From: Channing Faunce <channing@g...>
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 10:10:32 -0400
Subject: Optional Main Drive Construction Rules
I've been playing around with this optional rule for a while. I thought I saw something similar a week or two ago, but can't find the post. If I'm stepping on toes, I apologize. I wanted a way to give a little more flexibility to the Main Drive construction rules to allow for either high acceleration ships with limited maneuverability or low acceleration ships with high maneuverability. They were mainly intended for vector movement, since I didn't like the FTFB rule on allowing any number of facing change for 1 Thrust point, but did like the EFSB that required 1 point of Maneuvering thrust for each facing change. I see no reason not to apply them to Cinematic movement. Thrust is bought at a cost of 2 points for 5% of ship Mass. The Thrust bought in this manner is direction specific and must be bought for each direction that it is to be applied. When buying Port/Starboard Thrust it is applied as 1 point to Starboard and 1 point to Thrust. You can also split the 2 points fore/Art to make odd numbered Thrust. Thus for 30% Mass you could have any of the following: 10 Main Thrust (25%), 1 Thrust Port/Starboard (5%), 0 Retro Thrust - a setup for fast couriers or bulk carriers that rely on pivoting fully around to decelerate. 6 Main Thrust (15%), 2 Thrust Port/Starboard (10%), 2 Retro Thrust (5%) - Standard configuration for warships 2 Main Thrust (5%), 4 Thrust Port /Starboard (20%), 2 Retro Thrust (5%) - High maneuverability ship Each direction would have a seperate icon for its Thrust which would make Threshold checks as normal. These could be the FT icons, 1 per side; or EFSB style with each icon representing 2 Thrust points.