I didn't actually wind up playing much SCO this weekend because I didn't need too. I found that I only really needed to jump into the game a little bit here and there to check on some things, so I finished this a lot sooner than I was expecting too.
You will notice that both hit points and ship point cost are generally defined by class, and are proportional to class. This is a critical aspect of how the ship point/lineup system works You might tweak ships within the same class within the range for that class. So “Heavy Cruisers” with a base 30 HP/ship point cost for their class actually range anywhere from 26-34 HP for ships within that class depending on its tactical power within the combat environment. Only ships within the same class are “balanced” with each other, ships fighting “above their weight class” are balanced to do “their ship point worth in damage” before losing the fight. I am mostly using the baseline values for each class here, not necessarily where each ship might fall within the range of that class. In this simple arcade game, HP/class are almost synonymous.
Ship ratings are relative too each other and not meant to represent actual values in the data file. They are merely a relative comparison in relation to all other ships. These ratings do not represent any one value, but a range of values just like ship classes. So two ships might have the same rating for speed with one still being slightly faster than the other. In the end, these ratings are set in direct relation to the values that wind up being used in the data files.
Range ratings have been set as a “Mission Endurance” rating for sending satellite ships from the mothership on recon missions to star systems in the adventure game. This is how far from the mothership that the ship can be sent on a “recon mission” to explore a nearby solar system. You can, of course, ignore this rating if this idea is not going to be used.
Scryve – This ship needs a weapon that forces the enemy to come too it, because it can't catch anything. The flak gun prevents a small and weak ship from endlessly staying out of the arc of the big gun (whatever it is...). A medium range ship that is fast and agile enough to stay out of the gun arc will easily fairly easily beat it, but still probably get hit once or twice. But this is the Nemesis Balance, and what makes taking the big ships not the best idea unless you are really good with them. This prevents them from dominating Fleet Battles. The ship lineup/BPV takes care of this, the player takes a ship that fights it well with their next choice.
Current Primary Weapon: Ace's weapon. Should be considered a “city/battleship” killing weapon. Against faster ships it can “sweep the skies” as it does. With BB speed and maneuverability this will actually be balanced and a unique design (“drifting beam attack” or “B5-like “slicing beam”). But it is an ace's weapon, so only the players that are good at it can use this ship well, and the “main bad guy” ship should be one that anyone can use well. That's why I've been saying I don't like this weapon for this ship. This weapon will be far less effective if the ship has a low turn rate, the weapon is preventing you from seeing this as the big, slow “sluggish brick” that a ship this large should be. The needs of the weapon are making you want it to have a high turn rate so that it can use the weapon better.
This weapon could work and not be so powerful with the ship being “big and slow”, but it is going to be really annoying in multiplayer. There are two primary forms of attack with this weapon, direct-fire and drifting/sweeping it across the map in the direction of the enemy. The second attack works for multiplayer, the direct-fire attack is the problem. There is going to be a minority of people who can reliably hit ships on the other side of the map, but most people won't be able to do this. The ones who can't do it won't use it often, and the ones who can will dominate with it. This will be annoying to the people who can't do it, which is going to be most people. This is probably not the best weapon for the “main bad guy ship” that everyone is going to want to be able to use well.
Suggested Primary Weapon: I had been suggesting some type of seeking energy weapon for this ship instead of its current “Ace's Weapon”. After having spent this weekend actually working out the entire ship lineup as it if were a part of my own universe, I realized that SCO is missing something very important. A weapon that is absolutely perfect for this ship and makes perfect sense coming out of the existing “big barrel” on the front of the ship. Early I described the Subspace “bomb”, which was actually a “torpedo”. Former Subspace players are going to buy this game, and they will be very happy to see their favorite weapon from that game in SCO. But that isn't what makes this weapon so important, there is a MUCH larger audience that will be EXPECTING to see this weapon... and what better ship to have it than the “main bad guys”.
Photon Torpedo!!! I'm guessing you'd change the name to something “Scryvey” if you decide to make this change. A Photon Torpedo is the best choice for several reasons. It's a weapon that has to be on a big, high point ship to be balanced. A whole lot of people will want to see a photon-like weapon in the game, and you don't currently have one. It gives the Scryve the “full map range” you are looking for in a more balanced way. It is one of the most fun weapons to use within this genre. It feels really great to hit something at long range, and anyone can do it often enough to feel as though they are good at using it. I explained how this weapon (“Subspace Bomb”) functions in an earlier post, and if you can't find that the “Gravitic Torpedo” in my Space Hockey document (Ogre) is the same thing (but without the gravitic effect). An alternative way of representing a Photon Torpedo is the Chenjesu weapon from the original Star Control, but the Black Hole already works that way and then it doesn't please the former Subspace players in addition to us trekkies.
