I second the motion! Makes more sense, escorts were/are usually equipped with uber-defensive weapons/fire control. Although an effect that would allow them to soak up some fire too/instead would be good too (kind of like a dedicated shield ship or a massive-scale fighter screen). Maybe something that allows a ship to "extend" (replace with any technobabble really) it's shields, dropping in value but protecting an adjacent friendly ship; dunno about screens, maybe double damage or half penetrates to defending ship? Gonna think and refine it a touch.

Also, I had toyed with a fleet in Nova that used massed formations of Hull 3 with Escort as a sort of "flying screen" for the Capital ships. Put far too many ships on the board to be really feasible (really needed to be at five wide least two deep per protected ship to be truly effective, and that was just for a head-on assault), and really it just begged to be hit by Proximity weapons.

Would it be related either to the size of the weapons (a la FireCon/LRS) or be based on the shield factor, or even be a straight-up SU cost (say, 100SUs)? The more natural thing is to go with a percentage of the weapons SUs--similar to the FireCon SU/ORat cost. It would affect non-Defensive weapons adversely, though, just like LRS adversely affects seeker weapons...

Was going through the forum and saw this post (again) and think another way you could do it (if you wanted to go the 'weapon trait' modifier is with Aegis (Aeg). This would take BeowulfJB's 'Dfn x2' idea and state that, in addition to defending itself, it can conduct Defensive Fire against any target within range. The modifier would be x1.7 (1.3^2)

The first idea I had (that of equipment) I'm thinking of modelling it after the FireCon/LRS and basing it as a percentage of weapons with the Dfn trait (30-50%). Why only weapons with the Dfn trait? Well, it'd only be useful for those ships, soo...

A recap of the ideas:

1) SUE Escort: Any ship equipped with Escort may employ its Defensive weapons against any Tiny target making an attack run within range and arc of its weapons.

(An optional idea: weapons on-board a ship with SUE Escort gains the Dfn trait for attacks against the ship only)

Cost: Total SU cost of all weapons with the Dfn trait x 30-50% (I'm leaning towards the lower figure, but that's because it's the figure associated with the FC equipment) (Go for total SU cost of all weapons if the optional idea is pursued)

2) Weapon Trait Aegis (Aeg): A weapon with the Aeg trait can, as well as conducting Defensive fire on any fighter/seeker attacking it, also conduct Defensive fire on any fighter/seeker attacking any friendly unit within range.

Modifier: x1.7

If you use both of these concepts, maybe state that Aeg targeting units attacking other friendly units does so at a -1 modifier--that, or give the Aeg+Escort combo a +1 modifier--makes for a very effective escort ship (maybe too effective)