SysNES 1: A Murky Pool of Light

[Disenfrancised]

curses, now that it was revealled I can add the stats to the wrong column of the spreadsheet my whole edifice of apparent infallability will come crumbling doooooown!

@Mil, well taht'll suck - perhaps the more relaxed update pace might help you as well as me?

 

[Disenfrancised]

So we've had our first PvP battle, even if it is a relatively minor skirmish that featured no close range combat. Lets see what happens:

@Milarqui: We'll do it by PMs; i.e. not fast.

Ships are done in the format Owner:type:current HP:notes

For reference under the new speed rules the Cogs, Wraiths, and have speed 2, the Hellebore, Basilisk and Phoenix have speed 3, and the Aconite has speed 4.

Round 1
LONG RANGE=========

Kation:Hellebore:15roviding Command
Kation:Hellebore:15roviding Command
Kation:Aconite:9
Kation:Aconite:9
Kation:Aconite:9
Kation:Aconite:9
Kation:Cog:8:Transporting Troops
Kation:Cog:8:Transporting Troops
Kation:Cog:8:Transporting Troops
Kation:Cog:8:Transporting Troops
Kation:Wraith:5
Kation:Wraith:5
Kation:Wraith:5

Vazan:Basilisk:16
Vazan:Basilisk:16
Vazanhoenix:11
Vazan:Badger:6
Vazan:Badger:6
Vazan:Badger:6
Vazan:Badger:6

=================



<end battle stuff>

What I want from you is where each ship should move out of the options a) escape, b) hold long range, c) close with ship X and d) interception ships which attempt to close with ship X. Then tell me what each ship should be shooting at with its long range weapons.

This has the potential to be over quite fast if the Kations get some lucky shots in but we'll see.

Movement:
Hold Long Range:
Kation:Hellebore:15roviding Command
Kation:Hellebore:15roviding Command

Intercept: Basalisk 1
Kation:Aconite:9
Kation:Aconite:9
Intercept: Basalisk 2
Kation:Aconite:9
Kation:Aconite:9

Escape Combat:
(Assuming that Escape Combat means that they can still be used on the planet; else, Hold long range)

Kation:Cog:8:Transporting Troops
Kation:Cog:8:Transporting Troops
Kation:Cog:8:Transporting Troops
Kation:Cog:8:Transporting Troops
Kation:Wraith:5
Kation:Wraith:5
Kation:Wraith:5

Long Range Weapons Phase:
Each Hellbore is to target a seperate Basalisk and send its missile payload into it.

Note: If I destroy the Basalisks this turn send a communication to the 'civilian' Vazan ships for surrender.

Orders:
The Phoenix and the Badgers run away.
One of the Basilisk shoots at the Aconites
The other Basilisk shoots at the Wraiths

@Kal, yes 'escaping' means you can't perform actions later.

Round 1 Events

• The Vazan civilian ships escape uncontested
• Hellebores send barrage of deadly accurate fusion busters on the Vazan Basilisks
• The Aconites prepare to intercept the Vazan, but their opponents never try to close.
• The Basilisks retaliate with their own long range weapons, but knowing their likily demise they target the bombers and Aconites instead.
• All but one of the Hellebore missiles hit, engaging their targets in a ball of plasma, one Vazan Corvette destroyed, the other limps on at less than half health.
• The Vazan counter wave hits and kills one Wraith with a fusion buster, and one Aconite with a kinetic lance.

Round 2
LONG RANGE=========

Kation:Hellebore:15roviding Command
Kation:Hellebore:15roviding Command
Kation:Aconite:7/9
Kation:Aconite:9
Kation:Aconite:9
Kation:Aconite:9
Kation:Cog:8:Transporting Troops
Kation:Cog:8:Transporting Troops
Kation:Cog:8:Transporting Troops
Kation:Cog:8:Transporting Troops
Kation:Wraith:5
Kation:Wraith:5
Kation:Wraith:5

Vazan:Basilisk:6/16
Vazan:Basilisk:16
=================

ESCAPED>>>>>>>>>.
Vazanhoenix:11
Vazan:Badger:6
Vazan:Badger:6
Vazan:Badger:6
Vazan:Badger:6
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Unless I get a reply with 12 hours I'll assume the combat orders are the same as last time.

Do the same as last round

My Basilisk attacks the Aconite

Round 2 actions

• The Hellebores pound the last Basilisk out of existence with a quartet of fusion explosions.
• The Basilisk stays at long range and destroys the wounded Aconite with a fusion buster.
• The Kation fleet settles in for its neferious plans at Locustus
• The escaping Vazan ships peg it to Krige.

Kation losses
1 Aconite Escort Gaff
1 Wraith Bomber

Vazan losses
2 Basilisk Corvettes

 

[Kal'thzar]

About fair trade off, considering what the Vazan were up against.

