Proposal: potential events for Leeds

[jammi]

Digression and Preamble:
Recently, a number of events have been proposed surrounding the Gallic invasion, with the objective of sparking interest and moving the story along. I've got some proposals of my own that I reckon would be a good idea, designed to spread activity equally between a large number of factions and attract a broad range of participation. The prize at the end of the finishline? Whether or not the GRN entirely conquers Planet Leeds.

As I've said a few times recently, Gallia needs Planet Leeds as a staging point for its fleet before it could realistically push on into New London and Liberty. The supply lines stretching back to Gallia are too tortuously long to support increased expansion - coupled with unexpectedly severe insurgency actions in the Taus from groups like the CR, Council, Exiles and even Outcasts, securing Leeds' surface becomes of paramount strategic importance. Recently Toris Gray came up with one of the best metaphors I've ever seen for the conflict:

In terms of the Go game... Gallia pushing into Bretonia is like a lot of placed stones inside opponents territory, trying to contest it... but connections between these stones and their own secured stones are pretty weak, what may lead them into being surrounded and "dead" or captured. Trying to save them when it is too late would bring even more loses than good.

That's why every hasteful action in Go may bring a lot of stones lost, if these stones aren't secured enough. Everything scrolls down into careful management on multiple fronts, knowing where and when to go deeper to claim territory.

Otherwise, too much agression leads into downfall. That's why I have always regarded Go way more "realistic wargame" than Chess. It's more like playing a grand campaign.

Part One:
The current initial brawl we've got lined up for the 9th could serve perfectly well as an introduction to this alternate proposal, as well as anything else that's going to happen. The end result is that the BAF or LN manage to capture a GRN officer who squeals about an upcoming operation - the single largest troop surge on Planet Leeds since their forces first landed. Evidently, Gallic High Command has got bored of trying to starve the Bretonian Army out.

Learning of this planned campaign sparks panic in Bretonian military circles and results in urgent calls for assistance to Liberty. Que Royal Flush. The Oubli is where the command staff overseeing Leeds ground operations are quartered. It's supposedly safer up there than it is on the surface. The LN calculates that the single most efficient way to dent the ground offensive is to decapitate the local command infrastructure and take the ship down in a surgical strike.

Part Two:

1) Event commodity 25 is renamed to "Gallic Invasion Troops" and placed for sale on Planet Le Mans in Maine. The extreme conditions there coupled with the abundant industrialised regions and sparse population make it incredibly useful as a training and mustering ground for the Gallic Leeds reinforcement army.

2) Commodity is priced at $500, and sells for $13,000 on Planet Leeds. Takes up 1 unit. If possible, the commodity is locked to EFL, GMS, IDF, Solar, GRP and GRN IDs. If not possible, instead full rep with GMS is required to buy it.

3) A commodity tracker for a target of 305,000 or 610,000 units is added to Planet Leeds and will remain there for the duration of 2 months. This equates to roughly 5,000 or 10,000 units shipped in per day. If this target is met or exceeded within the 2 months, Gallia has won the event.

4) If the Battleship Oubli was destroyed during its event, the target for deliveries is increased by either 25% or 50%. Furthermore, the target will be raised or lowered as a reward for the winning side of weekly or fortnightly server events. As an example, if the GRN was to win an event that destroyed a strategic supply base in New London, 40,000 might be shaved off their target. If the Exiles and CR won a raid event in the Taus, 40,000 might be added.

5) Allied forces may attempt to hinder the supply effort by dropping off reinforcement Marines or Military Vehicles via the smuggling point on Leeds. These deliveries are balanced against one another, so active allied suppliers will hinder the Gallic mission target and vice versa. Gallia clearly has the advantage here, seeing as they can use larger transports while the allies are restricted to freighters. Allied troops may be worth 'more' due to some kind of defenders advantage, although this isnt necessary.

Aftermath:
The above provides an overarching narrative that would tie together all of the proposed events and involve a whole spread of factions - military, corporate and more. It also means the overall success or failure of the larger campaign is reliant on the interplay between those groups. The allies aren't going to be able to win by shipping in more marines, for example - they can't compete with 5ks. That would necessitate interdiction of the incoming transports instead, accurately reflecting unstable supply lines in a lore friendly manner in-game.

So, what if Gallia wins? In short, there's a final event generated to represent a sort of 'Dunkirk evacuation', where the allies have to try and pull as many casualties off the planet as possible, to salvage their shattered army. After that, Leeds is given a GRN IFF and the smuggling point is deleted. Total GRN planetary victory. Given that they now also have their forward supply base, they can get ready to gib Liberty and finish off Bretonia by attacking New London via Manchester. This would be the logical point to add California to the GRN's ZoI as well, when the plot points that justify it have actually played out.

If the allies win, a massive GRN land offensive has been blunted and the stalemate has been preserved, pinning the GRN in place. The loss of so many lives would also cause massive backlash on the Gallic homefront - think the Somme and the resulting reaction across Europe. This leaves their forces reeling and open for a decisive strike from Liberty with Bretonian auxiliary support. Either way, we'd be set up for a far more exciting version next update.

Thoughts?

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News article library, feedback and content requests.

[Thunderer]

If it's not hard to implement, why not? Well, why not for some event in the future, as Leeds has already been determined.

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Bretonian Treaty Database Bretonian Armed Forces Recruitment Center
Bretonian Charter of Interstellar Law Bretonian Secrets Act

[jammi]

If it's not hard to implement, why not? Well, why not for some event in the future, as Leeds has already been determined.

Once the initial setup is done, will involve manually updating the cargo targets after each event that affects them. Other than that, technically it's a piece of pie. Much simpler than the awesome stuff Alley's been doing lately.

[Char Aznable]

If it's doable, hell yeah!

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#notmyfrankfurt

[oZoneRanger]

I hope this goes forward. I think it will add a lot of gameplay for convoy and escort types of RP.

[nOmnomnOm]

I like the idea too. I say go for it. +1

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[Komitoza]

Nice.
As Nomnom said. +1

Its also a good way to make more activity at least for two months.

[Vycos]

I love it! It is dynamic in game story line impacting stuff! I could see guerrilla strikes on transports and escorts trying to protect, and etc. I thinks it is an awesome idea!

+1

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Explore, conquest far beyond the horizon...

[Vycos]

as Leeds has already been determined.

Predetermined results a great when reading a novel or a story, not when playing an interactive game.
That is just my 2 cents tho, i understand that there is a lot of heavy lifting needs to be done from game development perspective, but still there should be more in game involvement to the faith of the unfolding story.

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Explore, conquest far beyond the horizon...

[Miaou]

as Leeds has already been determined.

Predetermined results a great when reading a novel or a story, not when playing an interactive game.
That is just my 2 cents tho, i understand that there is a lot of heavy lifting needs to be done from game development perspective, but still there should be more in game involvement to the faith of the unfolding story.

People don't understand how much planning goes into the different story arcs of Discovery. The Royal Flush event was planned for months before hand, discussed, and requested to the staff. It wasn't a thing someone went "That's a cool idea". The Gallic invasion is the major story arc of Discovery. Like it or not, the Discovery mod is a roleplay community. Roleplay is just the live telling of a story, sometimes planned sometimes not.