RE: Table positioning, etc...

On Wed, 30 Jul 1997, Tim Jones wrote:

> One of the benefits is backtracking. If you get the giant space cat or
child
> of just a lot of ships and an elbow and all the ships fall over. 
Re-setting 
> the
> ships up can be difficult. If you use absolute directions you can
reconstruct
>  the positions, if its off a relative datum you have no way of doing
this.

Lacking giant space virii near my gaming table, I've found the rare 
accident can be re-set with the agreement of both players. The headings 
(and positions!) won't be exactly the same, but as long as everyone 
agrees, who cares?

> Agreed the only record of the course is the position of the ship
counter/mini
> 
> I don't find	the movement rules ambiguous,

Namely:

"...nor do you need to keep track of their Course or velocity;" FT,
pg.16.

The fighter movement procedure refers to a normal movement procedure
that 
does not exist. If this does not lead to ambiguity, I don't know what
does.

See for yourself: Ships record their Course only as the heading of the 
miniature. Fighters are EXPLICITLY not required to record their Course.
Logically, this means fighter heading need not be recorded, i.e. the
mini 
can point any way and it doesn't matter. But why do fighters then have 
only 90 degree fire arc?

Yes, we all know what they *meant*. It's just not what they *wrote*.

> If you use the relative 'house' rule then the zero turn to any heading
you 
> suggest makes sense.

It does anyway. 

Counter-example:

Give me a table and two ships on it, a fraction of an inch apart, using
absolute directions and integer speeds. I will give you a static
asteroid
field that is not solid, but one of the ships can safely navigate
through
while the other can't. 

Does that sound realistic to you?

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