I have really been thinking about Sigg's idea for a new combat system, based on weapon power vs. ship sizes. First let me mention some personal quibbles about HG (these are things I'd like to see changed if we went for a new ship design/combat system).
1. High armor factors are too easy for smaller ships to attain, because HG bases armor solely on tons of armor, and not on area covered. A 10-dton fighter with 10% of it's volume devoted to armor is not going to have the same armor thickness as a 100,000 dton ship (of the same hull configuration) that has the same 10% of volume as armor. I think GT, especially GT:IW has the right approach here.
2. Missile usage must be taken into account, especially if we are going to have a tactical movement system. Doing this simply won't be easy, but without it missiles are over-powerful.
3. Fighters must be dealt with in large formations, at least wings of 100 fighters when at a "fleet" scale. Otherwise they will take too d*mn much time. Perhaps at the "fleet" scale fighters could be treated as "reuseable missiles" that get "launched" at a target, conduct an attack, and then (the survivors) recover aboard their carriers?
4. Meson spinal mounts are too powerful and make large warships cost-ineffective. I still think the best fix for this is to steal the "meson armor" rule from TNE/FF&S and have meson screens act as armor equal to their rating against meson fire. This will keep meson guns as the "ship killers," they just won't be instant ship killers.
5. Remember damage control! In a world where spinal meson guns are not "One-Shot-Zot" weapons, the larger crews of big ships gives them remarkable endurance in combat. This should be shown by a higher Defense rating than might seem indicated from just their raw size.
I would think that in a system like Sigg suggests, ships would be rated into classes by size and defenses.
Light ships - ships that can be killed or crippled by a weapon of factor-4 or less (basically a single triple TL-13 beam laser turret).
Protected ships - ships that can be killed or crippled by a factor-9 nuclear missile bay.
Armored ships - ships that can be killed or crippled by a large spinal particle accelerator.
Shielded ships - ships that can be killed or crippled only by a large spinal meson gun.
For ships of less than 1000 dtons, divide their HG armor by 5 (rounding down) then add that to the HG hull size code. If the result is 3 or less, the ship is a "Light" ship. Otherwise the ship is a "Protected" ship.
A ship is a "Shielded" ship if it has a meson screen rating of 4 or better and its HG hull size code plus its meson screen rating is equal or larger than the size code of the largest spinal meson gun available at that TL. The ship must also qualify as an "Armored" ship.
A ship is an "Armored" ship if its HG hull size plus half its HG armor rating (rounded down) is equal or greater to the largest spinal particle accelerator available at the ship's TL, and the ship must not qualify as a "Shielded" ship.
Any ship not qualifying as a "Light," "Armored," or "Shielded" ship is a "Protected" ship.
Weapons are classified as "Turret," "Bay," "Spinal PA," or "Spinal Meson Gun". "Turrets" are all turret weapons and all non-missile bay weapons. "Bay" weapons are missile bays. "Spinal PA" and "Spinal Meson Gun" weapons are just that. Missile bays are assumed to always fire nuclear missiles, missile turrets are assumed to always fire conventional HE missiles.
"Turret" weapons have the shortest ranges and will often hurt/kill a "Light" target, they have a good chance to lightly damage a "Protected" target, and are almost completely useless against "Armored" or "Shielded" targets without special tactics (like a "Visual Range Attack" rule).
"Bay" weapons have the longest range and immolate "Light" targets (they can get several "Light" targets with one shot), usually hurt/kill a "Protected" target, and can do some damage to an "Armored" or "Shielded" target if enough "Bay" weapons are concentrated on one such target at one time.
"Spinal PAs" are the next longest range weapon but have trouble hitting "Light" targets however they kill large numbers of them if they do hit, they vaporize "Protected" targets, and do light damage to "Armored" or "Shielded" targets.
With the second-shortest range, "Spinal Meson Gun" weapons have even more trouble hitting "Light" targets (but can still kill many with a lucky shot), disintegrate most "Protected" targets, kill/cripple "Armored" targets, and are the only weapons (without special tactics) that can seriously damage "Shielded" targets.
How does that sound?
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