New website

[Greyaxe]

Interesting. DO you have background on the company its history etc. I think this would make for interesting background.

[Braden Campbell]

The MDC values and weapon damages on the Gunstar are badly out of whack...

FOR EXAMPLE: you call it a long range interceptor, but by its dimensions, it's the size of a Hunter-class destroyer, which definitely makes it a frigate. It's Main Body MDC value puts it in this category quite clearly as well.

The force fields total 20,000 MDC , which is the same value as TGE Smasher-class ship... which is cruiser!

The weapon systems are fine except for you "mini-photon launchers"... D4x1000 and available in vollies of 9!?! That that same damage from a single photon as you find on the main lasers of the Packmaster Carrier.

So, in short, you have a long-range interceptor with the MDC of a frigate, weapons that equal a battleship, and it only has a crew of 2. I don't mean to dump on you, but as a guy who is in the middle of writing a new Phase World book, and who is struggling to come up with a balanced set of new star ships (22 at last count, boys) you have to see that there is no balance here when it is compared to the other ship already in print.


Greyaxe, is there someplace we can post that spreadsheet of yours to show what I mean?

[shadrak]

Holy Crap, Doc!!! you weren't joking!

[glitterboy2098]

dead thread walking. your site comes dangerously close to a conversion site. might i recommend renaming your stuff? Warp Drive, photon torpedo's, the gunstar, ect....all could be seen as a conversion, even though that may not have been your intent.

[Braden Campbell]

It is. I remember that movie from my boyhood...


And I never joke about game ballance, Shadrak.

[shadrak]

Did I see battletech stuff in there? I love battletech...please don't bastardize it!

[Aramanthus]

I agree with Braden about the changes. Although your website has good potenial! Keep up with the good work.

[Braden Campbell]

My good friend Greyaxe has drawn up a chart that compares and lists all the Phase World space craft, divided up by size category, so that one can see what a new design should roughly be.

A finalized version will be included as part of Phase World Sourcebook 2.

[Aramanthus]

Looking forward to checking out your chart you use. Just to see if I can integrate it with what I already use for ship building in Phase world.

[taalismn]

Try to format the material so it's printer friendly...some of those descriptions run off the page..

Otherwise; shows considerable promise.

[Aramanthus]

I did notice that. Although I usually check my tabs before I print.
(I did say usually)

[devillin]

A finalized version will be included as part of Phase World Sourcebook 2.

Any idea when this will be coming out? Also, what method did you go with for ship construction? The Mercenaries method of building an organization, or something based off of Rifts Manhunter's?

[Braden Campbell]

Any idea when this will be coming out? Also, what method did you go with for ship construction? The Mercenaries method of building an organization, or something based off of Rifts Manhunter's?

My personal deadline for submission of the manuscript is three weeks from this past Friday (don't think I'll hit it, but it will be close). After that, it's all in Palladium's hands.

As for a system... I went with option #3, the well thought out essay. By exhaustively comparing one ship to another, I've come up with some general guidelines for making your own ships with no hard ro fast rules. As an example:
____________________________________

Building Frigates and Destroyers

Significantly larger than space fighters and small space craft, yet smaller than cruisers, are Frigates. In Phase World terms, a frigate will have a mass between 5000 and 10,000 tons. They are generally at least 200 feet long, but no longer than 600 feet.

A frigate designed exclusively for combat is called a “destroyer”, and will have minimal room for carrying cargo: no more than 1000 tons in internal storage bays. Destroyers are built with minimal creature comforts for the crew, since they are almost never expected to go on long-range or long-term missions. They tend to remain in the star system in which they were built, or in a small patrol area. Destroyers could, in theory, mount additional cargo in external cans, but they would only get in the way of any point defense turrets. Destroyers may mount up to 14 point defense emplacements of any kind; railguns, lasers, or particle beams. It may also have no more than four weapons selected from the Medium-class of spaceship weapons. Note that a cruise missile launcher may be taken as a medium weapon slot, even though the missile is a heavy weapon.

Cargo Frigates, like those used by the Trade Federations and Mercantilus Unions, sacrifice firepower for carrying capacity. They may only mount two Medium-class weapons systems, and no more than eight point defense emplacements. If a frigate is built with internal cargo bays, it can carry up to 4000 tons. However, by mounting massive external cans onto its chassis, a frigate can carry nearly eight times as much cargo, or 30,000 tons! The cans prevent the ship form entering any kind of atmosphere, though, as they will fall off and burn up. A frigate with internal bays may come and go from a planetary surface with no problems.

Both configurations of ship will require a crew numbering between sixty and one hundred men. The CAF Hunter-class somehow manages to operate with only twenty-four people, but this is probably due to Wulfen superior multi-tasking abilities.
______________________________________

The cargo stats are based on real life carrying capacity for ships of similar size. the weapon limits are based on the existing published ships. Each classification of ship size (space fighter, small space craft, frigates, cruiser, and flagship) is then followed by a chart listing every canon ship to date (including mine... had to follow my own rules, don't yas know!): its MDC, force fields, physical dimensions, and damage on its primary weapon system.

Making an in-depth system was way too much work, and gaming should be about the gaming, not the math.

[Aramanthus]

That is an interesting couple of paragraphs Braden. Very interesting reading! I like it!

[devillin]

And for those who might be interested, here's a worksheet that allows you to build a ship from the ground up. It's meant for Traveller, but it would give you actual ideas for how much power your ship needs, and how much space it actually has.... oh, and it calculates your ship speed based on G's instead of Mach.

http://reaversdeep.tripod.com/CSB.xls

Do you have that anywhere else by any chance?

[devillin]

As for a system... I went with option #3, the well thought out essay. By exhaustively comparing one ship to another, I've come up with some general guidelines for making your own ships with no hard or fast rules. As an example:
____________________________________

Building Frigates and Destroyers

Well that's cool. I can cludge that onto the Manhunter/MIO rules with no problem. How about for fighters and cruisers?

[Aramanthus]

Yeah, a conversion table would be helpful! Please share it! Please....

[Braden Campbell]

Well that's cool. I can cludge that onto the Manhunter/MIO rules with no problem. How about for fighters and cruisers?

Yep.

There are sub-sections for Fighters, Small Spacecraft, Frigates, Cruisers, and Flagships (battleships, carriers and dreadnoughts). Plus, at the beginning, are some questions one should ask oneself before even putting pen to paper...

[Aramanthus]

It looks interesting. I'll have to try it out.