STGOD2k6 Discussion Thread

[Thirdfain]

I was thinking more along the lines of capital ship batteries firing missiles with warheads analogous to nuke-pumped lasers. Much harder to intercept since they don't have to get nearly as close to do damage, and being able to shoot a lot of huge weapons at once is always a relatively good thing.

The main guns on a Crobuzoner warship are just that- guns. They fire dumb solid projectiles at very high speeds. This limits them to short range vs. mobile targets. Long-range firepower is provided by dedicated multi-tube missile launchers, firing rounds which in many cases mount standoff warheads. However, these weapons use up much of their internal space for fuel and ECCM, leaving less room for a warhead. Long-range fire is much less deadly than the huge ammounts of fire which are exchanged once ships reach gun range of eachother.

[Spyder]

You don't have to spend them right away. We should probably restrict the increases to active powers though. We can make an exception this time around because I don't think anyone's thought about this yet, but what I'd like to avoid is having people dissapear for months on end while building up points without threat of attack.

Apologies for that; I'll try to be more active but have some time constraints.

I wasn't really reffering to you in particular. I know what it's like. Maybe if we just set a minimum at one post per month just to let people know that the person's empire is still available as a target.

[Thirdfain]

A proud ship and hundreds of crew. Sigh. All at the cost of what, maybe 10 Quelectin lives? Ugh.
-edit-

BTW, this is the first time I've ever had one of my capital units as the first loss of an STGOD. Bummer

[Adrian Laguna]

You're going against Spyder, I don't think he is a mod in this game just because SirNitram likes him.

[Thirdfain]

Yeah, whateva. I feel that my primary mission objective was achieved, it's not like I can't spare a 20-pt ship, and even if the transport turns out to be useless, I've gotten hostilities rolling- and as they say, "Once the avalanche has begun, it's too late for the pebbles to vote."

[Lancer]

Now we just have to see what side of the mountain the avalanche will come crashing down upon.

[Spyder]

I'll respond to the Loch situation later, time for work.

[Adrian Laguna]

Scores for the first shots of the Flame-Crobuzon War

Silver Flame losses:
1 Squadron of fighters
1 Squadron of bombers
1 Freighter
1 Freighter (captured)

Crobuzon losses:
1 Battlecruiser (crippled)

Yeah, whateva. I feel that my primary mission objective was achieved, it's not like I can't spare a 20-pt ship, and even if the transport turns out to be useless, I've gotten hostilities rolling- and as they say, "Once the avalanche has begun, it's too late for the pebbles to vote."

The thing is, unlike an avalanche, the Iron Fleet is not being pulled by a force as inexorable and uncaring as gravity.

[Lancer]

The thing is, unlike an avalanche, the Iron Fleet is not being pulled by a force as inexorable and uncaring as gravity.

No, but you have things such as national pride & arrogance pulling the original combatants onward, entangleing alliance pulling new guys into the fight, and opportunistic third-parties who see nations with strained resources just waiting to tipped over who are perfectly willing to make it a rather messy free-for-all.

[Thirdfain]

entangleing alliance pulling new guys into the fight, and opportunistic third-parties who see nations with strained resources just waiting to tipped over who are perfectly willing to make it a rather messy free-for-all.

Ah, but don't you see? The Silver Flame are an isolated backwater with no friends, no alliances, and the region as a whole has hardly even been in contact with the region: in other words, no reason for any third parties to show up (except, perhaps, at the behest of conniving bastard!)

In any case, my resources are hardly strained. Anyone who doubts it, feel free to declare war.

[Lancer]

entangleing alliance pulling new guys into the fight, and opportunistic third-parties who see nations with strained resources just waiting to tipped over who are perfectly willing to make it a rather messy free-for-all.

Ah, but don't you see? The Silver Flame are an isolated backwater with no friends, no alliances, and the region as a whole has hardly even been in contact with the region: in other words, no reason for any third parties to show up (except, perhaps, at the behest of conniving bastard!)

*coughcough*Spyder*coughcough*

[Thirdfain]

More to the point, I do believe that this campaign'sduration will be measured in days, not weeks. Too little time, even for a Grand power to mobilize fully.

Unless Beowulf's fleet is on it's way...

[Adrian Laguna]

Beowulf? What makes you think that it is him that will come to the rescue?

[Lancer]

Beowulf? What makes you think that it is him that will come to the rescue?

Methinks that would be his last post in the STGOD main thread.

[Thirdfain]

I must admit, Adrian, I'm a little curious as to how your people have such accurate information as to my cassus belli. I'd expect this sort of behavious had I just out and out invaded the Silver Flame, but I went to the trouble of manufacturing a very nice cassus belli which is far from flimsy- Glimmervoid DID shoot down my ship, un-provoked. I'd appreciate it if my efforts were rewarded with a least SOME ammount of skepticism towards the Silver Flame and their innocence in this matter.

[Thirdfain]

....

