New guy

Hi,

I'm new to the list. I recently got FT, MT and FB1. I'm currently halfway
through MT (but I skipped ahead and read the VMS from FB1) and I noticed that
some systems were included as options to emulate fictional settings.

Has anyone done inertialess drives? I have some ideas but wanted to know if
there was anything already out there.

Welcome to the list!

Inertialess drives? Hmmm. An interesting idea. A assume that you are thinking
of something like flying saucers that can make right angle turns and such.

I have not heard anyone on the list mentioning it, but it would be
interesting. Especially if pitted against a force using vector movement (see
Fleet Book).

I assume that movement would be at a fixed rate like fighters.

Depending on how big a game area is used it might help or handicap the player
using inertialess drives. The list has discussed several times how this
effects play. Some of the list members use cm instead of inches for tactical
units (tu). Also, how you handle units moving off the table is a factor.
Players who use cm or "floating tables" for off table movement seem to run
their ships at much greater speeds than those who use inches or have negative
consequences for moving off the table.

If the inertialess drive force is as fast as the force using vector or
cinematic movement, it could be a benefit. If the vector or cinematic movement
forces could go much faster, it would be a detriment (except vs. missiles).

-----
Brian Bell bkb@beol.net
http://members.xoom.com/rlyehable/ft/
-----

> -----Original Message-----

> "Bell, Brian K" wrote:

> Welcome to the list!

Actually, I was thinking more about Lensmen.

> I have not heard anyone on the list mentioning it, but it would be

That wouldn't really work. Totally different movement scales. Even a single
point of thrust would produce insane speeds (note: speed, not velocity for
inertialess).

> I assume that movement would be at a fixed rate like fighters.

Yep.

Here's the quick version:

With inertialess, you instantly reach the speed where your thrust balances
against the resistance of the interstiller medium. Which means that you decide
how clean the vacuum is and assign that game a thrust multiplier. Each point
of thrust gives you X*thrust movement in a given direction and pivots are
free.

If you stop thrusting or you hit something, you stop. Period.

If you turn off your drive, you disapear from the map into the spot you are
in. If more than one ship does so within Y(haven't decided yet) inches or once
you've reached your objective, each player picks the spot he wishes his ship
to appear in. Then he rolls 3d6 (2d6 for small playing areas) and *multiplies*
them together and a d12 for direction. That's how far off the mark the ship is
when it appears. Then roll the 3d6 and 1d12 again to find the current velocity
of the ship (unless the ship originated from this area). This is because the
ship retains its velocity from whenever it went inertialess. Note that all
ships that started inertialess at the same velocity leave it at the same
velocity. Without the inertialess drive on, ships should use VMS.

Weapons fire gets tricky since beams don't work at FTL speeds (if you try, the
ghost of Einsein shows up and smashes your ship with a big club). So you have
to rely on inertialess missiles. These travel until they are in contact with
the enemy and then explode. If used while not inertialess, the missiles would
act as p-torps.

> Depending on how big a game area is used it might help or handicap the

Nope, the fun thing about inertialess is that except in an *absolute* vacuum
(in which case the ship would go an infinite speed), inertialess ships stop
when the stop thrusting.

I suppose that it would be possible to eventually design a ship with fine
enough
control over thrust that it could use inertialess while at sub-light
speeds.

The major restriction that I'm puting on them is that without
super-science,
they can't see much except big things that don't move and things that have an
active inertialess system. They *are* traveling faster than light and the view
out the ports is changing far faster than most computers could handle. It also
keeps them from totally dominating other ships.

> Jeff Miller wrote:

Jeff,
     Yes, I have a race for FT/MT2.0 that uses the concept.   I use the
ships from
SFB and some other 'round' ships.   The (standard) drive produces 16
function points which may be used to move one inch (one point) of rotate 30
degrees (one point). The standard turn, move, turn, move sequence is retained,
but rotations (at the turn points) are not limited and the second move can be
zero if desired. A standard MCLM (Mar'cal Le'Mar) cruiser is 500 points and is
VERY
high-tec.
The ship has one 360 mounting, 4 x 270 mountings, and 4 x 180 mountings for
beam weapons. Enhanced sensors are standard, as is one level of stealth.
(Stealth: Reduces the detection range of enemy sensors by 50 percent.)

Some of the drawbacks include the automatic loss of function points due to
damage at threshhold checks, and the 500 point cruiser (mass 36) has the

standard 18 hits.

