Re: [VV] Vectorverse FTL

Hi folks,

Interesting discussion so far.	I've followed the jump-gate-assault part
of
the thread quite closely, and it has got me thinking about the kind of
game
I'd want to play.

I suggest that, given the difficulties/challenges presented (on both
sides
of the discussion), we should look at answering the question "what kind
of
game do we want to play" (given that this is *not* a discussion about
creating a setting purely for fiction, but as a basis for wargaming
also).

Personally, I have zero interest in a game that has off-table-launched
massive missile strikes aiming at billion-tonne fortresses though a jump
gate.  Dull, dull, dull.  You fire a hundred missiles through the gate,
now
I fire a hundred missiles back, I roll a hundred dice, ok, now you roll
a
hundred dice...  Bleh.

So, what kind of game do people want to play?  We can work backwards
from
that to decide on how FTL will work, and that will drive the PSB.

Having said that, I want something that is flexible, but doesn't enable
the
missile-through-the-warp-gate thing.  I like the idea of fleets being
able
to FTL on their own, and also the idea that *some* systems are connected
by
a much-faster system (gates, warp routes, whatever), so you can PSB a
network of collonization routes/patterns (the more densely populated
areas
are along the warp routes 'cause that's how people get around
*cheaply*).
This leads to a "hub-and-spoke" sort of distribution, which is good from
a
fiction point of view (is my nation a hub of commerce in the middle of a
warp route network, or am I an isolated single-planet off in the middle
of
nowhere competing against some other smaller powers off in the middle of
nowhere; it doesn't have to be all about superpower vs. superpower, but
it
can have that too.).  From a gaming point of view, this leads to both
"assault the warp point" sort of games, and "we all FTL in from wherever
we
want to start the assault" sort of games.  You can play big empires with
massive fleets, and you can play minor powers in the backwater fighting
off
well-armed pirate raiders, where noone has anything bigger than a light
cruiser...

So, I would like to see a "combination" approach (as has been
discussed),
with multiple forms of FTL, because it makes for a more interesting
setting.  Something akin to the Honorverse:  ships require a jump drive
to
FTL, you can FTL anywhere relatively slowly, but if you want to get far
and
do it fast, you use fixed jump routes/warp points that have limited
destinations (and do NOT require fixed "gate" technology);  and as a
corollory, you can't jump through one of these warp points without a
jump
drive, and they're much too big to put into missiles.  Then, add in a
traveller-tech-level sort of limit to how jump drives work.  Perhaps at
the
lowest-level of tech, FTL is possible (jump-1 or 2 in traveller terms)
allowing practical travel (within the limits of onboard fuel, supplies,
life support) over relatively short distances.	And this level *cannot*
use
the fixed jump routes/warp points/gates/whatever.  The next level up
allows
faster and further travel, and using the fixed routes.	The highest
level
does the same, but faster (the "tech levels" could correspond to
Laserlight's Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 powers).  

A Tier-1 power in this sort of framework would probably represent a
multi-planet nation who has access to a warp route network.  You could
design two types of fleets for these nations:  The "expiditionary"
fleets
have powerful jump drives allowing extended operations outside the
warp-route network.  This fleet is your "striking" element.  You could
also
build "defensive" fleets, with ships that have weak jump drives - just
enough to enable the use of the warp route, and maybe jumping to nearby
systems just off the route. They don't *need* bigger, more expensive
warp
drives, and can devote more mass to fighting systems;  but they are most
likely only going to deploy within their home network (a defensive
force,
but capable of rapidly redeploying within your space).	So, within one
power, you have the opportunity for designing lots of different types of
ships and have it make sense...

SO anyway, you can have systems with fixed jump route points, and you
can
play "attack the fixed point defenses" if you like.  You could create a
defense based around fixed stations and maybe minefields.  Or you could
use
mobile fleets. Whatever you like. At the same time, you don't *have* to
have fixed jump route points in your nation.

Minor additional note - I like the idea of warp-points being fixed in
space
within a system (ie, they don't move, thereby not *orbiting* the system,
so
stations must have manoever drives).

-Adrian

***************************************

Adrian Johnson
adrian@stargrunt.ca
http://www.stargrunt.ca

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