Systematic disadvantages for larger ships

[AnotherDilbert]

Some space combat systems favor smaller ships.

1 Dodge
Say you have 1 large ship fighting 10 smaller ships. The smaller ships have in total 10 times as many dodges per round. In practice that means that the bigger ship always has a significant -DM to hit, while the smaller ships don't..

Possible solution: Let Evasive Action be a movement action that work like Evasion software, against all attacks that round.


2 Critical hits
After around 50 critical hits a ship is mission killed, The power is out, the fuel tanks are destroyed, is has no armor left. If you boost the attack roll enough turrets can achieve crits doing very little damage. You can kill anything with a fixed number of turret hits.


3 Fire Control Software
Fire Control-5 gives a +5 DM to a single attack, Advanced Fire Control-3 gives +3 on all attack rolls. So, only make a single attack roll each with many small ships.

 

[Nerhesi]

Some space combat systems favor smaller ships.

1 Dodge
Say you have 1 large ship fighting 10 smaller ships. The smaller ships have in total 10 times as many dodges per round. In practice that means that the bigger ship always has a significant -DM to hit, while the smaller ships don't..

Possible solution: Let Evasive Action be a movement action that work like Evasion software, against all attacks that round.

I actually like this design. Yes Larger ships shouldn't be dodging around like crazy and should be at a disadvantage. Meanwhile smaller ships, especially those with rocket boosters, have a lot more thrust to play with.

2 Critical hits
After around 50 critical hits a ship is mission killed, The power is out, the fuel tanks are destroyed, is has no armor left. If you boost the attack roll enough turrets can achieve crits doing very little damage. You can kill anything with a fixed number of turret hits.

However, if you boost the attack roll enough, it will translate into more damage, so odds are you won't be doing little damage, because your 6 effect is doing +6 damage. So even with 6 single beam laser turrets, youre +6 to effect will either be shredding low armour targets, or not penetrating at all (hence doing no damage).

You'll find that in almost all circumstances, by 9-10 crits, the ship is out of hull. Either corerulebook 4 armour isn't stopping enough damage, or Highguard bigger weapons are doing so much damage that you're losing hull faster than worrying about +6 effect causing crits.

3 Fire Control Software
Fire Control-5 gives a +5 DM to a single attack, Advanced Fire Control-3 gives +3 on all attack rolls. So, only make a single attack roll each with many small ships.

Also by design - at least for now. Lower-end fire-control can only be split over a few weapons or dedicated to ensure that one or two weapons hit. That means yes fighters will be trying for regular fire control, while larger warships will want advanced fire-control. However, you may see ships with spinals having both fire control software.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

You'll find that in almost all circumstances, by 9-10 crits, the ship is out of hull. Either corerulebook 4 armour isn't stopping enough damage, or Highguard bigger weapons are doing so much damage that you're losing hull faster than worrying about +6 effect causing crits

That is only valid for small ships.

Try firing 1000 heavily boosted Particle turrets at an armor 15 battleship. You'll do a little damage, a few thousand point, on something that has 50 000 points.
And a lot of Crits.

 

[Nerhesi]

You'll find that in almost all circumstances, by 9-10 crits, the ship is out of hull. Either corerulebook 4 armour isn't stopping enough damage, or Highguard bigger weapons are doing so much damage that you're losing hull faster than worrying about +6 effect causing crits

That is only valid for small ships.

Try firing 1000 heavily boosted Particle turrets at an armor 15 battleship. You'll do a little damage, a few thousand point, on something that has 50 000 points.
And a lot of Crits.

And we're only dealing with small-ships for now. Mass/Fleet combat rules are not covered and Matt has also indicated that criticals in fleet combat will need to be looked at. Not because of the 6+ effect rule, but just how will you determine # of crits, if one roll determines the results of a 1000 weapons firing.

If we use core-rulebook and roll 1000 to-hit rolls, by my calcutions you're looking at around 60ish crits from the 6+ effect rolls. (Keep in mind, if evasion the pilot action translates directly, as in works on the entire salvo, you will get 0 crits from effect, as crew and advanced fire control are completely cancelled by evasion software and pilot skill, resulting in a total even 2D roll to hit, making 6+ effect impossible). But even I dont want dodge for a barrage to translate evenly. Perhaps half.

 

[phavoc]

Large ships should have crappy dodge, but oodles of armor. Smaller ships should have good maneuverability, but crappy armor. It's rather silly to think you could make a 1,000 ton ship as tough as a 150,000 ton ship. Armor should have an upper limit by tonnage class. That would offset the smaller ship advantage and make having bigger ships have a place again in the battle line.