Rules Wish List

[Digger]

Played a great game last night, Centauri vs. Earth Alliance - The Centauri has a narrow victory.

However, it was during the game that I noticed something that didn't quite seem to ring true:

After you have 'All Stopped' you can then go to maxium speed the next turn? Surely this should be restricted, and I know some smart ass will say that in space there is nothing to stop a ship going to full speed at once, but it doesn't feel right.

I would propose that if you have all stopped, then the next turn the maximum speed that can be obtained is half your normal speed, unless of course you declare all power to engines in which case it's three-quarters of normal speed.

To go from stationary to one-and-a-half times normal speed just doesn't give the right feel to the game for me.

Comments appreciated.

Cheers

Digger.

 

[Ministalker]

Yes, but with the current rules, when you perform an "All Stop" you can already make a move from 0 to half your maximum speed.

Your idea would mean that when we do an all stop we are forced to do it for two turns (the first one all stop, the second maximum 1/2 speed).

I'm not sure this rule needs any correction.

 

[Locutus9956]

Sorry Digger but this is just not a good idea as it just adds more complexity to the moment rules. And for that matter why should a ship not be able to go back to full speed next turn. After all it can all stop after going all power to engines the previous turn.

ACTA's movement system is very abstract already and though not terribly realistic it IS nice and easy to use, so changing it I would have to say would be unescessary and a tad silly.

If you want realistic movement (and frankly realistic space combat in general) as I've said on many many ocassions to folks, try Full Thrust (theyre free to download here: http://www.groundzerogames.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=9&id=29&Itemid=50 (basically download fleet book 1 & 2 as thats basically the latest version of the rules (alot of the basic rules are updated in said books though you'll probably need to read the main rules anwyay)

Personally it's my favourite space battle game but ACTA is still alot of fun for the B5ness of it

 

[Burger]

I know some smart ass will say that in space there is nothing to stop a ship going to full speed at once

No, some smart ass (i.e. me :lol: ) will tell you that in space there is no such thing as "full speed" - well apart from C maybe - because there is no air resistance or friction to speak of. It is only acceleration/thrust that matters, if you keep thrusting in one direction you will get faster and faster until you run out of fuel or run into a star.

As Locutus says, Full Thrust has a much more realistic (and still pretty simple) movement system.

Picard manouver anyone? :lol:

 

[CZuschlag]

As it turns out, "full speed" is a well-neigh impregale weapon already called a "Relativistic Bomb."

Dilgar Mass Drivers apparently don't need to fire large asteroids to get the job done. That's just done for show.

 

[locarno24]

They do. The mass is still a factor, so a mass-less object will have zero kinetic energy.


The Lorentz equation is basically the same as the normal Kinetic Energy equation (1/2 x mass x velocity squared), but with a 'skewing' factor that makes it more energy-intensive to accelerate the closer you get to lightspeed (the same effect that makes percieved time slow down as you go faster).

The problem with a relativistic weapon is that whilst it may yield vast quantities of energy on impact, you have to expend the same amount of energy to accelerate it to that speed. Which when you're talking five hundred billion megajoules, is not really within the normal reactor capacity of a ship....

It only affects you if you're going REALLY fast.
You need to get to about 80% of light-speed before you see more than about a 1/3 change in energy levels from the normal kinetic energy equation you learned in school, but by the time you get to 99.9% the energy yield is 20 times what you expect. Mind you, in the case of a dilgar mass driver, it's still got the advantage of it being twenty times what you expect from a humungous rock.

 

[lastbesthope]

After you have 'All Stopped' you can then go to maxium speed the next turn? Surely this should be restricted, and I know some smart ass will say that in space there is nothing to stop a ship going to full speed at once, but it doesn't feel right.

But there are Neton's Laws, and inertia, as commented on by LEnnier before the mass WS skindance incident.

LBH