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Scenarios > Aurora
Opposed survey
Michael Sandy:
Inspired by the Alpha Centauri Arena and the other links here:
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=9484.0
A mix of strategy, tactics, and priorities.
Similar to the Alpha Centauri Arena, the two sides enter through jump gates about 1 billion km apart, and they have 100 k or so research points available.
But the objective is to survey the intervening space, probe the jump point leading out, and if things haven't been resolved by then, to survey the discovered system(s).
There is at least one jump point out, and it may lead to an El Dorado system, a junction system that shortens the distance to both empires, or some other interesting strategic goal.
Players start with a survey fleet that has used 7 billion km worth of fuel and a year on their morale and maintenance clocks, and 1000 BP.
7 billion km back, they have a nodal response fleet and maintenance base, (fleets there are fueled up and full morale with no time on their clocks), comprising of 3000 BP.
7 billion km further back is the capital, with 6000 BP worth of response force.
Unlike in previous set ups, production technologies won't increase the size of the initial fleets. It WILL affect the monthly builds from the capital. Players can try to plan for a long or a short war, rather than the choice being between a larger, low tech fleet and a smaller, higher tech one.
I figure the economy of both sides will be 2000 BP x the square root of the mining, construction, and wealth technology multipliers.
Production will be discounted by the production techs available, like ordnance, fighters and shipyard tech.
Certain technologies will be discounted, at least 50%.
Emergency Cryo, Salvage, Cargo Handling, grav survey, construction brigades and possibly jump engine tech.
There won't be explicit fuel requirements, other than all new production will have traveled 14 billion km, and you have to pay for the fuel. So fuel efficiency tech isn't a bad idea. I am toying with the idea of having various small asteroids available, both in the contested systems and in the systems leading to them.
Players will have the option of increasing their survey fleet size, at a cost to the size of their response fleets. Each BP would cost 3 BP from the nodal response fleet, or 6 from the capital response fleet. So players can go with larger initial fleets at the expense of immediate reinforcements. This makes scouting and probing a lot more important. Similarly, the nodal response fleet can be made bigger at the expense of the capital fleet, and vice versa.
I would like to explore what people would arm their survey fleets with if they were competing against players instead of the AI. And do they go with small expendable, low signature survey craft, or with concentrated survey power, including multiple survey instruments together with an escort. Do they hunt enemy surveyors, or focus more on completing their own goal?
Some tie breaking conditions:
Capturing enemy ships, crew
Crew losses (which can be reduced if crew pods can be rescued
Surveying beyond the contested system, bonus points if you can find the jump point to the enemy nodal base.
Salvaging enemy technology. Figure that salvaged enemy ships are worth about x10 as much as destroyed enemy ships.
Some caveats, I have little experience, and would not be able to run this, nor would my computer be able to handle it. This is as much the seed for a campaign as for a one off extended scenario.
Michael Sandy:
Something important here, the victory condition doesn't require any combat. But turtling just isn't going to be enough. Stealthed survey ships would be able to get at least a partial victory by surveying the contested system, but that isn't going to be enough if the enemy surveys the contested system and forces or blockades the jump point, and completes their survey of the newly discovered systems as well.
And yes, one side could go with a 3000 point survey force and rush to interdict the enemy jump point, but their enemy would not be obligated to jump in with dribs and drabs, they could have the nodal and capital response fleets hit it together. They can't wait too long, as a front loaded force might complete the surveys and probes if not pressured.
Michael Sandy:
So I am expecting all sorts of crazy strategies.
Like dumping recon drones on all the grav survey points. Like having the nodal base initial BP be mostly missile stocks. Like truly long ranged missiles for the purpose of constraining the enemy survey, forcing it to stay concentrated within a point defense envelope. Like fighters waiting with engines off, waiting for an enemy and englobing them.
MarcAFK:
I like it, I have trouble visualizing the setup though but that's just me.
Michael Sandy:
Basically, the frontier system being contested is far enough away from the Homeworlds for logistics to matter. And the initial contact is going to be between a small fraction of the available fleets, but can still gain a valuable advantage as both sides put more of their forces to bear.
As the survey fleet is kind of small, I didn't want a concept to be unnecessarily stifled trying to fit it into an exact number of build points, but I wanted a cost to going over. And it is a sort of abstract representation of different deployment strategies, whether it focuses on nodal defense, or somewhat better equipped survey fleets.
I think there are a bunch of variants regarding the exact distance to the nodal defense and ratios of defense force to survey force that could be fun.
I like the 100,000 RP budget contests more than the 'get everything under 5k cost' contests, because it more reflects how players would develop their technology from a conventional start. I wanted a scenario that would capture some of the strategic considerations players encounter early in their expansion, to give ideas for what a good survey force/nodal force/heavy response force should look like.
I don't know if having a 'capture and salvage' bonus adds anything to the scenario, but it is a consideration that players would have, especially with their early expansion.
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