In upcoming fleet battle (between Human and Kra'Vak, and Sa'Vasku vs Kra'Vak)
forces I'm running as a PBEM, one of the things I want to create is a fog of
war by using full sensor rules.
The scenario - exact details are secret as the protaganists are
currently
debating on fleet compositions :) - is an excuse for me to cluck over a
fleet battle between the Human Fleet Book forces and the Unofficial Kra'Vak
Fleet Book stuff developed by Tim Jones, Sean Bayan Schoonmaker and Dean
Gundberg on the Full Thrust Mailing list.
However, it caused me to look at FTL entry a little closer,as the fleets
involved will be jumping into the area of the battle from different starting
locations.
The current Full Thrust rules for FTL entry or exit do not account for
timing errors - I picked these up from re-reading the relevant sections
of
FT and FB again, thus the rules I _think_ I will be using are presented
here for general perusal and comment;]
FTL Entry Roll 1d6 for Each ship, adding one for each of the following
Entering FTL during combat. Damaged Engines* see mishap table Command Bridge
Hit. Power Core Hit.
1 - 4 Jump OK
5 The ship completes a full movement then Jumps. Adjust re-entry point
by half current velocity.
6 The ship completes a full movement, but successfully jumps next turn (no
need to roll again). Adjust re-entry point by current velocity.
7 FTL fails to engage, the ship completes a full movement, roll again next
turn.
8 FTL fails to engage, roll again next turn. The ship completes a full
movement. Roll on the mishap table.
9 FTL fails to engage, roll again next turn. The ship completes a full
movement. Roll on the mishap table adding the same modifiers to the roll.
10 Ship explodes
Mishap Table
1-3 No Effect.
4 Ship takes 1d6 'Beam' type damage Entry point** scatter +1 ***
5 Ship takes 2d6 'Beam' type damage Entry point scatter +2 ***
6 Ship takes 1d6 damage. Entry point scatter +3 ***
7 Ship takes 1d6 damage. Entry point scatter +2d6 ***
8 Ship takes 2d6 damage. Entry point scatter +3d6 ***
9 Ship Exits 3d6 damage. Entry point scatter +4d6 ***
10 Ship Exits 3d6 damage. Entry point scatter +5d6 ***
* Thrust Drives can take two hits before becoming unuseable. Similar deal
here, but FTL drives can still jump if they've taken one hit. If you want to
risk it, you can.
** Add to the _first_ scatter dice on reentry. +1 means roll 1d6+1 for
distance. +1d6 mean roll 1d6+1d6 - this can be further modified if the
_first_ dice is a 6. Roll a second dice and multiply the by the
_scatter_
distance!
*** Ships Engines count as damaged until repaired by DCPs.
Assuming the ship is OK and all is routine, the worst you can expect in non
combat situations is a slight deviation in arrival time or accuracy or both.
Nothing too damaging. Fleets travel widely dispersed.
Re-entry as per normal + optional rules gives a possible scatter of 36".
Add a 6" danger space to that and you have a 42"
Therefore to jump in relative safety, ships would travel at least 42" apart
(ships always scatter on re-entry).
Normal sensor rules allow detection (scanning attempts possible)at up to 54"
for military sensors, and 36" for Civilian.
I'll be using a further doubling of those ranges to allow for long range
sensors - you know its there, but you can only guess what it is until
within
normal sensor range. Powered down ships halve detection range.
Also when making scanning attempts you get one Sensor point per fire control
active at the start of the turn. A sensor point may be used to scan a ship
within range as normal, or to cancel out your ship automatically being
highlighted when you scan another ship.
This also made me wonder about secret ship to ship communications: For example
,ship A signaling info to ship B which is 200 MU away.
They are out of sensor range, but would probably know enough about where the
other ship is meant to be to either fire some sort of tight beam signal to the
area the ship is in, or broadcast in coded bursts which. I would expect this
could be picked up by sensors looking for just such transmissions. Given the
future tech, could an enemy ship intercept a communication from the enemy?
As I see it encryption would make these coms unreadable and therefore unusable
by the enemy, unless they had the appropriate codes, knew the language etc.
Anyone know the real world capabilities in these areas?
Any thoughts on how different races use/ or are affected by FTL ? I'd
like
to see similar treatment/info in FB2 that FB1 has for humans. The only
rule I can ever see differentiating between races was IIRC Geoffrey Stewart's
Excellent Pre EFSB B5 conversions.