Secondary Ability: The flak guns currently do not do their job of protecting the sides and rear of the ship from being helpless against a faster opponent, or shooting down small targets. For example I've never seen it shoot down the Earthlings missile, and it rarely shoots down anything else. Part of the reason is that the ship is moving too fast and leaves the flak bursts behind, but it is also that there is not enough flak and it also doesn't seem powerful enough. The is the “Uber Ship of Death” of the current lineup, it SHOULD be very powerful. And it NEEDS the flak to be effective, to protect the ship from all sides because it is so slow (or, should be very slow). Flak is a very easy thing to balance, and this will be an easy thing to make work well in the end.
Class – 2 (BB – Battleship)
Point Cost – 60
Hit Points/Crew – 60
Speed – 2
Acceleration – 2
Turn Rate – 2
Range – N/A (I assume that the mothership never has one of these ships available too it.)
In many cases the Point Costs & Hit Points I've listed for ships are the “baseline hull” value for the class. Each class is actually represented by a range of points, both in their costs and hit points (but there can be exceptions with hit points). A “PF/MPC” is “a PT Boat in space”.
Point Cost & Hit Point ranges... Shuttle/Fighter: 1-2, PF/MPC: 3-6, FF: 7-11, DD: 12-17, CL: 18-24, CA: 25-34, BC: 35-44, DN: 45-54, BB: 55-65.
These classes would necessarily exist in the editor. They should be renamed too “Star Controlly” names. This is simply how I conceptualize the relative size difference between the ships. The ships in Star Control are actually a lot smaller than these “real world navy” classes are. The ships in Star Control are carried inside of a mothership. I know, the Drenkend would definitely be too big to be inside of the mothership in SCO... but so was the Mycon in SC2. Casual players won't notice, just like they didn't notice with the Mycon. Only people who are already into it enough to start using the editors will ever notice this. And they already like the game by then and will forgive it because it really doesn't matter too the game.
And, of course, when I talk about ship classes and the range of balance, that is just ships. It doesn't include “starbase” like things, or V-like “floating cities in space”. Things you might call “boss fights” don't count in any of this, those are “special”. The classes only apply to “regular navy” type ships, not “special” (or “boss”) things whether they are starbases, massive ships, or giant/ancient “space monsters”. Us SFU people love space monsters! Sheboygan III is not a safe place... there be space monsters there!!! 
Drenkend – This is a big, huge ship. It needs to be a lot more powerful than most of the other ships. It should be among the largest and slowest ships, which is a whole lot of disadvantage to have to make up for before you even begin to make it actually powerful among its faster peers. It's already got everything it needs to be a good slow ship, it just needs to be thought of in a different way. This is a “capital ship weapon” on a ship that is supposed too be one, so this ship doesn't have the same problem that Dan'nath does.
Primary Weapon: Reduce energy, or increase energy cost to fire, so this weapon can fire 5 shots before running out of energy. This is a really awesome weapon, the “uber machine gun” of SCO. And it instantly brings the enemy to a complete stop! If “speed is life” then, as you might imagine, “stopping is death”. In SFB you can use a “Wild Weasel” to decoy a life threatening amount of seeking weapons targeted on you. Whew... right? Nope. This is a desperation move because you have to come to a complete stop to do it. Even in a 1v1 dual using a WW usually means dying within the next turn or so. Drenkend's De-Energizer Bolt is an incredibly powerful weapon, even tactically better than the Black Hole (as long as you don't pump up the volume to one-shot destroying entire planets, anyway;-) in some ways. This is an example of a weapon so powerful it can only be on such a large ship, for a lot of reasons all the way down to engineering lore.
If Drenkend were the big slow ship that it is, it will become easier for it to hit a stopped target with its gun. Your own high speed makes it harder for you to aim, a slow ship firing at a stationary target is an easy shot. Also, the boarding pods would be a little better at catching ships, as below. So this weapon might become too powerful. But this is actually a good thing, because it will be a more fun and interesting weapon with this change. Instead of messing with rate of fire and damage if the weapon winds up seeming too powerful, change it too a cumulative reduction of speed with a cap. So, for example, each hit might reduce the target's speed by 15% for 12 seconds with a cap of 60% speed reduction. Projectile velocity might also be reduced if needed, but only if needed, the high velocity of these shots is a big part of what makes them so good and so fun.
