Re: Detection

On 20-Apr-00 at 11:10, John M. Atkinson (john.m.atkinson@erols.com)
wrote:
 
> In 1817 the state of the art of sensor technology was an 18-year old
kid
> on a horse on a hill wearing tights and a ridiculous hat.  What makes
> you think he could imagine a sonar suite?  Why should we be able to
> predict the details of a sensor system equally far in our future?
> 
> John M. Atkinson

Hand waving is fine, just don't expect your handwaving to be any better
than anyone elses hand waving.

Here is what I would like, skip all the hard science, hand waving,
it works this way in the present day so it will work this way in
the future.

 I want tension as ships close.  I want a period of "Is that a 
dreadnought or a heavy cruiser pretending to be a dreadnought".
I want my opponent to possibly wonder, is everything on the
board is is something sitting, weapons and systems down, waiting
for me to blunder into it much as Weber does in his books.

Sure, a ship lights off its drive and we get clues.  If we know
our opponent and we see contact BR549 accelerating at thrust 2
we can make a fair guess there is a capital ship in the group.
We get a little closer we can see that the mass of the ship,
assuming nobody is playing EW games to make themselves appear
bigger/smaller to our sensors.	We get in firing range we
get to see the ship.  We get close and we can estimate damage
(look at the SSD).

Does this sound reasonable?  Do you like a little tension and
imperfect information in the game or do you want to be
omnipotent?

I want to be able to have a battle.  In the situation you are
discussing ships will NEVER fight save as a last ditch defense.
You pop in system, I know what ships you have, I decide if I
have more capabilities than you do and, if I do I stay, if
I don't I leave.  You look at me and realize I have 2 SDNs to
your BDN, you leave.  It would require a fool to stay.	So
now the game is down to:  I pop in with more my opponent leaves
or does a quick pass to blow up a ship or 2 with SMs before hitting
the road.

Roger