tugs and firing arcs

> Can a target be in two arcs at the same time if it happens to

typically you decide on the arc, either by rolling or the defender choosing.
This is what FT2 says IIRC.

> Glen wrote:

> A ship is towing a pod into battle (i.e., a "battle tug"). Are both

Anything towed by a tug counts as a separate unit. True modular units
(where the modules are bolted semi-permanently to the hull) count as
single units, but it would be easier to refit than normal ships in a campaign
game.

> This affects targeting, firing sequence, plotting (although I think

Which towing rules? The "tug and tender" sections in FT2 and FB only
cover FTL tugs and not sub-light ones while the special rules in the
scenario "You call, we haul" in MT restricts the sublight tug/towee
pair to a velocity of 4mu/turn in a straight line; neither seems
entirely appropriate for what you describe.

Regards,

***
> Can a target be in two arcs at the same time if it happens to

typically you decide on the arc, either by rolling or the defender choosing.
This is what FT2 says IIRC.

-= tim jones =-
***

Of course, Tim's answer is perfect, but I'll get pedantic in case you miss the
point.

Effectively, your ship CAN'T be in two arcs at the same time. Mathematically,
it must be in one or the other arc, or on the line between same.

Pg.9, Core Rules, FTII: NOTE that it is the CENTRE of the model, or the centre
of its stand if its mounted on one, that is used to determine the exact
location of the ship itself; all distance and ranges are similarly measured
from this centre point.

Pg.25, Advanced Rules - General, FTII:
The ship models used in FULL THRUST (and indeed any
other tactical space game) are actually vastly over-size
compared to the space combat distances represented in the game; in true scale,
the actual ships would be so tiny you probably couldn't see them!

Lawd, that St.Jon do the love the exclamation points, don't
he? ;->=

The idea above is that your model is a graphical representation of a 'point'
on the playing field. Unfortunately, Mark I eyeball, awesome instrument that
it is, can have difficulty determining small arcs at large distances. Ergo,
dice if you can't come to an agreement, as with so many gray areas.

As some asides, this is the logic in Ogre Miniatures rules. Also, it's why I
really like to be able to get accurately perpendicular base uprights, and am
so ashamed of the drunken quality of my own ships bases. Lastly, I generally
try to either mark or mentally note a feature on the top of the model
approximately dead center to do my measuring.

The_Beast

> Oerjan Ohlson wrote:

> Glen wrote:

The Tug rules, and related docking rules, are sadly missing. I played
around with some stuff for this once - I was throwing together modular
freighters for some discussions we were having on the list. What I did (and
this was entirely off the cuff) was this:

Design the tug with it's tug-class FTL - this gives you known FTL
ability. Attach fairly beefy main drive to tug if you want the ability to move
another ship in normal space.

For the combined pair, add their masses together, and find out what percentage
of the total the main drive of the tug is. From there you find out what level
of thrust you can use based on the happy formulas from the
fleet book.  Simple enough really - So a mass 100 tug could have thrust
of 8, but when "towing" another mass 100 ship, it has an effective thrust of
4. If it were capable of towing mass 300 external, then it would have a thrust
of 2.

Now the wrinkle -

Since the tug write up does not talk about linkage for normal thrusting, there
should probably be some portion of tug mass set aside for the equipment to
mate with another ship and allow it to maneuver it with the
tug's main drive.  Here's my $.02 -

If multiple ships are specifically designed to mate, (such as a modular
freighter) a portion of their total combined mass must be set aside as
'linkage' - it may be distributed between the individual ships as the
designer sees fit. I do not this this should take more than 10% mass (I rather
think 5%). So, for example, you could put all of the linkage mass into a tug,
and not have to pay the cost for each and every cargo module. When combined
the ships act as a single target (more details on that another time).

If, instead you wanted a tug capable of relatively "universal" mating -
perhaps a fleet rescue tug - the percentage set aside for linkage must
be higher. I generally think that the 2 ships could then be separate targets,
at least at short ranges.

Tonnage of linkage could also make some difference in quality of link -
maximum thrust the linkage could maintain - limits on turns - that kind
of stuff.

Does that make any sense? Any interest in pursuing this further?

> On Wed, 10 Nov 1999, J Noble wrote:

> Now the wrinkle -

I'd just include it as the par for the tug. I built a tug out of the Tug

civil craft from GZG. (those were modified to have a modular cargo section
attached to them, the two sections look pretty good). The tug got a docking
arm (the cherry picker kind of thing from the Ral Partha Artillery piece,
Marksman I think...) below and behind it for attaching to the umbillical
docking port that most craft should have for docking to another ship for an
unrep or for docking with Starbases and such.. I'd not expect a tug to be able
to yank a ship along at full thrust just

because of all the issues with doing such things. Tugs usually go really

slow when towing any kind of load.