New, alternate means of modelling QNP in v1.78

[Pax]

You don't have to revert to bonus movement (one of the aspects of propulsion in SE4 I never did like overmuch).

Specify a movement-point rate for each engien type; then, specify that all ships require 1 engine to move. Now, one engine component will -always- produce the same number of movement points, regardless of what hull it's mounted in (like stock SE4).

HOWEVER, more akin to QNP-mods, more and more of the ship will be used up, to maintain that same speed. Then you can reintroduce pure-bonus-move c0omponents (like Solar Sails), similarly adjusted for mass relative to the hull in question.

Also, you can impose an ever-decreasing speed limit by specifying an ever-dwindling maximum number of engines allowed ... say, all adding up to generally the same total tonnage, representing the biggest engine array that can be built.

Thus, given the same mass of engine, smaller ships will move faster ... and with an upper ceiling, the bigger ships cannot simply spend more and more of THEIR space, to keep up with smaller ships *determined* to go faster.

[Baron Munchausen]

Be aware that this will have the side-effect of making engine-destroying weapons much less effective against larger ships. Some may think this is 'logical' since larger ships would have larger engines. Some may not like it, though. Something to consider while 'balancing' your changes.

[Pax]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
Be aware that this will have the side-effect of making engine-destroying weapons much less effective against larger ships. Some may think this is 'logical' since larger ships would have larger engines. Some may not like it, though. Something to consider while 'balancing' your changes.

Change the structural damage resistane at a slightly different rate than the size, so that damage resistance increases half as fast as size, perhaps.

[Puke]

or make bigger Versions of the engine damaging weapons, so regular ones are good enough to kill little ships, but bigger (or same size but more costly) ones are needed to kill bigger ships.

[Krsqk]

or make bigger Versions of the engine damaging weapons, so regular ones are good enough to kill little ships, but bigger (or same size but more costly) ones are needed to kill bigger ships.

Or, just use the nifty new mount toys to create an engine-killer-only mount

[Rollo]

Very good thinking Pax . I had a similar idea, not for engines, but for shields. This way a shield generator would be more effective on a smaller hull (which kinda makes sense to me). Haven't given much thought to the actual numbers, yet, but it would be kind of neat to force the player to make the decision between better weapon mounts (big hull) or better shield mounts (small hull).

[jimbob]

Pax said:

You don't have to revert to bonus movement (one of the aspects of propulsion in SE4 I never did like overmuch).

Yeah, I don't like the bald use of the bonus movement thing all that much either. But it can be a useful tool. As far as I can determine it would be the only way to allow a total movement of >1 for Basemoons (and other huge ships) in the current QNP systems because of the RCE problem. Consider it RCE bipass surgery

[ August 23, 2002, 01:31: Message edited by: jimbob ]