User:Rogue 9/STGOD2020 Intermediate

Combat Mechanics Guidelines

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 Fleet Weight in damage per turn. Fleet weight is simply the base points of all ships in the fleet. Players can declare that ships are not firing, and those ships would not contribute to Fleet Weight. A ship that is not firing and not running away may still be damaged by the opposing fleet.

Each ship has "hitpoints" equal to their base weight. 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 if the attacker chooses he may simply say that he destroys the disabled ships after the battle is over.

Disabled ships can be salvaged by the victor of the battle. Rules for salvage are in the salvage section.

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. He 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). At a future date, there may be a mechanic to lower speed by O targeting the engines.

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

A unit can be a tank, dragon, space whale or whatever else suits the setting you're in. For an STGOD, units will generally be your spaceforce, while for an FTGOD they may be a steampunk navy or an army. Units are basically the smallest things in the game you care about paying for, so in many settings fightercraft and ground units are not even considered units, they're just ammunition. Units are also generally the focus of an OOB (Order of Battle) and often the only thing you can purchase with your production points. The way a unit functions is defined by it's attributes, and can be roleplayed in generally any format you wish.

Ship Abilities

Ships often have special abilities, but do not require them. It may seem obvious at first, but people forget how important the ship's base value is. Many times people will refer to the 'basic' cost of the ship, or it's 'size' or it's 'weight' when trying to determine how well it lands troops or absorbs punishment. There's no fancy name for it, but 'normal' points are those points invested in the ship's base value. A 30+10H ship has purchased 30 basic points.

In addition to whatever specials they have equipped, ships have a full suite of basic abilities based on their base value (that 30 point cost), and buying a 'larger' ship (higher point cost) is the only way to expand it's hit points. A ship's hit points are always equal to it's basic cost, and it gets a point of offense for every point of basic cost as well! This makes the 'basic' attributes of the ship some of the most valuable overall, even if they have no special function besides absorbing punishment and doing basic damage. They'd also get the +1S and +1H that all ships have, giving them a basic competency in hiding and the ability to hyperspace.

They also have what's called a 'baseline competency' with all military equipment. This means, in broad terms, just because your civilization has never encountered a Blorfian does not mean Blorfian weapons automatically penetrate your shields--regardless of how your shields or their weapons work. It also means no vessel is completely devoid of any system, even special systems, but that their basic 'baseline' levels don't matter for much, since everyone has it anyway. A baseline competency doesn't count for anything in the game, but it does help explain how people are able to block railguns AND psychic manipulation AND daemonfire with the same shield equipment.

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

In addition to the basic stats of attack and hitpoints, there's a number of special attributes that can be applied to ships. 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. You are limited to +10 of a single type on a single ship. The bonus conferred by the +value is usually directly equal to the cost of the value. There's one exception to this: all vessels are considered to always have a +1 Hyperspeed Rating and a +1 Stealth Rating, cumulative with any extra they fit their ships with, and Hyperspeed Rating and Stealth Rating use a more complicated system designed to favor smaller vessels. When reading the value calculations, +N refers to the +1-10 value you have assigned the stat on that vessel. It is common practice to bold the abbreviation of a Special Attribute so it is not confused with a numerical value.

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. Furthermore, asking for detailed information about an enemy fleet (numbers, makeup, presence of specific classes or notable ships) often requires you to have at positive adjusted C3 value.
• Attribute Interactions: C3 has decreased function against fleets with Jamming running. You cannot scan a fleet or detect stealthed ships if your C3 rating does not exceed the other fleet's Active Defenses. Stealthed ships may not run Jamming themselves, but can travel along with those that do. All planets are considered to have a C3 rating of +1.

Jamming

Jamming systems inhibit Sensors and Comms, concealing details about your fleet and screening stealth ships from detection. Running Jamming reveals the presence of your fleet, but if the Jamming value is greater than enemy Sensors and Comms, the composition of your fleet and the presence of stealth ships is concealed. Additionally, when at combat ranges a positive Jamming value prevents long range communication by the enemy.

