I have been thinking about the the way spaceships move through space in the <i>Knight Hawks</i> rules. The <i>Acceleration/Deceleration Factor</i> makes sense, but not so much with the <i>Maneuver Rating</i> system. In real-life, a spacecraft can thrust forwards and maintain a constant speed until countered with reverse thrust, but when the craft change its facing, it will stay in its original heading. The craft can spin like its in "death blossom mode", and it will keep to the original heading. If the craft turns to a heading, it will keep moving to its original heading, but must work start a new heading. So if a craft tuns 60 degrees and boost to a new heading, its going to drift forwards at 30 degrees. As far as realistic space combat goes, the only one that got it right was <i>Jovian Chronicles</i>. Its "Lightning Strike" system is neat, but its <i>+/-X/Y/Z</i> hex system is a little to abstract for me. I have seen a houserule that address this, but it fell flat with me.<br />
<br />I used to like hard realism, but I found that slaving a setting to it tends to makes it a little flat, and I remembered what makes a good sci-fi setting: stunning fights, cool toys, and a world (so to speak) that defies the normal conventions of our reality to make things cool or workable. That is, I like realism, but I also like flashy space battles found in most sci-fi shows and movies. Then I was thinking about all of the artificial gravity used in these shows, then it it hit me: what if the gravity fields used on ships allows it to alter its heading, but can only tilt so far - much like in the KH rules. Artificial gravity also makes sense in that crew can move around normally (allowing them to implement damage control in battle), the ships can move at speeds that would otherwise kill it's crew (or not have to suffer with consciousness rolls or death saves), and the gravity field could be a way to counter all the inertia that comes with FTL travel. (chances are, only Fusion-powered ships can generate the power needed to generate a ship-wide field, but Ion ships sucks, so who cares about those oversized hot-plat burners)<br />
<br />Plus, before the <i>Knight Hawks</i> rules came out, ships seen in <i>Alpha Dawn</i> were designed like the sort of ships found in sci-fi shows - having a horizontal deck layout. Hell, even in the KH books ships are seen with the horizontal layout. I still like vertical decks over horizontal, but I like having both options available.<br /><br />This is just an idea I have been mulling over to make make sense of things, even if its feels like cheap phlebotinum cop out.
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