While I have my own concerns with retrograde as well, especially as we have the chance in SMX to design ships with a range advantage that a retrograding fed fleet could only dream of...

If we dont allow retrograde, then people will (logically) simply mount long range rear-firing weapons... and then well see more fighting in reverse, because the ships will have no choice.

That said, retrograde issues, like picard manuver issues, are solved by having a fixed map....  but boy, fixed maps in space bug me alot...

Now I remember why my instincts led me there: it's correct Newtonian movement. The delta-v required to get from move N hexes/turn heading north to N hexes/turn heading 60 degrees east of north is N.

have you tried SIMS with admiral version?

Huh, missed that massive movement thread about the standard system....

I'm not getting around to everything, I got the weekend off, but:

wife + kids + Christmas = less computer time for dad

From what I could discern, it appeared to be a misunderstanding, and a re-write of the rules to improve understanding would fix that....

Sorry to hear that you're not going to be in the new house by Christmas, I won't be getting a new recliner before then either. We haven't found one that matches the couch....

I hate fix maps for space ship combat as space does not have borders.  I refuse to play such games or with such rules; we have always used floating maps in space ship combat games I've played, including Starmada.  Never had a problem doing so.  What I would have problems with is "being boxed into a corner" when playing a space ship combat game.

I've played Full Thrust and have seen speeds of 45+ (sometimes with my own ships).  We had to semi-abstract some ship locations "off the map" by noting direction (perpendicular to the map edge) and distance from the miniature sitting on the edge of the table.  This has worked fine.  But speeds of 20+ were rare, and even then I rarely moved off the current playing area or had to float the map.  So I'd worry less about high speeds or map edges and get the movement system right.  I wouldn't even bother with a maximum speed; IMO, even 300 is too slow for light speed.

The boom and zoom method might just be how space combat might be fought realistically.  That might not be as much fun for gaming, though.

I think his point is that they PROFESS to attempt to address realism - and I think that we both agree they failed miserably. Starfire is - clunky's a good word - way too top heavy once you get to the more detailed parts. The base game is okay.

SFB is okay for duels, but once again, the added systems make it virtually  unplayable for me. YMMV....

Fleets in SFB took us 2-4 hours for a single turn.

Starmada does not attempt to make nice with the intricate details of ship design, but concentrates on the EFFECTS that the weapons and systems have in the game.

....and I think that's his point.