[narf poit chez BOOM]

*sigh*

i feel like i'm being backed into a corner with this mod and the only choice i have is which corner i'm backed into if i'm going to complete it.

for those of you who don't know, ships in my mod are divided into three research area's, small, medium and large, with three ship sizes in each. each size catagory is supposed to be the equal of every other, just not in the same area. ship speed is arranged so that, with 30 or 33% of it's space dedicated to engines, ship speeds range from 11 for escort to 2 for baseship.

ok, this is the basic problem. on one of my early tests of the mod, in the simulater, i noticed that the small ships where racing in, shooting of there missiles at the big ship and racing out. this is great. guerilla tactics are the tactics people using small ships should employ. except for one thing: the big ship didn't get a chance to fire, because they where never in range on it's turn. this was bad. in combat, big ships should be able to take more than there cost in small ships, because the small ships have the advantage of being able to run around the big ships outside of combat.

so, enter solution number 1: make a capital Version of each weapon, the medium and big ones sized so smaller ships can't use it. the medium and big size would have a +1,+2 or +2,+4 range increase and maybe damage increase. enter problem number 1: that means 1, maybe 2 weapons and most, a few normal weapons and no emissive armor unless i eliminate the normal weapons, because with emissive armor they'd be useless. this means no combined arms ships, although you could still have combined arms fleets. also this may render only the fastest ship in each size or some of the sizes useful. comments? help?

enter solution number 2: mounts for each ship size. that would mean that weapons with power decreases wouldn't work right, but i can live with that. each large ship would have a range increase that would mean it could have a chance of hitting smaller, faster ships. ideal, except mount range increases don't work right for missiles, they don't increase maximum range, only move the missile x number of squares out at launch. this would mean that missile would be a bad idea on large ships. another limitation. i want the mod so you could use any logical strategy you can think of. but i can live with it. comments? help?

third solution, lot of work, but ideal. also, impossible: component restrictions for ships. different Version of each weapon for each ship. unfortunatly, or perhaps fortunatly for my fingers, there are no component restrictions.

[ January 30, 2004, 19:56: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]