Author Topic: Crusade - Comments Thread  (Read 44253 times)

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Offline Zincat

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Re: Crusade - Comments Thread
« Reply #75 on: August 28, 2019, 10:46:57 AM »
Not humanoid robots I'd expect, although there would definitely be a need for robots capable of accessing components for maintenance purposes. You don't generally see solid slabs of anything unless it's not intended to be maintained except at the surface or at a massive maintenance facility that can take said solid slab apart.

Kinda difficult when you are dealing with things like laser batteries which very reliably break down as they get fired. It'd mean the weight of your fire will decrease over time as components break down and you have no way to make repairs.


So... not humanoid robots. Arthropod like robots that look like centipedes in their articulation are likely, carrying a variety of tools and supported by other robots with a potentially different shape that do most of the replacement part lugging is what I'd expect.

Honestly, the description is probably just for flavor. As long as there is an "opposition", I don't think the game models WHAT that opposition is. You can imagine it being humanoid, or arthropods, or anything else that strikes your fancy really ^^
 

Offline Zincat

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Re: Crusade - Comments Thread
« Reply #76 on: September 02, 2019, 01:00:12 PM »
The new ground combat sounds AMAZING. I wonder how much that is RP from steve though  :P

What size are those ruins? Do we still have a general "size" like in VB Aurora, before having explored them?

Do you plan to move away from the bombers, so to speak? Or are you just waiting to build much larger carriers and a lot more torpedos?
 

Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Crusade - Comments Thread
« Reply #77 on: September 02, 2019, 03:13:21 PM »
The new ground combat sounds AMAZING. I wonder how much that is RP from steve though  :P

What size are those ruins? Do we still have a general "size" like in VB Aurora, before having explored them?

Do you plan to move away from the bombers, so to speak? Or are you just waiting to build much larger carriers and a lot more torpedos?

I was running three combats per day (every 8 hours) so I styled them as morning, afternoon and evening. The 'breakthroughs' are in the game - there is a breakthrough event and the formation attacks a second time, including enemy formations in support or rear echelon. All the intel on the enemy forces is part of tactical intelligence. All the kill numbers are in the events and the tonnage destroyed is recorded for the commander. I wasn't adding a lot of RP. I handled all the disbanding of formations and reassigning units in the game just as I described.

Ruins are a Ruined Colony - sizes are the same as VB6.

I could build more carriers, but I don't have enough ordnance factories as I needed maintenance facilities and financial centres. Besides, I am thinking of converting some of the smaller carrier hybrids to carry ground attack fighters to support invasions.
 
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Offline Jovus

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Re: Crusade - Comments Thread
« Reply #78 on: September 02, 2019, 06:38:27 PM »
I could build more carriers, but I don't have enough ordnance factories as I needed maintenance facilities and financial centres. Besides, I am thinking of converting some of the smaller carrier hybrids to carry ground attack fighters to support invasions.

Plus, it'll be really cool to see how well, or how poorly, the Empire does in an energy-range engagement with the Necrons.

Hopefully the High Lords of Terra court-martial the current admiral for cowardice and put someone crazy in charge.
 

Offline IanD

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Re: Crusade - Comments Thread
« Reply #79 on: September 03, 2019, 06:03:55 AM »
Interesting write up. A question I have is when you refit ships are the systems replaced put into storage or just lost? I tend to have front line fleets, kept up to date with the latest equipment and second line squadrons which I would want to upgrade with the items removed from the front line fleet. In VB6 it appears systems removed in refits are just lost. I would like the option to reuse systems removed in refits.

Second question is how easy is it to reassign ground units between formations and how long would it take for a formation to regain full strength if no units reassigned to that formation? How much micro-management required?

Regards Ian
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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Crusade - Comments Thread
« Reply #80 on: September 03, 2019, 06:53:42 AM »
How easy is it to reassign ground units between formations and how long would it take for a formation to regain full strength if no units reassigned to that formation? How much micro-management required?

Moving units between formations is drag and drop, with the option to move specific numbers of units rather than a whole element. There is a description in the change log.

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg109808#msg109808

Units don't regain strength. You build replacements and assign them, or combine depleted formations.
 

Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Crusade - Comments Thread
« Reply #81 on: September 03, 2019, 06:55:03 AM »
When you refit ships are the systems replaced put into storage or just lost? I tend to have front line fleets, kept up to date with the latest equipment and second line squadrons which I would want to upgrade with the items removed from the front line fleet. In VB6 it appears systems removed in refits are just lost. I would like the option to reuse systems removed in refits.

Yes, they are lost in C# too. Should be straightforward to add them to the stockpile instead.
 

Offline Zincat

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Re: Crusade - Comments Thread
« Reply #82 on: September 03, 2019, 09:12:13 AM »
I think IanD makes an excellent point about refitting.

Yes, they are lost in C# too. Should be straightforward to add them to the stockpile instead.

Would make sense. At the very least, players could just scrap them for minerals. Refitting a ship with new lasers should not mean you dump the old ones in a garbage dump, modularity should allow for dismounting the old parts without destroying them.

 

Offline chrislocke2000

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Re: Crusade - Comments Thread
« Reply #83 on: September 03, 2019, 09:26:56 AM »
That ground combat looked pretty brutal! Given the size of the starting forces relative to a standard start I can see that the spoilers are going to be a real challenge in C#.

Regarding the ground attack fighters any thoughts on adding missions for STO engagement or do these already get caught on the flak suppression mission?
 

Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Crusade - Comments Thread
« Reply #84 on: September 03, 2019, 11:40:19 AM »
That ground combat looked pretty brutal! Given the size of the starting forces relative to a standard start I can see that the spoilers are going to be a real challenge in C#.

Regarding the ground attack fighters any thoughts on adding missions for STO engagement or do these already get caught on the flak suppression mission?

Once STO reveal themselves, they can be attacked by normal combat. The ground attack fighters would have a chance to engage them as part of overall strikes usingground support mode but currently not specifically. Might be an interesting idea though. Very Star Wars :)
 

Offline ExChairman

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Re: Crusade - Comments Thread
« Reply #85 on: September 03, 2019, 11:54:08 AM »
I think IanD makes an excellent point about refitting.

Yes, they are lost in C# too. Should be straightforward to add them to the stockpile instead.

Would make sense. At the very least, players could just scrap them for minerals. Refitting a ship with new lasers should not mean you dump the old ones in a garbage dump, modularity should allow for dismounting the old parts without destroying them.

From my experience of the history of Sweden, almost all guns on destroyers and up were saved and put into coastal batteries or in the fortress of Boden, the lock of the North....
Veni, Vedi, Volvo
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Offline Scandinavian

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Re: Crusade - Comments Thread
« Reply #86 on: September 03, 2019, 12:04:13 PM »
Simply as a matter of consistency, it would make sense that anything you would recover from scrapping the vessel would be recoverable in a refit. Especially since you do not get a discount for replacing it with similar equipment, so it's not like the old gear is cannibalized to make it cheaper and easier to install the upgrade.
 

Offline Hazard

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Re: Crusade - Comments Thread
« Reply #87 on: September 03, 2019, 12:09:16 PM »
When you refit ships are the systems replaced put into storage or just lost? I tend to have front line fleets, kept up to date with the latest equipment and second line squadrons which I would want to upgrade with the items removed from the front line fleet. In VB6 it appears systems removed in refits are just lost. I would like the option to reuse systems removed in refits.

Yes, they are lost in C# too. Should be straightforward to add them to the stockpile instead.

IIRC part of the reason they are lost in VB6 is because the raw materials and time investment of replaced components is used to calculate the discount for the refit. Components stripped and replaced should be ignored for discount calculations in that case.

Also, looking at the numbers for the ground combat I'm noticing a few things.

First, after the first engagement of the 3rd Light Armoured Company there are no more references to Hellhound tanks. I presume this means that the 4th Company was pulled back behind the lines and kept out of combat. Rather unsurprising given that the 3rd Light evaporated on first contact.

Second, casualties were fairly even between the infantry and the armour. Normally you see larger casualty counts among the infantry. This may've been the result of the relatively poor armour of the Imperium compared to the enemy's weapon strength. There's just a point where it's impossible to kill a target more dead even if you put more energy into it, and you get to that limit much more quickly with squishy humans than with the armoured shell around the squishy humans.

