Post by: Steve Walmsley on October 09, 2009, 01:00:05 PM
The main change for the ground troop model is that I am assuming that combat power goes way up with the introduction of TN tech and that much smaller units (in terms of manpower) will likely be the norm. Think powered armour along the lines of Starship Troopers (the book, not the film) or the Posleen War or even the zoots from the Honorverse. The new manoeuver unit will be the battalion (which I am sure someone suggested a few months ago). The existing Heavy Assault Division, Mobile Infantry Division, Assault Infantry Division, Garrison Division and Replacement Division will become the Heavy Assault Battalion, Mobile Infantry Battalion, Assault Infantry Battalion, Garrison Battalion and Replacement Battalion and the stats will remain the same. The Engineer Division becomes the Engineer Regiment and will be about four times the size of the various battalions. I am assuming that for purposes of Aurora a battalion is about 500 men, which I know is even smaller than a regular battalion but each trooper will be far more effective.
The HQ division becomes a Brigade HQ and you will be able to attach battalions to a Brigade HQ. This will be done on a more permanent basis rather than the ad hoc situation at the moment. You will be able to transfer battalions between Brigade HQs with some penalty yet to be decided; probably a morale loss that will recover over time. When a Battalion is supported by its Brigade HQ in combat, it will gain the combat bonus of the HQ commander as well as its own commander. A new Divisional HQ has been added, which is expensive at 250 BP and will require a R4 commander. Brigades will be attached to Divisions in much the same way as battalions will be attached to Brigades. If both its Brigade and Divisional HQ are present, a battalion will get the ground combat bonus from both HQ commanders as well as it's own commander, so it is worth trying to preserve divisional integrity if you fight a battle with that many units involved. There is a maximum of four battalions to a brigade and four brigades to a division. Both HQ units are the same size as a battalion. I am assuming they contain the HQ staff plus various support assets such as artillery, etc.. Incidentally, the small units will make the commander assignments more realistic - no more junior officers commanding divisions.
Two new combat units have also been added. The Marine Battalion and the Marine Company. The Marine Battalion costs 180 BP, which is the same as the Heavy Assault battalion, and has a base attack strength of 10 and a base defence strength of 10 (compared to 12/12 for the HVA and 10/5 for the much cheaper Assault Infantry at 100 BP). The advantages of the Marine Battalion are that it can split into Marine Companies and both Marine units are very effective in fighting boarding actions against ships and PDCs. Other units may still carry out boarding action but Marines are specially trained for that situation and use double their normal combat strength in a boarding action. The Marine Company costs 36 and has stats of 2/2. There are five Marine Companies to a Battalion and each is approximately 100 men. If you want the best attack strength per BP spent when attacking a hostile world then Assault Infantry (82nd Airborne?) is the best option. If you want maximum all-around combat power on a per-battalion basis then go for Heavy Assault. If you want the best troops for attacking a PDC or a ship, then Marines would be the best value for money. The existing Low Tech Armour Division and Low Tech Infantry Division remain divisional sized and retain their low combat strength. They are equal to ten battalions for transport purposes.
Finally, two new units named the Infantry Cadre and the Armour Cadre have been added that will give the Low Tech Armour and Infantry units a useful function after TN tech is introduced. At the moment you can convert low tech units into Replacement Divisions so they can make good combat losses for the TN units. However, that can result in a lot more replacement divisions that you actually need. Instead you now convert them into their respective Cadre equivalents, which represent the best officers and men of the old unit. When you build a new TN ground unit, you can use up a Cadre to reduce the cost of the new unit. The Infantry Cadres will reduce the cost of Mobile Infantry, Assault Infantry, Garrisons and Engineers by 40. The Armour Cadres will reduce the cost of Heavy Assault, Marine Battalions, and both HQ units by 60. Replacement Battalions still exist but you now just build them normally for 40 BP.
Because of the introduction of higher formations, you may want to see where all of a division's units are located. Therefore the Ground Units tab now has four options for displaying ground units:
1) Units at the selected population
2) Units at the selected population plus PDCs on the same planet
3) Units at the selected population plus PDCs in the same planet and ships in orbit of the planet
4) All ground units
The Troop Transport Bay is now a civilian system and costs less to research. Rather than Size 20, Cost 50, Crew 40, it is now Size 50 (2500 tons), Cost 40 and Crew 10. It can hold 1 battalion. There is also a Small Troop Transport Bay, which is only Size 10, Cost 10 and can hold one company. This relatively small size will allow some larger warships to carry their own marine complements. As an example of the updated Bay, here is a commercial-engined troopship and a slightly larger version that is jump-capable.
Code: [Select]
Enterprise class Troop Transport 39950 tons 507 Crew 1089 BP TCS 799 TH 2250 EM 0
2816 km/s Armour 1-104 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maintenance Capacity 17 MSP Max Repair 40 MSP
Troop Capacity: 8 Battalions Cargo Handling Multiplier 10
Commercial Ion Engine (15) Power 150 Fuel Use 7% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 64.4 billion km (264 days at full power)
This design is classed as a commercial vessel for maintenance purposesCode: [Select]
Omaha class Troop Transport 45000 tons 622 Crew 1241.8 BP TCS 900 TH 2250 EM 0
2500 km/s JR 2-25(C) Armour 1-112 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maintenance Capacity 17 MSP Max Repair 144 MSP
Troop Capacity: 5 Battalions
JC45K Commercial Jump Drive Max Ship Size 45000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 2
Commercial Ion Engine (15) Power 150 Fuel Use 7% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 700,000 Litres Range 400.0 billion km (1851 days at full power)
TN/SPS-1 Navigation Sensor (1) GPS 750 Range 7.5m km Resolution 75
This design is classed as a commercial vessel for maintenance purposesI have also changed the Troop Transport Bay so it takes time to load and unload troops, which is done instantly at the moment. The base time to unload troops is 10 days but cargo handling systems can be mounted to dramatically reduce this. One CHS will reduce it to 2 days and a second to just 1 day. However, as you can imagine, that is still a long time if you are trying to land troops in hostile territory. Therefore there are also two brand new systems to get around this problem. The 'Combat Drop Module - Battalion' and 'Combat Drop Module - Company' require the same time to load as a Troop Transport Bay but can unload instantly. They are also much smaller, at 20% the size of their equivalent bays, as it is assumed the troops are loaded in a combat drop configuration rather than requiring living space. They are 50% more expensive than the equivalent Troop Transport Bays. The major drawback of the Combat Drop Modules is that the troops won't appreciate being left in there indefinitely so after some time (to be determined but probably about a week), their morale will start to fall. With sizes of just 10 and 2 respectively, the combat drop modules can be fitted on to much smaller hulls. For example, the Eagle class Dropship below is only 1000 tons and the Phoenix class assault shuttle is just 170 tons, which could allow you to get them close to a planet when larger ships may get shot out of the sky by planetary defences. The Phoenix relies on sheer speed to avoid incoming fire while it streaks past the planet to drop its company of marines. The larger Eagle has much longer range and can withstand a couple of decent hits while still being small enough to avoid many sensors. It carries a full battalion.
