HTML conversion by Michael P. Owen, April 2000
I am 13 years old, and I love your game -- Deluxe Car Wars. I play it all the time. What I wrote this letter about is kind of dumb to be sending all the way to Texas for, but I have a problem. The game has something not printed in the rulebook about Ds.
Example: A hazard for hitting a curb or pedestrian is a D3. That D is bothering me a lot, because I have no idea what it stands for.
Another Example: A road conditions hazard for running into
heavy snow is another D3. That big D is what this whole letter is
about. I would
appreciate it a lot if you could send me a letter telling me what
it means. Thanks.
Sincerely,
Jesse Daniels
Mountain View, CA
Oh, that's easy. D stands for Difficulty (p. 9 in DCW),
or how hard it is for the driver to maintain control of his
vehicle after a maneuver or
hazard. The higher the D value, the more difficult it is to
keep control. It's kind of refreshing to get a simple question
once in a while . . .
Charles A. Oines
Page 43 of ADQ 5/3 in Backfire lists a formula for
determining maximum weight of a vehicle for a desired top speed.
That formula is no longer
valid with the advent of the current gas rules introduced in
issue 6/2. By using simple algebraic theory, I have rearranged
the gas rule formula
as follows:
Max. Wt. = [ (240 x PF) - (TS x PF) ] / (TS)
where TS = Desired top speed, and PF = Power Factors of desired engine.
Example: John has come into possesion of a 300 ci engine, and
would like a top speed of 120 mph. Unfortunately, he doesn't know
what kind of
vehicle he should choose to put this new engine in.
PF = 4,000, TS = 120
so Max. Wt. = [ (240 x 4,000) - (120 x 4,000) ] / 120
= (960,000 - 480,000) / 120
= 480,000 / 120
= 4,000
Therefore, John has 4,000 lbs. to work with, and his best choice would be a compact.
Michael Heacock
Calgary, Alberta, CANADA
Dear Sirs:
First off, thanks for publishing my arena designs in ADQ
6/3. I take it that the last sentence in the Editor's note
was a hint that you guys need
my Social Security number before you can pay me . . .
With regards to the AADA Championships, if you guys are going
to do the same format next year, your Division 20 duel in the
Double Drum
needs to be changed a bit. I was in the Southern California
Regional, and when combat began, only about half of the cars went
forward -- the
rest stayed still, or moved in reverse, and then picked off those
cars that went forward. While this is a perfectly legal tactic
(my sorrow was that
I was one of those that moved forward), I have the feeling that
you intended this to be more of a race. I suggest that next time,
a vehicle cannot
fire until after it has first passed the "center line"
of the arena.
Once again, thanks for publishing me, and I will continue to drive offensively!
Douglas Kelley
Chatsworth, CA
Just a few suggestions:
1. Why can't a vehicle within a trike's front arc of fire
target the trike's side? A car's side can be targeted from the
front -- and its sides are at a
steeper angle. Surely the ruling should be reversed -- it should
not be possible to hit a trike's side from behind because you
can't get line of
sight on its sloped sides; the reverse being applicable for
reversed trikes.
2. Dragsters should not be +1 to hit from the side, seeing as
they are much lower than other cars. The narrow frame presents a
smaller target
(in height) than a normal car's body. With dragsters being longer
and lower, their should be no penalty to hit from the side.
3. The weapons location restriction should apply to cycles
because at present a heavy cycle can mount four spaces of
weaponry on one side,
while a light trike can mount only 2 2/3 spaces of weaponry at
most on a side.
A couple of questions:
1. Do weapons mounted in EWPs count toward the weapons location restriction?
2. If two linked weapons of different types in a turret are
fired together, how does the non-aimed one fire? In the same
direction it last fired, or
in some other direction?
J. McEvoy
West Yorkshire, ENGLAND
1. Oooh, the contradictions do pile up over the years,
don't they? Personally, I don't know why trike targeting is so
quirky, either. I suppose
I'd better get in the practice of doing this, so I'll wave my
magic wand, and presto! A new, official ruling: A
trike's sides can be targeted from the front arc at the usual -2
penalty. They cannot be targeted from behind (switch for reversed
trikes, of course). In addition, you cannot target a trike's top
armor unless you could normally target anyone's top armor.
2. Sounds good to me. If you want to play it that way, fine.
3. Cycles are exempt from this because (everybody say this with me) cyclists need all the help they can get.
1. No.
2. That's what referees are for. What happens depends
strongly on what the two weapons are. Usually, the other weapon
would use the
automatic fire rules along the direction the turret is facing.
Charles A. Oines
I am sending for your purview the design specifications and
script for Autoduel II, the sequel to Lord British
and Chuckles' computer
adaptation of Car Wars, which we are developing for
Origin Systems, Inc. We are very pleased to have the opportunity
to design this game,
and we have strong ideas of what enhancements are possible and
necessary to add more Car Wars flavor to the game.
We are very interested
in your impression of the script and any changes you can suggest
which would enhance the appeal of the finished game. We would
also like
to know how you feel about inviting AADA West Coast and World
Champions to join the game as NPCs.
At our script review we bandied about the idea of expanding
the car construction system and marketing it as a computerized
play aid for Car
Wars and GURPS Autoduel. Please let
us know what you think of this idea.
Yours truly,
Kiri Naiman
MicroMagic
Me, I think it's a fantastic idea . . .
I had a chance to look over the script change, and it looks
good! The vehicle construction and combat
systems look like they will mirror
Everybody's Favorite Game, with nearly every gadget up to and
including the most recent Uncle Albert's catalog available. Among
interesting options are an online newspaper called Autoduel
Weekly, featuring local arena schedules and news
of famous duellists (including PCs once they become famous),
printouts of completed designs, and saving designs to disk (which
allows swapping designs between friends). Say tuned -- more news
as it comes in.
Charles A. Oines
I have come up with a way to solve the encumbrance problems in
Car Wars without radical change. The 6-GE limit still
applies but only to the
torso. The head can carry 1 GE (within reason), and the arms 5.
This makes it possible for a man to wear body armor, a battle
vest, a backpack
full of goodies and still carry a weapon. However, if a person
carries the maximum limit of GEs on both body and hands, he loses
1/4" move per
second.
Douglas W. Glover
Huntsville, AL
He's probably going to be rather clumsy, as well, but your suggestion has interesting possibilities. Anyone else have any ideas on this?
Charles A. Oines
