Also mentioned in my previous thread.
Problem is how to cost things. I know how parts of the equation for weapons should look, But judging the value of mass power and crew…
For a weapons:
Damage * (Max Range² - Min Range²) / Fire Interval.
That describes the base line effectiveness of a weapon.
Additional Modifiers:
Weight: Divisor with diminishing returns. Making a weapon super heavy will only reduce the cost by so much. Making it light has no upper limit to the multiplying effect.
Power: Divisor With similar attributes to weight.
Crew: Divisor, Ditto.
Shield and Armor Penetration: Multipliers. As a balance issue I say keep the value a flat. While shields would have a exponential value based on resistance. Armor will be ugly…
Tracking Speed: Multiplier. Flat curve as penetration, while giving engines an exponential curve as they gain more thrust.
Hit points: Multiplier. I’d make it additive, But The More HP a module has, the less likely it is to be knocked out prematurely.
Optimum Range: Have No Idea. Don’t know how this mechanic works.
Fuel: This actually affects parts of the main equation. If the Fuel is less then the range, then it becomes the range. If it’s greater then the range, then it affects the Fire Interval.
Speed: Similar to fuel, this affects other parts of the equation. Accuracy is affected by the weapons speed, while fire Interval is sometimes affected by this value for missiles.
Decoys: Multiplier.
EMP strength & duration: Multipiers. Strength is Linear, Duration exponential.
Disruption Strength & Duration: Same as EMP.
Defenses
Armor:
(Damage absorbable^Resistance + HP)/(Weight * Crew * Power)
Thats a basis for how it could be. The problem is that Resistance is a function of Damage absorbable and the ship design. As such the cost would differ from ship to ship. Given that we tend to like having a fixed value for modules…
Shields:
(Shield Strength ^ (ResistanceRecharge Rate) / (Weight * CrewPower)
Shields at least seem easy enough. Might want to play with where and how the Recharge rate is used. For that matter the fact that I’m using Resistance (Shield and Armor) as an exponent may be a mistake. It could just as easily be a Multiplier, and be raised to a power such as " *resistance² "
Point Defense.
Weapons equation.
Engines:
Thrust^(Pick a number) * Hit points / (Weight * Crew * Power)
Bear in mind that Weight Crew and Power are all limited in how much weight they have to reduce the cost of the engine, While making them very small values will cause the cost to rise without limit. (Dividing by Zero is bad) (Fighter Modules will be interesting…)
Crew Modules And Power Plants
(Value Produced + Hit Points)/ (Weight * Values Cost)
Repair Systems:
(Rate * Repair Supplies* Hit points) / (Weight * Crew * Power)
In general, If the loss of a module will affect the combat capability of the ship I Multiply it’s value into the cost. If Losing the module Won’t affect the functionality of the ship, I add in the Hit points.
Boosters (Not just targeting. Assume we get some more modules that affect things like Range or damage output, or resistances):
Bosters have issues like armor does. It depends on the ships design how much they’re actually worth. If a ships cost was made to be dyanmic so that adding or removing things affect the cost of the modules already on it, then a boosters cost would be based on the changed values of what they affect, The catch being that They should have a reduced cost because they take up an additional slot on the ship. Which brings up the stacking stat of a module. Figure Having a low ability to stack would make modules cheaper, But with diminishing returns So as to prevent The uber weapon with approaching zero stackability. Which brings up having the game check to make sure weapons of different names are actually different. Say you have 2 Very low stackability weapons with different names, But are Identical. It would get around the limits of stacking. Which brings up how to prevent 2 Nearly Identical weapons of the same type… Just how much does a weapon need to change before it’s a different kind of weapon… I suppose you could get rid of the stacking mechanic…
Tractor Beams:
Similar to the EMP and Disruptor weapons. Weight and Power are multipliers, otherwise the normal weapon equation can be applied.
Custom Ships:
Power output * Bonus’s * (Hardpoints ^ Whatever)+ Standard Modules) * (Additional things, like maybe it naturally supplies some crew) / Length
Or something like that.
And please remember That I’m only presenting the basic form of what the equations could look like. Through out these equations would be a string of constants that bring the costs to a range that looks right, rather then the over the top numbers that would be produced with some of those equations.
And It’d be nice if I knew what the equations in use now were for determining costs. Unless the “Pull them out of hat” Method is being employed.