Fighter Fixes was Re: Re: Re: [GZG] Revised Salvo Missiles Update

[Robert N Bryett <rbryett@xxxxxxxx>]

Yuk! *This* is the future direction of FT? The game that's supposed  
to be quick and fun to play? Really?

One of the great attractions of FT is that it generally doesn't  
require lots of plusses, minuses and modifiers. This seems to take  
mechanisms that are *mostly* optional rules in FT2.5 and make them  
core in FT3, and a *lot* of extra chits, markers etc. are going to be  
needed to keep track of screening, escorting, evading etc.

Apart from the complexity, this "fighter fix" also smuggles in some  
pretty major changes to other non-fighter "ordnance"-style systems:

1) Arbitrary bonuses for certain weapons systems: "Salvo Missile,  
Plasma Bolt, and AMT markers AUTOMATICALLY gain a -3 target DRM to  
any non-PD-mode fire against the marker." Why? For example, an AMT  
has the same mass as a Heavy Missile, so why should it be harder to  
hit? In fact the privileged projectiles that receive this -3 DRM seem  
to be not just harder, but *impossible* to hit with non-PD weapons,  
while Heavy Missiles are laughably easy to knock down (see next  
comment).

2) Evasion and missile range: The "burn an endurance point for  
evasion" rule is very hard on standard Heavy Missiles which have only  
three CEF, greatly reducing their effective range if they evade. My  
feeling is that missile ranges are already short compared with beams,  
and this only exacerbates this. On any turn when an HM *doesn't*  
evade, by the way, a B4 anti-ship battery (for example) could knock  
it down with one shot at 48mu as easily as a dedicated PDS would at  
point-blank range! That feels completely artificial and gamey, and  
*certainly* puts my suspension-of-disbelief meter in the red zone.

Finally I was left a bit gob-smacked by this comment: "Similarly the  
fighter morale rules are GONE. They were always dubious from a PSB  
point of view (why would robotic fighters be scared of being  
destroyed?)".
Since when have FT fighters been robotic? With the exception of the  
Cylons in Blunderstar Gargantua, does any movie or TV background  
feature robotic fighters? The whole *point* of space fighters is so  
that spunky young things with great hair and teeth can zoom round the  
galaxy packing attitude and disobeying orders...

Best regards, Robert Bryett
rbryett@xxxxxxxx

On 27/06/2006, at 5:43 PM, J L Hilal wrote:

> Beta fighter rules from the list archives
> http://lists.firedrake.org/gzg/200403/msg00286.html

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