Design Objective

Design a race that can be played with a smaller demand on the player for micro-management.  To that end turn maintenance that at times falls in the realm of micro-management will be eliminated if possible:

• all base stuff - base structures, climate, maintenance, defense structures (conclusion: no bases)

• natives/contraband - ghip engines, amphibian weapons, contra markets (conclusion: need something in economics to compensate, but eliminate any micromanagement beyond consumption.)

• population management (conclusion: have "organic" growth without much user interference)

• hull plans (conclusion: short ship list with no foreign plan exchange)

• fleet mixing (conclusion: short self sufficient ship list with clear roles)

• fighter wing management (conclusion: all wings the same size...minimal fighters until later in game)

Premise

This race of deep space arachnids the length scale of space ships roams the cosmos feeding upon planets to spawn their next generations.  They have tough exoskeletons and live in dark scary places without need for home comforts.  They have a self sufficiency in space so they only exploit planets for resources without developing an attachment to them.  The game structure is quite stable and this race design is not intended to disrupt the structure of the game.  The population consists of the hulls.  Based on this premise, beings on the length scale of other races are ants to be stomped on and consumed.  There is no malice just a matter of where the Braphat fit on the food chain.  To facilitate this premise in the context of VGAP 4 however a few interpretations of other elements are in order to make this work:

Colonists/Crew/Troop/HG

These constitute the life force, awareness, cognitive ability etc of the race.  Mechanisms need to included to allow for growth of similar order to the other races in the game.  Think of them as the guts, brains and muscle of the beast.  For this reason ground assault (planet transfer) and boarding are interpreted within the current game structure.

The only remarkable race statistic is their PSI Rating. In the vacuum of space more conventional forms of communication have been silenced so they have a refined psionic ability.

Economy

It wouldn't make sense for a race such as this to have the same economy as a planet based one.  Consider the Mega Credits as Mana.  When the mother ship is feeling frisky she is able to reproduce.  Before going to production with this race there is a need to consider how to make this economy work in proportion to growth rate.  Also I need to either give the race a scaled means of utilizing contraband and natives or provide another compensation.

Ship List

The ship list needs to be short and sweet with specific roles; build, carrier, protect, attack and scout

Engines

The Braphat have the ability of manipulating eddies in the fabric of space time to propel themselves.  Amazingly they have genetic variations that provide them with 20 variations on this ability.  The organs that provide this propulsion capability happen to weigh 30 kt and use a variety of minerals.  By an even more amazing coincidence they consume Neutronium at the same levels and travel at the same speeds as humanoid Warp drives.

Weapons

If you haven't gotten the idea yet from the Engine comments above go to irony school.

Economy and Growth

In an attempt to be simple the following is a proposed growth model where Colonists/Crew/Troop/HG are bred on the Braphat Mother and to a lesser extent on the Sister Spinner.  Other ships guest quarters are small enough that the growth rates will be insignificant.

The population growth and advancement due to experience is met by a combination of  organic growth  and through an upgrade using Med units. (Note that the Brathat have no way of producing their own Meds.)  In the event that the crew or guest quarters are filled, the guests are "upgraded"  at a rate of 20% of the excess if Med units are available.  One Med unit is used for each 10 upgraded guest or crew. In the event that Med units are eliminated from the game this growth algorithm should be modified to make use of food units.  

Here is a proposed block of pseudo code to illustrate how it might work.

Growth Model Algorithm Details

At this time there is not a factor for the quantity of food available.  This could be added into the growth rate computations and the food could be consumed as a function of the total guests at the beginning of this maintenance. 

Economy - Taxes

Considering growth is organic and cannot be realistically manipulated the economy should more or less follow. The tax rates were approximated based on a quick swag of Federation income generation capability from taxes, cities and farms. Since the Braphat have an alternative means of using Contraband I did not factor that into this model. The additional income from Troops and Crew is due to the fact that the Braphat will have more of them on their building ships as the game progresses and it would be deflationary to have only colonists generate MC's. Taxes will generate as follows regardless of tax rate:

Taxes are the only stable source of income and are derived directly from the population base. Tax Code Detail

Economy - Contraband

The Braphat do gather contraband in their own way. A Braphat Mother with an active Digester will immediatly process contraband from ships ground up in the hull grinder or mixed in with life forms from a base. As the colonists, crew, troops and HG are destroyed or eaten by the Mother contraband is included in the mix.

