Cy83r K0rp53
Inactive Member
I've been mulling over the constant discussion that seems to be going on about the DR system and I think I've come up with with a mostly reasonable compromise that 1) does not change how current DR works or is measured; and 2) provides an alternative and interchangeable view to suit the size of an engagement, plot armor, and variable desire for realism.
Simply put, the DR system as it is provides and abstract measure of a system to sustain damage before being rendered defunct or a cloud of rapidly expanding debris. A group of players on the site, myself included, aren't really satisfied with the level of carnage this seems to induce on some levels of the scale. My idea is to assign everything a secondary "Total Damage Rating" based on a multiplier that represents how much firepower is needed to truly obliterate a ship or tank and should give a more realistic result.
As a metric, I want to say that everything but starships should have a multiplier of 2.
Let's say the average human is a DR3 object, under the current system one good hit from a medium weapon is a kill. But looking at TDR we've got a total value of 6, meaning our bag of bones lying on the floor is only severely injured and might die if unattended, but if someone were to have dropped a second DR3 attack into them, then we can say the body has been severely mangled and is most definitely dead. Using this same example if our test human were hit by a DR5 sniper rifle, we could say he was really really dead (especially if it was a head shot), but under TDR, he's only got a giant hole in his side and will 'most likely' die.
Granted, I'm not got at giving examples, but I hope my point got across. The primary aim of this idea is to provide a veritable butt-load of SP which can be assigned to a vehicle or structure's subsystems, this is most important for resolving the issue of weak starships versus strong starships argument and is the primary target of this concept.
The TDR value of a starship is equal to it's current DR*(1+Size class) so an escort, DR1~10, would have a multiplier of 2x to determine its TDR. A battleship would have a 6x multiplier, representing its massive size and numerous redundancies, damage controls, and reinforced compartments; stations would be even tougher and require special tactics to counter. Again this is entirely optional, which is why a new stat is being created instead of modifying the old one. Hypothetically the normal DR of a ship or vehicle represents, in my mind, how much damage it can take until it can be safely ignored as a viable battlefield asset instead of things erupting in flame once they hit zero.
With this enhanced DR system, the ideal is to have ship designers listing Dr capacities for subsystems, allowing a GM or Captain who wants more detail to tick off items on the ship rosters as damage is taken, etc etc. Even without a detailed roster for every ship, someone using this system can look at the systems in the wiki and quickly assign points to systems as seems appropriate or merely tick down from a larger pool and make an educated guess as to what has been disabled.
Rambling aside, this is just a raw idea, I'd like to see what everyone else thinks of it and contribute any modifications that might make it smoother and easier to use for both GM/captains and the designers who will be asked to comply with this option if we should decide it's ever worthy of implementing.
Simply put, the DR system as it is provides and abstract measure of a system to sustain damage before being rendered defunct or a cloud of rapidly expanding debris. A group of players on the site, myself included, aren't really satisfied with the level of carnage this seems to induce on some levels of the scale. My idea is to assign everything a secondary "Total Damage Rating" based on a multiplier that represents how much firepower is needed to truly obliterate a ship or tank and should give a more realistic result.
As a metric, I want to say that everything but starships should have a multiplier of 2.
Let's say the average human is a DR3 object, under the current system one good hit from a medium weapon is a kill. But looking at TDR we've got a total value of 6, meaning our bag of bones lying on the floor is only severely injured and might die if unattended, but if someone were to have dropped a second DR3 attack into them, then we can say the body has been severely mangled and is most definitely dead. Using this same example if our test human were hit by a DR5 sniper rifle, we could say he was really really dead (especially if it was a head shot), but under TDR, he's only got a giant hole in his side and will 'most likely' die.
Granted, I'm not got at giving examples, but I hope my point got across. The primary aim of this idea is to provide a veritable butt-load of SP which can be assigned to a vehicle or structure's subsystems, this is most important for resolving the issue of weak starships versus strong starships argument and is the primary target of this concept.
The TDR value of a starship is equal to it's current DR*(1+Size class) so an escort, DR1~10, would have a multiplier of 2x to determine its TDR. A battleship would have a 6x multiplier, representing its massive size and numerous redundancies, damage controls, and reinforced compartments; stations would be even tougher and require special tactics to counter. Again this is entirely optional, which is why a new stat is being created instead of modifying the old one. Hypothetically the normal DR of a ship or vehicle represents, in my mind, how much damage it can take until it can be safely ignored as a viable battlefield asset instead of things erupting in flame once they hit zero.
With this enhanced DR system, the ideal is to have ship designers listing Dr capacities for subsystems, allowing a GM or Captain who wants more detail to tick off items on the ship rosters as damage is taken, etc etc. Even without a detailed roster for every ship, someone using this system can look at the systems in the wiki and quickly assign points to systems as seems appropriate or merely tick down from a larger pool and make an educated guess as to what has been disabled.
Rambling aside, this is just a raw idea, I'd like to see what everyone else thinks of it and contribute any modifications that might make it smoother and easier to use for both GM/captains and the designers who will be asked to comply with this option if we should decide it's ever worthy of implementing.
