On 10Jun2020 0940, Ethan McKinney wrote:
> Depends on your definition of "realistic." Traveller realistic,
> pretty-much-current-state-of-knowledge realistic, or ???
>
> Attack Vector: Tactical bases lasers on actual optics (wavelength,
> mirror diameter, wavelength-based power efficiency, some assumptions
> about keeping components from exploding, and so forth). It's
> unrealistic in that ships use fusion torches that manage between .75
> and 1.5 Gs (even topping 3 Gs for some of the gunboats that are
> too-big-to-be-fighters and not-quite-battleriders).
>
> (B1.1) GAME SCALE:
> (B1.11) HEX SIZE: One hex in AV:T is 20 kilometers (km), or roughly
> 12.43 miles.
> (B1.12) TURN LENGTH: One turn in AV:T is 128 seconds. A turn is
> subdivided into 8 segments of 16 seconds each.
> (B1.13) STANDARD ACCELERATION UNIT: The standard acceleration unit (g,
> hereafter) is 9.765625 meters per second per second, which is 0.996 g
> as defined by the Système International. The standard g ensures that
> thrust effects for burns with a duration of a whole turn come out to
> even increments of 20 km (one hex).
> (B1.131) Thrust ratings for tactical combat are measured in fractions
> of a g. Thrust of 1 is 1/4 of a g, a thrust of 0.5 is 1/8 of a g.
> (B1.132) At tactical thrust, one fuel unit is 0.15625 kilometers per
> second (kips) of velocity change.
> (B1.14) VELOCITY SCALE: Getting a feel for AV:T combat speeds is
> simple. A velocity of 1 (20 km/128 seconds, or 156.25 meters per
> second) is roughly jet liner cruising speed. 2 hexes per turn (40
> km/128 seconds, or 312.5 meters per second) is a bit   shy of the
> speed of sound at sea level. Typical AV:T closing velocities of 8 to
> 14 hexes per turn run between Mach 3.75 (the speed of an SR-71
> Blackbird) and Mach 6.6 (the speed of the Space Shuttle through most
> of its launch.)
> (B1.2) TIME INCREMENTS:
> (B1.21) TURNS: The turn is used to track heat accumulation, damage
> control and flag point regeneration for flagships. Turns, segments and
> ship positions can be thought of as snapshots taken during a
> continuous stream of actions.
>
> You get to see the ships performing the of real pivots you get with
> attitude thrusters: the pivot gets faster and faster until its
> midpoint, then it gets slower and slower.
>
> It turns out to be a really good scale for somewhat "dogfight-y"
> battles where maneuver matters, but ships definitely aren't fighter
> planes.
Compare with TNE/Brilliant Lances/Battle Rider with their turns of half
and hour and hexes/range increments of 30,000 km for a rough fit with 1G
acceleration gives 1 hex per turn.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>