Albedo ACV's in Full Thrust

> You wrote:

> I am trying to find a way to represent ACV's in Full Thrust.

I'd throw in my 2c worth if I knew what an ACV is (Air Cushion Vehicle comes
to mind, but not in a space game!).

> At 13:37 20/06/98 -0500, you wrote:

Perhaps thats meant to be a CVA? Heavy Carrier?

Dear List Members:

I am trying to find a way to represent ACV's in Full Thrust. Should I use the
missile rules from More Thrust. Or should I try to create a new weapon system
that the movement of the ACV's needs to
be plotted each turn until they reach the ship.   As for ACV's, they
could do 1D6 damage.   The other weapons in Albedo are not hard to
figure out.

> I am trying to find a way to represent ACV's in Full Thrust.

For those not familiar with the Albedo universe, it's a 'funny animals'
comic, with a surprisingly strong hard-SF feel to it. ACVs, Autonomous
Combat Vehicles are a case in point:

"Starships form a defensive/offensive perimeter about themselves with
ACVs, 'smart' missiles that can not only trac and attack a target, but plot
their own tactics and strategy as independent weapons or in concert with other
ACVs and the mother ship. ACVs have a comprehensive array of communications
equipment and sensors, and thus serve as intelligence ferrets and command
relays. ACVs are based upon the jump-capable message torpedoes used for
interstellar communications, but lack the jump drives of such systems. Capable
of acceleration spurts of up to 50Gs, ACVs come with a variety of
add-on features such as beam generators, automatic cannon, and
submunitions. While normally unarmored, the computer cora and reactor packages
can be buried in layers of armored protection over a meter thick. This block
(usually accompanied by a spray of multiton iron slugs) makes up most of the
impact mass for ramming attacks and bombardments.

"The reaction times for these kind of ship-to-ship actions are in orders
of magnitude too fast for a ship's organic masters to follow, and thus are
handled by a group of disconcertingly intelligent computers. A ship's
artificial intelligence computers require their live crews for maintenance,
back-up, and creative tactics plotting in the days of approach before a
combat begins."
--Albedo RPG, 2nd Edition, pp 122-124

Judging from the ship silhouettes on p. 92, these things are about 10m long,
and about 5m in diameter. Another picture (p. 127) shows a starship in
formation with 3 of these things.

Offhand, I'd say if you put a C battery on a MT missile, you'd about have it.
As far as AI, the omniscient view of the player simulates that pretty well,
and MT missle movement covers the "50G acceleration". No idea how to cost
them, though.

I'd be interested in seeing any actual starship designs for Albedo/FT. I
suspect a true Albedo-style conflict wouldn't involve more than one or
two
starships/side. Most action (from what I know of Albedo) seems to be
more in the vein of DSII or SGII.

Just to drag in another thread: for the true fanatics out there, compare and
contrast Erma Felina with Honor Harrington....

In a message dated 6/20/98 2:39:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> jatkins6@ix.netcom.com writes:

> > I am trying to find a way to represent ACV's in Full Thrust.

> I'd throw in my 2c worth if I knew what an ACV is (Air Cushion

In the ALBEDO setting ACV's are Autonomous Combat Vehicles, combination sensor
and kinetic-kill drone missiles.  While ACV's can be equiped with a
variety of
add-on packages like submunition dispensers, enhanced sensor packages,
beam weapons and point defenses most simply consist of a computer core, power
pack,
sensors/commo and armor.  Their multi-ton structure and ability to reach
50G sprints makes warheads superflous. They can not only track and attack
targets but can plan tactics and coordinate with other ACV's and their mother
ship.

When military starships enter a system they deploy "constellations" of ACV's
for defense and attacks and send undelecerated ACV's ahead to scout the target
world. Many of these will subsequently impact on the planet's surface to
eliminate C3I nodes and ground defenses.  In ship-to-ship engagements
ACV's do
most of the work, especially in head-on battles where closing velocities
make ships mounted weapons minor players.

> I am trying to find a way to represent ACV's in Full Thrust.

Albedo is an anthropomorphic comic book which deals heavily in the
socio-political aspects of future warfare and society - as well as being
a really good read.

I can't remember the full definition, but I remember the gist. ACVs are
essentially kinetic missiles fired at long range, which have the ablilty to
alter their vector enough to still hit their targets. They're fired in
groups - if memory serves - so at least on or two have a shot at
hitting.