Medal Awards

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

This weekend I am adding the functionality for Medals to C# Aurora. In basic concept this is similar to Aurora, so you can create a medal with a name and description, associate an image and assign a promotion score boost (or penalty). A minor addition for C# is that you can flag a medal as allowing either single or multiple awards.

The major change for C# is that I will be adding automatic medal assignment. You can associate a medal with a condition and if a commander meets that condition, the medal is automatically awarded unless it is a single-award only and the commander already has it.

So now I need suggestions for conditions that I can track. For example, discovering a new star system, destroying an enemy ship, taking damage, engaging in ground combat, long-service, etc..

I considered making it configurable, rather than specific, but it is more complex (and more work) to implement. I might add something on these lines later, but for now I am going to use a the specific condition list.

All suggestions welcome.

[Jovus]

The major change for C# is that I will be adding automatic medal assignment. You can associate a medal with a condition and if a commander meets that condition, the medal is automatically awarded unless it is a single-award only and the commander already has it.

Amazing.

So now I need suggestions for conditions that I can track. For example, discovering a new star system, destroying an enemy ship, taking damage, engaging in ground combat, long-service, etc..

A few, then.

Enemy tonnage disabled or destroyed. One medal for the first enemy ship killed, others for progressive tonnages (probably something like 10kt, 50kt, 100kt, 500kt)

Various fighter medals: dogfights survived (if your squadron attacks or is attacked, that's a dogfight), # of enemy ships shot down (number instead of tonnage because we're assuming these are enemy fighters) for 'ace' type medals, length of tour in fighter assignments.

Medals for surviving ship destruction ("purple heart"), judged by whether said officer makes it to the lifepods and is picked up or not.

[JustAnotherDude]

Service length and # of command conditions. Being the commanding officer of a fleet in a battle. Medals for service in an Academy. Maybe even just rank insignias, automatically given to everyone of that rank. Civilian conditions could include being governor of an invaded world, scientists could get medals for unlocking certain techs (especially TN Technology).

[Whitecold]

One thing I'd suggest to add is the possibility of a randomness factor. So a fleet may engage in a battle, but of all the officers only one gets a special medal for extraordinary deeds, which then offer a story opportunity.

Awards should also be saved posthumously, actually all characters should be saved when they die to keep track of them.

Some ideas for triggers:
-Dying while ship survives
-Defeating an invasion
-Conquering a planet
-Participation in a battle of given size

For battles the best thing might actually be a pop up. The game detects the battle, and then asks if you want to create an award, and if yes, what it should be named. So you can have a '2nd Battle of Epsilon Eridani' medal

[Agoelia]

A medal for being attacked while commandeering a civilian ship.
Similarly, a medal for having the commanded civilian ship destroyed.
Medals for grav surveying x survey points (make the number editable or set some possible options)
Medal for single-handedly grav surveying an entire system.
Medals for single handedly geo surveying an entire asteroid, or an entire planet/moon.
Medal for single handedly geo surveying an entire system. Has to have at least 2 bodies that are surveyable.
Medals for geo surveying a total of x survey points (make the number editable or set some possible options)
Medals for conquering enemy ship of x tons
Medal for repelling a boarder.


Medals for destroying, capturing or disabling x enemy tonnage with only an x% of the tonnage under your command being destroyed, captured or disabled.
Medals for destroying, capturing or disabling x enemy tonnage without a single ship/fighter under your command being destroyed, captured or disabled
Medals for destroying, capturing or disabling x enemy tonnage without a single ship/fighter under your command being damaged (armor damage, shield hits and boarding are ok)
Medals for destroying, capturing or disabling x enemy tonnage without a single ship/fighter under your command hit or boarded.

These 4 would be awarded only to the lowest rank officer that qualifies.
Say an entire fleet has 2 task forces, A and B. Task force A destroyes 40.000t of enemy ships (which is enough to trigger the medal), only the officer directly responsible for Task Force A gets the medal, not the commander of the entire fleet. BUT there could be medals made for this case, that could go both to the commander of the fleet (and all officers above him) and to all the ship's captain and officials that were in Task Force A.
If Task Force A and Task Force B both destroy 20.000t of enermy ships (and the minimum to trigger the medal is 30.000t) then only the commander of the fleet gets the medal.