Bye for now,

> At 4:30 PM -0800 11/4/99, Jeff Miller wrote:

Mmmmmmmm..... problem with that is that the ship bounces away from the
shockwave. The closest to a missile used in Lensman is a big honking shell
that travels down a force field tunnel to impact a tractored ship. For beams,
I think the ghost of Einstein blinks if your relative velocity to your target
is < c.

> >

or fine enough control over its drag. Varialble geometry spacecraft anyone?
FTL Solar sailers perhaps?

> The major restriction that I'm puting on them is that without

Like stutterwarp, only worse.

From: "Matt Tope" <mptope@omnihybrid.com>

> I've just joined the list so I thought I'd introduce myself.

Hi there,

I've just joined the list so I thought I'd introduce myself.

Thanks guys,

Must admit I've been reading alot of the archives over the last few days and
recognized many of the pantheon.

Gulp...

Cheers, Matt Tope

[quoted original message omitted]

Relax Matt. There are a lot of 'line grunt quality' types like me too.

And we  _all_  were FNGs at one time.  Even St. Jon.

But when you quote a source here on some other list (and you will find other
lists too although none as full of 'knowledgable' people as this one in my
experience) just be sure you spell someone's name right (or abbreviate as in
O.O.'s case <grin<) LOL!

Glenn says: "6 mm figures are my main interest. I play them in Historical,
Fantasy and Science Fiction; big battles, small battles and skirmishes. But if
you have the figures (5 mm through 54 mm,) the terrain and the rules...
Fight's on!"
Gracias,   Glenn  -  warbeads@juno.com
The last man in the world without a web site?

On Wed, 13 Aug 2003 15:33:53 +0100 "Matt Tope" <mptope@omnihybrid.com>
writes:
> Thanks guys,

> --- Matt Tope <mptope@omnihybrid.com> wrote:

Don't worry, there are also plenty of us mortals here in this rarified air....

3B^2

Thanks for the advice, I shall endaevour not to screw up (though I can't
promise the same about my spelling).

Cheers, Matt Tope

[quoted original message omitted]

There are Americans, Brits and Aussies and Kiwis (IIRC) among other
nationalities on this list. I am sure it will be spelled correctly in
some version of the mother tongue (a little humor/humour there since the
mother tongue to the Americas is Spanish! LOL!

On Wed, 13 Aug 2003 16:25:39 +0100 "Matt Tope" <mptope@omnihybrid.com>
writes:
> Thanks for the advice, I shall endaevour not to screw up (though I

I've just joined the list so I thought I'd introduce myself. My names Matt,
I'm British, and into Full Thrust. Other than that, I know next to nothing
about this list business, so if anyone gets to read this it will be a small
miracle

Must admit I've been reading alot of the archives over the last few days and
recognized many of the pantheon.

Welcome aboard Matt, everything does get read here. Have fun with the archives
most of us do spend a bit of time there....)

> --- warbeads@juno.com wrote:

Hmmmm.... I'd say Athapascan, among a few others, has a more legitimate claim
to that title than even Spanish, if you're going to split hairs....

Sorry, I got most spoken and original to the region
switched around - never mind.  ;-)

> --- Brian B <greywanderer987@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hmmmm.... I'd say Athapascan, among a few others,

Hi, and a stupid question, which part of the UK are you from (city?). I know
our american collegues think our country is small, but it does help when

trying to find new gaming partners.

Also, feel free to sound off with any stupid ideas you may have, this is one
of the best sounding boards I`ve found, and even if your idea gets a crash and
burn, it may give somebody else a idea. Who knows, if said idea was good
enought, it may get into the next FB3 official rules (which century it comes
out you will have to guess yourself).

BIF

> Hi there,

Oh - and Danes as well.. (not so active though - but we're here:)
---
With kind regards Claus Paludan cpaludan@worldonline.dk webmaster@krigsspil.dk
http://www.krigsspil.dk Danish Miniature Wargaming Society

[quoted original message omitted]

> Also, feel free to sound off with any stupid ideas you may have, this

> of the best sounding boards I`ve found, and even if your idea gets a

> david smith wrote:
I know
> our american collegues think our country is small, but it does help

I guess this is as good a segue as any to re-announce the Unofficial
GZG Player Locator Page. :-)

Without a lot of hoop and holler, the page is fairly self-explanatory,
and can be found at:

> At 4:25 PM +0100 13/8/2003, Matt Tope wrote:

Beware. Their treatment of puns can be painful.

;-)

MarkS

> At 4:46 PM -0500 13/8/2003, <warbeads@juno.com> wrote:

just don't tell The People (Spanish came after them by a millenium or 2)

MarkS