User:Rogue 9/STGOD2020 Intermediate
Mechanics Guidelines
First and foremost, these mechanics are things to fall back on in the event of a disagreement in the roleplay. If there is agreement, events can contradict these rules - but this does not permanently invalidate them (?).
Fleet Combat
Fleets can be any size from one ship to a whole lot of ships. Fleets can only fire on other fleets. Fleets do 1/5 of their base cost in damage per turn. Players can declare that ships are not firing, and those ships do not contribute to combat - but can still be fired upon. Each ship has "hitpoints" equal to their base cost. Damage is distributed to ships in the fleet by the defending player. Ships brought to 0 points are disabled and cannot fight, move, or interact with other ships under their own power. Disabled ships can no longer take damage from regular attacks, but can be destroyed at the end of a battle if whoever wins so chooses. (“Wins” here means being in control of the battlespace at the end). Disabled ships can be salvaged by the victor of the battle, receiving 5% of the disabled ships' value as a bonus to their next turn's production. Part (or all) of a fleet may choose to retreat instead of attacking. The retreating ships are treated as a separate fleet for targeting purposes.
Retreating
A fleet can declare that it is retreating, and the damage it does while retreating will be halved. The turn that a retreat is called, the opposing fleet will continue to fire at it for full damage. For every turn that a retreat lasts after that, both fleets fire for half damage.
There are several methods of retreating. You can have your ships retreat as a fleet, or retreat as fast as they can individually. Retreating as a fleet means that your ships stay together, traveling at the speed of the slowest ship. Retreating individually means that all your ships flee as fast as they can, possibly staying with ships of the same speed, or just scattering.
Retreating is not always successful. The turn after the retreat is called, the other fleet may choose to pursue. They can pursue as a fleet, or divided up into smaller groups. A fast ship can catch slower retreating ships, and continue the fight.
Hyperspacing Away
While retreating, a fleet can (and should!) charge hyperdrives to run away. Charging a hyperdrive while retreating takes 3 combat turns.
Speed
A ship's speed is equal to its normal base weight, and is modified by R. A 10-pt ship has a speed of 10. That same 10-pt ship at 3 HP also has a speed of 10. A 10+10R ship has a speed of 5. A 1+10R ship has a speed of -9 (it works).
Smaller ships are faster than larger ships.
If an attacker's ship is facing a defender with the same (or faster) speed, the defender may choose to avoid combat indefinitely. If the attacker has a faster speed, he can force an engagement.
Speed has no effect in battle, besides retreating.
Battle Damage
There are no special penalties for ships that have taken damage: their base weight is already reduced which means that their attacks will be weaker.
Combat Turns
Each combat turn is one hour in real-time, unless both sides agree to something different.
Designing a Unit
The way a unit functions is defined by its attributes, and can be roleplayed in generally any format you wish. In other words, a “unit” can be a ship, or a squadron of fighters, or a floating wizard’s head in space - they all follow the same rules. Units are henceforth referred to as “vessels”, “ships”, or “units”. Units are “bought” with production points, their “Base Cost” reflecting how powerful that unit is. They are otherwise abstracted. This is the X half of the “X+YZ” format unit stat lines use. A unit’s hit points are equal to this base cost, and it contributes its base cost to damage inflicted by a fleet. For example: a ship with 30 points does 6 points worth of damage per combat round, and takes 30 points worth of damage to destroy.
Ship Abilities
Ships often have special abilities, but do not require them. A 30+10H ship has purchased 30 basic points. Every unit has the ability to “run silent” and “hyperspace”, which mechanically means every unit has a base of +1S and +1H. All combat paradigms - missiles, railguns, magic, space tentacles etc - are considered equally valid. You do not get to ignore someone’s railguns just because your ship uses impeller wedges.
Troop Abilities
An army's cost in points may be referred to as its "force." Ground combat is more abstracted as defined in the siege and invasion guidelines, and armies do not purchase specializations. In general, to successfully invade and subdue a planet, you must deploy troops equal to three times its current garrison strength, and until the population is assimilated, must garrison with regular troops equal to its industrial output.
