Re: FT III: ECM. from originator

In response to John Huber's post:

I think each of your insights has validity in a futuristic space
combat.  To recap John's post:

Questions:

1]	Will activity [like combat] on the part of a ship increase its 
vulnerability to being targeted?

2]	Can fighters act as "forward observers" and "paint" targets or
at
least perform recon that will aid the fleet?

3]	How about weapons packages that contain transponders,
scramblers, and
other thingies that will act a "bell around the cat's neck"?

4]	[My 11 year old daughter came up with this] How about
"whiskers"?
	Unmanned probes that are released once a ship enters normal
space.	They would range far and wide gathering and transmitting data
that
warns ships of dangers, hazards, etc.  These could also be used in
military
roles ranging from recon to decoys.

Thanks for the space.

--
The problem that you will encounter is adding a further level of
difficulty
and complexity to the FT gaming system.  For most of these technologies,
the use of a referee is required, since the use of ECm and sensors
implies
that one opponent wants to conceal its plans and objectives and forces
from
the other opponent.

A similar scenario would be a Harpoon scenario involving submarine
forces.
A referee is mandatory for a "double-blind" system.

I would imagine that the role of the fleet searching for the enemy could
be boring for many players, so it would be customized to your gaming
group
and their particular styles of play.  It would provide incentives from 
a fleet design viewpoint for the corvette and scoutship designs for
use in a recon role.

Jon Davis
davis@albany.net