Being the responsible administrator for a population that produced x tons of ships/stations (while under the administrator mandate)
Being the responsible administrator for a population that produced x tons of minerals (while under the administrator mandate)
Being the responsible administrator for a population that produced x wealth (while under the administrator mandate)
Being the responsible administrator for a population that produced x tons of buildings (while under the administrator mandate)
Being the responsible administrator for a population that produced x tons of troops (while under the administrator mandate)
Being the responsible administrator for a population that researched x research points (while under the administrator mandate)

[Jovus]

A few other possibilities from someone who plays the game a lot but has trouble with the forums.

Ships/tonnage lost, Crew Training totals, Exceptional skills after rank, receiving damage, receiving shock damage, missiles shot down, xeno ruins found, surveys/survey points completed, Intelligence gathered, xeno targets found

Also, survey medals. Not all things need be strictly combat-related or combat-adjacent, and I think it'd be cool if there were also medals for things like

• Discovered X tonnage of Y mineral at accessibility at least Z.
• Discovered X aggregate tonnage of all minerals at aggregate or mean accessibility Y on a single body.

Extra cool points if X, Y, and Z are at least partially configurable parameters. I've definitely given out Bronze, Silver, and Gold shovel awards to the Survey Corps; even a couple Platinum shovels to officers who led an effort that culminated in extremely good finds of current critical importance to the empire.

[Jovus]

A medal for being attacked while commandeering a civilian ship.

Did you mean commanding or actually commandeering?

I don't mean to pick on you; I'm just unaware of commandeering being a thing and really excited if it is.

[Hazard]

Right, let's make a little list.

• Transiting an uncharted jump point
• Being part of a system's Gravitational Survey (completing any grav survey point)
• Being the one to complete a Gravitation Survey
• Surveying a planet or moon
• Completing a ground survery of a planet or moon
• Discovering an (X) amount or (Y) availability of (Z) TN material, or any combination
• Completing a fleet exercise order (if that one can be conditionally timed/set to a skill level)
• Being part of a ship of a given crew skill level
• Having hauled (X) amount of (freight) times (Y) distance
• Having produced (X) amount of fuel as a Fuel Harvester commander
• Having mined (X) amount of minerals as an Asteroid Miner commander
• Completing (X) amount of ship tonnage (separating military/commercial)
• Completing (X) amount of ground forces tonnage
• Completing an overhaul as crew
• Performing ELINT duties for (Y) time
• As a xenoarcheology commander, dig up (X) amount of installations
• As a xenoarcheology commander, dig up a (spoilers) unit
• As a ground forces commander, fight off a dug up (spoilers) unit
• Engage in combat
• Take atleast 1 hit in combat
• Take damage in combat
• Take a penetrating hit from a weapon that has a very high chance of killing the ground unit and do not die
• Have your HQ directly engaged in combat (only for Support/Rear Area commanders)
• Be part of the first wave of an invasion (no other friendlies on the ground)
• Be part of an invasion
• Perform orbital bombardment
• Taking an orbital bombardment
• Defend a body from invasion
• Last for (X) amount of time against a notably more powerful opponent [(Y) times more ground combat rating]
• Be boarded
• Perform a boarding action
• Win a boarding combat
• Hit an enemy disproportionately hard (for ships, cascading engine/power plant/magazine explosion, for ground forces, hit and kill a heavily armoured unit with a weapon with a worse than 5% chance to penetrate and a worse than 5% chance to kill after penetrating
• Destroy (weight) in ground units or ships (separating military and civilian)
• Serving as an academy commander for (X) time
• As Chief Engineer, repairing a weapon, sensor system or engine while in combat
• As Science Officer, perform a survey

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. Bear in mind that the easier the condition is to track, the more likely the suggestion will be in Version 1.0. So discover a star system is easy. An example of a suggestion that would harder would be hard to track is:

"Medals for destroying, capturing or disabling x enemy tonnage without a single ship/fighter under your command hit or boarded"

Tracking amount of tonnage destroyed by each commander is relatively straightforward. Trying to determine whether something 'under your command' was hit or boarded in the same time-frame is much harder. For example, if you launch a fighter from the carrier group you are commanded and the fighter gets hit a billion kilometres away, does that count? What if you destroy one ship and then another one damages a ship in your fleet 2 hours later - does that count? Et cetera.