Secondary Ability: This is a 45 point ship. By default, it is kind-of the “Heavy Carrier” of this group of ships. The boarding parties need to be more effective than they currently are at catching up to ships. These should be “good” at catching speed 6 and slower ships, that would be a good speed balance for them... whatever that speed winds up being within the 1-10 rating system that you are using (and that I am using in this post). So to be “good” at catching speed 6 a good place to start with BP speed would be... highly maneuverable speed 6. If two things are going the same speed, and one is tracking the other, any time the target does anything but move directly away from the “seeker”... the seeker gets closer. Turning/maneuver of any kind results in closure. So a highly maneuverable “seeker” will steadily catch up to an object that is moving at the same speed and doing anything other than flying directly away at all times. The target can't fly directly away for long, because of the barrier.
Then these need to act like boarding parties, there is no “boarding party combat” taking place.. They should each kill a set number of crew units, 3 would probably be good. The BPs steadily chirp away 3 crew over 6 seconds or so after they land. This obviously isn't necessary, but would be cooler than just acting like missiles and doing instant damage. Only four boarding pods can be active at any given moment, but you can launch a new one the instant that there are less than 4 on the map. They should return after a short while if they don't wind up catching the ship, and this “rule” works well with the fact that only four can be active at a time. Think of them as weapons, with crew/marines as ammunition, instead of as shuttlecraft.
Note that these will be very powerful against slower ships, which will need to gun them down with their main weapon to stop them (Scyrve has the flak to help with this). This distracts the enemy ship, in a way similar too SFU/PDU missiles, which are designed more as a distraction than a weapon. This is why they should have a limited pursuit range, so that you can't just lob them at slow ships from the opposite side of the map. You aren't likely to actually board faster ships if the enemy is being careful to avoid them, but they “influence movement” like a plasma torpedo and “protect the sides and rear” of the big slow Drenkend. In this situation the BP “forces separation” which allows the slow moving and turning Drenkend to turn to get its very powerful “capital ship weapon” pointed at the enemy. Drenkend is somewhat like a porcupine.
The BPs also need to be better at not hitting the planet. Ideally, they would actually be noticeably good at “surfing” the gravity well. The bouncing off the planet thing just looks silly and “broken”, especially when half-a-dozen of them do it at the same time. If they were actually good at “surfing” the gravity well the players would interpret that as “brilliant AI”, especially when you happen be in their path when they do it and the speed boost sends the BP right into your ship. It will be sheer coincidence when that happens, but the player will interpret it as “Amazing AI! Those guys at Stardock are geniuses!”. Like almost all “brilliant AI”, it is an illusion... the AI is actually every bit as stupid as you thought it was before you saw that “brilliant coincidence” occur.
Tactics: This is a “Hybrid Heavy Carrier”. Drenkend is literally the same exact class and variant as the Battlestar Galactica (or the Ur Quan Dreadnought), but it uses “breaching pods” instead of fighters. So it is like a “Space Marine Corps” version of those ships. It has the “machine gun heavy weapon” of SCO. The breaching pods are, in effect, an omni-directional (360 degree firing arc) weapon that protect the sides and rear of this slow moving and turning ship. It can “attack” in any direction, and at least drive away even the fastest ships approaching from any direction. Separation, sometimes caused by the breaching pods, allows it to bring its gun too bear... and it is quite a gun!
Drenkend's closest real-world counterpart...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Wasp_(LHD-1)
Class – 1.5 (DN/CVA – Hybrid Heavy Carrier)
Point Cost – 50
Hit Points/Crew – 50
Speed – 3
Acceleration – 4
Turn Rate – 3
Range – 10 *It would make a lot of sense for this to be the only ship that has one lander, or maybe even two landers, for use on recon missions in the adventure game (if they existed).
Dan'nath – This is the biggest problem ship of the group, because it has a capital ship's weapon on a cruiser class ship. Third slowest ship of this group, must keep hitting with weapon to keep faster ships from catching up too it where it is practically defenseless. Gravity Wave can also help to keep enemy ships away. Low-medium speed,. High maneuverability for its size/point class so that it can dodge well when an enemy gets close and turn well to easily aim its weapon. This is an “Advanced Technology” ship. It is actually a smaller size class than it is being placed within, but the “Advanced Technology” creates a tactical combat value that pushes it up into a higher class. I have put this “Advanced Heavy Cruiser” (CX) into the BCH point class as a means of balancing the “capital ship heavy weapon” that it carries. In reality, as a base hull CX it should have Speed 7 and its gravitic technologies should give it Acceleration 7 and Turn Rate 7. Its size class is actually 1 (CA), while being grouped with the 1.33 (BCH) size/point class. This ship needs to be on the slow side as a part of creating that Star Control tradition balance of being lacking in an area that another aspect of the ship, its “DN/BB power weapon”, makes up for. I just can't resist mentioning that this is actually a part of the “religion” of the humans of my own universe, “balance through equality of extremes”. Don't take this philosophy to heart, it doesn't work out too well for them... over and over again.
