Quote:
Originally Posted by Overload
Car Wars, like Champions, Battletech and others, were old games with a rich 'meta game' of intricate design systems where a spreadsheet was needed to eke out a great design.
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Except back-when, we didn't *have* spreadsheets -- vehicle design was by hand, or *maybe* a calculator; and 99.8% of the stuff being published never actually saw the arena floor.
My go-to Div. 15 design was a Mid with XH chassis, Heavy suspension, Large plant, 4 PR tires [NOVA banned aimed tire shots, for practical reasons], a driver, two linked RRs, two linked SDs, and 257 points of armor, with maybe HESH and HEAT for the RRs, and Explosive ammo for the SDs -- and That Was It. You want to talk about "cutting the game down to 'zoom', and 'boom'", well, there it sits. Our "meta" was "How fast can I punch through 60-odd points of armor?". (The answer was "about three volleys". :) )
The main reason games took all afternoon was, to be blunt, "Hurry up, Eric" -- players overthinking moves and attacks.