So far five instances of space combat has occured, and four of them were
at least started in orbit (range zero) and three of them were finished in
orbit (range zero).
The usual chain of events is that one side bushwack the second near a natural
gathering-point. One case was over a mainworld (start at 0 end at 0), one
was close to a moon with a former naval base (start at 0 end at 1 with that
the players jump away), one occation was a sneak attack by a missile-carrying
mine, that used a far prox nuke at them 20 diameters from a gas giant. The
remaining two were really one long combat with a break in the middle over a
moon with a military base.
Observations:
The evasion skill is probably too hard, and IMHO it should be possible to
use pilot (interface/grav) for it (perhaps enabled by ship tactics).
Scout ships are *very* damage resistant (except for their antennas:) because
many low-power hits are absorbed by the antennas, and those that doesn't hit
the antennas tend to hit the hold.
The hold hits can incapacitate when the fuel runs out, so it *is* fruitful
to attack ships to sieze them, and it *is* likely that a combat will end in
a boarding action.
[The most likely outcome is IMHO that the side that feels inferior jumps if it
is capable. If it is incapable, it is possible that the battle ends when one
side hits bingo fuel. This could possibly leave one ship cartweeling off into
nothing and the other limping home at 0.5G-Hour. Otherwise boarding will occur
now. The least likely outcome is an explosion, but since the fuel explosions
are unlikely to destroy the ship totally, boarding will commence here too.
A fight with nukes on the other hand, can lead to the total destruction of
one or both sides.]
All KE weapons are of limited usefulnes at short ranges due to their
low final speed.
- -bertil-
- --
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