Primary Weapon: Uses 33% of max energy per shot. Reduce size by 50%. Direct hit without releasing the button causes double damage. Small detection/detonation AoE, only about half the size of the now reduced size Black Hole AoE area (or, about double the radius of the reduced size black hole itself). Proximity detonation damages Dan'nath if it is within this “point blank” range (i.e. “feedback damage), making it even more difficult to use at short range than it already is. Pulse damage on detonation, not sustaining damage as it is now. The singularity/gravity “artificially” turns the nose of the ship about ¼ turn towards the black hole in addition to the gravity effect pulling the ship in that same direction. Non-damaging Black Hole sustains for 2-4 seconds to slow/impede target as a consolation prize for having missed with the damage. This weapon has a natural myopic zone due to being very hard to hit with it at close range and the fact that Dan'nath takes full prox damage if it catches itself in the blast at point-blank range.
With this design for this weapon you have to put the Black Hole right in front of the target for it to have any effect. A direct hit without releasing the button does double damage, catching the target in the small proximity detonation on a near miss (by releasing the button) does normal damage. The gravitic effect is then about 3 times the radius of the proximity detection/detonation radius (i.e. reduced 50% from current size). This is the the “consolation prize” for a near miss, it “grabs and turns” the target, pulling it to one side and also turning it in that direction. This impedes its pursuit and creates the tactical design of this ship. Most ships are faster than it, and it lives by staying away. Close-in the weapon is nearly useless. So you have to keep hitting at least close enough to catch them in the gravity well to keep your distance from them. If you miss two or three times in a row, then they will be on top of you. This ship is very good at killing the bigger and slower ships, and not very good at killing smaller and faster ships. It spars with medium speed ships in a very fun and fairly even fight, if you are good with Trandals you can “assassinate” Dan'nath with that ship.
Secondary Ability: This new design for Dan'nath's weapon makes the Gravity Wave more important too it, instead of a thing it doesn't really need and only rarely uses. This design of Dan'nath is all about fighting stand-off. That's right, a stand-off ship that is on the slow side... that “Star Control tradition” of breaking the rules in two directions at the same time. You have to keep hitting with the Black Hole to keep an enemy away, otherwise most ships are going to catch up too you pretty fast. When an enemy gets close Dan'nath's weapon is nearly useless and all it can do is try to avoid being hit. The gravity wave is its last line of defense. Gravity Wave now only active while holding down the button. This device depletes energy VERY QUICKLY limiting its duration and often leaving Dan'nath unable to fire the Black Hole weapon for a few seconds after having used this device.
Tactics: Most ships are faster, and against those ships Dan'nath relies on hitting consistently close enough to at least catch the enemy in the gravity well. If it misses twice in a row, the enemy will probably catch up too it, where the Black Hole is nearly impossible to hit with. At point blank range, Dan'nath will even catch itself in the blast and do as much damage too itself as it does to the enemy. This is purely a stand-off ship, but fairly slow... only its weapon makes this design make any sense at all. On the bright side, Dan'nath is the “assassin” of most ships larger and slower than itself... somewhat like Phantom is in my Space Hockey. The ship lineup/BPV system makes this aspect of it work, Rock, Paper, Scissors (or “Nemesis Balance”). You would never choose a big slow ship if your opponent is currently in Dan'nath.
Class – 1.33 (BCH – Heavy Battle Cruiser), (CX – Advanced Heavy Cruiser) *Hybrid class, not a base class within the system. The BCH falls between a DN and a BC in terms of tactical combat value, but not size.
Point Cost – 40
Hit Points/Crew – 32 *High-tech miniaturization penalty for this weight class, large CA class (True Class) ship with BCH tactical combat value (Effective Class).
Speed – 4
Acceleration – 6 *High-tech/gravity mastery maneuver bonus for this size class.
Turn Rate – 6 *High-tech/gravity mastery maneuver bonus for this size class.
