Re: Full Thrust vs Starmada

>> But Jon definitely feels some settings demand fighters that are
immune to anti-ship weapons, and leans towards making fighters harder to
use. And making them harder to use without making the game hard to learn
is a challenge. <<

> Hmm, sounds like this one of those cases where a "setting specific"
rule is going to be needed. Of the settings that I can think of where
fighters are anti-ship immune, the fighters themselves are the main
anti-fighter weapons. As such, you'd be crazy to *not* take PDS and
fighters to counter the other guy's fighters in those settings. Why not
make the "fighters are targetable" rule be the default in the GZG
setting, but explain how the system would work in other "non-targetable"
settings? I know it's not ideal to have a system that doesn't work for
all settings, but this may just be a case where there isn't a system
that will work for all settings. <

My initial reaction to this is to think that this is putting the cart
before the horse. Surely it's simpler to have the targetable fighters
rules as optional add-ons in the way that they are now -- keep things
simple and add complexity as desired for the appropriate setting(s). If
that requires a note to the effect that FB designs assume the use of
these optional rules, then so be it; it's still a lot simpler and neater
than to have to take something _out_ when playing in a fighter-heavy
sub-genre.

And, when all's said and done, the effectiveness of massed fighters does
reflect historical experience -- not in space, of course, but certainly
in terms of wet-navy ships and aircraft.

Phil
----
"I think... I think I am! Therefore I am... I think?" -- The Moody Blues
I think _I_ am Phil Atcliffe (atcliffe@perdicas.fsnet.co.uk)