"I like the messaging patterns..."

Yes. Unfortunately one can't pass variables or lists. I don't know why. The guys on the Scratch forum complain about this :-(

BTW, it reminded me to good old Director where you could write funny things like set the color of sprite "foo" to "green" or go to the frame (!) - until they switched to dot syntax ;-)

Or some message to mission control:

on directFleet me, pt
    set fleet to list (sShip1, sShip2 sShip3, sShip4, sShip5, sShip6)
    set newPos to map(pt, modlRect, stageRect)
    updateStage
    follow sShip1, newPos, fleet
end
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Regards, Karl