So I've been tinkering a bit with my B5 stuff in between crisises . My goal is to use what I feel is "good" source material (Babylon 5 Wars) as the basis for ship designs et al and convert them down into Starmada. In the past it wasn't as big as an issue, but the whole Shields and Screens/Armor have added an interesting twist to things. (Basically just Shields is now way too boring!) The issue is that B5W weapons really fall into 2 broad categories of damage (Starmada wise) - all IMP or all DMG. Then different types of weapons tend to treat armor differently (some penetrate armor better than others).
I tried simplifying things by not having Shields (and adding extra Screens), but that really makes all weapons relatively equal (no fun) and kills some of the "flavour". So I'm trying to work on a mix of Shields (Directional) and Screens (may or may not be directional at this point). Formulas to be finalized soon I hope.
Speed is the second thing I'm trying to work out. Most capital ships (currently) become speed 2 or 3 and really are lumbering hulks; thinking I might either alter my formula slightly to bump the speed up a point, or do a more 'fixed' speed approach ala Star Fleet Starmada.
Class is another touchy issue. There's basically 4 types of ships; Capital, Heavy Combat Vessel, Medium Combat Vessel, Light Combat Vessel. This factors into my defenses category above mostly.
And defenses too: B5W has some interesting defenses that don't translate into Starmada very easily. For the most part I think I can manage this by using Countermeasures (and AFB when necessary) as a catch all.
There's also some weapons that are causing the occasional small problem. Some are Fighter or Starship exclusive (trait currently doesn't exist, but if Dan reintroduces/costs them it shouldn't be too hard to fit them in). Some are more for an "area defense" (can assist other ships). And some have mechanics that are just hard to figure out (Abbai Comms jammers would be fine if the effects WEREN'T temporary; the Ipsha have banks of weapons that can be fired individually or combined for better range - 5 'settings', the difference running from 5x Range 3 1x5+/1/1 to 1x Range 24 1x3+/4/1 Slw Slw; the rub being that a ship might have 20 weapons and fire them all individually or combine 2-5 of them - "I'll fire 1 group of 5, 3 groups of 3, 1 group of 4, and 2 singles" isn't feasible in Starmada). Missiles are up in the air (could be direct fire, could arguably be seekers). And anti-matter weapons make my head hurt.
Fighters play a decent role in B5 as well. For the most part I'm going to embrace all fighters being relatively equal, and having specific types for certain ships/races/etc as required (or optional). Some races operate a "Super Heavy Fighter" which I'm going to look at, probably make it a Hull 1 ship?
So that leaves one thing then - Hull rating. Seems a bit backwards, building everything and then adding a hull to fit it all, but so far it seems to be working for me. Having the odd issue with variants/refits, but over all getting pretty decent results.
The only thing that leaves me scratching my head on what to do are some of the 30 degree arcs B5W uses; typically paired weapons 30 degrees port and starboard of the centerline. Would like some input on my options - 1) use the normal A & B Starmada arcs (opens them up a bit), 2) combine them into a single weapon with a G arc (basically remove one weapon and double the arc, you lose out on one weapon though if you manage to centerline the opponent), or 3) make both of them G arc weapons (really makes the weapons more flexible than they're designed to be, not my favourite). I hope to get some more input and get some common ships for all four "Big" races up after that.