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?

[Jihadjoe]

Agreed absolutely 100%. There is nothing more annoying than undocking in a sabre to find a cap fleet sat there all ready and waiting to blast ya...

Planning stuff like this adds more rleplay depth, as you can get some good trash-talking done first, plus you can prepare a backstory for the raid.

It also makes it a far more epic fight, more cinematic, impressive and awesome.

Plan your damned raids!

Plus it avoids this.



Post in that link and feel my wrath.

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[Kambei]

Yea guys, planed events are allways more fun than random gang bang. Also I recomend to everyone join some official faction because evend random faction - faction without previouse planing are allways much better than random pew pew lololol.

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[Derkylos]

Personally, I dislike the idea of people attacking Alpha and Gamma. Both are the home systems of the factions (Outcasts and Corsairs, respectively), and both are the only home systems that get attacked on a reguar basis.

There is somewhat of a double standard here, with people complaining when New York is overrun by Rogues/Hackers/Outcasts (all of which, mind you, have legitemate reason to be there, especially considering that their NPCs will hit the lanes there), but being perfectly happy when Outcast cap fleets roll up to Crete. Hell, I was in a Rheinland unlawful group, once, and I heard a Hessian suggest that we "finish what the Outcasts had started". Now, who would be content with the Corsairs bringing a cap fleet to Dresden?

In Omicron Gamma, there are Corsair and Bounty Hunter NPCs. No Outcasts, no Hessians, and even the Hunters are not all over the place.

I'm not trying to say that you should never leave the area patrolled by your NPCs, that would be short-sighted and curb RP. What I would like to see is more engagements where they are supposed to happen according to the game lore.

Collect your huge Outcast fleet, and go camp Sigma-17. It is highly likely that, after a while, some smuggler/Corsair headed for Sigma-13 is going to notice this huge bunch of capships and call for assistance. Or, as mentioned above, you can contact the avaliable Corsairs and work something out.

Now you can have a battle royale in the "right" place, the place where your NPCs engage. Not only this, but you can balance the fleets, and either side can win, due to luck and/or skill (because, lets be reasonable, no attack on Alpha or Gamma is gonna be a victory. Even if you pew-pew off all the players, you still have not won. And don't give me this "initiating orbital bombardment" garbage. Not gonna happen)

Same thing applies to Hessians, go fight the Corsairs in 41, 5, 11(hmm...maybe not...) or 47...you're supposed to be getting pwnt by the Corsairs in O-5, unable to make any headway...so how the hell did you get to Gamma, pray tell?

[/rant...]

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[Kambei]

you're supposed to be getting pwnt by the Corsairs in O-5, unable to make any headway...

woot? Sairs are loosing omega war,,, we are realy not supposed to be getting pwnt by them...;)

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[SigCorps]

I think planned fights would make everyone feel alot better. Also if you are planning on bringing out the Cap fleet then stay out of home systems unless it is planned. This way if folks do not want to be part of the battle they can stay out of it.
We are really running into the issue of folks not taking into considderation of fair play. It is no fun for the little fighter popping into a system and getting ganked by mulitple cap ships, weather they are Gunboats or bigger. While aranged fights are not really realistic (then again this is a game). They would make everyone happier.

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Formerly Sam Nichols, creator of OSI

[Tenacity]

Personally, I dislike the idea of people attacking Alpha and Gamma. Both are the home systems of the factions (Outcasts and Corsairs, respectively), and both are the only home systems that get attacked on a reguar basis.

There is somewhat of a double standard here, with people complaining when New York is overrun by Rogues/Hackers/Outcasts (all of which, mind you, have legitemate reason to be there, especially considering that their NPCs will hit the lanes there), but being perfectly happy when Outcast cap fleets roll up to Crete. Hell, I was in a Rheinland unlawful group, once, and I heard a Hessian suggest that we "finish what the Outcasts had started". Now, who would be content with the Corsairs bringing a cap fleet to Dresden?

In Omicron Gamma, there are Corsair and Bounty Hunter NPCs. No Outcasts, no Hessians, and even the Hunters are not all over the place.

I'm not trying to say that you should never leave the area patrolled by your NPCs, that would be short-sighted and curb RP. What I would like to see is more engagements where they are supposed to happen according to the game lore.

Collect your huge Outcast fleet, and go camp Sigma-17. It is highly likely that, after a while, some smuggler/Corsair headed for Sigma-13 is going to notice this huge bunch of capships and call for assistance. Or, as mentioned above, you can contact the avaliable Corsairs and work something out.

Now you can have a battle royale in the "right" place, the place where your NPCs engage. Not only this, but you can balance the fleets, and either side can win, due to luck and/or skill (because, lets be reasonable, no attack on Alpha or Gamma is gonna be a victory. Even if you pew-pew off all the players, you still have not won. And don't give me this "initiating orbital bombardment" garbage. Not gonna happen)

Same thing applies to Hessians, go fight the Corsairs in 41, 5, 11(hmm...maybe not...) or 47...you're supposed to be getting pwnt by the Corsairs in O-5, unable to make any headway...so how the hell did you get to Gamma, pray tell?

[/rant...]

/agreed

Most corsair-outcast battles should occur in omicron eta as far as I'm concerned, the entire system was built as a 'warzone' and nobody ever fights there!

It's similar to the order-liberty thing recently... there's no reason for an order ship to go into new york if he's looking for a fight, all he has to do is wait in alaska for a few minutes and gafwmnn is bound to show up with a load of hurt in short order =P

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