And if you really worry about ship specs...why not make another forum mask that doesn't allow acess to the stats?
I had that done in VII already.
Well, the thing is... the fleet sizes are normal for SW. The Imperial Fifth, for example, is pretty standard, really, for a canon Imperial Superiority Fleet as far as size goes. It's not so much the SIZE of the fleets that's the issue, we only do five at a time. It's just the system itself is very disorganized, repetitive, and it's a pain to do them (or at least seems to be).
So, Ams, use people you can trust. I'm sure you can name a couple of people out of a hundred that you trust to not cheat off the info.
Pretty much the same thing as a CMAC, but you can prevent them from knowing anything more than they need to.
Really, while you three may be the owners of the game, it doesn't mean you arn't tempted the same way. You just know how to fight the temptation. And if you can do it, so can others. Like Ravik said, find people you would trust to keep the information secret as much as you trust yourselves.
Like Ravik said, find people you would trust to keep the information secret as much as you trust yourselves.
Heh i'm guessing that's why there are still only three.
Well, you could have all the "minor" battles being solved between players (ie. you post an order of battle, and if you have say an Imperial fleet of 1 ESD and 20 Akulas facing down a defense fleet composed of an ISD and several smaller craft -> the obvious victor would be the imps). Now, battles where the outcome is extremely obvious, and no amount of "tactics" would work unless you start taking into account one out of a million possibilies (like Luke blowing up the Death Star), can be just simply RP.
One possible suggestion would be to have the players mod. everything. Basically, this would be simple to do if you assigned "damage values" to a single blast of a turbolaser (I assume extrajoules is what is being used currently?) and than have the players themselves substract it from the amount of SBD/RU of a ship. (The defending player will post the casualties, and only if the attack has a problem, will a CMAC be called in) Now, the main problem with this is basically how it would be less of RP, and more of a "damage calculation" and "mini-tactics". However, taking into account the various current battles, they are actually in fact also more of "I fire this via PM" than "I write a long complex page of tactics" (especially since you can only use 5 ships per turn). And besides, let's be serious... there really isn't much you can do in the way of tactics that can help you win STUPENDOUSLY (example: a small fleet of ISDs owning a larger fleet of ESDs). However, in your "attack" and "defense-attack" posts, you could include tactics, and if they do work, you can expect your opponent to recogonize that, and take it into account. However, if your opponent doesn't take into account your "superior" tactics, than you can again bring up the issue with a CMAC.
This will not only ease the burden from the CMACs, but it will also, most of the time, give the players less cause to complain. The one major problem with this is that most of the ship stats will have to be posted. But seriously, unless you have a super-secret-kickass weapon system you want secret, what really is the harm of letting out just a few general informations on your ships?
Suggestion 2 - Wing It!
Alright, as horrible as this sounds, perhaps the CMACs could just post the OOBs, and than... wing it! Of course, you'll have to read the actual orders, know the various stats of the ships, but why not just dispense with all those "systems" and instead just go with common sense? Perhaps... in the interest of fairness, one CMAC and atleast on other mod/CMAC will review a battle order and the various forces, and each will individually compile a set piece of results, and than compare. If they are similar enough, than one of them can write out a "battle report", and post it along with the results. What does this save? All those pointless "relistings" of units and the extensive use of calculating systems.
1. Get all the OOBs, and the stats of all the ships.
We can cross a galaxy in days, and build ships that block out the sun. Accuracy doesn't ****ing cause a problem. But nonetheless.
Generate a random number between 25-0. This is the % inaccuracy. Improved targetting systems could half this value, whatever.
For this, 13 is rolled for Arsekicker, 20 for Balance Destroyer, 5 for Not Very Good and 15 for Balance Destroyer.
Akula Arsekicker fires! 870 of its shots hit the Not Very Good. The damage of a heavy turbolaser bolt is 30-50 SBD, let's say. So.
Randomise a number from 30-50. Lets say for the Arsekicker, it's 36.
Oh noes! Not Very Good took damage, but not before firing back.
The damage for Not Very Good randomises to 48. Gosh!
Inaccuracy is 5%. 950 shots hit the Arsekicker at 48 SBD per shot. 45600 damage.
That exchange took me two minutes to calculate. It's a crude system, I know, but I'm sure your superior CMAC brains could refine it, if you choose to use it.
What about the very very very old system you used at first with VII? Couldnt you do that with a random number generator instead of dice?
The problem with the old dice system is its complexity (the other two don't understand it. ) amd it doesn't always seem balanced. There are many small "problems" too (the initiative system would result in about 100 ships being done per "turn" , stationary targets can be missed (not THAT unrealistic, but...)).