FT Ship Generation

A last pre-xmas topic.

There are generations of ship design. One suggestion for how to
represent the progress of tech was non optimal use of space (ie waste
space). Though I think this is a good idea, of itself I don't believe
it is sufficient - that represents strictly the inefficiency of
systems rather than their more primitive capability.

Here's my suggestion:

A five category system
- archaic
- 3rd line
- 2nd line
- current 1st line
- state of the art (or experimental)

Current 1st line is the *default* which the FT and FB rules outline.

Space usage efficiency as a f'n of tech quality:
Archaic = 70%
3rd line = 80%
2nd line = 90%
1st line current = 100%
state of the art = 110%

When designing a ship, decide which generation it is. Size the hull as
normal, then size each component by a multiplier of 100/percentage
from the above table. Which is to say that an archaic ship would size
all components on a multiplier of 100/70 = 1.43. A state of the art
ship would size each component by a size of 0.91.

This represents the "size efficiencies of technology".

One also has to represent the quality. This is reflected in a number
of areas:

Sensors: mutliply effective sensor radii by the multiplier in the
above table (archaic = 70% of current standards).

Weapons Fire:
Poorer FC systems and FC sensor will translate to poorer effective
ranges. Reduce range bands by 1" per 12" for every level below normal,
or increase similarly for above average. This is represented in the
table below:

tech quality:	       12" band becomes:	 6" band becomes:
archaic 		     9" 			 4.5"
3rd line		     10"			 5"
2nd line		     11"			 5.5"
1st line (current)	     12"			 6"
state of the art	     13"			 6.5"

Manouvre:
Manouvre capability is affected by ship quality

tech quality		    % of thrust available for manouvre
with thrust 2/4/6, this means
archaic 			    20%
1/1/1
3rd line			    30%
1/1/2
2nd line			    40%
1/2/2
1st line			    50%
1/2/2
state of the art		    60%
1/2/4

Defensive systems effectiveness:
<still thinking about this? Probably a modified PDS table>

SM radius:
archaic 		3"
3rd line			4"
2nd line			5"
1st line			6"
state of the art		7"

Certain items ought to be available only at certain tech levels too.
Though which and what I haven't thought much abour. Principally
advanced fighter types, advanced missile types, perhaps level-2
screens, perhaps ADFC.

ECM:
<haven't thought enough about it yet.>

Points: Not sure yet.

Something like this puts a 2nd line ship at a disadvantage, but not an
insufferable one. An archaic ship from the 2090s would be at a big
disadvantage. It also gives a minor boost to state of the art ships...

That's it for the first cut at this before Xmas. Feel free to
criticise (like I could stop you) but remember it is Xmas... ;)

Thomas Barclay
Software UberMensch
xwave solutions
(613) 831-2018 x 3008