Keeping Track of Space Battle

[DhAkael]

How do people in here depict / visulize space battels for their PW games?
Do you just arbitarily describe where any particular ship / fighter / superdreadnuaght is durring the melee and hope to god your players (and your self) remebers where they are?
Do you use a hex or square grid "battle matt" to keep track, and if so, how do you arbitrate movement and combat range?

A good system I've come up with (if you have more than just two space craft in combat) is use a hex grid 'map' and use the speed-class tables from either Nijas & Super-Spies or HU2, find which speed class is closest to the ships being used, and the SC number is the total hexs that can be moved per melee. Turning radius being 1/4 of total hexes moved (32 hexes 'speed' = 8 hexes per hex side turn).
For scale, I tend to go with 10km (or if you want..miles..I aint picky) per hex.
Yes, I know that means for most point deffense and/or fighter weapons, the ship will need to be side by side or right on top of their opponent to hit, but that's okay...as combat in Rifts is kinda wonkey anyways

If you have a better system (Re; EASIER not more realistic...realistic means even MORE time wasted per melee in real-time), please feel free to post it here, as I'm kinda curious as to how others may have figured out this little conumdrum

[Rimmer]

I usually use my hands, with the thumb and pinky finger splayed out, while making vrooming noises accompanyed by the occasional zap zap boom !

[DhAkael]

Are there any intelligent ideas / concepts / comments that anyone wold like to share

[J. Lionheart]

Uhh, well, a 3D cube model on a computer, where you can assign X,Y,Z axis points to things and pan around to whatever angle you like is a good one. Heck, if your players are good at spatial reasoning, just keeping track of those points where they can see them would suffice.

Hmm, if you wanted to get fancy as heck, a kind of a mobile frame with movable hangings to represent the ships might work.

Most basic... lay out some objects on the floor to show the X and Y relationship, and have a sticky note on them listing their Z.

[DhAkael]

Uhh, well, a 3D cube model on a computer, where you can assign X,Y,Z axis points to things and pan around to whatever angle you like is a good one. Heck, if your players are good at spatial reasoning, just keeping track of those points where they can see them would suffice.

Hmm, if you wanted to get fancy as heck, a kind of a mobile frame with movable hangings to represent the ships might work.

Most basic... lay out some objects on the floor to show the X and Y relationship, and have a sticky note on them listing their Z.

Better

[Rimmer]

Are there any intelligent ideas / concepts / comments that anyone wold like to share

Well if we are going to be picky about it

Try about 5 sheets of thin transperant plastic with hexes drawn on them in identical patterns, put a metal rod through the corners of all 5 pieces and have them on top of each other with about an inch or two between them. I'm sure you can see where i am going with this. When working out ranges just count how many hexes away plus how many down or up.

Hope it helps.

[glitterboy2098]

http://forums.classicbattletech.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=29366.0;id=14958;image a decent method

[Jefffar]

I cut my teeth in Robotech and can visualise my way through a space battle nicely. So can most of my old group of players. But basically we boil it down to the following:


Is the ship in question inside the zone the player can engage with their weapons system?

Is the player within the zone the shiop in question can engage with its weapons?

What are the movement intentions of both ships?

What are the speed and agility capabilities of both ships?

Check dice results.

[icdedppul]

thats about the way my group does it..

we tend to try and keep things relative to our ship... gets complicated if there are 2 player controlled ships

then spice things up abit... using alot of assumed figures on thrust....
giving effectively extended distances to missiles firing at someone on approach vectors
droping high V inerts on assumed flight paths. and using energy LOS weaponry at stated values



hmmm come to think of it our space ship stuff does get rather complicated

[DhAkael]

thats about the way my group does it..

we tend to try and keep things relative to our ship... gets complicated if there are 2 player controlled ships

then spice things up abit... using alot of assumed figures on thrust....
giving effectively extended distances to missiles firing at someone on approach vectors
droping high V inerts on assumed flight paths. and using energy LOS weaponry at stated values



hmmm come to think of it our space ship stuff does get rather complicated

heh...complicated is okay, but not if it slows things down.
The system I initialy posted here was for those players in my crew who tend to get 'lost' when the dice fly .
I have no problems keeping track of cap-ship & fighters in my head, but then again, I'm usualy GM, and have to deal with running anywhere from 2-6 different NPCs at any one time