Bigger Means Better
From Chosen Space V2 Wiki
Or does it?
Okay so we have a ship, and it is a Corvette, and we want to turn it into the ULTIMATE SCOUT. Fast in system (light speed) and quick between systems (hyper jump) so what do we do?
Okay we start with our basic 10,000 isoton corvette and we see it has a level 1 everything giving us a light speed of 69 and a hyper jump of 100... Surely we can do better than that, can't we? Well with all the level 1 systems in place on the ship already we have 2500 empty space and 302 power left to work with, and so far the design costs us 404 points, but the good news is that our damage on this little ship is 500.
So here is the chart:
- Super Duper Scout
- Hull Size: 10,000 isotons
- lvl1 reactor
- lvl1 engine
- lvl1 jump drive
- lvl1 nav
- lvl1 scanner
- no targeting
- no shield
- no armor
- no weapons
- points cost: 404
- Lightspeed across a System: 69
- Hyper Jump to the next System: 100
- Total Damage: 500
- Empty Space: 2500
- Extra Energy: 302
Well the good news is that it is cheap... So, now we need to add some things. This is a scout so we need at least a level 3 scanner. Make that small change and let us see what happens:
- Super Duper Scout Version 1.1
- Hull Size: 10,000 isotons
- lvl1 reactor
- lvl1 engine
- lvl1 jump drive
- lvl1 nav
- lvl3 scanner
- no targeting
- no shield
- no armor
- no weapons
- points cost: 764
- Lightspeed across a System: 69
- Hyper Jump to the next System: 100
- Total Damage: 500
- Empty Space: 1900
- Extra Energy: 62
Well the good news is, the speed is still the same, but lets make it faster, so a new engine right? Level 2 engine then:
- Super Duper Scout Version 1.2
- Hull Size: 10,000 isotons
- lvl1 reactor
- lvl2 engine
- lvl1 jump drive
- lvl1 nav
- lvl3 scanner
- no targeting
- no shield
- no armor
- no weapons
- points cost: 1053
- Lightspeed across a System: 67
- Hyper Jump to the next System: 100
- Total Damage: 500
- Empty Space: -100
- Extra Energy: -383
Okay so we added the bigger engine and the ship only is going 2 turns faster? What is up with that? We have other problems too, our space and power are both negative. We need to increase our reactor and ship size, and we are over 1,000 points already. This is not looking good, but we want to make this ship FAST so here it goes
- Super Duper Scout Version 1.3
- Hull Size: 14,100 isotons
- lvl2 reactor
- lvl2 engine
- lvl1 jump drive
- lvl1 nav
- lvl3 scanner
- no targeting
- no shield
- no armor
- no weapons
- points cost: 1578
- Lightspeed across a System: 69
- Hyper Jump to the next System: 100
- Total Damage: 705
- Empty Space: 0
- Extra Energy: 1217
Okay, we had to add 4,100 isotons to the chassis, a new Reactor and... WAIT, our movement is right back to where it started??? We have a design that is already almost 1,200 points more than the original chassis and it isn't any faster. True the damage rating increased with the larger hull, but we wanted this FAST. Okay a bigger engine, after all we have the power to spare now
- Super Duper Scout Version 1.4
- Hull Size: 16,100 isotons
- lvl2 reactor
- lvl3 engine
- lvl1 jump drive
- lvl1 nav
- lvl3 scanner
- no targeting
- no shield
- no armor
- no weapons
- points cost: 2039
- Lightspeed across a System: 67
- Hyper Jump to the next System: 100
- Total Damage: 805
- Empty Space: 0
- Extra Energy: 662
Another 2,000 isotons to the hull and a larger engine saves us 2 turns across system... Okay so what is the deal? Maybe the Jump Drive needs to be upgraded.
- Super Duper Scout Version 1.5
- Hull Size: 17,100 isotons
- lvl2 reactor
- lvl3 engine
- lvl2 jump drive
- lvl1 nav
- lvl3 scanner
- no targeting
- no shield
- no armor
- no weapons
- points cost: 2365
- Lightspeed across a System: 68
- Hyper Jump to the next System: 97
- Total Damage: 855
- Empty Space: 0
- Extra Energy: 110
It saves us 3 turns, but at the same time we lost a turn going across system. This isn't going at all like we thought it would. On top of that this design is costing us almost 2,400 points, and these are some fairly expensive parts we are talking about getting for an unarmed scout. What was that? You heard that the Nav system helps jump speed? Okay, lets try that then.
- Super Duper Scout Version 1.6
- Hull Size: 15,700 isotons
- lvl2 reactor
- lvl2 engine
- lvl2 jump drive
- lvl4 nav
- lvl3 scanner
- no targeting
- no shield
- no armor
- no weapons
- points cost: 2534
- Lightspeed across a System: 66
- Hyper Jump to the next System: 97
- Total Damage: 785
- Empty Space: 0
- Extra Energy: 312
In an attempt to save space we dropped the Engine to a lvl2, added a lvl4 Nav System and came up with a ship that costs a little more than the 1.5 version and saves you 2 extra turns crossing a system. This didn't go at all as planned.
So you can see, larger engines and jump drives require so much power that a larger reactor has to be placed in the ship. All this space means a larger hull which increases the needed Engine size and jump drives to keep the ship moving at a speed equal to their smaller counterparts. In other words in the Chosen Space Universe--at this time at least. Size really doesn't matter when it comes to a scout ship.
Not to worry though, there are a number of shipyards working feverishly trying to come up with a good, cheap configuration that will squeeze a little more out of your valuable turns. I know we are. Happy gaming