Re: [GZG] Gzg-l Digest, Vol 37, Issue 24

_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@mail.csua.berkeley.edu
http://mail.csua.berkeley.edu:8080/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lThe problem
with pre-game 'battle damage' or 'ordinance rolls' is the impact
it can have on the actual play balance on the table.

Ship A: 40 hull boxes, probably takes 2.5 rounds of fire from its
undamaged
self to destroy itself (as a measure of combat power)

Ship B: 40 hull boxes, but with 30% damage and a randomly determined
bunch
of systems down

On paper, it looks like B is worth 30% less, but the reality may be far
more. Bad luck knocking out all your firecons, for instance, makes you
useless. Lose your main B3 battery, instead of a B1, and you are worse
off.
Lose thrust and you are in bad shape. Etc.

Beyond that, because of fire concentration in a fleet engagement, an
undamaged A would require 3-4 ships of same size pounding on it to kill
it
in a round. Put another way, if the enemy does not do that, it may get
off
2-3 shots before it goes pop.

But if 30% damaged, it may only take 2 ships to kill it. It may get off
only
1 shot, with conceivably a reduced FP due to thresholds as well.

So the 30% down ship may end up more than 30% less effective. In the
extremum, it may be 100% less effective (does no damage to the foe and
is
destroyed).

===========

I think, in a way, this is similar to the fighter problem and sequential
ship firing rather than simultaneous. These are often all problems of
non-linear combat value.

If your big SDN is facing 5 light cruisers, if it can evaporate 1
cruiser a
round while taking only 20% damage in return, you get:

start: SDN: 100%  CA 1-5: 100%
end round 1: SDN: 80% CA 1-4: 100% CA 5: DEAD (SDN down no firepower,
CA's
down 20%)
end round 2: SDN: 63.2% CA 1-3: 100% CA 4:20% CA 5: DEAD (SDN down 25%
fp,
CA's down 36%)

This trend continues. The SDN will bleed firepower slower than the
smaller
ships due to the realities of thresholding mechanics.

I think battle damage has some of the same issue. A ship formerly worth
X
damaged Y% might be worth much less than X-Y% or much more than X-Y%
depending on when thresholds are triggered and how their results go.

Though I like the idea, I can see it being a balance issue on the table.

Of course, I don't care much about balance. I'm the guy that flew the
Komarov squadron into the teeth of the largest congregation of fighters
at
an ECC... no fear! (or no brains...)

Tom