For reference this is extracted from GZG's Full Thrust/Fleet Book One where vector movement is introduced to that minitures system.
COURSE AND FACING
Under the standard Cinematic FT movement, a ship will always be facing in the same
direction that it is moving; under the VECTOR system the ship may be moving one way
and facing another. The direction in which the ship is actually MOVING is termed its
COURSE, while the direction in which the ship model is actually pointing is called its
FACING. The current COURSE is indicated by a small arrow marker placed next to the
ship’s stand, and this marker is also used as a reference point during the process of
moving the model. It should be noted that the FACING of a model should always be one
of the 12 “clockface” points, though the mechanics of the vector movement mean that
the COURSE will usually NOT correspond exactly to a clockface direction.
MAIN DRIVE THRUST
The THRUST RATING of any ship is the amount of thrust that can be produced by its
MAIN DRIVE - the “big engine” at the back. Each point of thrust applied in a turn will
accelerate the ship by 1 inch (or other movement unit) ALONG THE AXIS OF THE SHIP,
so if a ship that is facing in its direction of travel (i.e. its “course” and “facing” are the
same) and currently moving 6" per turn applies 4 points of thrust from its main drive,
it will end up moving at 10" per turn. If the ship’s facing and course are NOT the same
(i.e.: the model is pointing one way and moving another) then the application of thrust
from the main drive will alter the ship’s course AND velocity. To DECELERATE using the
main drive (as opposed to using the forward “retro” thrusters), the ship must be turned
so that it is pointing “backwards” relative to its current course. When writing orders for
your ship, Main Drive thrust is written as MD followed by the number of thrust points
being applied - so MD4 will move the ship 4" in the direction of its present facing.
If using existing ship designs (whether from this book, from FT2 or elsewhere) then the
thrust level shown in the ship’s drive icon is the rating used for the main drive.
MANOEUVRING THRUSTERS
In addition to the main drive, all ships have THRUSTERS - small drives positioned in
clusters around the ship, pointing forward, port, starboard etc. (in reality ships would
also of course have “up” and “down” orientated thrusters, but as we are not concerned
with 3D movement in FT we can ignore these except for their use in rolling the ship).
The thrusters may be used to “push” the ship to alter its course, or to rotate the ship
onto a new facing. The power available to the ship’s thrusters is equal to half the
thrust rating of the main drive - so a ship with a main drive TR of 6 would have 3
manoeuvre points available from its thrusters; unlike the Cinematic movement rules,
thruster use is allowed in addition to applying full available thrust with the main drive
- so that a ship with a Thrust Rating of 4 could apply 2 points of thruster use and still
use all 4 thrust points from its main drive.
We have not depicted the Thruster systems as separate icons on the ship diagrams, in
order that any design may be used with either movement system without alteration.
For the purposes of damage, assume that the thrusters are driven by the same power
systems as the main drives - when the main drive takes damage, thruster power is
halved or lost accordingly.
ROTATION
Rotation of a ship around its axis requires much less power than actually changing its
vector. When the thrusters are used to rotate a ship onto a new heading, ONE
manoeuvre point from the thrusters allows the ship to be rotated by any desired
number of facing points. Thus, for the expenditure of one point of thruster power a
ship can be rotated to face in any of the 12 possible facing directions, regardless of
the thrust rating of its drives (the only difference between rotating 30 degrees and
rotating 180 degrees is simply that, once the thrusters have started the ship spinning,
the ship is allowed to rotate for longer before the thrusters burn again to cancel the
spin). Note that a ROTATION changes the ship’s FACING only, and never its COURSE.
Note: when thrusters are used to rotate the ship onto a new facing, it is assumed that
several of the ship’s thrusters are fired in unison to achieve the desired effect - for
example, to rotate the ship to starboard it would fire the PORT FORWARD thrusters and
the STARBOARD REAR ones simultaneously to spin the ship around its centre of mass. It
is assumed that, in the same turn, a compensating burst is applied as the desired new
facing is reached in order to stop the ship’s rotation - the combined effect of these
operations constitutes one “rotation” action.
ROTATION orders should be written down as TP (Turn Port) or TS (Turn Starboard),
followed by the number of points of heading change - thus TP2 indicates a rotation to
port of 2 clockface points (ie: 60 degrees).
THRUSTER PUSHES
A thruster “push” is firing a combination of manoeuvre thrusters to alter the course
and/or velocity of the ship, WITHOUT affecting its actual facing (i.e.: the ship ends the
turn with its model pointing the same way it started, although its course may have
changed). Pushes may be made to PORT, STARBOARD or REVERSE (using the forward
“retro” thrusters to slow the ship down without having to spin it round and use the
main drive). It requires ONE manoeuvre point of thrust applied to displace the ship by
one movement unit; a push of 3 with the port-side thrusters will shift the ship 3" to
starboard (for simplicity of play, this is referred to as a STARBOARD PUSH - to avoid
confusing of orders we always use the direction of the EFFECT rather than the location
of the thrusters being used). Note that a PUSH changes the ship’s COURSE (and/or
VELOCITY) only, and never its FACING.
PUSH orders should be written as PP (Push to Port), PS (Push to Starboard) or PR (Push
in Reverse), again followed by the number of thrust points applied - so PR3 would be
using 3 manoeuvre points from the retros to push the ship 3 units “backwards” relative
to its current heading. Pushes may only be applied directly to port, starboard or
rearward relative to the ship’s facing at that moment.
COMBINING MANOEUVRES
If desired, a ship may combine both ROTATION and PUSH uses of its manoeuvring
thrusters in a single game turn, but no more than ONE of each, provided the TOTAL of
manoeuvre points expended does not exceed the total available. It is quite acceptable
for a ship with (say) 3 manoeuvre points of thruster power available to make a rotation
(using up 1 thruster point), then apply a main drive burn, then use the remaining 2
manoeuvre points for a 2" thruster push to port, starboard or aft as desired. The final
position, course and velocity would be measured after ALL manoeuvres are completed.
ORDER SEQUENCE
The actual sequence in which thruster and main drive burns are applied in a single turn
will make a difference to the final course and velocity of the ship, so it is necessary to
rule on what order things are done in. Each effect is applied to the ship strictly IN THE
ORDER THEY ARE WRITTEN DOWN BY THE PLAYER. If the player writes TP2, MD6 then
the ship will first be moved according to its starting vector (as always), then turned 2
points to port (TP2) and then moved 6" along its new facing (MD6). If, on the other
hand, the order is written MD6, TP2 (thus applying the main drive burn BEFORE
rotating the ship to its new facing) then the result will be VERY different in terms of
the ship’s final vector and position - plot each one out and you’ll see what we mean!
