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

Mikko spake thusly upon matters weighty: 
> > What's the point in that?  
> 
> There's no shooting during movement in FT. Two ships, 40" away,
> facing head on, with 40" speeds will not be able to shoot at each
> other (assuming max cl-3 beams) even though the pass within a hair's
> breadth. There are a number of uses for this.

Yes, but they'd involve taking advantage of rules. In RL (or what 
would pass for), you could fire as you passed. 
 
> Well, let's try this for size: Your vanilla sensor range is 72",
> IIRC. By hitting three-digit-speeds, you can be on top of a
> well-known enemy (space stations, docked ships, ships in orbit etc.)
> without giving them any time to react.

And I'd probably court martial the captain whose ship speed exceeded 
the sphere of his own sensor capability.  That's just plain stupid, 
unless you have current recon from someone else. 
 
> Ofcourse it's a bit harder to do with a moving target, but the basic
> principle remains the same: The higher the pass speed, the less time
> he has to shoot at you while jockey for position. I could imagine a
> high-thrust, lots of class-1 beams ship built to do something like
> this. 

That's because of the incremental nature of the game. If things were 
continuous instead of discrete turns, you'd modify course and fire on 
the fly thus negating this 'ploy'.  

> It doesn't even have to work. Just possibility that it *might* work
> will encourage someone to *try* to pull it off, resulting in a game
> about as fun as having your teeth pulled ("My ship is looping around
> your neighbor's front lawn for another attack pass").

ROTFL
 
> Or maybe your goal is to exit ships intact off the defender's table
> edge... the higher the speeds get, the more glaring is FT's lack of
> shots _en_passant_.

True enough. 

> I for one want to finish the game before midnight more than I want
> to win. Therefore I don't do quite everything I legally could to
> maximize my chances, playing "seat-of-pants" instead. 

There can be a happy medium. The question is does it matter more if 
you win or have fun? I know my answer :)