Ashin Varanin
Professional Enabler
After extensive discussion with Staff and Factory Judges, this paragraph has been added to the Starship Guide under Armaments.
You may choose to avoid weapons math for capital ships. If you choose this option, use phrases such as 'an average loadout for a Support Star Destroyer,' 'an average loadout for a Balanced Frigate, with an emphasis on proton torpedo launchers,' or perhaps 'an average number of guns for an Assault Light Star Destroyer, with only ion cannons for capital guns.' If you choose not to use gun math, please keep these descriptions clear, short, and reasonable. This option is primarily for capital ships with 'vanilla' weapons loadouts -- ships whose special qualities lie elsewhere in the submission. For more complex loadouts, or if you want to know exactly how many of each kind of guns are on your ship, please work from the table below.
We hope that this will make the Starship portion of the Factory feel much more accessible, and allow some people to focus on other aspects of their starships. If this winds up causing reports, we may re-examine it, and it's a safe bet that troubles and miscommunications may lead us to tweak the wording or even create firm numbers for every combination of capital ship Classification and Role. Overall, though, this principle is probably here to stay.
You may choose to avoid weapons math for capital ships. If you choose this option, use phrases such as 'an average loadout for a Support Star Destroyer,' 'an average loadout for a Balanced Frigate, with an emphasis on proton torpedo launchers,' or perhaps 'an average number of guns for an Assault Light Star Destroyer, with only ion cannons for capital guns.' If you choose not to use gun math, please keep these descriptions clear, short, and reasonable. This option is primarily for capital ships with 'vanilla' weapons loadouts -- ships whose special qualities lie elsewhere in the submission. For more complex loadouts, or if you want to know exactly how many of each kind of guns are on your ship, please work from the table below.
We hope that this will make the Starship portion of the Factory feel much more accessible, and allow some people to focus on other aspects of their starships. If this winds up causing reports, we may re-examine it, and it's a safe bet that troubles and miscommunications may lead us to tweak the wording or even create firm numbers for every combination of capital ship Classification and Role. Overall, though, this principle is probably here to stay.