Re: Fighters

Kevin Walker wrote:

>From being involved with playtesting the question may be may not be
>whether to modify the rules to suit FB ships or not, but rather is the
>fighter/missile/PD system working well.  Even customized ships can have
>real problems with the rock/paper/scissors that this group of systems
>sometimes end up being.  Part of the issue of fighters as I see it is
>the secondary move allowing you to sort of pick the target to pig pile
>on.  Unless everyone goes with Uberships, most ships will be vulnerable
>to the huge concentrated attack by fighters.

Now that is a line of reasoning I can accept.  Up until now, all I'd
heard 
was, "See, the FB designs don't work against a lot of fighters, so
fighters 
must be unbalanced."  If the evidence shows they are such against ships
in 
general, that's a different matter.

>I'd rather balance the rules around the FB ships for one main reason -
>to provide an "out of the box" solution for players.

If the rules are balanced in general and the FB designs are well-thought

out, this should not be a problem.

>If a player not
>only has to master the rules but a ship design system as well to have a
>chance in a game I find this a bad thing.

Agreed, but if you're playing a rookie who is usinf stock designs, you 
should be doing so as well to give them a fighting chance - any
optimized 
design in an experienced player's hands will give a rookie fits if
they're 
using stock designs - in almost any gaming system (Except the Evil One, 
where you can't dersign your own, I'm told).

Also, I've played various
>games in the past and I strongly dislike systems where the battle may
be
>over before the miniatures are moved on the second turn because one
side
>is much better in optimization.

Sadly, that's pretty unavoidable in most systems, regardless of how 
well-designed it is.

Although I find it enjoyable to
>construct custom ships I don't want to invest the time finding
>combinations and loopholes for casual gaming - I'd rather put a bit of
>that time into playtesting instead.  Of course - YMMV.  :D

See, I'd rather spend my time creating settings, backgrounds, campaigns,
and 
designing ships that fit such.	I actually get more enjoyment out of 
creating the background for a game than I do playing the game out.  I 
mentioned I was odd, didn't I?

3B^2

_________________________________________________________________