Author Topic: Trans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14  (Read 6102 times)

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Offline SteveAlt (OP)

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Trans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14
« on: February 11, 2009, 06:17:27 PM »
Yaguar left Archangelsk just in time. One hour after she transited into Budapest, an Angel ship appeared at the jump point and headed toward the inner system. It was a third unit of the 4300 ton class suspected to be freighters. Five days later the same ship was picked up by Andrea Doria as it arrived at Budapest II. The Moravian Empire seemed totally oblivious to the Commonwealth forces sneaking around in Budapest.

During the first few days of August 2047, the collier Douglas, five freighters carrying deep space tracking stations and two troop transports with six divisions all arrived in Budapest. As Douglas was carrying Raven recon drones and additional anti-missiles, the magazine loadouts of the Commonwealth ships in Budapest were reorganised. The destroyers were each loaded with twenty Ravens and seventy-six SS-N-2 Sunburns and all four battlecruisers returned to their standard loadout of 190 SS-N-3 Scarabs. The latter was made possible by the fact that the destroyer Gridley had been carrying Scarabs. Comanche and Iroquois had a full loadout of 732 SA-N-2 Gauntlets, Kiowa, Seminole and Shawnee were loaded with SA-N-1 Grails while Sioux had only 526 missiles, sixty percent of which were Grails and the rest Gauntlets. Douglas retained forty Ravens and sixteen Sunburns while Castletown, the other collier accompanying the First Striking Force, had seventy-two SS-N-3 Scarabs and two hundred SS-N-2 Sunburns in reserve.

Rear Admiral Scott had originally intended to capture the small Angel colony on Budapest II and place tracking stations on the planet to aid Commonwealth operations in the system. That plan had changed with the discovery of the jump point to Archangelsk. He now intended to send the freighters into Archangelsk, once Yaguar and Andrea Doria had ensured the jump point was clear, and place the tracking stations on various moons within the system. The destroyers would accompany them, using their drones to locate Angel forces. Once the all-out attack began, Dewey and Gridley would begin raiding the system's commerce to add confusion and distract the defenders. The first step was for the two Arleigh Burkes to escort the freighters to Yaguar's position near the Budapest - Archangelsk jump point. Andrea Doria left orbit of Budapest II and moved to the same rendezvous point. On August 6th Yaguar detected two 8400 ton ships jumping into Budapest. Both were of the same class as a ship Andrea Doria had spotted in orbit of Budapest II a month earlier. So far that made seven different ships of three different classes that had been detected in Budapest, none of which were the same as the five Angel ships that were encountered in London.

All the forces intended for the recon into Archangelsk were in place by the evening of August 12th. The mission began with Yaguar entering the jump point once more and waiting for her active sensors to recover from the effects of transit. She found nothing within fifty-seven million kilometres of the jump point so she jumped backed into Budapest and summoned Andrea Doria, Gridley, Dewey and the freighters, all of which were waiting thirty million kilometres away. Two hours later they were all safely into Archangelsk. All the ships moved away from the jump point on a bearing of 180 degrees, ensuring they got no closer to the inner system and trying to avoid any system traffic. Yaguar and Andrea Doria kept their active sensors on as they were more concerned about running into Angel ships by accident than detection from the inhabited world one point five billion kilometres away. The jump gates either side of the Archangelsk - Budapest jump point would allow them to communicate with the First Striking Force, which was still holding position at the Budapest - London jump point.

By August 14th, they had moved five hundred million kilometres from the jump point without any sign of Angel interference. The next phase of the operation was to find a suitable location for the first of the deep space tracking stations. Archangelsk VI was a super-jovian with fifteen moons, orbiting a billion kilometres from the primary and was just five hundred and twenty million kilometres from the Commonwealth force. Captain Gonçalves on the Yaguar, the senior Commonwealth officer in Archangelsk, detached Dewey with instructions to approach within two hundred million kilometres of the gas giant and launch a series of SR-N-1 Raven recon drones to ensure there was no nearby Angel activity. She approached with active sensors off to avoid giving away her position.

