From: Paul Honigmann
Sent: 28 April 1999 13:31
To: vgap4@vgaplanets.com
Subject: Why combat simulators are a Bad Thing

There's been a lot of requests on this mailing list for a combat simulator for VGAP4 but consider the following.

I'm using TKF in a VGAP3 game - an addon which allows you to have fleet battles instead of the normal one-on-one battles of the original VGAP3 game. It's brilliant, I would never go back to the original VCR because it allows a host of small ships to have a chance vs one big one. Blah blah blah [let's skip over a long discussion of how it works and how brill it is]. The point is, although it has a simulation mode, there are a lot more variables than when you sim a 1-on-1 battle, simply because there are more ships and combinations of ships to consider in a fleet battle.

Add to this the fact that in TKF, ships fight differently depending on their Friendly Code. Ie (I think - but the details are irrelevant) if the FC is "001" a ship fights aggressively whereas a ship with FC "911" will hang round at the back of your fleet, shoot torps from a distance and try to pick off incoming fighters. I understand VGAP4 combat will have something similar where the fighter wings and individual ships can have missions such as "attack at all costs", "attempt to capture", "shoot down incoming fighters" etc.

Add to this the fact that in VGAP4 ships can be upgraded as the game goes on and you cannot say "well I fought ship 'Crazed Wildebeeste' before and it only had mark 4 torps so two scouts should be able to take it out".

Also crew Experience will change accuracy of torps and maybe beams, by up to 25%. Then - does the enemy have High Guards on every ship? What kind of shields has he upgraded to?

The number of variables to allow for in a large VGAP4 battle is huge!

Now, some might say this is fun to simulate. But I found that with TKF, I needed so MUCH simming to predict how to e.g take out incoming fleets, that it could take all the fun out of the game. I personally prefer a "well, that looks like an impressive force... let's barge in and blow 'em away!" style, but after losing a few large battles by the skin of my teeth I began simming intensively and taking dozens of turns to marshal my forces most effectively. It worked - but it was extremely boring, and my foes were bored too because there was no action for a long, long time. It's a GAME, fer Chrissakes.

So, bring back roleplaying I say, and a pox on these combat simulators!
 --
Paul Honigmann