Just curious. At what "real range" does everyone see engagements happening in
FT? What does one inch apporximate out to in kilometers? I wa sthinking this
because someone estimated KV rg velocity at 3 to 10k a second. That seems Very
low and ineffective a great distances unless all the engagements are taking
place at very short range. (I'm sort of used to Starfire where enagements
ranges are measured in Light seconds which means vast ranges. In those fights
it's rare to get into visual range).
Whew - you've asked one of the BIG questions. The answer: It
Depends. On how much playspace you have, how you feel about space combat, etc.
I use a
15 min/1000 km scale.This is not based on much besides a little science
and interfacing with DS2. 15 min turns are so each FT turn is a DS turn as
well. 1000 km/MU lets planets be rather large (Terra is 13 MU dia.),
and 1
thrust figures to about 1/8 g (I LIKE slow speeds, go figure :). Even
at those ranges, there will rarely if EVER be a visual contact (eyeballing out
a porthole). Advanced optics may make it easier to see/ID a target, but
most firecon will be done by radar or some electromagnetic
spectrum-sensing
device, both passive & active. If you like your battles close & dirty, use
1 km/MU - there will be excellent visual contact at short ranges, much
like
Star Wars/Trek. It's pretty much scientifically unsupportable to have
any weapon range restrictions at this scale, but again, it's a matter of
taste.
Starfire has probably the largest tactical scale I've seen - and it
must assume some awesomely good firecon & prediction to even have a 10% chance
of hitting effectively at 60 tac hexes (30 light-secs?) with a
lightspeed weapon. One of the better range systems I have seen is Traveller
New Era:
30mins/30,000 km. 1 thrust = 1g. They addressed the laser problem (to
get
a good tight spot on a long-range moving target, and deliver damaging
levels of energy, you need to have a HUGE mirror and pico-degree fine
aiming). They fudged by having a small, powerful grav field in front of a
smaller mirror, able to acheive such feats. Particle beams (& meson guns)
did not have such problems - spray particles at the target, and each one
will still do damage - it would decrease by range due to beam spread.
This is the reason that I assume that Beam batteries are particle beams, and
PDS
are lasers. Lasers are great weapons - excellent penetration, good
damage levels, but short ranged. But for a PDS, they only have to penetrate so
far, so building big lasers is not a priority. Things like railguns &
plasma/fusion weaponry have such a low velocity that they are not even
considered for ship weapons. But then again, I have used arguements that Beams
should be considered lasers, and a new Particle Beam weapon needs to be made
up. The problem with larger scales is that objects (planets, asteroids, stars)
stop becoming obstacles to avoid/use, and start becoming a terrain
factor
for a general area. At 30,000 km/MU, Terra is just shy of 1/2 an MU
across
- and that looks pretty cheesy next to a 3-inch SDN. I kept the
1000km/MU
range, bacuse it allows use of multiple weapon types in a
pseudo-scientific
mileu, planets are attractively large, and actual thrust rates are low and
easy to figure. But again, it's a matter of taste.
Noah V. Doyle
[quoted original message omitted]
> Los wrote:
A long time ago I worked out a tine and distance scale from the orbits section
in MT. It came to 1 inch = 1000km and 1 turn = 20 minutes (both very approx).
Since then a lot of people have adopted this as an unofficial scale for games
set in the GZG universe (and similar backgrounds). It seems to make sense when
the tech level of the setting is considered.
> Starfire where enagements ranges are measured in Light seconds which
Well with my scale 1 light second is 300 inches but the beauty of FT is that
the scale doesn't matter at all. A scale of 1 inch = 1 light second is
perfectly possible (just don't use 6" radius plate for a planet!)