re:FT3( - Fighters and ship speeds)

Jon Davis wrote:
>I am beginning to think that the fighter and missiles rules are based
on 
>some play test assumptions regarding the velocities of ships.

>Mike,
>	 Did Jon have any thoughts on ship velocities during playtesting
to 
>deal with these issues?

Well, please remember that the original FT ("FT1", the little yellow
book) 
was first published several years ago. It was in fact the collected 
spaceship rules that Jon had actually been playing for several years
before 
that (I think Jon says that he first started trying to play spaceships 
games back in the early 70s). Consequently, "FT1" was designed "on the
fly" 
what worked as a game and was fun stayed, what didn't work was thrown
out. 
The result a great little game. Then came FT (the glossy one). Unlike
DSII 
and SGII which were complete rewrites of the previous editions, FT in a 
glossy cover was just that - the only real change was the restriction on

firing into the rear arc (in "Ft1" you _could_ fire into the rear arc!).

So what you have in the current version if FT is pretty much the
original 
game with a few bells and whistles (and pretty graphics and photos). MT 
added several more bells and whistles.

Sorry, rambled a bit. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that here in the
UK, 
the _average_ size table is 6ft * 4ft. Houses over here are smaller than

most in the US, so there's not room for a bigger table usually.
Therefore 
FT _was designed for play on a 6*4_. On a table this size ships tend not
to 
move that fast and so there was no problem with fighters being limited
to a 
speed of 12". It worked and it was fun. 

As you chaps have played the game on bigger tables you have (rightly) 
discovered that if you have the room, your big ships can outrun
fighters. 
Fine, either explain it away with some appropriate PSB or invent your
own 
modified fighter rules....

Regards,

Mike Elliott, GZG