Re: [GZG] A new vector movement system

 From a realism point of view, I'm dubious about the "Retro-thruster"  
idea. It seems to be a refinement of the "Thruster Push" mechanic  
from FT2.5 vector, which I've never liked.

We house-rule "thruster-pushes" out of the existing FT vector system,  
and only allow thrusters to pivot the ship. All changes to the	
overall trajectory of the ship require the use of the main engines.  
This house-rule reflects the fact that extremely large, powerful and  
heavy engines would be required to achieve significant accelerations  
to spaceships massing hundreds or thousands of tonnes with any	
reasonably foreseeable technology. The standard FT vector rules have  
the ships' manoeuvring thrusters deliver half the acceleration as the  
main engines, which seems improbable.

The proposed rules at least restricts the thruster-push to operating  
as "retro-rockets". This is good. However, it still implies a pretty  
huge engine in the nose of the ship, capable of delivering half the  
thrust of the main engine. A T6 frigate for example would have a T3  
retro-engine for example. That sounds as if we should apply the  
"blind-sector" rule (assuming we're playing it) to the nose of the  
ship as well as the tail.

A second, half-size, retro-engine would be wasted mass for some  
ships. A fast courier for example would probably be better off	
ditching it to achieve better acceleration from its main engine.  
IMHO, it's a bit dubious to just handwave it with no mass allowance  
in the design system. By the way, given that the retro-engine thrust  
is half main-engine thrust rounded down, how would you handle a T1  
battle-station?

In the above remarks, I'm assuming that we're talking about  
spaceships propelled by reaction engines. If you have in mind some  
exotic reactionless drive (voodoo priests sacrificing chickens in the  
engine room for example), all realism bets are off...

Best regards, Robert Bryett

On 10/12/2008, at 22:11 , Hugh Fisher wrote:

> I'm trying to design a new set of vector movement rules for Full  
> Thrust that increase the realism without too much extra hassle.

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