Range – 9
Pinthi – This ship needs help. It is also big, so it needs to be powerful to match the point cost of its class and compensate for its large size which makes it fairly easy to hit. This design can easily be made to be too powerful with just slight changes to its weapon and secondary ability, which is exactly what you want for the larger ships which can be difficult to balance within the ship points/lineup (BPV) system.
Primary Weapon (Infection): It's “that green stuff” that Will Smith hates so much! In my own universe, in tribute to Will Smith, the only thing that humans hate more than having “that green stuff” shot at them are robots. Damn robots!!! Anyway... This weapon's projectile moves very slowly, it needs help in a “tradition of Star Control” kind-of way. This weapon kills a number of crew units as a weapon AND infects 3 crew units who turn yellow when infected. This is the only means of infecting crew, which the suggested new secondary ability below relies on. So the new secondary gives it that help by slowing the enemy ship down, so it is easier to hit with these slow projectiles. This is one of those “back-and-fourth” breaking the rules designs I mentioned early like the Mycon or Trandals. This weapon uses very little energy. Make the projectile move slightly faster, but still slow. This is a high point ship, the weapon should be a little better even with the new secondary ability.
Secondary Ability (Conversion): This is the existing “Pinthi Fighter” redesigned, no new assets are needed. Launching one of these uses almost all of the ship's energy. Can only have 2 of these active at any one time, if one hits/boards the enemy ship the other returns to Pinthi. The first one you launch uses “follow pursuit”, the second one launched uses “lead pursuit”. Follow pursuit is what exists in SCO right now, and is the only type of pursuit used in most games. “Lead pursuit” tracks a location ahead of the momentum/direction of travel of the target. So when both are on the map one is following the target from behind and the other is attempting to cut it off from ahead. These move at a brisk pace and, once both are on the map, the enemy cannot avoid them for long (unless it is one of the very fastest ships, which will be Nemesis Ships for Pinthi).
When this, whatever it is, hits an enemy ship it “bores into” the ship, causing damage/killing crew but not infecting any crew (only the Infection weapon can do that). It remains on the ship until it has captured 3 infected enemy crew. It takes 4 seconds to capture each infected crew once they exist, so will be on the enemy ship for at least 12 seconds. While on the ship this creature is feeding off of the ship's energy, slowing the ship by 25-33% (or maybe even 50%) or so. If there are no infected crew to capture it will remain on the ship until there are 3 infected crew to capture, slowing the target the whole time. This ship is mid-medium speed, and whenever one of these is on an enemy ship it evens the playing field (speed) for the medium speed Pinthi mothership and its slow projectiles. Once it has “gathered and cocooned” three crew it leaves the enemy ship and returns to the Pinthi mothership, which gains 3 crew when it lands. The “cocooning” turns them into Pinthi. This can result in Pinthi having more crew than it's normal maximum.
So your weapon is pretty bad, but can be made much better by getting one of your... whatever it is... on the enemy ship to slow it down significantly and make it an easier target for your slow traveling projectiles. If you haven't been able to hit with the gun yet, and there are no infected crew, then the speed penalty is permanent until you do manage to hit it and create infected crew for this creature to capture and return to your ship. You can have up to two of them out when attempting to board to make successful boarding more likely, but only one at a time can ever be on the enemy ship. You probably want to come up with a more lore-inspired name for this new secondary ability if you decide to use it, whatever you decide to name this creature.
Class – 1.25 (BC – Battle Cruiser), (CVS – Strike Carrier) *A CVS is not a variant of a BC base hull. It is a seperate class that occupies this same base hull size/tactical combat value classification. Pinthi is a form of CV (“Fleet Carrier”), it is “Strike Carrier”. Half-warship, half-carrier... a smaller version of the Battlestar Galactica or Ur Quan Dreadnought. Hybrid carriers are the most powerful warship designs known. Within any group of ships that is following the same engineering lore/restrictions, the hybrid carrier designs will always be the most powerful single ships among that group. This is the PDU version of the CV class which is based on Battle Cruisers, in the SFU the CV class is based on the smaller (and faster) Heavy Cruisers.
Point Cost – 36
Hit Points/Crew – 36
Speed – 5
Acceleration – 5
Turn Rate – 4
Range – 8
Earthling – Fine as it is. Just needs tuning within whatever the combat environment winds up becoming.
