Re: Operational Level Game with Sensor Rules

Phillip E. Pournelle <pepourne@nps.navy.mil> wrote:

[snipped good ECM / FireCon stuff]

>	Here's my proposal, generate an Operational level game.

I agree with previous comments that compare this with Interception or
System scale Starfire

[snipped OpLev stuff]

>	Now comes the importance of sensors and fast ships.  Ships move
a speed
>proportional to their slowest ship.  Take the slowest ship in the group
and
>divide by two rounding down.

Here's the first potential problem. Assuming that we're going with GZG
tech
here, you would have acceleration to a midpoint, with a massive
velocity,
and then a deceleration to the destination; or you would have a series
of
micro-jumps into the system until gravity wells became a problem. Either
way, that model for operational movement may not be the best.

I favor the second option, though there's no real basis for it.

IMO ships should have a relatively slow velocity when entering or
exiting
jumpspace. This would explain why most FT battles don't happen at
extremely
high delta-V. They micro-jump until their sensors make a long range
contact
(or it becomes too risky), and then accellerate to engage. Of course, no
admiral would want to get his V too high for fear of cutting off his
means
of escape if confronted by a superior force.

[snipped rest of OpLev stuff and Commanders skills]

I favor making Sensors and ECM (to include jammers, scanners, detectors,
etc.) into fewer systems rather than more. My reasoning is that they are
closely related, and I would rather model different effects on a simple
system as modifiers, than make more rules that would slow the game or
put
off those who admire FT for its simplicity (myself included).

I like the idea of being able to detect a jump "footprint" from some
distance away, but that's really for the realm of a campaign game.

Schoon