Honor Harrington

Texfire · #1 May 1st, 2002, 06:48 PM

I was just reading the thread about a PBW game based on David Weber's Starfire universe and was wondering if anyone had considered making a mod based his other space opera universe. I am sure that modeling the wedges would be almost impossible but can you imagine two walls of ships of the line having at each other like the wooden ships of the Age of Sail? How about re-creating the naval battles of WW1 in space?

Texfire

Talenn · #2 May 1st, 2002, 07:49 PM

Yes, it would be tough to model the 'Wall of Battle' of the HH novels, but the 'feel' of the tech base and whatnot is really not beyond the realm of possibility. I had a mod from long ago that attempted to do so and was fairly close.

It de-emphasized research and emphasized ship size/weapons interactions. The AI couldnt handle it at all and I eventually gave up on it, but the basis of the ideas are what I posted in the 'Art of War' mod thread.

Dan · #3 May 2nd, 2002, 05:11 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Texfire:
I was just reading the thread about a PBW game based on David Weber's Starfire universe.....
Texfire

I don't recall seeing that thread. I'd like to play a Starfire game. Can you point me to it?

Texfire · #4 May 2nd, 2002, 07:07 PM

Here's the link. It doesn't have Starfire in the title.

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...&f=23&t=005175

Texfire

Phoenix-D · #5 May 2nd, 2002, 08:18 PM

The scenerio is currently full, but I'll be releasing it for public use once I'm done. Runs on a slightly modified Proportions (2.2, once PvK releases that).

As for HH: the hardest point would be the laser-head missiles. The ONLY way to simulate them is to use drones; but you can't aim drones, and they automatticlly fire as fast as they can (lowest is one per turn per launcher).

Phoenix-D

Dan · #6 May 4th, 2002, 06:41 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
The scenerio is currently full, but I'll be releasing it for public use once I'm done. Runs on a slightly modified Proportions (2.2, once PvK releases that).

I look forward to it. Thanks for the link Tex.

Gil Hamilton · #7 May 4th, 2002, 09:15 AM

Is Starfire the one where there were two battling human cultures and the smaller fleet took the larger by surprise and better tactics? I liked that one.

There's another story, can't remember title nor author- One guy from defeated society gets a hold of "supership x" or somename, and makes it back toward Earth, he has this "projector x" thing which, when activated, poof/presto- instant fully armed and ready battallion. "Wolf something?" It's mentioned in the story that with a slight mod, he could have projected lots of battallions. I often wondered why ST never developed this as an alternate means of creating enormous fleets/armys for those "desperate" times.

And- Another story-think it may have been several books- where (of course) the hero is a young prince in hiding, but, with much daring and feats of wonder, works his way up through the fleet. I love the mental image, the book gives at several points, of the fleet "docked" on the ground over hover pools. Great actioner! At least one, if not the whole series, was titled after one of the ranks he made. Great opening scene with the ship he's on getting torn up with laser turrets, missile salvos and zero atmosphere during combat to avoid explosive decompression in the event of hull breach- might be a good branch/feature for research.....

Pit Bull · #8 May 31st, 2002, 07:20 PM

I reckon the game already has a very HH like feel to it anyway.

It would need inertial movement, but I understand there are mods which address this.

It needs missiles for long range combat. SE4 has these.

It needs energy weapons for short range combat that dish out a lot of damage very quickly. SE4 has these.

It needs area defence countermissiles. SE4 point defences fulfill this role. SE4 point defences are actually misnamed, and should be called area defences IMHO.

It needs point defences that only defend the ship they are mounted on, and only against seekers. This SE4 doesn't have. The closest feel you could get to it that I can think of would be to rename shield regenerators as point defence, this would give a certain amount of ability to absorb damage per turn, but be capable of being saturated by continual attack. Not perfect I accept, but part way there.

Lastly, HH shields are directional (having weakness 'down the throat and up the kilt', and that is not modeled by SE4. On the other hand, does it really matter? In large fleet engagements the tactics of the wall of battle etc have evolved to defend these weaknesses. Admittedly, Honor has had several battles where exploitation of these weaknesses has allowed her to emerge victorious, but these have generally been 1 on 1 engagements rather than fleet actions.

Fundamentally, HH battles involve lobbing lots of missiles at one another for relatively little attrition, followed by mass slaughter if the range is closed. SE4 feels like that too. (so far, for me anyway).

Pit Bull

oleg · #9 May 31st, 2002, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pit Bull:

It needs point defences that only defend the ship they are mounted on, and only against seekers. This SE4 doesn't have. The closest feel you could get to it that I can think of would be to rename shield regenerators as point defence, this would give a certain amount of ability to absorb damage per turn, but be capable of being saturated by continual attack. Not perfect I accept, but part way there.

Pit Bull

This scenario is based on Proportions mod which has self-defence cannon. SDC has a radius of fire 1 and is almost useless against fighters (they have weapons with firing distance of 2 or 3) but very good against missiles and drones.

Pit Bull · #10 May 31st, 2002, 07:33 PM

I'm new to SE4, haven't looked at the mods yet.

But does a short range work? Wouldn't the seekers go from out of range to impact in their movement unless you happened to be at just the right range (seeker speed +1)?

Pit Bull