Primary Weapon: No issues. This obviously still needs tuning but you are clearly on the path to making this work well. You could decide to change this to an “escort variant” with a multi-warhead missile instead of this nuke if you decide you like that better than how the nuke winds up working out. All of the current issues with this weapon would be easily solved with a MW missile, but the “original” nuke can be made to work as well... just not as easily. With a below average turn rate, average speed, and a weapon range that allows most enemies to return fire if the missile is within range, this can definitely be made to work well in the end as it is.
Secondary Ability: No issues. This “Gatling Phaser” makes this a Nemesis Ship of the Scryve Scout. Unless the Earthling is asleep at the wheel, it will easily gun down the Scryve Scout before it can detonate every time.
Class – 1 (CA – Heavy Cruiser)
Point Cost – 32
Hit Points/Crew – 32
Speed – 6
Acceleration – 6
Turn Rate – 4
Range – 7
Menkmack – Like the Pinthi, for where this ship falls within the class structure it is currently very weak. It is currently no match for the Earthling or Tywom, the other “Heavy Cruisers” of this class. This was originally meant to be a mine and with a good speed range among the ships mines will become very useful and fun. Right now the ships are moving too fast for mines to be very relevant. There is rarely an opportunity to plant a mine in the face of a pursuer, that will change with an overall slower and more controllable speed range among the ships.
Primary Weapon: Dampening Field Gun. A “pure gun” just like Tywom has. If you are going to have a lot of ships in the end, a lot of them will have one type of “pure gun” or another on them. This isn't a bad thing, most players consider pure guns to be the most fun weapon. You make guns different from each other by giving them different effects that compliment their secondary ability in some way. This “Dampening Field Gun” (you might choose your own lore for this without changing its function, “Dampening Field” is Pirate Dawn terminology that you may not care to use but feel free if you like it) both causes damage and reduces the turn rate of the target by 10-25% for 4 seconds. It does this by creating a quickly expiring energy field around the target that interferes with the ship's lateral thrusters. Additional hits are not cumulative but reset the timer. A lower turn rate makes it harder to avoid mines, so this weapon works with the secondary ability of this ship.
Secondary Ability: Magnetic Mine. Like the Khor Ah disc weapon, these lock in place where dropped but slowly (very slowly) drift toward an enemy that gets close too them. Just like the Khor Ah disc weapons did once “placed”. Mines are one of the more useful and fun weapons in this type of game, no ship currently has one, and these were intended to be mines to begin with. Also, there is only one true “pure guns” warship so far (Tywom, Drenkend's “gun” is a “heavy weapon”), and many players consider these to be the most fun ship designs to use. Especially in multiplayer. The speed has been too fast for mines to be useful, but once a good speed balance is found they will become very useful and, tactically, very powerful. Mines discourage pursuit and are a powerful offensive weapon as well. If you are good at tracking the relative motion of the two ships, you can place mines at a surprising distance where the enemy still almost can't avoid running into them. I was a dominant Subspace player in the Death Star Battle and Powerball zones, but I was not one of the top 5 players in any zone... except with mines. I was one of the absolute grand masters of placing a mine where you couldn't help but run into it. A mine is a very powerful weapon within this genre, and no ship currently has one.
These changes transform this ship into a “pure combat” ship that rivals Tywom in that category. This would also, like Tywom, be an excellent choice as your first ship “coming in blind” not knowing which ship you will be facing. Tywom is faster than Menkmack, but this version of Menkmack has more powerful weapons than Tywom does. This would be an all-around great warship in a 1-on-1 duel and very, very fun to use.
Class – 1 (CA – Heavy Cruiser)
Point Cost – 28
Hit Points/Crew – 28
Speed – 5
Acceleration – 6
Turn Rate – 6
Range – 6
Tywom – Jack of all trades and master of none. If you know SFB you might think of this as the equivalent of the Klingon D5 War Cruiser which many players consider to be, “pound-for-pound”, the best all-around pure warship in that game. The Deion Sanders of SCO, equally capable on offense and defense. Excellent at defending a position/objective. Once a good speed balance is found this will be one of the best choices as your first ship in Fleet Battles, because as a “pure warship” it will be the most versatile ship of this stock lineup which doesn't really have a “Nemesis Ship” that easily beats it.
Primary Weapon: Currently very hard to use due to ship speeds. Tywom's own high speed is actually making the gun far less useful than it actually is. You are currently moving too fast to aim it well, have to lead targets too much, and the projectiles are spread far apart instead of being grouped together because Tywom's own high speed leaves the shot separated from each other as if they were laid down one after the other rather than being a “machine gun stream” of shots. With the right speed range among the ships, this becomes a very good and fun weapon to use. I would think that it would have a slightly longer range, but only slightly. This weapon would become too powerful if it had too long of a range.