I also noticed couldn't see SSD's for: in MT or UOKVFB
FT407A Ko'Tek Strike Cruiser FT414 Do'San Light Cruiser FT415 Sha'Ken Light
Transport
I noticed a 3 letter name (prefix?) here for this class which I assume isn't a
warship. Given the warlike KV nature, would this suggest that merchant vessel
names have 3 letters? Not of great import, I know, but there might be a
budding KV linguist out there.. (Hi Stephen;))
FT416 To'Rok Survey/Explorer ship
Has anyone done these? I could extrapolate, But I have enough to do!
:)
That's all for now folks:)
P.s. A note to players - The KV so far appear to be separatists
confident in their individual prowess at choosing fleets, whereas the Humans
are united in their desire to build effective fleets and are communicating. Is
this a War-Family thing I wonder?
Also a reminder that the closing date for fleet entries is Friday 12th March
1800 GMT I am still undecided as whether to split the players into 2 games or
not. We shall see.
Thanks for listening.
In upcoming fleet battle (between Human and Kra'Vak, and Sa'Vasku vs Kra'Vak)
forces I'm running as a PBEM, one of the things I want to create is a fog of
war by using full sensor rules.
The scenario - exact details are secret as the protaganists are
currently
debating on fleet compositions :) - is an excuse for me to cluck over a
fleet battle between the Human Fleet Book forces and the Unofficial Kra'Vak
Fleet Book stuff developed by Tim Jones, Sean Bayan Schoonmaker and Dean
Gundberg on the Full Thrust Mailing list.
However, it caused me to look at FTL entry a little closer,as the fleets
involved will be jumping into the area of the battle from different starting
locations.
The current Full Thrust rules for FTL entry or exit do not account for
timing errors - I picked these up from re-reading the relevant sections
of
FT and FB again, thus the rules I _think_ I will be using are presented
here for general perusal and comment;]
FTL Entry Roll 1d6 for Each ship, adding one for each of the following
Entering FTL during combat. Damaged Engines* see mishap table Command Bridge
Hit. Power Core Hit.
1 - 4 Jump OK
5 The ship completes a full movement then Jumps. Adjust re-entry point
by half current velocity.
6 The ship completes a full movement, but successfully jumps next turn (no
need to roll again). Adjust re-entry point by current velocity.
7 FTL fails to engage, the ship completes a full movement, roll again next
turn.
8 FTL fails to engage, roll again next turn. The ship completes a full
movement. Roll on the mishap table.
9 FTL fails to engage, roll again next turn. The ship completes a full
movement. Roll on the mishap table adding the same modifiers to the roll.
10 Ship explodes
Mishap Table
1-3 No Effect.
4 Ship takes 1d6 'Beam' type damage Entry point** scatter +1 ***
5 Ship takes 2d6 'Beam' type damage Entry point scatter +2 ***
6 Ship takes 1d6 damage. Entry point scatter +3 ***
7 Ship takes 1d6 damage. Entry point scatter +2d6 ***
8 Ship takes 2d6 damage. Entry point scatter +3d6 ***
9 Ship Exits 3d6 damage. Entry point scatter +4d6 ***
10 Ship Exits 3d6 damage. Entry point scatter +5d6 ***
* Thrust Drives can take two hits before becoming unuseable. Similar deal
here, but FTL drives can still jump if they've taken one hit. If you want to
risk it, you can.
** Add to the _first_ scatter dice on reentry. +1 means roll 1d6+1 for
distance. +1d6 mean roll 1d6+1d6 - this can be further modified if the
_first_ dice is a 6. Roll a second dice and multiply the by the
_scatter_
distance!
*** Ships Engines count as damaged until repaired by DCPs.
Assuming the ship is OK and all is routine, the worst you can expect in non
combat situations is a slight deviation in arrival time or accuracy or both.
Nothing too damaging. Fleets travel widely dispersed.
Re-entry as per normal + optional rules gives a possible scatter of 36".
Add a 6" danger space to that and you have a 42"
Therefore to jump in relative safety, ships would travel at least 42" apart
(ships always scatter on re-entry).
Normal sensor rules allow detection (scanning attempts possible)at up to 54"
for military sensors, and 36" for Civilian.
I'll be using a further doubling of those ranges to allow for long range
sensors - you know its there, but you can only guess what it is until
within
normal sensor range. Powered down ships halve detection range.