Also, the Braphat Mother and Sisters gather contraband from a planatary surface. With over 50,000 guests (sum of colonists, troops and HG) the Braphat will have a 10% chance of gathering 100 to 500 KT of contraband. With over 400,000 guests the odds increase to 50% for a yield of 1,000 to 5,000 KT of contraband.

All contraband gathered will be immediately consumed. If there is insufficient storage for any or all of the output the contraband is still consumed and the material that will not fit on the ship is gone.

There is some concern that contraband could be abused by having an ally purchase contraband. In general the yields are low enough that this would not be particularly cost effective. There are cheaper ways to generate food and supplies. Only one generates metals (handguns), but not at a rate that it would be greatly unbalancing. In the later game when minerals are in short supply and an alliance would be matured to a point that a Mother would be available to muddle around over an ally with enough cash to buy significant amounts of contraband, the contraband is likely to be at a higher price (say over 5 MC/unit). There are in my opinion cheaper ways to generate 200 KT of minerals than the 5000MC worth of contraband.

When consumed the following effects will occur:

Economy - Resource Points

Without ground bases the Braphat would otherwise be at a considerable resource disadvantage. To resolve that the Braphat get more resource points for their space bound population. Roughly, the Sister's are similar to modest size bases and the Mother ships are like large bases from a resource point calculation standpoint. The sister gets a resource point for each 10,000 colonists. The Mother gets a base 50 resource points and an additional resource point for each additional 100,000 colonists. Additionally, each Troop counts as 2 colonists and each HG as 3 colonists. The Braphat also gain resource points for each million colonists just as all other races do.

Resource point calculations for the Braphat are as follows: Resource Point Detail

Special Abilities (and limitations)

MOVEMENT: The Braphat are not capable of using jumpgates, jump-point generators or chunneling.  To accomodate scripted game scenarios, wormholes will operate normally for the Braphat.

BOARDING:  The Braphat can board and can be boarded. The difference is that at the end of the boarding, rather than beaming back, the boarding party is destroyed. It is a Pyrrhic victory if you succeed. For the Braphat it is an injection of poisonous bile into an enemy ship. For humanoids (or others) to be in the belly of the beast is a suicide mission. Although you may be able to do serious damage with that light saber before dissolving in intestinal fluids.

Boarding lasers do the normal amount of hull damage.  However, the effects on crew and guests due to the boarding laser hull breach is eliminated.  The Braphat have been injured in space as part of their natural existance while planet based species are not accustomed to the vaccum of space. 

RAM:  With 8 Powerful legs the Braphat can pound and tear at an enemy hull if close enough, each of the Braphat hulls has a 4X Ram Damage modifier.  Otherwise computations for probability are the same.

INSECTOID NATIVES have a natural aversion to the Braphat.  In fact they will run panicking into the streets and to local Public Space Ports.  If a Braphat ship is within 20 LY of a base, the Insectoids on the base will loose 20 Happiness Points.  If the planet is under a Braphat blockade, colonists will be killed at a rate of 1 per each 1,000 panicked Insectoids.  Also, the Insectoid Happiness will reduce by 50 points per turn.

The Braphat are immune to the X Field device. 

Although invulnerable to other Braphat minefields the Crystal and other non-Braphat web mines are foreign and the Braphat can become ensnared in them.

The Braphat are generally immune to devices acting on crew and guests. Devices such as Crew Abducter, Incarceration Beam or Siren HAARP are of no use against Braphat. Privateer or other race effects and devices that would impact the crew happiness also have no effect on the Braphat.

The Braphat are immune to the Privateer devices that take MC's. The Braphat "money" is not a currency so the Privateers and other races would not have an interest. The cargo and fuel grappling devices do still partially work however if the Privateer wants to brave the web mines to come hunting for some fuel.  The effectiveness of fuel and cargo grappler is 20% of normal amount.

