Message text Hi fellows
I find annoying the way fuel is handled in Blue Max, and I think I'm not the only one.
Apart from "glider wars" that keep popping up every now and then, I nevere read or heard of someone being caught with an empty fuel in the middle of a battle.
On the boardgame, the 25 turns limit kept these factor bearable, but the online game has no such limits (and I like it very much this way).
So I thought a way to solve the problem, and I did, following my habit, starting from real life.
In real life people doesn't end without fuel: at some point they disengage and run home because they know otherwise they won't be able to reach their airfield. Let's see how this can be implemented.
The idea is that, when you run "out of fuel", you don't glide, but keep flying (and consuming fuel) normally, accumulating "negative fuel". When you exit the map, those negative fuel points represent a chance that you can't get to your airfield safely, but have to crash land on the way home, possibly killing yourself in the process.
At first, I thought of a cumulative percentage, but there is a simpler way.
Every point of negative fuel represents a combat point, and after you exit you get "fired at" at so many combat points (i.e. columns on the fire table) as much negative fuel you have.
Example: exit at -3 fuel, fire at column 3 (BB maximum), exit at -12... from RR to RRRRRR. =
Note that under -15 you DON'T glide. A shot at better than +15 is considered +15...  Or you can sum up columns: e.g. -20 give a 15 and a 5.
(I think that in the worst case it should count as a death for you, NOT as a kill for your opponent(s), that is -25 pts for you)
In this way, out-fueling became a calculated risk, 1 or 2 turns can be done, more makes sense only if the altrenative is being shot down right on the board.
Altrenatively, TURNS instead of fuel points can be counted for combat points, or a combat point can be worth 2, 3 or more negative fuel points (rounding UP). An average move consumes 2 fuel points, after all.
This partly compensate the dreaded Fokker Fuel Feed Frenzy. A low fuel Fokker chasing a beaten prey can have its reward (at a risk) instead of having to leave in a hurry halfway or worse becoming a sitting duck. No more "wear-the-fokker" games. (That, IMHO, makes Fokkers more dangerous, i.e. more up to their fame.)
No more fuel accounting, and without random fuel. You just know that soon he wil rush for home, NOT that he will start gliding.
Also, no more 3 -> 1 decelerations on the last fuel point.
One last thought. Exiting from the wrong side colud bear a malus e.g. of 5 CP on the N and S sides and of 10 CP on the opposite side, instead of a score penalty. That reflects the additional difficulty of landing on no-man-land or behind enemy lines (POW).
However I look at it, it seems a good idea to me. Can you find weak points?
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Gugliandalf |
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