Third, specialist forces suffered disproportionate losses. It's kinda hard to tell how significant that is among the armoured units, simply because there's fewer of them in numbers so an unfortunate loss of a single Vox Vehicle would skew the ratios considerably, but while Guardsmen suffered about 13% losses, Chimera saw 22% losses, Lascannons 41%, Hydra platforms 20%, vox casters 42% and Regimental HQs 75%. Infantry supply vehicles lost 11%.

Clearly something needs to be done. For vehicles, this can be partially covered by putting more armour on them. However, there is something to be said for a 'backline combatant' rule or something similar, that renders certain units less likely to be targeted in ground combat by units other than artillery/fighters in return for lower chances of engaging themselves. Lascannons and Chimera are quite frankly nearly always going to be on the frontlines because that's where their job is, but AA platforms and Regimental level HQs aren't really supposed to get into the thick of the fighting, and Vox units would be the sort of unit that get a squad dedicated to babysit them and keep them from getting killed while calling in the support, likewise reducing the chances of their dying (although IIRC historically being an FFD was a dangerous job with high casualty rates).

Fourth, Logistics units casualties would indicate that less than 450 supply units have been lost. I take it that supply use is not counted in the casualties. As that would explain the discrepancy of 3 entire regiments of supply units getting disbanded to build everything back up to strength.

Fifth and final, in reality the Valhallan, Mordian and Paragonian regiments wouldn't have been disbanded, they would if possible have been rotated back home or to another secured location where they could rendezvous with and integrate reinforcements.

And speaking of reinforcements, is there a 'Rebuild to Template' order for ground units? I can't find it on the wiki, and such an order would be helpful with rebuilding units that suffered casualties or replacing equipment. It would be reasonable for it to cost less in both minerals and time, simply because you are scrapping already processed materials so you can reuse at least some of it, but the time savings are notably smaller than the mineral savings and as the technological gap between the old equipment and the new equipment increases the savings grow smaller.

That ground combat looked pretty brutal! Given the size of the starting forces relative to a standard start I can see that the spoilers are going to be a real challenge in C#.

Regarding the ground attack fighters any thoughts on adding missions for STO engagement or do these already get caught on the flak suppression mission?

Once STO reveal themselves, they can be attacked by normal combat. The ground attack fighters would have a chance to engage them as part of overall strikes usingground support mode but currently not specifically. Might be an interesting idea though. Very Star Wars :)

Not just Star Wars. Happened often enough in history that part of the job of the first wave of an attack was to force enemy positions to reveal themselves so they could be bombarded from range or by aircraft.
 

Offline clement

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Re: Crusade - Comments Thread
« Reply #88 on: September 03, 2019, 01:01:13 PM »
Steve, in the 10 dates of combat, how much dust and damage was done to the planet? Also, how long will that damage take to dissipate?

With more ground combat likely, the dust and damage caused by combat is something that worries me amount wise.
 

Offline Bremen

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Re: Crusade - Comments Thread
« Reply #89 on: September 03, 2019, 01:32:08 PM »
That ground combat looked pretty brutal! Given the size of the starting forces relative to a standard start I can see that the spoilers are going to be a real challenge in C#.

Regarding the ground attack fighters any thoughts on adding missions for STO engagement or do these already get caught on the flak suppression mission?

Once STO reveal themselves, they can be attacked by normal combat. The ground attack fighters would have a chance to engage them as part of overall strikes usingground support mode but currently not specifically. Might be an interesting idea though. Very Star Wars :)

This isn't the idea thread, I know, but it seems fitting to me if ground support fighters had some bonus for hitting rear and reserve units anyways (or maybe they already do? So many changes it's getting hard to keep track). This would serve a similar purpose to STO suppression, even if not doing so directly.

(Post reading the changes thread) Ah, I guess that would be the Search and Destroy mission. Depending on how the balance shakes out, it might be worth having that prioritize rear and support units. It'd be a reason to pad out your STO formations with support, as well.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2019, 01:39:37 PM by Bremen »