Hardly a special ability, but their spying methods are different. Rather than hanging out in bars and working over drunk pirates, bribing enemy officials and wearing disguises the Braphat work with the less arachnids and other life forms to communicate. Have you ever heard the expression "a fly one the wall"? The Braphat have full spying capability.

Planetary Assault

The Braphat can beam guests to planet (but it would be stupid and suicidal). Any colonists, crew, troops or highguard on a base during the post movement base maintenance are destroyed. Therefore, there should be no circumstances where the Braphat could have a groundbase.

The Braphat can attack enemy bases with fighters or by bombardment from orbit. Also, the Mother ship can do a great deal of damager by causing earthquakes.

Starting Ship Loadouts

Ships and Their Devices

The devices where possible and appropriate are drawn from those already in the game.  There is no need to add a great deal of complexity just for the sake of what things are called (this is a game remember). All ship construction is through Quick Build interface. All Braphat ships can be built on the Braphat Mother. The Sister has a small construction bay for building the Whisp.  

In general the objective in this material flow is to make use of material efficiently without having to do a great deal of management of devices. As a general objective the player would set their fleet settings and turn all devices on.  The devices were placed on the ships so that they did not require the user to turn devices on and off to get the desired outcome.  Also, it can be confusing if two devices use the same resource.  For example if Alchemy and Mobile Ord capabilities are on the same ship how will the supplies be consumed if both devices are on? The Braphat get away from that confusion. As you see there is a general progression on the chart from material gathering to consumption in construction. There are only 4 intra-fleet transfers in the chart. Most needs can be met with appropriate fleet settings and then leaving your hands off.

BRAPHAT MOTHER DEVICES

Hull Grinder: For the device to be active a ship needs to be the kill target and be successfully towed by the mother. If the tow is active before a combat event, the ship is captured immediately and will not participate in combat.  The hull and its contents are ground up and processed into minerals and cargo. The hull, armor, engines and weapons are ground into minerals. The contents of cargo holds pods are absorbed. Components in wreckage or outfit pods are also consumed including the special case where the tow/kill target is a pod rather than a ship.  If there are life forms on the pod or ship they are processed by the Digester if the Digester device is active. 

Digester: The contents of any foreign race life pods or native pods within 10 ly are digested and the material is deposited into the cargo hold.

If the Braphat Mother is part of a sustained blockade and the Digester is active, she digests 20% up to a maximum of 200,000 life forms from the blockaded base. The 200,000 life forms start with natives, then colonists, crew, troops and HG rangers.

When natives are more scattered across a planet (not in bases) they are consumed at a slower rate of 100,000 natives per turn.

Each 100,000 native or enemy lifeforms are converted to 500 KT food, 300 KT supply, 200 KT med units and 1000 MC. If there is contraband in the base or on the planet surface 1000 units randomly selected from the contraband types present are consumed for each 100,000 life forms processed.

Chupinoids cause indigestion and are destroyed rather than digested. They cause 100 repair units of system damage for each 100,000 chupanoids.

Particle Fountain (Enhanced...like EE Slayer): Extracts mineral ore from the core of the planet under the ship and converts it into metals and stores the metals in the ship's cargo hold. The only limit to the amount that can be taken is the size of the ship's cargo hold. The fountain increases the climate of the planet by 3 a turn and the HD stress of the planet by 1 to 50 points. The device has no effect on ore or metal that is sitting on the planet's surface. The device will not mine fuel or fuel ore.

Laser Mining Drill: Extracts mineral ore from the core of the planet under the ship and converts it into metals and stores the metals in the ship's cargo hold. The only limit to the amount that can be taken is the size of the ship's cargo hold. The drill increases the climate of the planet by 0.3 a turn and the HD stress of the planet by 10 to 60 points. The device has no effect on ore or metal that is sitting on the planet's surface. The device will not mine fuel or fuel ore.

Fuel Drill: Extracts Fuel from core of planet.

Alchemy Forge: When on, it grabs supply units from junk pods and resupply pods belonging to anyone, plus supplies within the cargo hold of the Mother. Twelve supply units yield 1 duranium, 1 tritanium, and 1 molybdenum. Control switches on the ship can limit the process to just one metal type if you wish.

