Re: Supplement publication idea

John D. Hamill writes:

@:) In the real world, dramatic new tech doesn't really happen that
@:) much.  For example, tank cannons are outwardly the same since
@:) WWII, but a whole host of small incremental improvements have
@:) occured since then so that a modern M1A1 could take out any number
@:) of WWII tanks at little risk to itself.

  Agreed.  I don't think FT is very well suited to modelling
incremental changes, however, because of the fairly high level of
abstraction in the game.  Incremental ship class upgrades such as
those seen in SFB, for example, would be more difficult because of
FT's greater granularity.  Adding a C battery to an FT ship, for
example, is a significant change, while adding a phaser-3 to an SFB
ship is a very minor change.

  That being said, on a larger (time) scale incremental improvements
could be an interesting part of the game.

@:) So any space combat game that is going to cover different periods
@:) is going to come up against the same thing. If you want to say for
@:) example that the C batt. is the first one designed, then go right
@:) ahead. But why would old tach be used on new ships? Just something
@:) to think about.

  One alternate proposal is to allow the standard A, B and C batteries
to represent different weapons at different times.  There was a
discussion on this list about representing low-tech, near future
combat with FT.  Weapons available would be standard explosives, rail
guns, and possibly particle beam devices.  One could imagine designing
a situation like that one and then later rewriting it to represent
"the future" by simply changing the definitions of the weapons.
Changing the ships might not be necessary in such a case.

  The problem with this idea is that the game doesn't _feel_ any
different in the two times, and usually people prefer to have a
different feel to the game when it changes.  I think this was why the
Kra'Vak were introduced, and the Sa'Vasku and all the fancy weapons in
More Thrust - to avoid the "more of the same" syndrome.