Just found this on another site.
THANCS (Tactical, Hex-based And Newtonian Combat Simulator)
It is mainly played in two ways: either each player starts with a fleet and they fight, or each player starts with a constructor/carrier ship and they build ships to fight with.
Ships are built on a hex grid (much smaller than the one movement takes place on), with different parts being different sizes, shapes, and costs. A ship's acceleration, turn rate, and cost are all affected by what parts are on it, so the design is a tradeoff between these things and having more stuff. The location of a part on the ship impacts what it can do, its effect on movement, and how likely it is to take damage, so that must also be considered in the design as well.
Ships move on a larger hex grid, each hex of which can hold an arbitrary number of ships. Linear motion is conserved (though rotation is not - after a turn you won't keep spinning until another in the opposite direction), and manuver is very important due to protection, firing arcs, and movement being affected by facings. Ships, when hit, will recieve damage along the path of the hit, each impact reducing the energy of the beam. While heat is not modeled, energy is, and ships will rarely be able to stay at full power use indefinitely, so power also has to be managed.
The game's site is here; THANCS.rar, mods.rar, and (recommended) graphics.rar are needed to play the game. freeglut.dll will be needed unless you already have it; put it in the dlls directory of THANCS.
There is a PBW site here; it also does several of the Space Empires games, so most of the games up aren't THANCS.
There are manuals for the game and the ship designer.
Here's a writeup of the first 14 turns of a Bay12 game.
THANCS (Tactical, Hex-based And Newtonian Combat Simulator)
It is mainly played in two ways: either each player starts with a fleet and they fight, or each player starts with a constructor/carrier ship and they build ships to fight with.
Ships are built on a hex grid (much smaller than the one movement takes place on), with different parts being different sizes, shapes, and costs. A ship's acceleration, turn rate, and cost are all affected by what parts are on it, so the design is a tradeoff between these things and having more stuff. The location of a part on the ship impacts what it can do, its effect on movement, and how likely it is to take damage, so that must also be considered in the design as well.
Ships move on a larger hex grid, each hex of which can hold an arbitrary number of ships. Linear motion is conserved (though rotation is not - after a turn you won't keep spinning until another in the opposite direction), and manuver is very important due to protection, firing arcs, and movement being affected by facings. Ships, when hit, will recieve damage along the path of the hit, each impact reducing the energy of the beam. While heat is not modeled, energy is, and ships will rarely be able to stay at full power use indefinitely, so power also has to be managed.
The game's site is here; THANCS.rar, mods.rar, and (recommended) graphics.rar are needed to play the game. freeglut.dll will be needed unless you already have it; put it in the dlls directory of THANCS.
There is a PBW site here; it also does several of the Space Empires games, so most of the games up aren't THANCS.
There are manuals for the game and the ship designer.
Here's a writeup of the first 14 turns of a Bay12 game.
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