Re: Space battle above, was Re: Land Battles on, Basilisk

On Fri, 15 Nov 1996, Oerjan Ohlson wrote:
> Someone on the net has an FT variant where most equipment is graded, 
> and you compare the grade of opposing things - eg, missile ECM vs 
> point-defence targetting - to modify the success chances.

	That sounds rather like my set of rules at 
http://meta.physics.ox.ac.uk/~ptolemy/full_thrust/ft.html
	I haven't posted them here yet because a) they're long and 
b) I'm not very happy with the way I've written them. 
	The basic idea is that each ship has a systems rating 
representing how advanced that ship's technology. The rating is not
an absolute scale. Which means that a value of +3 may be good or bad
depending on whether your opponent has a rating of +5 or -2. The 
difference in ratings is applied as a modifier to various die rolls.
	The system works well under different circumstances. In a Star
Trek game (with little or no EW) it allows for the steady upgrading of
technology without inventing lots of new systems. At the other extreme,
in EW heavy games it (when coupled with some minor modifications to the 
sensor and firing rules) makes for a game with some very different 
tactics but it does slow things down quite a bit. 
	I'll get round to writing a decent explanation and posting it.

> Finally, in FT the Fearless would have been in the rear arc of the 
> Q-ship, so it couldn't have been shot at ;)

	They were using missiles right? By the More Thrust rules you 
don't need to specify a target when you launch a missile. Logically, 
you can launch a missile, it flies away from you on a preprogrammed 
course that takes it away from your engine wash, turns to face the
chasing ship, goes active anf homes in. 
	Of course, if you're using a realistic movement system the
missile will inherit the launching ship's velocity and initial heading.
In my universe most missiles (and fighters) are luanched from stationary
or near stationary ships in order to give them some chance of hitting a
target before they fly off the table.

Steve

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|			Stephen Richard Pugh			     |
|   ptolemy@meta.physics.ox.ac.uk   steve.pugh@dial.pipex.com	     |
|		 http://meta.physics.ox.ac.uk/~ptolemy		     |
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