3D Spaceship COmbat (Was: Re: Star Maps and SPI)

Phillip Atcliffe <P-ATCLIFFE@wpg.uwe.ac.uk>wrote:
> Not that BFM didn't include 3D movement; it's just that it was 3D
_tactical_
> movement, which used two "maps", showing the X-Y and X-Z planes. A
ship
> was represented by two counters (one on each map) and movement was
> vector-based, with fuel expenditure (and not much fuel, either). It
worked pretty
> well, as I recall, but it had the usual problem of 3D movement systems
of
> all-around firing arcs.

    That system was also used in at least one other game.  It was I
believe
Vector 3, also by SPI.	By the way the tactical spaceship game in the
Universe
role playing game was called Delta Vee.
> 
> This is the real difficulty with any space combat game: either you go
for 2D
> movement, and incorporate firing arcs (like FT, SFB, B5W -- I think --
and a
> zillion others) or you can use 3D movement, but limiting the fire of
weapons to
> specific arcs becomes very complex. 3D movement and arcs has been done
in
> air games, but generally only for fixed weapons. Turret-mounted guns
are
> usually kept to the arcs that they would have in level flight on the
grounds that
> those aircraft which have them (e.g., bombers) don't manoeuvre too
violently
> anyway. It becomes much more difficult for starships with weapons with
> complex 3D firing arcs. If I have to choose, I'll stick to 2D + arcs,
because that
> gives more of a feel of having to manoeuvre to bring weapons to bear.

     I've seen a couple of recent games using 3D movement which have
different
approaches to firing arcs.  One is Moondragon which more or less limits
firing
arcs by using turret-mounted guns.  The firing arc is then a cone with
the point
at the ship, and extending out from the spaceship in the direction the
spaceship
is moving.  So if the spaceship is travelling straight "up" then the
firing arc
would also be pointed "up".  Templates are used to determine if the
target is
in the firing arc.

    By the way Moondragon is a miniatures game and used ships attached
to the
top of a car radio antenna, which can be extended to different heights,
with
some small plastic pieces that allows the ship to be placed in different
orientations.  This makes it easy to determine the location,
orientation,
and distance of spaceships in 3D.

    Then there is Astromechia which uses six firing arcs, think of
weapons
mounted on the six sides of a cube.  To find the arc that the target is
in,
one looks at the relative location of the target and takes the direction
farest away as the arc to use.	For example if the target were, in
arbitrary
units, (3 front, -5 side, 10 up) away from the firer then the  firere
would
have to use a weapon on its top, if any, to fire at that target.  I've
only
read the rules and have not had a chance to play it yet, so I don't know
how well it works.

Enjoy,
Tom Granvold				<thomas.granvold@eng.sun.com>