Starships: Average and Moderate

[Raziel]

So far I believe the new starship template has been generally well received. It went through quite a bit of testing behind the scenes and we've been finding it much easier to judge. It's always been headed in this direction to make it more approachable whilst still letting people flesh out their ship submissions just as much as is necessary for Roleplay.

However there has been one topic of confusion: Average and Moderate

When we looked at the existing ships we felt we needed several ratings above "Average" for weapons in particular. The scale is as follows:

(Choose from: None, Very Low, Low, Average, Moderate, High, Very High, Extreme.)

A lot of people are expecting Moderate to be less than Average, but it is above. (Extreme is mostly there for highly specialised vessels and flagships. Think of how rare 19-20 ratings were in the old system)

So at the risk of making more work for myself:

• Is this an issue or just people getting used to the template?
• If an issue do you have a better word for between Average and High?

 

[Aya Clarke]

[member="Raziel"]

I've never actually subbed a ship, but I actually do think it could simply be that "Moderate" and "Average" can be used in normal language fairly interchangeably. It might simply be the template, since it's so new, but if it is actually a problem simply changing moderate to "above average" could clear up any confusion, or 'moderately high', or something along those lines.

More than likely it's just getting used to the template, since the levels are given in a list format, but a small edit along those aforementioned lines wouldn't be a bad idea either.

 

[Kami Meran]

so is Extreme basically a gun with a seat?

 

[Soeht]

Is this an issue or just people getting used to the template?

The problem is inherent with the choice of words.

Moderate and Average are synonyms. Moderate also has the implicit meaning of being something that's reduced or limited. If I had to assume the order, "Moderate" would be below "Average" for me - and even then, it's more of a guess than something intuitively clear.

If an issue do you have a better word for between Average and High?

My suggestion would be to remove the category. Yall are using a 0-8 scale. The chosen words to describe a 4 and 5 ended up being a synonym, leading me to believe there isn't a significant difference between the two. Also, it then puts Average square in the middle at 4/7.

In fact, I'd even suggest a 0-5 scale, with 3 being Average. Each step is then significantly different from each other.

 

[Isamu Baelor]

Could always just call it "Above Average"

 

[Sanya Val Lerium]

I don't understand what was complicated speed wise from a 0-20 scale to me that was simple. This kinda feels like we are getting over simple to the point where I wanna cringe then start sticking my little pony friendship is magic stickers on it.

My 2¢ it was already simple and it allowed more diversity in subs. Sure not everyone is about numbers, but I kinda prefer the scales.

Longs as I can still include that scale somewhere in the sub with speed and maneuverability I'm good. Armaments like always I stick to the classic way of listing them and then stick the mlpfm sticker above it.

 

[Hadleigh Purkis]

Is this an issue or just people getting used to the template? If an issue do you have a better word for between Average and High?

For me it was mostly the first, I felt like average and moderate were pretty much similar as far as middle grounds go. Like moderate being a 'slight' improvement. I do think a better word could be used, but I don't really have one on hand.

Could always just call it "Above Average"

Although this works.

 

[Jsc]

It's the same problem the numbers system had. They don't mean anything without concrete examples of modern/competitive ships sitting right in front of you to compare and contrast with. Thank goodness that the templates still include those example ships nearer the bottom. I know I would be lost without them.

 

[Travis Caalgen]

Just make it above average and call it a day, it would be ridiculous and wasteful to shut down the factory again to change it back to numbers or to shrink the scale.

[member="Raziel"]

 

[Raziel]

Above average is winning the day so far.

We're not going back to the old system.

 

[Fatty]

[member="Raziel"] is there a necessary reason as to why there is a distinction between those two levels at all? Not that labeling moderate as "Above Average" is particularly difficult, but wouldn't it just be easier to remove either average or moderate entirely?

Honestly, I feel like Average shouldn't even be an option, as mathematically speaking an average may not be in the middle as you have it here, if we have a large influx of particularly high numbers, in other words a realistic average would move up and down between 'None' and 'Extreme' depending on which end is most popular, and I don't see any real benefit to having it have 8 categories as opposed to 7. Besides, this would place moderate squarely in the middle.

What we have here is basically giving people two "medium" options, when really, only one is necessary.