Hegemony Ship to Ship combat training

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Been doing some exercises with Ico(still on going) and they are throwing up a number of interesting issues at my end, and doubtlessly at his end too.

So I was wondering what people thought space combat should be like.

At the moment it is a round by round system, with a fair basic interface. Ships are also marked with damage when they sustain it on 2d models.

Interface looks like this:

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[Nero]

This is why I voted we just stay on Earth.

[Icuownage]

And as you can see, I am not very good at this :P.

 

I'm Ironhide (yellow) Btw.

 

A fully armed combat ship losing to a supply ship, who woulda thunk it.

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Dusty, you have an issue with big ships, tactics and fun of any kind?

 

Anywho, ignore it at your own peril

[Seraphi]

Wait, is this an actual program?

 

I really like the look of it.

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If only, no, it is just me. :sad:

A program would be awesome if anyone knows one?

It just needs to be able to handle multiple objects and have a co-ordinate syste,

[Nero]

Dusty, you have an issue with big ships, tactics and fun of any kind?

 

Anywho, ignore it at your own peril

I have a very strong aversion to having to micromanage single fighters when there's a battle going on between 2000 capital ships.

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I have a strong aversion to have 2000 capital ships... So that should be fine.

Really... Shuttles cost a lot and drones would be controlled by the OI(Organic Intelligence), so micro-management won't be a major issue, hopefully(otherwise I am even more stuffed that other people are)

Anyway, having more than 5 capital ships, total, in a combat situation, is unlikely...

[Nero]

It will happen.

[Seraphi]

Perhaps battleships forever would work?

 

I just googled it and it came up with something called Battleships forever. I'm not entirely sure if it supports multiple players, so let me test it first.

 

http://www.wyrdysm.com/games.php

[Icuownage]

Note a colonist ship that can be re-used and has decent armor costs around 1.2 trillion or something.

 

A fully freaking armed capital ship with weapons and defenses, some where around are few trillion, I think theres maintenence costs, and deployment costs.

 

You'll see like 5 towards the end of the game.. MAYBE. As they'll get more expensive.

 

 

Ross it wont work, we'll have different ships to that game, unless someone is good enough to steal the engine (illegal) and just add our ships in.

[Retech]

I prefer the old system, which aside from the invincible caravels and exploding strange matter, was perfectly fine.

[Seraphi]

Note a colonist ship that can be re-used and has decent armor costs around 1.2 trillion or something.

 

A fully freaking armed capital ship with weapons and defenses, some where around are few trillion, I think theres maintenence costs, and deployment costs.

 

You'll see like 5 towards the end of the game.. MAYBE. As they'll get more expensive.

 

 

Ross it wont work, we'll have different ships to that game, unless someone is good enough to steal the engine (illegal) and just add our ships in.

It supports a ship building thingy.

[Icuownage]

Woah thats pretty cool.

[Seraphi]

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any mention of multiplayer. However, I think the Shipmaker could still be useful.

[Seraphi]

Sorry for the double post, but this game is actually going to be useful.

 

Assuming Archi does not mind playing a game against himself with tactics that we PM to each other, the sandbox mode can realistically simulate battles.

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Double posts are fine.

Anywho, I will look at it, but I have my doubts.

[Seraphi]

Basically, the game comes with a ship builder. I assume the ship files can be transferred, so we create our ships, send them to you, you put them on the sandbox mode in the numbers that we are using, then we tell you the tactics to use.

 

You then move them on sandbox mode, make them attack each other in the ways that we have said, and that's pretty much it.

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So you can add new and random weapons to it, or does it come with a limited number of set weapons?

Also, size, rotation speed, speed and acceleration?

[Seraphi]

Yeah, all those can be custom set, provided you do a little fiddling with the options.

 

There is a huge selection of weapon sprites, ship parts, defensive measures, and animations, and the stats can all be custom set on everything.

 

Gun is too durable? Reduce it's HP, and it'll get blown up easier, meaning that specific gun cannot be used anymore.

