Sunday, July 24, 2011

Space Combat - Movement

Generally speaking there are two broad types of space combat scenarios in New Diasporia: Individual ship actions and fleet actions.
Individual ship actions can be done using the abstract combat rules from GURPS Space by converting the standard GURPS statistics of New Diasporia to GURPS Space statistics (which in most cases means dividing them by 100.) Any other space combat system  can also be used, provided the game master/story teller/referee is willing to convert the ship statistics to that game system.
Fleet actions are divided into a strategic and a tactical phase. In the strategic phase fleet assets are moved to the target using the stellar maps. Movement on the star system scale should be calculated using the proper calculations. I use those given in the Space Travel and Combat appendix of the GURPS fourth edition Sourcebook Vorkosigan Saga, specifically the Newtonian Space Flight box. All of these formula are derivable from real world sources. As for many other calculation used in the game I use a spreadsheet which allows me to plug in the values rather than having to calculate them by hand during the game. That keeps the game moving.
At the tactical level I use the modified GURPS Traveller hex map rules already referenced. That is hex distances are 1 hex = 10,000 miles. Time scale is 1 min. This is a two dimensional playing field instead of a three dimensional field. Yes a three dimensional field is more accurate, it is also very difficult to play. Playability thumps accuracy in this case. For game purposes movement can be rounded such that 100 Gs of acceleration will equal 1 hex per minute movement. So a ship with 100 Gs acceleration will move 1 hex in its first movement phase 2 hexes in its second movement phase. 3 hexes in its third movement phase, etc.
To calculate how many miles a vessel will move use the formula:
Travel time [hours] = SQRT(0.0000508)*((Distance[Miles])/Acceleration [Gs])
This gives the time require for the spacecraft to travel longer distances.


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