[attachment=2:2q1t29ou]ReconForce.GIF[/attachment:2q1t29ou]
Just as Dewey reached her launch point and was preparing the first Raven, she was attacked by a totally unexpected wave of fifty anti-ship missiles. Only the slow speed of the Angel missiles spared her from total destruction but she was still struck thirteen times and suffered grievous damage. Two thirds of her engines and missile launchers were damaged as well as her active sensor. She began immediate damage control on one of the damaged engines and set course for the jump point at 1200 km/s. Captain Gonçalves had to assume the rest of his force had been detected so he ordered an immediate retreat toward the jump point. He detached Andrea Doria to allow the jump cruiser to move at its maximum 4000 km/s while Yaguar and Gridley remained with the freighters, moving at 3529 km/s. None of the Commonwealth ships had any sensor contacts. For seventy-five tense minutes there were was no further sign of the hitherto invisible Angel forces then Dewey's EM sensor picked up two Angel active sensors at just eight million kilometres and closing.

[attachment=0:2q1t29ou]FirstContact.GIF[/attachment:2q1t29ou]
The Angel sensors were similar to those used by the destroyer in the London Raid so it was possible the contacts were of the same class, although as they approached their speed was calculated at 4516 km/s, slightly faster than the destroyer in London. A thermal signature of 560 was picked up at 350,000 kilometres but with her active sensor damaged Dewey had no way to gain more information on the rapidly closing Angel ships. At 30,000 kilometres, both Angel warships opened fire on Dewey with 15cm Near Ultraviolet Lasers, blasting the destroyer into scrap metal within seconds. One hundred and thirty-seven of Dewey's crew made it to the life pods but there was no way to rescue them. Three hundred million kilometres away, the rest of the recon force continued fleeing toward the jump point.

Fourteen hours after the destruction of Dewey, Andrea Doria detected three new active sensors, identical to those used by Angel cruisers, at two hundred and twenty million kilometres and closing at 4480 km/s. Given the salvo sizes of the missile attack on Dewey, the new sensor signatures and their speed, it was very likely these three contacts represented the three cruisers that escaped after the London Raid. Five hours later the active sensors of the laser-armed warships were picked up again. Sending a signal through the jump gate, Captain Gonçalves requested assistance from the First Striking Force. While he believed his ships might escape into Budapest, they would be in serious trouble if the Angel forces pursued them. Rear Admiral Scott was reluctant to leave his guard position on the Budapest - London jump point, especially as the Archangelsk jump point was two point seven billion kilometres away and he was unlikely to arrive in time anyway.

[attachment=1:2q1t29ou]Runaway.GIF[/attachment:2q1t29ou]
« Last Edit: February 11, 2009, 06:28:04 PM by SteveAlt »
 

Offline SteveAlt (OP)

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Re: TRans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2009, 06:27:12 PM »
Andrea Doria reached the Budapest jump point at 1am on the morning of August 17th. At this point she was still outside of active sensor range of the pursuing ships, although given what had happened to Dewey, it seemed likely that the passive sensors on the Angel planet were tracking her EM and thermal emissions. Captain Vorontsov informed both Captain Gonçalves and Rear Admiral Scott that as soon as his ship entered Budapest he would be disengaging his active sensor in an attempt to hide from the limited passive sensors of the Angel warships. When Andrea Doria jumped and took her passive sensors with her, the remaining Commonwealth ships in Budapest, still four hours from the jump point, lost track of the Angels' active sensor emissions. Contact was restored at 3am when the two laser-armed ships moved within range of Yaguar's own active sensor. Both were of the same class and massed 6200 tons.

As Yaguar, Gridley and the five freighters approached the jump point, their crews expected missiles to smash into their ship at any moment but the laws of physics were on their side. Based on their last known course and speed, the Angel cruisers were not quite close enough to launch missiles that could overhaul the fleeing Commonwealth ships before they escaped. When they finally transited into Budapest, the laser-armed destroyers were almost fifty million kilometres away and the missile-armed cruisers were not in active sensor range. Yaguar headed for a position forty million kilometres from the Budapest - Archangel in the opposite direction to the London jump point, so she could monitor any traffic without being detected by the Angel active sensors. The freighters fled towards the First Striking Force, escorted by Gridley, which had its active sensor disengaged. As they moved away, Gridley fired a Raven recon drone at the jump point, which would provide passive detection for nineteen hours.

