On Fri, 8 Jul 2022 07:18:33 -0700, Jim Vassilakos wrote:

>Do Traveller ships (the usual build with the bridge at the bow and the
>engines at the stern) need to flip a 180 to decelerate?

As I recall, they don't _need_ to in the CT/MT/T4/RTT incarnations, but the
M-drive doesn't work as efficiently when not driving the ship 'forward'. If
you don't flip, you can't decelerate at as high a rate as you can
accelerate; IIRC, in reverse you only get either 10% or 25% of forward
thrust. (So, if you limit your forward accel to that, you don't need the
turnover to do the thrust-midpoint-antithrust zero-intercept.) In order to
decelerate at the same rate as it initially accelerated, presumably at its
max possible, the flip is necessary.

In TNE, which abandoned 'reactionless "thrust" plates' in favor of a plasma
reaction drive, you definitely need the flip.

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