Re: [FT] Evasion

Sean spake thusly upon matters weighty: 

> My thoughts on Evasion and Evasive Maneuvers are thus:
> 
> I take it as a given (read: without need for rules representation)
that all
> ships are doing their utmost to evade as soon as they have an enemy on
> sensors. For one ship's evasion routine, the other ship has a
prediction
> routine... ad nauseum

1. that presumes that evasion does not come with a penalty to fire 
that makes it undesireable in some circumstances. Then you would have 
two modes. Dodge and Shoot. 
 
> My next point varies slightly depending on what you think the FT scale
is,
> but given that beam weapons travel at - or near - the speed of light,
the
> odds of moving a large vessel enough to make a difference are not
good.

Not necessarily so.
 
> Even "small" FT ships mass many tonnes, and even given the larger
> accellerations and compensators, they don't really jink well. Current
day
> destroyers "evade" in a sense, but a turn left or right doesn't even
phase
> a cruise missile. Too much bulk and inertia.

Okay, that assumes your firing solution, measured in ten-thousands of 
a minute of angle or degree such that it is tenous to begin with, is 
not badly disrupted by even a minimal manoevre. It may be. 
 
> A smaller ship's greatest strength is its ability to change velocity
and
> direction to keep it out of the arcs of the big guns. Once those
behemoths
> get the bearing - lights out. Because they have a greater capacity for
> delta-v, they can also go faster without worrying about overflying an
> engagement - which limits their exposure to the pounding of the big
boys
> until they get within a range where they can return the favor.

Good point. 
 
Something to think of - lasers are lightspeed. Presumably so are 
sensors. Ergo any signal you get will be fractions to full seconds 
out of date. And then you beam has the same travel. So how far do you 
travel in seconds? Some distance. Therefore the manoevres may also 
have those seconds to take effect. Which may be enough to move your 
ship that km that makes the shot miss. I think there is a point. 

YMMV :)
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Thomas Barclay		     
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