Re: Re: [GZG] Revised Salvo Missiles Update

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http://lists.csua.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lHell, screw the
guesswork altogether.  If we're given infinite space, and logically we
are, the best combat doctrine for deep space combat under FT ultimately
becomes to build a fleet of ships that are designed to never drop below
100 MU, that sport long enough ranged weaponry to basically point and
laugh at all the slowpokes with their B-3s and short ranged placed
weapons.  With enough of a mixture of fighters (largely for system
defense against slower moving enemies if you can't interdict them in
deep space) and stupidly large beams to resolve a variety of threats,
there really would be nothing an opponent could do about it but respond
in kind.  Yes, it'll take twelve weeks to resolve actual combat at any
scale, but when the future of your civilization is at stake, who cares? 
You're not winning quickly, but you're not losing, either.  If infinite
patience means you win every single battle against anything that doesn't
respond in kind, guess what?  If that's my home planet on the line, I'll
take infinite patience over gameplay fun any day of the stellar week.

At some point, Oerjan is right... flying at really stupidly high speeds
just makes too much sense for the ability to practically ignore
basically all of the most instant-death weapons in the game.  If we
don't assume that fighters can build up this kind of thrust, they become
useless, and the placed weaponry becomes useless in any case.  That
doesn't make for a game that I like either, which is why I usually play
on a fixed living room floor at relatively low speeds and let a bit of
strategic judgment with fairly good intelligence on where the enemy's
going to go and a bunch of dice rolling resolve the battles regardless
of the scale of the fleets.  The problem is, FT ultimately has no
mechanics other than player interest in quicker games and table space to
stop us from flying around like gnats on crack and hurling insults at
each other from the next planetary orbit.

E

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Roger Books 
  To: gzg-l@lists.csua.berkeley.edu 
  Sent: Monday, June 26, 2006 6:39 AM
  Subject: Re: Re: [GZG] Revised Salvo Missiles Update

  My recommendation to you is, if you don't like the mechanic, don't use
Salvo Missiles.
  If you want a direct fire weapon use one of the direct fire mechanics
and call it a missile. 
  The reason SMs use the mechanic they do is because they are extremely
powerful.
  If you can hit with them every time you can win every time.  What's
the fun in that.
  Personally I don't need an ECM race, the fighter/PDS race is bad
enough. 

  I also like the fact that you have to severely outguess your opponent
to make them
  work.  It's a challange.