 April 27, 2012 - 5:02pm | I've recently read the explanation of vector tokens in the Silent Fury game (thanks Malcadon for the link in the resources page of the forum) not sure I fully get them without having put minis on the map with some poker chips. But any how I liked the suggestion that was somewhere around here about simply recording momentum in three axis since a hex has three axis. Imagine dead ahead as axis B, to its left on the hex is axis A and to the right of axis B is axis C. These axises are marked on the hex map and are the same for every ship. Each ship has a "character sheet" with a axis diagram where its momentum can be recorded in all three axises. It thrust for some or all of its ADF in one axis and this amount is added to the momentum total for at axis and the ship is moved. Forward firing weapons may only target ships along the acid of thrust for that turn but if a ship coasts for a turn its FF weapons may be trained in any direction. If a ship with an ADF of greater than one thrusts in two directions during a turn then it cannot fire its FF weapons or a skill roll is required to shoot them. Battery weapons can always shoot. Silent Fury separates the thrust phase from the coast phase but I don't see the need to do that. You can also use Silent Fury's method of keeping ships from flying off the table because his point about movement in space being relative is correct. If a ship has a C axis movement that will take of off the table simply minus or plus the C axis thrust of all ships on the table by the amount that will take the fly away ship to zero in that axis (unless the player is intent on withdrawing). I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 April 29, 2012 - 1:09pm | I think the reason rules were not created for this in SFKH is with a scale of 10,000 km per hex if a ship was coasting without applying ADF thrust then it would take a really long time to resolve combat in the course of a turn. So it is assumed if you are not actively applying thrust to accelerate you are occupying the same hex because it would take too long to resolve things otherwise. I am not against a vector game system it just takes something simple and fast and slows it down. Now I do understand that some players want a simulation game, where everything from engine thrust to how much energy it would take to flush the zero g toilet, and if that flush would change your current position in space, matters. For me I don't care for that level of detail in the course of a game session designed to take two to four hours max. |
April 30, 2012 - 5:13am | I haven't tried the vector tokens yet but it does seem fast from what the writer of the Silent Fury system suggests. Im not actually interested in things that will slow down the game but since we track speed already in KHs from turn to turn it doesnt seem a big deal to have a 3 axis hex diagram on the ship stat card and track how much thrust has been applied in three axis. Especially since you can use the system to keep ships from flying off the edge of the map without resetting them toward the center of the table. Plus some interesting things happen with the three axis. I felt the original vectored rules in the SFman were a bit fiddly but having played with the three axis a little now the system has some effects that allow you to quickly reduce it to just counting out movement on two axis: if a ship has thruster for one ADF on all three axises then the +1 on the A & C axises becomes simply a +1 on the B for simply a speed of 2 on the B direction. And a +1 and a -1 on the A &C simply cancel each other out and are ignored. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 April 30, 2012 - 3:50pm | There is something to be said for simplicity. In my revised Knight Hawks board game rules, I eliminated MR altogether, so that a ship with an ADF of say 5 can accellerate or decellerate by up to 5 hexes, but must expend ADF points to make a direction change. So that if the ship in question wanted to make two turns in a round, the ship would have to expend two ADF points, and could then only accelerate or decellerate by up to 3 ADF points. Maybe this might be something that you guys might want to consider. "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
