[GZG] Painfully Realistic Vector Movement for Full Thrust

Roger,

That's fairly elegant rendition of vector. On first reading, I missed that
your measured vector was not to the ship, but to where the ship's acceleration
wanted it to go. I thought 'why not just pretend that all the drive ratings
were doubled' and then you could use the original rules? But once you don't
measure to the ship for next turn's drift, that's another story.

I am definitely going to try this. Although, with the people I know, we'll
need a markter for the end of the drift as well.

I'm taking it that although thrust is presumed to take the whole turn,
rotation still takes a very short time relatively (judging by your
presentation). Is this your assumption? I suppose you could still use either
flavour of rotation (1 thrust = any rotation or 1 thrust = 1 facing change).
Some folks like to give bigger ships a more ponderous turn rating. (I suppose
nothing would stop you using 1 thrust = 2 facing changes either). The slower
rotation might feel more appropriate for creating some space ship genres.

Anyway, thanks!

TomB

> On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 07:32:26PM -0500, Tom B wrote:

> That's fairly elegant rendition of vector. On first reading, I missed

Well, that is the fundamental point: "you get half your acceleration as
movement this turn, all of it as movement on subsequent turns".

> I'm taking it that although thrust is presumed to take the whole turn,

Yes. If you start to assume that rotation takes a significant fraction of the
turn, you start to get into the snakepit of weapons not bearing for a full
turn, and impulses or something like them... and I find that's just too much
trouble.

If something like impulses is wanted, I suspect the real answer is to retain
the existing turn structure and cut the amount of stuff that can
happen, probably by reducing thrust and/or putting in a speed limit.

R