Re: FTL Communication

Laserlight wrote:
> Well, I own a copy of Trillion Credit Squadron...but I haven't
> seen it for 15 years or so (if anyone had a copy you'd like to
> get rid of, let me know offlist).  What method is described?

	Nothing earth shattering.

	It just methodically explains how a patient referee
	keeps track of everything, and only tells each squadron
	commander what information has reached them.

	Military assets not directly under control of a player
	have extensive contingency orders drawn up, which are filed
	with the referee.

	Military communiqués are given a destination and filed
	with the referee.  The ref calculates the transit time.
	When the xboat courier reaches said destination, the communiqué

	is given to all authorized personnel.  Or unauthorized if
	the courier is intercepted by hostile forces and the
	message distruct malfunctions.

	So at any given time, a squadron commander only knows what
	ships are in the same system with them, and what they are
	told by their received communiqués.
	The Sky Marshall would do well to give lots of autonomy
	to the squadron commanders under them, as micro-managing
	with such time lags doesn't work.

	If the game lacks a referee, perhaps an adaptation of the
	system in THE FIFTH FRONTIER WAR could be used.

	In that system, communiqués work as normal.
	For fleets, however, everybody can see where all the fleets are,
	enemy and friendly. (this represents general info you get from
	neutral merchant traffic)

	The catch is: each fleet commander must pre-plot their fleet
	movement from system to system *several turns in advance!*

	In TFFW, each fleet was commanded by an admiral, who had a
	"leadership rating".  This rating specified how many turns in
advance
	that fleet had to plot its movement.

	Due to the weirdness of Imperial politics, you might wind up
with
	your best fleet commanded by the sector governor's idiot nephew,
	who is incapable of finding his derrière with both hands.
	Tough.

	If you go *real* lucky, you could get an Imperial Writ, which
	would allow two of your fleets in the same system to swap
	admirals.