BattleBlog - Strategic Operations: Part 3 1.12.2008

[DeJaVu]

Let’s dive into Aerospace Movement.

Right out of the gate I changed the rules for JumpShip and Space Station movement. We’ve got oodles of in-universe descriptions of JumpShips (and to a lesser degree space stations) moving. After all, a JumpShip has to clear the jump point, right? As such, both JumpShips and Space Ships, based on their 0.1 G station-keeping thrust, have .2 thrust points they can accumulate across several turns. As soon such a unit has 1 MP, it can expend the movement point; a JumpShip can either change its velocity or hexside, while a space station can only change its hexside. While a subtle change, I believe this not only mirrors the universe better, but also adds subtle tactics that can be employed in a scenario, especially with the ability of a space station to slowly maneuver its weapons around (and if it’s a military space station it can move them even quicker).

Just as groundpounders waited anxiously till Tactical Operations to get their artillery back, aerospace junkies have been waiting for vectored movement to return. As ever, its expanded and fleshed out to try and make this rule as easy to use as possible, including an Advanced Aerospace Movement Sheet that allows for the tracking of many aerospace units at once if they’re all using vectored movement. Some additional sub rules are included: Rotational Vectors, Random Movement (how it’s applied when using vectored movement) and the all new ability to use maneuvering thrusters to perform lateral or sideslip maneuvers during vectored movement.

Docking of course is covered and expanded to cover such things as where docking collars are located, attacks to and from docked units (how larger craft can block smaller crafts, etc.) and so on.

Considering how big this rulebook is and the length of time spent kicking on it, I don’t always remember where new rules come from. However, I distinctly remember Flight and Transit Times coming from the Fan Input thread. Several players chimed in that it would be great to have a handy reference of flight times not only around a world but also in between worlds in a system. I scratched my head that ‘of course’ we’d included such useful information before and went digging and digging, only to find that in fact we hadn’t included any such thing. Ever. And since figuring such flight times, especially for DropShips which would be using suborbital trajectories, would require some serious rocket-science-level math…well, I felt it better to tap our own real-world scientists to simply cover atmospheric and suborbital flight times over both short distances or really long distances for large worlds. There’s then a beefy full-page interplanetary flight times table that covers a host of Terran-system flights that can be used as an example for almost any other system.

System Status (under Landing And Liftoff (Expanded)) was another rule set taken directly from online suggestions. How long does it take to preflight check before takeoff? For that matter, when talking about a DropShip and its fusion engine, if it’s cold, how long does it take to fire up the engine before liftoff? Again, I was pretty surprised that not even the most general rules had been provided to date, regardless of all the editions of rulebooks over the years. You’ll find a preview page from that section posted. I particularly wanted to show off the example on this page, as it touches on several new rules (moving cargo, mounting units, preflight check list, engine status and suborbital flight times) that all combine within that example to provide a new level of details that can be used to create new, fun scenarios; not just for aerospace junkies, but for any groundpounder).

High Speeding Closing Engagements. This also might have been a community-inspired rule…but to be honest, I can’t remember. However, it is one of the few large sub rules almost completely crafted by authors: thanks Mike and Joel! Once again, I was a little stunned when I realized that every last rule for space combat involved very low velocities; either the attack occurs right at the jump point, right in orbit, or the two sides have matched velocities and then begun the fight. But what about when a commander makes a decision to push for an intercept from orbit after they detect the arrival of an incoming JumpShip? They’d reach each other at huge velocities, giving them literally an ‘eye blink’ moment to try and destroy the other opponent. I’m really excited about the addition of this sub rule set (beyond the fact that I was reading Alastair Reynold’s Revelation Space series when this rules set was being developed and his novels are filled with very cool “eye blink” space battles); check out the page preview from that section. As with so much of what I tried to accomplish with these rulebooks, this provides rules for an area of the BattleTech universe never previously covered, providing more, cool options. Additionally, as it states directly in the page preview, the rules can be used to play relatively quick and easy large-scale aerospace games; an unexpected, but great double utility situation.

The last section in aerospace movement is, of course, hyperspace travel. The rules cover jump point distances, charging the drive, calculating a jump and actually making the jump. The section also provides clear cut rules on damage to nearby units, both when jumping out and jumping in, as well as jumping within the same system.

