Simplifying starship combat

A thread of 2 messages, 7 October 1991 to 8 October 1991, in the order they were sent.

#2986 Simplifying starship combat

George William Herbert · 7 October 1991

	I realize that this is a really nasty and evil thing to do, especially
since everyon's off on another "let's make it more realistic" bent, but I've
seen enough of the mid to large scale starship combat that IMHO it's time
to radically simplify it.
	What are people's ideas about cutting the hay out of MT starship combat?
I don't want to ignore the reality factor, and I've got some vague ideas
myself, but I'd like to hear what everyone else thinks also.

- -george william herbert
[email removed]
"Which wins, Playability or Reality?"
"It depends.  Did you get the combat over by three am?"

#2993 Re: (2986) Simplifying starship combat

Robert S. Dean · 8 October 1991 · reply to #2986

George William Herbert [email removed] writes:

>     What are people's ideas about cutting the hay out of MT starship combat?

Oh, I wouldn't mind if it got more abstract, which is not necessarily at odds
with more realistic.  What I'd like to see in it is:

Easy to resolve
Player/Character input and actions have an effect
Produces a wide range of results (beyond Fuel-1, Wpn-1, Maneuver-1)

If this means that it only works well for ships below, oh, 1000 tons, I'd
think that was not a real problem.  Players shouldn't be involved in fleet
actions anyway, and a High Guard type system will do for settling the results
of those, _offstage_.

Rob Dean