Battletech, Sky Galleons and How I Found Full Thrust(was Re: Designs systems)

Battletech had some problems.  Not one of the mechs that I recall
designing 
myself used machine guns.  Especially after destroying a Phoenix Hawk
with a 
small laser due to a critical hit that penetrated the MG ammo supply.  
Something like that old Weathergirls tune comes to mind. . . "It's
raining 
mechs!"

And Sky Galleons is the reason I learned about Full Thrust.  I was
searching 
for more SGoM information on the web, and the search wound its way
toward 
Full Thrust because of several conversions from Sky Galleons to FT that
are 
posted.  My search slowly evolved into a Full Thrust search as I became 
intrigued with this game system.  And bless him, Mark Kotche's site was
one 
of the first I stumbled into.  I read his Severed Dreams PBeM scenario
and 
fell in love.  From that moment on I was sold on FT.  Alun Thomas' and
Tim 
Jones' maps, the communications back and forth between players, it all
looked 
excellent.  I have as yet to run that scenario here at home, but it will

happen!  And when it does, I think I will have several new converts!

Well, I've taken up enough bandwidth with my reminiscences.  

Bill

In a message dated 6/8/00 1:11:23 AM Central Daylight Time, 
maxxon@swob.dna.fi writes:

<< No, the problem with BTech (at least classic, I quit when the clans
came)
 was not really the nature of the sample designs but the quite simply
the
 fact that the design system was broken.
 
 E.g. there was no good reason to *ever* take less than maximum
 armor. Some weapons (e.g. MGs) were not only suboptimal, but downright
 dangerous to have (ever calculated how much damage an exploding MG ammo
 bin does?)
 
 The sheet mechs were built around the images in their licensed and
house
 artwork, so they ignored obvious clues like the above. Custom ones,
OTOH, 
 chucked image and built for pure game effectiveness.
 
 Likewise, in the old days of FT2 it was possible (downright simple, in
 fact) to take any sheet ship and design a one that was better *in*
*every*
 *way* for pretty much the same points. 
 
 But this isn't the case with every game. Sky Galleons of Mars provides
 very good sheet designs for example. DP9 systems look rather good. And
it
 certainly doesn't *need* to be the case with any game.
  >>