RE: Ship Spin (wa Re: [FT] DDs and DHs inspired by WW2 types )

how about this:
One point of thrust buys you a spin rate of 1 faceing 60 degrees of
spin,
you keep spinning till you apply counter thrust.

So if you put 2 into spin right you spin 120 degrees to the right that
turn.
if you spend 1 points on left spin the next turn you spin 60 or 90
degrees
(your choice) right.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
[mailto:owner-gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU]On Behalf Of agoodall@canada.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 3:44 PM
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Ship Spin (wa Re: [FT] DDs and DHs inspired by WW2 types )

On Tue, 29 August 2000, "Robert W. Hofrichter" wrote:

> Furthermore, the vesse's structural members would have to have the
> additional strength to handle the spinning as well.

Geez, forgot about that! It's been more than 15 years since I took
physics,
but more than 20 years since I took "mechanics and strength of
materials".

You're right, though, that the "pointy" vessels would be better for
straight
line acceleration. This, of course, is in NO way modelled in FT. In
fact,
the way FT works, the higher thrust ships have the higher spin rate due
to
spin and turn thrust being based on main drive thrust.

Sean Schoonmaker mentioned, a little while ago, that he'd like to see FT
with different main drive and turn thrust capabilities. I have to say
I'm
beginning to agree with him. It would allow for a lot of options. I'm
just
not sure if it would work well with the current vector movement that
allows
a ship to spin any number of hex facings for one thrust point.

I wonder if a simple rule change might make things more interesting.
When
spinning in vector movement (or if a ship is sitting still in cinematic
movement) it costs 1 thrust point to spin one or two points, and 2
points to
spin three turn points. That is, to spin up to 120 degrees costs one
point,
and to spin 180 degrees costs 2.

I could even happily try 1 thrust point per turn. A 1 point turn costs 1
spin point, a two point turn costs 2 points, etc. If you have a big, old
NSL
ship with thrust 2, you simply are NOT going to be able to spin it 180
degrees in one turn.

I'm not sure what this would do to existing Fleet Book designs.

Allan Goodall - agoodall@canada.com
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