[GZG] Painfully Realistic Vector Movement

> On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 07:40:56PM -0500, Robert Mayberry wrote:

> I would love to see a reaction-drive tweak

What the hell, I only need to get up for work tomorrow...

Painfully Realistic Vector Movement for Full Thrust

The vector movement system, while it is more true to the real world than
cinematic movement, still fails to be an accurate representation of Newtonian
motion. This system takes longer to play, and is not recommended for large
battles, but does provide that last drop of accuracy; it works on the basis
that acceleration is applied constantly throughout the entire turn's movement,
so while a ship can still change its speed by up to its MD rating it won't
immediately move the full distance that that might imply.

You will need one marker per ship ("marker-1"), as with standard vector
movement, and one spare marker ("marker-2"). Plot movement as in that
system, but when it comes to moving the ship follow this procedure:

* Place marker-1 at the ship's current position.

* Work out where the ship will arrive without manoeuvreing, given its drift
speed and direction; place the ship miniature at that position.

* Place marker-2 at the ship's new position, then take it through the
current turn's movement orders (as in standard vector movement).

* Find the half-way point between the ship and marker-2. Move the ship
  there (and turn it to match the final facing of marker-2).

* Measure the distance and direction from marker-1 to marker-2; these
are the drift speed and direction values for next turn's movement.

* Remove the markers, then place marker-1 next to the ship to indicate
drift direction as with standard vector movement.

Note that since this halves the distance by which ships can displace
themselves from their predicted position you should probably halve SM
lock-on ranges and such like again from their vector values. Haven't
tested that.

If the table gets crowded, you can record drift direction as well as speed on
a piece of paper; I do this for standard vector too.