| wlsmith |
I read the rules for acceleration and deceleration one way and a guy I play with has read them another.
In the Ultimate Combat book under Vehicle combat the text for acceleration goes like this:
"With a successful driving check, the vehicle’s current speed increases up to its acceleration (in 5-foot increments; minimum 5 feet), but no higher than its maximum speed. The vehicle can move forward or forward diagonally. In other words, each time a vehicle enters a new 5-foot square, it can choose any of its forward-facing squares—the ones directly in front or either of the squares directly forward and diagonal. This allows the vehicle to swerve. A driver who fails her driving check can only move into squares directly in front of the vehicle’s forward facing."
Deceleration is fairly similar with a few changes to account for the vehicle slowing down.
the way I read these two actions is that, once a vehicle is at it's max acceleration, It can't go any faster. It has to double move as that is all the vehicle can do. So by decelerating you would be reducing the max speed by ten each turn.
So, if you're using a carriage pull by two horses. It's Acceleration is 50, while it's max speed is 100. If it is already at its 50 acceleration, and the driver decides to slow down. It would only move 90 ft that turn instead of 100 essentially reducing its acceleration to 45.
The my friend read it is that on the drivers initiative he gets a standard and a move action, he can do any of the regular actions as well as any of the driver actions. Which I completely agree with. The difference comes into that if the driver were to take a standard action, the vehicle would only move it's acceleration and not its max speed which makes no sense to me.
As an example, if on the drivers first turn he then kept it going twice(two move actions) , the total movement would be 100. On the next turn He pulled out a weapon(move action) then decelerated, he would only move 45 as he doesn't have that second move action. On the driver third turn, he would decelerate and keep it going as his action, bringing his movement that turn to 40.
Are we both wrong? Are we both kind of right? Are we both so far in left field we aren't even in the stadium? I plan to use these rules in my next DM session so not having to to make a "I'm the DM, this is it how it is" call would be nice. But I will make it if I have to.
| Krys Tamar |
Sorry you didn't receive a reply to your question, as I'm a bit baffled by the acceleration/deceleration rules myself. What did you finally wind up doing?
| Splendor |
Acceleration(standard action):
Vehicles must accelerate to reach their maximum speed. Each round, with the proper driving action and a successful check, the driver can increase the vehicle’s movement by its rate of acceleration, as long that value is no greater than the vehicle’s maximum speed. Vehicles must decelerate to slow down and are hard to stop at an exact point.
Controlling a Vehicle
If a vehicle has a driver, before the driver does anything else on her turn, she must determine what drive action she is taking, and take that action. If the driver takes no action, takes some other action instead of driving the vehicle, or delays or readies an action—or if there is no driver—the vehicle takes the “uncontrolled” action. A driver can only take one action each turn to control a vehicle. Once the driver has selected the action, or takes some other action forcing the vehicle to become uncontrolled, the vehicle moves.
1) You get one 'driving action' per round
2) A 'driving action (accelerate)' is a standard action.Lets use a carriage and say the speed of the pulling creature is 50'.
Maximum Speed: twice the speed of the pulling creature(s);
Acceleration: the speed of the pulling creature(s)
During your round you use a 'drive action' (standard action) to make the vehicle accelerate, the carriage is now moving 50'. The next round you make a driving action to accelerate again up to 100' movement, which is the fastest you can go.
--The feat Expert Driver feat allows you to accelerate, decelerate, or turn action as a move action instead of a standard action.--
Decelerate(standard action):
With a successful driving check, the vehicle’s current speed decreases by a rate up to its acceleration (in 5-foot increments; minimum 5 feet). On a failed check, the vehicle does not decelerate. Either way, the vehicle can move forward diagonally. If deceleration reduces a vehicle’s speed to 0, some amount of inertia will continue to move the vehicle forward. The vehicle moves forward (either directly forward or forward diagonally) 1d4 ×5 feet before coming to a complete stop. Having the Expert Driver feat (see page 100) reduces this distance by 10 feet (minimum 0 feet).
Keep It Going (move action):
With a successful driving check, the driver can move the vehicle forward on its current facing at its current speed, and it can move forward diagonally. Failing the check keeps the speed constant, but you cannot move the vehicle forward diagonally.