Cracking the Transportation code.

[Modhail]

So, I've been trying to figure out if there is a formula for deciding vehicle costs in IHMN by reverse engineering the points costs in the books I have (IHMN and HVF, I've still to get SDRS).

I tried to get at baseline values by deducting cost of weapons, movement over 6" and such, and seeing what points and abilities were left over, hoping I'd get some similar values.
Walkers were fairly easy to reverse engineer. Essentially it boils down to Light Walkers having a base cost of 10 points and Medium and Heavy Walkers having a base cost of 12 points. (Though, if you want to get specific, you could say it's 5 points for being a steam vehicle, 5 points for the walker rules and 2 points for getting to ignore Type 1 terrain).

Personal Transportation seems to be more...erratic.
In this document you can see what I encountered.* I've left out stats that result in a point cost of zero (such as armour 7 on vehicles).
As you can see points costs and abilities/drawbacks, once the known factors are removed, don't seem to add up.
So I was hoping the combined intellect of this forum could help make some sense of this? With some luck we might get a workable formula akin the point cost system used for infantry (and monsters) so we can expand on the vehicles available. And also so we can more readily adapt IHMN to other settings...

I've left beasts of burden out of the analysis because, well, a horse by any other name, and such...

*: Craig, I've tried to present the data in such a way that anyone with IHMN should be able to make sense of it but without presenting whole stat blocks publicly. If I've inadvertently revealed too much stats, please let me know and I'll edit it out.

[kmfrye]

I started a project similar to yours, then decided to simply guestimate values, based on comparison to the examples given.

I'll post a few stats for Space:1889 vehicles, if you're interested.

Regards,
Keith F.

[Modhail]

Oh, I wouldn't mind seeing those! Consider me interested... 

[kmfrye]

Royal Navy Aerial Service Steam Launch   (Flyer)
Move:12"   Crew: 4   Passengers: 6   Run: +3"   Armour: 10   Cost: 65

Automitrailleuse Blindée   (Armoured Car, France)
Move:12   Crew: 3   Passengers: 0      Armour: 11   Cost: 20

Both vehicles may be armed with one:

Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon 1-PDR   
Range: 36"   Attack:+5   Crew (land/ship): 2/1   Pluck: -3   Targets:3   Cost: 32

As noted previously, these are intuitive conversions of designs that were run through the Space:1889 design sequence, based on vehicle point costs provided in the IMHN books.  I haven't had the chance to playtest them.

[Modhail]

 

[Craig]

This is so much more fun that just telling you isn't it 

*Modhail - you're fine.

[Modhail]

Is it?
At least give us a hint...

Okay, time for a round of speculation/guesstimates. Looking at the stats again, and letting go of the need to be point-perfect in outcomes, I figure this should be about right:
Ignores Difficult Terrain is 3 points, Flight is 12 (maybe even 15), Single Use is -2 points, Movement restrictions, like; Fixed movement distance/3"increments/straight line are -2 points per instance as well. Passengers are 1 pt per 2, a split cargo/12 passengers capacity costs 10 points.

Does any of this sound way off or correct to you?

[Craig]

The truth is I'll have to ask Charles 

[Craig]

Time for some honesty I think 

In IHMN we did not think that personal transportation would be that much of a big deal so the points costs were similar to that for an equivalent figure and then we used the rule of thumb to make them seem reasonable. We applied modifiers that seemed reasonable for vehicles that couldn't move through various terrain types etc.

In HVF, as we'd had a bit more experience and seen how people were using vehicles and mounts, we used the following formula for calculating their cost:
Vehicle cost = number of horses (or 20 points for steam/electric) + 1 per crew member + speed (6" = 0, 9" = 3 etc.]+ capacity [max number of passengers] + armour (at usual cost) + weapons (at usual cost).

In none of the books did we apply this completely consistently using common sense to modify the costs of various vehicles to match the companies they would be used by. The points costs seemed to work out well for players, except if you want to design a completely new vehicle.

So there you have it.

[Modhail]

So, in essence: Use Your Own Brain. That's a design philosophy I can get behind!  
Comparing (quickly and roughly) your formula to the vehicles in IHMN and HVF, it seems all steam vehicles have had their point value adjusted down anyway. You could consider dropping the base cost for steam vehicles a bit in the baseline?  Say to 10 or 15 points?

Thank you for clearing up the mystery!