Re: FT-Fighters and launch bays

On Wed, 6 Jun 2001 17:23:15 -0400, "stranger" <stranger@cvn.net> wrote:

>What I was trying to say though, is that in competition games, maybe
only
>"official" designs should be used.  This gives everyone an idea of what
they
>could face.  Everyone starts on the same footing.

For the GenCon tournament games, we (well, Dean Gundberg, mostly) built
some
fleets based on "official" designs, but we also allowed players to
submit
their own designs. 

Now, to balance it, Dean came up with a really good idea. Players had to
have
at least one capital ship. For each capital ship they had to have at
least one
cruiser. For each cruiser they had to have at least one escort. Fitting
that
into a 1500 point limit, and the fact that no ship could equal or exceed
750
points (including fighters with carriers), it kept things fairly even.
No one
tried a soap bubble carrier or anything like that. I'm not sure if it
would
work or not. It might. It's something someone should test...

>I've always seen Full Thrust as a game meant (and needing) to simulate
a
>specific background, even if its made up by the local gaming group. 
Any
>wide open point based system like Full Thrust, and the Hero system
among
>others is broken without a set of limiations.	Playing in an agreed
genere
>usually provides those limitations.

I have to agree. You need to have limits to the ship designs. There are
too
many design "niches" that you can exploit. You may not want to put
limits is
when creating a campaign game. But, in those cases, you have feints and
probes
to get an idea of your opponent's design philosophy. You also may not
want to
put limits on a tournament, if your tournament has -- say -- multiple
rounds
with the loser able to make any design changes they want, but the winner
can't. (In which case, that soap bubble carrier is going to win once,
and then
lose the next round.)

>It is my belief, though I could be wrong, that the game was not
designed to
>be a
point-based-build-the-deadliest-cheapest-fleet-and-detroy-everyone-game
>like GW games tend to be.  I had the impression that the game was wide
open
>to let people make up, or play in the sci-fi genree's that they love.

Yeah, that's my impression too. The point system is only to act as an
aid in
balancing ships. I prefer scenarios, myself. I like games where one side
may
be badly outnumbered, but the victory conditions give them an even
chance of
winning. I also like campaigns, but I don't know of anyone willing to
put the
time into one.

Allan Goodall		       awg@sympatico.ca
Goodall's Grotto:  http://www.vex.net/~agoodall

"Now, see, if you combine different colours of light,
 you get white! Try that with Play-Doh and you get
 brown! How come?" - Alan Moore & Kevin Nolan, 
   "Jack B. Quick, Boy Inventor"