Two hours and forty-five minutes after the recon force re-entered Budapest, Yaguar's active sensor detected the two 8400 ton Angel ships that had transited into the system from Archangelsk eleven days earlier. They were now on a return course, sixteen million kilometres from the Budapest - Archangelsk jump point. Yaguar passed on the contact to Gridley, which was now thirty-five million kilometres out from the jump point and twenty-one million from the new contacts. Commander Mariano Wilmore, captain of the Gridley, requested permission to open fire. As the presence of Commonwealth units in Budapest was hardly a secret any longer, Rear Admiral Scott authorised the attack. In addition, as the Angel units that had attacked London appeared to be still in Archangelsk, he decided to take the First Striking Force to Budapest II, along with the troop transports, to capture the Angel colony on that world. He ordered Gridley and the freighters to rendezvous with him there.

[attachment=1:w2r3l6rm]Freighters.GIF[/attachment:w2r3l6rm]
As Gridley changed course, the destroyer began firing salvos of six SS-N-2 Sunburns at the Angel contacts. Once six salvos were on their way she ceased fire, holding her remaining forty Sunburns in reserve, as Commander Wilmore suspected his targets were freighters. The two Angel ships were moving at 4761 km/s, resulting in the Commonwealth missiles having less than a fifty percent chance to hit. Only two Sunburns from the first salvo were on target. Even so the damaged ship slowed to 4285 km/s, which indicated it had little in the way of protection and confirmed Commander Wilmore's suspicions that these were commercial vessels rather than warships. Three more missiles hit from the second salvo and the speed of the freighter dropped to 3333 km/s. Despite four hits from the third salvo, the freighter refused to die and struggled onward at 1428 km/s. Commander Wilmore directed the three remaining salvos at the second undamaged freighter and launched a seventh salvo to deal with the cripple. Eight out of eighteen missiles directed against the second freighter were on target, slowing it to 1904 km/s but not destroying it. Gridley launched an eighth salvo, leaving her with twenty-eight Sunburns in her magazines. As Gridley was moving away from the jump point, the follow-up salvos took almost forty minutes to arrive, by which time the leading freighter was within two million kilometres of the jump point. Fortunately, the final two salvos were sufficient to destroy both cripples..

One hour later, with Gridley and the freighters sixty-four million kilometres from the jump point, Yaguar detected the two laser-armed destroyers entering Budapest. Gridley was outside missile range so she couldn't engage the Angel ships and Rear Admiral Scott would not let Commander Wilmore reverse course as he feared the Angel cruisers would not be far behind. As soon as their sensors shook off the effects of transit, the destroyers began pursuing the freighters. Seven minutes later the three Angel cruisers arrived, along with a single unit of a new 6250 ton ship class, and moved away from the jump point in the opposite direction to the laser-armed ships and the fleeing Commonwealth ship, presumably to open the range and take advantage of their long range missiles. The First Striking Force was much too far away to assist so rather than let Gridley suffer missile attack without being able to respond, Rear Admiral Scott reversed his decision and ordered Commander Wilmore to engage the enemy. As his destroyer was well within enemy sensor and missile range but the Angel ships were outside his own range, Commander Wilmore ordered his helmsman to break away from the freighters and charge the enemy.

[attachment=2:w2r3l6rm]Gridley.GIF[/attachment:w2r3l6rm]
Once within fifty-seven million kilometres of the two Angel destroyers, Gridley reversed course to maintain the range and opened fire. Her last twenty-eight SS-N-2 Sunburns sped toward the enemy in five separate salvos and thirty-eight minutes later they began intercepting their target. Thirteen missiles in total struck the enemy warship and it's speed dropped to 3225 km/s. One and a half hours later, the Angel forces hit back. Gridley's active sensor detected fifty incoming missiles at just fourteen thousand kilometres. There was barely time for the crew to brace themselves. Fifteen explosions shook the destroyer to its keel, damaging two engines and knocking out its fire control. Her armour was almost totally obliterated and only the wide distribution of hits saved the ship from destruction. Four minutes later a second wave of fifty missiles arrived. Commander Wilmore was killed by a hit on the bridge and seconds later Gridley blew up. Only one hundred of her five hundred man crew made it to the life pods.

