It's almost 5AM and I'm thinking about Space Combat

[bigdamnhero]

Re: It's almost 5AM and I'm thinking about Space Combat

 

I think if you look through TE and STK you'll find that ship weapon systems don't have range modifiers. That's left up to the targetting system that is purchased for the vessel.

Ah, I had missed that, thanks. I still like the idea of different-ranged weapons, but that’s an easy mod to make on the user end.

 

As I understand it' date=' the scale is 1" to 1", so a Dreadnaught wouldn't even fit on your standard battle mat. However, how much maneuvering and jinking is one of those ships going to do during a fight? Is it important to have them on the map at all? Capital ship to capital ship battles are basically slugfest where they hurl as much of their battery at each other as they can. range isn't really a factor considering the DCV penalties for size as well as the targetting system PSLs.[/quote']

Well, if they have to close to within a few meters of one another to fire, then yeah it’s just going to be a slugfest. But assuming weapons with effective ranges of even a few kilometers (which we have now), then even a dreadnaught has an opportunity to maneuver, as discussed in the “How big is an inch†thread. It’s not just a question of dodging individual shots, but of maneuvering to put yourself in an advantageous position relative to your opponent, concentrating the fire of multiple ships onto your chosen target(s), etc.

 

I’m not saying you (or the books) are “wrong†of course, just that this doesn’t match my vision of space combat. Or at least, space combat gaming. I want my players to be able to exercise some tactics, and make decisions that affect the course of the battle. I know SH isn’t a wargame, and the PCs are not always in command of capital ships. But FH has rules for leading armies into battle, and I would like to be able to tell the same types of stories with SH. What can I say, I’m used to Hero being able to do anything, and am puzzled when it lets me down.

 

Obviously' date=' fighter combat works better on a battle mat. Given the average SPDs and Flight of most fighters from TE, you can very easily dogfight at the 1" to 1" scale, or at least make it a 2 for 1.[/quote']

I agree the system works better for fighter combat, although interestingly Vanguard's original post drew just the opposite conclusion. But... and here’s where I descend into serious heresy... I don’t like fighters. I find them passé, clichéd and boring. I find capital ship combat far more interesting – assuming you leave room for actual tactics and maneuvering. But I know I’m in a very small minority here. :shrug:

 

The best approximation of this that I ever saw was the "Spacemaster" system from Iron Crown which was so detailed that it was practically unplayable.

Spacemaster…my head hurts just thinking about it…

 

 

All motion is inertial which means once you start moving you move that way always. To change that motion you have to point the ship (and hence the weapons) in such a way that you can provide new acceleration that counters the existing motion. This leads to all sorts of fun things like the ability to fly one direction and fire an alpha-strike salvo in any direction you want as long as you are not accelerating.

Exactly. Full Thrust has a vector movement system that models this pretty well without getting too complex. (I try not to plug other people’s games on DOJ’s website, but at least it’s a minis game not an RPG.) Now that y`all have got my juices going, I’ll see if I can whip up a conversion to SH.

 

In short' date=' tailing is a non-existent concept in zero-G combat because it implies that you cannot turn weapons to face a target while fleeing which is flat out wrong. [/quote']

Right. Which doesn’t mean maneuvering becomes irrelevant; it just gives you a different set of trade-offs.

 

 

bigdamnhero

“If people see you are unarmed, they'll never hurt you...nine times out of ten.â€

[Erkenfresh]

Re: It's almost 5AM and I'm thinking about Space Combat

 

My personal experience was that the vehicle combat was pretty boring. If anyone has any good ideas on spicing it up, I'd love to hear it. I'm also thinking more along the lines of "capital" ships, or at least not fighters.