From: Phillip Atcliffe <Phillip.Atcliffe@u...>
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 1997 09:13:19 -0400
Subject: Star Maps and SPI
Alan Brain and Jon Davis mentioned the StarForce quasi-3D star map, which gives all the stars within 20 LY from Sol. I believe that the map from SPI's SF RPG "Universe" does something similar out to 40 or 50 LY. SPI (well, probably Redmond Simonsen) had a thing about "accurate" space maps -- as well as the star maps, there was the Battlefleet Mars map of the Solar System, which plotted the relative positions of the planets and certain major asteroids, out as far as Jupiter, as they moved around the sun -- of course, _that_ map didn't need to be 3D. Not that BFM didn't include 3D movement; it's just that it was 3D _tactical_ movement, which used two "maps", showing the X-Y and X-Z planes. A ship was represented by two counters (one on each map) and movement was vector-based, with fuel expenditure (and not much fuel, either). It worked pretty well, as I recall, but it had the usual problem of 3D movement systems of all-around firing arcs. This is the real difficulty with any space combat game: either you go for 2D movement, and incorporate firing arcs (like FT, SFB, B5W -- I think -- and a zillion others) or you can use 3D movement, but limiting the fire of weapons to specific arcs becomes very complex. 3D movement and arcs has been done in air games, but generally only for fixed weapons. Turret-mounted guns are usually kept to the arcs that they would have in level flight on the grounds that those aircraft which have them (e.g., bombers) don't manoeuvre too violently anyway. It becomes much more difficult for starships with weapons with complex 3D firing arcs. If I have to choose, I'll stick to 2D + arcs, because that gives more of a feel of having to manoeuvre to bring weapons to bear. Oh, and yes, the StarForce map _did_ include a 3D distance table on the map for those people who didn't have calculators (remember, it came out in 1975) and/or couldn't do Pythagorean triangles in their heads. There was a bigger table in the rulebook, too. Phil, who wishes he could find his copy of BFM (I know where the _map_ is...) -- and Outreach, for that matter.