Opposed survey

[MarcAFK]

Maybe you should setup a scenario with 2 systems needing surveying, and equal fleets for both sides where the goal is basically either be the first side to finish the survey, or alternatively win a decisive victory against the opposing fleet which would leave it unable to continue survey operations.

[Michael Sandy (OP)]

Hmmm.  How about this, each side builds a scaleable fleet.

First round, Player A has 2x the fleet they picked, and has to delay Player B with 3x the fleet for as long as possible.

Second round, Player B has 2x the fleet, and has to delay Player A which has 3x the fleet.

So each design has to be able to survey and delay an enemy survey, and whoever does the best combined job at that wins.

And for a roleplay reason explaining this, its actually a Naval design contest for the purpose of solving strategic problems related to survey fleets.  They want to know what options to pursue, and how those will fair against other choices other space faring nations might choose.

In a larger contest, with 6 or more contestants, the fleet designs would be fixed at the start, but on entry to the system they would only know if they had the larger fleet role or the smaller fleet role, and not who the opponent was.

Of course, some sneaky judge might decide to put two of the 3x fleets against each other, or two of the 2x fleet against each other.

I think I would still like to see a nodal response scenario, where players can make tradeoffs between the size of the initial fleet and the first two reinforcing waves, as well as tech vs reinforcement size.  But that is complicated enough without a survey based I WIN condition.

[Michael Sandy (OP)]

As there is the possibility of "fly the entire force together from node to node" fuel efficiency is kind of a big thing.

Players should have the option of purchasing extra munitions and fuel with their BP, initially stowed on a rock about, I dunno 500 million km back from their jump point.

Another option would be that each side has a jump point security force, that has a completely different command chain, which are legally forbidden from going more than 10 million km inside the jump point.  They would be built on the same tech and 2x cost framework, although they wouldn't have or need survey sensors.