Ryan Thomas' RP Archives

The point system is often used in steam roleplays, in particular for modern national RPs. There, it constitutes the bedrock of the RP, defended upon the principle that it is what one is must used to, the easiest, and the only workable system. Unfortunately, asides from the sadly true first point, the point system is by contrast immeasurably removed from any semblance of presenting a truly effective, balanced, easy, and positive system. For a variety of reasons, outlined below, it conversely helps to strangle active roleplay, to consume large amounts of time, to introduce extreme disbalances in between nations and units, to unfairly penalize certain players, and to fail to in any way promote a fun and engaging role play systems. This is all the more tragic, because there are obvious and simple systems which exist as an alternate to it. 1)The deleterious effect of the point system upon national balance. This point is actually one, which to be fair, has improved over time. In some of ...

By the early part of the 1940s, it was clear that the French Char B1 heavy tank, even in its B1 ter form, was not a long term design. The B1 had provided the Imperial French army with a heavy tank which had a very impressive level of armor at the time of its introduction, evolving over the course of its service from 40 mm to 70 mm, with a design which was sufficient large as to be able to easily bridge anti-tank trenches, a 75 mm gun which could knock out enemy fortified positions, and a 47 mm gun which served as a quite good anti-tank weapon. Unfortunately, it also brought along a very lengthy list of problems. The tank was hideously expensive, it required very careful maintenance, it was sometimes difficult to use the 47 mm and the 75 mm at once, the crew was overworked, and most importantly there was simply no real capacity to upgrade it. The combination of the turret and the 75mm gun in the hull meant that neither could be significantly improved, even if the B1 ter did provide a sl...