Cool FT Book (Warning - Starfire plug)

> On Wed, 14 May 1997, Paul Calvi wrote:

> I've begun reading a good space opera with a FT style (actually shades

You mean "the previous and the following" rather than "the two earlier" books
<g> While both Crusade and Insurrection were written (and published) long
before IDG, Insurrection takes place some 60 years after

the end of ISW4. Yes, they're similar - both are set in Weber's
"official" Starfire game background.

IDG is more than just shades of Starfire, actually - it was written as a

Starfire scenario module (which, due to its extreme size and printing costs,
hasn't been published although it was reported as "finished" over

two years ago.) There is a Starfire scenario book covering the Crusade, and
the Insurrection battles will be published in an electronic format
(as will ISW4, in a month or so - we hope). IDG only covers the first
half of the war, unfortunately - God knows what they've done with the
second half:(

Currently the Starfire Design Studio is working on ISW4 - Weber and
White wrote the original material, and then changed quite a few details when
they wrote the book without telling us. OTOH, we've changed several

of the fancy tech items W&W invented, since they either wouldn't work, or
would work very poorly in a Starfire campaign game. Because of this, the

entire thing has to be looked over again <sigh>

> The book has a couple things that would be interesting additions to

Both sides have datalink, but the Allied datalink is twice as effective
-
links 6 ships instead of 3. In Starfire (and IDG), you can't merge shields;
but you can use your point defence to cover other ships in the same datagroup
from missiles (much like ADAF works in FT now). Of course,
Starfire is _much_ more missile-heavy than FT. Starfire datalink is very

much like FT squadron fire in larger fleet engagements.

Later,

Well that explains the other races that come right from Starfire! I was
wondering...

What is SDS?

Paul

> At 10:27 AM 5/15/97 +0200, you wrote:
over
> two years ago.) There is a Starfire scenario book covering the Crusade,

> and the Insurrection battles will be published in an electronic format

> On Thu, 15 May 1997, Paul Calvi wrote:

> What is SDS?

Starfire Design Studio; originally started by TFG as a Starfire
playtest/development group, but now Marvin Lamb (head of the SDS) has
bought the rights to Starfire from TFG. Currently all we publish is in
electronic format (MUCH cheaper, and MUCH easier to send errata and updates to
our customers!); none of us is rich enough to risk a large print run (or even
a small one, for that matter).

Later,