Not only for simplicities sake I would most prefer a 50/50 chance of "who goes first".
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Randomising the player order will still mean that at a warp point battle one player always gets slaughtered.
The battles are all or nothing, I'de rather it a bit more balanced.
IMHO "all or nothing" is good, especially if it is just a simple 50/50 chance of "who goes first" (see a more detailed system below). You'd really have to take your chances.
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IMO we need a system like Moo2. Individual 'ship initative', each ship has a base initative (sp?) decided on by ship size and speed (ie, smaller, more maneuverable goes 'first'), and then and experience bonus is added to this number, finally a random number is added to the mix, the ships then go by this number for combat initative...
Kinda like the old Dungeons and Dragons system of 'who goes first'...Everyone had a number decided by rolling a 10 sided dice and then adding in their 'Dexterity' bonus, whoever had the 'highest' number went first, with ties going at the 'same' time and damage being applied at the 'end of the round'....
Individual ship initiative is a good idea, but would probably complicate things too much. It would be okay in strategic combat, but when you think about tactical hotseat, it is going to be a big PITA. I am playing the devil's advocate here, but individual ship initiative sounds like SE5 to me. BTW, what's the point of initiative, if damage is applied at the end of the round? Oh wait, this is just for ties, right? Doh, I got it.
So let us just assume that initiative is applied to whole fleets (or better ships/units/bases in the same sector) rather than individual ships, what modifiers would be good to apply? (from my POV).
While it makes sense that more experienced ships are likely to go first, I don't like it very much. Fleet experience and combat bonuses are already very powerful (perhaps too powerful, but that is another issue). I have seen whole fleets being destroyed only by a handful of legendary ships. Giving veterans an initiative bonus would make them even harder to defeat. The point is: If your ships are more experienced, they are already less likely to be hit. Let's give the underdog a break, so he can at least launch his seekers before being blown to bits
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Ship sizes would be okay and easy to apply. Biggest ship in the fleet determines the "bulk" of the whole fleet with modifiers of +5/-5 (or even +10/-10) per ship size. Example: the basic chance of going first is 50/50. If a fleet of Destroyers and Light Cruisers meets a battleship that is being escorted by frigates, the chance of going first would change from 50/50 to 65/35 (LC vs. BB: 3 ships sizes * +5/-5). The escorting DS and FG do not play a role, because the biggest ship counts for the bulk. To include bases and units in this system: A) I would make bases less bulky than ships. Space Stations (500kt) would have the same bulk as LC, Battle Station (1500kt) same bulk as BC, and Starbases (2500kt) same bulk as dreadnoughts. B) units (fighters and satellites) go always first [edit] or (maybe better) count as one or two ship sizes below escorts [/edit]
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Anyone else think this is a good idea? (Just thinking though, the 'defender' of a position <wormhole/planet owned by defender etc> should get a bonus to going first, just like a 'cloaked' ship should get a bonus to going first, other components could also add to the 'number game' like the 'neural net' or 'combat sensors'.....)
I have seen this argument before of the defender getting a bonus or even defender going always first. Personally I would like it to see it the other way around, because that would encourage aggressiveness. Explaining this would really depend on how you see warp point travel. Is the warp point sending out some forewarning (as seen on TV) or is the attacker able to predict his ETA (emerging from the wormhole) and catch the defender by surprise. Even if the defender is lying in wait you could reason that he would not be on battle alert (keeping shields and weapons charged) at all time, while the attacker knows that a battle is coming up pretty soon...
For the same reasons as experience I wouldn't like combat sensors to get initiative bonuses as well. Being able to hit better, doesn't mean you'll go first. The only component I would be comfortable with getting bonuses is sensors (you know, Hyper Optics and such) with +5/-5 for each sensor level better than the enemies. And of course only one component per fleet being effective. So if I have Hyper Optics III on one of my ships and the enemy only Gravitic Sensors I, I would get a +10 on going first.
Hmm, now that I have written this, I like the "bulk system" (with the +5/-5 per ship size) better than a simple 50/50. Perhaps with another +5 to the attacker and the sensors modifiers (not necessarily).
Just my 0.02. I would like to hear your opinions. Feel free to tell me that my idea is complete BS (and I don't mean Battle Station
).
Rollo
[This message has been edited by Rollo (edited 11 October 2001).]