Damon, I wrote up 2 Bridge systems last night.
I'm not sure if I like them yet, and may include
them as optional systems.  Haven't decided yet.
Also the system description needs some tweaking
and editting, cuz it's a bit rough.

Here's what I've written up thus far...  What do you think?



==========================================



Bridge Systems


Bridge (Br#)
The Bridge is the central command facility of any large unit.  Every
 "large 
unit" requires a Bridge to function efficiently.  Each "Br" unit can
 control 
the functionality of 50 hull spaces of starship.  While the use of the 
"Bridge" concept is optional, if the concept is used, the Bridge system
 
becomes a required system for all large units, with very limited
 exceptions.

Without a functioning Bridge, a "large unit" will suffer a number of 
penalties.  Any offensive weapon system will receive a -2 penalty
 against 
large targets or a -1 penalty against targets on the Small
 Craft/Fighter 
combat table.

However, if the ship without a functioning Bridge (ship "A") has an
 active 
datalink with ships that continue to have a functioning Bridge, the
 weapons 
on the ship with a damaged Bridge may operate normally.  This is only
 true 
as long as ship "A" remains within active datalink range of any ship in
 its 
datalink with a functioning Bridge.

Note that ships mounting Br# cannot interface with Command Datalink
 systems, 
since its command and control electronics are simply not up to the
 task. 
Ships that intend on using Command Datalink must have Advanced Bridges
 (see 
xx.xx.xx).

The Bridge system is an incremental system.  The "#" in the code refers
 to 
the number of hullspaces required for the given hull to have a
 sufficiently 
large Bridge to command and control.  That is, an 80 hullspace BC would
 
require a "Br1" to exert proper command and control, while a 130
 hullspace 
DN would require a "Br2".  Also note that while a single point of
 damage 
will disable the Bridge system, any Bridge system can absorb a number
 of 
hits equal to the number of increments in the system.

It is entirely possible and allowable (but not required) for a ship to
 have 
one or more secondary bridges, which will instantly take over command
 of the 
ship without any penalty.  (The reason for a delay in takeover is for 
simplification reasons.)  Secondary bridges must be of the exact same
 size 
as the main bridge and are neither appended to nor adjacent to the main
 
bridge.  That is, an 80 hs BC with "Br1" main and secondary bridges
 would 
not place them on the control sheet as (Br2), which denotes a much
 larger 
single Bridge, not 2 smaller ones, nor would they be on the control
 sheet as 
(Br1)(Br1).

A secondary bridge must have a number of systems between it and the
 main 
bridge (in either direction) equal to number of hull spaces in the unit
 
divided by 20 (FRD).

Example: the 80 hs BC with "Br1" main and secondary bridges would
 require a 
minimum of 80/20 = 4 systems be placed between the two bridges.

A ship without any functioning bridge is more likely to surrender or
 run 
away.  (Check out the appropriate rules to deal with this.)

In a combat environment where precision weapons are common, it is worth
 
noting that bridges may become important, "high value" targets,
 particularly 
on larger vessels.  Thus, building secondary bridges into larger, more 
important ships may be a necessary measure to provide command and
 control 
redundancy.

The Bridge is a IND-2 system, coded "(Br#)", requiring 1 hull space per
 
increment, costing 20 Mc per increment, and costing 2,000 Mc to
 develop.





Advanced Bridge (Bra#)
Due to improvements in wide variety of related areas, the Advanced
 Bridge 
has double the command and control capacity of its predecessor, the
 IND-2 
Bridge system.  The Advanced Bridge operates in much the same manner as
 the 
Bridge, except that the Bra only requires 1 increment per 100 hull
 spaces of 
ship.  Also, any large unit wishing to use Command Datalink must have
 an 
Advanced Bridge, as unlike its older predecessor, its electronics are
 up to 
the task of interfacing with all of the various Command Datalink
 circuitry.

The Advanced Bridge is a HT-6 system, coded "(Bra#)", requiring 1 hull
 space 
per increment, costing 50 Mc per increment, and costing 5,000 Mc to
 develop.






==========================================

Clearly, the "Bra#" description is cleaner than the "Br#" description
because it just says "everything's the same as Br#, except ...".

The "Br#" description needs some cleaning up.  For simplicity's sake
(which is one my goals, after all), I could say that 1 hit takes out a
bridge, regardless of how many increments are in a given bridge.

The use of the Bridge as an incremental system, rather than simply
buying additional 1 hs Br's is because IMHO, a ship's Bridge should
be all in one place and scaled to fit the size of the ship.  Using
multiple "Br" systems to get enough capacity seems like having a
distributed command and control system, which doesn't seem right.
Oh, having *secondary* bridges is fine, but the main bridge should
be "big enough" to handle the entire ship and the secondary bridge(s)
should also be "big enough" to handle the entire ship.

Another note, I haven't completely thought out how to handle the Bridge
concept on the really small ships.  I suppose that I could just have a
 "Br0"
and "Bra0" half-space system.  ("Br0" instead of "Br0.5", BTW.)
I'd probably rule that the Br0/Bra0 can only be mounted on FG and
 smaller
hull types.  (Maybe extend it to DD hulls for Bra0, or maybe not.)


Whaddaya think?






Fred