Re: Machine People

>All MP ships cost 4 x mass, regardless of design (this includes
variable
>cost items, such as fighters & FCs)

OK, sounds about right

>1. Every system requires a DCP roll to break down, if
successful, the
>system's mass is shifted to a cargo which can be drawn upon
later.

I'd say breaking it down requires a DCP but not a roll.

>3. If the drives are being modified (broken down or upgraded) no
thrust
>is available.

Right

>4. Expendable munitions (fighters/missiles etc) can be created
if there
>is an appropriate bay available (3 mass fighter bay or SML(SMR)
launcher).
>This mass is lost unless recovered later (eg: fighter recovery.)
1 roll
>creates an entire squadron/salvo.

Missiles aren't normally used by decent, right-thinking Machine
People.  There are some clans that sacrifice sentience this way,
but we don't speak about them.
("Missiles are people too!")

>5. Armour can be constructed/removed during the repair phase,
but each
>point requires a separate DCP attempt.
>6. Systems damaged by threshold checks cannot be repaired but
must be
>broken down & rebuilt.

I'd say they should be able to repair thresholded systems as
normal.

>Standard configuration at the start of the battle is:
This is reasonable.  The Machine People have what I'll call
tribes.  Each tribe will have different defaults, and clans
within the tribes may have different variants.

>The standard config is to avoid maxed out designs before
engagement (ie:
>pure carriers/beam ships).  Minor variations are possible (eg
more hull,
>better drives, no screen etc), but should not be readily visible
to your
>opponent as a maxed out design.
>After all, a general design can at least survive whatever is
thrown at it
>until it can counter the threat.

The Machine People concept came out of a story by, I think, Poul
Anderson, in which all the biological life on a planet had died
and the machines had evolved.