Modding questions

[President_Elect_Shang]

I see where you are going now. To implement this I would have to create the two like this or I would deviate from the original layout so much the two would become new elements. I don�t want to do this which is why I have made the CQ and LS both stand alone and assigned the required crew quarters for ships on math using the CQ/CQ. In other words once you read the below I divided all hull sizes by 500kT for crew quarters needed then took that result and divided by 5 for life support needed.

First this is how I would have to make the two you laid out in the example:
CMB = 10 size and 15 cost
SEP = 60 size and 45 cost.

I think I made an error below or maybe need to flesh out the three (LS/CQ and CQ/CQ and LS) a little more. Keep in mind that every 10kT of ship are used to calculate life support and crew quarters, even things like armor must be counted.

LS/CQ = provides life support AND crew quarters for every 250kT of ship at a cost of 15 and size of 10kT. So this does not need the stand alone LS described below.

CQ/CQ = provides crew quarters for every 500kT of ship at a cost of 5 and size of 10kT. This needs the stand alone LS described next.

LS = this is a stand alone LS that provides LS for every 5 CQ/CQ on the ship at a cost of 20 and a size of 10kT. So if you have 4 CQ/CQ you only need 1 LS; however, if you have 8 CQ/CQ you need 2 LS (8/5 = 2 drop fractions.)

So the smallest ship (70kT) would only need a single LS/CQ to meet the requirements; however, the largest ship (5,000kT) which is 16 steps up the ladder would either need 20 LS/CQ or 10 CQ/CQ and 2 LS. Now that does not even touch on the largest hull which is a base (7,500kT).

The base only counts if I don�t include the mother of all units, an asteroid fortress at 10,000kT). Before I could do that mother I would have to figure out a way to restrict its construction to only systems which have asteroids. And I don�t see how that can be done!

Finally you brought up the point that there should only be one optimal choice? Not so true and here is why:

1) If I use the 20 LS/CQ on the largest hull (in the example above) I will spend 300 and use 200kT; however, all 20 systems will need to be destroyed before I suffer any penalties.

2) If I use the 10 CQ/CQ and 2 LS choice I will spend 70 and use 70kT of space. Now the enemy only needs to knock out my 2 LS on the master of my fleet.

When I play I always use choice 2 and most everyone else I know does this also. I have meet plenty of people who take choice 1 though as they feel it is dumb to suffer for the loss of two components on a behemoth that cost so much and took so long to build in the first place and losing 200kT out of 5,000 isn�t that high a price to pay for the added security.