• 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

Stealth is the ability to become invisible to enemy sensor equipment at the cost of movement, attack, and most special systems. Even activating a maneuvering thruster or using a targeting system would betray your location to short-range sensors. However, you may enter and exit Hyperspace while stealthed. Stealthed ships may travel along with non-stealthed ships to gain the advantage of Jamming. Stealth and Hyperdrives do not assign a linear value based on purchase cost, they scale the bonus according to ship size, and assign a 'Rating' describing the effectiveness of that ship. List both the +S and Stealth Rating of your vessels in your OOB.

The Stealth Rating of a vessel is compared to enemy C3 on a ship for ship basis. If no enemy vessel has C3 greater than or equal to the Stealth Rating of the stealthed vessel, it cannot be definitively detected. However, if enemy C3 is close, especially if more than one opposing vessel has high C3 ratings, they may detect sensor ghosts that will alert them to the general presence of a stealth vessel without fixing its location. When roleplaying a stealth vessel, err on the side of interaction.

• Abbreviation: S
• Determining the Value: The value of Stealth decreases based on the overall size of the vessel. Stealth systems are not counted when determining the overall size of the vessel. In plain terms, your Stealth Rating is equal to +N divided by one tenth the cost of the overall non-stealth vessel size, and then added to the automatic +1 Stealth Rating all ships have. A 40+10S vessel would have, therefore, a stealth rating of +3.5, or ((10/4)+1). To compute a vessel's Stealth Rating, use the following calculation:

+S divided by (One Tenth Total Ship Cost besides Stealth) +1 Basic Stealth = Stealth Rating

• 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.

Hyperdrives

Hyperdrives determine your speed in Hyperspace. Like Stealth, Hyperspeed Ratings scale to favor smaller vessels, and use the same calculation for determining the rating. The rating is also used as a speed modifier for strategic map movement, generally interpreted as a multiplier. A 40+10H ship would move 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. It is possible to operate Interdiction fields and Hyperdrives at the same time, though reduce your Hyperspeed Rating by a value equal to +I when determining your movement speed.

• Abbreviation: H
• Determining the Value: The value of Hyperdrives decreases based on the overall size of the vessel, like with Stealth. Hyperdrive systems are not counted when determining the overall size of the vessel. In plain terms, your Hyperspeed Rating is equal to +N divided by one tenth the cost of the overall non-hyperdrive vessel size, and then added to the automatic +1 Hyperspeed all ships have. A 40+10H vessel would have, therefore, a hyperspeed rating of +3.5, or ((10/4)+1). To compute a vessel's Hyperspeed Rating, use the following calculation:

+H divided by (One Tenth Total Ship Cost besides Hyperdrives) +1 Basic Hyperspeed = Hyperspeed Rating

• 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.

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.

Building an Empire

Points

At the start of the game, players each get an equal number of points to buy their ships, 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 2k8, each player starts with 2000 Industrial points.

Nation Points

Nation points are used to buy national bonuses. For STGOD 2k8, each player gets 500 nation points.

Planet Points

Planet points are used to buy planets. Although these are called "planet points," one could conceivably buy things like large space stations, asteroid colonies, deep space settlements, etc. For STGOD 2k8, each player gets 100 planet points.

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, either by giving a bonus to something or potentially a penalty. Of note is that all empires are assumed to have basic competency (as would be reasonably defined by the setting) 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

Lets you get fresh ammo, food, and replacement parts and crews from the points of production to the front faster and more efficiently. The in-game effect is an increase in the repair rate of units. Depending on repair mechanics, may also reduce the need for dry-docking and the like.

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

Whether consummate looters or recyclers, improving this stat allows you to haul away more valuable goods at the end of a battle. 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. The ships are effective patrol boats, with an effective Weight of 1. 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 the 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.

Planets

"Planets" or "Territories" (or whatever the applicable term is) are important in any TGOD. They hold your citizens, provide your industrial capability, and if they are all gone, your empire does not have long to last. Planets come in different qualities and sizes, and the better a planet is, the more industrial capability it will have, and the better of a target it will be for an enemy. Hostile powers can invade your planets and capture them, taking its industrial capability for their own.

In STGOD 2k8, 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.

Running an Empire

Time Management

The passing of time in an TGOD 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. Remember that 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.

All ships cost 20% their total cost a turn to maintain. 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 (points in Bombardment are especially handy for this) 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.