As I was playing SE4, I noticed that I was able to refit one of my spaceyard light cruisers into a warship because they cost about the same amount. "This doesn't make sense,"
Makes perfect sense to me; just gut out the guns, half of the hull and add a space yard on it.
"I thought. "Shouldn't the decision of whether or not you can refit a ship be based on the similarity in the designs, not on the cost?
A gunship is retrofitted to a missle corvette. A freighter is retrofitted to a carrier. A tug boat could be turned into a torpedo boat. It happens in the real world, and just because it's in space, it should make all the difference?
Also, the costs do prohibit some otherwise crazy retrofits; a gunship can't be a star destroyer in one turn
It's silly to be able to refit a PPB1 ship to a spaceyard ship but not to a PPB5 ship!"
I agree on that, but I think about this way:
As the engineer comes into the soon to be retrofitted ship, he finds 2 antiquadated mk1 PPB. As he sees inside, he finds just a beam chamber and firing mechanism. He remarks that how did those guys fight the abbidons without the safety mechanisms, range multypliers, damage enhancers, jacketed firing tubes, and other systems that make the present day mk5 PPB.
So here's an idea: Instead of (or perhaps in addition to, if the cost limitation is loosened) a cost limitation on refits, why not throw in a limitation on similarities in design?
I think that is silier, since many ships were changed into something else completely when they were launched since construction. A ship will forever remain a warship just because it has a gun? Which you can cut out with a torch?
This wouldn't be too hard to implement - just take each component in the new design, search for a corresponding component with the same family in the old design, and if more than X percent of the new components don't have matching old components then the designs are compatible.
SJ would know something about that.
Of course, there could be a few problems with this... you could refit from class A to class B and be unable to refit back,
I'd rather have a cost limitation because of that reason.
so maybe it should check both ways... the component family limitation is extremely easy to overcome with a retroseries - if the limitation is 25% new (not upgraded) components, only 4 refits are needed to get a brand new ship.
not everybody is willing to build a starbase filled with repair bays. and those 4 refits could mean waiting longer rather than choosing that ship to be built. Also, while refit, you have to pay maintenance.
just my 2 cents.
[ November 21, 2002, 21:23: Message edited by: TerranC ]