Dropship Defense I**

Advanced Pulse Lasers

Sustainable Superjump

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1O2ebFlrmejUNdL_LQttVBp8NCcrMi6bZOAR2aM1ITh0/edit?usp=sharing

Assuming for purposes of balance the 20/1 capital/standard conversion I've been advocating for. Not that it really makes a difference. Exception being fighters attacking Warships, those are still 100 -> 1.

I originally planned for Capital weapons to get a guaranteed extra critical on smaller targets, but in case the GMs don't want such fine-grained calculations, it could just drop the offensive power of dropships by 5% per hit.

Fighters could just be "2 capital hits mean a kill", in those cases where the damage doesn't do that anyways.

Each technology costs 10% of your turn budget, plus 10B. This is then discounted by 10% (maximum of 50% discount) for each other power that has had the technology for at least 2 turns.

Barriers: Blank Spots cost 5% of your turn budget, plus 5B. This is discounted by 20% for each player that has crossed this line already, to a minimum of no cost. - They can only be researched if you have at least 1 of the technologies directly above it.

A player may research up to one technology per category per turn. You may research any of the first three technologies that you do not already have in a category.

You can research a blank spot in addition to a technology behind it, but will not receive a discount on the blank spot in this case. Alternative: You can research techs normally, but every unresearched blank spot above the tech costs 20% extra, added after discounts.

If a player researches only 1 technology in a turn, they get an additional 5B discount.

Another alternative to increase speed a little: Every blank increases the cost of tech below by 10% (negative discount). Researching it increases the tech the player can choose from by 1. We replace "Advanced Labs" with something else.

*Microconstruction: Each level is a 10% reduction in the cost of constructing a yard construction and yard moving. Every 2 levels of Microconstruction allow an additional size growth per turn. (Thus with Microconstruction

4, you could build a size 3 yard where there was nothing before, and the cost would be 60x.6 or 36 B. Moving that yard would cost not the usual 30B, but 18B

Clan Electronics/Structures/Engines: Unlocks 'ClanSpec' behavior for existing shared IS/Clan Components. Clan Electronics is things like smaller sensors, T-Comps, etc. Clan Engines

gives clan efficencies in terms of Engine sizes and performance (things like more efficient DS/Small Craft Engines, etc.). Clan Structures give Clan Performance Specs on Internal Structure,

Warship Armor, Heat Sinks, and other armors.

**Combat Dropships: The Advent of Sub-Capital Weapons hearalds the birth of the Pocket Warship. At our scale, a generic combat dropship (as opposed to a carrier, troop transport, or cargo ship)

is worth (at start) roughly its tonnage in warships, though they have lower tonnage limits than other dropships.

Each Defense Technology increases that value by ~20%. Each Sub-Capital Technology researched also grants 20% (as well as allowing subcap weapons on ships), until with all technologies,

a dropship has about the same value in combat as twice its tonnage in warships (representing the lack of a jump core). Thus a force of 5 Huge Combat Dropships with all the techs researched will be about

as effective/valuable in a fight as a 1MT warship, if a bit shorter ranged.

Small Combat Dropships, while obviously light, may be very hard to hit my Warships without Missiles or Sub-Capital weaponry.

*** Starting fuel consumption on warships and fighters 150% of base rules (aka, physically possible). Fighters are assumed to compensate with drop tanks.(thus needing Efficiency 1 to be able to mount missiles)

Sustainment: Each level of Sustainment lowers the maintenace cost of warships by 5% per level, -5% by Warship Size-Class over 1. Thus, with Sustainment III, a Class I ship has its maintenace

reduced by 15%, a Class 2 by 10%, and a Class 3 by 5%

Black Box: This technology allows transmission of radio-quality signals FTL to any properly tuned Black Box recieve. Black box units are relatively small and cheap, and will essentially give every naval asset of dropship

size or larger a 'radio' of a given speed (In LY/Day) and range (in LY) capacity. Early models are very low bandwidth, climbing throughout, but the differences in bandwidth wont impact naval utility meaningfully.

Some technologies have prerequisites, which should be obvious, but frequently, are also noted.

Unit Types: WarShip, Space Station, JumpShip, DropShip(small only), Small Craft, Aerospace Fighter, Atmospheric Fighter, Combat Vehicle

Standard-Scale weapons: AC/5, AC/2, Machine Gun, Standard Lasers, LRMs