Shipwright Archive

Ok, this just seems to defy all logical sense to me, both realistically speaking and when looking from the Star Wars Universe (SWU) perspective. Why is it that an Interceptor, which not only is half the weight of an X-Wing but from the SWU was cheaper to produce, uses the same number of resources as an X-Wing? Why is it that an A-Wing, which is lighter than an X-Wing, uses more resources? I can understand resources being used on an A-Wing being more expensive because special materials were needed to craft it's light design while still retaining some strength, but not making it so it requires more materials.

Proposal: Change the amount of resources needed to craft a ship to be relative to it's max mass. Also, in cases where the ship is lighter but should be more expensive (per SWU), use special resources that aren't used on the other ships thereby making it harder/more expensive to craft the ship (but the use of less materials should help balance that out). This should be applied to all Rebel, Imperial, and Privateer craft. Imperial fighters (mainly TIEs) were naturally cheaper to produce than rebel craft and that should be reflected in this game.

Examples of changes:
1. TIE Interceptor has half the mass of an X-Wing, therefore it should require half the amount of resources.
2. A-Wing has 65% of the mass that an X-Wing does, therefore it should require only 65% of the amount of resources used on an X-Wing. However, because the A-Wing is known in the SWU as being more expensive due to it's special design, change resource requirements to require certain types of resource that the others don't, ones that are harder to find and therefore more expensive to get. Result will balance out the cost.

Questions/comments/concerns?

An interesting idea, however I doubt they have any plans to change the current system, would also make low tier rebel ships rather expansive

Well, maybe not exactly. If you consider the Y-Wings as being a base model, you can set it up as being the resources required for them can be of any type and the actual stats don't have to be that great (instead of it depending on 3 or 4 of the stats, just have it depend on 1). Then the X-Wing could be set up to depend on more than one stat and maybe even a couple specific resources, while the A-Wing would require even more. The actual balancing of prices may be mostly on the crafter and their choices of materials, but it would put everything more in line. But I'm not sure how the Y-Wing would've compared to the X-Wing in cost anyways... they may have been about the same but the only reason why there were more Y-Wings around was because they had been around longer.

Either way it makes no sense in my mind for a ship that is lighter than another to require more resources. If it is supposed to be more expensive even with less resources, then make the resources required be of higher quality and/or specific types.

Message Edited by FuryoftheStars on 11-11-2004 12:30 PM

Regarding the A-Wing/X-Wing relationship, you could roleplay it as one of two things. One, the crafting process simply "wastes" 65% of the resources you put into it. Or two, the highly sophisticated crafting procedures for making an A-Wing can actually take 2 units of a resource and make it into 1 high quality lightweight unit suitable for building a tough, light starship.

Regarding the TIE/X-Wing relationship, I can't come up with anything. The advantage to the Empire of the TIE was its low cost and simplicity to mass produce. That isn't reflected in any way, shape, or form in the shipwright profession.

Haha... I suppose that's one way of looking at the relationship of rebel craft vers eachother. But the Imperial ships are still hanging in fantasy land there.

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rexan wrote:

Its just a game mechanic. If you have noticed, all same Tier craft take the same mass to produce. Wether your building a 150k y-wing or a tie fighter.

The developers are basically placing an opportunity cost for the ships to make their relative expences match. All tier 1 ships are the same difficluity to make. All tier 4 ships are as well. Even the master level MP ships cost the same to produce as the tie agressor.

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Umm, yeah I did notice that all same tier craft are using the same amount of resources. That's why I'm voicing my concerns on it. TIEs should be cheaper to produce than their rebel equivalent. What affects their price? The amount of resource that you have to put into them.

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Red-Dwarf wrote:

Would you be happy if TIEs couldn't get shields? This is a fairly simple game mechanic to ensure balance between the professions, if we were to try and follow canon, no TIE pilot would be allowed into combat unless he has a 3:1 superior numbers ratio, and all rebel pilots would receive extra training. There are differences in handling between ships and that is all that can go in without unbalancing one side.

If you want RP reasons on the mass:

Imperial production techniques are highly wasteful, therefore the scraps could make two or three more TIE's, but are thrown away in the beuracracy.

Rebel production is more efficient and so has correct resource use, but higher level ships need refined resources, the steel taken is refined into a new steel/alu/iron alloy that uses a significant amount of resources to produce enough alloy. Therefore some ships, such as A-wing, are apparently wasteful.

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Umm, no, I don't think that works either. TIEs off the rack were cheaper to produce. An extra cost in here could be the buying of extra equipment (shields), but not on the amount of resources used. I would like to see this change be done across the board (rebel, imperial, and neutral). Rebel ships are better, therefore more expensive. Imperial ships are not that great, therefore cheaper. We are flying off the shelf ship chassis, but the equipment that is going into them is up to us as the pilot, hence why TIEs can take shields in this game (aside from the 3:1 odds complex). Lighter ships should be cheaper than heavier ones (unless of course they are an 'advanced' version).