Re: Marking extrapolated ship locations

Well, I think we are visualizing 2 different systems, like you said.  My
perception is based on how things are built now, as well as the FTFB
description on pg.3 Starting the paragraph 'Manoevering Thrusters' - "In
addition to the main drive, all ships have THRUSTERS - small drives
positioned in clusters around the ship..."  In addition, the silly
maneuver
of getting a velocity shift of 11 from thrust 8 drives (which started
this
thread) seems to require the same interpretation.

I have never looked at EFSB (I've only seen 1 complete B5 episode - at
it
was the hokey one - life and times of 2 b5 service techs...) and the
Third
Space special - so b5 is very low on my list of influences.

Having said that, as I was starting to write my description of how to
help
solve the problem, I was thinking of just what you have described - but
then realized it really doesn't encompass quite enough, and would
therefore
be unsatisfactory to many (especially those who want more physics, or
even
fuel requirements.)  The combined Main/thruster technique you describe
is
more similar to cinematic drives, while the dual system is more similar
to
how we do things today.  As to why not handle them separately - I think
that's just an issue of compatability.	If you split the drives into 2
independant systems and buy them at varying levels, your Vector designs
are
then different from your Cinematic designs - whereas now you simply use
different rules with the same designs.

But It may be interesting to accomodate your idea of a ship with no Main
Drive.	Let's look at how we could do that.  first start with a standard
design - when you want to use it in Vector rules, decide the split of
Main/Thruster as below.

A thrust 8 standard design, by my interpretation, is a combination of
Th8
maindrive and Th4 thrusters.	Take the thrust designated in the design
and double it.	Use those points to 'buy' Main/Thruster points.  Main
Drive
at 1/1, Thruster at 2/1.  It might be fun to run around with a light
cruiser that has a Main Drive thrust of 12, but only 2 points of
thruster.
Or conversely, your idea of no Main Drive - Thruster rating of 8, but no
main drive at all.  In this case I would allow you use your thrusters in
place of your main drive - but every point spent turning does reduce the
thrust available for other activities.	Less overall drive power, but
your
can output your entire thrust in any direction you choose - might make
for
some strange flight.

BTW, this also makes it easy to design Kra'vak drives - they buy
thrusters
for 1/1.

Jared Noble

Jeff Lyon <jefflyon@mail.utexas.edu> on 08/14/98 12:50:34 PM

Please respond to FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk

To:   FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
cc:    (bcc: Jared E Noble/AAI/ARCO)
Subject:  Re: Marking extrapolated ship locations

At 01:07 PM 8/14/98 -0900, you wrote:
>_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.

Hmm.

Sounds like we're visualizing two different systems here.  What you are
describing is two different independently-powered ship's systems; a main
drive and a set of maneuvering thrusters.  What I thought we were
discussing was a single drive system which could channel its thrust
through
either the main drive or the thrusters, but not both.  Guess my idea is
a
holdover from FT2 and the EFSB.

If it is as you describe, why not install thrusters independent of the
main
drive; why limit yourself to the 1:2 ratio that exists now?  Why can't I
buy extra maneuvering thrusters?  In fact, what if I don't want a main
drive at all; just 360-degree maneuvering thrusters?  Do we make
separate
threshold checks for the thrusters independent of the main drive?  Or
for
each individual thruster?  What if your port side thrusters are knocked
out, but the starboard ones still work?

I'm not flaming you, just brainstorming.  This might be perfectly valid
for
lower-tech near future backgrounds, it's just not quite what I was
visualizing.

Jeff