Shipwright Archive

OK, here is a proposal for some changes (some minor, some not) to the JtL/space stuff.
Mostly this deals with the Ships, and their components, so it affects Shipwrights and Pilots equally.

As it stands now, we have 2.5 kinds of ships.
1) Single pilot fighters
2) Multiple crew light transports/gunboats
2.5) pilot/gunner fighters.

We also only have 1 kind of component: Starfighter.

There is a disparity there. The light transports/gunboats can never use their entire mass allotment
with the current parts built for smaller craft.

Here begins the proposal.

Part one, classify the ships based on mass
1) Starfighter : 0 to 250,000 mass
2) Light freighter/gunboat : 500,000 to 2,500,000 mass
3) Capital Ship : 5,000,000 mass to 25,000,000 mass

Part two, do the same for components
1) starfighter components : 0 to 50,000 mass
2) light freighter/gunboat components : 50,000 to 250,000 mass
3) capital ship component : 500,000 to 2,500,000 mass

Now, obviously freighter/gunboat and cap ship components could not drop from starfighters,
and capital stuff only drops from capital ships? I can see freighters dropping starfighter loot
(some of them ARE transports after all) and what capital ship doesn?t have a few bays for starfighters.

Have a flat %age to drop something of the same class as the ship. 1 item max per kill.
Lower level drops have a higher percentage, and can add additional drops.
Taking out a capital ship could get you one capital ship shield geneator,
and maybe 5-10 starfighter sized components.
Maybe include a space loot skill for the freelancers, to increase the chance of finding these
other spare parts.

Component allocation.

Starfighters are built to be small (comparatively) and don't have a ton of back-up systems
to save on size. This is all good. The only thing that is doubled in a starfighter is the armor.
This is good. Keep it as it is.

When you move to freighter/gunboat (the current PoB ships) you should have to have more components
for the thing to be fully equipped. Instead of just front/rear armor, this class should have
front/rear/top/bottom armor, as they are normally MUCH larger than starfighters, so a separate
shield generator focusing on each area (read stronger too) is needed too.
Therefore strafing runs that always pound the top of the ship, only affect the armor/shields on
the top of the ship. Once you blow through those, the damage can cascade through the systems though.

Additionally, in freighters, each weapon should have its own capacitor, allowing each to be
targeted independently.

This will get us to where I think JtL should be now, at least as far as general ship
interaction with components goes.

As to the components, gate them just as they are now, but obviously let a novice shipwright
make freighter/capital ship tier I equipment, etc. Obviously these should take more resources to produce.

Now, strength of comparative components. This can be handled in a number of ways. One is a direct
mapping where the numbers just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Or it can be comparative.
that is, a 1500 freighter shield is much stronger than a 1500 starfighter shield.
A smaller ship would face a penalty (33% per class away) if its weapon struck a higher
class shield. This is, however, quite a bit more processing.

The direct correlation is probably easier to do, if the designers left in enough space for
the big numbers (which they probably did).

So, the best starfighter shield protection measures at X.
Freighter/gunboat shields should top out at 150% of X.
Capital ship shields should top out at 300% of X.

Do this for all parts, as a multiplier to the functional value of the component based on class.
I doubt anyone would try to put a tier 1 gunboat gun on his starfighter, since the tier 10
starfighter blaster would be MUCH more effective. (150% of 1000 is 1500,
which is _much_ less than the tier 10 blasters pushing the 4000-5000 mark now).

Component Mass should be defined by the tier of the component. Tier 1 maybe 0-10% of total comp mass
for the class. Tier 2 = 11-20%, 3=21-30, and so on.

Engines are different, and I will need help with this, but basically, freighter and cap ships should
have engines with higher mass, but their efficiency is generally WORSE than starfighter engines.
So a negative modifier should be applied (67% as effective for freighter, 33% as effective for cap ship)
and apply that to speed and PYR values, while the armor and HP goes up by the 150% and 300% rule above.

There is a LOT more refining that needs to go into this.

But I would like to start a discussion in this thread about it.
Do we (as pilots and shipwrights) want a system such as this?
What impact would this have on the game itself?
And then, once we have determined that, then ask the Devs if any of it is possible.

Please, post like mad

Kevynn