Post by Ziphion on Aug 12, 2014 9:59:10 GMT -8
While we wait in anticipation for more details from DI about Simple System's Space Combat Supplement, I thought I'd share an idea for spaceship maneuvering that a friend and I developed for the sci-fi campaign we're working on. The goal was to create a zero-gravity movement system that was as realistic as possible, while staying in the spirit of Simple System by minimizing unnecessary math and complication. This is what we came up with!
Your spaceship is represented by a token on a hexagonal grid. Unless you expend fuel (or experience some external force), you will continue traveling in a straight line at a constant speed. At the start of your character's turn, you know your spaceship's direction and speed, and must travel a number of tiles equal to your current speed in that direction.
If you'd like to speed up, it's simple: Just expend an amount of fuel equal to your desired speed increase. Your amount of movement for the turn increases accordingly.
If you'd like to slow down, same idea: expend an amount of fuel equal to your desired speed decrease.
What if you want to turn? Well, in real life, the amount of energy required to turn depends on both your velocity and your turn radius. This idea can be simplified quite nicely like so: if you want to make a 60° turn, you must expend fuel equal to your "Movement Left". So if you want to make a sudden turn at speed 5, you need to expend 5 fuel:
But if you increase the turn radius by a bit, you can reduce the fuel needed to turn:
Increasing the turn radius even further:
What's great about this idea is that once you get used to it, it works very intuitively. For example, if you're about to make some complicated maneuver involving multiple turns, it makes sense to slow down, make the turns, then speed back up again. And in this system, you expend less fuel for doing so. Here's a maneuver performed without slowing down:
And here's the exact same maneuver, but where the spaceship slows down from speed 8 to 6, makes the turns, and then accelerates from 6 back up to 8:
Your spaceship's fuel could be a limited resource, which must be refueled after combat or at special fueling stations / support ships. There could also be a limit to how much fuel you can expend in a round. For example, maybe your ship can't expend more than 12 fuel in one round; in that case, you could perform the turning maneuver above, but only if you don't blast through at high speed. If you want to increase the customizability of spaceships, you could limit each ship's ability to expend fuel it for each type of movement action. So a highly maneuverable ship might only be able to spend 1 fuel to speed up per round, but 10 to turn, while a speedy ship might be able to spend 5 fuel to speed up, and only 5 to turn.
I really like this idea, and I think it forms the basis of a really fun space combat system with large battlefields and fast-paced action. What do you all think?
Your spaceship is represented by a token on a hexagonal grid. Unless you expend fuel (or experience some external force), you will continue traveling in a straight line at a constant speed. At the start of your character's turn, you know your spaceship's direction and speed, and must travel a number of tiles equal to your current speed in that direction.
If you'd like to speed up, it's simple: Just expend an amount of fuel equal to your desired speed increase. Your amount of movement for the turn increases accordingly.
If you'd like to slow down, same idea: expend an amount of fuel equal to your desired speed decrease.
What if you want to turn? Well, in real life, the amount of energy required to turn depends on both your velocity and your turn radius. This idea can be simplified quite nicely like so: if you want to make a 60° turn, you must expend fuel equal to your "Movement Left". So if you want to make a sudden turn at speed 5, you need to expend 5 fuel:
But if you increase the turn radius by a bit, you can reduce the fuel needed to turn:
Increasing the turn radius even further:
What's great about this idea is that once you get used to it, it works very intuitively. For example, if you're about to make some complicated maneuver involving multiple turns, it makes sense to slow down, make the turns, then speed back up again. And in this system, you expend less fuel for doing so. Here's a maneuver performed without slowing down:
And here's the exact same maneuver, but where the spaceship slows down from speed 8 to 6, makes the turns, and then accelerates from 6 back up to 8:
Your spaceship's fuel could be a limited resource, which must be refueled after combat or at special fueling stations / support ships. There could also be a limit to how much fuel you can expend in a round. For example, maybe your ship can't expend more than 12 fuel in one round; in that case, you could perform the turning maneuver above, but only if you don't blast through at high speed. If you want to increase the customizability of spaceships, you could limit each ship's ability to expend fuel it for each type of movement action. So a highly maneuverable ship might only be able to spend 1 fuel to speed up per round, but 10 to turn, while a speedy ship might be able to spend 5 fuel to speed up, and only 5 to turn.
I really like this idea, and I think it forms the basis of a really fun space combat system with large battlefields and fast-paced action. What do you all think?