Code: [Select]
Eagle class Dropship 1000 tons 36 Crew 136.4 BP TCS 20 TH 120 EM 0
6000 km/s Armour 3-8 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 16% IFR: 0.2% Maintenance Capacity 43 MSP Max Repair 60 MSP
Drop Capacity: 1 Battalion
Fast Attack Ion Engine (1) Power 120 Fuel Use 700% Signature 120 Armour 0 Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 12.9 billion km (24 days at full power)
This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposesCode: [Select]
Phoenix class Assault Shuttle 170 tons 7 Crew 25.9 BP TCS 3.4 TH 36 EM 0
10588 km/s Armour 1-2 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 34% IFR: 0.5% Maintenance Capacity 0 MSP Max Repair 15 MSP
Drop Capacity: 1 Company
FTR Ion Engine (1) Power 36 Fuel Use 7000% Signature 36 Armour 0 Exp 25%
This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a fighter for production and combat purposesOf course, you can build much larger assault ships with a significant number of combat drop modules and take them in close to the planet, or you may decide on a carrier type vessel that can launch the assault shuttles or dropships. That carrier could have its own troop transport bays for long journeys, or it might rely on larger, commercial vessels to carry the troops and send its own drop ships to pick them up. There are a lot of possibilities. Because of these changes, it will no longer to possible to simply switch a ground unit instantly between ships and population using the dropdowns on the Ship and Population windows. The ships will have to be given orders to load/unload in the same way as moving factories or mines, which is more realistic. For convenience though it will still be possible to instantly move ground units between populations on the same planet or between pops and PDCs, as along as the PDC is not under attack.
Loading ground units from Bays on one ship to Combat Drop Modules on another can be done in space, which is necessary if smaller drop ships were going to load troops from bays on large troop transports before attempting a planetary assault. This is done in exactly the same way as picking up from populations except you get a list of divisions to choose from in a friendly fleet. It will still take several hours or days. In a similar way, you can also load troops from bays into drop modules within the same fleet. When moving troops between ships, you get the benefit of the cargo handling systems on both ships, so the transfers can be done fairly quickly. This is especially important when loading smaller drop ships or assault shuttles as they may not have any cargo handling facilities and therefore will rely on the cargo handling facilities of the vessel from which they are loading their troops. Because of this you could carry assault shuttles or drop ships on a carrier and then send them load troops from a large transport, using the transport's cargo handling system to speed the loading.
It was recently requested on the suggestions thread to have some way of loading multiple ground units quickly. I originally considered an order to load a number of the same type of unit but as there is a new divisional and brigade formation structure I decided to take a different approach. When you select the pick up ground unit order, an extra checkbox appears entitled "Load Entire Formation if HQ Selected". If you click this checkbox and load an HQ unit, all sub-units will also be loaded if there is space available. For example, assume you had a divisional HQ, which had two attached brigade HQs, each of which had 3 attached battalions. If you chose to load one of the Brigade HQs with this option selected, the three attached battalions would be loaded (assuming enough space in the fleet). If you chose to load one the Divisional HQs with this option selected, both attached Brigade HQs and all six battalions would be loaded (again, assuming enough space in the fleet). This should make loading large numbers of ground units much easier. When loading or unloading multiple ground units within a fleet, the total (un)loading time is the longest taken for any one ground unit - it is not an aggregate of all the loading times.
Because of the potential need for ships to carry a single assault shuttle in order to deploy an embarked Marine company quickly, I have doubled the size of the Hangar Deck so it can carry a ship of 1000 tons (size 21, Cost 100) and I have added a new Boat Bay (size 6, Cost 30), capable of holding up to 250 tons. These can be mixed on a ship but the hangar deck is more efficient in terms of size and cost. The boat bay costs 1000 RP to develop and is now the pre-requisite for the hangar deck (reduced from 5000 RP to 4000 RP).
Boarding Combat
This replaces the existing combat vs PDCs and adds the ability to board disabled or slow-moving ships. A new "Attempt Boarding Action" order has been added which can be used against sensor contacts. You select the ground units involved just as if you were making a combat drop. At the moment you can only board ships and PDCs. I will probably add shipyards in the future once I figure out how to have defensive forces for that situation. When the fleet intercepts the target, a boarding attempt is carried out. Actually docking with a target that is evading is virtually impossible so the assault involves using a combat drop module to fire the troopers at the enemy ship. They land on the hull, lock themselves in place and either enter through holes in the armour or blast their way in.
Trying to board a ship moving at several hundred or several thousand kilometers per second in this manner is still incredibly risky. Because of the speeds involved, the intercepting vessel must have a huge speed advantage to make the boarding attempt without suffering heavy casualties among the boarders. The cause of those casualties will vary but could include missing the target and ending up within the exhaust plume, impacting the hull at too high a speed, missing entirely and being lost in space, etc. The percentage of casualties from the boarding attempt is equal to 20xD10, giving a range from 20-200%. However, the amount of D10 rolled is reduced by Interception Speed / Target Speed. For example, if the interception speed is 6000 km/s and the target is moving at 1000 km/s, the number of D10 is reduced by 6. Therefore, if the intercepting ship is at least twenty times faster than the target ship, the attempt is automatically successful and no casualties are suffered during the boarding. Because of the risks involved, in most cases before a boarding attempt can be made the target ship will have to be slowed down or disabled.
Once the boarding units land on the enemy ship or PDC, they will attempt to enter. If the armour has already been penetrated by weapon fire, they will enter through the damaged section. If the armour is intact or the damage does not penetrate to the interior they will begin using breaching charges to gain access. One breaching charge will be detonated every thirty seconds and will destroy one point of armour. The boarding units will always chose the point at which the armour is most damaged to place the breaching charge. They should gain access to most ships fairly quickly, especially if the ship has already been slowed down by damage. It may take longer to blast into well-protected PDCs.
