Traveller System Update - Not Much of an update but a Bwap character

All I've done is update the runtime (language and framework)) to .NET 10. Which is not quite released but is in early release for developers to play with. And I'm using the newest version of the Visual Studio. Hard to believe I've been using that IDE (Integrated Developer Editor I think) for a long, long time. Though the Borland C++ IDE was the 1st one I used and liked but as I shifted to .NET and C# (and Borland screwed up and then tried to go back but had already lost by then) Microsoft's tooling worked better. Of course, it is also a tool I love to hate - it has a lot of great features but is often slow, can crash oddly. And on the Mac I use Visual Code (also bought by MS a few years back but it is actually really good for. I use it for both the Rails and .NET dev work). I even use Visual Code on the PC for looking at the Rails application and even .NET stuff as it is faster for some things. Though the Insider version of the Visual Studio does seem a good bit faster.

Anyway, I was rethinking how I was doing some things. As I noted before, I made things a bit more complicated than I really needed to in the name of making it really, really flexible. And I can keep the flexibility I think but reduce the complexity a bit by combing 2 or 3 of the tables. But then I need to figure out how to link things behind the scenes a bit, so not fully decided yet. Because the more distributed system (a table for the star type such a F, G, a table for the size I, V, and then another table that takes those two and has the orbits available) means there is no duplicating things, and I can relate table by their keys. Ahh, the problems of overthinking things sometimes. Though the system features table does have just a string for the star type and size, and is not pointing to another table. Which is sort of where all this came from: behind the scenes it is faster and more efficient for foreign keys to look things up compared to matching on strings. It improves data consistency and validity. I'll probably just update this table to use the FK (foreign key, the ID on the other table) and update the UI to have dropdowns for those. It just complicates the front end a lot.

I also ran the old RPGSuite for some reason and generated a Bwap character. One of my gaming buddies wishes more game companies had more character generators. And I am of course torn on that (what don't I have conflicting opinions on!) - I like rolling dice and writing things down. But for games I don't have the rules on, on-line character creators are nice. I've used them for the 1 Conan game I played in, as well as a Star Trek game. Not having the rules, it would have taken a lot of work on the GM & myself to create the characters (especially the Conan one - that is one complicated process! Of course, T5 is pretty durn complicated as well). But if I were to enjoy the game a lot, I tend to get the books and then I'd be rolling up characters left and right.

Anyway, this is basically a filler post: nothing much to really say. Other than my Space Cat Lord did not knock off all the spaceships!

June Bug, Battle Commander of the 4th Space Fleet

maybe I need to add a cat tag

Full Thrust - A Solo Test Run

Since I have a LOT of little spaceships, I decided to try a solo run of Full Thrust. I used the lite rules which is all of 2 pages. After pocking a few alien ships, I set up a big station and had a few cruisers and military craft. I kept it to 4 or 5 ships per side to not get too complicated.

The cool thing about this game is that you write down your orders before each turn, and movement is basically simultaneous. And as I recalled from playing Triplanetary all of 1 time, vectors can quickly add up! It is necessary to really think ahead and where you want to go.

Combat did not even happen for the 1st 2 rounds as the alien flotilla was moving in at a velocity of 4 for the asteroid base. Two of the human ships were facing in the general direction but still had to pivot a bit and start accelerating from a dead stop. One of the ships just started to change heading: you can only change a maximum of half your movement points, which is represented by your sub light engines. 

The aliens started accelerating, and in the first round managed to actually do enough damage to one ship that it knocked out most of the systems. That little frigate was out of the game, at a pace of 8 mu (movement units, which I was using a 1inch hex map for so 8") in its current heading. There was hull left, so they will eventually get rescued! Firing and damage are straight forward: each battery has a value, 1, 2, and a firing arc on the ship status display. If you are within 12 mu, you use the number of dice per value, 12-24 subtract one from the number of dice, and so forth. It is simple to get ranges and effects. Rolling the dice, 1-3 are a miss, 4-5 are a hit, and 6 is a double hit. There are damage boxes, and if you clear off a row, you start checking for system damage. If 1 row is crossed off, the roll for each system and a 1 takes it out of service. 2 rows or more at a time and you add another point. That frigate only had 2 boxes per row, so taking 5 hits meant 2 rows, so that meant a 1-3 on a d6 takes out a system. It lost most of its systems.

It started getting more complicated as I was running 2 sides and tracking which ships had fired. But at one point the human heavy cruiser had taken some damage but was going right past the alien fleet. Unfortunately, with its headings and damage it took, it could not even fire at the ships right next to it! Plus, while I was decelerating, it was still going too fast from the built-up vector.

In the end, the aliens got some strafing shots at the station and moved on with no losses though a lot of damage to their heavy cruiser.

For a test play, I think I managed to understand the lite rules. With a good ship card, and a bearing card under the ship to help with firing arcs, I think it would be fun to play with multiple people. While 2 of the Saturday group would probably enjoy it, the other two probably would not, so I am not sure how I'll get to play it with anyone. But I am sure something will come up. Interestingly I can see this as a play-by-post, sort of like how some people play chess. If we have a coordinate system: frigate +2, P2 at coordinate 1234 tells you where the next location is (accelerating 2 and turning 2 points to port). 

And hey, like CT, if you change bearing you move half your vector, then shift, then move the remaining half. There are no rules for gravity and planets in the lite rules. I'll have to read the full rules, but I imagine that they are in there. If not, I'll just use the CT rules as this game seems really compatible with that. For all I know the designers were big Traveller fans.

I've never run a High Guard game. It is a lot more abstracted, using range bands. No mini movement really. I've tried classic Traveller ship combat, which is vector driven as well, but you can rapidly run out of space depending on what you are doing. Though I did have fun making planet templates and scooting my tokens around planets. And I do have Triplanetary as well which also uses vector movement. I've opened the box at least!

aliens are approaching!

from the alien's view

the frigate is out of action! Ship cards are simple but give you all the info you need.

passing right by them but can't shoot as no batteries left for port, starboard or aft quadrants.