The five freighters, still loaded with tracking stations, had continued to flee during Gridley's defiant last stand and were five million kilometres further away from the Angel ships. That extra distance extended their lifespan but could not save them. Atlas Four died first, sixteen minutes after Gridley, struck by the missiles of the second Angel salvo that had not expended themselves against the destroyer. A third wave of fifty Angel missiles destroyed Atlas Three and crippled Atlas Five, reducing it to 1400 km/s. The wounded freighter gained a respite of two hours before the leading missiles of a fourth wave completed her destruction. Atlas One and Atlas Two were the last to fall, overrun by the remaining missiles of the fourth wave and fifty more from a fifth. While the helpless freighters were being slaughtered, the Angel destroyer damaged by Gridley had repaired its engines and was operating at full speed again.

[attachment=0:w2r3l6rm]DestroyedFT.GIF[/attachment:w2r3l6rm]
Only Yaguar and Andrea Doria had survived the disastrous reconnaissance mission, so far at least. Yaguar was still monitoring the Budapest - Archangelsk jump point, using her small size to avoid detection. Andrea Doria was fifty million kilometres outside the range of Angel active sensors and on course for the London jump point. The First Striking Force was two and a half billion kilometres away and heading for Budapest II. After the destruction of the Commonwealth freighters, the two Angel beam-armed destroyers began picking up survivors, both from their own freighters and from the Commonwealth ships. The Angel cruisers and the smaller unknown Angel vessel ship all moved to the jump point and transited into Archangelsk. Several hours later they were followed by the destroyers, leaving only wreckage in Budapest.

Steve
 

Offline SteveAlt (OP)

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Re: Trans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2009, 09:04:31 PM »
When President Vladimir Vorokov learned of the latest setback in the war against the Moravian Empire, he summoned the Fleet Admirals to a conference at the Presidential Mansion and demanded to know why the apparently numerically superior Commonwealth Navy was unable to crush the Angels and why Rear Admiral Scott was so reluctant to advance against Archangelsk. All three Fleet Admirals tried to explain that sending half the Commonwealth Navy into a battle against an opponent of unknown strength which had missiles with far greater range than their Commonwealth equivalents, was an extremely risky proposition. They argued that with better intelligence, an attack was far more likely to succeed. President Vorokov pointed out that the only time that Commonwealth battle fleet units had engaged the Angels, not a single Angel missile had penetrated their defences. He suggested that instead of the tentative and costly operations in Budapest, the First Striking Force should attack Archangelsk through the Budapest jump point and at the same time, the Second Striking Force should attack through the Smolensk - Archangelsk jump point, bringing the full weight of the Battle Fleet to bear on the Moravians.

The Fleet Admirals were horrified at the idea of sending virtually the whole Commonwealth Navy into what was probably the Moravian home system, with absolutely no idea what they faced. Despite their protestations the President became adamant that the current situation could not continue and eventually ordered the Fleet Admirals to carry out his plan at the earliest opportunity. Fleet Admiral Willems refused, stating that the President was putting the entire Commonwealth in jeopardy, and offered his resignation. President Vorokov accepted it immediately and asked if Fleet Admirals Morrison and Rentería intended to carry out his orders. Both agreed to follow the chain of command but submitted written protests against the order.