Special Attributes
These do not raise the basic attack or hitpoints level of a vessel, but are given special tactical importance that makes them useful for other situations. A single ship can only have up to +10 in each specialisation. A ship can have multiple specialisations, so long as they are paid for. The bonus conferred by the +value is usually directly equal to the cost of the value. In other words, the +YZ = the industrial points spent on Z. This is the "+YZ” half of the “X+YZ” statline, where Z refers to the specialisation in question. All vessels are considered to always have a +1 Hyperspeed Rating and a +1 Stealth Rating, in addition to any extra they fit their ships with. Determining H and S Values: Hyperspeed Rating and Stealth Rating use a more complicated system designed to favor smaller vessels. This system works as follows: S and H are both equal to +N divided by one tenth the cost of the overall vessel minus its S or H value, and then added to the automatic +1 Stealth/hyperdrive Rating all ships have. A 40+10S vessel would have, therefore, a stealth rating of +3.5, or ((10/4)+1). Compare this to a 1+10S vessel, which has a stealth rating of (10/0.1)+1 - or +101! This is the formula: +S/H divided by (Ship Cost Ignoring S or H /10) +1 Basic Stealth/Hyperspeed = Stealth/Hyperspeed Rating. The following are the specialisations currently in use:
Sensors and Comms
Sensors and Comms give the fleet access to greater intelligence gathering equipment, allowing them to retrieve useful information about the enemy and reveal prowling stealth ships. Improvements here can also extend the range of your sensors, making you able to determine these things from a longer range. Having an extremely large advantage in Sensor coverage often plays into Moderator damage assessments.
• Abbreviation: C3 • Determining the Value: +N points of C3 can reveal an equal or lesser Stealth Rating on short and long range sensors. • Asking for detailed information about an enemy fleet (numbers, makeup, presence of specific classes or notable ships) requires you to have a C3 value that is not negative. • Attribute Interactions: Total C3 = C3 - Enemy’s J value. You cannot scan a fleet or detect stealthed ships if your C3 rating does not exceed the other fleet's Jamming. Stealthed ships may not run Jamming themselves, but can travel along with those that do. All settlements are considered to have a C3 rating of +1.
Jamming
• Abbreviation: J • Determining the Value: +J reduces enemy C3 effectiveness, forcing an enemy to have a greater fleetwide +C3 rating than your +J rating before they can gain specific details about your fleet.
Stealth
When roleplaying a stealth vessel, keep in mind that the aim of the game is to interact with other players - try to avoid simply saying “my ship sees all and you see nothing”. • Abbreviation: S • Attribute Interactions: Because all ships have a +1 Stealth Rating, a fleet with no C3 equipped vessels would be unable to locate an enemy force from long range if they chose to 'run silent.' If an enemy has a vessel with C3 rating equal or greater to your Stealth Rating, you may be located and targeted as normal. All planets are considered to have a C3 rating of +1. • Stealthed ships are only Stealthed when inert, though they may enter and exit Hyperspace while stealthed. S = 0 when a ship is moving or firing.
Hyperdrives
Hyperdrives determine your speed in Hyperspace. The rating is used as a speed multiplier for strategic map movement.
• Abbreviation: H • Attribute Interactions: Hyperspeed Rating directly relates to your Strategic movement speed. • The higher your Hyperspeed Rating, the fewer losses you are expected to take when fleeing a combat zone. • A 40+10H ship - i.e. one with a Hyperspeed rating of +3.5 - moves 350% of normal movement speed, while a ship with no additional hyperdrives moves 100% of normal movement speed as determined by their natural +1 Hyperspeed Rating. • “Normal Movement Speed” is variable between games.
Realspace Engines
Realspace engines allow tactical movement before a battle and while retreating. They do nothing in a battle. • Abbreviation: R • Determining the value: First, determine the base speed of a ship, which is equal to the base weight of the ship while it is undamaged. For every two points of R, the base speed value of a ship is reduced by 1. A 10+10R ship would have a base speed of 10-(10/5) = 5. A 1+10R ship would have a base speed of -4. • Attribute interactions: R does not interact with anything else. • A fleet with a higher speed rating can dictate the terms of an engagement.
