FB2:Advanced Drives

2 posts ยท Apr 4 2000 to Apr 5 2000

From: Graeme Bradbury <graeme.bradbury@b...>

Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 20:36:39 +0100

Subject: FB2:Advanced Drives

One question i have so far, from FB2, is since advanced drives arn't limited
to main drive thrust out the rear only. What about the rule that you can't
fire out of the rear arc when you use the engines.

Did the playtesters use the rule or just go with the idea that since the
advanced
drives don't use thrusters/rockets then there is nothing to obscure the
targeting
computers/cortexs.

The reason why i ask, is that Sa'Vasku can bring their full beam firepower in
whatever direction they have a stinger node pointing. So high speed passes
aren't as risky as with human tech since overshoots don't cut much firepower
(only pod launchers can't fire) but greatly reduce the amount of firepower
facing you.

Cheers

From: Oerjan Ohlson <oerjan.ohlson@t...>

Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2000 22:24:26 +0200

Subject: Re: FB2:Advanced Drives

> Graeme Bradbury wrote:

> One question i have so far, from FB2, is since advanced drives arn't

The rule is "You can't fire out of the rear arc when you use the
engines." :-)

> Did the playtesters use the rule

Yes

> or just go with the idea that since the advanced drives don't use

No. Call it "gravitic eddies" or whatever you like <shrug>

> The reason why i ask, is that Sa'Vasku can bring their full beam

IME unintended overshoots are rather rare in Vector. OK, an SV ship may cause
the enemy to overshoot by suddenly using extreme thrust levels...
but it won't have much energy to fire its stingers if it does :-/

> ps. I gather from the example that stinger nodes are 2 mass and pod

Correct. Another bit to go into the FB2 errata file <g>

> Thomas.Barclay wrote:

> If I understand correctly the new [OFFICIAL] {but only suggested}

Correct. Or backwards, for that matter.

> 2) Because you can rotate all you want, you could MD1 RS1 MD1 RP1 >MD1

Correct. Assuming you have thrust 5 or more, that is.

> Are multiple rotations covered under the "1 manoevre point =

Buy the book, dammit... Quoting FB2 page 3:

"ALL thrust, whether for Main Drive burns, ship rotations or "thruster
pushes2, should come out of the total thrust factor of the main drive.
...
Multiple rotations in a single turn are permitted, but 1 thrust factor is used
for each rotation (no matter how many or few course points the ship rotates
through each time)"

> 3) Since all points come from a Main Drive manoeuvre pool, we've

Looks like a house rule of yours, since that ship just used 7 thrust
points :-/

> to a much more conservative 6) and we've REALLY made Thrust 2 the

As if it ever was anything else...

> Under this scheme, Oerjan's infamous Thrust 8 ship becomes quite a

RP3, MD2, RS3, MD3, RS3, MD2 = 10 thrust points, not 8.

OK, I do have some thrust-10 designs as well, but I rarely use them in
Vector :-/ You're far more likely to see Sa'Vasku pull this kind of
stunts than any other race.

> and this "box" would let you do things like fly around small asteroids

The path where you check for asteroids (and nova cannon rounds, mines
and other nasties) is still the straight-line path from the ship's
starting location to its final end position (just like it was in FB1 -
that part hasn't changed), so the above maneuver is identical to a simple
"MD3, RS3" for all purposes including asteroid dodging.

> So, how do the KV move in this new ruleset? Same way, only higher

In Vector, their Main Drive works in any of the 12 directions rather than just
straight ahead. Doesn't make that much of a difference for
high-thrust ships (which can rotate to any facing, do a serious main
drive burn, and rotate again), but quite useful for low- and mid-thrust
ships.

Regards,