From: bc@fccn01.fccn.pt (Luis Miguel Sequeira)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
Subject: BattleTech PBeM Development Group
Date: 23 Nov 92 15:24:41 GMT
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

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 B A T T L E T E C H   P B e M   D E V E L O P M E N T   G R O U P

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	Ok,  I'm  sorry not having posted    anything at  all earlier.
However, there weren't many  new suggestions  to be  added, except for
one, coming  from Hunter  Chen <hunterch@chaph.usc.edu>.  He has being
busy  developing the Jumpships, and  his mail is so  thorough  you can
directly put it on the rulebook! Thanks Chen.

	Here a transcription:

From hunterch@chaph.usc.edu Mon Nov 23 07:42:40 1992
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 11:57:46 PST
From: Hunter Chen <hunterch@chaph.usc.edu>
To: bc@fccn01.fccn.pt
Subject: Jumpship travel (here goes)


For many faithful Btech followers, they will be pleased to know that at least
this part will be retained.

Jumpships are ships equipped with the Kearny-Fuchida drive that allows
mankind to leap from star to star.  These ships are designed for Interstellar
travel, not interplanetary or in-system travel.  This type is designed for
the more maneuvarable (and often more armored and armed) Dropships.

Jumpships basically contain 4 different parts:
	1) The sail:  It is with the sail that the Jumpship recharges its
drive.
	2) The K-F drive
	3) The docking hard points: It is at these points where Dropships are
latched on before Jump.
	4) The bridge

Interstellar travel:
	In Btech there are 5 classes of Jumpship:
	Scout: Contains only a single docking collar
	Merchant: Contains two docking collars
	Invader: Contains three docking collars
	Star Lord: Contains six docking collars
	Monolith: Contains nine docking collars

For the purpose of this game, the most common types seen will be the Scout
and Merchant Classes.  Occassionally a Invader class will be seen.  The Star
Lords and Monoliths are usually used for large scale invasions of combined
arms and are usually owned by a House.

If one desires to travel to another system, s/he can travel to the local
starport and check the current roster of Jumpships in system.  S/he will see
the following information:

	Jumpship No.:
	Name:
	Registry:
	Class:
	Recharge time:

The Jumpship No. will be assigned to all jumpships in the game.  There will
be a limited # of jumpships in the game.  The Number system will be a 1,2, or
3 (indicating what class Jumpship it is [1 for scout, 2 for merchant, and 3
for invader]) followed by a 3 digit number.  For example a scout jumpship can
have the # 1002 while an Invader will be # 3004.

The Name is self explanatory.  Registry will indicate which House, Merchant
Cartel, or Mercenary Unit it is affiliated with.  There is a chance that it
maybe an independent Jumpship.  

Class: One of the 5 classes named above.

Recharge Time:  In Btech, a Jumpship requires one week (on the average) to
properly recharge its drive to make a jump.  I am not sure what a "turn"
represents in this game, so the time necessary to recharge will be decided
later.  Having a recharge time creates a sort of lag time where often mercs
or passengers must wait until the ship is fully charged before departing to
another system.

Rules:

1) A Jumpship CANNOT be attacked under ANY circumstances.  The Jumpship
represent the life blood of the entire Human Sphere.  The loss of one ship is
detrimental of the survival of the human race as an interstellar species.
	a) There is a random chance that a Jumpship that is not being used by
players (Mercs, House or others) may be lost.  This small chance represents
accidents, failures during jump, or simply old age and decommission.

2) A Jumpship in BTech has only a fixed range.  I suggest this be modified to
insure some fluidity in the game (and prevent annoying recharge stops).  A
Jumpship can reach any part of the Inner Sphere, but the farther the distance
the longer it will take.  This can be worked out as soon as a map is
designed.

3) The cost of a Jump is dependent on the distance that it has to Jump.

4) A Jumpship can Jump to any system including a hostile system and cannot be
harmed (see 1).  Usually a Jumpship jumps into the zenith or nadir points of
a system because of the lack of gravity and debris at these points.  If a
Jumpship jumps into one of these points, local authorities and military
forces are immediately notified.
	a) However, a Jumpship can Jump into a "pirate" point where it will
not be immediately noticed by local forces.  However, for every "turn" it
remains there, there remains a chance it will be detected.

Orders:

In order to purchase passage to a Jumpship, the player must type the
following:

Transport on <Jumpship #> to <destination>

If the Jumpship is ready, it will make the jump.  Once it arrives at its
destination, the cost is automatically deducted from the mercs funds.

Jumpship #= The jumpship # listed at the spaceport
destination = <system or planet name, jump point>

(jump point will be : Zenith/Nadir/Pirate
Note: Pirate points will be very expensive to jump into.)

/* transcription ends here */


	My single comment:

>In order to purchase passage to a Jumpship, the player must type the
>following:
>
>Transport on <Jumpship #> to <destination>
>
>If the Jumpship is ready, it will make the jump.  Once it arrives at its
>destination, the cost is automatically deducted from the mercs funds.

Wouldn't it  be  nice to specify  something  else like lance #  or the
'mechs id's which want to be transported?


	====================================

		MAILER HELP !!!

	====================================


	And now, something completely different...

	Last Friday  I was amusing  myself writing an ultra-simplified
mailer, to get  incoming mail  via  the mail  pipe and  processing  it
accordingly (i.   e., writing orders received on  one  file, gripes on
another,  error  logging  on  yet  another,  and processing  automated
requests like rules, news, etc.). All very fine,  I was just following
the  very simple instructions  of Mel Nicholson's article  at the PBEM
magazine issue #5; however, IT DOESN'T WORK AT ALL!!!

	I tried  with .forward first,  then with /usr/lib/aliases, but
NOTHING works. I chmod'ed it  correctly  (tried several alternatives).
Or better said...  the  mailer IS called.  It correctly creates  fresh
new files (with zero bytes), but does not write to them, or mails back
replies...  (BTW, can you use the system() call on a  mailer?  Or must
I use an execXX() call instead??)

	Really, ALL help I can get on this can't be enough...

	Sorry for my ignorance...


	========================

		The Name

	========================


	Yep, it's time  for naming  our game!  Provisorily it has been
called    `MechWars'     and   has  a  working     email    address at
`mechwars@wkux01.fccn.pt'. You can finger  it, you  can't send mail to
it! (yep, there's where the infamous  mailer sleeps, routing every bit
of meil to /dev/nul... :-( )

	In the future, most posts will come from  that address, as I'm
preparing it so you can  send contributions  and get things from there
(I'm still  hesitant about  an ftp server,  though. Well, I may get it
working tomorrow... :-) )

	Ok, names needed...

	Some silly suggestions:


	- MechWars (next versions will   be called  "MechWars  II -  The
Houses Strike Back" and "MechWars III - The Return of the Clans")

	- MercForce

	- Blood, Steel & Politics :-)

	- Lance Commanders

	- `The' BattleTech PBeM :-)


	I'm sure you can add  quite a lot...  I'll select the  hundred
best and vote for them!!

	(also: .sig designers needed!!! )


	Bye... I'll get working on the  mailer again. Seems  that I've
already got an answer...

		- Luis Sequeira


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  bc@fccn01.fccn.pt                        Luis Miguel Sequeira
                                  Laboratorio Nacional de Engenharia Civil
  Phone 351-1-8482131 Ext. 2752   Centro Informatica/Grupo Sistemas Centrais
  "Don't call me, I'll call you"  Av. Brasil, 101 - 1700 Lisboa, Portugal
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