Re: Alternative Threshold Arrays.

Adam Benedict Canning wrote:

 >A point came up when looking at SBFS

"SFBS"?

 >where the damage tracks can be of
 >differeing geometries dependant on technology [In that Criticals which
 >are a near equivalent to Threshold checks occur when you loose a row
 >of hull, so a ship with 10 rows of 2 hits has a tendancy to wreck much
 >more than one with 2 rows of 10 hits, even though both cantake the
 >same damage before loosing hull integrity.].

See http://nift.firedrake.org/misc/WDA-Mods.htm , specifically the entry
"Variable number of hull rows". There is a cost for 6-row hulls though;
they're worth about 1xMass.

 >As an alternative for an alien race having 7 rows rather than the
 >usual 4 and taking 6+ threshold checks at the end of each. Is that
 >balanced and can we work out how to fiddle that side of things to
 >build desiign philosopies into FT ships?

Whether or not a specific hull row/threshold number scheme can be
balanced
depends mostly on how the synergy effects between armour, screens and
hull
row lengths turn out. Generally speaking threshold schemes with large
number
of checks appear to be easier to balance than schemes with few threshold
checks, but you have to work through the entire spectrum of screen
levels,
armour levels, hull strength levels etc. to be reasonably sure.

In your particular example, you have the additional complication that
the
ship will never ever suffer a Core System failure (since Core Systems
automatically survive checks if the threshold level is 6+) :-/

Regards,

Oerjan
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
-Hen3ry