Ground Quake Trigger: Damages cities in bases on the planet below, destroys cities, kills colonists. Bases with no cities are immune. Undercities are immune. The device will kill around 20% of all the colonists that live in cities. The device may destroy as few as 2 cities. The device may destroy all the cities in the base. This device is little more than the Mother landing on the planet and moving around. Godzilla is puny in comparison.

Mind Crusher: Causes colonists and natives in all bases under the ship to loose 40 happy points. Device works after movement. The mind crusher produces 25 units of sensor image noise when used. It has a range of 10LY.

Gravity Well Generator: Has a range of 50 LY. Any hyperdrive ship within the 50 LY range of a gravity well ship can not hyperjump. The device will cause passing hyperjumping ships to drop back into normal space. The device requires 10 KT of fuel to run. The device has no effect on warp chunnel jumps or jump gates.  Once you are near the Mother don't count on getting away!

PHREDRIQ, HERENA & ZUZAN HIVE DEVICES

Mobile Fighter Factory: Produces fighters and adds them to docked wings If there are no docked wings a new wing will be formed in an empty fighter bay. The device will build a new fighter wing if you have the cash on board the ship to build at least 10 new fighters. The Braphat Fighters are actually domesticated parasitic creatures with a symbiotic relationship with the Braphat.

SISTER SPINNER DEVICES

Food To Supply Converter: Turns food into supplies. All food is turned into supplies.

Mobile Ord Factory: Turn supplies into Ord. One supply will yield 10 ord units.

Ore Processing: When on the ship grabs ore from any pod in the area ( including ones that do not belong to you), any planet you are over and any of your own bases. The ore is converted into metals and stored in the ship's cargo hold. Two ore units yield one metal unit. The only limit as to how much can be processed in a turn is the size of the ship's cargo hold. Ore processing costs nothing.

Web Mine Dropper: Converts ordnance units into web mines and drops them. Web mines are cause damage to ship engines and stop ships from moving. When a web mine is detonated it will do 10% damage to all ship engines within the field and will not do any harm to other web mines in the area. Any ship belonging to another race moving through your web minefield risks hitting a mine and taking engine damage and coming to a complete stop. Minefields can be stacked on top of one another. Ships can move safely through a web field at speed 6 or less. When a ship has over 99% engine damage from hitting or being in detonated web mines the ship can be captured by the X Field device. All ships belonging to the Crystal race are immune to web mines and can travel freely through enemy web minefields at full speed

Mine Sweeper Array: Destroys one enemy minefield or recovers one minefield belonging to your race converting it into ordnance units and stores the ordnance on your ship. You do not collect ordnance from enemy minefield that you sweep. The device will not sweep cloaked minefields.

Pod Binder: When device is activated and there are open pod bays the contents of the cargo hold are wrapped in silk to form pods. First, Duranium, Tritanium and Molybdenum (in that order) are packed into construction pods until cargo hold is empty or all pod bays are full. Then remaining cargo is packed into resupply pods. The resupply pods are loaded with Med Units, Supplies, and Food (in that order). If fleet settings are activated to share Ord and Repair units they are also added to the resupply pods. The minimum ord limit set on the fleet screen will be respected. Resupply contents are packed into resupply pods until cargo holds are empty or all pod bays are full. Pod mass limits of 1000kt are not exceeded.

Pod Booster: When device is activated, all docked pods are propelled at Braphat pod speed toward Braphat Mother specified as Sister ships escort target. It will only work if the escort specified is a Braphat Mother. At the end of movement all docked pods undock and begin movement toward escorted Mother ship. The pod dock target will be set to that of the Mother ship.  This device performs its actions after the Pod Binder device.

BROTHER BITER DEVICES

Mobile Repair Plant: Duranium is converted to repair units. One kt of Duranium yields 100 repair units. The only limits as to the amounts produced is the size of the repair holds.

Minefield Destabilizer: Can destroy one minefield per turn. The device will destroy a minefield that has a center that is within 150 LY of the ship after movement. The only fields that it can not destroy are web mines and cloaked barbitic mines. The device will destroy your own minefields

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