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

David Griffin wrote:

> > Another is to apply a "surcharge" on large ships.
> > You can set this at
> > whatever you like (10% for ships mass 100-199, 20%
> > on ships 200-299, etc.).
>
>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?

*Are* the ships in the Fleet Books already balanced wrt size?

No. Not really. Large FT/FB ships have several advantages over small
ones 
which aren't reflected in the points/design system, eg:

- Fire more weapons sooner
- Thresholds are spaced out further
- Multiple DCPs are available on the damaged ship
- Better chance of having at least one FCS on a damaged ship

...etc. This means that if you fight a fleet consistng of small ships
only 
against a single ship, or against a fleet consisting of large ships
only, 
you're at a disadvantage if both sides have the same points value.

This has been discussed to death here on the list several times over the

years, so you might get lucky searching the archives (I don't remember
any 
of the thread titles off-hand though :-( ).

Later,

Oerjan

oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."