Building an Empire
Points
At the start of the game, players each get an equal number of points to buy their ships, troops, planets, racial bonuses, and special technology. Points are distributed into three categories.
Industrial Points
Industrial points are used to buy and maintain ships and troops. The ratio is up to the player, but a power without a strong fleet is vulnerable and one without an army can't take territory. For STGOD 2k20, each player starts with 3000 Industrial points.
Nation Points
Nation points are used to buy national bonuses. For STGOD 2k20, each player gets 500 nation points.
Planet Points
Planet points are used to buy settlements. Although these are called "planet points," one could conceivably buy things like large space stations, asteroid colonies, deep space settlements, etc. For STGOD 2k20, each player gets 100 planet points.
Planets/Settlements
In STGOD 2k20, planets come in ten categories, represented by the numbers 1-10. A planet's number represents its quality. The industrial output of a planet is its quality * 10. A class 1 planet produces 10 Industrial Points per turn, and a 10 point planet produces 100 Industrial Points per turn. There can be no more than 25 points of planets in one system.
Nation Customization
As a further method of customizing your empire, each game may allow the empires to spend points on different national attributes. These modify how well you do certain things, giving a bonus or a penalty. Of note is that all empires are assumed to have basic competency in the areas mentioned below.
Basic Abilities
These are the basic things that can generally be bought by all empires, and are mostly setting non-specific, although the names can be referred to differently in game (for example Improved Sensor Networks could be called Extended Scrying in a FTGOD). As a general rule of thumb, every attribute point spent in these abilities improves the ability by 1%, unless mentioned otherwise.
Improved Logistics
A nation with Improved Logistics may repair ships in the field. For every 100 points, at the beginning of each turn, ships in the field will have a quarter of their current damage, rounded down, repaired. For a nation with 100 in Improved Logistics, a 50-point ship at 11 HP would repair itself to ((50-11)/4)+11 = 20 HP. For a nation with 200 points in Improved Logistics, that ship would repair 25% plus 25% of the remaining 75%, or 44% (rounded up). For 300 points, 58% would be repaired per turn. A ship with HP below 10% of its base weight cannot auto-repair, and must return to a base to be repaired. In addition, if a nation with Improved Logistics wins or successfully retreats from a battle, they may immediately repair as if a turn just passed. Improved Logistics has no effect on prepared repair.
Improved Espionage
The ability of your agents to blend in and vanish, get into places they shouldn't be, and gather information from a wide variety of sources. The higher this ability, the more information you receive on espionage missions and the lower your chances of being caught. Is compared to the target's counter-espionage rating.
Improved Counter-Espionage
The ability of your internal security to track down people who are in places they shouldn't be and doing things they shouldn't be doing. Higher ratings reduce how much intel can be gathered on you and increase the chances of catching an enemy agent.
Improved Salvage
Under normal circumstances, the victor of a battle may choose to salvage the disabled ships (on all sides) of a battle and receive a bonus to the next turn's production of 5% of the total points value of destroyed ships. For every 20 points in Improved Salvage, the percentage you can salvage increases by 1. A nation with 500 points in Improved Salvage could salvage 30% of disabled ships. Note: you cannot salvage destroyed ships.
Improved Assimilation
Increases the rate at which conquered worlds/cities/whatever are brought into productive compliance. May serve as a placeholder for the moment while ground combat mechanics are worked out.
System Defenses
You purchase system defenses with racial points, and they act as "free" ships. The defender may use these ships only during defensive actions. These are represented by units with a cost of 1. They can be role-played as anything - satellites, star fortresses, minefields, gas clouds that somehow only explode when enemy ships are nearby, etc etc. 100 pts buys 1 of these ships per planet point in that system. So a system with 25 pts of planets would get 25 of these ships. 200 points buys 2 per planet point, etc. These ships do not count as ships in your fleet, do not take maintenance, and are replaced for free at the beginning of each turn. For every 100 racial points in system defenses, you can only use as many of these ships as a quarter the point value of normal ships in-system. That means a nation with 100 points in system defenses, with 25 points of planets and 50 points of ships in-system, would have that 100 point fleet plus 12 patrol boats. If they spend 200 racial points in this, then they would get the 50 pt fleet plus 25 patrol boats. If they spent 200 racials and have a 100-pt fleet in-system, then they get the full 50 patrol boats that the system has. So it only takes 100 points of normal ships in-system to get the full system defense bonus.
Penalties
Any of the above attributes can be decreased in exchange for extra attribute points. The exchange is non-linear and follows this pattern: -10 penalty = +10 extra points -30 penalty = +20 extra points -60 penalty = +30 extra points -100 penalty = +40 extra points -150 penalty = +50 extra points Etc.
Outsider Tags
These are tags with a basic cost that indicates outsider status, which generally affects espionage and counter-espionage, placement, and the ability to purchase certain other attributes. In STGOD 2k8, outsider tags preclude the purchase of technological caches. Note that any counter-espionage and espionage bonuses or penalties may not apply to other outsider cultures, but that is up to the players and mods to roleplay on a case by case basis. Use common sense and fair play.
Barbarian
This empire is from outside the normal boundaries of civilization, and may in fact be quite civilized, but their ways are very different from standard, and the feeling is mutual. Gives +30 counter-espionage, -30 espionage, and the right to be located well away from the majority of other empires. Costs 50 attribute points.
Extragalactic/Extradimensional
Your empire is from way outside the norms. Like Barbarian only more so. Requires permission to use as too many empires with this trait would become silly. Gives +60 to counter-espionage, -60 to espionage in addition to the normal benefits and costs of the Barbarian
Improved Technology
These are special attributes in that they may be captured, unlike the basic ones and the outsider tags. They however allow for normal rules of unit design to be bent somewhat. To represent their capturable nature, all Improved Technologies must have a world/city declared as their location.
Improved Shipyards
These allow for the construction of units larger than the normal 50 point cap. For every 10 points invested, the cap is increased by 1 point. Note that all units over the cap produced after the start of the game begin at the same place as the shipyard.
Running an Empire
Time Management
The passing of time is marked by turns. There are two types of turns, production and combat.
Production Turns
Production turns are generally anywhere from 2 months to 1 year in-game. These turns are major time increments, and signal the passing of enough time for your shipyards to churn out new ships. You get your current allotment of Industrial Points from your currently-held planets to spend at the beginning of Production turns. Production turns are typically long enough for your ships to move across the known world/galaxy/universe.
Combat Turns
Combat turns are about one hour long in-game. They represent "turns" of action while in combat, and also manage the arrival of reinforcements. During one combat turn, opposing ships may fire, attempt to escape, and any other reasonable combat action. A short skirmish may only take two combat turns, and end with both sides withdrawing, while a major battle might take 12 combat turns, enough time for both sides to bring in reinforcements. Depending on where the battle is taking place, players may be able to bring in reinforcements. A player defending in his own territory may be able to bring in reinforcements on turn 4, while an attacker far from home may not be able to bring in reinforcements at all. There is no set rule for this, be reasonable and talk to the opposing player to resolve conflicts. In STGOD2k8, each map hex takes one day to cross with a normal hyperdrive. This is equivalent to about 12 combat turns.
Production Management
At the beginning of each turn, you declare the numbers and types of ship you want to produce. The ship types typically are detailed in your OOB. You may choose to commission new ship classes, but these must then be recorded in your OOB. Part of your total production must be allocated to maintenance of your current ships, otherwise you cannot keep them in full fighting condition.
Fleet Management
Movement
To move your fleet around, just RP your fleet doing something. If location is important, you may want to make a note of it, either on the overall map, or just in relation to some other point of reference (ie: in a hostile star system). Make sure you reference the rules on ship strategic speeds before you make any long-distance moves.
