George and Rob have been discussing how to make ship/ship combat
easier.
I'm all in favor of it. MegaTrav Combat just takes too damn long.
The whole pace of it is far too slow. (maybe 20 minutes per turn
is realistic at the rate it gets played:-)
In the combat scenes I have played, I use High Guard. The charts are
laid out simply and you don't spend hours looking through reams of
pages looking for the die modifier for a factor four sandcaster!
The High Guard system unfortunately does not allow for character
interactions. Ship Tactics is used, Fleet tactics rarely, and
you only get a paltry bonus for Pilot-3 and Pilot-5.
Gunnery skill is never used at all. (Stupid? you bet!)
In combat, the Pilot never has to make a roll of the dice. (Dumb)
In defending, a sandcaster or laser gunner doesn't roll the dice. (Dumb)
Small idea:
Defender and attacker roll simultaneously. Higher roll wins.
There would have to be modifiers due to skills, computer models, agility,
weapons used and power thereof. (Yeah, you'd need tables of modifiers,
but it would be more exciting anyway {Which is the whole purpose behind
combat simulation anyway}) Also, If we could establish a rule for making
sence out of the modifiers it would be a lot quicker)
(divide weapon factor by 2 for modifier bonus?)
Please note this is off the top of my head, so don't hold me to these figures,
just think of the concepts.
Another problem with combat is the Damage charts. We could use some more
colorful results than (-1 fuel, or -1 power{which doesn't mean anything
any more}). I'd like to see a fleshed out damage table. Say one with
hull breach on it (explosive decompression for the foolish enough not to
depressurize the hull before going into combat) What about Fuel breach
inboard? (liquid hydrogen gets dumped INside the ship) Cargo hold hit?
Living quarters hit? Small craft bay hit? No they aren't deadly, but
they add flavor to the combat.
'Hey Mark Venture, your stateroom was wiped out by that last salvo, so much
for your Queen Starsha blow up doll.'
Now, who cares if these results aren't important for fleet combat.
As Rob suggested, if these results are only for small ships run by characters
(5000 tons at the VERY outside) They will do JUST FINE for nearly all purposes
of combat with player characters.
I am inclined to think that Ship combat as put out in MegaTrav, needs a
flow chart. If we had a chart that said,
1. Sensor tasks
2. Firing tasks
3. Evasive tasks
4. Defensive/Penetration tasks
5. Damage tasks
6. Damage Control Tasks
etc. etc.
with maybe just a few basic modifiers, this could work better.
But as of now, It is just too long to read through, and the material
does not lend itself to easy understanding which can lead to shortcuts.
On design: Here is a question: Can one crew member only use one HUD?
It seems to me in the pictures I've seen of HUD's in modern combat aircraft,
that the actual HUD is very small, covering only a small portion of the
pilots vision. Suppose, that when 2 HUDs are listed, it simply means, that
this HUD installation is twice the size of a standard HUD?
Watercraft designs: Well, GDW it seems finally got around to doing it.
Pity it isn't as detailed as George's version, but It seems like it'll do.
(HEy!
Now we can build aluminum and titanium vehicles! YEAH!)
A personal note on the subject. Maybe I'm getting paranoid or something,
I never really expected to see anything out of the designs I have posted here.
But, It seems to me that the story that GDW put as a note to the Watercraft
design article reminds me a great deal of the design I put out for the
Herbert Dean class Meson Submarine. Ok, so they didn't have a meson gun
aboard the sub, but it would have been a MUCH better design if they had.
The laser's they talk about in the story are a STUPID design. (Sure, put
a triple beam turret on a bouy!)
It would make more sence to put in a small meson bay(or indeed a large one)
I realize that if they did steal something, it was probably more from
George, but I think my design inspired them a bit(conceited aren't I?)
Plus in the story the Imperial Admiral seemed to have forgotten the planet's
possible deep site meson guns!
Ahh well, enough rambling, misspelling and grumbling from me...
Scott Kellogg
{Roll The R!}