Once the boarding units have gained access to the interior alien ship or PDC, combat takes place between the boarders and the crew of the alien ship plus any alien ground units on board. The crew will not be as effective as dedicated combat troops but they are still military personnel with at least some basic combat training and they will be familiar with the layout of their ship. Therefore the combat strength of the crew is equal to 1 defence point for every 100 crew. Below is a comparison of crew vs likely boarding units in terms of attack and defence strength per 500 personnel or a battalion
500 Crew: 0/5
Mobile Infantry Battalion: 5/10
Assault Infantry Battalion 10/5
Heavy Assault Battalion: 12/12
Marine Battalion 20/20 (in boarding combat)
Marine Company 4/4 (in boarding combat)
As this is a high intensity, close quarters engagement it is resolved much more quickly than ground combat. Combat is calculated using the same formula as ground combat with the following exceptions:
1) Combat takes place every five minutes after movement and combat. Once a unit has successfully boarded a hostile vessel, the Boarding Combat Clock begins counting. Once it reaches 300 seconds or greater, a round of boarding combat is fought and the clock is reduced by 300.
2) Low readiness units on both sides cannot avoid combat
3) The boarders cannot retreat so they must keep attacking until they capture the ship, die trying or surrender.
4) As a result of the boarding combat, collateral damage may be inflicted to the ship itself. If this is severe enough, or causes secondary explosions, it is possible the ship might blow up in the midst of the fight.
5) If all the defending units and crew are eliminated, the ship is captured.
Pretty much of the above is coded and working although I still need to carry out more tests. I may also add some type of close quarters defence system to attack troops on the outside of a ship or PDC that are trying to get in and I might also add some form of security detachment for ships. This would be equal to about a platoon of Marines but they would exist as a ship system rather than an independent unit. I'll post any further changes to this thread. I hope the changes already described will make the ground element of Aurora a lot more interesting and add some extra flavour.
Steve
Post by: Beersatron on October 09, 2009, 01:28:09 PM
Quote
This replaces the existing combat vs PDCs
Does this mean that you can not target PDCs from orbit and must land combat troops?
Would a feasible tactic be to use meson or microwave armed fighters and FACs to chase down and disable a ship and then board? I guess what I am asking is if I have the right idea on how the meson and microwave weapons work - they destroy components but have less risk to causing secondary explosions?
Time to start a Borg race
Post by: Steve Walmsley on October 09, 2009, 02:14:46 PM
Quote from: "Beersatron"
This sounds sweet!You can still blast PDcs to pieces from orbit. The above boarding combat replaces the current ground combat vs PDCs. Ground combat is now just vs enemy ground forces outside PDCs. I will have to add a couple of mods to ground combat so that if all enemy ground forces outside PDCs are eliminated, the ground troops can use 'boarding combat' vs PDCs.QuoteThis replaces the existing combat vs PDCs
Does this mean that you can not target PDCs from orbit and must land combat troops?
Would a feasible tactic be to use meson or microwave armed fighters and FACs to chase down and disable a ship and then board? I guess what I am asking is if I have the right idea on how the meson and microwave weapons work - they destroy components but have less risk to causing secondary explosions?
Time to start a Borg race
Microwaves take out electronics only so they wouldn't slow down a ship, Mesons ignore shields and armour so they would be a good way to disable a ship but they may still cause secondary explosions.
Steve
Post by: welchbloke on October 09, 2009, 05:47:30 PM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
hope the changes already described will make the ground element of Aurora a lot more interesting and add some extra flavour.I like this flavour :D
Steve
Post by: James Patten on October 09, 2009, 06:29:08 PM
However in my opinion it doesn't make sense that a Troop Transport Bay can be considered a civilian system. Soldiers by their very definition are military!
Post by: welchbloke on October 09, 2009, 06:44:33 PM
Quote from: "James Patten"
This is really cool. Yet more things for my overworked shipyards to have to build.True, but if you look at WWII for example, the troops were moved around in troop ships that were essentially cruise liners with very austere fittings and the crossed decked to assaultships and landing craft for the actual landings. This was also the case during teh Falklands War where the troops were shipped down in comandeered cruise ships before landing from assault ships and landing craft. I seems to me that Steve has followed the same idea with his design.
However in my opinion it doesn't make sense that a Troop Transport Bay can be considered a civilian system. Soldiers by their very definition are military!
Post by: Steve Walmsley on October 09, 2009, 08:04:12 PM
Quote from: "welchbloke"
Yes, that is the model I am using. Troop transports to move troops around within the Empire and to carry reinforcements. Assault ships or maybe assault carriers with shuttles/drop ships will be the ships intended to go in harm's way.Quote from: "James Patten"This is really cool. Yet more things for my overworked shipyards to have to build.True, but if you look at WWII for example, the troops were moved around in troop ships that were essentially cruise liners with very austere fittings and the crossed decked to assaultships and landing craft for the actual landings. This was also the case during teh Falklands War where the troops were shipped down in comandeered cruise ships before landing from assault ships and landing craft. I seems to me that Steve has followed the same idea with his design.
However in my opinion it doesn't make sense that a Troop Transport Bay can be considered a civilian system. Soldiers by their very definition are military!
Steve
Post by: sloanjh on October 10, 2009, 01:07:12 AM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
Following this line of reasoning, it would make sense to also allow transport of troops in colonization and cargo holds - similar to the US shipping personnel to the Gulf on commercial aircraft. (Yes, I know I've suggested this before - simply reminding Steve now that the mechanics seem to be in place.) Under the new system, I would not allow such troops to make combat assaults, however (i.e. no cross-decking allowed) - they would only be able to land their troops the regular way, i.e. planet-to-planet transport. The ships with troop transport holds would correspond to purpose-built amphibious ships intended for long deployments, e.g. Sir Galahad in the Falklands war vs. the civie liner Canberra.Quote from: "welchbloke"Yes, that is the model I am using. Troop transports to move troops around within the Empire and to carry reinforcements. Assault ships or maybe assault carriers with shuttles/drop ships will be the ships intended to go in harm's way.Quote from: "James Patten"This is really cool. Yet more things for my overworked shipyards to have to build.True, but if you look at WWII for example, the troops were moved around in troop ships that were essentially cruise liners with very austere fittings and the crossed decked to assaultships and landing craft for the actual landings. This was also the case during teh Falklands War where the troops were shipped down in comandeered cruise ships before landing from assault ships and landing craft. I seems to me that Steve has followed the same idea with his design.
