Weapon distance translation.

[Calistan]

I know we have never laid down solid range numbers for weapons, but should we translate how far an inch is in ACTA?

 

[angelus2000]

Dunno really.

Best way to do it would be to translate ship velocities in something approximate. If you were going to base it on the show, something between 800m to 1k would be approximately one in. so 30in. would be 30k at the max, which I think would be fairly accurate. Directed energy weapons are only as good tracking and accuracy; anything past 30k-45k would be very iffy at best in B5 universe

 

[Silvereye]

Well from planetary diameters, (assuming 1" to 2,000km to give Earth a 6 1/2" template):

Lifeless Rock/Moons up to 3" template
Pluto: 2274 km
Triton: 2700 km
The Moon: 3476 km
Io: 3630 km
Mercury: 4,880 km
Titan: 5150 km <- Perhaps this should be an "Earthlike World"
Ganymede: 5262 km <- Perhaps this should be an "Earthlike World"

Earth Like Worlds 4" to 9" template
Mars: 6,794 km <- Perhaps this should be a "Lifeless Rock"
Venus: 12,103.6 km
Earth: 12,756.3 km

Gas/Ice Giants 10" or larger template
Neptune: 49,532 km
Uranus: 51,118 km
Saturn: 120,536 km
Jupiter: 142,984 km

So;
if 1 inch is about 2,000 km, Neptune would need a 25" template,
if 1 inch is about 3,000 km, Pluto would need a 1" template, Earth a 4" template and Neptune about a 16" template,
if 1 inch is about 4,000 km, Earth and Venus would need 3" templates and Neptune would need a 12 1/2" template. Pluto would need a 1/2" template.

--

On the show, when G'Sten leads the Narn raid against a Centauri World (The Long, Twilight Struggle?) The Narn's are seen firing from very large distances, probably well beyond any visual range.

 

[Target]

If you are going to base it off the show, nearly everything is within visual range but then you can see very far in space.
Basing things off the planets sizes is always going to be wrong as we all know planets are extremely big and can't be represented easily or at all.
The reason the shadow ship got the 18" range was they were never seen firing at distance.

 

[Triggy]

Suffice to say every miniature (including planets) is representative of the unit/entity rather than being in scale to anything else. The fighters are in scale to each other, the smaller capital ships are in scale to each other and the larger capital ships are in scale to each other. In terms of on-table action, 1" of range (not model size) must represent something like 1000km but even then, distances are not internally consistant to any great degree. Gameplay is far more important than "realism" in this case.

 

[Target]

Not that it matters but 1000km seems a little much if you compare it to the show which the game is based off. The ranges are far closer. At ranges of 30000kms (30") ships could easily dodge or intercept so i would say the ranges have to be far closer.

 

[Triggy]

Not that it matters but 1000km seems a little much if you compare it to the show which the game is based off. The ranges are far closer. At ranges of 30000kms (30") ships could easily dodge or intercept so i would say the ranges have to be far closer.

The problem with the game is that planets aren't taking up an entire board edge (and many yards away from the action at that).

The problem with the show is that all combat was in close visual range which on camera is no more than 10km for capital ships and 100m for fighters but contrasted with ranges spoken in the script as at some times tens of kilometres and others thousands of kilometres!

 

[sidewinder]

When the shadows attacked that narn outpost they attacked the space station then the planet. So they must have enough range to shoot at ground targets from orbit.

 

[Calistan]

True and when a White Star jumped into the Martian atmosphere, Mars did not seem to take any damage, but we still have jump point bombs with a 4 inch range.

 

[Court Jester]

I think trying to apply scake to a space combat game like this is folly. If, however, you do feel the need to add a scale, try a telescoping scale...

Anything up to 12" is counted as visual range and is the combat we see on the TV show. So maybe an inch is 10km.

Anything over that and up to 30" is scanner range on ships and such like (up to thousands of km's). Beam weapons which appear to be quite accurate and missiles are usable at these ranges.

Plantes are purly for game play and are not realistically scaled at all. Unless as mentioned above you decide that an entire table edge is the planets surface.

I try not to think about things like this too much... :wink:

 

[Calistan]

I don't think planets should be used. Dense debris frields, small planetoids, planetary rings should be the only terrain on the board. Planets, clouds, hyperspace should be field conditions and/or backgrounds.

- Cloulds could present fleets with diminished radar and limit energy weapon ranges.
- Planets could alter ship movements.
- Hyperspace has already been covered in the books.

 

[Triggy]

I think trying to apply scake to a space combat game like this is folly. If, however, you do feel the need to add a scale, try a telescoping scale...

Anything up to 12" is counted as visual range and is the combat we see on the TV show. So maybe an inch is 10km.

Anything over that and up to 30" is scanner range on ships and such like (up to thousands of km's). Beam weapons which appear to be quite accurate and missiles are usable at these ranges.

Plantes are purly for game play and are not realistically scaled at all. Unless as mentioned above you decide that an entire table edge is the planets surface.

I try not to think about things like this too much... :wink:

I like this approach as it both avoids "reality" yet tries to bring some scale to the game

 

[Greg Smith]

I once tried to apply mathematical mechanics to Aerotech (which has scale and turn length etc) and found that it produced horrendous numbers.

The only space combat I ever played that considered scale was the original Traveller, which used vector movement (literally you needed to understand vectors), planet sizes with appropriate gravity wells and atmospheres.

Ultimately, I feel it is something that is best left arbitrary (especially for games based on TV sci-fi). But that doesn't mean it isn't fun to try and figure it out.

 

[H]

suppose it depends what you want to dop for fun! 8)

 

[Greg Smith]

I was a maths student and a Battletech (and Aerotech) player. There was enough real-world physics in Aerotech to make figuring out real-world info kinda interesting. (Could I be more nerdy? )

 

[H]

wanna do my tax returns!

 

[Greg Smith]

wanna do my tax returns!

I'll pass, thanks.