Secondary Ability: These are great. Very versatile. You can “build a fort” to stay with, defend fixed locations, or just use one or two at a time as needed as you duel. The “pure gun”, these very useful “Captor Mines”, and this ship's speed and maneuverability make this the most all-around versatile ship of the current group. This ship will never have a “Nemesis Ship” (“Rock, Paper, Scissors”) because there is no “nemesis” of speed, maneuverability, and a pure gun. This is raw, “fundamental”, combat power. All of this makes Tywom an excellent choice as the first ship to use when “coming in blind” to any scenario, including Super Melee/Fleet Battles.
Class – .85 (CW – War Cruiser) *Hybrid class, a “compact and streamlined CA”. As you can see with this ship, this unique class can actually have a higher point cost than a true CA even though it is a slightly smaller ship.
Point Cost – 30
Hit Points/Crew –24
Speed – 7
Acceleration – 7
Turn Rate – 7
Range – 5
Trandals – Perfect design in the Star Control tradition as it is, still needs tuning like all ships. This is, after all, the stage you are currently in with Fleet Battles.
Primary Weapon: No issues.
Secondary Ability: No issues on Trandals. This is far too powerful to be available within the editor as it is designed for this ship. A much less powerful and limited use “consumable rocket booster” might exist in the editor. Maybe call this ability “Hyper Booster” and then have a lesser “Rocket Booster” available in the editor.
Class – .75 (CL – Old Light Cruiser) *Unique class. “Old” does not really refer to tech, it is meant more in a tactical sense. It really means a CL sized ship that has CA speed and maneuverability. This has been placed into this unique class as a part of compensating for the powerful Speed Boost ability. Stardock has already given it this design, I have only classified their design within this system.
Point Cost – 20
Hit Points/Crew – 20
Speed – 6
Acceleration – 5
Turn Rate – 5
Range – 4
Mowling – This is clearly a very important ship within the story. I don't like it much now because it is not very effective right now. But the slower the action becomes, the more effective this weapon becomes. I think I have a good idea for how Jeff might work. This is a good basic “pure combat design”, like Tywom, and is going to wind up being a fun ship that is fairly powerful for its size if you are good with it.
Primary Weapon: This is actually a very good weapon. It is a “strafing weapon” and once a good speed balance is established this will become a very effective weapon. I will like this ship a lot once the speed relationship allows for effective strafing. Right now, ships pass each other so quickly that you don't have time to connect with this weapon for more than an instant. You currently can't really “strafe”, and keep this weapon on the target for a significant time as you pass by, but this weapon will become much better once a good speed balance is found.
Secondary Ability: Jeff should be very, very slow. Almost immobile, like a small base. It denies an area of the map. In addition too this, Jeff reduces all enemy weapon, AoE effects, and secondary ranges by 50% while he is present, making it much more safe for Mowling to go in close to attack with its strafing beam. Enemy can still shoot back while Mowling is within range, but Jeff reducing their range gives Mowling a free run into and back out of short range. Jeff would be almost stationary, like a “barely floating base”, when using its sublight drive (i.e. combat drive). As a Von Neumann Probe he would also have an FTL drive, but he can't use that in combat. Jeff might instead have abilities specific to each of the stock ships of the adventure game, instead of the blanket range thing, if you wanted to take this that far.
Class – .67 (HDW – Heavy War Destroyer.) *Hybrid Class. Notice that this “biggest of all DD” is actually within the low-end point range for a Light Cruiser. Hybrid classes are not base classes, they are used to classify ships that “fall between the classes” as this one does. With a slightly different design this would become a “Fast Light Cruiser” within this same hybrid class, rather than a “Heavy War Destroyer”. The difference between these two hybrid classes is very subtle and can't actually be represented in a simple arcade game.
Point Cost – 18
Hit Points/Crew – 18
Speed – 7
Acceleration – 8
Turn Rate – 7
Range – 3
Generic Base Hull – SCO is currently missing a primary class that would belong in this location on this list.
