Re: [FT] A thought on that vector movement problem

***
>Jerry:
>>So, you haven't used more than 100% of the total thrust power of the
>>ship, but you have used up 200% of the *time* available in a single
game
>>turn - unless, of course, your ship manages to face in two separate
>>directions at once (but if it does, I'd say it is badly broken <g>).
***
>
>This assumes that, as I was assuming, that the max thrust is the full
>thrust that a CONTINUOUS burning engine throttled at full will put
>out over the course of the turn. According to others, this is not the
>way the rules are written. More a burp thrust.

I think what is going on is that Jon wrote the rules to be simple -
changing
speed by the amount of acceleration is simpler in terms of speed and
bookkeeping
than only changing it by half this turn and another half next turn.  Jon
may not
have even considered that idea when originally creating the rules (he
would have
to answer that himself).  But it definately feels like the simplest
mechanic -
very much in keeping with FT spirit.  Only later did the propeller heads
(most
people on this thread with a strong opinion - myself included) try to
reverse
engineer the 'real-life' systems that follow this game mechanic.

So simply put, Jon made a simple game mechanic, and we are trying to
force-fit
reality into it.  Instead of looking at the simplest realistic system
and
creating a mechanic that models it.  But I still think Jon did a pretty
bang-up
job all the way around.

Jared