Although Rear Admiral Scott remained in command of the First Striking Force, due to his familiarity with the situation, overall command of the operation was given to Admiral Rafaele Perti, located on board the battlecruiser Alexander Nevsky in the Second Striking Force. The Second Striking Force received orders to transit the Xia - Smolensk jump point and move to Smolensk - Archangel jump point. In support were three Arleigh Burke V class destroyers, the Fleet Support Vessel Kilimanjaro, the jump cruiser Littorio and the collier Manxman. Four old Nagato class destroyers and the three Scharnhorst class missile cruisers would guard the Xia - Smolensk jump point in case the aliens in Zagorsk launched an attack on Xia while the Second Striking Force was absent. In Budapest, Rear Admiral Scott was ordered to complete his mission to land ground forces on the Angel colony on Budapest II than take his fleet toward the Archangelsk jump point. The collier Castletown would bring along additional missiles but as the jump point had a jump gate, the Fleet Support Vessel Aconcagua would remain as a picket on the Budapest - London jump point.

The First Striking Force entered orbit of Budapest II on August 22nd and unloaded the six ground force divisions, four of which were only garrison troops. The operation did not go smoothly and it was several days before the Seventeenth Heavy Assault Division and the 2nd Guards Mobile Infantry Division finally moved against the small Moravian colony. They met no opposition and quickly secured their objective, which turned out to be no more than a series of large empty domed structures set up to facilitate colonization. The estimate of the ground force commander was that the infrastructure on the planet was enough to support over a million humans. Leaving behind the 26th Garrison Division to guard their prize, the other divisions re-embarked and the First Striking Force headed for the Archangel jump point with the two troop transports trailing n their wake.

Both Commonwealth Striking Forces and most of their support ships were in position by 23:00 on August 30th. Colliers and troop transports were still hours or days away but they were not necessary for the initial assault. There was no sign of any Angel vessels on the Commonwealth side of either jump point. As the Budapest - Archangel jump point had a jump gate, the First Striking Force would go through en masse, leaving Andrea Doria and Yaguar in Budapest until the jump point was secure, assuming it was even defended. In Smolensk, there was no jump gate available so the initial wave would be a combat transit with the battlecruisers Georgy Zhukov and Mikhail Kutuzov jumping with Kilimanjaro and the escort cruisers Chippewa and Choctaw jumping with Littorio. Taking advantage of the jump gates and jump ships that created an instantaneous communication link between the two fleets, along the line Smolensk - Xia - Denver - Chicago - Washington - Sol - London - Budapest, the time until the attack was set at one hour. The crews waited nervously for the largest naval operation in Commonwealth history. At midnight, they jumped.

Steve
 

Offline waresky

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Re: Trans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14
« Reply #3 on: February 12, 2009, 12:29:41 AM »
Awesome report from frontline,Steve:) we r all on waitin for next step along ur War..

one interesting point: in Arch,the enemy attack very fast and without warning..probably the Aliens have a very good and massive Deep Track Stat on Home planets,or around some nearest planet-moon..
This pose a very treath...(treat?.understand?:))..)
Any Squadroon jump in,where spotted day before they know a real consistence of Aliens fleet..Good luck:)
 

Offline vergeraiders

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Re: Trans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14
« Reply #4 on: February 12, 2009, 09:20:42 AM »
>There was barely time for the crew to brace themselves. Fifteen explosions shook the destroyer to its keel, damaging two engines and knocking out >its fire control. Her armour was almost totally obliterated and only the wide distribution of hits saved the ship from destruction. Four minutes later a >second wave of fifty missiles arrived. Commander Wilmore was killed by a hit on the bridge and seconds later Gridley blew up. Only one hundred of >her five hundred man crew made it to the life pods.

Is there any option for a imminent doom pre destruction bailout? After the first wave of missiles the ship was clearly doomed. It had no weapons that could fire, no ammo for the weapons it had, no fire control and no almsot armor. A figting tradition is fine as long as you can fight. Now there might well be a morale check to determine if ejecting to be captured is better or worse than a quick death in combat, but there could be other situations where rescue by friendlies is much more likely.

The same could be said of the freighters too, set them on some form of auto pilot and abandon ship in some type of small craft.

