Re: Why Sensors??

    I've been doing some general mulling over the rules that
have been put forth by various contributors to the list
(including my own), and have come to the general conclusion
that they're all too complex.
     (snip)
    I was thinking that the minimum range for having the
"All" information should be about the range at which people
tend to engage on the trabletop. This way, one off games and
those not interested in sensors can safely ignore them.

    Make it 100", that'll cover an 8 foot table.  Then apply
Phil's "Sensor Lite" rules, maybe an "admiral quality"
rating, and you're in good shape.  I've been slowly
percolating "Campaign Thrust" on my mental back burner, so
here are a few thoughts.
    You've got several levels of simulation:
    a) Head of State: Starts with astrography and deals with
economy, diplomacy, and grand strategy (national goals)
    b) Fleet Admiral: Starts with the budget and assigns
training, maintenance/resupply, operations, and building
programs.  Assigns ships to battlegroups or fleets and
assigns objectives for those units.  The realm of strategy
(deciding which campaigns to fight to achieve the national
goal).
    c) Admiral: Starts with the ships assigned to the
battlegroup/fleet and the assigned objective, and devises a
way to carry the objective with available assets.  The realm
of operations (deciding what battles to fight to make the
campaign successful).  This would include things like
approach vector into a system; whether to refuel before the
assault or to rely on surprise while hoping you don't run
out of fuel; attack outlying installations first or go for
the main planet.
    d) Commodore: Starts with  the battlegroup assigned and
uses it to achieve success in the battle.  This is what Full
Thrust simulates.   I'd call this grand tactics.
    e) Captain: Starts with a ship and uses it to carry out
the Commodore's designs.  Tactics.  This is partly below the
granularity of Full Thrust.
    If the idea is to set up the basis for battles, then
what we need to develop first is the Admiral level.  That's
what I was muttering about a day or two ago, when I asked
(and got zero response on) "how many AU out should the Jump
Limit be, for a star like the Sun?"
     <muttering ON>That's okay, if y'all don't want to
provide input, I'll write it however I feel like....you'll
have to calculate your velocities in furlongs per fortnight,
and serve you right!<muttering OFF>