Ship Velocity Question

[kaladorn]

An alternative vector movement system

The author specifically comments he thinks this might be workable as an alternative to Brilliant Lances, but it may hold some interest for other Traveller games too.

 

[chrome_gnome]

Well after looking over the numbers again I think the time scale equation listed earlier of 10*t^2 should actually be 5*t^2. The original equation is:

S = (Vo * t) + (.5 * a * t^2)

Assume Vo = 0 and assume a = 10 m/s which gives you:

S = 5 * t^2

To find a time that allows 1g to accelerate through 750km you re-arrange it to:

t = (S / 5)^.5

so t = 378 seconds instead of the 5 minute value arrived at earlier.

So I went ahead and calculated out the number of hexes moved for each acceleration move and each "momentum" move. As long as you maintain a 20:1 ratio between map scales the following will always work.

1G = 1 hex of accel move & +2 hexes per momentum move to your previous speed
2G = 2 hexes of accel move & +4 to your previous speed
3G = 3 hexes of accel move & +6 to your previous speed
4G = 4 hexes of accel move & +8 to your previous speed
5G = 5 hexes of accel move & +10 to your previous speed
6G = 6 hexes of accel move & +12 to your previous speed
If you decelerate the values are of course negative instead.

The map scales I arrived at are:
Tactical Scale = 750km/hex round = 387 seconds
Strategic Scale = 15,000km/hex round = 1732 seconds
Regional Scale = 300,000km/hex round = 7740 seconds
Interplanetary Scale = 6,000,000km/hex round = 34,641 seconds

20 tactical hexes per 1 strategic hex
20 strategic hexes per 1 regional hex
20 regional hexes per 1 interplanetary hex

The time frame between ships operating at different scales is:
4 tactical rounds = 1 strategic round
4 strategic rounds = 1 regional round
4 regional rounds = 1 interplanetary round

I think using these scales will allow combat to start as soon as a ship jumps into a system at high speed all the way down to the near starport level and be very close to mathematically correct.

Obviously this system is not required for all movement but for me it allows the most flexiblity for my starship centered campaign.

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi !

Gnome figured out the slight simplification

In fact the original time/scale model ignores the non-linearity of accelerated moving.
The model I use mathematically assumes, that the velocity for one turn equals the velocity, that would be reached at the end of the turn = instant acceleration. Thats why Kaladorn and me are "faster".

At least the movement itself on the scale could be easily fixed by simply using half the hexes of the g-rating would allow. So, a 4g accelerated turn would result in just two hexes added to the vector in that turn, but the next turn would be started with old velocity + 4 hexes.

Essentielly thats the same way gnome presents in his post. The major difference is, that his scale is adapted to the distance travelled in an accelerated CR move and the other one to the velocity resulting from an accelerated move.

So, keep on moving

Anyway I would be very interested in the results of a playtest of gnomes scaling system.

Regards,

Mert

 

[chrome_gnome]

I am not certain that these numbers would really help honestly. I did it more to figure it out and hoping the extra precision would make it better. At first glance it seems like the rapid increase in speed each turn would only hasten the time frame in which you'd have to move from one map scale to another. I was hoping for more flexibility but I think that this may be a case of realism vs playability with playability winning out.

I wonder if using a version of the basic starship combat would be better. Just keeping up with relative ranges and speeds, using cards like magicthe gathering cards, to keep the relative combat at the focus of the table. I am thinking now that perhaps trying to actually map, hex by hex, a combat where speeds and accelerations allow radical movement may be a bad idea and best left to computer games where moving maps and "infinite" space is no problem.

If only I spent this much thought on my actual RL engineering job

Too bad mining equipment isn't too exciting.