Re: Marking extrapolated ship locations

_Almost_

Be aware however that it is both legal and reasonable to do a full burn
of
the main drive, as well as full burn of the thrusters - of course, these
pushes would be perpendicular to the facing - any pilot who burns the
main
drive on full and the retro thrusters on full over the course of the
entire
turn should be shot.  But in any case, you end up with a move of 8.94
(call
it 9) which is offset from the main course a bit.  But this is a far cry
from the silly idea of 11.

At 10:45 AM 8/14/98 -0900, you wrote:
>The problem with these maneuvers 'outside the envelope' is an incorrect
>assumption of what valid orders are.  While the rules allow silly
>constructions like this, common sense does not.  I will try to point
out
>how common sense in orders will alleviate this difficulty.
>
>If we assume you have a main drive of 8, with thrusters of 4, this
would
>seem to imply that my applying the full power on your main drive over
the
>course of the turn will change your velocity by 8 in the direction of
your
>facing, right?  And that burning your thrusters over the full course of
the
>turn could push you perpendicular to your facing a maximum of 4.
(again,
>keeping with the magical handwaving to erase the fact that it's really
only
>half that, but at least staying with the same inconsistency everyone
else
>is.)

<snip lengthy examples>

Hmm, if I understand your examples, a quick hack comes to mind:

Everything is a "push"; you have main drive pushes and thruster pushes.

Because the main drive is larger and more efficient than the thrusters,
it
generates a 1" push for every unit of thrust you expend.

Thrusters, being smaller and less efficient than the main drive only
produce a 1" push for every 2 units of thrust you expend.  (Or a 0.5"
push
for every point you expend if you don't mind dealing in half-inches)

Rotation would remain the same.

You may spend any number of units of thrust up to the rating of your
drive
on pushes or rotations in any order.

This should achieve what you describe quickly and easily.

Jeff