>Let's face it, in ST the weapons have way too much range for ships to
>need to get in visual range (like in Shiva Option by Steve White &
>David Weber where you get a good line on the theme of 'What do you
>mean ninety KILOMETERS!?'. But that just doesn't look cool.

Indeed. I remember back in '91 or '92, when I was still hanging around WPI, the original Wing Commander was still a fresh game, the top of the line in space battle games. A friend of mine had this other game called Operation Mantis or some such. It was basically a space fighter game which had a physics model and scenario engine as realistic as they could be made. It billed itself as the first "true" space combat simulator.

Which basically meant that it was incredibly hard to play and boring at the same time.

Realism isn't always, or even usually, entertaining when it comes to space travel. Look at 2001: A Space Odyssey, if you can stay awake through the spacewalk scene.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/