Re: Simple System Thrust (Campaign)

>System Thrust

My main comment, Schoon, is that if you'd waited another 24
hours to write this, I'd have published first...which brings
up Lobachevski and the whole Lehrer thread again.

>
>Scale:
>1 hex = 1/3 AU, or 3 hexes = 1 AU

I'm inclined to use 1/4 AU per hex (1 day thrusting at 1
gee) or 1 AU/hex (2 days thrusting at 1 gee)--you picked 1/3
AU to get nice orbital rings for Mercury & Venus, I expect?
Of course, if you assume artificial gravity and high gee
thrust--which I thik is the canon assumption--then you can
pitch my preference out, as it's built on 1 gee thrust.

>FTL Limit(30), Uranus(57), Neptune(90), Pluto(118)
>Where the number is the number of hexes away from the main
star (orbit
>ring: so Earth orbits in the ring of hexes three out from
the star). Though
>all planets are included for completeness, you need only
have out to the
>FTL Limit on the game board. (Yes, I set 10AU/30 hexes
arbitrarily; so sue
>me.)

For Weber-philes, Basilisk Station stated that for a G0
star, the FTL limit is 22 light minutes out, which is IIRC
about 2.6 AU.  Presumably that varies with the mass of the
star.

>For free movement, or movement after detection. Move all
ships one hex,
>alternating players, move all ships a second hex, using the
same method,
>etc.

Or you could use something like the Champions speed chart,
in which there are segments: Speed Two moves on segment 6
and 12; Speed 3 moves on 4, 8, and 12; Speed 4 on 3, 6, 9,
and 12; speed 5 IIRC is 3, 5, 8, 10 and 12; and speed 6 is 2
4 6 8 10 12.  I don't recall what speed 7 and 8 use but it
shouldn't be too hard to extrapolate.

>Combat:
>Ships in the same hex will engage in a FT combat on the
tabletop.

Using their relative position and speed from the Strategic
Game.

>Detection:
>Any transition into, or out of, FTL is immediately detected
by all ships,
>and the hex is marked.

May need to refine this a little as ships will be jumping
in-system in smaller increments, and the defender may have
time to see one jump (and know there's someone coming) while
the aggressor is making another jump.  I'd also like to
establish a "preferred lane" coming from one system to
another, so if you're arriving at Alarish from Huy Braseal,
you arrive with a vector of, say, 2 in Direction 4 (of
six)--therefore to cut down on your thrust required and
transit time, you usually arrive on Hex Face 1 of the System
Hex, so your exit vector is taking you in the desired
direction for free.  This will I think help ease the
defender's problems a little.

>There are three levels of information: bogey, mass, and
all. Bogey tells
>the number of vessels in a group or hex. Mass tells the
mass of each
>vessel.

Apparent mass after adjustments for Stealth and Weasels.

And you'd want to have something whereby a powered-down
ship, or sufficiently stealthed, wouldn't necessarily be
detected.  That would probably require a referee, I suppose.