Re: FT-Technology in the FT world

In message <6B3C0EEAB4FED3119F5F009027DC5E9EA9AE99@spacemsg3.jhuapl.edu>
	  "Izenberg, Noam" <Noam.Izenberg@jhuapl.edu> wrote:

> From: "Matthew Smith" <matt@smithdom.freeserve.co.uk>
> 
> >That's not really relevant anyway
> >but basically, my point is that from 2183 (FB1) to 2194 is eleven
years of
> >war against the Kra'Vak. Surely in that time, some technological
> >developments will be made? Surely the ships of 2194 will be different
from
> >those in 2183? In what ways?
> 
> A very simple/simplistic KISS way of dealing with this is assuming
that
> technology _has_ incrementally improved over tha 11 years of
SWIII->Xenowar.
> Assume that all tech - offensive, defensive, and other, has been
slowly
> upgrading. The FT system is too granualr to keep pace with who was
ahead in
> tracking techonology for the 2nd qurater of 2187 or whose beams were
5% more
> efficient during the summer of 2191. On the whole, a battle fought in
2183
> with 2183 ships would be tactiaclly similar to a 2194 battle with 2194
> ships. Our only assumption is that no one made a breakthrough leap
(like
> Nukes in WWII) that  decisively turned the tides of any conflict. 
> 
> One of the ways to reflect this is a proposal for tech development I
put out
> a long time ago - change the scale of the MU. If you're using Inches
as the
> "standard" MU, make 2cm the "decade old tech" MU, and 3 cm the
"prototype
> tech" MU. You'd modify the relative cost of low or high tech forces by
> determing the %dfference in MU (possibly plus some factor). So in a 
"Low
> tech vs. Standard" battle, 2183 forces would cost ~ 80% (or less) of
the
> 2194 forces.
> 
> I may have formalized it better the last time I posted it. I should
dig it
> up from the archive.
> 
> Noam

One idea I had of handling different races with different tech levels
was 'miniaturisation - if species X is ultra advanced, then build their
'light cruiser' as a SDN, cost it as an SDN, but call it a CL :-)
Of course, once you start using sensor rules, it'll show up on sensors
as a CL.
You can do the reverse for 'lower tech' races as well.

This doesn't help for improved tech (especially if its only in a limited
field) for a single race, however.