[Suicide Junkie]

Then, I went on to do some math to show that the ECM has a different level of effect when the attacker has CS and when the attacker does not have CS.

And what we are saying is that it has THE EXACT SAME effect when the attacker has CS and when the attacker does not have CS.
"It halves (quarters/4-5ths/etc) the to hit chance" Is that so hard?

What you are saying is that the absolute chance to hit goes down by a varying amount. Very true, but a constant absolute change means that the real effect of the bonus varies depending on the situation.

---

Examples:
Base to-hit chance = 100%
ECM bonus: 50%
Additive : 100-50 = 50% chance. Your ship survives twice as long.
Multiplying: 100*.5 = 50% chance. Your ship survives twice as long.

Base to-hit chance = 50%
ECM bonus: 50%
Additive : 50-50 = 0% chance. Your ship survives FOREVER.
Multiplying: 50*.5 = 25% chance. Your ship survives twice as long.

When adding multipliers, that ECM-50 changed from a decent defense to an invulnerability device.
When multiplying, the effect on the combat was the same independent of the base chance.

Baron Munchausen:
Lots of good stuff there, but I'm sure the xenophages would be horrible to implement.
Perhaps it would be better to have a simple
"each turn, mixed populations change into race's population (max 10M converted per turn)"
and
"Reproduction rate doubles when mixed populations are present"

[ March 10, 2003, 00:03: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]