However in my opinion it doesn't make sense that a Troop Transport Bay can be considered a civilian system. Soldiers by their very definition are military!
Steve
John
Post by: schroeam on October 10, 2009, 11:23:24 AM
Can't wait for 4.3 to be released.
Adam.
Post by: James Patten on October 10, 2009, 06:11:55 PM
Quote from: "adradjool"
Can't wait for 4.3 to be released.
I'm thinking it would be more accurate to call it version 5.
Post by: Kurt on October 11, 2009, 12:01:13 PM
Quote from: "James Patten"
Quote from: "adradjool"Can't wait for 4.3 to be released.
I'm thinking it would be more accurate to call it version 5.
I agree with both sentiments!
I am currently working on wrapping up the 6 Powers Campaign, and will wait for the next version of Aurora before starting another. Steve - I really like the changes you made in the ground combat arena, and I think you are on track towards making it (ground combat) much more interesting.
Kurt
Post by: backstab on October 11, 2009, 10:30:50 PM
Any chance of adding a "Reserve" Status for ground units so instead of having all your ground units attack a single Nation , you can hold some in reserve enabling you have some full strength units in case someone else attacks or place damaged units into reserve to speed repair.
Post by: IanD on October 12, 2009, 03:26:22 AM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
The 'Combat Drop Module - Battalion' and 'Combat Drop Module - Company' require the same time to load as a Troop Transport Bay but can unload instantly.
So if I have a Troop Transport module and a Combat Drop Module on the same ship and only load to the capacity of the Troop Transport Module can I still unload troops instantaneously without suffering the drop in morale? Or is there a mechanism for a ship to internally load the Combat Drop Module. I really, really want to design the Rodger Young.
As an after thought can all units use the Combat Drop Module or will it be restricted to MI and Marines?Regards
Post by: Steve Walmsley on October 13, 2009, 09:41:43 AM
Quote from: "IanD"
You would need to move the troops from the troop transport module to the combat drop module. One of the new orders in v4.3 is "Load GU into Drop Module within Fleet". This will take a few hours or days depending on the cargo handling system of the ship. Similarly if you had drop ships in a hangar bay on the same ship instead of an integral combat drop module, you would use the same command to load them.Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"The 'Combat Drop Module - Battalion' and 'Combat Drop Module - Company' require the same time to load as a Troop Transport Bay but can unload instantly.
So if I have a Troop Transport module and a Combat Drop Module on the same ship and only load to the capacity of the Troop Transport Module can I still unload troops instantaneously without suffering the drop in morale? Or is there a mechanism for a ship to internally load the Combat Drop Module. I really, really want to design the Rodger Young.
Steve
Post by: Steve Walmsley on October 13, 2009, 09:50:23 AM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
The HQ division becomes a Brigade HQ and you will be able to attach battalions to a Brigade HQ. This will be done on a more permanent basis rather than the ad hoc situation at the moment. You will be able to transfer battalions between Brigade HQs with some penalty yet to be decided; probably a morale loss that will recover over time.I have added the penalty I mentioned above. When you move a unit to a new HQ, its morale drops by half. In most cases morale will take less than 3 months to increase to 100. This penalty only applies to the unit itself though and doesn't affect subordinate units, so if you move a brigade HQ from one division to another, the brigade HQ suffers a morale loss but any units attached to the brigade are unaffected. Brigade level integrity in Aurora is more important than divisional level. Bear in mind that units can (fairly rarely) increase their morale above 100. If this is the case, transferring them is generally a bad idea as their morale will stop rising post-transfer at 100.
In case you are wondering why I am bothering with this detail, it is to avoid the unrealistic situation of an army being completely and instantly re-organised after taking heavy casualties as a result of combat or a boarding attempt and not suffering any penalty.
Steve
Post by: waresky on October 13, 2009, 10:23:04 AM
Ty for this awesome change on crucial part of Aurora: Army.
i think r one of firsts step to lead on a planetary combat management,with maps and so on..obviously more easy to manage and not so hard same as Fading Sun's
Post by: Steve Walmsley on October 13, 2009, 10:30:42 AM
Quote from: "waresky"
Starship Troopers come into ur Universe,Steve:).I do want to improve the ground combat model over time so this is one of the first steps. I will be looking at ground combat mechanics again at some point in the future.
Ty for this awesome change on crucial part of Aurora: Army.
i think r one of firsts step to lead on a planetary combat management,with maps and so on..obviously more easy to manage and not so hard same as Fading Sun's
Steve
Post by: welchbloke on October 13, 2009, 04:44:12 PM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
to quote C Montgomery Burns - 'Excellent!'Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"The HQ division becomes a Brigade HQ and you will be able to attach battalions to a Brigade HQ. This will be done on a more permanent basis rather than the ad hoc situation at the moment. You will be able to transfer battalions between Brigade HQs with some penalty yet to be decided; probably a morale loss that will recover over time.I have added the penalty I mentioned above. When you move a unit to a new HQ, its morale drops by half. In most cases morale will take less than 3 months to increase to 100. This penalty only applies to the unit itself though and doesn't affect subordinate units, so if you move a brigade HQ from one division to another, the brigade HQ suffers a morale loss but any units attached to the brigade are unaffected. Brigade level integrity in Aurora is more important than divisional level. Bear in mind that units can (fairly rarely) increase their morale above 100. If this is the case, transferring them is generally a bad idea as their morale will stop rising post-transfer at 100.
In case you are wondering why I am bothering with this detail, it is to avoid the unrealistic situation of an army being completely and instantly re-organised after taking heavy casualties as a result of combat or a boarding attempt and not suffering any penalty.
Steve
Post by: Steve Walmsley on October 17, 2009, 11:37:03 AM
Boarding Action
Launched by 1st Marine Regiment HQ and three Marine Battalions (66th, 67th, 68th). Attacking vessel is a Improved Omaha class Assault Transport with four Troop Transport Bays and four Combat Drop Modules and a maximum speed of 2530 km/s. Just before the drop, the attacking units are moved from the Bays to the Drop Modules. The target is an intact fuel harvester with a speed of 277 km/s. For the purposes of the test, the fuel harvester has been upgraded to strength-3 armour. The speed advantage of the transport is 9x so the number of D10 rolled for casualties is 11. While that might seem high, consider that while the target may be slow by Aurora standards, it is still moving 277 kilometres every second!
