I already broached in the topic of cross-class issues but in a context of speed/maneuverability. It is a lot more troublesome than with armament in my mind (as I said before armament has its own set of issues): cross-class armament issues would be pretty easily solved with a clear weapons loadout as far as I'm concerned.
For PvE having vague equipment is not a big deal but in PvP fleeting clarity is key to avoid drama: GA-vs-FO engagements (Kaeshana, Asmeru, Skor) were pretty drama-free from fleeting sources but all ships used by both sides systematically include weapons counts. Dromund Kaas may be the first real test of the system in a PvP fleeting context for this reason, if only because the RE will field (some?) ships without weapons counts. Personally I feel that it would make OOC dealings more complicated if one side uses ships without clear loadouts and the other clearly lists theirs.
However, as I said, just stating a weapons rating without an actual weapons count would make the story much more difficult to tell in a PvP fleeting context: one can conceivably imagine two similarly-sized ships with the same armament, hangar size, speed, speed/maneuverability, defense ratings. There are stuff characters can only do because they have a specific piece of equipment, or are unable to take action because they lack another specific piece of equipment, and in fleeting, I found equipment to be story-critical, to the point that I seem to treat each individual capital ship as a character onto itself (a named NPC pretty much, with attack craft treated as units, and this is pretty much standard practice for fleeting from what I observed) when I fleet: I just wouldn't write my end of the story the same even if the equipment on just one ship is different.
The closest thing that springs to mind is
Harrower vs.
Tector-X (probably some attack craft examples can also be drawn): they both have the following ratings:
- Armament: High
- Defenses: Moderate
- Hangar: 4 squadrons
- Speed: Low
- Maneuverability: Low
The Harrower doesn't list a single hardpoint, whereas the Tector-X systematically lists every single weapon with at least one hardpoint on it but also how many of each there are on firing arcs. One could easily imagine a Harrower subclass where there are no long-range weapons (e.g. if the assumption of generic equipment holds, but I would never make it under any circumstances unless specified by the player using such ships), another Harrower subclass where the firepower is concentrated in a small number of heavy long-range hardpoints (in which case it will be vulnerable to a squadron of fast frigates or similar), another one where some sacrifices in the area of heavy turbolasers were made for missiles, yet another one where missiles were eschewed for more point-defense... and all of those could average out to a High armament rating. What makes non-average circumstances, well, not-average, heavily depends on the loadout.
[member="Captain Larraq"] My main concern with ships whose weapons loadouts are indefinite that are expected to be used in fleeting is that players using them can use the vagueness associated with not listing weapons to change the weapons configuration mid-battle. Changing a heavy long-range turbolaser for an equivalent heavy turbolaser hardpoint (just an example) takes much longer than 1 or even 2 fleeting rounds, and the hardpoint being changed becomes a weak spot on the ship for the duration of the change.
Changing the loadout between a battle and another is not as much of an issue however. Unless specifically stated in the ship sub that weapons can be rapidly and readily changed in battle, in which case it is a strength (and a pretty significant one), this is the main avenue of abuse of the 4.0 system right here. Might be better balanced for new ship construction, but this is where the balance ends due to the above issue.
[member="Kurayami Bloodborn"] What determines a ship's classification is the greatest dimension of the ship (usually length but I have seen my share of ships whose greatest dimension isn't the length), and this is the whole basis of the canon Anaxes War College system, which is used here with little modification.
