Idea for hull strengths

[Calistan]

I've been thinking that the hull strength should be limited by priority and race modifications.

This is my Idea for hull strengths.

Patrol & Skirmish should have an upper limit of 4.
Raid & Battle should have an upper limit of 5
War & Armageddon can go up to 6

Now as races have developed those limits can be adjusted.
Example:
Mimbari depend on stealth and beams, so they have weaker hulls, and the scale gets shifted where:
Patrol, Skirmish & Raid - hull limit 4
Battle & War - Hull limit 5
Armageddon - Hull limit 6

Narn - build slow and tough ships.
Patrol - hull limit 4
Skirmish & Raid - hull limit 5
Battle, War & Armageddon - hull limit 6

What do people think of this concept?

 

[Da Boss]

Hmm not something I would like - reduces options at lower levels and makes it likely that ships of those priorities are much the same as each other...........

Happy with armour as is.............interesting idea nut not for me

 

[Burger]

Why is this change needed?
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[Locutus9956]

Sorry Calistan but in my eyes this idea adds nothing to the game and just imposes silly restrictions. Theres no ship design rules anyway so its not like we need a set of parameters for given ships.

 

[Triggy]

Those basic principles can be included in the design of the ships themselves but with obvious exceptions. Basically I don't like them as absolutes but the theory isn't impossible. However, there will always be races that rely on technology (e.g. Hull 6) rather than brute force (e.g. high Damage scores) and these can be represented in a different way yet still result in an equally balanced ship.

 

[Enalut]

While I think the intention is valid--to make some races more damage resistent than others, I think the armor is the worng stat to do it by.

I think it would be better to achive the result by Hit points--Once past stelath, a Minbari ship should be just as hard to hit as anything else, but they shoudl take much less damage once they are hit--such as a damage track of of a level below.

COnversly, as they are doing in 2e, the narn shoudl get a bump up--maek them harder to destry, but just as easy to hit.

 

[Chernobyl]

Locutus brings an interesting point...one I'll open up in a new topic so as not to derail this one.

 

[CZuschlag]

Agree with Locutus, I'm afraid. Why deny ourselves a degree of freedom in ship design?

 

[The Hobbybox]

Calistan,
I think you need to think of hulls less as weak and strong.
The hull score is meant to reflect the difficulty of hitting and damaging the ship, not just penetrating the armour once a hit is made.

Take my fav ship, the EA Chronos, Raid level (soon to be Skirmish in CTA2). It's 6 hull score represents the fact that it is both well armoured, but also fast so it can stay out of harms way easier.

 

[H]

NNOOOOOOOOOO Leave the bloody Chronos where it is, why change it, it's fantastic at raid level, It's won me numerous battles with it's excelent all round (although intercepteable) fire.

 

[Valen is my name]

yeah its a huge part of my EA fleet, leave the thing alone. i wont be able to afford a load of extra chronos models i'll need if they move it down a PL.

 

[H]

here is a prime example of a ship that isn't really broken, being moved for no apparant reason, although i do remember the EA whingeathon about the crusade EA being weak at low level.

ok, compromise? can we have a Chronos, and a heavy Chronos then? isn't hard to do, it exists in the current stats?

**edit** unless something new is going in it's raid slot, I'd hate to have to rely on the hyperion at that level!

 

[katadder]

lol jumps on Iain for giving information on something for EA players to complain about

 

[H]

well, I am mostly not an EA player.
However, ok, yes, It could be a complaint.
How about constructive feedback? of course we don't know it's stats, but if it leaves the hyperion as the only warship at raid (the explorer and delphi are not warships) all it does is shift the frustration of only one skirmish choice, to frustration of only one raid choice, and a very old, not too good one at that ;-)
now I know a lot of people wanted lower pl choices for the ea, I assumed the myrmiddon was part of that, I personally believe that downgrading a perfectly good raid ship is just silly without a replacement. and I would propose a varient based upon it's current stats. OR get Urobachs fine Chardybis and stat it up

 

[The Hobbybox]

Iain takes katadder's slap in the head like a man...Ooops!

Suffice to say, I won't be giving any more info away on 2e.

 

[Chernobyl]

yeah, I don't think I'd be in favor of droppingthe chronos a PL unless something took its place in teh raid slot. Is the Nova going to remain in the crusade fleet then? I'd easily accept that...

Chern

 

[Locutus9956]

I dont mind the Chronos going down as long as they keep it nice and tough and interceptorey (they can drop the firepower a bit if they like).

As for new models, well the Chronos is one of the few ships that comes in nice cheap multipacks so Id hardly say thats really a particularly valid winge as its probably the cheapest ship to bulk up on in all of ACTA

All that said if it goes down I DO want to see something good at Raid level. A Nova or a weaker varient of the Marathon or Apollo maybe? Or maye just a Delphi with somewhat nastier teeth?

All that said there IS still the Hyperion and I personally think people are often FAR too quick to write it off in alot of games. Personally unless they completely ruin the Chronos I can only see this being a GOOD thing for the EA as it gives them a leg up in the initiative game and spreads their firepower about over more targets (and two ships with interceptors are harder to kill quickly than one ship even if that ship has the total of the two smaller ships (for example 2 ships with hull 6 and interceptors 2 and 20 hits each are harder to kill than 1 ship with 4 interceptors hull 6 and 40 hits though of course you only need to destroy ONE of the two ships to halve the return fire....)