Re: [VV] Agility

>So agility is tied up with the ability to accelerate in one or more
wanted directions, either on command or randomly (as a form of evasive
manoeuvring), and that's what the MD rating quantifies.

That *could* be what MD rating quantifies, yes, and that's what I
started out with -- see below. But right now MD doesn't include any
kind of dodge ability, and while they could be part of the same
system, I don't see that they necessarily have to be.  I'd like
players to have the option of building e.g. fast-but-clumsy
dreadnaughts, or slow-but-agile destroyers, if they wish.

My initial thought was that a KV ship with 20 Mass and MD4 has a drive
costing 4 Mass and 12 points, and it can turn by 4; a Hu'Man ship's
drive costs 8 points and it can turn by 2.  Therefore 1 level of MD
costs 1 mass and 1point if it's only for increasing or decreasing
speed; it costs 1 mass and 3 points if it can also turn.  That means
the Hu'Man drive is not simply [4 mass * 2 pts], it actually costs [2
non-turning drive * 1] + [2 turning drive * 3] = 2 + 6 = 8.

You could do the same thing with Evasive Ability, although I confess I
have no idea how much the points cost ought to be.

>The evasion level could be tied to the number of damage boxes the
ship has in relation to its Mass

This looks plausible at first glance, but....there are no hull-box
requirements for high MD.  If a 100-mass ship has 50 hull, it's a lot
more likely to have Thrust 2 than Thrust 8; similarly, a Mass 100
ships with Thrust 13 is rather more likely to have 10-20 hull instead
of 50.	 You could consider the Mass requirement for high thrust to be
at least partly the hull bracing (and the rest of course being the
fins, racing stripes, chrome, etc).