Computer Full Thrust

Just picked up FT and think they are a great set of rules.  The other 
day I downloaded Space Empires, and after getting FT2 I thought 
"Wouldn't it be cool to have a compute version?".  I have yet to see 
a computer space game solely dedicated to fleet combat like FT.

Why?
Mainly because it would be fun.  Another thing would be opponents.  
Imagine playing with players from all over the world.  You could play 
ladder games, tournaments, or campaigns.

Computer Full Thrust (CFT)
A computer version of FT should remain faithful to the miniatures 
game.  The simultaneous movement system is perfect for play over the 
net.  The miniatures rules look like they would translate nicely to 
the computer.  An interesting thing about a computer version is the 
ability to tryout different ship designs.

Ship Editor
I wonder why no one has made a program for ship designs.  I've seen 
the spreadsheets, I figure a computer program would be prefect for 
designing ships.  Players could design ships then trade them or post 
them on the net.  What would even be more interesting is to create a 
program that would allow you to import custom graphics for a ship 
design.  For example player could create a front, top, and side view 
that can be displayed in the program.  Components would be placed on 
the "Top" view just like the design sheets.  Players could select 
components from a palette of component types.

CFT Graphics
It would be nice to capture that miniatures feel in CFT, but I don't 
think it's necessary.  A simple overhead view using a hex based map 
would work.  What would really make it nice would be the ability to 
create your own ship icons.  For example in Space Empires 3 you can 
design your own ship styles or sets.  SE3 uses 20 icons, each icon 
represents a ship type.  For example icon1 would represent a scout 
ship, icon2 would represent a frigate, icon3 would represent a 
destroyer, and so on.  

AI
Always an issue in computer games.  Most of the space empire games 
I've seen (Stars! and SE) have "battle logic" or "battleplans" that 
are programmed by the player.  I'm thinking along the same lines 
except with a little more detail added.  Of course in a game like CFT 
you wouldn't need  these battleplans because the player is 
controlling every aspect of the ships operation.  You could develop 
what I call Battle Drills that could be used to make the computer 
play better.  In a campaign game you could use these battle drills to 
automate combat.  A collection of  battle drills covering certain 
situations would be called a doctrine template.  This is the players
warfighting philosophy directly translated into AI form.  The idea is 
to get the computer to fight as if the player was actually 
controlling the ships.

Hope I didn't offend anyone by my ideas.  If I was qualified to do 
the coding on a project like this I would.  Unfortunately I'm a 
newbie programmer so it will be a while before I'm proficient enough 
to do CFT.  I am thinking about doing a ship editor as a first time 
project.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
TJ
C 3/27 FAR (MLRS)
"3rd Strike"
ICQ:  1889495
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-