Re: Full Thrust

Hi Andrew.  Since you asked on the FT list, I figure I'll post my reply.
^_^  (He originally sent this to the Epic ML, and I replied via e-mail.)

At 04:12 PM 4/9/99 +0100, you wrote:
>I just organised our first Full Thrust game between my two sons.  
Quite
>good although in play the movements and weaponry give very much on the
>"aircraft" model of space combat.    

Try vector movement.  It changes things fairly dramatically, and doesn't
have too much of a learning curve (IMO, but then I'm an engineer...).

Anyway, the regular FT movement is called "cinematic" for a reason --
it's
supposed to simulate what you see in the movies, say (oh, a random pick
^_-
) the Star Wars films.

>As I have previously noted I feel space
>combat "really" would be more like old-sailing ship combat with gravity
>wells providing the effects of "wind" and the game being much more
>positional.   

Gravity is far, far too weak a force to have an effect, unless you're
talking turns that take days.  There is no "official" time scale in Full
Thrust, but various mathematically-inclined members of the FT mailing
list
figured that, if 1 thrust is 1 G, turns are about 15 minutes long. 
(Don't
recall the distance 1" is, but they figured that, too.)  Not much time
for
gravity to have an effect, and sitting in a close pass trajectory for a
planet is likely to get you nailed.

Although, if you see a grander scheme of things, there is a set of pages
out there by Keith Watt, Solar Thrust, that drops FTL travel and uses
thrust of ~0.01 G per point.  Though you should also drop cinematic
movement... I don't have the URL handy, alas, but I'm sure someone can
provide it.

>Full thrust is far more about speed and the ability to turn to
>effectively bring weapons to bear - not to mention guessing the move of
your
>opponent

Tell that to people who have enemy ships get behind them!  It's a fun
place
to be.... ^_^  Besides, using single-arc "gunships" can fit a good
number
of guns onto a small ship, and you've gotta be good to figure out where
you
opponent'll go so you can get him in arc.  The provided FT ships don't
have
this problem... but also don't have that kind of concentration of
firepower.

>The "annoying" bit was my eldest son kept moving his ships to light
speed
>whenever he started losing.
[snip]
>Is this a problem with Full Thrust for others - people using FTL
failure as
>a weapon?

Mainly it gets houseruled out -- the usual reason given is that FTL
travel
is possible only far outside a system, where combat is rare.  (Gravity
gradients, or some such -- see Pournelle's CoDo future history Alderson
Drive.)

On the other hand, it can play a fairly large role in scenarios, Narn
vs.
Centauri for a B5 example.  The FTL-out rules are generally one of those
"both players should agree before using" questions.

>Interested to hear back.

Hope this helps!

					Aaron Teske
					ateske@HICom.net
LAUNCH DAY!
A totally unprovoked attack on peaceful neighbors. Must be the race 
file. Does strange things.
		--Rick Kucejko, on the War Monger PRT in Stars!