Also when making scanning attempts you get one Sensor point per fire control
active at the start of the turn. A sensor point may be used to scan a ship
within range as normal, or to cancel out your ship automatically being
highlighted when you scan another ship.
This also made me wonder about secret ship to ship communications: For example
,ship A signaling info to ship B which is 200 MU away.
They are out of sensor range, but would probably know enough about where the
other ship is meant to be to either fire some sort of tight beam signal to the
area the ship is in, or broadcast in coded bursts which. I would expect this
could be picked up by sensors looking for just such transmissions. Given the
future tech, could an enemy ship intercept a communication from the enemy?
As I see it encryption would make these coms unreadable and therefore unusable
by the enemy, unless they had the appropriate codes, knew the language etc.
Anyone know the real world capabilities in these areas?
Any thoughts on how different races use/ or are affected by FTL ? I'd
like
to see similar treatment/info in FB2 that FB1 has for humans. The only
rule I can ever see differentiating between races was IIRC Geoffrey Stewart's
Excellent Pre EFSB B5 conversions.
I also noticed couldn't see SSD's for: in MT or UOKVFB
FT407A Ko'Tek Strike Cruiser FT414 Do'San Light Cruiser FT415 Sha'Ken Light
Transport
I noticed a 3 letter name (prefix?) here for this class which I assume isn't a
warship. Given the warlike KV nature, would this suggest that merchant vessel
names have 3 letters? Not of great import, I know, but there might be a
budding KV linguist out there.. (Hi Stephen;))
FT416 To'Rok Survey/Explorer ship
Has anyone done these? I could extrapolate, But I have enough to do!
:)
That's all for now folks:)
P.s. A note to players - The KV so far appear to be separatists
confident in their individual prowess at choosing fleets, whereas the Humans
are united in their desire to build effective fleets and are communicating. Is
this a War-Family thing I wonder?
Also a reminder that the closing date for fleet entries is Friday 12th March
1800 GMT I am still undecided as whether to split the players into 2 games or
not. We shall see.
Thanks for listening.
> Denny Graver wrote:
> Therefore to jump in relative safety, ships would travel at least 42"
apart
> (ships always scatter on re-entry).
XXX I have always considered the fleets to jump to a location outside of the
'board', where they 'form up' and proceed to the desired location. JTL XXX
> Normal sensor rules allow detection (scanning attempts possible)at up
XXX to make things simple for you, use a base range of 60 inches and
double/
halve from there. In my current campaign the sensor ranges are doubled
by buying the next sensor grade. (It gives the advanced sensors a reason to
exist.) (ECM halves the sensor range, but ECM cannot be 'stacked' to
give
double ECM effect.) JTL
XXX
> Also when making scanning attempts you get one Sensor point per fire
XXX Personal comment: I have always considered the concept that if a ship is
using its sensors on you, you get to know what type of ship is doing the
scanning, to be completely silly. JTL XXX
> Given the future tech, could an enemy ship intercept a communication
XXX The trick is not in the interception, it is in the instant decoding to
obtain the message, and act to prevent the implementation of the plan. JTL XXX
> As I see it encryption would make these coms unreadable and therefore
XXX Given enough time any code can be broken. JTL XXX
> P.s. A note to players - The KV so far appear to be separatists
XXX As a matter of honor, the final contestant squadrons have been signaled to
the High Queen and the other clans. We do not expect a response for the other
clans. JTL XXX
> Also a reminder that the closing date for fleet entries is Friday 12th
XXX The victor of the contest for supremecy shall be transmitted upon
completion of the contest. (The alternate will also be named, if he recovers
in time.) JTL XXX
> Thanks for listening.
Bye for now,
> On Sun, 7 Mar 1999, John Leary wrote:
> Denny Graver wrote:
"enough time" being the key phrase here... it's always faster to encrypt
than crack, so you can always make a code economically secure - it takes
the enemy more effort to crack than he saves by cracking it.
Tom
> Re-entry as per normal + optional rules gives a possible scatter of
_Way_ to big, IMO. that's 42,000 km to 420,000 depending on your MU.
Even with a 1000 km MU "danger space" in a 3-D space is way below 1 mu.
Try to randomly placing 2 100 meter cubes in exactly the same spot in a 1
million by 1 million meter cube.
Plus, unless the combat is pure accident, or the scenario is a
scrambled/panicked reaction, fleets are doing microjumps for final
arrival, syncing up to arrive on time and in formation.
> "enough time" being the key phrase here ... it's always faster to
Tell that to Station X:)