Balance suggestions for new ShipSize

Suicide Junkie · #1 June 13th, 2001, 04:40 PM

For Pirates & Nomads v2, I was planning on adding a new shipsize.

It would require max tech in ship con. and base con., and probably a little SM.

A BattleMoon, ~10,000kT size, with 50x damage CoreMount available. (so a CM meson bLaster does 1500 damage at long range) 20 engines will provide one movement point (max), and the picture of the ship will be the same as a tiny moon. I expect the price to be over $1,000,000 for construction, and it will have a 25% reduction in maintenance (its part-planet, part-base, part-ship)
(Think ShadowRaiders for those who saw the show

)
One of these should be able to take on 20 or so LCs, based on my rough calculations.

Note: I will have (weak) armor components that block null-space and other armor skipping weapons, so it won't be totally vulnerable to NSPs.

What I need are suggestions on how to keep it balanced, and people to point out problems I've missed.

Nitram Draw · #2 June 13th, 2001, 05:00 PM

Sounds like you'd have to be into S&M to go up against one with 20 LC's!
I would make it a guaranteed hit ship, ie you can't miss it +200% or something. I would also test it against Starbases, they should Last at least one turn against it, or at least not be out ranged by it.
Maybe even give the hull an accuracy penalty because it's so big half of it's stuff is on the wrong side of the ship/planet.

Lemmy · #3 June 13th, 2001, 05:34 PM

quote:

Note: I will have (weak) armor components that block null-space and other armor skipping weapons, so it won't be totally vulnerable to NSPs.

how is that possible, the NSP's just damage a random component right ?

Suicide Junkie · #4 June 13th, 2001, 05:43 PM

quote:
How is that possible, the NSP's just damage a random component right?

People said Nomads couldn't be done either

Damage is somewhat random, but not completely... this new armor does work.

quote:
I would make it a guaranteed hit ship, ie you can't miss it +200% or something. I would also test it against Starbases, they should Last at least one turn against it, or at least not be out ranged by it.
Maybe even give the hull an accuracy penalty because it's so big half of it's stuff is on the wrong side of the ship/planet.

I will make it as easy to hit as a planet, and an accuracy penalty sounds good.
It would be described opposite of the fighter's "manoueverability increases chance of hitting".

Jubala · #5 June 13th, 2001, 08:28 PM

quote:
Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
People said Nomads couldn't be done either
Damage is somewhat random, but not completely... this new armor does work.

Sounds interesting. I've always though there should be different kinds of armor that blocked different kinds of weapons. Care to tell how it's done?

BeeDee10 · #6 June 13th, 2001, 08:34 PM

You could remove some (but not all) of the ballance concerns by making this hull a "racial" technology. The more powerful it is, the more racial points it would cost. The downside would be that your enemies might not be able to build these things too, which means you wouldn't get to watch any nice moonship-moonship battles (duelling deathstars!

You might also want to add an additional base hull in this mass class as well, since it seems reasonable to me that if you can build a ship that size you can also build a base that size.

Personally, as much as I'm a fan of balance, I think it's a nice thing to be able to build a few hugely powerful, hugely expensive starships to "lead" fleets with. Imagine using one of these 10Mt hulls as a carrier; you could fit around three hundred fighter bay IIIs, capable of holding over a thousand heavy fighters.

Sinapus · #7 June 13th, 2001, 08:36 PM

quote:
Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
For Pirates & Nomads v2, I was planning on adding a new shipsize.

What I need are suggestions on how to keep it balanced, and people to point out problems I've missed.

Um, how about a thermal exhaust port weakness?

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--
"What do -you- want?" "I'd like to live -just- long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this..." *waggle* "...can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"

Mark Walton · #8 June 13th, 2001, 09:16 PM

Thermal Exhaust Port implementation:

For the CompEnhancment for the big core weapon, put :

Tonnage Structure Percent := 1

Suicide Junkie · #9 June 14th, 2001, 12:32 AM

Jubala: The key is that it in not actually armor, but it is designed to get hit first (large size/hitpoints)

quote:
You might also want to add an additional base hull in this mass class as well, since it seems reasonable to me that if you can build a ship that size you can also build a base that size.

Hehe. The bases of that size are called "Moons" or "Planets"

As for the 1 hitpoint thing... It could work, but I'll have to test it first.