Post by Angrybirds on May 31, 2013 17:34:24 GMT -8
Recently, I've been experimenting with a system that could potentially facilitate our war fictions. It basically involves my creating a bunch of images to visualize what's actually going on, allowing us to better keep track of who's fighting who. Here's an example of what it would look like, from the (Second) Battle of Ku-Rokti:
At first glance, it looks rather straightforward. The Mardor (crimson) just entered the battlespace in a column formation and deployed into a rather standard battle line opposite the Aeoneonatrix defenders (cyan). Colored arrows indicate movement, while red arrows depict long ranged attacks (not pictured). What isn't obvious is all of the different ship types at play. I'll explain these right now.
Ship types
The standard starfleet is composed of these ship types: light ships, medium-sized ships, ships of the line, non-combat ships, artillery ships, carriers, fighters, and bombers. These are broad categories, and some ships might fall in between two of these or serve dual purposes, but we're assuming that every navy has ships designed to fill these specific roles.
Allow me to explain:
Light ships (LIGHT): Ranging from patrol boats, to corvettes, to the lightest of frigates, these ships are typically designed with speed and maneuverability in mind. They are definitely not the hardest of hitters, but they excel in ambushes and can easily swoop in, deliver a blow, and move out of range before the enemy can recover. Most navies choose to equip these ships with flak weaponry, or weapons that fire quickly and frequently enough to be able to hit fighters and bombers as they swoop by. As such, this ship type is best used as a ward against fighters in more developed armies.
Medium-sized ships (MED): Medium-sized ships strike a good balance between speed an armor, and compose the battle line of most navies. Most medium ship classes are also referred to as frigates.
Ships of the line (LINE): The battlefleet's strongest ships, those designed to take the hardest hits and deliver some in return. These are typically large and expensive to maintain, so they often compose only a fraction of the overall force. They excel against other ships, though their weaponry tends to be too bulky to be used against fighters and bombers. They are also considered to be slower than other ship types and take longer to get from one point to another.
Non-combat ships (NC): Supply ships, factory ships, troop carriers, unarmed aircraft carriers, essentially ships that are not designed to fight on their own and therefore must be protected by other ships.
Artillery ships (ART): Vessels designed to deliver large amounts of punishment (typically in the form of missiles) at long ranges and during orbital bombardments. The swarms of projectiles these ships unleash are commonly enough to destroy entire brigades at a time if they are not stopped by flak weaponry. At close ranges, their lack of short-ranged weaponry makes them vulnerable to just about any line ship.
Carriers (C, CARRIERS, CAR): Designed to hold as many aircraft or troops as possible, most carriers are not equipped with weapons to rival those of dedicated combat ships. Their shielding, however, often makes lighter weapons useless against them. NOTE: Please establish how many fighters / bombers there are in your carriers before the battle starts so you don't end up randomly reinforcing your troops with endless flows of fighters and bombers. These things have a certain carrying capacity, you know!
Combat carriers (CC): As storage, energy, and weapons technology improves, many nations decide to equip their carriers with some form of weaponry. Depending on the navy's preferences, they might be equipped with flak weaponry to support their fighters in dogfights (they become flak carriers, abbreviated FC) or ship-to-ship weaponry to rival frigates in terms of firepower (line carriers, LC). These are not employed at the Katar Sector's level of technology, but I'm still putting this here because the USF and the FPC employ them.
Fighters (F): Small one-man or two-man craft designed to protect bombers from other fighters. They carry small weapons and are almost never protected by shields. Heavier fighters can sometimes be used as ancillary bombers. Easily taken out by light ships if caught in their flak.
Bombers (B): Larger craft designed to carry and deploy large amounts of explosive material. While their relatively small size allows them to outmaneuver the fire of larger ships, their bulk and lack of defensive weaponry makes them extremely vulnerable to fighters.
Combat
Now, the way combat works is kind of like a turn-based strategy game, with players taking turns reacting to each other's moves. Here's an example, again from the Mardor invasion of Aeoneonatrix space:
Turn 1, as the Mardor speed through Aeoneonatrix space, Lingur projects a force of 6,000
vessels into warp behind them, and closes around the Mardor rear guard.
Turn 2, The Mardor detach two groupings of frigates from their main column and use them to
reinforce their rear line. Two light brigades then move around the Aeoneonatrix's flanks,
catch them in a deadly crossfire, and thereby force them to retreat.
At first glance, it looks rather straightforward. The Mardor (crimson) just entered the battlespace in a column formation and deployed into a rather standard battle line opposite the Aeoneonatrix defenders (cyan). Colored arrows indicate movement, while red arrows depict long ranged attacks (not pictured). What isn't obvious is all of the different ship types at play. I'll explain these right now.
Ship types
The standard starfleet is composed of these ship types: light ships, medium-sized ships, ships of the line, non-combat ships, artillery ships, carriers, fighters, and bombers. These are broad categories, and some ships might fall in between two of these or serve dual purposes, but we're assuming that every navy has ships designed to fill these specific roles.
Allow me to explain:
Light ships (LIGHT): Ranging from patrol boats, to corvettes, to the lightest of frigates, these ships are typically designed with speed and maneuverability in mind. They are definitely not the hardest of hitters, but they excel in ambushes and can easily swoop in, deliver a blow, and move out of range before the enemy can recover. Most navies choose to equip these ships with flak weaponry, or weapons that fire quickly and frequently enough to be able to hit fighters and bombers as they swoop by. As such, this ship type is best used as a ward against fighters in more developed armies.
