Movement cost for spinning?
 

I hadn't seen anyone else mention this, but it may just be because I'm blind....

Anywhich, a thought I had about tactical combat would be to assess a movement cost for rotating a ship. Since currently any ship can stop on a dime and spin 180 degrees in a single turn (what a head rush!), it's extremely easy to decimate a fleet with superior movement rate and/or superior weapon range using hit-and-run tactics. With a movement cost for rotating, such tactics would not be as effective, and there would be more parity and more realism (at least re: the laws of physics) in tactical combat.

I have come up with two different methods of assessing this movement cost: fixed angle cost and turn radius.

Fixed angle cost means that rotating a ship forty-five degrees would have a set movement cost, depending on the size of the ship. Escorts and frigates would have the smallest cost (they are more agile), while dreadnoughts and basestars would have the largest cost. (Dreadnoughts may not be able to turn all the way around in a single turn. Just imagine a Star Destoyer spinning around that fast....) It would work the same way for fighters.

With turn radius, a ship would have to move forward a certain number of spaces before it could turn. For example, an escort could turn 45 degrees, move forward one space, turn 45 degrees again, move forward one space, etc. Larger ships would have to move two or three spaces forward before being able to turn. Fighters, being very small and nimble, could still rotate to their hearts' content.

So, anyone have any comments or suggestions? I want to get some feedback and flesh out the idea before I suggest anything to MM to implement. I would love to see this implemented in some fashion, since I would like a tactical challenge in tactical combat.

Quikngruvn

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"That which does not kill you will make you stronger." -- Nietzche

Re: Movement cost for spinning?
 

Ship can currently only rotate 90 degrees at a time. Kinda detooths the idea a bit.

Phoenix-D

Re: Movement cost for spinning?
 

All my se4 ships have inertal dampers which effectivly eliminate all those pesky Newtonian principles...

Actually, your idea has merit, just figuring out how to implement it, and getting agreement on how much, etc. might be a stellar conflict in its own right.

Re: Movement cost for spinning?
 

Turn rate and a movement cost for it would be part of implementing shield facings and weapon firing arcs. Hopefully MM will do it one day, but probably in SE V rather than IV. It probably requires some rather large changes to the way tactical combat works. Given how simple the tactical combat system is though, this is a major point that needs to be addressed if SE V is to be a real improvement over SE IV and keep the SE series in the running as important 4X games.