And wait a gosh-durn minute now, since when can you detect fleet movements a quarter of the way across the playing field? In the past, we've always required infiltration of some sort to keep track of enemy fleet movements. If someone can track the Iron Fleet's movements without any local listening posts, spies, or just loyal trading vessels in the area, then I sure as hell ought to have been able to detect the major systems of the Silver Flame in my own back yard.

[Adrian Laguna]

I must admit, Adrian, I'm a little curious as to how your people have such accurate information as to my cassus belli. I'd expect this sort of behavious had I just out and out invaded the Silver Flame, but I went to the trouble of manufacturing a very nice cassus belli which is far from flimsy- Glimmervoid DID shoot down my ship, un-provoked. I'd appreciate it if my efforts were rewarded with a least SOME ammount of skepticism towards the Silver Flame and their innocence in this matter.

The Silver Flame told the Mekidar diplomat of the Shearwater Incident (I cleared it with Spyder beforehand).

And wait a gosh-durn minute now, since when can you detect fleet movements a quarter of the way across the playing field? In the past, we've always required infiltration of some sort to keep track of enemy fleet movements. If someone can track the Iron Fleet's movements without any local listening posts, spies, or just loyal trading vessels in the area, then I sure as hell ought to have been able to detect the major systems of the Silver Flame in my own back yard.

Project Argus has been "cannonical" since my first post. It is far from omnicient though. For one thing, if your fleet had moved into my territory, the signal of them leaving would have arrived at the same time as the fleet itself. In other words, Argus is utterly useless as early warning from attacks (early warning systems do exist, but their range sucks). Also, the Republic only has a rough idea of where Albiachor Fleet Base is, they know the rough area the fleet jumped from, but not the exact location. The same would hold true of the place the Iron Fleet jumped into, if not for the fact that I have a Cruiser in the next system over (Hubira).

However, I might be wanking to the Republic's capabilities a bit too hard. Might drop those FTL cannons I had in mind and stick with c-beams.

[Spyder]

My approval is based on there being someone, either a merchant or a diplomat or whatever being in the immediate area to act as a first hand witness. No one should be detecting ships across stellar distances.

Also, the PM you sent me doesn't mention anything about the Silver Flame telling the Mekidar about Shearwater. It's partly my fault, I wasn't sure what you meant when talking about diplomats in the Hubria system. While the diplomats might be aware of the Shearwater incident they wouldn't be aware of any large scale retalliation following it.

So yeah, you definately need someone near Shearwater in order to have any idea what Thirdfain's up to.

[Beowulf]

There's a reason why I explicitly dispatched a small force to Shearwater. I actually need ships there to see what the hell is going on.

[Lancer]

There's a reason why I explicitly dispatched a small force to Shearwater. I actually need ships there to see what the hell is going on.

Erm, even if you're a grand power, that force you just dispatched would be over half your total points allowance. It is by no means small.

[consequences]

There's a reason why I explicitly dispatched a small force to Shearwater. I actually need ships there to see what the hell is going on.

Erm, even if you're a grand power, that force you just dispatched would be over half your total points allowance. It is by no means small.

I think he means that he'd put in observation teams before the fleet of doom came in.

[Thirdfain]

So, we have mod approval then for SIGINT tracking over vast distances, allowing for the detection of major fleet movements and enemy naval bases that are being used to launch major FTL maneuvers? I'll keep that in mind. It'll save me a lot of time and effort on intelligence work...

[Adrian Laguna]

Here is the extent of what is known with Argus:

A fleet 3500-4500 points in strength, moved from Point A to Point B.

Point A is somewhere in a fairly large area. If the Mekidar saw your map, they could narrow it down to 10 major systems and many more minors. That would be the entire Sparse March, and bit of Spiralsworm and Gross Crobuzona. The Republic had already detected Crobuzon, so it could hardly be said that they discovered the location of a major fleet base.

They know Point B is Shearwater specifically, only because there is a Cruiser next door in Hubira.

[Oseng]

Okay I am on spring break, and through with my finals and exams, finally.

I assume I am in the game since, Consequences posted about me, so I will have a post up soon regarding that.

I should have alot more free time from know on, untill later in the year.

[Spyder]

So, we have mod approval then for SIGINT tracking over vast distances

No, we don't. My appologies if my last post was somewhat ambiguous, which I can see, given the lack of context, it may have been.

Let me make this perfectly clear.

No one can track fleet movements over vast distances.

Adrian, please rewrite your post to reflect the fact that your people would not know that the Silver Flame was under attack. Knowledge of the attack is not what I approved.

What I approved was that you could discover the goings on in that system by means of a merchant or diplomat travelling into the system and finding a blockade of Crobuzon ships there. Something which I had the impression would take place over a couple of posts before you'd start sending in ships of your own.

The reason why I approved this is because we need more interaction. However, what explicitly CAN'T happen is people detecting fleet movements over stellar distances.