During the combat drop, the Regimental HQ suffers 80% casualties, the 66th Marine Battalion suffers 81% casualties, the 67th Marine Battalion suffers 50% casualties and the 68th Marine Battalion suffers 56% casualties. Note that by attacking from a faster ship or by slowing down the target. these casualties would have been far lower. It is probably a good idea for assault transports to carry low-powered weapons to slow a target without causing massive damage - or perhaps some type of anti-engine weapon could be added to the game.
During the Boarding Combat phase of the same increment, the fuel harvester's armour is checked. As there is no way in, the marines begin preparing a breaching charge. 30 seconds later the charge is detonated and a single armour box is destroyed. There are still two more layers of armour so two more breaching charges are detonated in the same location at 30 second intervals. Note that the attackers will not know the strength of the armour until they break through it. The damage caused by breaching charges is just like normal damage and shows up on a ship's armour status tab.
Once the armour has been penetrated, boarding combat begins. Each round of combat lasts for five minutes with the first round taking place five minutes after the armour is penetrated. During the first round, the total combat strength of the boarders, including the Marine boarding combat bonus and any commander bonuses, is 26.68. There are no defending combat units so the defence strength of the fuel harvester is based purely on its crew. With 610 crew, the defence strength is 6.1, giving a combat ratio for the attackers of 4.3738. This means a casualty chance for the defenders of 43.7% (10x Ratio) and for the attackers only 2.3% (10/Ratio).
As expected, the attackers do not suffer any losses. There are no defending combat units so the defending crew is checked. For purposes of boarding combat losses, a number of die rolls take place equal to the crew/100 (FRU), in this case 7. If a roll is equal to or less than the casualty chance then 1-50 crew are killed. In the first round of combat, the harvester's crew acquit themselves exceedingly well and only 37 are lost, leaving 573.
A surrender check is performed after combat if there are no defending combat units. The combat ratio is recalculated, which in this case is 26.68 / 5.73 = 4.66. If the combat ratio is greater than 5 then a number from 1-100 is rolled and multiplied by (combat ratio / 5). The result is compared to the average of the crew species' militancy and determination. If it is higher, then the crew surrenders and they, plus any officers, become POWs and are interrogated to gain spy points. In this case, the combat ratio is still less than five so the combat continues.
Crew resistance continues and remarkably they manage to inflict an 8% readiness loss on the Marine Regiment HQ while suffering just 8 more crew casualties. The morale of the Marine HQ is affected (not surprisingly!) and falls to 94.
Round three of combat begins 17 minutes after the initial boarding attempt. Attacker strength is unaffected by the HQ losses as the HQ has no attack strength anyway so it is still 26.68. There is still 565 crew on the harvester so the defence strength is 5.65 and the combat ratio is 4.77. The Marines finally get their act together and end their tentative probing. A full-blooded assault results in 108 crew casualties without further Marine losses. This changes the combat ratio to 5.84 so a surrender check is performed. The number rolled is 41. This is multiplied by (5.84/5), which equals 47.9. This is less than the average militancy and determination of the crew (67) so the fight goes on.
In round four a further 66 crew are killed, reducing the crew to 391. The combat ratio is now 6.82. 81 is rolled on the surrender check, which is modified to 111, well above the average militancy and determination of the crew so they finally surrender after putting up a brave resistance. 39.1 spy points are gained from the 391 surviving crew. There are no officers on board.
Steve
Post by: Beersatron on October 17, 2009, 02:58:20 PM
Post by: welchbloke on October 17, 2009, 07:14:24 PM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
It is probably a good idea for assault transports to carry low-powered weapons to slow a target without causing massive damage - or perhaps some type of anti-engine weapon could be added to the game.Looking good Steve. Instead of dedicated anti-engine weapons, how about a target engines order? If this order is selected there is a much reduced chance to hit (would have to think about dynamics of how this would work) but a significantly higher chance of hitting the engines rather than anything else. I would only make this order available to beam weapons.
Steve
Post by: boggo2300 on October 17, 2009, 07:50:56 PM
Quote from: "welchbloke"
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"It is probably a good idea for assault transports to carry low-powered weapons to slow a target without causing massive damage - or perhaps some type of anti-engine weapon could be added to the game.Looking good Steve. Instead of dedicated anti-engine weapons, how about a target engines order? If this order is selected there is a much reduced chance to hit (would have to think about dynamics of how this would work) but a significantly higher chance of hitting the engines rather than anything else. I would only make this order available to beam weapons.
Steve
I agree with this, adding a specific anti-engine weapon seems a bit Star Fleet Battles to me (and it's one of the things about SFB that annoys me)
Post by: schroeam on October 17, 2009, 09:29:25 PM
Quote from: "welchbloke"
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"It is probably a good idea for assault transports to carry low-powered weapons to slow a target without causing massive damage - or perhaps some type of anti-engine weapon could be added to the game.Looking good Steve. Instead of dedicated anti-engine weapons, how about a target engines order? If this order is selected there is a much reduced chance to hit (would have to think about dynamics of how this would work) but a significantly higher chance of hitting the engines rather than anything else. I would only make this order available to beam weapons.
Steve
Maybe also missiles equipped with thermal sensors to act as heat seeking weapons to take out the largest source of thermal energy.
Adam.
Post by: Father Tim on October 18, 2009, 04:19:54 AM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
39.1 spy points are gained from the 391 surviving crew. There are no officers on board.
Steve
Ah, so now there's a reason not to throw a spare officer on every frighter, tug, or other civilian ship floating around your empire. Or maybe just a slightly increased cost to doing so.
Post by: Kurt on October 18, 2009, 10:45:56 AM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
I just added crew surrender during boarding combat and ran my final boarding combat test. I thought it might be interesting to post the events of the test as a boarding combat example.
Boarding Action
Launched by 1st Marine Regiment HQ and three Marine Battalions (66th, 67th, 68th). Attacking vessel is a Improved Omaha class Assault Transport with four Troop Transport Bays and four Combat Drop Modules and a maximum speed of 2530 km/s. Just before the drop, the attacking units are moved from the Bays to the Drop Modules. The target is an intact fuel harvester with a speed of 277 km/s. For the purposes of the test, the fuel harvester has been upgraded to strength-3 armour. The speed advantage of the transport is 9x so the number of D10 rolled for casualties is 11. While that might seem high, consider that while the target may be slow by Aurora standards, it is still moving 277 kilometres every second!
