Planned Combat Situations

[pchwang]

This post addresses the fact that many players here see pre-planned combat situations as unrealistic and detrimental to roleplay. In a way, they are correct. I doubt that we will ever see the day when there is a war when one side warns the other that they are going to invade with a massive force.

In the same way, I would also doubt the day that a massive hostile force invades a factions home system without the faction knowing that it happened.

Neither is it realistic to arrange a fight between two factions, nor to assume that a faction does not patrol and send recon reports back to the fleet regarding movements in a particular area.

For example:

NPCs scouting Omicron Eta pick up a large Corsair fleet movement. Several Corsair capitals move through Eta, plowing through the Titan NPCs and heading to Alpha. When they get there, the Outcasts are utterly unprepared, and easily get destroyed by the massive Corsair fleet, as they log on one by one. The Corsairs declare a massive victory, and go home cheering.

So, If the NPCs already detected the threat, how is it logical that the Outcast Elite took so long to respond? Perhaps they were too busy powdering up with Cardamine? No.

This is but a loophole in the game mechanics.

It would be more logical if the Corsairs contacted the Outcasts ahead of time:

Corsair: //Some of the guys were thinking about a nice cap fight out in Alpha tomorrow. No fighter or bombers, just our caps.
Outcast: //Yeah, that's great. How many caps?
Corsair: //3 big ones and 2 gunboats.
Outcast: //kk, we'll say scanners on Palermo picked you up on your way through Eta.
Corsair: //haha, nice. cya then.

And the end result is: The fight plays out nicely and logically, with the Outcasts prepared for the Corsairs by the time they get to Eta. Of course, this could have worked just as well if it were an Outcast invasion force against the Corsairs. You get the point.

Player factions are not going to be held responsible for monitoring the game 24-hours a day. At the same time, it is illogical to assume that faction intelligence is not going to pick up large fleet movements.

As a result, let people know that you are going to invade and RP that they were scrambled ahead of time to meet the threat. Otherwise, it's really just getting cheap shots at people. They play the game for fun as well, and unless you're the type that gets all hyped up and all when you team of 5 battleships blows up an undocking bomber, warn the other people ahead of time.

Remember: This is not real life. Don't do things in Freelancer that you would do in real life, and don't expect things that happen in real life to happen here.

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[7:42:05 PM][6:51:36 PM] Igor (Smokey): btw terry
[6:51:48 PM] Terrance Cooper: Ye?
[6:52:00 PM] Igor (Smokey): nothin
[6:52:03 PM] Igor (Smokey): just sayin btw
[6:52:05 PM] Terrance Cooper: <_<

Johnny_Haas: you shot anti criuse speed rockets!!!
Johnny_Haas: but why????
Johnny_Haas: ??
Johnny_Haas: why you shoot criuse speed rockets?