The Pressure to Build Small

[AnotherDilbert]

I agree that government bureaucracies will not always optimise correctly, especially when they plan for the next war...

Speaking from a wargaming perspective...

If all else is equal, a bunch of smaller things will nearly always clock one Big Thing.

Hm, that depends. In the current system ships fight unhindered by damage until they are dead. Ceteris paribus, the big ship that is not degraded by damage will kill the smaller ships that lose half their combat effectiveness when half of them are dead. But ceteris is not paribus, see Dodge.

There are these huge posts on several rpg forums on the crippling annoyance of fluff-not-matching-rules.

This has generally been a problem for me too.

Canon says Battleships. People generally like Battleships and fighters? Let's give people a system that have Battleships and fighters as viable options, not necessarily the only or best option, but at least a viable option.

 

[Nerhesi]

Agreed with AnotherDilbert.

Not going out of our way to make battleships super competitive or even the clear choice Matt - I think it is a minor change that would go a long way to making them a tad more viable.

 

[MongooseMatt]

I think it is a minor change that would go a long way to making them a tad more viable.

Happy to court suggestions on this - another update (minor) is appearing later today!

 

[Chas]

What separates Big Things is the ability to carry something the smaller things cannot. In the real world, this was (say) 18" guns vs. 8" guns. That separation does not really appear in Traveller.

Is that not the spinal? If not it's easy to make it so... :mrgreen:

Regardless for mine, I would prefer to see a Traveller universe where the super dreadnought is viable, an extreme threat in and of itself. The only reason the Imperial Navy doesn't build more of them is that they've got a wide spread empire to run, to patrol and guard, and need diverse units to face multiple different threats...

 

[Nerhesi]

I think it is a minor change that would go a long way to making them a tad more viable.

Happy to court suggestions on this - another update (minor) is appearing later today!

The one we were discussing was improving the hull values on larger craft:

10kdton - 100kdton = 1 hull per 2.0 tons
100k+dton - 250kdton = 1 hull per 1.5 tons
250k+dton = 1 hull per 1.0 tons

Straight forward, logical change with minor to medium impact that is much needed

 

[Condottiere]

The reason you have size inflation for warships, is due to the fact that bigger ships perform better in water, especially in the North Sea, and because of the need to find space for that equipment that you need to expand their capabilities.

You can, of course, build game mechanics to reflect these aspects.

You have super carriers because they can more efficiently operate than a bunch of small(er) ones. Of course, you should have an air group in place at the same time. And an understanding what they are supposed to be used for.

Battleships are supposed to be able to give and take damage, though a combination of fighter screen and heavy anti-aircraft weaponry should minimize the chance to get hit with torpedoes that seek out it's soft underbelly, which in theory Traveller ones don't have.