If I wanted a long combat I would have to develop a different waship model, perhaps a more mid-expensive mid-ship class able to take some laser damage, then throwing the ships into close-quarters might be worth it.

Fun to participate in, good to learn from too

Of course it feeds me small bits of info on what the vazan are doing, and him vice versa.

 

[alex994]

OOC: Interesting...

 

[Thlayli]

Oh, cool stuff! Looking forward to seeing larger fleet battles in the future.

I also recommend the use of #nes for realtime fleet engagements. We have a bot that does dice rolls, and Kal, Kraz and I have simulated some battles on there before. And of course, you get an audience.

 

[Disenfrancised]

A IM based battle would probably flow better as well. Anyway come-on people: get with the three way PvP show-down and start putting out those Command Decks.

@Kal: since you have no way of acting on that information till the update occurs when it would be revealed anyway is the facts gleaned from battles that relevent?

 

[Thlayli]

If only I had 2s to rub together I'd do just that. :/

I'm totally copyrighting the term 'astropolitics' though I grant dis a limited license to use it for SysNES purposes.

 

[Kal'thzar]

A IM based battle would probably flow better as well. Anyway come-on people: get with the three way PvP show-down and start putting out those Command Decks.

@Kal: since you have no way of acting on that information till the update occurs when it would be revealed anyway is the facts gleaned from battles that relevent?

Perhaps not, but its fun to speculate on it

I suppose there might be circumstances where a battle outcome might lead to new info and thus a different choice being made. Its also possible that if you have multiple engagements that you can see the line-up and flow of the opponents strategy and do a mid-turn realignment (Flee from half the battles against fleets that have nothing in them that can hit the planet etc).

So the info gained might only be relevant in a few situations, but it might still be worth thinking about.

I'm mostly in it for the speculation.

 

[Matt0088]

I would be correct in thinking that the terminology "this turn", would be the turn currently occurring, and that "next turn", would be the turn after "this turn", right?

 

[Thlayli]

In theory, "the turn currently occurring" wouldn't refer to an update which has not yet occurred, since the update is the essence of the turn. So, the turn that is currently occurring (to me at least) is the turn of the last update.

So I suppose it's best to use year identifications to avoid such confusion in the future.

 

[Kraznaya]

If only I had 2s to rub together I'd do just that. :/

I'm totally copyrighting the term 'astropolitics' though I grant dis a limited license to use it for SysNES purposes.

Astropolitics google search:

About 22,800 results (0.14 seconds)

Sorry bud.

 

[Kal'thzar]

I would be correct in thinking that the terminology "this turn", would be the turn currently occurring, and that "next turn", would be the turn after "this turn", right?

When I mean mid-turn I mean that your doing a realignment of your strategy in the 'middle' of the update.

Which I find rather interesting as it means the player can respond to a break in their plans and the mod doesn't have to ignore them, one of the upsides of doing calculated battles.

 

[Matt0088]

In theory, "the turn currently occurring" wouldn't refer to an update which has not yet occurred, since the update is the essence of the turn. So, the turn that is currently occurring (to me at least) is the turn of the last update.

How can this turn, or the current turn, the present turn, but that of a turn that has already happened, the past, the year(or whatever timescale) of which the update just concluded in describing?

So I suppose it's best to use year identifications to avoid such confusion in the future.

As it is largely subjective and we can keep arguing about it, it would be best to do so to avoid improper exploitation.

 

[Kal'thzar]

After Action Review

Fleet Lord Sha'ei'l's avatar entered the VR room and then took a seat at the table.
"Are we ready to begin the meeting Agaith?"

Agaith, the Communications Officer was sitting to one side, half in the in VR room half processing and managing all the tasks to allow the Ship Commanders in the Fleet to communicate with the Hellbore Alai.

"Just a minute sir, the Buanna [1] is wanting to bring over more avatars and they seem to have had a problem with their Communications Officer, I'm coordinating their Ships Computers to assist in the Alai's computational workload."

The ships powerful computers began generating and rendering the fleets ship commanders. Commander Creidann of Buanna, had appeared with a selection of his own command deck, noticeably a rather green looking Communications officer.
Sha'ei'l was able to check the official records and found that he had been promoted a scan few hours ago. She cross checked the previous Communications Officers file, he was on temporary leave, mental stress caused by the skirmish.

"More of a breakdown to be honest" Commander Creidann had opened a private channel with her, "It seems that the loss of the Wraith Isur and the Aconite Kiona caused a bit too much negative feedback,".

It had always been a grey area, no-one had been quite sure what the deaths of all those crew members would be like whilst they were plugged into the Command Deck, the Communications Officers had been trained as much as was feasible.