- Outclasses: bombers, fighters, non-combat ships
- Is outclassed by: Medium-sized ships, ships of the line
- Not effective: carriers
Medium-sized ships (MED): Medium-sized ships strike a good balance between speed an armor, and compose the battle line of most navies. Most medium ship classes are also referred to as frigates.
- Outclasses: light ships, non-combat ships, carriers
- Outclassed by: ships of the line, carriers
- Not effective: fighters
Ships of the line (LINE): The battlefleet's strongest ships, those designed to take the hardest hits and deliver some in return. These are typically large and expensive to maintain, so they often compose only a fraction of the overall force. They excel against other ships, though their weaponry tends to be too bulky to be used against fighters and bombers. They are also considered to be slower than other ship types and take longer to get from one point to another.
- Outclasses: medium-sized ships, light ships, non-combat ships, carriers
- Is outclassed by: bombers
- Not effective: fighters
Non-combat ships (NC): Supply ships, factory ships, troop carriers, unarmed aircraft carriers, essentially ships that are not designed to fight on their own and therefore must be protected by other ships.
- Outclasses: none
- Is outclassed by: all
- Not effective: all
Artillery ships (ART): Vessels designed to deliver large amounts of punishment (typically in the form of missiles) at long ranges and during orbital bombardments. The swarms of projectiles these ships unleash are commonly enough to destroy entire brigades at a time if they are not stopped by flak weaponry. At close ranges, their lack of short-ranged weaponry makes them vulnerable to just about any line ship.
- Outclasses: none
- Is outclassed by: all
- Not effective: light ships, flak carriers, fighters
Carriers (C, CARRIERS, CAR): Designed to hold as many aircraft or troops as possible, most carriers are not equipped with weapons to rival those of dedicated combat ships. Their shielding, however, often makes lighter weapons useless against them. NOTE: Please establish how many fighters / bombers there are in your carriers before the battle starts so you don't end up randomly reinforcing your troops with endless flows of fighters and bombers. These things have a certain carrying capacity, you know!
- Outclasses: none
- Is outclassed by: all
- Not effective: light ships, fighters
Combat carriers (CC): As storage, energy, and weapons technology improves, many nations decide to equip their carriers with some form of weaponry. Depending on the navy's preferences, they might be equipped with flak weaponry to support their fighters in dogfights (they become flak carriers, abbreviated FC) or ship-to-ship weaponry to rival frigates in terms of firepower (line carriers, LC). These are not employed at the Katar Sector's level of technology, but I'm still putting this here because the USF and the FPC employ them.
Fighters (F): Small one-man or two-man craft designed to protect bombers from other fighters. They carry small weapons and are almost never protected by shields. Heavier fighters can sometimes be used as ancillary bombers. Easily taken out by light ships if caught in their flak.
- Outclasses: bombers
- Outclassed by: light ships, flak carriers
- Not effective: medium ships, ships of the line, carriers
Bombers (B): Larger craft designed to carry and deploy large amounts of explosive material. While their relatively small size allows them to outmaneuver the fire of larger ships, their bulk and lack of defensive weaponry makes them extremely vulnerable to fighters.
- Outclasses: medium-sized ships, ships of the line, non-combat ships, carriers, line carriers
- Outclassed by: light ships, flak carriers, fighters
- Not effective: none
Combat
Now, the way combat works is kind of like a turn-based strategy game, with players taking turns reacting to each other's moves. Here's an example, again from the Mardor invasion of Aeoneonatrix space:
Turn 1, as the Mardor speed through Aeoneonatrix space, Lingur projects a force of 6,000
vessels into warp behind them, and closes around the Mardor rear guard.
Turn 2, The Mardor detach two groupings of frigates from their main column and use them to
reinforce their rear line. Two light brigades then move around the Aeoneonatrix's flanks,
catch them in a deadly crossfire, and thereby force them to retreat.
It's really simple, though you have to keep your ship's travel speeds in mind and take into account whether or not the enemy will have had time to react before you complete your move. These images basically display what you're emoting in chat or the forum. To decide who wins in an engagement between two units, compare their types and how numerous they are. If their types are the same, then the numerically superior unit wins. If their numbers are exactly the same, then they shouldn't be engaged in combat, but if they are, then roll a dice or try to make some other move in support to decidedly change the tide of the battle.
Differing Technologies
Since each civilization's technology level will differ from the next, we need to assume that the more advance one's ships will always be superior to the less advanced one's. The way we factor this into combat is that we decide at the beginning a ratio, how many ships of the same class would it take to take down a more advanced one. For example, since it would take 50 Mardor ships (tier 4.2) to take down a single USF ship (tier 2.8), the ratio is 50:1. Under normal circumstances, the ratio won't be nearly as drastic, but this system is still present for when we go up against more advanced nations. It is not necessary to factor in values to the decimal, and if we end up with ratios like 1:1.3, we'll say the two forces are roughly equivalent.
Differing Technologies
Since each civilization's technology level will differ from the next, we need to assume that the more advance one's ships will always be superior to the less advanced one's. The way we factor this into combat is that we decide at the beginning a ratio, how many ships of the same class would it take to take down a more advanced one. For example, since it would take 50 Mardor ships (tier 4.2) to take down a single USF ship (tier 2.8), the ratio is 50:1. Under normal circumstances, the ratio won't be nearly as drastic, but this system is still present for when we go up against more advanced nations. It is not necessary to factor in values to the decimal, and if we end up with ratios like 1:1.3, we'll say the two forces are roughly equivalent.
