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[USEC_OFFICER]

Sort of; you download the game state from a remote host, then upload orders to that host, which will process them and put up new state files.  The posts people are making are more AAR-type descriptions.

It's a play-by-post system with a central host to manage things. Not terribly complicated in the least.

[SuicideJunkie]

FFA Odds update, turn 11:
Girlinhat: 2:3  (40%) #Potential of defeating an enemy here.  16 turns worth of hull damage from USEC, but 50% out of the firing arc this turn.
Ed:  3:7      (30%) # Recovering damage with no immediate risk
USEC:  1:19 (5%) # Horrible position - Girlinhat is going to get a full volley against the starboard side of the ship.  High risk of crippling damage and defeat.  Escape still possible but depends on luck.
Dessard:  1:3  (20%) # Only remaining undamaged ship


Edit:
Note to USEC:
You can aim at the hex closest to Girlinhat that is still in your fire arc; you should get a 50% fringe hit on her ship, which will mean about 3-5 turbolaser hits and 1 or 2 disruptor hits.

[Girlinhat]

I had to use the "aim at arc's edge" trick once this game already.  It only works on one side, I assume due to rounding.  On the one side, you can target the edge of the firing arc, but on the other side you can't target the edge, so you get closer to 35% hit rate as you have to try and edge it.

I must commend those missiles though.  A futile act I believe, but it caught me off guard!

[SuicideJunkie]

The fire arcs are rounded clockwise to ensure each arc gets an equal number of legal aim locations.  I should probably bite the bullet and make the diagonals have multiple valid arcs.  Perhaps even allow weapons (like light lasers and disruptors) to fire out into multiple arcs.

[Girlinhat]

Both of those make sense.  Allowing light lasers to traverse multiple arcs would really help.  They don't have the power to be real weapons, and their usage as point defense is limited by their firing arc.

Also it occurred to me, for afterburners, just have a smaller engine that gives a lot more thrust, but consumes way more power than it should.  Cheaper and smaller, but loses energy efficiency.

[SuicideJunkie]

One other feature I will be adding this weekend is a GUI option to "blink" your shields/gunports.  This would be a matter of issuing both an enable and a disable order to the same component, so that it disables as the weapons fire, and then enables at the end of the turn so you're protected from next turn's weapons.
The engine already supports it, there's just no gui option yet.

[ekolis]

This will make gunports infinitely more useful! Though it will be rather tedious to have to blink them every turn you want to fire...

And the reason you'd want to blink your shields, in case anyone was wondering, was for firing EMP's. If you disable your shields, the EMP will have no effect on them!

[Girlinhat]

I think the 1 turn delay for disable-enable shields while firing EMPs is perfectly balanced.  You shut down the enemy's shield, but you don't just do it for free.  If blinking is an option, shields become obsolete - everyone packs EMPs and attempts to blink, and with everyone using EMPs then shields quickly become overwhelmed and become unused.

Gunports make more sense.  But, more practically, just enable your own weapons to pass through.  Like, shields already let you fire your own weapons and engines through, but blocks enemy fire.  So, if gunports had the same function of letting friendly fire pass, it'd do the exact same thing, but with less player fooling with buttons.

Granted, blinking gunports does increase the commands used per turn, which adds a bit of balance.  It adds weight AND command penalty, so it sort balances against your ability to fire your weapon from behind armor.

[SuicideJunkie]

Blinking does leave you open to return fire for one turn, but it will not be obvious to the enemy which turn unless you are predictable in your tactics.  This is a significant difference from not blocking LoS, which would allow you to shoot out but enemies to never be able to shoot back in.

Blinking shields will cost even more CnC than gunports, since you've gotta blink or lower ALL the shields on your ship.
I figure the cost is going to be about 10-15 for the big ships you've got.  More like 3-4 for a fighter.  Which means any ship should be able to do it, but it will cost all of the ship's CnC focus to accomplish, leaving little for guns/repair.

Currently, it is legal to blink the shields, but you have to edit the PLR yourself to do so, and nobody has yet bothered.
Or, if you have double the shield coverage on your ship, you can have group A enabled, and group B disabled, then disable As and enable Bs as you detonate.  Both shields will be down for the turn of the blast, but you'll have the B group up for next turn.
The same principle would apply to having paired gunports and swapping between the two each turn.



I could also modify the server to disallow enable+disable on a single component in one turn, but I'd prefer to simply change the turn order to have both enable and disable either before or after the fire phase.  Not sure which.

Before would mean you could defend by snapping the shields up only after you see the enemy is aimed at you, and keeping them off the rest of the time.  You could take snap shots through your gunports as they open, and surprise-detonate EMPs as you drop your shields.

After would mean you would get an extra turn of protection from shields and not have to pay the energy upkeep for the turn they drop.  (You'd have pre-paid it when you raised shields without getting protected the first turn they rise tho)  You'd have to wait a turn for your gunports to open and shields to drop before safely firing weapons or EMPs, so no surprises.

[Girlinhat]

A big part of the game is sheer tactics.  Understanding the enemy, the cues to their movement, and their ship.  That's how I managed to get my 2nd shot on the enemy's flank in the current FFA - I decelerated unexpectedly and had my firing line open, while the enemy thought I was going to maintain or accelerate and be in his firing cone.  The capabilities of my ship are clear (the engines are visible) but the way in which they're used is the key.

Blinking shields for EMP, to me, would make combat less easy to predict and more 'random laser fights'.  The game being choreographed and visible makes combat into a dance for evenly matched ships.  You have to maneuver and aim so that you have a good firing line while the enemy does not.  Being able to evade an EMP because its incoming activation is visible would be better.  It means the attacker has to be better at timing and tactics.  If weapons can fore more quickly, the advantage is on the attacker's side, and fights become less tactical and more slugfest.

Generally speaking, I support any change that gives the advantage to the defender, and oppose changes that gives the advantage to the attacker.  If it's more difficult to land attacks, then it's more tactics involved and more fun.  The challenge of landing a decisive blow is the core of the game, to me.  It makes the difference between "ship vs ship" and "player vs player".

[SuicideJunkie]

Managing to be unpredictable or better yet misleading in a game where all the options to both sides are visible is definitely a good and important thing, I agree.

It seems to me, that if your ship is close enough to the target to blink and detonate EMPs, that action is quite predictable.  The counter would be discouraging its use via a constant sustainable attack level, and moving out of range.
You probably shouldn't let a ship of that design get that close either (much like a missile really)

It sounds like you don't have an issue with blinking gunports, paying double CnC cost in order to get localized armor protection back in half the normal time.

Blinking for EMPs... actually that doesn't even make sense.  Shields don't block your own shots anyways, so the EMP wave will pass harmlessly through them outwards no matter what you do.
There's really no point in blinking shields at all, since they still cost you energy that turn but provide no protection while blinking.
...I need to reconsider the EMP warheads in terms of balance...

[USEC_OFFICER]

The good news is that I managed to escape from Girlinhat. The bad news is that I had to leave behind a quarter of my ship to do so.

See you guys in 100~ turns, when I finally manage to rebuild and repair my ship.

EDIT: Can't hull segments be repaired?

[ekolis]

Hull segments can be repaired, but it's slow - one point every 3 turns for the small ones, and faster for the large ones, IIRC.

Armor segments, on the other hand, cannot be repaired.

[Shooer]

Probably going to surrender soon, so not to drag this on to much longer than it needs to be.

[USEC_OFFICER]

Probably going to surrender soon, so not to drag this on to much longer than it needs to be.

I'd like to take a moment to say that we almost completed 1/4^th of the Foxtrot game today. Having people all on at the same time is amazing.