During the combat drop, the Regimental HQ suffers 80% casualties, the 66th Marine Battalion suffers 81% casualties, the 67th Marine Battalion suffers 50% casualties and the 68th Marine Battalion suffers 56% casualties. Note that by attacking from a faster ship or by slowing down the target. these casualties would have been far lower. It is probably a good idea for assault transports to carry low-powered weapons to slow a target without causing massive damage - or perhaps some type of anti-engine weapon could be added to the game.
Sixty plus percent casualties before the combat starts, against a relatively low speed ship. Hmmm...I guess no one will be making boarding attempts against intact warships, which tend to be much faster.
Not that that is a bad thing <G>.
Kurt
Post by: Kurt on October 18, 2009, 10:47:43 AM
Quote from: "boggo2300"
Quote from: "welchbloke"Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"It is probably a good idea for assault transports to carry low-powered weapons to slow a target without causing massive damage - or perhaps some type of anti-engine weapon could be added to the game.Looking good Steve. Instead of dedicated anti-engine weapons, how about a target engines order? If this order is selected there is a much reduced chance to hit (would have to think about dynamics of how this would work) but a significantly higher chance of hitting the engines rather than anything else. I would only make this order available to beam weapons.
Steve
I agree with this, adding a specific anti-engine weapon seems a bit Star Fleet Battles to me (and it's one of the things about SFB that annoys me)
I agree wtih the above statements. Having weapons that target specific systems just seems too pat to me. However, it might be interesting, as stated above, to be able to target specific systems - weapons, engines, crew quarters, etc.
Kurt
Post by: Steve Walmsley on October 18, 2009, 11:09:17 AM
Quote from: "Kurt"
Sixty plus percent casualties before the combat starts, against a relatively low speed ship. Hmmm...I guess no one will be making boarding attempts against intact warships, which tend to be much faster.That is pretty much what I was aiming for. Boarding combat shouldn't be a standard tactic against warships unless they have been severely damaged. Against slow moving types such as asteroid miners or fuel harvesters, it should be possible but difficult. Although bear in mind that using a 10,000 km/s assault shuttle design for the combat drop against the 277 km/s harvester would have avoided any casualties during the drop.
Not that that is a bad thing <G>.
Steve
Post by: ShadoCat on October 18, 2009, 11:21:02 AM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
Boarding Action
Launched by 1st Marine Regiment HQ and three Marine Battalions (66th, 67th, 68th). Attacking vessel is a Improved Omaha class Assault Transport with four Troop Transport Bays and four Combat Drop Modules and a maximum speed of 2530 km/s. Just before the drop, the attacking units are moved from the Bays to the Drop Modules. The target is an intact fuel harvester with a speed of 277 km/s. For the purposes of the test, the fuel harvester has been upgraded to strength-3 armour. The speed advantage of the transport is 9x so the number of D10 rolled for casualties is 11. While that might seem high, consider that while the target may be slow by Aurora standards, it is still moving 277 kilometres every second!
During the combat drop, the Regimental HQ suffers 80% casualties, the 66th Marine Battalion suffers 81% casualties, the 67th Marine Battalion suffers 50% casualties and the 68th Marine Battalion suffers 56% casualties. Note that by attacking from a faster ship or by slowing down the target. these casualties would have been far lower. It is probably a good idea for assault transports to carry low-powered weapons to slow a target without causing massive damage - or perhaps some type of anti-engine weapon could be added to the game.
It seem to me that the speed of the target doesn't matter as much as the ability of the target to shift its speed relative to the attacker.
Maybe, instead of anti engine weapons that people seem to have trouble with (though just about every PC based 4x game has them), you allow tractor beams to hold onto the target.
This use of tractor beams wouldn't allow you to alter the movement of a powered ship on the map scale but it could damp out the jinking that the target might be able to do. Think of it like hooking a elastic cord between the two. As long as the attacker has the engine speed to match maneuvers, the tractor allows the attacker to do a better job of it. Also, it might be posssible to use the tractors as a route for the boarding party to follow.
Another question:
If the armor already has pieces blasted out of it, do the boarders take advantage of that?
Post by: Steve Walmsley on October 18, 2009, 11:27:58 AM
Quote from: "ShadoCat"
If the armor already has pieces blasted out of it, do the boarders take advantage of that?Yes they do. The boarders will look for existing holes in the armour. If none exist, they will use breaching charges on the column where the armour has suffered the most damage
Steve
Post by: sloanjh on October 19, 2009, 10:51:47 PM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
Quote from: "Kurt"Sixty plus percent casualties before the combat starts, against a relatively low speed ship. Hmmm...I guess no one will be making boarding attempts against intact warships, which tend to be much faster.That is pretty much what I was aiming for. Boarding combat shouldn't be a standard tactic against warships unless they have been severely damaged. Against slow moving types such as asteroid miners or fuel harvesters, it should be possible but difficult. Although bear in mind that using a 10,000 km/s assault shuttle design for the combat drop against the 277 km/s harvester would have avoided any casualties during the drop.
Not that that is a bad thing <G>.
Is the assault pod system (forget exact name) small enough to fit into ship w/o a bridge (i.e. GB engines)?
John
Post by: Steve Walmsley on October 20, 2009, 05:01:36 AM
Quote from: "sloanjh"
Yes, and the company-size version is small enough to fit in a fighterQuote from: "Steve Walmsley"Quote from: "Kurt"Sixty plus percent casualties before the combat starts, against a relatively low speed ship. Hmmm...I guess no one will be making boarding attempts against intact warships, which tend to be much faster.That is pretty much what I was aiming for. Boarding combat shouldn't be a standard tactic against warships unless they have been severely damaged. Against slow moving types such as asteroid miners or fuel harvesters, it should be possible but difficult. Although bear in mind that using a 10,000 km/s assault shuttle design for the combat drop against the 277 km/s harvester would have avoided any casualties during the drop.
Not that that is a bad thing <G>.
Is the assault pod system (forget exact name) small enough to fit into ship w/o a bridge (i.e. GB engines)?
Code: [Select]
Eagle class Dropship 1000 tons 36 Crew 136.4 BP TCS 20 TH 120 EM 0
6000 km/s Armour 3-8 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 16% IFR: 0.2% Maintenance Capacity 43 MSP Max Repair 60 MSP
Drop Capacity: 1 Battalion
Fast Attack Ion Engine (1) Power 120 Fuel Use 700% Signature 120 Armour 0 Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 12.9 billion km (24 days at full power)
This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposesCode: [Select]
Phoenix class Assault Shuttle 170 tons 7 Crew 25.9 BP TCS 3.4 TH 36 EM 0
10588 km/s Armour 1-2 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 34% IFR: 0.5% Maintenance Capacity 0 MSP Max Repair 15 MSP
Drop Capacity: 1 Company
FTR Ion Engine (1) Power 36 Fuel Use 7000% Signature 36 Armour 0 Exp 25%
This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a fighter for production and combat purposesSteve
Post by: Charlie Beeler on October 20, 2009, 08:29:17 AM
If that is correct...perhaps some form of an assault grapple can be added to the game.
