Re: [GZG] FT:XD changes, part 1

On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 3:35 PM, Eric Foley <stiltman@teleport.com>
wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
>>From: Damond Walker <damosan@gmail.com>
>>[...]
>>This is the trap of a points system - while there may be a good
>>solution out there somewhere the minute you get it out to the genpop
>>someone will break it.
>>
>>You are always going to have edge cases that will break a system.
 For
>>me the fleet books set the tone for my games and designs so I was
>>never really concerned about the system's edge cases.
>
> Yeah.  I agree completely.  If people are willing to agree on about
how many fighters they want their game to have, we don't need to have
this conversation.  I think it's pretty much necessary in playing with
FB1 ships with strangers; I'm only throwing out the logistics limit as a
way to keep the rules lawyers at bay and still have the fleet book ships
"make sense".  On the other hand, if you want to take all the gloves
off with custom ships with no such limitations (implied or quantified),
I think it needs to be implicitly understood that the winning ships
won't look like the stuff in the fleet books.
>

I've never met a point system I couldn't break.  Most of the time
(probably close to 100%) I wasn't even trying to do anything
over-powered, I was just trying to do something different.  Ultimately
I decided that point systems don't really work, but they work "good
enough" for most people.  I also concluded that "from scratch" forces
will never do anything but engender animosity and angst unless the
person who designed the force is not the one running it.  Even then
there is a high probability of significant ire being directed towards
the force architect either during or after the game.

As an example, many moons agone I designed a force that didn't use
Class 3 beams, didn't use fighters, used torps, but only in broadside
configuration.	They did use ADFC's  on anything bigger than a CL, but
didn't overload on PDS turrets.  The force got played once.  To his
credit the person I played against didn't whine, but I could tell he
was not happy.	 Such an experience is rule rather than the exception.

For what it's worth I would balance the point system to the best it
can be, within the constraints of the FB's.  Make it work really well
for the published ships.  Anything outside of those and you really
can't expect to have a lot of success because you will always run
afoul of someone who makes a better mousetrap.

Bill the Lurker
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