Da Boss said:
slightly off topic but I always thought the size of the gun was reflected by its traits/range and just assumed lots of AD usually (with the exception of beams) meant that there was well, lots of guns................for some reason however I saw the AD of beams as the power of the beam.............
ah well back to the crits thing
Lots of AD can mean either lots of guns OR more powerful guns. It can go either way. Its meant to reflect the 'weapon system' so all the side facing pulse cannons (3 on top 3 on bottom of each side) are reflected in the single pulse cannon weapon listing on the Omega. Just because a Warlock has more AD of Heavy Pulse Cannon than a Chronos (exact same traits other than AD) doesn't always mean the Warlock has bigger Heavy Pulse Cannons, it might just have more of them.
Its my interpretation of the traits and rules that indicate that weapon systems are fairly similar across multiple hulls. The main difference is the number of them. A Chronos more than likely is mounting the exact same pulse cannon as is on the warlock. The warlock just has more of them.
Someone brought up a comparison of cars earlier. If you showed me the acceleration, horse power, handling, torque, etc, of two cars and they came out the same, chances are they are at least nearly the same automobile, and I would expect them to perform similar. Its not like one is going to do far better than the other provided they are put through the same tests.
I don't like the 'by PL' idea of crit saving. It doesn't make sense to me. I've provided evidence that weapon systems are the same (or nearly the same) across hulls, why should they have less of an effect if the are hitting a raid level ship vs. hitting an Armageddon level ship?
I also feel it is a very poor option in terms of a balance mechanic. It throws all ships of a PL into the same pot without accounting for Hull values or damage scores. If a balance issue causes a ship to jump a PL, suddenly its relation to ALL other ships has been changed. It can now crit a PL higher or can't be crit by a PL below it (or just has a harder to doing so).
Making a 'Redundancy' trait that is applied to individual ships, like a Hull score vs. crits, is a far easier, balanceable, and manageable *tool* that can be used to manage crit vulnerability. Even as a baseline, applying a minimal score at raid level and increasing up through Armageddon, makes low PL swarms less effective. Diversifying it gives even more flexibility to ship creation. Want a fleet of sturdy hulled ships? Like interceptors or stealth, a fleet designed around a high redundancy score suddenly gains a 'gimmick' to reflect their survivability.
It is also easier to balance, as it is on a per ship basis, just like hull or speed or turns, rather than a dynamic that changes between PL.