Sha'ei'l looked at Creidann. He continued, "We're working on a solution and we've managed to minimise the feedback somewhat, but not eliminate it, I'm not sure if it can be but it will maintain a functional fleet,"

"Keep me informed", She turned to face the rest of the table and switched to the public channel, "Shall we begin? Agaith if you could brief us on what occurred,"

"Yes Sir," Agaith was rather pleased with what he had in store for the commanders, "Just over 37 hours ago the fleet made contact with a Vazan fleet around the Planet of Locustus. The Opposing fleet was composed of two Basilisk class Corvettes and the sum total of all known Vazan civilian vessels composed of four Badger class transports and a singular Phoenix class,"

The Room turned pitch black and the around them the two fleet formed up with the Locustus below. It was a simple simulation formed from composite readings of the battle and some of the more advanced battle simulation software used for training.

"In the Ensuing skirmish, the Vazan civilian vessels were allowed to escape, whilst the Hellbores and the Basilisks took part in a long ranged missile duel which left both Basilisks destroyed whilst the Aconite Kiona and the Wraith Isur were both destroyed."

The Simulation played through the battle as it happened ending in the final explosion of the Basilisk as four fusion missiles collided with the damaged ship, and then a millisecond later a huge blast of nuclear fire.

"Current estimates suggest that we still have a fairly high probability of carrying out our mission, whilst the destruction of the Wraith Isur has damaged our ability to bombard the planet it has not removed it, and the Basilisks targeted none of our transports so our troop compliment is still at full operational powers."

"Thank you Agaith, first the presence of the Vazan civilian fleet suggests that the Vazan have pulled out of the Minkar System, confining the war to the Zavi System. Recent scans of Locustus appears to confirm this as there has been a swelling of the local population. It is unknown whether the Orbital Habitat that the Vazan occupied around Minkar IIIa has been turned into a weapon to bombard the planet or if it burned up in the thin atmosphere [2], it may indeed still be orbiting but that is a low probability outcome. The Phoenix class ship will allow the Vazan to feed some of their starving population but will not make up for the large shortfall. Need I remind you that Parliament wants to force the Vazan to the negotiating table without having to resort to a long and bloody ground war on Krige but that will likely be the next step if we can conclude our mission here at Locustus.

In terms of tactical changes to the doctrine it seems that to minimise ship losses completely a ratio of three to two Hellbores to Basilisks needs to be maintained. In a pinch a one to one ratio can suffice but as in this case misses can cause large losses to the escorted fleet, and if the losses had been to the Cog fleet this operation might have had to be abandoned altogether.

In situation that are much less favourable than this one the Aconites are likely to have to take a much more active role, it is unfortunate that we cannot provide more complete protection to the Cogs or the Wraiths, but that appears to be something that the Shipyards on Aranahara will have to look at.

Now then each ship commander will go through their ships own After Action Report and we will begin collating similar problems,"

The rest of the meeting is far too technical and boring to relate... also its Top Secret

[1] The other Hellbore
[2] A thin ray of hope, the Fleet Lords trying to raise morale just before they begin the operation


OOC: So Some notes;
1. Escorting a fleet makes it TERRIBLY vulnerable, especially to missiles, If I had a less missile dedicated fleet I would probably have gone for an all out attack to take care of the Vazan Basalisks, instead of hanging around waiting for them to attack me. I forsee missile defence ships becoming a staple of most fleets and a return to a more mixed fleet (I for instance want to either upgun my aconites to make them capable of taking a few shots or create a new mid-range ship, possibly with particle weapons for fun!).

2. On the other hand, you can mark other ships via the Intercept command (providing they get a higher roll), useful against short range ships that you don't WANT to close with.

3. if you are escorting a fleet and realise that the battle is going to be very dangerous to your defenceless ships probably best to pull them out

Thats just a couple of points, I need to test out some further stuff.

 

[Disenfrancised]

Setting the Aconites to intercepting was indeed an interesting choice: if the Basilisks had tried to close on the transports or the bombers then you would have had a high probablity of loosing at least two Aconites but a near certainty of killing the Basilisks, if you hadn't and the Basilisks had closed and managed the low p feat of surviving the Hellebores first wave then you were going to loose a lot of bombers and transports.

 

[Thlayli]

There's always the option of using massed cheap civilian ships as ramming vehicles of course, assuming they're fast, and you're...questionably ethical.

 

[Kal'thzar]

I've already thought of that, just build a 'mine' vehicle (IP engine and maybe an IS engine), fly in a command ship, try and ram. Computational ones work out quite cheap

 

[Disenfrancised]

Except that any ramming attack has to past through close range first, were those designs will get slagged by any laser layout. Plus with the new speed rules military craft are going to be faster than the civvie ships you guys are designing and will never let it come to ramming range.

 

[Thlayli]

So, there's no explicit rule on upgrading habitats on the front page, but I've been told that, for example, to replace a Beta habitat with a Gamma would cost the same as building a Gamma habitat from scratch. Is that how it works? Also, do facilities carry over when you upgrade a habitat?

 

[Kal'thzar]

As I'm aware there is no such thing as 'from scratch' unless you're building a Beta habitat on a planet you already have access to.

Improvements carry over.