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	Archive through October 20, 2005	25		08/29 12:51am

William, good point.

I guess it is time to clean up the proposal again to examine where it stands at the present.

Before We start that, Is anyone besides me bothered by the name "Warp Bubble Drones".

2+ years agao when I first posted the idea, I was concentrating on the mechanism that allowed the super Light Movement ability (the ability to move many hexes in but a single impulse).

Now when ever I have to type the name or the abreviation (WBD) i'm a little irritated by the siliness of it.

I'd like to rename it to something a little less "bubbly"...

One example of a new name would be "SLM or Super Light Movement Drones, and treat it as a speed upgrade to the existing drone structure. So instead of Slow, Moderate, Medium and Fast Drones, there would be a 5th catagory (after year 202) called SLM (or possibly just "super Fast" drones?

Just a thought.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, October 22, 2005 - 02:02 pm: Edit

Restated Proposal:

Super Light Movement Drones, (Probational Name change from Warp Bubble Drones) by Jeff Wile.

In year 202 Kzinti Scientists developed a special drone with a limited Super Light Movement capacity. this development was quickly copied by all drone using races.

the capability, in short, generated a warp bubble at the drone launcher/apperture when a drone was launched. This allowed a 1 impulse period where the drone was able to move at a super light movement capacity.

Once the impulse was completed, the drone returned to the speed that it would normally travel at (in general, this would be fast drone, speed=32 hexes per 32 impulse turn).

The drone must be ATG, and if there is not a valid target available within the 8 hex range limit of ATG drones, the drone would immediately go inert.

If there is a valid target within 8 hexes, then Active Terminal Guidance is activated, and the ATG fast drone would conform to the established rules for such drones.

The rules that still need to be worked out include:

1. how to build (or generate) the warp bubble, the original propsal called for a 1 point of warp energy to be allocated per launcher on the turn of launch.
2. rules for the super light movement portion of the drone flight, with respect to existing rules. several people commented negatively about the inherent inaccuracy of the proposal (that stated that the longer the distance the drone used SLM speed, the less likely it would function as desired.)
3. SPP raised the point that the drone should be targetable during the SLM phase.
4. should all drone types be able to use SLM? (including dogfight drones?)

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, October 23, 2005 - 12:51 pm: Edit

Going back to something SPP posted:

quote:"The upshot is that no Kzinti fleet is going to go into battle without a couple of DFs that just hang back waiting for a target that has used up its drone defenses. This has the effect of forcing the opponent to hold phasers for defense against sudden arrival of these drones, reducing their fire power more. And the DFs do not even have to launch drones, simply the threat that they will do so will for the opponent to hold phasers to defend against it."

I'm also reminded that several people have commented negatively agaisnt the original proposals "Dis Dev" characteristic.

In an effort to offer an alternative (that hopefully, people might feel better defines the SLM drones (or WBD), this:

Revised procedure, instead of the original idea, which gave a limited 1 impulse super light movement phase that had an inverse relationship between range and the probability of success.
Replace it with a limited 1 impulse super light movement phase that is always successful, but that the energy cost increases as the range is increased.

For example, say the launching ship has a drone launcher that is generating a warp bubble in preparation of SLM drone launch.

The predetermined energy cost of launching such a drone (per rack) is .05 energy points per each hex of range. that breaks out as:

Hex Range, Energy Cost.
___1________.05 warp Energy
___10_______.5_ warp Energy
__100_______5.0_warp Energy

what that means is, if a launching ship were to use SLM capacity to move 1 hex, the energy cost per drone and drone rack would be 0.05 energy points. (I don't know of any reason why anyone would want to do that, it is the same thing as a normal fast drone, but a normal drone does not cost additional energy...)

In the second example given, the SLM Drone and Drone Rack allows the drone to use SLM to move 10 hexes at a total cost of 0.5 energy points, if there were 4 drone racks using SLM capacity to launch SLM drones, the total would be 4*0.5=2 energy points.

in the final example (and most extreme case) the energy cost per SLM Drone and Drone Rack would be 5 energy points per rack. Take a Kzinti DF with 6 racks and the ability to launch 6 drones in 1 game turn. The energy cost would be 6*5=30 energy points. (note the example ignores the special features of the DF's B and C racks, and assumes just 1 drone is launched from each drone rack.)

The problem is that the Kzinti DF does not have the warp energy needed to provide 30 points of warp energy, so would not be a legal example. The Kzinti CD has both the drone racks and the total warp energy to provide a 100 hex SLM capacity for its Drones.

This sugggestion would effectively prevent the Kzinti's from using its surviving DF's in the manner suggested by SPP.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, August 28, 2006 - 10:56 pm: Edit

Alternative Super Light Movement drones.

1. SLM Drones are indistinguishable from Fast (speed 32) drones at range 8 hexes or less.

2. SLM Drones, are launched normally, but on the first impulse of movement that they could legally move, "skip" all the intervening hexes between the launching hex and the hex on the most direct line of sight to its inttended target, that is still 8 hexes from the target.

3. SLM Drones may not be fired from any range greater than 30 hexes or less than 9 hexes from the target. (thus making range 9 SLM drones indistinguishable from speed 32 fast drones...)

This proposal would eliminate the potential of "skipping past" a carriers escorts as in many cases a carrier will keep its DE's and FFE's etc close enough to interdict drones targeted on the carrier. (This is assuming that 8 hexes is sufficient. if it is not sufficient, we could increase the range to target requirement up from the 8 hexes proposed to whatever number of hexes is needed.)

the other advantage is that it will eliminate many turns of drone moves that are 8=hexes from the target ship.

an optional rule that might be considered, would be to allow any ship, fighter or shuttle (def Sat?!?) to fire at the SLM Drones at what ever its closest point of approach during the SLM phase...any damage inflicted will destroy the drone.

We might also want to require that only ships with warp power be allowed to launch these SLM drones. (say 1 point warp power per launcher?!?

the advantages would include "speeding up the game" without making a large number of direct fire drone rules.

another advantage would be that the speed upgrade of SLM drones could be handled as other speed upgrades have been handled (call them 'Z' drones in stead of slow, moderate or fast drones, for example).

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - 12:51 am: Edit

Well, to speed up play, how about this?
The warp bubble drone has a huge warp bubble and a standard guidance system, thus it can move at 4 hexes per impulse so long as it is more than four hexes away from any unit (including the launch unit). Furthermore it can only move under the warp bubble with standard telemitry when not close to the target and thus at R8 or closer to the primary target it shall move as a standard type F drone.
The drone must have a type F drone motor that has been upgraded to WB-F and costs 0 BPV per drone upgraded. But both players must agree to the optional rule of Warp Bubble-drones.

In this way the drone moves from point to point quickly without slowing down the game but without skipping fighters/MW-drones that have been sent out to destroy incomming drones.

Medium motors would move 4 hexes per Impulse.
Moderate Drones would move 3 hexes per impulse.
Slow drones move 2 hexes per impulse.


In the end, this makes building a big drone stack, harder but speeds up play a little. I'm not sure if anyone would go for it for the same reasons no one uses the speed 24 Impulse chart anymore...the tactical advantage always superceeds the benefit of faster play!

By Gary Bear (Gunner) on Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - 07:23 am: Edit

Cute idea as long as the concept of game balance has no value to you.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - 02:45 pm: Edit

MJC:

No, I don't think so.

See SPP comments above and in the archives. your suggested modification does not even begin to address the issues that Steve pointed out.