   3d craft/ship movement in a table top board game platform
  im looking for a board game that has a good 3d aspect to it. some type of hybrid miniatures/4x game for a 3d starfield no im not interesetd in "vectors 3" i didnt like the mechanics. this is essentially a miniatures platform with real 3D movement. either by a rack system, strings, a single pole and a base map. was looking at controlled magnetic fields, but found out it would be too impractical to try and make 2 objects that are about to hit eachother hover on magnets, plus it would end up being a 2d game any way because the magnets would be too weak to make the thing go much higher than an inch or 2.any suggestions?   
  Would this 3d movement to only be contained on one single star field map?And is your project only for spacecraft and planets or everything in between for a 3d space battle?Ghostknight   ;  I thought about doing a rack system for my space game a few years ago. I never did it but I know it would work. What I thought of doing was this.SPACE BATTLE MAP : Black star field map with or with out LOS (LINE OF SITE) dots on the grid. I would use this for the top of the rack for space simualtions. BLUE BATTLE MAP : Blue or White Or Mixed Colored map for Atmosphere Battle Simulations. I would use this for the middle rack. Use LOS.Green, Tan, Brown, Water, : All or limited colors to represent the Ground Attack Battle simulations. Of course this would be for the bottom. Use LOS. To make this I would use ply board to use for each map. I would not suggest gluing your maps to the ply board if it were Nylon or something else. You can make your own by draing yoru grid or use microsoft excel and make the grid on there and shade in the blocks for walls or rooms or what ever you felt needed for your map and then print.I would then drill holes into each corner of the ply board surface and use metal hooked chains like for plant hooks ceiling holders to support the rack system into the ceiling. When doen playing just unhook the map rack and store it somewhere for another time. Ghostknight;  please note that i understand that alot of this game starts to get pritty complicated, and crosses several design genre's. i have been tossing back and forth the idea of weather i should make this a table top game at all or an MMORPG. but for the reality of it, ill keep it to a table top for the time being.my overall game design is to be a hybrid CCG/table top miniatures game (inspired by wizkids pirates pocket moddle games) with a 3 scale system. the farthest scale is the local star cluster, solar system is baught in booster packs. the actual star would be built using the smallest scale ravenzburger puzzel balls http://www.ravensburger.com/usa/home/puzzleball/the_solar_system_set/index.htmland have a clear serin "solar orbit" disk you put individual planets and fleet tokens on. im immagining something a like a "battle ship" "travel edition" peg theme, where each hole represents somthing like .25 AU but im not sure. the stand base of the star would have a tile system similer to the starcract board game with printed very basic planet stats as to what size of plantes are allowed in which orbit of that star.http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/271527/starcraft-the-board-gamethe final element of the first scale is the fleet tokens and movement. instead of with the starcraft board game movement from one plant to another is only depicted by a single puzzel tile, there is a physical, clear or black plastic transit rod with markers depicting parsecs's. (obviously the fleet travels as fast as its slowest ship, physically moved by the player allong the rod.)the transit system was inspired by reading articles about the  Impirium Third millennium new galaxy graphics reprint. an ingenious way to depict 3 dimentions on a 2 dimentional plane. i was looking at this system as an alternatave, but i want the real feel of a 3d star field when i look at the table, and actually see my ship moving parsec by parsec to its destination.http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/5936/imperium-3rd-millennium (i looked forever looking for that map, last time i saw it was 2 years ago! alass, i didnt hit the "next page" buton on the board game geek gallary so i spent an entire work day looking for this one immage...)  so the local cluster view would look similer to that map, but in real physical space. The second scale is the battle group level/planetary orbit. Once 2 or more opposing players occupy the same area of space (2 or more ajacent fleet tokens on the .25 AU "solar orbit" disk) the players resolve the conflict by the main emphisis of the collectable side of the game, the .5 inch to 3 inch fighter/starship miniatures. if this action is in orbit of a planet, a (second to smallest scale) ravensburger puzzel ball represents the planet but this one is modified with peg holes similer to solar orbit disk with pegs on the continents depicting orbital defences, military and civil structurs that can attack or be attacked. (all of which are used in the 4x side of the game, but rite now im just focusing on the physical scales of the game, not the complexity scales ;) a fleet is composed of 5 battle gourps, you can bring them all into battle, or split up the fleet and fight with selected ships. Each ship has its own stats of hull integrity( hit points) speed, agililty, fuel range, sensor range, weapon range, communication range (and a couple factors that the crew and captain contributes the each ships subsuystem effectiveness) ship movement on this scale is my main problem. im thinking of something like a base stand that has the ship's stats, and something like thoes telescoping metal pointer with a magnet that mechanics use, to depict height. ontop of the telescoping rod would either be a ball and socket joint inthe center of the ship to depict vector, or a gyrascope type rig the ship would sit in. (both of them involve unsightly mechanics that i want to try and avoid) movement isnt restricted by a hex or peg system. each ship type would have its own speed and agliity stats, and eitehr a ruller or a rod would be used for kilometric movement incriments. (i did a little reserch while typing this post and realized that the distance between the earth and the moon is approximatly .0026 AU. so i may half to reformat my mesurment system at this scale)the third scale is a flat map seperated by continents and subregions with major structures and military units. this part im not so worried about, the mechanics should be simple enuogh to formulate.i know, long winded, and i have compleities designed into it that would go down to a D&D style RPG if the player wanted to take part in boarding parties or planetary assalts, and a 3d designer/resin printer for the player to design and order online there own ships with set upgrades and physics in the designer. these levels of gameplay would half to be reserved for the MMO aspect. truthfully i am wanting to make it an umbrella game, a hybrid of several game genre's but rite now im focusing on the table top aspect cuz the rest i need to learn how to program for :) and, i understand an MMO needs an established brand name before it is world renouned, i already have a 12 book and growning back story series, plus this tabe top preprinted collectables game to establish the brand, then ill start pitching the MMO aspect to developers.as before, any suggestions?;  also a problem im havng, finding an already developed analog to my fully customizeable craft dessigner. ive tried some of the lego programs but none of the appear to work with vista or im installing them wrong. if any body knows of an analog program i might be able to use. any thing that resembles a 20ftx8ftx8ft iso container (what my entire design idea is based off of) it would be extreamly helpfull. the idea i have is basically a supply/demand system for craft systems (power, air, water, living spaces vs essential crew requirment, data processing power, etc.). each craft compartment has its own stats, too many high-power-requirment-compartments you can over tax the power core, to fiew oxygen storage units and your crew starts dying cuz they dont have enough air. i guess this designer its self would be a minigame finding the rite ballance for the supply echonomy and still producing a practical warship capable of fulfilling its inteded role.(yes i realize designing something 8 x the size of a modern day aircraft carrier out of 20ft containers can be tedious, if done 1 by 1. which is why a massive copy and paste can be done with certain mass produced moduels.)and no, the massive structure isnt going to be rendered for the battle system, it is just a system to give the player the ability to design there own ship with stats. once you decide to "cnostruct" it the ship you fly around is only a small represntation with the overall stats... but then i did want to be able to walk around the thing as a low level engineer during a heavy firefight.... all well, not enough processing power for all that in an MMO yet.   