 

EDIT:

 

Oh man, it also simulates the wreckage of destroyed ships hitting your units.

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I am not over fond of it...ok I am biased against because I didn't like it in the first place, but...well, I don't like it.

 

 

 

Firstly, it removes most any strategy and tactics from the game...Like in the last game it is reduced to 'Blow up all of these class first, then all of them' and so on....Just replace ship with turret.

 

Its me playing against a computer, so one side is going to be at a serverly disadvantage, regardless.

 

Technology isn't battlefield tested. I warned Ico about using Rapid Fire Railguns in space combat, he didn't listen....So imagine if his whole fleet(if we believe Dusty) was outfitted with this weapons, and he goes into battle and doesn't really how terrible they are, so keeps using them, wondering why he is getting nowhere...And I am not writing these things up(Strange, willing to spend hours doing the whole round by round thing, not willing to do half an hour write up)

 

I am not comfortable with the design system(ok, I am a technophobe when it comes to this sort of thing....I don't want to be there so I find excuses not to be) Added to that the fact you can shoot off a whole section of the ship is kind of bad, from my perspective...That section could still be powered, still be useful, yet it discards them.

 

It also divorces the idea that these ships are 'special', that you actually have some ownship and responsibility over them...when they disappear off for 5 hours with an eccentric individual and most of them don't come back. Its kind of difficult to grow attached to these vessels if you don't have to suffer or risk them, except as counters on the board.

 

 

 

 

 

To be honest, I just want a system that can display ships in their relative positions. If necessary I will resort of pencil and paper, but for the time being arbitration via MS Paint and GIMP seems to work fine, if time consuming, and arbitary.

The Battleships Forever seems nice, but its just not what I am looking for.

[Seraphi]

Fair enough that you don't want to use it, though I do have some retorts.

 

Some ships are better defended at the front to create a wall, some are thin to get past that wall and attack the vulnerable back or sides. Turrets and ships take time to turn and fire, so if you have a fast enough ship and good enough tactics, then you could end up using a squad of fighters to take out a battlestation.

 

The computer player issue is solved by sandbox mode. If you pause it to do each stage of the battle and then redirect ships, you can still judge things fairly easily while controlling both sides.

 

The technology battlefield text system, I don't really know how to solve.

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Re-retorts:

So the tactics are...fly to where the ship isn't heavily armoured. That sounds like general advice more than anything.

My point is that if your plan is given to me, before the battle, then you will have two ships flying in opposite directions, firing blindly into space. So tactics have to be kept very simple, or be on a response system...IF they do that, then I do that....which is tremendously tedious.

 

Playing sandbox mode and correcting every five seconds seems a tad tiresome.

[Seraphi]

Mmm, but I'd say it's a viable alternative to editing everything on paint and GIMP.

 

Althought it's fine if you don't want to use it.

 

Also, wouldn't space tactics in real life pretty much consist of "Get to where the armour is weakest and fire away"?

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Not neccessarily. Its a common misconception(in sea combat at least) that fleets would face off and then destroy each other. Alot of the time vessels would trade shots and then grapple with each other. Sinking a ship was considered as a hollow victory, since it took a hell of alot of effort to build a ship, and to have it destroyed...well...

 

 

Anywho, if I knew your tactic would be to attack where my armour was weak I would develop shields, put a thin layer of armour over the front of my ship and massive lasers either side. Behind it I would probably put a room full of foam.

While you are laying into my soft underbelly finding only fat, I am lasering through your tough hide, finding your heart.

 

Also, as eluded to, the weakest armoured area might not be particularly important, hence why it is under armoured. If you have to plug away for 30 rounds one you are through the weak armour, but only 3 rounds once you are through the strong armour, it makes more sense to hack away at the armoured section.

 

 

But yeah, if people couldn't do rounds of combat for some reason(Busy, the person they are against is in an inconveinant timezone, I am unavailable for some days) I am sure I could arbitarily decide. :thumbsup: