Re: Size Class Escalation -- How high in Mass?

> The problem there is that the ships are already
> balanced (except for stuff that has already been
> discussed to death -- savasku, freighters, etc.)
> so with a surcharge, the person with the larger
> ships would almost always lose, wouldn't he? Kind
> of an interesting idea though.

Typically one will want "balanced" games in which the point-values of
fleets
are balanced, i.e. each side has equivalent "power"; or in some cases,
different levels of power but then different objectives.  But perhaps
the
thing to consider is an economic rather than point-value balance.

If economic value scales (linearly) with mass or point value, then it's
no
different than simply using mass or points (and note that mass already
factors into point value).  But if the economic cost of a ship is, say,
the
point value squared, then you get a situation where ship A has twice the
point value of ship B, but costs 4 times as much to produce.

Then just give everyone a million credits and let them buy what they
want.
The point values will almost certainly not be equal, and the tendency
will
be to get four Bs instead of one A.  But do you get a thousand
scoutships or
one dreadnaught...?  Maybe squared is a bit steep, but then 3/2 power
requires a calculator and that's going overboard...  Then again, you
only
need to come up with that number once, at the end of the ship design
phase,
so once you've got it (like NPV and TMF) it's recorded for posterity.

Anyone have data on the costs of real naval ships vs. size?  Or the
"power
spectrum" of naval ship sizes in a real fleet?

-- Jerry Acord
   acord@imagiware.com