Changes to the Weapons Description in Databank Entries

Debated heavily if I wanted to say anything or just leave it alone, but ultimately felt like sharing my piece on the matter.

As both someone who has been at one time apart of the Databank operators before and after the divide of the RPA and created quite a few ships, I've never much liked the MAD system as it sits, something many DOs will know. I don't care for a system that uses stats this way but determined almost entirely by subjective opinions. I've had disagreements plenty of times because I'm technical minded in this aspect. Many ships that I feel are weaker are approved stronger while others that are stronger are made weaker, the former being more common. Take the Imperious. Moving it to the Heavy category, the stats given to the count of weapons on the Wiki do not scream 5, but a 2. There are frigates that have heavier loadouts. Yes, the HSD will be stronger than a frigate due to size and reactor power, but in comparison to another HSD, it doesn't compete. Sure, it states its has efficient power regulation, but I certainly don't see that as making it stronger and if it does, maybe it goes to a 3.

I've always felt that in attempts to move away from the Patent Office, the MAD system has done a complete 180 and has little to no basis for anything. This has allowed things to constantly shift and change putting ships all over the place, sometimes without updates going to older submissions to reflect newer approvals. Some of the original Imperial ships, especially the Heavys are so under armed compared to newer submissions, but still considered a 4 in offense. I strongly feel stats need to be established. In this case, for speed, choose a metric (atmo speed or mglt) and for each class, create a range for each stat. Yes, the DO have to do work to establish a system, but afterwards, its easy for users. If a canon ship has that stat, you know where it goes. If a custom creation, think about the rating you'd like and simply slap a speed in that range on it. Offense, each type a weapon has a point value assigned to it (lasers 0.5, turbo-1, missiles-1.5, autocannons-20). Then have a point scale for each ship for each stat. Give it weapons then count them up for the point total. whatever range it falls into, that's what it is. If you want it higher or lower, just add or take away. So, yes, ships that held enormous amounts of laser cannon could be considered a 4 if it carried enough. This would make the approval process much simpler, and if a question came up, such as a rank 4 ship with only laser weaponry, it could be discussed if that seems excessive.

But to the main point of this thread, as someone who creates ships and, as stated, more technical minded in the numbers, the weapons counts should remain. I can see them and better understand what I'm up against and their actual strength. Simply saying they have something doesn't mean much to me if I can't compare how the ships stack up. Do you have a high or low count of turbolasers? How much damage am I expecting to actually take? How many batteries of laser cannons? How many openings are there for starfighters to dodge between? Ion cannons? Is the damage from that more significant or minuscule? Yes, it can be brought back to my previous statement that a ship with lots of laser cannons could still help it be a four. But instead of definitive, yes this is why, its all guess work and assumptions.

But that is my piece. Time to put Lux away again. I just know I will continue to give details in custom submissions moving forward, despite what's decided.