RE: [LST] Attack Vector: Tactical RE: Stealth and Fighters

[owner-gzg-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

On Mon, Mar 15, 2004, Christopher Downes-Ward wrote:

>Me too ...

    I have to admit that I was surprised to see any mention of AV on this
list. I'm somewhat excited to see the actual game (some of the components
involved are quite interesting, and a part of me would like to try to use
box minis as cheap and easy-to-transport alternatives for when I'm too
cheap or lazy to buy/assemble/paint actual miniatures....

>My main interest was in the stealth logic and also a game that seems to
>want to avoid having WWII naval in space, I mentioned the VMS v Vector
>article because it mentioned Full Thrust.

    The AV logic on stealth is a defensible one. With current detection
abilities, the only thing that's going to provide a possibility of
stealth is either extremely long engagement ranges (multiple-AU) or
tactical FTL (if the ship travels faster than its emissions, you suddenly
have stealth again). Of course, PSB can also justify pretty much any
stealth assumptions.
    Star Cruiser (the 2300AD space combat game, which I think someone
mentioned) uses a combination of both. While there isn't actually
tactical FTL in the game scale, the drive used *is* the FTL drive and, as
such, has the wonderful feature of not being a reaction drive (and thus
being considerably less detectable than a reaction drive). The game also
uses fairly long detection ranges, and a slight lack of information as to
how good modern detection capabilities are (which, since it was published
before the full capabilities CCDs and computer processing were well-
known, is reasonable).
    A point which was specifically considered by AV (and Full Thrust) is
that detection is not the same as identification. Since in AV (as I
recall, but may be out of date on) a merchant transfer drive is (now)
fairly similar to a warship transit drive (the merchant drive just lacks
the high-thrust tactical combat "gear"), detecting a drive flare doesn't
necessarily tell you what type of ship you're dealing with. 
    This is essentially what FT's "black globe on the board" does as well
-- until a) you get close enough for imaging, or b) the target lights up
active sensors, or c) you get enough information on the target's drive to
identify it (which may or may not be possible, but I'm including by
analogy with today's identification of submarines on roughly similar
principles), you can't tell what you're facing. If there is a reaction
drive involved, you can get the *mass* of the target, but that still may
not let you tell a 100,000-ton warship apart from a 100,000-ton freighter
before getting fairly close.
    As such, stealth still exists in the AV universe (and could still
exist in FT), but it changes form. Instead of trying to conceal the
existence of your ship, you can try to make it look like something
harmless. I don't specifically recall any of the Ten Worlds powers
designing a warship class with the same (rough) mass and transit drive
characteristics of a common merchant ship, but it's something that could
be an interesting choice.

    As for fighters, I'm afraid I have to stand at least mostly behind
the write-up on them in AV. Of course, I don't use fighters in Full
Thrust when I play it, and that's part of the reason. In "realistic"
space combat games, fighters become useful when small ships can carry
weapons that can kill big ships as effectively as the weapons carried by
big ships. At that point there's no reason to build big ships, unless
it's to carry smaller ships, and you get something like a fighter/battle
rider situation. It's hard to justify having fighters and battleships in
the same universe (although FASA's Renegade Legion gave it a good try),
but since the purpose of having both in FT is for fun rather than for
realism, and since fighters *do* add to the fun quotient for some people,
it makes sense to have them.

    Wow, that was long. I guess I really want to avoid doing any more
work on my honours thesis right at the moment.

    -Brian Quirt

-- 
Brian Quirt <brianq@ncf.ca>
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