[FT] Full Thrust-based fighter rules?

One of the members of my wargames group is toying with the idea of using full
thrust as a base for a set of fighter rules. The idea is to get the feel of a
fighter dogfight with the simplicity of the full thrust system. I'm sure that
this has been done before, so I'm hoping someone on the list can give
something to compare. Thanks!

> Bill Nitsche wrote:

> One of the members of my wargames group is toying with the idea of

The simplest is to restrict weapons to (F)-arc only... though you might
want to use KV drives too :-)

Apart from that, since the game scales aren't fixed all you have to do is
choose a time/distance/mass scale such that a "normal-sized" unit is a
fighter rather than a large spaceship.

Regards,

This was always a 'back burner' project, intriguing, but not much done
with...

I'm assuming you're talking cinematic.

Natch, the fact that you have restrictions on extremes of movement,
i.e.,
too slow, you stall and drop, too fast, you tear wings off, or, more likely,
your engine can't push through the air hard enough., means you don't get into
those areas where cinematic's rules breakdown from 'real' physics the worst.

I thought about starting with old SPI, such as Spitfire and
Foxbat/Phantom,
or the Clash of Arms games for an idea of mechanics, then reverse engineer to
FT's simplicity.

Have you decided if you're staying in one plane(geometric) or trying to put
altitude in? Fuel? Period?

I'd go with the COA games, they're  very playable - more mechanics-heavy
than FT, but still fun to play. If you had people "into" air combat, then
they're
beer-and-pretzels games, if not they're an advanced game.

Offhand you'll want to look at the COA games for things like scale, how to
handle energy and what parameters an accurate air combat game needs. Then pare
down, and use FT mechanics wherever possible.

> On Wed, 19 Sep 2001, devans@uneb.edu wrote:

> This was always a 'back burner' project, intriguing, but not much done