The President is one high stakes gambler :)
 

Offline SteveAlt (OP)

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Re: Trans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14
« Reply #5 on: February 12, 2009, 10:39:13 AM »
Quote from: "vergeraiders"
>There was barely time for the crew to brace themselves. Fifteen explosions shook the destroyer to its keel, damaging two engines and knocking out >its fire control. Her armour was almost totally obliterated and only the wide distribution of hits saved the ship from destruction. Four minutes later a >second wave of fifty missiles arrived. Commander Wilmore was killed by a hit on the bridge and seconds later Gridley blew up. Only one hundred of >her five hundred man crew made it to the life pods.

Is there any option for a imminent doom pre destruction bailout? After the first wave of missiles the ship was clearly doomed. It had no weapons that could fire, no ammo for the weapons it had, no fire control and no almsot armor. A figting tradition is fine as long as you can fight. Now there might well be a morale check to determine if ejecting to be captured is better or worse than a quick death in combat, but there could be other situations where rescue by friendlies is much more likely.

The same could be said of the freighters too, set them on some form of auto pilot and abandon ship in some type of small craft.
There is an Abandon Ship button on the damage control tab of the Ship window. This will get the surviving crew off and scuttle the ship. In this case I did consider using it but decided to try and repair the engines first. The Angels sometimes spread their missiles waves out quite a lot so if this was one of those times, it might have been possible to make a run for it.

Quote
The President is one high stakes gambler :)
It should be interesting. The use of recon drones at the Smolensk - Archangelsk jump point showed no picket and Yaguar showed nothing at the Budapest - Archangelsk jump point so surprise should be on the Commonwealth's side. The battle fleet formations have also shown an ability to hold off the relatively slow waves of Angel missiles. The problems will be if the jump points are defended or if there are more Angel warships in Archangelsk than the Commonwealth has seen so far. The President represents me with my "frustrated Commonwealth" hat on rather than me with my "pleased with my AI-controlled bad guys so far" hat.

Steve
 

Offline waresky

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Re: Trans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14
« Reply #6 on: February 12, 2009, 10:56:11 AM »
Am fear for ur Effort on Angel's System..
Good DeepTrack Stations,good CruiserGuidedMissile-Class (Angesl),though toward "our" puny Missiles..fastest than our ships..and at last:play at Home.An well defended System are a BoreDoom situation..
System Defence Boat,armed with more weapons because not need jump or many drive,short logistic lane,communications,Resupply,refuel,reammo,maintenance more fastes..

All lead to a 50% disastrous Commonwealth Campaign.And FIRST disastrous WAS ever the Hurry Mind.
Good Luck
 

Offline Charlie Beeler

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Re: Trans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14
« Reply #7 on: February 12, 2009, 11:58:26 AM »
Quote from: "SteveAlt"
It should be interesting. The use of recon drones at the Smolensk - Archangelsk jump point showed no picket and Yaguar showed nothing at the Budapest - Archangelsk jump point so surprise should be on the Commonwealth's side. The battle fleet formations have also shown an ability to hold off the relatively slow waves of Angel missiles. The problems will be if the jump points are defended or if there are more Angel warships in Archangelsk than the Commonwealth has seen so far. The President represents me with my "frustrated Commonwealth" hat on rather than me with my "pleased with my AI-controlled bad guys so far" hat. Steve

I presume then that you've coded a means for the AI to picket jump points.  This is just the tip of the iceberk related to AI stategic analysis and reaction.
Amateurs study tactics, Professionals study logistics - paraphrase attributed to Gen Omar Bradley
 

Offline jfelten

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Re: Trans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14
« Reply #8 on: February 13, 2009, 11:08:08 AM »
Steve, does the AI make any efforts to conserve ammunition or does it keep firing missiles as fast as possible until all targets are destroyed?  From your story it sounds like they NPR might have used some intelligence in how it fired missiles.  Otherwise I could imagine an AI fleet emptying its racks at a single freighter if the missile flight time was long enough.  

On the thought of "disallowing" building up missile swarms.  I also would not like to see missile waypoint targeting eliminated.  Perhaps if missiles upon reaching a waypoint were to continue on their last course in a ballistic manner until manually given a new target, that would be a way to reduce gathering them for swarms.  Or at least make creating a swarm require a lot more planning and skill.
 