Class – .5 (DD – Destroyer)
Point Cost – 15
Hit Points/Crew – 15
Speed – 8
Acceleration – 8
Turn Rate – 8
Range – 3
Measured – The Airilou of SCO. I can't control this ship effectively with the keyboard, and suspect that most other people can't either. I don't know this ship very well because I can't use it well with the keyboard. This should be the fastest and most agile ship (automatically is the most agile due to its flight model). It darts in and out with its “auto-aiming” weapon, and is destroyed by 2 or 3 hits from almost any source of damage. This design is good at killing larger and slower ships, but not so powerful against smaller ships that can somewhat match its maneuvering and prevent it from darting in and out on them. Right now there are no ships that move slowly enough for this ship to “do its thing” against. Within this class structure balance, this ship would be able to “do its thing” against all ships of speed 5 (or maybe 4) and slower. The basic design of this ship is workable to eventually turn this into an “Airlou-like” ship. It may, however, only be truly usable with a gamepad. It is possible that nobody can become truly good with this ship using the keyboard... but I could be wrong about that.
Primary Weapon: The SFU community has a phrase for “slow missiles” like this ship has, “they never hit anything on purpose”. If an Airilou-like balance is achieved, the “missiles” are probably fine as they are... to waste that module slot because this ship will be powerful enough as it is.
Secondary Ability: This ship needs an auto-aiming or expanding sphere weapon because, like Airilou, cannot effectively aim a dumbfire weapon due too its flight model. The “De-Motivator” already is this ESG weapon (expanding sphere). Just keep thinking “Airilou” and it will all work out well in the end.
Class – .25 (FF – Frigate)
Point Cost – 12 *Nimble ship surcharge. A small target/high speed surcharge has been added too this cost.
Hit Points/Crew - 6
Speed - 9
Acceleration – N/A
Turn Rate – N/A
Range - 2
Scryve Scout – The Sofixti of SCO, very fast and agile. This ship is important because it, along with the Scryve, sets the extreme ranges of ship design in SCO from which to balance the “base hulls” to arrive at the widest range of balance for the ship editor to work within. This ship, and the Scryve, set the range of balance of the combat environement for the entire universe. They also set the minimum and maximum ship size classes that all others fall between, this ship should be as small as you are comfortable with making it just as the Scryve should be as large as you are comfortable with making it.
Primary Weapon: This gun should be the “pew-pew” gun of SCO. Slower rate of fire, short range (just barely farther than the suicide bomb detonation radius), causing only 1 point of damage per shot. Intentionally almost useless. The ship should have what amounts to “1 hit point”. If it takes any damage at all from any source it is dead. It lives by not being hit, and has the speed and maneuverability to make surviving long enough to make an attempt at detonating a very real possibility.
Secondary Ability: The “suicide bomb” one-shots most CA class and all smaller ships. It does half of the damage needed to destroy Scryve. Like the Sofixti, there is a slight delay before the bomb goes off which makes it harder to catch the enemy in the blast. It has to be timed right or you blow up too early, or too late after you have passed out of range. Current radius is probably just a little bit, slightly, too big. This is a gamble you can take in your lineup. It is probably a waste of points, but if you can succeed in detonating on one of the larger ships that is a big deal within the point system/ship lineup balance. The suicide bomb does 30 damage, nearly 4 times the point value of the ship. This kills the base hull Heavy Cruiser and half-kills the base hull Battleship. But, of course, most of the time you die before getting anywhere near the enemy ship. The Scryve's flak guns should be balanced entirely around how likely they are to kill this ship... and that will just naturally work well across the board for all other ships, missiles, fighters, mines, etc.
Class – .1 (PF/MPC – Fast Patrol Ship/Military Patrol Craft)
Point Cost – 8 *Nimble ship surcharge. A small target/high speed surcharge has been added too this cost.
Hit Points/Crew - 2
Speed - 10
Acceleration - 10
Turn Rate - 10
Range - 1
Speed Definitions
1-3: Capital Ships. BB, CVA, DN, BCH, slow BC (3).
4-6: Heavy Cruisers. CV, fast BC (4-5), CA, slow CW (6), slow CL (5-6).
7-9: Destroyers. Fast CL/CW (7), DD, PF/MPC (8-9)
10: Fighters & Shuttles. Fast PF/MPC, “military” Fighters & Shuttles.
*Small craft commonly have a wide range of speeds, anywhere from 1-10, depending on type. Speed 10 on small craft is generally only seen on “ top of the line military craft”. Even military shuttles, boarding pods, etc, might be much slower than this. There is also a “slow fighter” concept that can be used. In SFB, for example, fighters are generally slower units than ships unless they are running on “Warp Booster Packs” which make them far more susceptible to damage.
*Speed 10 automatically invokes a “Nimble Ship” penalty to the point cost of a ship. Speed 9 with high maneuverability also invokes the “Nimble Ship” point cost penalty.
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