GURPS Spaceships combat vs. Rogue Trader spaceships combat

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

As I mentioned before, I am currently in a Rogue Trader (WH40K) campaign. The system is pretty playable, but right now I want to focus on spaceship combats specifically, and discuss the differences between them. Perhaps there are some things that could be borrowed from RT, or perhaps there are ways to simulate some elements of RT for settings where they are appropriate (I remember at least one poster asking how to make ships 'slug it out slowly' in GURPS). Here's the comparisons of the differences that I noticed:

Building the ship:
GURPS:Spaceships is very modular, with money and available tech being the only limits. RT is more EVE-like: you have a set of hulls, and each hull can only have a certain set of slots which accept certain systems. Also, RT crew requirements are static for each hull.
RT 'Complications' are a cool way to differentiate spaceships without installing modules, and are comparable to design features (e.g. streamlining) of G:SS. But IMO there are too few, and being always forced to roll exactly two is kinda disappointing.

Game board:
G:SS uses hexes. RT uses squares, and allows 45° turns. This seems to be a matter of preference, aside from the issue

Turns and time:
G:SS is closer to simultaneous turn-based (assuming SS3 is in play), while RT is closer to 'classic' turn-based (like WoD, D&D etc.). The former has more bookkeeping, while the latter can produce some silly results (like there being a big difference whether the pilot or the gunner makes the first roll).

Piloting and Manoeuvring:
In a way, G:SS is easier on the pilot than RT.
First, putting the ship into a specific hex is relatively simple in G:SS - you just make sure to move the vector direction to match the target hex direction, and adjust from there. OTOH, in RT, the pilot has to be involved in complicated pigeonholing of courses - setting the speed to anything other than the 'full speed' or 'half speed' (apparently WH40K ships have speed limits) requires rolling dice; turning at any points other than 'halfway through the turn' and 'end of the turn' also requires a roll, so it's more common for WH40K spaceships to 'overshoot' a desired square or course.
Interestingly, RT rules allow spaceships to slow down without turning, but not fly backwards. This is the sort of ability that even inertialess G:SS ships don't have (the boost drive offers somewhat similar functionality, though).

Unlike GURPS, RT pilots do not dodge. Instead, they engage in evasive action, which provides a penalty to all gunnery rolls - both by and against the ship. Since the effect applies from the piloting roll to the next time the ship's turn comes up, it is often desirable to roll to shoot first, then move the ship (and thus roll Piloting), which means the shots are performed from a suboptimal position (ship speeds per turn are comparable to effective weapon ranges, so it's a big deal).

Ramming in RT does little damage (IMO), and allows a set up for boarding action (which I tried to game out in GURPS, with moderate success).

Da shooty jobz
Overall, the two systems are comparable. GURPS has the speed/range table and the projectile velocity penalties, RT has range penalties and rules for torpedoes attacking a ship in a given square. As I mentioned, RT doesn't have a Dodge roll. The only interesting bit about the shooty stuff is that Void Shields in RT don't act as DR; instead, they reduce the number of hits in a single attack from a given ship (it is assumed ships attack as rapidly as they can, then spend almost a half-hour reloading/recharging guns).
A word on missiles:
G:SS missiles are typically seen as something that either dominates the damage scene (as long as they can saturate defenses, which they can do given their RoF) or, on the contrary, something left behind as not useful at all (e.g. when ships have such speeds and accelerations that they outrun missiles, or if rules allowing sub-tertiary batteries and rules to auto-hit missiles are in play). RT Torpedoes feel more like, well, torpedoes - they're somewhat clumsy, slow to fire, but a single hit is something you go 'uh-oh' about. Of course, this is setting-caused, but it still feels kinda sad that making the game-mech in G:SS for such a setting is pretty hard.


Sensor and Comms
RT sensors seem to be weaker than G:SS sensors in general. Also, there seem to be no countermeasure for jamming comms.

Sustaining damage, making repairs and generic Engineering
Both systems have reasonable game mechanics for redlining the ship, doing repairs etc.
RT ships seem to be more robust. RT also seems to have more gameable rules for things like fires, depressurization etc. G:SS has rules for hole sizes after being shot, but IMO GURPS treatment of such things feels clunky. Also, G:SS systems seem much easier to cripple.

Morale and crew management
Both systems have rules in place, but RT seems to want players to focus more on managing their crew. Also, GURPS doesn't track morale or crew losses as a clearly visible scale that has ship-spanning effects (it can track specific losses, but, once again, tracking how those affect the ship seems a bit much).

Boarding and hit-and-run attacks
RT rules are pretty cinematic, and small ships seem to have more of a chance to win if they board the enemy whenever possible (crew percentage seems more important than absolute number of crew aboard, strangely), while GURPS effectively lacks rules for such action by default.

Fighters and Bombers
RT fighters and bombers are a plug-in, and a somewhat unattractive one (rules are somewhat clumsy, and feel very different from the overall ship rules). G:SS, on one hand, supports construction of medium/heavy fighters right from the get-go (and doesn't have wild rule differences from generic spaceship piloting rules), OTOH, it highly discourages them even with all the cinematic switches turned on, unless they are allowed to pack lots of homing missiles (something RT small craft typically do not for setting reasons), in which case they become eggshells with sledgehämmers.

Opinions? More analysis? Things people wonder about porting over?
Thanks in advance!