Re: B5 FT Adaptations (Long)

Geoffrey Stewart wrote
<<The grappled and grappling ships then move at the speed of the
grappling
ship,
modified by the mass ratio of grappled to grappling ship, as follows:

If target ships's mass < grappling ship's  mass 	Speed
If target ships's mass up to x2 > grappling ship's  mass	Speed/2
If target ships's mass up to x4 > grappling ship's  mass	Speed/4
If target ships's mass up to x8 > grappling ship's  mass	Speed/8

Round any fractions. If the result is 0, the target ship cannot be
towed, and
in any case, If the target ship's mass is greater than x8, it cannot be
towed.
Several ships may combine to tow a ship, in such a case their total mass
is
used, and the speed of the largest of them. If two or more are the same
size,
the fasted speed is used. An individual fighter has a mass of 1/2 for
these
calculations, thus a complete group has a mass of 3.
>>
This seems liable to abuse in two main ways:
1)  A whole fleet of thrust 1 ships of mass 2 and one thrust 8 ship of
mass 6
could tow a single tractored vessel and manouevre as if thrust 8 !!!
 (assuming the towed ship does not outmass the rest of the fleet)

2) A ship could tow its sister ship behind it into combat in reverse
thereby
gaining the benefit of a large number of rear firing ( to the towing
ship
anyway ) weapons.

I would propose restricting any course changes by the towing vessel to a
maximum of 1 point. This would partially compensate for these. I'm not
sure
how to go about it for a thrust 2 ship though - maybe 1 point change
every
2nd turn plotted during the first turn.

Also what happens if the towed ship powers up it drives? I could
understand
magnetic grapples breaking but what about mechanical ones, surely they
were
designed for these sorts of forces!

United Spaceways Starship Proteus  Captain Craig Mitchell commanding.
Transmission ends....Proteus out.