Re: FB Ship Construction

>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?

By purpose or by weapon gets my vote. Most ships of cruiser size or
smaller
will concentrate their fire on one target on any given turn, excepting
weapons or systems that require a dedicateed FireCon. A cruiser armed
only
with beams could easily get away with two (one plus a spare for those
pesky
threshold checks).

Larger ships tend to split their fire if confronted by smaller
opponents,
or concentrate it on larger ones, so they'll need more in general.

>2) What's the best way to estimate how many PDS are appropriate for a
>vessel? mass?

I would say MASS, but in an indirect way. Fighters will be attracted to
larger vessels, thus they need more PDSs... unless you have an escort
doing
the job with PDSs and an Area FireCon. An escort can protect more than
one
ship as well, giving more bang for your PDS buck.

>3) What is the best ratio of armour/hull/screens?

Depends on whether you thing in terrms of the first threshold or
prolonged
survivability. Many on the list have gone for the armor path to postpone
the first threshold as long as they can. This keeps your systems
operational for longer until after the first threshold, after which
things
rapidly deteriorate. Screens, on the other hand, do relatively little to
postpone the first threshold (comparatively), but make the unit more
survivable after. You choose.

>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.

Class 3 beams cost alot, both in terms of MASS and points, particularly
if
you want any kind of arc. You can put one on a small ship, but not much
else. Escorts, in my experience are best used as a mobile reserve of
sorts.
They remain behind the main battle line, but can rapidly dart in where
needed to provide extra firepower or finish off a cripple. Class 2
batteries serve this purpose better.

The "Official" designs tend to limit themselves to smaller class
batteries
for smaller ships, prevserving a slightly archaic naval flavor. I like
it,
though there's been no PSB reason for doing so.

>5) Comment on any design differences between vector and cinematic and
>any design commonalities (how to design ships that work well in
>either).

Cinematic generally requires weapons with better arcs, as it's more
difficult to "come about," though generally, a good design in one will
work
well in the other as well.

>6) Are there any systems to avoid like the plague (as poorly
>balanced)? (Other than the obvious potentially unbalanced WG, NC, and
>RF).

I believe that the Cloak was also included in that bunch.

Schoon