but I think you are misinterpreting 
them....

Hardened systems cannot fail at all until the second threshold 
check, which means you don't have to worry about them failing at 
all until almost half the ships hits are gone, as opposed to a 
quarter. In the early part of a fight this is a major bonus. For 
selected systems it seems rather cost effective. Two firecons that 
don't even have a chance of being destroyed until the ship is half 
gone, and will probably both still be active when the ship 
vapourises, compared to three firecons for the same price.

So, to summarise... REALLY good early in a battle, you can't lose 
them except to needle beams/missiles (and emp missiles 
perhaps?). Whether that early advantage can be brought into play 
is something I'll try to find in playtesting.

It seems to me that for a small ship which you would normally only 
give a single firecon to, but wouldn't consider running to two, the 
hardened option is quite attractive. (i.e. 1 firecons ships become 
totally useless if it goes down.

I'd not consider hardening everything on a ship en masse, keeping 
the same points per ship means your firepower vanishes, but for 
critical systems it seems like a good idea, and a good price.

My only other comment is to the other person who didn't like 
hardened systems at all, citing that sensors etc. cannot be 
hardened as they need to have their sensing apparatus vulnerable 
to weaponry in order to operate, is missing the point that hardening 
may not only be armour, but could be localised intense shielding.

(eww, entirely too many comma's)

-- 
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