Custom Tech (might be) returning to JvS

I agree. I don’t think there would be enough to justify another database.

Alright, I wanted to check in on this and inquire the status of this system.

To those involved with its creation, do you feel the system is ready for a proposal to the Whills and thus approval or do you feel it still needs time to complete?

Another thing to mention is that I wanna thank Z for his constant presence here and thank those who took the time to create this system. You are helping in making JvS better for the present and the future!

The base stat system is complete. The connected combat system is still in need of significant playtesting & revision before it will be ready for site wide issue.

After reading your post, I'll say I'm actually 50/50 on the matter. If this ultimately comes down to only a couple people really wanting to take part in this, then it might be something we don't need and current tech could just be modified. Also, if it turns into an arms/better tech race, then just another reason its not really needed. As stated, we have plenty of good tech to use and there really isn't a need to add more weapons that are a bit more powerful than previous iterations. In the end, I don't think we make a major deal about the power of weapons based on age, though I could be entirely wrong. Also, if this turns into a certain group only using it, then that group could gain advantages over other factions on that fact alone. The last point is mostly opinion on my part and really isn't a problem and a group taking advantage of their resources.

But on the side of going for it, there could also be tech that might not exist in canon that could be brought in, adding something new here and there. And while there are no actual businesses and economics going on, a group could play a part of creating and selling this new tech to anyone who wants it. That, in turn, could possibly add new routes for rp. Also, not sure if ships are included in this right now, but new ships/vehicles/items could be created based on standard specs that keep it in line with everything else, but add new flavor. I can go with this point as even looking for a new ship for Luxeria took a while to find something that I really liked. New ships and such could expand and develop fleets and such of different factions, such as the Blackguard stepping away from TIEs for their own ships to separate them from the First Order.

Just my thoughts on it though.

There are some modern ships, but they severely lack any stats. So the custom tech and database should help with improving factions that don't have their own ships. Like the Mandalorians, the Sith, the Jedi, and so forth. Granted, the Imperials have tons of ships, but I still plan to continue with some moderate and reasonable advancement. Depicting how, IC, the First Order is a progressive and ever forward martial nation.

This right here. Try as you might, custom tech will always gain the upper hand over cannon tech without strict rules. Actual rules, not guidelines. It's happened before, numerous times from my understanding. And then people get upset because you end up 'killing' their creativity. Not having it at all remedies that and creates no issues. This site has been functioning just fine without custom tech for how long now? And no large scale conflicts or issues have arisen, correct me if I'm wrong on that though. I fail to see how this is such a demanding issue when it isn't.

If having ships with information is the main concern behind this, then add stats to it, as has already been decided. There are plenty of unused ships in canon that can be used once they have stats. Custom tech is not needed. It has been used and abused in the past quite regularly. What is to prevent this from happening again? Suggested guidelines that are only applicable when a conflict arises? Yeah, no. Any system you create to monitor and 'police' this is going to end up stepping on someone's toes at some point in time. It's unavoidable.

As one of the creators of the proposed system, I can say with confidence that as long as the rules of the system are enforced there is no way for custom tech to gain an overt advantage over canon tech because it was designed to include canon tech within itself. The best that could happen is that someone makes ships that are highly specialized, and thus very good at doing one thing, but those ships will suffer in other areas when compared to other ships in their class including the canon ships. The idea of this system is that the canon ships exist within it alongside the custom ships, and all of them are built within the same limits. Furthermore, those limits were built around and inspired by canon ships, so that many canon ships already represent one option for how you could fully use the limits of a given class. Honestly, the best way to describe this system is that it forces custom ships and/or modifications on canon ships to be constrained to a similar power level as the canon ships themselves. There are actually some canon ships that surpass the limits of what this system could make, such as the TIE/D Defender, the TIE/vn Space Superiority Fighter, or the BTL-S8 K-Wing Assault Starfighter, as examples.

I understand your concern about avoiding an arms race, but much as how the fleet point system ended the fleet size arms race and brought that issue under control without needing constant management so too should this system allow for the creation of modified canon and custom ships without allowing for an arms race or for the modified/custom ships to be overtly better.

I will also say that if you have certain scenarios or situations that you are concerned about or a way you think the system could be abused please tell us so we can test it, see if the abuse works, and then make changes to prevent that abuse.

That’s not a bad idea. Something else we could consider including, is a short Strengths and Weaknesses list on each submission. Give people a bit of a clear idea of what it is good at and where it falls a little short.