RE: Campaigns

I think that I, too, would lean toward cost being the time 
determinant. Systems (engines, weapons, sensors) need to 
be calibrated and tested as part of the construction 
process. Also included in cost would be the training of 
crew, transportation of them to the site, and time
getting them use to the idiosyncrasies of the new ship.
Freighters would not need as long to train/calibrate.

But I would agree, that if a ship is made under rush 
conditions, it should show up as either a weaker hull
(representing shortcuts taken) or as random system 
failure upon the 1st Battle. Perhaps a threshold check
loosing systems on a 6. And make the 1st threshold
loose systems at 5+.

In the same way, crew that lacks experience could be
represented by not counting the LAST crew factor. This
would be the they-will-learn-in-combat or just-give-
me-warm-bodies approach. This often happens toward the
end of a war when much of your professional force has
been lost to attrition.

-----
Brian Bell
-----

-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Francis [mailto:tony.francis@kuju.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 09:18
To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
Subject: Re: Campaigns

[snip]

This points a little bit towards building time being dependant upon
number of hull boxes, not mass or NPV. After all, a mass 100 warship
would have 100 mass full of drives, systems, armour, shields etc,
whereas a mass 100 merchant could well be 70 mass of empty space. In
fact, correcting myself while I type, construction time would be
dependant on (mass - empty space). As to what constitutes 'empty space',
certainly cargo capacity would, I'd suggest that fighter bays would too
(or maybe count 1/2 or so) which means that a mass 100 carrier could be
built quicker than a mass 100 battlecruiser.

[snip]

Weapon systems are often the bottleneck in real world ship building.
Many ships of the late C19th or early C20th ended up with guns,
sometimes even turrets, intended for other ships but diverted to avoid
holding up the latest / greatest dreadnought class. Foundries capable of
forging large calibre guns were few and far between. Whether this is
relevant to the GZGverse is another matter.