Finally, wanted to provide a quick coverage of the aerospace construction rules; i.e. the amount of changes in the construction section are pretty minimal, so I don’t believe they deserve an entire blog to themselves. As you can see by the page preview of that section, we’ve presented it in the same style as TechManual and the construction section of Tactical Operations, with extensive examples for how to build each craft. The one thing we did do, however, was to fill in a lot of the subtle holes, especially those provided by the fictional content. For example, you’ve got numerous fictional accounts of people (passengers, military personnel and so on) lodged as cargo, but to date no hard rules on how much space they take and in particular how much food they eat; that’s now covered. Another area now covered is “jumping Space Stations.” The rules do not allow for a space station to jump, yet there are hints of the existence of such ships. So without creating exceptions to the construction rules, how do you solve that little conundrum? The preview provides the details of how we slide that between the cracks, sealing up a fictional issue while keeping the construction rules in tact.

Man, every time I sit down to write one of these I’m thinking I’ll try and keep it short and three pages later…ah well. Hope you enjoy these behind-the-scenes look at things and it gets you excited not just for the book, but for the fun and exciting game play (regardless of your style of play) that you’ll be able to explore once you’ve got the book.

See ya next week!

Randall

[Typhoon]

Another area now covered is “jumping Space Stations.” The rules do not allow for a space station to jump, yet there are hints of the existence of such ships.

То есть что, объяснят как Драгуны умудрялись двигать свой Гефест и ему подобных по всей Сфере?

[Siberian-troll]

Картель Райана умел прыгать с кубами льда.
Как сказал Райан на пресс-конференции вся фича в хитрых расчетах, суперкомпе и специально сконструированных буксирах.
Затем технология отмерла, но кто сказал, что ее нельзя воскресить?

[Hobbit]

Картель Райана умел прыгать с кубами льда.
Как сказал Райан на пресс-конференции вся фича в хитрых расчетах, суперкомпе и специально сконструированных буксирах.
Затем технология отмерла, но кто сказал, что ее нельзя воскресить?

А блейкистами астеройдами кидаются разве не с помощью как раз такой штуки?

[Маленький Скорпион]

> как Драгуны умудрялись двигать свой Гефест и ему подобных по всей Сфере?

Я, грешным делом, полагал, что его монтировали из нескольких модулей размером с "Бегемотег" ;) Соответственно, разбирали, стыковали с джампшипом, прыгали, куда надо, и там собирали вновь.
Теперь, стало быть, нам придумали новую фичу?

З.Ы. мониторы там не узаконивают?

[Stan]

> как Драгуны умудрялись двигать свой Гефест и ему подобных по всей Сфере?

Я, грешным делом, полагал, что его монтировали из нескольких модулей размером с "Бегемотег" ;) Соответственно, разбирали, стыковали с джампшипом, прыгали, куда надо, и там собирали вновь.
Теперь, стало быть, нам придумали новую фичу?

В Драгунском сорсе упоминается, что "Гефест" собрали по модульному принципу, и, как минимум, один раз разбирали, когда на нее начал зариться Антон Марик.

[Siberian-troll]

Я, грешным делом, полагал, что его монтировали из нескольких модулей размером с "Бегемотег"

Поскольку никто не стоял на ушах, когда Драгуны прыгали с этим чудом от нанимателя к нанимателю, скорее всего так и было. Если это вообще не был тупо переоборудованный "Бегемотег". Тот все равно приземляться не умеет, следовательно - станция.

Что до метеоритов, то нам уже показали Блекисткие "Эринии" - подразделение дроп-буксиров типа "Элефант"

[Маленький Скорпион]

Если это вообще не был тупо переоборудованный "Бегемотег"

Скорее, пара-тройка умно переоборудованных "Бегемотегов". Скажем, в одном сборочный цех, в другом склад готовой продукции и гравитационная палуба, где директор с секретутками сидит ;) и т.д.

[Typhoon]

То что там модульный принцип это факт известный.
Авторы ИМХО должны будут стандартизировать вес, размер и функциональное назначение модулей, а также пропишут необходимое дополнительное оборудование, аналог стыковочных колец у ДропШипов.