In message 5946, Muir Macpherson [email removed] writes:
> I think the biggest problem is that beam
> weapons have such a short range. Considering that most military ships can
> move 7 hexes in a turn this turns space combat into a "knife fight." It also
> means that you can detect a hostile ship long before you can fire on it.
This may make for a strange game, but at least it's logically consistent
with StutterWarp physics.
Imagine tryig to hit a target from more than one Hex away, when that target
is travelling FTL using stutterwarp. *long* before the light from your laser
arrives in the same general vicinity, he'll have moved to a different
location.
Missiles work by getting as close as they can to the target vehicle; they
then *spray space* with as many laser beams as the missile can generate. If
the missile is lucky, *one* of those beams will actually intersect with the
target, causing damage. That's what a to-hit roll is actually calculating;
you're checking to see if one (out of many) laser beams actually passes
through the target's current location.
Making beam weapons have 3 hex range may make the game more playable to you,
but it's no longer realistic (according to the 2300AD universe).
> I have also experimented with limiting a ships acceleration and
> deceleration by saying that they from a dead stop they can only move half
> speed the next turn. Likewise they can only decelerate to half speed their
> first turn and must wait until the following turn to come to a complete
> stop. Along with this, ships may only change facing by one hex side per
> hex of forward movement. This prevents ships from spinning in place and
> doing 180's in space.
You really don't understand StutterWarp physics, do you? :-)
StutterWarping ships don't change their real-space vector in any way; they
simply "teleport" a short distance away, at a rapid cycle rate, giving
effective FTL travel. StutterWarp ships don't "accelerate" or "decellerate";
they simply start and stop moving. StutterWarp movement doesn't have
momentum or inertia; StutterWarp ships can move instantly and stop on a dime.
(This is why Traveller players objected so strongly to their introduction
into the TNE universe, btw).
As for changing facings: This is where things start to get nebulous...
First of all, we believe that this is currently done using real-space
thrusters. So, it should still be possible to do "180's in space"; you just
can't do them instantaneously.
Secondly, since StutterWarp doesn't change real-space vectors, we believe
that you should be able to warp in one direction while your ship is pointing
in a completly different direction. Of course, you can restrict this by
claiming that the StutterWarp field is aligned with the ships hull, so that
you can only travel "forward". We're still arguing that one... :-)
We've played lots of Star Cruiser combat. The 2300 physics do lead to some
common tactics; they just aren't like anything you've ever seen before... :-)
- --
C. Harald Koch, Network Analyst | Psychotic pigs make better bacon!
Alias Research Inc. Toronto, ON |
[email removed] | -Graffiti, on a wall near Queen & Beverly
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