Maintenance and Repair
Your fleet takes production points to maintain. The default is 20% of the ship's production cost, for maintenance each turn. That means a person with a fleet of 2000 points needs to spend 400 industrial points per turn to maintain his fleet in full fighting condition. Failure to provide enough points for maintenance will result in the faction being required to sell/scrap/dry-dock ships until they are no longer in a deficit situation. Selling requires another faction to be willing to buy the ships, at an agreed upon price, while scrapping requires no buyer and yields half the cost of the ship into that turn’s point pool. Dry-docking can either be maintained or mothballed. Maintained means that the supply cost is 1% the total per turn, but no degradation takes place. Mothballed means that the ship requires no supply, but loses 10% of its effectiveness a turn, to a minimum of 5%, and must have points allocated to repairs when taken out of dry-dock. Damaged ships can return to drydock for repair. There are two forms of repair: automatic and prepared. In prepared repair, a nation can set aside a certain number of industrial points for repair purposes. One of their damaged ships may go to drydock, use the repair points, and be immediately available that same turn for more combat. In this method, a ship takes 1/4 of an industrial point to repair 1 point of base point value, rounded up. a 10 hp ship brought down to 2 hp would take (10-8 )/4=1 industrial points to repair. A 50 hp ship brought down to 13 hp would take (50-13)/4=9.25 ~= 10 points to repair. In automatic repair, a ship is brought to the shipyards, and is fully repaired for free at the beginning of the next turn.
Siege and Invasion Guidelines
This section is a work in progress, and currently a source of much contention. Consider any rules that DO get put here to be EXTREMELY unofficial.
Laying a Siege
Tempting as it might be to simply shell planets into submission, Earth-like worlds are rare, and glassing them will seriously impact the interstellar economy and food supply, as well as deny you the industrial benefit of possessing the planet. Warships may selectively bombard a planet to reduce its planetary defenses, but doing this while leaving infrastructure intact is a painstaking process. Every full production turn spent bombarding a planet lowers its garrison strength by the base attack value of the bombarding fleet (so a fleet with a total 100 base weight will reduce the planetary defenses by 20 points), but also lowers its category (and thus industrial output) by 1. A planet reduced to a category of 0 is effectively useless.
Taking Territory
A planet is assumed to have garrison forces, be they reservist formations or militia, equal in power to ten times the planet's value - a class 1 colony has a garrison equal to 10 points, and a class 10 world has a garrison equal to 100 points. This may be enhanced by troops purchased with industrial points. In order to successfully take a planet without leaving pockets of resistance, troops equal to three times the power of the garrison must be landed. Given that, fully securing a planet takes a number of production turns equal to half its category rounded up. Until the planet is fully secured, a would-be conqueror does not gain the benefit of its industrial output or any technological upgrades assigned to the territory.
Population Assimilation
This is a matter for roleplay. Assimilation is an extremely subjective thing that does not lend itself to hard rules; an oppressed population might greet invaders as liberators or one that was well treated before and treated badly by the invaders might resent occupation for years. This will mostly be a moderator call. Until the population is ruled assimilated, the conqueror must continue to garrison the planet with regular troops, does not gain the use of free planetary militia, and the original owning power does not need to undergo an assimilation period if they take back the planet.
Extra / Changed Rule Ideas
Combat limited to a fixed number of combat turns per strategic turn per fleet - the rationale being that after that point you are out of ammunition/the crew is tired/god tells you to stop. The main OOC reason for this is that combat in RPGs in general tends to drag on a bit, so this helps reduce burnout. Nation points given out as a reward for interaction/completing story beats Making Units “respawn” after a turn or two - to prevent snowballing. Not literal respawning - but you get their cost back? Defences as an industrial point spend - but then turtling becomes a problem? The unit design rules allow for very simplified OOBs if desired - rather than having 10 ships of 10 points each, have a fleet of 100 points. This could solve a lot of the issues people’ve been having?