NEW RULES FOR BUILDING GAME-BALANCED SPACECRAFT!!!

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CIVILIAN SPACECRAFT
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Civilian Spacecraft may weigh up to 500 tons (that's "tonnes" for you Metric folks).  "Spend" tons in the following ways:

1 ton = 100 hitpoints, 4 cargo or 10 Power / Sec.
5 ton = one gun slot
4 ton = one turret slot (this is because turrets are generally less powerful at the high end)
100 tons = Second Thruster (ships get first one for free)
150 tons = one shield slot (ships get first one for free)
MineDroppers, the Guided Weapon slot, and CounterMeasures are all "free", but ships may not have more than one!

Total power (capacity) = Power / Sec. X 20

The tons then are used to determine the ship's overall handling characteristics, per the following rules:

Torque references go up or down, depending on the following factors:

steering_torque = 2000000 - [2000 X (Mass)]

So here are the baseline stats for every ship, before doing Mass calculations:

steering_torque = 2000000, 2000000, 2000000
angular_drag = 1000000, 1000000, 1000000
rotation_inertia = 100000, 100000, 100000

Therefore, a fighter with a mass of 250 has stats like this (or a multiple, for things that can turn quickly but where we want them to have "stiff" collision behavior):

steering_torque = 2000000 - [2000 X (250)] = 1500000

torque = 1500000
drag = 1000000
inertia = 100000

Here's an example:

Starflier:

1000 hitpoints = 10 tons (round up)
20 cargo = 5 tons
3 gun slots = 15 tons
Power, 100 \ Sec. = 10 tons, 2000 capacity

Total Tons = 40

Therefore, the Starflier's stats look like this:

(ship)
mass = 40
hitpoints = 1000
steering_torque = 1920000, 1920000, 1920000
angular_drag = 1000000, 1000000, 1000000
rotation_inertia = 100000, 100000, 100000

(power)
charge_rate = 100
capacity = 2000

*******************MONEY********************

So, how much do things cost?

Civilian Spacecraft:

If Mass is greater than 0 and less than 101, then the cost of the ship is 250 * Mass.
If the Mass is greater than 100 and less than 251, then the cost of the ship is 500 * Mass.
If the Mass is greater than 250, then the cost of the ship is 2000 * Mass. Therefore, a 500 Mass Civilian Spacecraft costs... 1 million Credits. Funny how that works



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MILITARY/PIRATE FIGHTERS
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Military/Pirate Fighters follow different rules, to reflect their different role in the Freelancer game world.  Very simply, they are penalized very heavily for taking up tons with Cargo, but are given cheaper Hitpoints and Power.  This puts Pirate ship designers in a bit of a bind- whether to make your Pirate ships Civilian, with all of the weaknesses thereof, but with cheaper Cargo, or whether to end up with heavy, non-manueverable beasts with lots of everything .... is up to you!

Just like Civilian ships, the top limit on Mass is 500.  This is to keep things from getting... ah... *ridiculous* on the high end, trust me!

1 ton = 250 hitpoints, 1 cargo or 25 Power / Sec.
4 ton = one gun slot
4 ton = one turret slot (this is because turrets are generally less powerful at the high end)
100 tons = Second Thruster (ships get first one for free)
150 tons = one shield slot (ships get first one for free)
MineDroppers, the Guided Weapon slot, and CounterMeasures are all "free", but ships may not have more than one!

So, let's look at the Starflier, as a Military Fighter:

1000 hitpoints = 4 tons (round up)
20 cargo = 20 tons
3 gun slots = 12 tons
Power, 100 \ Sec. = 4 tons, 2000 capacity

Total tons = 40

Note how they came out the same way?  This is because the Starflier sits at a crucial spot in the game design (duh).  Let's look at a Pirahna, as a Civilian Spacecraft and a Military / Pirate Fighter:

Civilian Calculation:

2600 hitpoints =  26 tons
35 cargo = 9 tons (round up)
4 gun slots = 20 tons
Power, 200 \ Sec. = 20 tons

75 tons total.

Military / Pirate Calculation:

2750 hitpoints =  11 tons (round up)
35 cargo = 35 tons (round up)
4 gun slots = 16 tons
Power, 200 \ Sec. = 8 tons

70 tons, total.  As you can see, this means that it's better to make this a Military / Pirate ship.

Let's look at a Freighter.  This is the Liberty Freighter (after new balance, of course):

Civilian Calculation:

3200 hitpoints = 32 tons
150 cargo = 38 tons (round up)
3 gun slots = 15 tons
5 turret slots = 20 tons
Power, 350 \ Sec. = 35 tons

140 tons, total.

Military / Pirate Calculation:

3200 hitpoints = 13 tons
150 cargo = 150 tons (round up)
3 gun slots = 12 tons
5 turret slots = 20 tons
Power, 350 \ Sec. = 14 tons

209 tons, total!  Well, it makes very little sense to make this a Military Fighter, unless you want the benefits of Military / Pirate Shields (not a minor benefit, mind you).

Lastly, let's look at a "big daddy"- a Very Heavy Fighter.  Here's the heaviest of the original Freelancer fighters, the Corsair Titan.  This is a heavy-armor design, with just enough cargo space to actually take home treasure after a raid:

24000 hitpoints = 96 tons
70 cargo = 70 tons
6 gun slots = 24 tons
1 turret slot = 4 tons
Power, 950 \ Sec. = 38 tons (round up)

232 tons, total!  This is one big, well-armored, dangerous ship... but it's not terribly manueverable.  Kind've like flying a fusion-powered brick ;-)

*******************MONEY********************

Military/Pirate Fighters:

If Mass is greater than 0 and less than 101, then the cost of the ship is 500 * Mass.
If the Mass is greater than 100 and less than 251, then the cost of the ship is 1000 * Mass.
If the Mass is greater than 250, then the cost of the ship is 4000 * Mass. So a 500 Mass Military/Pirate Fighter costs 2 million Credits.