RE: Re: Cinematic vs. Vector movement

G'day,

> If you stop and follow the development of the vector
> movement rules (EFSB=beta test, FB1 = 1.0, FB2 = 1.1)
> I noticed that my suggestion was actually the original
> form of the rules.

Unfortunately a lots happened to the rest of the system in between which
also has to be kept in mind if things aren't going to fall over.

> In FB1, the main drive and maneuvers came from separate
> "pools" of thrust points and the ship was allowed only
> one each of Rotate and Push per turn, but some unscrupulous
> players took advantage of this and would burn the main drive,
> the rotate 90 degrees and thruster push in order to get more
> acceleration.

<sorry old rant coming on please skip to the next section>
I'm not having a go at you, but this "unscrupulous players" take many
people have on this still jars a bit for me. I can accept some people in
some groups didn't like it fullstop, fine don't allow it, but there were
other groups who had no problem with it but kept getting belted over the
head from afar because they didn't mind it... wonder how many Aces got
called unscrupulous for turning with their engines rather than against
them in WWI.

> Some of the systems in FT have recharge times of one or more turns. 
> While some systems in popular sci-fi have recharge times that
> affect the way the story unfolds, they are in terms of minutes,
> and the still affect the way that the ship is handled and fought....
> If you have long turns in order to justify a R-B-R-F sequence,
> then the special feature recharge time is lost as between 5%
> and 10% of the whole turn, where you cannot justify limiting
> the firing of the weapon every turn or having a special
> vulnerability of the ship when firing.  The same can be said
> for the Wave Motion Gun (takes several turns to recharge).

Unfortunately sometimes realism has to give a nod to game balance and
fun. Without the mechanic of reduced rate of fire some weapons would
just have to be exceptionally expensive to remain fairly in the game. 

> Additionally, battles in film, TV and novels, including single
> ship duels, often last mere minutes with a fatal conclusion for
> (at least) one combatant.  A 10-20 minute game turn means that a
> ship was reduced from undamaged to expanding cloud of debris in a
> single game turn.  I have never seen that happen with any FT capital
> ships that were not home-designed.

Happens a bit down here, with concentration of fire and disposable
ordinance, can depend on the habits of the individual players
admittedly.

> In the end, the Rotate-Burn-Rotate-Fire sequence can only
> be justified with a long game turn, which then causes many
> other PSB problems throughout the rest of the rules.

I think there's always going to be problems no matter which way you cut
it. I think the most likely way around the problem of satisfying as many
PSBs as possible is to have a number of possible solutions and then the
players can pick the solution that best matches the rest of their
setting. Some will probably remain with vector as it is, others will
adopt your suggestion, others still will adopt solutions bringing the
system closer to cinematic. Everyone's happier that way ;)

Cheers

Beth