This has probably already been discussed, but I have never given it much thought until today. And heck, I'm sick of discussing Partial Points in general, but I've got some thoughts, and I'd like to share.
It just occurred to me today that calculating partial points as a ratio of:
HP remaining / Original HP
is incorrect. A ship's cost is not determined solely by its defensive qualities, but instead by a combination of all stats. When MJ did calculations for "Jousting Value", Attack Power and Agility are also included, in addition to Hull and Shields.
Therefore, losing 2 hull on a Tie Fighter is not equivalent to 8 pts, but some lower value that also accounts for the 3 Agility, 2 Attack dice of the PS 1 ship.
So calculating points earned by removing hull/shields should be based on the point value that the Hull/Shield actually adds to the cost of the ship. Along with likely being the "correct" way to handle partial points, a method of this sort would more properly account for actually removing a ship's firepower from the board, and also includes the "difficulty" (agility) to shoot the ship.
A possible way to implement this would be to calculate the Squad Point value that each Hull/Shield pt adds to each ship's cost, calculate an Average, round to a whole number that makes sense, and use this value to calculate how many match points earned for each Hull/Shield lost. We could also do a point cost based on ship agility.
For an example of normalized value calculations, Hull pt lost is worth 1 pt, Shield lost is worth 2 pts (or heck Hull could = Shield). If say, your squad has 1 naked Blue Squadron B Wing left on the board with 2 Hull Remaining, that means your opponent scores:
5 Shield lost x 2 pts per shield = 10 pts
1 Hull lost x 1 pt per Hull = 1 pt
Total = 11 pts out of 22 pts available on a naked Blue Squadron Pilot.
Compare this to:
6/8 * 22 pts = 16.5 = 17 pts in a full ratio based system
Of course, this will be based on the normalized value we assign to each Hull/Shield.
Honestly, this is the proper way I can think Partial Points should ever be calculated, since so much of cost will be tied up in Attack Power, Agility, and Upgrades.
Downsides?
1. Lost Hull is worth more Match Points on low agility ships, there is more HP to lose, and it is easier to lose it.
- This actually makes sense to me, since the ship's Squad Points cost is based more on Hull/Shields
- ALSO, this helps gives you more points for dealing damage to low agility Fat Turrets, which a lot of people complain about, since more of their actual ship cost is Hull/Shield, and less is Attack Power/Agility
2. Ships stacked with Upgrades give less partial points per total Squad Points
- This also makes sense to me, since the upgrades have NOT been destroyed, and should not be added to the Match Points until they ARE destroyed.
3. An argument can be made for discarded Ordnance and/or Weapons and EPTs discarded due to Crits.
- This is bad for discarded Ordnance, which sucks, but could be an exception to the rule easily, with some statement of "Self discarded upgrades, or upgrades not destroyed by an opponent".
- This is good for Munitions Failure crit removing things like HLC. It makes sense to me that an upgrade lost due to a Crit is added to Matxh Points earned, even if is is based on a random Crit (dice removing Hull is already based on some randomness).
4. Defensive Upgrades like C3PO that can already be thought of as "Free Hull" will now essentially be "Free Match Points saved".
- This does not fix our "Fat Ship" issue, but by golly, based on current game design, I don't think calculating anything BUT equivalent Hull/Shield cost makes any sense.
tldr;
Based on game's Squad Point design system, calculating Partial Points only makes sense by subtracting the actual value of Hull/Shield that is used to determine a ship's Squad Points for equivalent PS 1, no ability, un-upgrades ships.
I know that actual Squad Points are not determined solely by stats, and that fluff points are added to ships for various reasons, so calculating this value will mean doing some analysis of each ship's equivalent Hull/Shield per Squad Point Value and determining a "normalized" value that is based on average, median, variance, play testing, etc etc etc.
I don't think any other Partial Point calculation makes sense based on this game's design.
tldr; tldr;
Partial Points calculated like this will not fix many of the "issues" people have with how Match Points are determined (Fat ships living at 1 hp), meaning the Current System is just an easier version of my proposal. Honestly, FFG could be thinking along the same lines, and that is why they chose not to implement a Partial Points system in the first place. Does that mean they won't? Who knows! They do seem to enjoy making changes based on Community feedback!
Edited by phild0