On 1/18/06, Grant A. Ladue <ladue@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hmm, I think you should also consider that scuttling and/or abandoning ship
may be the only way to visibly demonstrate to the other side that you are no
longer a danger that needs to be shot at. This is certainly a reason why
ships were abandoned and scuttled in WW II. So long as they were afloat and
had crew aboard it was nearly impossible for the other side to tell whether
they were still a target that needed to be attacked or not. Typically the
other side wouldn't stop firing at a target until they could see the crew
abandoning ship or the target was obviously foundering.
In space combat, it might take the destruction of the target (scuttling) or
ejection of the power core (in the appropriate genre's) to convince the other
guy to stop firing on you. In such a circumstance, abandoning ship may be the
*only* chance to survive.
I think these thoughts play into the adopted conventions and combat
honor of the govenrmental/racial powers involved. If a gov't power/race
is known to send up the white flag of surrender, and then fire
upon the victors, it is very likely that future surrenders - whether or
not legitimate - would even be honored.
At the same time, on the flip side, you can then start modelling races
who will fire at a target until dead ("It's the only way to be sure"*,
refusing to take prisoners. ;-)
* translated from whatever language originally spoken into language understandable for readers of this thread
However, I think this really is outside the scope of FT games, and more in the realm of campaigns.
Hmmm, campaigns. Is that this thread or another? :dazed&confused:
Mk