 August 13, 2015 - 7:47pm | The rules state pasing one hex from a planet causes an automatic facing change, as long as there is continued movement. So you get one extra MR point if you want to make a u-turn around a planet. |
 August 13, 2015 - 9:51pm | Thats different than using a planet to gain accel. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 13, 2015 - 11:00pm | Thats different than using a planet to gain accel.
If you have not it figured out, the whole space combat/movement rules are broken with regards to simulating real-word physics. |
August 14, 2015 - 4:56am | Yeah, but I don't see why we can't develop a formula/mechanic to allow a player to gain speed from a large planetary body. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 14, 2015 - 6:41am | Reading up on it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist It looks like the big number is orbital velocity of the planet according to NASA these numbers are https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/charchart.cfm Mercury: 17 hexes, Venus 13 hexes, Earth 10 hexes, Mars 9 hexes, Jupiter 5 hexes, Saturn 4 Hexes, Uranus 3 hexes, Neptune 2 hexes rough rule of thumb would be 2 X orbital velocity in hexes but it would require whipping around the planet. Correct me if I'm wrong but does not KHs say that orbiting a planet is done at the speed of 1? So a Gravity Assist would have to be at better than orbital speed or at least 2 or higher Thus a craft travelling speed 5 coming into orbit of a planet (though he cant orbit because he's going to fast) would execute a gravity assist. If that planet was similar to Jupiter with a orbital velocity of 5 hexes would plug into 2U+v as 15 hexes after the manuever with the caveat that this is executed in the direction of the orbital path of the planet. the same could be execute against the orbital path of the planet for some speed breaking (sathar destroyers coming in hot and planning to use a gravity assist to slow their ships right on top of a space station and blast it to bits). One question I have is what if the ship doesn't exactly come in on the proper angle or intend to leave on the proper angle to be exactly in line with the orbital path of the planet. I would think this should impact the numbers some. Now I'm currious about the orbital velocity for the moon and giving new life to system ships in KHs I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 14, 2015 - 4:26pm | Haven't had a chance to look at this but the speeds you listed are hexes per hour so you'd have to divide by six to get hexes/turn. When New Horizons flew past Jupiter in 2007, it picked up 14,400 km/h or a quarter hex per turn. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
August 15, 2015 - 1:27pm | Haven't had a chance to look at this but the speeds you listed are hexes per hour so you'd have to divide by six to get hexes/turn. When New Horizons flew past Jupiter in 2007, it picked up 14,400 km/h or a quarter hex per turn. Dope Slap/ I missed that. So for a gas giant then we're talking about a minor boost in speed I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 15, 2015 - 1:45pm | Based on the Star Trek movies if you accelerate around a planet you can travel through time.  |
 August 15, 2015 - 8:05pm | Based on the Star Trek movies if you accelerate around a planet you can travel through time. I only remember them using stars in the movies. I cannot vouch for the serieses because I am not that much of a Trek geek. -iggy |
August 16, 2015 - 7:41am | You may be right, I'm even less of a Trekkie. I just recall them sling-shooting around something to travel through time and figured they were out of ideas since the Flux Capacitor was already being used by another franchise. |
August 16, 2015 - 12:01pm | In ST IV The Voyage Home they do it and it requires them traveling at warp speed toward the sun. Not someting possible with SF non-warp speed. -iggy |
 August 17, 2015 - 6:50am |
In the case of "The Naked Time," the effect occurs because the Enterprise is suddenly hurled away from a collapsing planet, not a star. |
August 17, 2015 - 6:12pm | Well I dont know about the physics of time travel but real world space craft used gravity assist to gain speed in flybys of the system's gas giants to leave the system I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
