Re: Fiddling with units

>From Noah Doyle [nvdoyle@midlink.com]:

>Actually, one of my sticking points for the DS2/FT interface is that 1
turn
>be the same length in both systems.  This allows simultaneous play to
be
>resolved in a much better fashion, and gives a better feel.  I also
like
>the 15 min space turn - it goes more towards sub combat than the
>fighters-in-space feel (which has it's place, but not in my FT games). 
Low
>thrusts don't bother me - they work fine for either straight FT (hey,
it's
>a reactionless drive - I don't *care* how inefficient it is) or Low
Tech FT
>(this is what you got - now fly it, sailor).  The 7500km/15 min setup
is a
>little better - most planets are on-table, and you're talking about
some
>hefty boosts in the smaller ships - 4 gs is nothing to sneeze at (and
when
>your fighters boost at 24 gs - yikes).  You want those compensators to
>avoid the 'Flattened Crew Syndrome'. We're not up to the Star Trek
'Chunky
>Salsa' problem, but FT ships don't go from rest to 0.5c in seconds. 
But
>back to the original position, it's also far more elegant to have a 1:1
>space/ground turn ratio; situations can be resolved simultaneously, in
a
>much easier fashion.

Hm. I don't play the ground games, so for me the compatability is
secondary. I threw it in since, if
you wanted to change the space timescale only, you could  without much
disruption of the ground
game. In fact a 3 space turn-one ground turn reflects a more realistic,
I think, description of the
relative speed of the respective combat types. You can see the big
furball up in high orbit raging,
with ships erupting and careening, then "Meanwhile, on the planet..." we
see troops creeping through
the underbrush or city streets with the occasional assault (why am I
thinking of the climactic
battle of The Return of the Jedi?. Perish the thought.).

Taking space combat alone, I like the 1MU=1 1000 km (It's less
improbable for a heavy beam to reach
36000 km than more than halfway to the moon), but the thrusts are better
if the turn is 5 minutes.
That way a thrust 8 corvette or courier can pull 6 G's if it needs to,
and a hulking thrust 2 DN can
vibrate the deck plates at 1.5 G. It would probably require a blackout
roll (1 in 6) for pilots of
fighters that exceed some high G threshold (Failure results in figher
out of comission for 1-6
turns). I think the space combat environment should have a unique feel
_between_ 'fighters in
space,' 'wet-navy,' and 'sub combat.' Leave sub combat for the subs! :-]