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Re: New Tech Thu, 28 October 2004 14:56 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
BackBlast is currently offline BackBlast

 
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 Seems we dealing with present concepts of naval combat extrapolated into space with this fighter question. I think of naval combat as basically a balance between speed and range, with range being paramount in actual battle. Defence usually takes a back seat but is constantly experimented with. This is why modern naval engagements are different than pre-WWII, etc... Battleship range: 25 miles, Carrier + airplane range: 300 miles? Plenty more for modern planes. What if I had a battleship that had weapons with 300 mile range, then it would be competative again against a carrier. There is a problem with this, the curvature of the earth, enter missles to fix that. The modern "battleship" of old is now the nuclear submarine (Russia did build some missle cruisers too once upon a time). It's origins are very different, but as the mainstay of modern naval fleets, this is the role it fills.

Of course, stars! is hardly 'realistic' in it's interpretation of space battles and very much focused on gameplay. A sensible thing to do as it is a game rather than an excersize in pontificating futuristic space battle.

Now, back to the case at hand.. Why fighters as a battle board addition? We've already limited the maximum range of weapony to the battle board, therefore to simply add another token adds nothing but a new label to the game. Their primary function is to increase the speed and range of naval fleets. Unless we change the model the best way to keep in tune with the carrier/fighter model is to send out your 'smaller ships' to skirmish away from your larger fleet. Sweep mines, kill those pesky scouts that are trying to find you. If you wanted to give a specialty ship a real role, maybe give these 'fighters' a movement of 4+ on the battle board and warp 16 capable in space with a range of ~250 ly or range X (50? 150?), possibly being able to ignore mines or travel significantly faster though them. Maybe against heavily armored units give it some possibility of strike/escape with single use weapons. Nice little possibilities against skirmishers, largely not useful in main fleet style battles. Maybe let them strike/return in a single year (stealth terror anyone?)? Maybe let them have a pre-battle battle (interceptors) and try and take out a sensitive target before the main battle starts (energy dampener?). All of these ideas definatly operate outside the standard stars! ship model of warp 10 limit and would give fighters a strategic use as a weapons delivery platform rather than just another small ship. Unless there is some advantage to speed and/or range, in real space (not the battle board), I think the fighters should be omitted (it's just another small ship on the battle board). Even with some of these ideas they would be manufactured at Planet X and transfered to some specialty ship that can hold refuel/repair them. This way you could dock them at planets too, giving them a few extras for defending the empire against maurading invaders. Maybe with a given network of carriers and planets a fighter-only strategy could work like the ability to gate your fleet everywhere does (though it can work offensivly and in deep space too). They could utilize some new propultion technology that only works on smaller craft like flight did for the plane over the boat. Very high propultion requirements. I dunno, some of this might add to the overall chess-match like stars! war between empires without upsetting game balance too much. It seems that Stars! already kind of sort of does this with the small ships, skirmishers, etc. They really don't have a speed or range advantage that might make them 'fighters'.

Another way it might could be done is have a 2nd line of super warp engines with special properties and weight restrictions. Like a warp 12-16 engines, 3-5 warps faster in minefields, limited to say 50kt in weight on a ship - no cargo. Mildly exotic and pricy for mass production, cheap engines makes that more reasonable for a strange oxymoronic race. This might nicely integrate the 'smaller' ships and the fighter idea into the current stars! model. Seems that frigates would fit the bill nicely for a light fighter. Perhaps cap battle speed with the max warp of the engine.

As for space based manufacturing, perhaps something very restrictive along the lines of an automated manufacturing plant that only knows how to make *one* thing/ship. Build a mobile plant that has some mineral storace capacity and can build a particular ship per year, given it has the minerals to do so, and not have it pop based but mineral based. You could technically run an empire with no pop, kind of a unintelligent space based factory. Nubian shipyards and remote miners? heh

Some ramblings...

BackBlast

[Updated on: Thu, 28 October 2004 15:31]

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