Don McKinney said:Marc would look at each space TL, from TL6 to TL16, and consider the following:
Armor (types, varieties)
Main weapon (a spine if big enough)
Secondary weapons (usually bay weapons)
Tertiary/defense weapons (usually turrets)
Common strategies available at that TL
This will be useful because then the group can discuss how Marc's vision and design map to the T5.09 rules, and where adjustments are needed. Then we can look at strategies against other TLs, and at that point, at least my reservations about T5.09 should be dealt with.
That calls for a spreadsheet at the least.
How would YOU approach this task?
I'll start by turning it on its head, and addressing the SUBJECTS one by one. I am NOT an expert at big ship design and combat, so I hope to learn things from some of you out there.
And I'm going to use TL 7-17.
Armor
T5 armor has two characteristics. First it has a rating that's more or less similar to HG2 Layers. The Armor Value is generic enough to simply be equal to # Layers x TL.
Secondly, though, there are armor types and coatings which enhance or target specific protections. One listed armor type is TL dependent: Charged armor shows up at TL13. The rest appear to be generally available to any TL -- their effectiveness is dependent upon the TL itself.
I suspect Don was thinking about these types and coatings.
The dominating feature for capital ship design is the specific damage type for which armor is designed (blast, kinetic, EMP, and Radiation). While the general armor value is # Layers x TL, the specific damage protection is a hundred times this.
Taking a cue from High Guard, assume the typical TL15 capital ship has 4 layers of (charged, blast) armor, for a total AV of 120, and a specific "blast" protection rating of 12000. Thus we might expect a powerful PA spine to potentially deliver 12000 points of damage (before scaling, I hope!)
Here's how much armor ships at other TLs would need. Note the jump at TL13 when "Charged" armor becomes available.
Code:
TL AV 120
-- ---------
7 17 layers (68%)
8 15 layers (60%)
9 14 layers (56%)
10 12 layers (48%)
11 11 layers (44%)
12 10 layers (40%)
13 5 layers (20%) ***
14 5 layers
15 4 layers (16%)
16 4 layers
17 4 layers
Note that a ship may theoretically have 24 layers of armor, displacing 96% of its hull volume. Such a ship would probably not be worth anything. The onus is on T5 to ensure that there are more impressive things worth doing with ships than slathering on a dozen layers of armor.
Spines
Here, Don was asking about TL restrictions for main weapons (that means Spines in capital ships). I think T5 is clear on base TLs for weapons, and I assumed that that applies to both main weapons and spines. I could be wrong. If my assumption is correct, then base TLs for main weapons are shown here.
Since this discussion is more about capital ships and Spines, I'm using the TL for extended-range weapons.
Code:
TL Weapon
-- ---------
8 Missile (yes you can have a Missile Spine)
10 Pulse Laser (yes you can have a Laser Spine etc)
11 Beam Laser
11 DataCaster
12 PA
12 Plasma Gun
13 Fusion Gun
13 Rail Gun
13 Ortillery
14 Meson Gun
15 Jump Damper
17 Tractor/Pressor
From High Guard it is clear that spines are intended to deliver staggering amounts of damage. Per the armor section above, this seems likely to be preserved in T5.
Perhaps the last question here would be "what size ship can field a spine?" I think the answer to this is that you first choose the spine from a selection, then design the ship around it. The smallest possible result is likely to be in the 8,000-to-10,000 ton range.
Secondaries
Unless Marc adds a BCS rule, I would expect that the TL progression and usages for secondaries (Bays and Large Bays) is identical to that of spines. I do note that in fact one type of spine is actually a gigantic Bay.
Screens
I lump turrets, defensive weapons, and perhaps even fighter clouds under screens. These sorts of things would use a "defensive fire" rule, since they are point-defense use. Assuming they are short-ranged, their Tech Level tree is:
Code:
TL Screen
-- ------
7 Pulse Laser
7 Sandcaster
8 Beam Laser
8 DataCaster
12 Nuke Damper
12 Elec Scrambler
13 Meson Screen
14 Mag Scrambler
16 Black Globe
17 Grav Scrambler