AMCO
I'm Sorry Dave
With the new year fast approaching and with it the Factory re-opening on the 7th, it seems as good a time as any to field a suggestion regarding a few pet peeves of mine regarding the current Starship Template. If you're looking for matters of great importance, this probably isn't it, sorry.
My argument is twofold, one pertaining to Hangars and the other Hyperdrives.
TL;DR: Remove the distinction between Starfighters and Support Craft, it's not necessary and ICly nonsensical, and cut Hyperdrive down to a single field again, because a field whose contents is entirely redundant is not something that should be included in a mandatory template.
P.S. Pet peeves or not, I still love you Factory people, you do one hell of a job handling all those submissions.
My argument is twofold, one pertaining to Hangars and the other Hyperdrives.
- Probably most controversially, remove Hangar Allocation in favour of considering any and all Small Craft used in a combat capacity (or just any and all Small Craft period, though I personally wouldn't count PC shuttles/tugboats/other "fluff" ships) as a Starfighter. Or Combat Craft. Or simply Small Spacecraft. No fuss, no muss - starfighters, bombes, boarding craft, kamikaze drones, and whatever other twisted ideas emerge from our collective brains all fall under the same hangar count.
- Pros: It's simpler and more intuitive - no need to consider what's a Support Craft and what isn't. It makes more sense ICly, as everything we've seen from Canon indicates that hangars just sort of house everything that flies, regardless of designation. Finally, Canon vessels already do this - most count Starfighters while ignoring all the other stuff that doesn't directly affect naval combat.
- Cons: People who care more about "winning" than roleplay might take this as an excuse for some sort of weird shenanigans, but again, I'd circumvent that by just describing anything used in a combat capacity (in space, anyway, groundside rarely bothers with the same overly specific numbers.) as a Starfighter (or whatever). Yes, that includes tug boats altered to turn them into ramships, or anything else really.
- Options: At the very least, consider allowing variable Hangar Allocation. I've made space stations that can serve as everything from planetary garrisons to prisons to research outposts but who must always have the exact same number of Starfighter/Support squadrons. It's pretty silly and I really don't see how some flexibility is abusable.
- Hyperdrives, now largely irrelevant balance-wise (which is another Suggestion Khonsu already made - and better than I ever could, mind you), definitely don't need two entire fields solely for them, one of which is seemingly just supposed to read "Yes." in 90% of cases. If you have a Hyperdrive Class listed, you obviously have a Hyperdrive equipped. This is kind of like if the Species Template had one field for whether a Species breathes and another for what atmosphere it breathes.
TL;DR: Remove the distinction between Starfighters and Support Craft, it's not necessary and ICly nonsensical, and cut Hyperdrive down to a single field again, because a field whose contents is entirely redundant is not something that should be included in a mandatory template.
P.S. Pet peeves or not, I still love you Factory people, you do one hell of a job handling all those submissions.