Subset Games Forum

This question is specifically targeted toward the devs. It's probably not the technical support you guys usually do, but you've got to admit this is technical and I need support! Basically, I want to know the budgeting system you guys used for the default ships. I assume the gear is based off scrap cost but then there are other factors like how efficient the layout is and the size of certain rooms, which can't really be conveyed through scrap cost.

That budgeting system would be very useful for designing my own ships.

I worked up a spreadsheet (Open Office) to fill in to make sure my ships aren't too expensive. It's not perfect (or pretty!) but it gets the job done. It doesn't account for initial power and ammo, but it does account for crew, weapons, and each room's starting values.

Most ships start with about 700-800 scrap cost, which means they're probably creeping up over 1000 when you account for power and ammo. I try to keep my own ships at about that cost, and I try to lessen that cost if they start with something good (4-man teleporter for example) or a particularly good combo of stuff, but generally when I playtest a ship that is in the 700-800 range, it is a decent challenge that is not too easy or too hard.

I could upload the spreadsheet somewhere if you'd like to see it, or even convert it to a google doc. It's very ugly and not user friendly. I got it functional and then stopped working on it

We weren't that formal in our ship design. You can't really make up for not having shields by giving the ship 100 extra scrap of other weapons. We originally wanted a system where you could custom build your ship based on some other form of currency ('build points'), but actually found that it just didn't work and couldn't be balanced well.

I think as the poster above pointed out, you'd find that many might fall into a similar range, but it wasn't intentional. Stick to your gut and test a lot

I worked my ass off on this idea, for my buy system and randomizer utility.
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But the starting weapons' power isn't on par with their scrap cost. Still you can see intuitively that starter ships all have "this much" power, and as they vary, so they alternate different shortcomings with different strenghts.