Awww, don't be bringing science into this! :P I know it's technobabble but... I thought it might be helpful for people to understand the concept behind their weapons in case it should aid anyone in their description at some point. But yeah, it's not accurate science. It's not meant to be. It's science fiction. :3
I like things to be somewhat plausible without seeming too magical in nature. In this setting there is no instantaneous teleportation, though faster than light travel is possible by using gravitons to manipulate spacetime into condensed tunnels and traveling through it as it returns to normal 'behind' the spaceship, effectively propelling the ship forward at more than 300,000 km/s. And it's the same principle that empowers Warp weaponry to give it such high kinetic energy along with immense range (thanks to high speeds of the projectiles allowing the attacks to reach distant targets before they have time to evade). It's pseudo science but... hopefully that's tolerable for the sake of a story. After all, this setting has humans with psionic abilities in it so please do suspend that disbelief. ^^;
That being said, if you have an idea for exotic space-age weaponry, it could always appear later on as an upgrade to be researched and custom made for your ships! :D The current Nebula Fleet is equipped with advanced technology, but by no means do they have the best possible options- only better than humanity has managed at this point in history.
I'll preface this by saying I have no hope in hell of keeping up with that posting expectation, which is a real shame because I really like the concept.
I do have a question though, why no options to take ships in the Corvette size range?
That is indeed a real shame... :< If- at any point- your posting capacity changes to allow you to keep up, please do let me know! Perhaps we could work you in! :D
As for why corvettes aren't allowed, there are a couple reasons: one, corvettes are too fragile. Heck, frigates are already pretty fragile but corvettes are a whole new level of vulnerability. They have much less in the way of shields, effectively (when dealing with capital ship weapons) no armor, and nowhere near as much weaponry. Second, corvettes rarely have FTL drives installed in them, due to the large size and power requirements to generate and focus enough gravitons to manipulate the very fabric of reality. As such, corvettes tend to be deployed as solar system patrol crafts, and only really jump from one system to another if a warp tunnel is generated for them by a much larger ship/space station able to do so, like a battleship, dreadnought, or jump gate.
So... not exactly the sort of heroic types you'd expect a rousing story to be told about!
Also, a friendly reminder that one generally will want point defense guns because the bigger you end up, the more you begin to really need a way to pick off the little guys who can literally fly circles around you. Also, the ability to shoot down incoming missiles is often invaluable.
This is a veeeery good point and I'd suggest people everyone consider it. It can be very tempting to invest all your points in a massive gun but all that firepower is useless if you don't have highly tracking weapons to fend off a squadron of fighters from flitting around you and shoving implosion bombs inside your shields when you lower them to fire that massive gun!
On that note, I should really explain the combat system and the stats better. Not sure if I should do that in the original post or simply do so here... Ehhm... Maybe both. At the very least here. We'll see! I am super tired and rather inebriated so who knows what tomorrow will bring~
[warning]
Insomnant Info Dump![/warning]
So, first off, an explanation of how much damage you can take! Take your Shields stat, and multiply it by 10. That's how many Shield Points you have. Shields absorb incoming damage as it is received, but they are able to shrug off weaker attacks due to Shield Damage Reduction (Shield DR), which is your Shields stat divided by 4. Any attack that is equal to or less than your shield's DR does negligible damage, and attacks over that DR amount do the weapon's damage minus the shield's DR.
When you take enough damage that you lose all your Shield Points (after taking into account the shield's DR, of course), your shield collapses and it needs a full minute to recalibrate before it can begin recharging.
Shields recharge at a rate of your Shield stat each minute. So... a tenth of your shields return each minute. Double that if you have the Durability (Shield Recharge) perk (i.e. double your Shield stat each minute, so a fifth of your shields return each minute), and it's 50% higher if you have your Coprocessor assigned to handling shield recharge (i.e. 1.5 x Shield stat returns each minute, or 15% of your shields return each minute)... and, triple the rate with both Durability (Shield Recharge) and a Coprocessor set to shield recharge, for a whopping 30% of your shields returning each minute.
Oh! I should mention... if you have the Durability (Directional Shield) perk, your Shield Points is boosted based on how limited your shield's coverage is! Half coverage increases your number of Shield Points by 100%, effectively doubling your shields, although your Shield DR remains the same. Quarter coverage quadruples your Shield Points. But keep in mind changing the orientation of your shield projectors is a draining task requiring extended computation- it takes a thirty seconds to shift coverage of your directional shields, so be very careful not to be flanked during this time!
And on the note of perks, the Durability (Shield Exposure) actually doubles your Shield Points at all times but! It takes two minutes to recalibrate your shields after they are fully depleted, and keep in mind that they only recharge at the normal rate, meaning that- with no other assistance- your shields will recharge fully from depletion after 20 minutes instead of ten. Other perks can still increase this as normal.
Now, once your shields are gone, your Hull Points start taking a beating. This is especially bad, because your hull is where you keep your stuff! Each time you lose Hull Points you risk receiving damage to one of your ship's systems (Targeting, Sensors, Communication, Navigation, Engines, Storage, Weapon controls, reactor, processing core, etc.). Luckily, even without shields you have some defense in the way of your Armor stat. Your armor does not absorb damage, but it does decrease the damage you receive from attacks when your shields are gone. Just like with your shields, your armor provides Armor Damage Reduction (Armor DR) that is subtracted from the damage of incoming attacks, and that Armor DR is equal to your Armor stat divided by 2.
So, here are those important ship stats (based on conventional ships from each class):
............. Fighter Gunb. Corv. Frig. Dest. Cruis. Battleship
Armor DR .... 0 ..... 0 ... 0 ... 0.5 . 1.5 . 3.5 .. 5
Shield Points 1 ..... 6 ... 20 .. 40 .. 50 .. 70 ... 100
Shield DR ... 0 ..... 0.15. 0.5 . 1 ... 1.25. 1.75 . 2.5
Hull Points . 1 ..... 3 ... 10 .. 24 .. 36 .. 50 ... 80
Now, all this being said... I'm not going to enforce any sort of dice rolling system or make this a strict RPG- I still value dramatic story telling and creativity! But I explain this because I want you to be able to have a sense for what's feasible within the setting. To get an idea of the scope of things, as it were. Keep this stuff in mind when you craft your posts and come up with your actions, yes... but you don't have to let it dominate your thoughts and cater to numbers and mechanics when writing.
I hope that helps. If not, please do ask questions- I'm not at the top of my game right now to be explaining stuff. xD
