RE: FB Ship Construction

1.	By arcs seems to be best.  You want to be able to fire all
weapons
regardless of arc & then add 1 FC for redundancy.  Eg: 2 beams & 2
PTorps,
both offset would need 4 firecons + 1 redundant.
2.	1 PDS per 25-30 mass would give you average defences.  More than
1
per 20 mass starts cutting into your offensive firepower unless you
expect
heavy fighter/missile engagements.
3.	5-8% armour/PDS, 30% hull, 5% screen. (ie: NAC ships).	This
gives
you the best all around defences against the full range of weapons. 
Against
beam heavy or PTorp/missile heavy forces, you need to bias the defences
appropriately.
4.	DDs are classed as expendable units in a fleet engagement, which
means high speed and flanking maneuvers.  Class-2s are less mass
intensive
for 3 arcs than Class-3s (you can get 3 class-2s for 1 class 3 with the
same
arcs) which gives greater effect for those DDs which do get into range. 
All
the time your opponent is plinking DDs, you're heavier units are
stripping
the armour & first threshold off their heavies while you close the
range.
5.	High thrust and multi-arc weapons are more important in
cinematic as
you need a larger maneuver envelope to bring single arc weapons to bear.
 In
Vector, you can load a ship with single arc weapons & not significantly
degrade the firepower on a turn-by-turn basis.
6.	Unless taken to extremes, there aren't any systems to avoid in
the
standard weapons.  Needlebeams can be useful in light attack ships or as
multiweapon broadsides on a larger ship, otherwise don't mount them
singly,
they aren't reliable enough.

Neath Southern Skies - http://users.mcmedia.com.au/~denian/
[mkw] Admiral Peter Rollins; Task Force Zulu

> -----Original Message-----
> From: kaladorn@fox.nstn.ca [SMTP:kaladorn@fox.nstn.ca]
> 
> I have a question for the Shipwrights on the list:
> 1) What's the best way to estimate how many fire-cons are appropriate
> for a vessel? By raw mass? By mass of weapons? By # of weapons
> systems?
> 2) What's the best way to estimate how many PDS are appropriate for a
> vessel? mass?
> 3) What is the best ratio of armour/hull/screens?
> 4) Beams: What mix of 3/2/1s? For example, I think DDs with 3s are
> great - lots of punch. But most DDs use 2s. Am I missing something?
> I'm trading long range FP for shorter ranged punch, and to prevent my
> DDs getting popped before they can close.
> 5) Comment on any design differences between vector and cinematic and
> any design commonalities (how to design ships that work well in
> either).
> 6) Are there any systems to avoid like the plague (as poorly
> balanced)? (Other than the obvious potentially unbalanced WG, NC, and
> RF).