Re: GenCon Review with a GZG Emphasis (part 3 of 4)

On Tue, 11 Aug 1998, Allan Goodall wrote:

> and a battledreadnought virtually untouched. At this point, the game
> ended in a slight bit of controversy. The battlerider player was,
shall
> we say, liberal with his turning and moving. He had a tendency to turn
> his ships inaccurately, while his ships tended not to move straight
but
> to drift a bit. On the second last turn he had placed the two
> battleriders near the edge of the table at a speed of 18. Knowing the
> criticality of the next move and the player's penchant for inaccurate
> movement, I measured the movement myself and determined that the
> battleriders should slide off the table. At a speed of 18, there was
no
> way either ship should be able to stay on the table. Funny enough,
when
> the player moved his own ships, they miraculously hugged the table
edge.
> With Dean and the other player as witnesses, I used referee discretion
> and declared the ships off the table, and thus classed as mission
kills.
> The game went to the SD player. 

While I have no love for these "creative measurement" guys, I find the
concept of "falling off the edge of space" patently ridiculous.

Oh well... I guess it could be called "selective realism". E.g. it's
"cool" that ships in FT can fly at unlimited speeds, but does anyone
ever
use even three-digit speeds? Even if it would convey a significant
advantage (especially when combined with free pre-measurement)? No, it's
too much hassle (until someone really, *really*, REALLY wants to win).

Btw: I recently had time to read through all the MARS magzines I have. 
This is probably old news for most of you, but there was an absolutely
fabulous article on FT in MARS#2, I recall, nicely illustrating the
mindset of some gamers. The guy had even built a weapon system around
the
FTL-out-near-other-ships bug... 

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