Offline Kurt

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Re: Trans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14
« Reply #9 on: February 13, 2009, 12:58:11 PM »
Quote from: "jfelten"
Steve, does the AI make any efforts to conserve ammunition or does it keep firing missiles as fast as possible until all targets are destroyed?  From your story it sounds like they NPR might have used some intelligence in how it fired missiles.  Otherwise I could imagine an AI fleet emptying its racks at a single freighter if the missile flight time was long enough.  

On the thought of "disallowing" building up missile swarms.  I also would not like to see missile waypoint targeting eliminated.  Perhaps if missiles upon reaching a waypoint were to continue on their last course in a ballistic manner until manually given a new target, that would be a way to reduce gathering them for swarms.  Or at least make creating a swarm require a lot more planning and skill.

I like the ability to target waypoints.  This gives the missile using player another option in his deployment of his missiles, increasing the tactics available.  Just my opinion.  

Kurt
 

Offline Beersatron

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Re: Trans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14
« Reply #10 on: February 17, 2009, 11:25:36 AM »
Would just like to say that I am thoroughly enjoying this read and registered just so I could say so :)
 

Offline waresky

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Re: Trans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14
« Reply #11 on: February 17, 2009, 11:41:16 AM »
HI Beersatron,ur welcome:))..
Build ur personel History on ur UNIVERSE's Aurora.
Steve enjoy us with her campaign..we awaitn for some new from Frontline and "Angels" Aliens..
Hope the Commonwealth find the victory over them..but am fear :D
 

Offline SteveAlt (OP)

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Re: Trans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14
« Reply #12 on: February 19, 2009, 01:38:42 PM »
Quote from: "Charlie Beeler"
I presume then that you've coded a means for the AI to picket jump points.  This is just the tip of the iceberk related to AI stategic analysis and reaction.
The AI will picket some jump points based on previous events and the importance of the jump point. However, Aurora is such a complex game that I am sure the AI is going to do some stupid things in the first few versions. My goal for version 4.0 is fairly basic functionality but I will improve this over time based on player feedback.

Steve
 

Offline SteveAlt (OP)

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Re: Trans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14
« Reply #13 on: February 19, 2009, 01:49:45 PM »
Quote from: "jfelten"
Steve, does the AI make any efforts to conserve ammunition or does it keep firing missiles as fast as possible until all targets are destroyed?  From your story it sounds like they NPR might have used some intelligence in how it fired missiles.  Otherwise I could imagine an AI fleet emptying its racks at a single freighter if the missile flight time was long enough.  
They do attempt to conserve ammunition in certain circumstances, as the above freighter annihilation situation was one of my early concerns.

Quote
On the thought of "disallowing" building up missile swarms.  I also would not like to see missile waypoint targeting eliminated.  Perhaps if missiles upon reaching a waypoint were to continue on their last course in a ballistic manner until manually given a new target, that would be a way to reduce gathering them for swarms.  Or at least make creating a swarm require a lot more planning and skill.
One of my primary designs goals is to avoid micromanagement. Therefore, I don't want players to have to play around with missile salvos too much on a regular basis, although it would be ok for occasional recon drones, etc..

At the moment I am leaning toward some type of very short range (10,000 km max), very long recharge (at least several hours) weapon or EW system that would attack all missiles about to hit that ship. It would cause perhaps 1 point of damage so it wouldn't be that useful in an anti-ship role and it would be wasted against small salvos. It wouldn't eliminate the massed salvo but it would give the attacker player something else to consider. The idea for this came from the static screens (I think that was the name) in Traveller. This won't be in v4.0 because i need to give it some serious though. I will probably include this when I do the EW overhaul.

Steve
 

Offline SteveAlt (OP)

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Re: Trans-Newtonian Campaign - Part 14
« Reply #14 on: February 19, 2009, 01:51:01 PM »
Quote from: "Beersatron"
Would just like to say that I am thoroughly enjoying this read and registered just so I could say so :)
Thanks! I appreciate you taking the time to make the post. It's always good to get positive feedback.

Steve