Vector movement, a scary term to some, is the way ships and missiles move in Intercept, it is also happens to be the way real spaceships move. Movement in Intercept is done in three simple steps; Drift, Turn and Thrust. Drift can be done in any order as it is entirely automatic, Turn and Thrust are done in reverse initiative order ie the ship with the worst initiative goes first and then the second worst and so on. Untracked ships do Drift, Turn and Thrust in secret, after all tracked ships are done.
Directions and facings
A ship is always facing in one of 8 directions. Draw the ship as a pointed arrow in the direction of its nose, typically but not always in the direction it thrusted. The direction it is moving has no effect on the direction its nose faces.
Movement sequence
Initiative is based on higher steps of turn from the Pilot task
Turn and thrust is done one ship at a time, reverse Initiative
You may only thrust to your forward facing arc
Rolling cost 3 steps of turn
The movement sequence consist of Drift, Turn and Thrust. Do Drift for all Tracked ships and missiles before Turn and Thrust. Turn and thrust is done in reverse Initiative order, worst Initiative goes first, best goes last, declare any missile launches when your ship moves. After all ships have Turned and Thrusted its time to do missiles, in reverse Initiative order too. Missiles ignore turning as they can thrust in any direction.
Drift
Look at your ships last move and repeat it, draw a small cross where the new position would be. This is called your Drift square and if done right your Current position should be exactly midway between your Drift and your Past (except for gravity effects, see page 16). Perform drift on all tracked ships at the same time, before any turning or thrusting, there are no choices involved so the order doesn’t matter. A stationary ship would have its drift, present and past in the same square. Take care to keep the ships facing when doing the drift as facing and movement direction are totally independent in Intercept. Aerobraking is done at the end of Drift, see page 18-19 for details.
Turn
How many steps of turning a ship can do depends on the Pilot task result but Untracked ships can turn up to 4 steps without a Pilot roll. Turn your ship up to the number of steps, left or right, or spend 3 steps to roll the ship. Look at the firing sector diagram in the combat section to bring your weapons to bear on the enemy.
Thrust
Each ship does its Thrust right after turning and can only thrust into squares in its forward facing arc as show in the picture above, there is no strafe thrust or reverse thrust. A ship may also elect to drift and not thrust at all. Drifting makes a ship easier to hit but also better at defending itself.
Completed movement
This is what your completed move will look like, the thin x marks your drift position. After moving around with a ship for a while it will become second nature to you, it’s much easier than it seems. Ships that are Untracked may assume that they always have 4 steps of turning to use ie they can turn in any direction and they don’t need to roll a Pilot task to do so.
Well, that’s all folks, fly safe.
Vector movement 