Re: [DS] Points system (fresh)

Beth.Fulton@csiro.au wrote:
> 
> G'day,
> 
> It's always dangerous to ask such questions, but just out of
curiosity....
> 
> All caveats etc aside, what would you like to see in a DS points
system
> (i.e. it doesn't have to resemble the existing one)?

IMHO the points system should be balanced for one-off battles, since
that's what most people will use the points system for. Campaign /
strategic value shouldn't come into it (although it should be possible
to build a 'campaign supplement' into the system - eg Grav mobility
costs +50% when calculating points for campaign settings).

I'm all for dumping the capacity points idea. Just have a big shopping
list of weapons, systems, armour, movement capabilities etc and select
from these. The points value of your vehicle is the sum of the parts.

Dump bits that don't matter to gameplay such as engine types. Just
assume that the right sort of engine has been fitted to the vehicle to
accomodate the weapons and systems that the vehicle has. The extra cost
of a more advanced engine type would be built into the cost of the
weapin or system that uses it.

Since there's no concept of capacity any more, the idea of vehicle size
classes also goes out of the window. Signature (and stealth) should be a
fixed points value just like any other system. Troop and cargo capacity
also becomes another system to be purchased.

Remove all the artificial restrictions such as the limit on maximum
number of weapons, not allowing all walker sizes etc. I'm sure we can
all come up with examples of vehicles, fictional and real, that break
these restrictions. This is SF, anything should be possible !

Expand the troop qualities to cover the five levels in SG2. It would be
great if a formula could be found for costing this within the points
system, although I realise that would be difficult to balance.

-----------------------------
Tony Francis
Senior Software Engineer