Try to make the suggestions as specific as possible.

Also, I mentioned in my original post I didn't want to tackle anything configurable. I might weaken on that a little but suggestions that require any significant configuration element probably won't happen for V1.

[Ranged66]

An extra condition 'when in a fighter-class vessel' would be nice.

A captain of a cruiser who takes down an enemy 10k ton vessel will receive a nice silver bar. A fighter pilot who takes down a 10k ton vessel will be showered with praise and wealth for the rest of his life.

[Kristover]

A couple of ideas:

1.  I like the idea of time in service awards - 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years.

2.  Qualification Medals:  Assigned 1 year in Position, Commander, Executive Officer, Intelligence, etc.  I think there should be a ground equivalent based off command of formation, Infantry, Armor, Logistics, etc.

3.  POW medal - For folks that have been captured.

4.  Search and Rescue - If member of ship recovers an escape pod. 

5. I like the idea of a Fleet Exercise Medal - If taken part in a fleet training exercise of a certain amount of ships (or a single ship which has raised its proficiency past a certain level), than you get a medal. 

6.  Academy Training Medal - being on an Academy Staff for a length of time.

[Whitecold]

An extra condition 'when in a fighter-class vessel' would be nice.

A captain of a cruiser who takes down an enemy 10k ton vessel will receive a nice silver bar. A fighter pilot who takes down a 10k ton vessel will be showered with praise and wealth for the rest of his life.

I guess the trouble there is it is a special feat if done alone. If 20 fighters open fire, who got in the last missile really doesn't matter, and the difference might be under a single 5s increment

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Some more information about how this will work (now I have done some coding).

Firstly, rather than associating a condition with a medal, you will associate a medal with a condition. This is because you might want to assign the same medal to more than one condition, but probably not more than one medal to a single condition. Conditions without an associated medal will just be ignored if they occur.

Each condition has a description, a measurement type and a measurement amount. For example, Discover New Star System will have a Measurement Type of 'Discover Star System' and a measurement amount of 1. Discover Ten New Star Systems will have a Measurement Type of 'Discover Star System' and a measurement amount of 10. You might have conditions of Destroy 100,000 tons of Commercial Shipping and Destroy 1,000,000 tons of Commercial Shipping. Same measurement type but different measurement amount.

I intend to start with a list of basic conditions and allow you to add new conditions by creating a description, choosing a measurement type and entering a measurement amount. Once the condition exists, you can assign a medal to it.

So that means what I actually need is suggestions for measurement types, rather than conditions. That can include measurement types where the amount will only ever be a fixed number such as 1. This methodology allows more flexibility for the player, while not adding too much complexity in coding.

[Hazard]

`Having an (X) number of copies of a specific medal'

It's pretty common for medals that can be awarded more than once to have specific instructions in how to handle having been awarded them multiple times after all.

Unless you just put in an incremental counter for such medals in the commander description.

[BlckKnght]

Exploration:

• Command the first ship to enter a system containing a world with colony cost no greater than N
• Command a ship that geosurveys N bodies.
• Command a ship that geosurveys a body with alien ruins (of tech level/size N?).
• Command a ship that geosurveys a body with a research bonus of N%.

Logistics service:

• Command a freighter that delivers the first infrastructure to a colony (not sure what to measure for this one).
• Command a colony ship that delivers the first colonists to a colony.
• Perform underway refueling of N liters of fuel.  (Perhaps use some multiple of N if the numbers are unweildy. )
• Rearm other ships with N missiles.  (Or maybe N should measure tonnage or MSP of missiles. )

Some for chains of command:

• Have a post requiring rank N (perhaps in an administrative command) when a junior officer under you fulfills condition X (e. g.  engages in battle, get killed in combat, etc).
• Have a post requiring rank N when a senior officer in your chain of command fulfills condition X.
• Have any post when any officer within N levels of your chain of command fulfills condition X.
• Have at least N subordinate officers in your chain of command.  (Or maybe N ships, rather than counting officers. )