Vanilla Gun Option

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Popo"] [member="Domino"] [member="Ayden Cater"]

I know all three of you oppose this to varying degrees, but this is pretty much certainly happening, and it needs your input. I don't care if you gut this draft, or wipe it, nor do I care how we get to this fundamental point:

• People need a way to absolutely opt out of gun count math without putting their ships at a disadvantage.

Here's the current draft. I've been wrestling with it, it's not to my satisfaction, but it gets the idea across, I think:


What is the Vanilla Gun Option?

The Vanilla Gun Option is how you get around capital shipgun count math if you don't feel like crunching numbers to make your weapons loadout specialized in some way.


Can I exercise the Vanilla Gun Option for fighters/gunships/freighters/shuttles?

The gun math for those ships is less complicated than for capital ships. We've found that most shipbuilding troubles have to do with capital ships' gun counts. The Vanilla Gun Option is just for capital ships.


How do I use the Vanilla Gun Option?

To exercise the Vanilla Gun Option when creating a capital ship, under the Armaments portion of your starship template, write "a standard loadout for a Balanced Command Ship" or "a standard loadout for an Assault Frigate" - your ship's Classification (size) and Role (Balanced, Assault, or Support).


So what kind of guns does my ship have when I exercise the Vanilla Gun Option?

A 'standard loadout' depends on a ship's Role (Assault, Balanced, or Support). Here's the table. This is what you have. <spoiler the armaments table>

Now how are those big numbers split up for the Vanilla Gun Option? Pretty much exactly how you expect. The point of the Vanilla Gun Option is that these gun loadouts are supposed to be intuitive, easily expressed, and for now there are no numbers associated with these loadouts. Assault ships have a lot of big guns and move slowly; they carry gunships and dropships. Balanced ships have plenty of guns, fighters, decent speed - they're your average warship. Support ships have mostly defensive guns, small guns that are good against fighters and warheads. Support ships are usually carriers, electronic warfare ships, or other special vessels that aren't for front-line combat.

If you want to know more, check the spoilers or the Starship Guide.

Spoiler

Vanilla Assault ships are slow vessels with many heavy turbolaser batteriess and some very large main batteries, along with a few heavy ion cannons. Heavy Cruisers and larger ships carry assault concussion missiles, while Cruisers and smaller capital ships carry heavy-hitting proton torpedos. Their anti-fighter weapons are a mix of flak cannons, quad lasers, and point-defense turrets, but these ships prioritize capital guns -- they don't have all that many anti-fighter weapons.

Spoiler

Vanilla Balanced ships tend to have a few large main batteries, but keep most of their capital guns as a mix of turbolaser batteries and heavy turbolaser batteries. They have a few ion cannons, and their warheads are a mix of heavy and light. Their anti-fighter weapons are a mix of flak cannons, quad lasers, and point-defense turrets, but these ships prioritize capital guns -- they don't have all that many anti-fighter weapons.

Spoiler

Vanilla Support ships aren't armed for front-line combat. Support ships are often, but not always, carriers. Most of their guns are anti-fighter weapons, and because they carry many fighters they often avoid flak cannons in favor of more precise quad lasers and point-defense turrets. They have a few capital guns, including a handful of ion cannons, and don't carry warheads. Vanilla Support ships for non-carrier purposes, like electronic warfare vessels, are more likely to include flak cannons in their anti-fighter gun loadout.

 

[Asemir]

I think the Assault class name isn't clear enough.

When I first read it, I thought it referred to planetary/invasion assault ships and "assault" ships in the sense of battleships and ship-of-the-lines. Invasion ships need to be swift yet armored in order to deliver their cargo of troops. Slow invasion ships get shot up and their cargo dies. Ship of the lines/battleships would be dedicated capital ship killers, so equipped with big, slow weapons at the expense of point defense and troops.

My two credits.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

I disagree. I like the name 'Assault' and even if it's not always accurate (like the name support and balanced aren't always perfectly accurate either) it gives a sense of the type of ship.

I completely agree that a vanilla option should be available. At the very least it gives creators an idea of how a regular ships should be armed so if they make adjustments they make them with an eye to the vanilla.

 

[Raziel]

I think this is a very good idea. It would be dead simple to run through each of the classes and make a standard load-out according to those descriptions.

I'd be happy to help, I find the gun math fairly straightforward now.

 

[Asemir]

As an addition, I do fundamentally agree with this proposal.

I'm also leaning towards [member="Valeria Aetani"]'s disagreement with my post, but I also want to disagree with him for the sake of disagreement.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Asemir Lor'kora"]
Much defiance in this clone....

 

[Valik]

Love the idea.

 

[Domino]

I'm of mixed feelings but I generally support this because it'll take away one of the more time-consuming parts of a review and opens ships up. That said I think people should be told that when doing this they may put something in the field that looks like.

Armaments: Vanilla loadout but 9/10 guns are ion cannons

Or something similar, 'most guns' or another modifier added on to let them know they still have gun options besides listing everything and a flat descriptor.

 

[Popo]

I'm with Domino. Mixed feelings overall. There's a lot of potential of abuse with the vagueness, but at the same time it will speed up the review process. At best, it'll cut judging time. At worst, we can go back to square one.

 

[Raziel]

I'll be honest, when I read the topic the first time I thought we were going to define a vanilla option for each class of ship that people could just select.

I'm less enamoured with the notion of people running around with ships without defined weaponry to be honest!