Ship Modification/Design Points Calculation?

[ErikModi]

So, I've been noticing there's a few different ways to calculate points for custom ships, but none of them quite seem finish (my favorite so far is REALLY old).  So, is there any kind of consensus for what the most finished/most accurate points calculating formula is?

[ErikModi]

So. . . there isn't one?

[Blindhorizon]

Google the smotherman formula.

[ErikModi]

Yeah, looked at that.  Found a few discussions about how it really doesn't work, and while it seems the most complete, it still seems unfinished.  I was wondering if there was one that was better or more complete?

[Blindhorizon]

Thats the best out their, from what i understand GW just play tested and assigned points based off how they faired not so much as a point system they had.

[ErikModi]

Alright, thanks.

[Gothmog Lord of Balrogs]

Try finding Fleetmaster. It was an old exe that had the smotherman formula and another one built in.

[ErikModi]

I did find that one.  But it also seems very unfinished.

[lord_blackfang]

All the formulae are utterly worthless unless you're just swapping guns around. They're okayish for just guns.

Let's take a look at smotherman: Shields 10 pts. It should be obvious that adding any amount of shields to existing vessels at 10 pts each is completely absurd. The formula has nothing to do with actual worth of ship components, it's just something that, through random trial and error, was made to loosely correlate to official ship costs, and it's even poor at doing that.

If a formula relies on a gentleman's agreement not to do stupid shit, and you're capable of eyeballing which parts of your design are okay and which are not, you don't actually need the formula. What is the point of a formula that relies on you having a greater grasp of game balance than the formula itself? Forget it.

[ErikModi]

Okay.

Well, the thing I wanted it for was exactly swapping guns around.  Taking torpedoes off the Desolator and replacing them with weapons to supplement the anemic 6 FP dorsals (and I'm not much of a fan of torpedoes, personally) and Repulsive cruiser.  Went with Lances on the Repulsive since I thought 20 FP weapons was a bit ludicrous.  Also experimented with the prow lances being L/F/R, but 6 Lance Str is pretty insane, so thought it would be fair for them to only be F.

So yeah, I see your point.  I was just hoping for something a little more concrete than "eh, just wing it."  But, that's basically what I'm doing anyway, so. . .

[horizon]

Smotherman isn't utterly useless it merely isn't complete and fudged... whatever.

For point costs just take the most similar existing ship. Add & deduct points, with the option of using Smotherman formula as token values for this, add +10 points at the end and playtest. Adjust points based on playtesting.