I've had a bunch of ideas about space combat bouncing around in my head for a while, and with the advent of Traveller 5 I think I'm finally going to put them together.
My main interest in Traveller has been Trillion Credit Squadron, due to lack of available players. I'll design a ship for a specific world, and then design another ship to beat that one, to be built by a rival. By now I have something resembling Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships for TL 10-13 navies.
My version of High Guard (which I call Starship of the Line to avoid confusion) will have the following features/design priorities:
1) An emphasis on command, control and initiative. (I'm considering using a MegaTraveller-like 'interrupt' system to determine sequence of play.)
2) An abstracted movement system, like the original Book 5; however, ships can be grouped under command of an admiral.
3) An emphasis on (abstracted) movement over firepower. Dividing one's force to outflank the enemy may give a fleet a tactical advantage. (This gives the player many meaningful choices on a fleet level, rather than messing about with allocating the fire of specific ships.)
4) Small engagements should take skilled players no more than an hour; large-scale engagements about four hours.
5) Compatibility with Traveller 5.
This thread, then, is for ideas, comments, playtest reports, observations, flames. Enjoy.
--Devin
My main interest in Traveller has been Trillion Credit Squadron, due to lack of available players. I'll design a ship for a specific world, and then design another ship to beat that one, to be built by a rival. By now I have something resembling Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships for TL 10-13 navies.
My version of High Guard (which I call Starship of the Line to avoid confusion) will have the following features/design priorities:
1) An emphasis on command, control and initiative. (I'm considering using a MegaTraveller-like 'interrupt' system to determine sequence of play.)
2) An abstracted movement system, like the original Book 5; however, ships can be grouped under command of an admiral.
3) An emphasis on (abstracted) movement over firepower. Dividing one's force to outflank the enemy may give a fleet a tactical advantage. (This gives the player many meaningful choices on a fleet level, rather than messing about with allocating the fire of specific ships.)
4) Small engagements should take skilled players no more than an hour; large-scale engagements about four hours.
5) Compatibility with Traveller 5.
This thread, then, is for ideas, comments, playtest reports, observations, flames. Enjoy.
--Devin