Re: FT III Wishlist

Here is my wish for FT III, - rules for operations around a planet! 

Following the basic(simple) rules for fighting around a planet:

Planetary Bodies:

Put a 14” circle on the board ( Earth class planet),
use string to mark off 28” circle ( 14” space around planet) around
planet (
represents “noticable” Gravity Field.) 

1. Any craft that crosses into space between planet and string must do
two
things.
	A. Add thrust of 1” towards plant at end of turn.
	B. Turn Line-of Flight one hour towards planet (if this results
in facing
the planet directly, 1/2 the arc.)  It should be noted that under a
Newtonian
system this step is unneccessary.

2.  Any ship over speed of 6” within 1” of planet takes d6 damage from
atmosphere.

3. Space stations circle planet at any distance from planet but move
anywhere
from 6” to 0.5” per turn depending on whether GM picks a fast turn or
short
turn, & the height of orbit ( the lower or closer to the planet the
faster
the satellite moves!) For example Low Earth Orbit (100 miles) is 90
minutes,
while Geosynchronic (22,400 miles) is 24 hours.

4. Fighters (or missles) may come up from planet at any point, but first
move
is always to a point 2” off planet ( this is for getting off 1G field
and
going though atmosphere.)

Planet Diameters ( using a uniform estimates of diameter):
Mercury 	5”
Venus		13”
Earth		14”
Mars		7”
Jupiter 	148”
Saturn		125”
Uranus		54”
Neptune 	53”
Pluto		6”
Luna		3”

NOTE: Large Astronomical Bodies (LABs) (using inverse square laws) would
have
a gravity gradient. That is to say a three gradient field around a
Jupiter
sized object would be a 1:2:4=7.   a 42” space(6x7) would be divided up
into
three spaces starting from surface; 6” at 4X, 12” at 2X, 24” at 1X.

For real fun try a black hole -> 14" circle at
1:2:4:8:16:32:64:128:whoops!

This is meant to be an introductory set of rules, and they certainly
need to
be polished up.  But I think they might be fun!