miniatures rules -focus of attention

[dglewwe]

this is for the dice-rollers out there (though i welcome comments from the cyber-crowd, too ) ...

most rules (and gamers) seem to agree that an aircraft that is in a tailing position should receive some sort of advantage in its move relative to its target insofar as the pilot can react to what the guy in front of him is doing.

what i'm wondering is if a similar advantage in reaction ability should be given to those aircraft that are NOT currently targeting/pursuing/attacking a specific enemy relative to those that are so engaged? i imagine this to represent pilots who are maintaining a broad view of the action: scanning the sky all 'round without focusing on any particular area/aircraft. should those pilots be able to react to the moves of aircraft that have their attention focused elsewhere in the same way that a tailing aircraft reacts to its target? perhaps with not so great a bonus, but it seems to me that some sort of reward be given for "pulling one's head out" and taking a look 'round.

also, in cases relative to being the target of an enemy's attention, it seems sensible to me that pilots with their "heads on a swivel" be given a better chance to react to an attacker than if they were concentrating on the pursuit of another aircraft --does anyone see a problem incorporating this idea into a game?

[Tufty]

dglewwe,

I think it's feasible to have something like this. For example, in WoW you could experiment with the idea of the observing pilot being privy to one of the dogfighting pilots moves - most likely his/her first move of the turn.

What I'm uncertain about is how you establish the observing plane in the first place. Is it decided on position, distance away from the dogfight or some other factor??? I'm not sure what the mechanics would have to be there.

[dglewwe]

"...how you establish the observing plane...not sure what the mechanics would have to be there."

the mechanics already exist in the rules: players declare targets to determine who's "target fixated" and who's "got their heads out", and movement order (modified by speed , altitude, experience, and quality of tailing position) is used to reflect who reacts to who (whom?).

i was just wondering what people thought of the concept --getting it into the game is not a problem, and it really doesn't add much in the way of time/complexity since the system is already in place. like much of the other "extras" in the rules, they can be added or dropped as players see fit to suit individual tastes: games are suppsed to be fun, and what's fun varies considerably from one person to another! no added detail comes free (as far as cost in gametime/effort), but if someone feels the level of "realism" is too low by allowing automatic spotting of enemy aircraft then they won't mind the extra time/effort spent in adding the acquisition roll to the game. to each his own: i'm just presenting the buffet, players/groups can pick what they like.


oops, sorry: got off on a sidetrack.

anyway: still interested in whether the idea sounds good or bad...