Re: [DSII] Heresey

On Thu, 04 Apr 2002 08:08:43 -0800, "Brian Bilderback"
<bbilderback@hotmail.com> wrote :

> John Crimmins wrote:
> 
> 
> >When you look at Full Thrust, it's very possible to have two ships of

> >identical mass (and virtually identical point cost) that are *very* 
> >different from each
> >other, but still very competitive.  Ship X may have Pulse Torps and 
> >screens, while Ship Y has beam weapons and armor, but neither of the
two is 
> >clearly
> >superior to the other.
> >
> >It seems that DSII is missing this factor; it's very easy to see (and

> >design) the ideal tank.  Given two grav tanks of similar size with
turreted 
> >weapons,
> >designed by two different people, how different are the end results
going 
> >to be?
> 
> 
> Ok, a couple of observations, YMMV.  First of all, remember that
comparisons 
> between FT ships and DS vehicles are inherently unfair.  MBT's are, it
seems 
> to me, intended to do two things really well:  Kill other vehicles, 
> especially other MBT's, and scare the hell out of the Guys in the
Wrong 
> Uniforms. FT ships, especially capital ships, are designed to do a
MYRIAD of 
> things:  Kill fighters, kill other ships, stop incoming missiles,
protect 
> other ships around it, etc.  The land equivalent of that isn't an MBT,
it's 
> an OGRE.  I agree,  individual VEHICLE design may not be as varied in
DS as 
> ship design in FT, but when you look at overall force structure, it IS
quite 
> possible to have a great deal of variety between two roughly equal
forces.

You know, that's a damn good point -- I hadn't thought of it that way. 
It's the gestalt that's the focus in DSII, not the individual vehicles. 
I think that this is 
what Roger was getting at as well; caffeine must not have kicked in at
that point this morning.

What got me thinking about this was looking at my Renegade Legion cohort
boxes -- I couldn't think of much that I could do to really
differenitate the blue 
tanks from the red tanks in terms of performance.

I've partially solved the problem by putting new turrets on all of 'em,
allowing for more variation in weapon types (and now I need to place
another order 
with Brigade so I can work on the other side....), but I'll have to
fiddle with the force structure as well.  

I do feel that lifting most of the restrictions -- on the class of
armor, the size of weapons, the *number* of weapons, Walker sizes, VTOL
restrictions -- 
goes a long way towards allowing what I'm looking for, and I've been
doing that in a number of small ways.  I think that, since I'm generally
desiging both 
sides in a given conflict, I should start doing more of that.

Let that size 3 tank carry class 4 armor, let that size 2 tank destroyer
carry a size 4 HVAC, and so on, allow the APC to carry more 2 units
*and* an 
extra APSW, and so on.	For the really high-tech forces, let them use
VTOL movement for their Grav tanks...that should show a significant tech

differential!

Food for thought, all around.

-- 
John Crimmins
johncrim@voicenet.com