I can invision to forms of "space marines". Airborne types that "jump" from assault transports for boarding...and Air Assault types that have specialized transports to grapple with the target so that they may "dis-embark" on to the skin of the target. Later versions might even be equiped with a means of breaching hulls for the troops as well.
<edit> I had not read the board rules in detail prior to posting, I know better.
The drop module is akin to Heinlein's drop system in "Starship Troopers". For my above suggestion to work either an "assault bay" is needed or allow to troop bays to function as such.
Part of my military background is airmobile/air assault, from the POV of the crew getting the troops on the ground.
Post by: Andrew on October 24, 2009, 04:03:48 PM
Post by: welchbloke on October 24, 2009, 04:35:13 PM
Quote from: "Andrew"
Do cargo handling facilities speed embarction of troops?In the first post of this thread Steve posted:
Quote
Loading ground units from Bays on one ship to Combat Drop Modules on another can be done in space, which is necessary if smaller drop ships were going to load troops from bays on large troop transports before attempting a planetary assault. This is done in exactly the same way as picking up from populations except you get a list of divisions to choose from in a friendly fleet. It will still take several hours or days. In a similar way, you can also load troops from bays into drop modules within the same fleet. When moving troops between ships, you get the benefit of the cargo handling systems on both ships, so the transfers can be done fairly quickly. This is especially important when loading smaller drop ships or assault shuttles as they may not have any cargo handling facilities and therefore will rely on the cargo handling facilities of the vessel from which they are loading their troops. Because of this you could carry assault shuttles or drop ships on a carrier and then send them load troops from a large transport, using the transport's cargo handling system to speed the loading.So yes you do benefit from the use of cargo handling facilities. Unless I have totally misunderstood your post and you were asking about embarking troops from a planet. In which case I'm not sure but Steve's post would imply that if a ship had cargo handling facilities it would speed up the embarkation procedure from any source.
Post by: Steve Walmsley on October 25, 2009, 09:58:15 AM
Quote from: "welchbloke"
Cargo handling facilities speed up loading/unloading from a planet as well as from ship to ship. If two ships are involved, then all cargo handling facilities on both ships are included.Quote from: "Andrew"Do cargo handling facilities speed embarction of troops?In the first post of this thread Steve posted:QuoteLoading ground units from Bays on one ship to Combat Drop Modules on another can be done in space, which is necessary if smaller drop ships were going to load troops from bays on large troop transports before attempting a planetary assault. This is done in exactly the same way as picking up from populations except you get a list of divisions to choose from in a friendly fleet. It will still take several hours or days. In a similar way, you can also load troops from bays into drop modules within the same fleet. When moving troops between ships, you get the benefit of the cargo handling systems on both ships, so the transfers can be done fairly quickly. This is especially important when loading smaller drop ships or assault shuttles as they may not have any cargo handling facilities and therefore will rely on the cargo handling facilities of the vessel from which they are loading their troops. Because of this you could carry assault shuttles or drop ships on a carrier and then send them load troops from a large transport, using the transport's cargo handling system to speed the loading.So yes you do benefit from the use of cargo handling facilities. Unless I have totally misunderstood your post and you were asking about embarking troops from a planet. In which case I'm not sure but Steve's post would imply that if a ship had cargo handling facilities it would speed up the embarkation procedure from any source.
Steve
Post by: sloanjh on December 17, 2009, 09:07:05 PM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
The advantages of the Marine Battalion are that it can split into Marine Companies and both Marine units are very effective in fighting boarding actions against ships and PDCs.
Ok, I've only built two Marine Companies so far, so I might just be missing the mechanism, but I don't see where this split/unsplit is coded up. Whether or not it is, I have the following suggestions:
1) Introduce a Marine Battalion HQ unit that can have 4 companies subordinate to it. This would allow the companies to be grouped on the ground unit screen and appear like a Marine Battalion unit. The stats would have to be adjusted to get the combat power right for 4 companies + HQ = battalion.
2) Allow a Marine Battalion HQ to be one of the units subordinate to a Bridge HQ. That way it wouldn't matter if you split or unsplit.
3) If you haven't coded up the split/merge code, you could have it be an operation like "convert to cadre" that can be done on the Battalion HQ (and would require 4 subordinate companies).
4) I think I read that engineering regiments were 4 battalions in size. Why not just make them engineering brigades and make them size 5?
5) If you have the split/merge code written, why not allow splitting of engineering regiments into an HQ and 4 battalions? You could set it up so the HQ modifies the effectiveness of the battalions, e.g. (assuming they all cost the same) a battalion has 0.125*industrial capacity of a brigade, but any battalion in a formation with an HQ is has this doubled. So 4 battalions would give 0.5*brigade, but if they had an HQ this would be doubled to 1.0* brigade.
6) You could play the same game with ground combat ratings - being in a formation might act as a multiplier on combat ratings.
None of these are high priority for me, except 1 & 2 would be nice to reduce clutter on the ground units screen.
John
Post by: Steve Walmsley on December 26, 2009, 08:08:08 AM
Quote from: "sloanjh"
I forgot about the idea of split and recombine after I mentioned it in the original postQuote from: "Steve Walmsley"The advantages of the Marine Battalion are that it can split into Marine Companies and both Marine units are very effective in fighting boarding actions against ships and PDCs.
Ok, I've only built two Marine Companies so far, so I might just be missing the mechanism, but I don't see where this split/unsplit is coded up. Whether or not it is, I have the following suggestions:
1) Introduce a Marine Battalion HQ unit that can have 4 companies subordinate to it. This would allow the companies to be grouped on the ground unit screen and appear like a Marine Battalion unit. The stats would have to be adjusted to get the combat power right for 4 companies + HQ = battalion.
2) Allow a Marine Battalion HQ to be one of the units subordinate to a Bridge HQ. That way it wouldn't matter if you split or unsplit.
3) If you haven't coded up the split/merge code, you could have it be an operation like "convert to cadre" that can be done on the Battalion HQ (and would require 4 subordinate companies).
4) I think I read that engineering regiments were 4 battalions in size. Why not just make them engineering brigades and make them size 5?
