Naval Combat Primer (old)

[Laserwolf]

Or independent characters?

[woolfe99]

Thanks for posting the draft PDF on space combat. I have some questions.

 

1. The pdf indicates that sensors are primarily defensive systems, and lists them as countering space mines. I note there is a specialized sensor for that, space mine scanners. Do sensors also provide a general defensive capability against all weapon types? Do they add anything to offense?

 

2. What determines the "range" of your ship from any enemy ship? Is it the slot you put the ship in? I am wondering if ships with longer range weapons should be put into higher numbered slots. How do you know what the range of a weapon is anyway. I can't recall that info listed in the ANZ, but I could be wrong.

 

3. What is the functional difference between armor and shields? I understand that shields operate first against weapons and once they are down, they are down for the battle. Armor increases "structural integrity." I am wondering if there is value in pursuing both technologies if both functionally reduce the damage taken to critical ship systems.

 

4. Do computers, sensors, battle imaging, etc. on one ship automatically assist all other ships in the fleet, or do they help other ships to a lesser degree than the ship possessing them? Do they assist deployed fighters and drones?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

- Dave

[RTGPete]

Thanks for posting the draft PDF on space combat. I have some questions.

 

1. The pdf indicates that sensors are primarily defensive systems, and lists them as countering space mines. I note there is a specialized sensor for that, space mine scanners. Do sensors also provide a general defensive capability against all weapon types? Do they add anything to offense?

 

2. What determines the "range" of your ship from any enemy ship? Is it the slot you put the ship in? I am wondering if ships with longer range weapons should be put into higher numbered slots. How do you know what the range of a weapon is anyway. I can't recall that info listed in the ANZ, but I could be wrong.

 

3. What is the functional difference between armor and shields? I understand that shields operate first against weapons and once they are down, they are down for the battle. Armor increases "structural integrity." I am wondering if there is value in pursuing both technologies if both functionally reduce the damage taken to critical ship systems.

 

4. Do computers, sensors, battle imaging, etc. on one ship automatically assist all other ships in the fleet, or do they help other ships to a lesser degree than the ship possessing them? Do they assist deployed fighters and drones?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

- Dave

Space Mine Scanners are very, very good at countering mines in combat, but that's about all they do.

 

Specific ranges for weapon firing is determined by the relative distances between the ships in question. Most of the time your ships will end up firing at enemy vessels located close to the front of their lines. Weapon ranges are occasionally discussed (by weapon) in their descriptions. If nothing is mentioned, they are standard ranged weapons. Weapons with long ranges have an advantage in long range combat but suffer penalties elsewhere. Likewise with short ranged weapons.

 

Armor keeps your ship from dying once it has been struck. Shields essentially do the same thing by keeping the ship from being hit at all. Shields are generally less efficient than Armor, so you might wonder why you would ever use Shields (instead of just adding more Armor on)...the key here would be that avoiding any hits at all, even at the cost of some efficiency, to avoid any repair worries (more on repairs to come in an updated combat primer). Some weapons are also somewhat...irritating...when they strike a ship, regardless of damage and structural integrity calculations.

 

Sensors - no for defensive system purposes. All bridge items count fleet-wide, so you could have a single flagship provide bridge coordination for your entire task force. A task force in this case would be defined as any number of fleets on one side of the engagement. Fighters and drones do benefit from the coordination granted by bridge items such as holographic display systems.

[woolfe99]

Thanks for answering all my questions so quickly. One follow-up: what do sensors do in combat? What do they do out of combat? (OK, that was 2 questions)

[RTGPete]

Thanks for answering all my questions so quickly. One follow-up: what do sensors do in combat? What do they do out of combat? (OK, that was 2 questions)

The Naval Combat Primer discusses sensors as follows...useful in combat, and out of combat they have some strategic uses.

 

Short, medium and long range sensors all function quite effectively in any naval engagement—the difference between them is primarily that of technology generation rather than distance ratings. Strategically, they have some differences when spotting alien ships, and some sensor types start at higher generations; this can make them more difficult to research at first, but might grant a higher top-end if a particular research tree is followed to conclusion. Within the context of a space battle, sensors are primarily defensive systems. A ship without any sensors at all can still fight and do well.

[Ozboym]

As a newbie here I've only just had a look at the battle primer. Couple questions it raises in my mind though are:

 

Does a fleet have to execute an order for a battle to happen? The wording of the primer hints that this may be the case.

 

If it doesn't have to execute an order, does this mean the winner of a battle pulverizes to sub-atomic particles in the very next pulse the "lucky" survivors who so heroically managed to excape the previous carnage? (assuming they've neglected to put in some sort of movement order that gets them away in that second order pulse)

[Hiver]

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Excellent job on the combat primer! It's always great to have more detailed game info like this.

[Hiver]

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Excellent job on the combat primer! It's always great to have more detailed game info like this.

[Cao Cao the Nice Guy]

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Excellent job on the combat primer! It's always great to have more detailed game info like this.

 

[Are you flattered by my imitation?]

 

 

 

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[RTGPete]

As a newbie here I've only just had a look at the battle primer. Couple questions it raises in my mind though are:

 

Does a fleet have to execute an order for a battle to happen? The wording of the primer hints that this may be the case.

 

If it doesn't have to execute an order, does this mean the winner of a battle pulverizes to sub-atomic particles in the very next pulse the "lucky" survivors who so heroically managed to excape the previous carnage? (assuming they've neglected to put in some sort of movement order that gets them away in that second order pulse)

The most common way to trigger a battle is for any fleet to move to a location where fleets of more than one empire are present. At the end of an order pulse the location is checked again for fleet colocation, after which Rules of Engagement orders are checked to see if the battle goes "hot" or not. SENS orders can also trigger battles even when no movement into the location takes place. Following a battle, another battle (on the next order pulse) would not take place automatically; it would need to be triggered again (ie, the fleets spot each other as a result of some sort of activity).

[Azuth]

Ok, just to clarify. As an example, what this means is that Fleet Player A and Fleet Player B can be sitting on the same WP 1234 and unless either Fleet performs a SENS or some other activity OR someone moves into WP 1234, then we can all just be sitting there oblivious to each other.

[Clan Elder 'Keen]

I am curious about that also. Are co-located fleets always revealed to each other, or do sensors play into an equation for detection? If detection is automatic, it seems to me that XSENS is only then useful for triggering additional combat sequences if someone got away the first time.

[MadMartinB]

As an example, what this means is that Fleet Player A and Fleet Player B can be sitting on the same WP 1234 and ...

Hey I actually have a warp point 1234....let's not discuss battles there

[RTGPete]

Ok, just to clarify. As an example, what this means is that Fleet Player A and Fleet Player B can be sitting on the same WP 1234 and unless either Fleet performs a SENS or some other activity OR someone moves into WP 1234, then we can all just be sitting there oblivious to each other.

They would be oblivious to each other...except that one of them had to somehow move in there at some point or they wouldn't be colocated.

 

The strategic side of sensors would play into spotting, though without some advanced technology spotting is pretty hard to avoid.

 

That's right - the reason for the SENS order is to trigger an extra check (generally to force another battle just in case the enemy survived the first one).

[MadMartinB]

hey lets drop Warp Point 1234 which is in our home system and causes some concern when Pete says they would be collocated and unaware. Very concerning.

 

Checking out the gun boats and the flotilla to make sure the warp point is covered. eight pounders trained on the pesky worm hole.

 

Hoist your flag! Show your colors!