Component Inflation

from GalCiv2 Forums
One thing that doesn't make sense and is bugging me is the component inflation value (< sizemod > or something to that affect in the data file). What is the justification for making components take up more space on larger ships than smaller ones? Its not like a laser on a fighter takes up insanley more space if you stick it on that battleship. Yes, its easy to mod and get rid of, but why is it there in the first place? It essentially limits firepower of larger vessels unncessarily, perhaps in a balancing act to make fighters and such "useful". Unfortunatley, thats what happens when you use a simple combat formula that doesn't take into account things like fighters vs. Capital Ships.

The only reason I can think of is balance, but under that guise it destroys the point of different chasis. I haven't done the bc per hp/dps capabilty math, but I imagine that fighters and capital ships have nearly the same cost/effectivness ratio. If this is the case, there is never any real reason to tech up in hulls, because a mass of smaller ships will cost the same amount anyways. It seems to me that either the combat system needs an upgrade and this inflation needs dropping, or the inflation should be kept and the rolls or intrisic abilities of the various hulls should change so they actually have a significant difference.
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If you haven't done any analysis on it, I wouldn't be so quick to drop the size inflation.

The thing to keep in mind here is that a 20 attack is a lot better than two attacks of 10 each. Same goes for defences: they have non-linear returns.

From what I've seen, larger ships tend to pack more 'oomph' per logistic point. Consider that two small craft have the same logistic cost as a huge ship. The two small ships together have 52 space and 20 hitpoints. The huge has 80 space and 48 hitpoints. The two smalls can't merge their attacks to overcome defences, and can only use half their own defences at once. They have to buy two engines to match one on the huge ship. When they are half dead they have half firepower.

Another thing I've noticed is that small ships can be REALLY expensive for their performance. In my last game, I tried designing a top-of-the-line small craft to pull guard duty and fill out my fleets of huge craft. A small ship with half the attack, half the defences and a fifth the hitpoints of my dreadnaught design cost about half as much! I'm not building a 16hp ship for 400 bc when I can build a 75hp ship (with double the firepower) for 800 bc.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Its realy about the hit points, I have played both ways, I had a fleet of 27 tiny ships with very high end wepons and defence, and a fleet of 6 High end Capital ships, the capital ships will win every time. At least in my experaince.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
while capital ships are great, you gotta admit though the dozens of tiny hull types flying around dogfighting each other is kinda cool. would be nice if they were also a little more economical.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I don't have a problem with things taking up more space on bigger hulls. What annoys me is the way miniaturization works. When you have +miniaturization, it doesn't make things smaller, it makes hulls "bigger" (have more space). Unfortunately, since the sizes of many components are partially based on current (not base) hull size, they also get bigger. It makes it hard to gauge just how much benefit miniaturization actually gets you.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You'll find that a fleet of smaller logistical ships packed with high end weapons tend to be a more effective attack platform against other fleets than say a fleet of dreadnaughts. They cost less, get an amazing initiative bonus (by shear numbers) on attacks, and build far faster. A 40 beam attack on a dreadnaught still only gets to attack one target at a time.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Component inflation makes sense for all components except weapons, sensors and the special systems.

Bigger ship = greater mass => bigger thrust for same effect = bigger engine
Bigger ship = greater surface area => more defences for same effect = bigger defensive systems
Bigger ship = more crew => more supplies needded for same effect = bigger life support

Perhaps if inflation was restricted toonly the appropriate systems and size was based on basic, not current hull size?