Dean's comments on FT

Dean

You said the decisions in FT boil down to 
1) where do I go
2) who do I shoot first
3) who do I shoot

And you're right. And who do I shoot first is a tactical decision. But,
I
may be alone on this, I don't think that it reflects RL - I don't think
it
even reflects fiction. I don't think in B5 the ships fired "when they
felt
like it". It had a lot to do with opportunity. Which is why the card
draws
are (to my mind) preferable to the simultanous fire option (though it is
the
best option for PBeM). 

Now, if you worry about that robbing FT of tactics, I can think of a
number
of things to answer that:
1) Fighters and missiles ( a whole other level of thinking req'd )
2) Sensor rules - then it becomes important to not only determine where
you
are going, but where you can place yourself to see stuff you or not be
seen
3) EW rules - EW handled in a less abstract way introduces another level
of
complexity (played SFB with ECM/ECCM?)

I think #2 is the big one. If you introduce to the game an aspect where
people have to make decisions about being active or passive with
firecontrol, where being seen is significant (without it, you are safe
and
can sneak up on an enemy) and where seeing the enemy can make the
difference
between being ambushed and doing the same to him, that's enough tactical
complexity for most of us. Too much for some :) 

The "shoot when you choose" option is easy to run and from a strictly
"game-fun" point of view, it works well. From a "simulation" point of
view,
its kind of weak. 

My 0.02. Now back to the compile...

Thomas Barclay
Software UberMensch
xwave solutions
(613) 831-2018 x 3008