Re: [GZG] Full Thrust Playtest

["john tailby" <John_Tailby@xxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Laserlight" <laserlight@xxxxxxxxxxx>

> As requested:
>
> First off, if you have any AARs that went out to the list and didn't get 
> an
> adequate response, send a copy (or archive links) to me offlist 
> (laserlight at verizon dot net)
> and I'll  respond. Not that I'm the Official Voice of the Playtest List, 
> but I usually
> have a decent idea of why a rule is the way it is (for FT or SG--I've 
> played
> DS III a couple of times but I haven't been following it intensely)
My group sent in our copy of the rules we use to play our games. The last 
response we received was that they would be passed on to the playtest list.
I don't believe we had any further contact.So not very motivating to 
maintain any contact. Also the test group needs to provide regular updates 
on progress even if it is "no progress this month". Things that stay in Alpa 
test or beta test status without progressing for years look like they are 
final or inactive. If this is actually an active project then it's progress 
needs to be visible.

Typically when playtesting these things you need a test plan.

You need a fighter heavy fleet to go up against the "basic ships" from fleet 
book one. You need to do this against most if not all of the fleets because 
some fleets might be better able to cope than others and unless you want to 
reinvent the old ship designs they need to be competitive. The older design 
ships act as your control group to ensure that there are no weapons / creep 
where the latest system is the best.

If you want to solicit input from the list I suggest you put together a list 
of specific games you want to see people plan and an idea of how you want 
the fleets composed and the rules you want people to be especially wary of.

In our games we found that EMP weapons as written are very powerful. Hit the 
ship with 3 hits and every system is knocked out on a 4+ threshold check. We 
changed the EMP mechanism so that you get one hit per hit inflicted and the 
damage roll is on a 6 for one hit and improves to a 4+ after 3 hits. 
Specific hits can be allocated against any system the sensors can identify. 
BTW organic ships really hate EMP weapons. If your engines get knocked out 
then it takes about all your power to generate the 2 rolls on a 4+ to get 
them back on line. Human ships with a couple of damage control parties can 
fix the EMP system at the end of the turn. Under the EMP rules as written 
the organic tech ships would have a terrible time trying to recover from 
EMP.

Having played with organic tech and against it, if I knew I was going up 
against organic tech EMP would be the first weapon I'd pick.

Because we don't use standard FT rules our groups games don't make for good 
playtest games.

If you did get copies of our rues and are interested in seeing reports of 
our games we should be able to provide you with quite a bit of information.

John





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