5) If you have the split/merge code written, why not allow splitting of engineering regiments into an HQ and 4 battalions? You could set it up so the HQ modifies the effectiveness of the battalions, e.g. (assuming they all cost the same) a battalion has 0.125*industrial capacity of a brigade, but any battalion in a formation with an HQ is has this doubled. So 4 battalions would give 0.5*brigade, but if they had an HQ this would be doubled to 1.0* brigade.
6) You could play the same game with ground combat ratings - being in a formation might act as a multiplier on combat ratings.
None of these are high priority for me, except 1 & 2 would be nice to reduce clutter on the ground units screen
. I will get around to adding it.The idea of splitting into 4 companies and a HQ is a good one, although I will need to play around with which officers can command each one.
HQs already add a bonus as their commander's ground combat rating affects all units under his command. So a battalion on the same planet as its brigade and division HQs will get multipliers from its own commander, the brigade commander and the division commander.
Goood idea re the engineers. I will implement that for v4.8
Steve
Post by: Elmo on January 04, 2010, 05:24:02 PM
Post by: mrwigggles on January 15, 2010, 10:30:57 PM
Though other RTS games that feature boarding have included vessels that breach armor of other ships and develop boarding crew directly. I would really like to see this happen, along with the space jumping.
Can we expect to see pirates entities as psedo civilizations? Something were there couldn't be any diplomacy or espionage and just cause unrest in system were pirating is happen or station, and possibly setting up pirate outpost in systems, staying hidden.
Post by: Journier on February 19, 2010, 09:52:28 PM
Post by: schroeam on February 25, 2010, 09:24:10 PM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
Steve,Quote from: "sloanjh"I forgot about the idea of split and recombine after I mentioned it in the original postQuote from: "Steve Walmsley"The advantages of the Marine Battalion are that it can split into Marine Companies and both Marine units are very effective in fighting boarding actions against ships and PDCs.
Ok, I've only built two Marine Companies so far, so I might just be missing the mechanism, but I don't see where this split/unsplit is coded up. Whether or not it is, I have the following suggestions:
1) Introduce a Marine Battalion HQ unit that can have 4 companies subordinate to it. This would allow the companies to be grouped on the ground unit screen and appear like a Marine Battalion unit. The stats would have to be adjusted to get the combat power right for 4 companies + HQ = battalion.
2) Allow a Marine Battalion HQ to be one of the units subordinate to a Bridge HQ. That way it wouldn't matter if you split or unsplit.
3) If you haven't coded up the split/merge code, you could have it be an operation like "convert to cadre" that can be done on the Battalion HQ (and would require 4 subordinate companies).
4) I think I read that engineering regiments were 4 battalions in size. Why not just make them engineering brigades and make them size 5?
5) If you have the split/merge code written, why not allow splitting of engineering regiments into an HQ and 4 battalions? You could set it up so the HQ modifies the effectiveness of the battalions, e.g. (assuming they all cost the same) a battalion has 0.125*industrial capacity of a brigade, but any battalion in a formation with an HQ is has this doubled. So 4 battalions would give 0.5*brigade, but if they had an HQ this would be doubled to 1.0* brigade.
6) You could play the same game with ground combat ratings - being in a formation might act as a multiplier on combat ratings.
None of these are high priority for me, except 1 & 2 would be nice to reduce clutter on the ground units screen
The idea of splitting into 4 companies and a HQ is a good one, although I will need to play around with which officers can command each one.
HQs already add a bonus as their commander's ground combat rating affects all units under his command. So a battalion on the same planet as its brigade and division HQs will get multipliers from its own commander, the brigade commander and the division commander.
Goood idea re the engineers. I will implement that for v4.8
Steve
Has this been implemented, and if so, how does it work, and if not, is it on the short list?
Adam.
Post by: Steve Walmsley on February 28, 2010, 09:43:51 AM
Quote from: "adradjool"
The split and recombine still isn't done. It is on the short listQuote from: "Steve Walmsley"Has this been implemented, and if so, how does it work, and if not, is it on the short list?Quote from: "sloanjh"Ok, I've only built two Marine Companies so far, so I might just be missing the mechanism, but I don't see where this split/unsplit is coded up. Whether or not it is, I have the following suggestions:I forgot about the idea of split and recombine after I mentioned it in the original post
1) Introduce a Marine Battalion HQ unit that can have 4 companies subordinate to it. This would allow the companies to be grouped on the ground unit screen and appear like a Marine Battalion unit. The stats would have to be adjusted to get the combat power right for 4 companies + HQ = battalion.
2) Allow a Marine Battalion HQ to be one of the units subordinate to a Bridge HQ. That way it wouldn't matter if you split or unsplit.
3) If you haven't coded up the split/merge code, you could have it be an operation like "convert to cadre" that can be done on the Battalion HQ (and would require 4 subordinate companies).
4) I think I read that engineering regiments were 4 battalions in size. Why not just make them engineering brigades and make them size 5?
5) If you have the split/merge code written, why not allow splitting of engineering regiments into an HQ and 4 battalions? You could set it up so the HQ modifies the effectiveness of the battalions, e.g. (assuming they all cost the same) a battalion has 0.125*industrial capacity of a brigade, but any battalion in a formation with an HQ is has this doubled. So 4 battalions would give 0.5*brigade, but if they had an HQ this would be doubled to 1.0* brigade.
6) You could play the same game with ground combat ratings - being in a formation might act as a multiplier on combat ratings.
None of these are high priority for me, except 1 & 2 would be nice to reduce clutter on the ground units screen
The idea of splitting into 4 companies and a HQ is a good one, although I will need to play around with which officers can command each one.
HQs already add a bonus as their commander's ground combat rating affects all units under his command. So a battalion on the same planet as its brigade and division HQs will get multipliers from its own commander, the brigade commander and the division commander.
Goood idea re the engineers. I will implement that for v4.8
Steve
Post by: James Patten on March 29, 2010, 06:13:30 AM
Post by: Shadow on March 29, 2010, 08:07:32 AM
Quote from: "James Patten"
Has split and recombine of engineering units been implemented for 5.02? I'm guessing that it has not, because I just built a troop transport with 2 troop bays and it would not take my engineers. I had to mock up a troop transport with 10 bays in order to take the engineers. Argg!Yeah, as brigades, engineer units require 5 troop bays each, as they're the size of 5 battalions.
Post by: jocan2003 on May 09, 2010, 12:58:44 PM