[Ikeprof]

Wrote this years ago.

Basic proposals:
Externalized docking. Eliminates the blindness of who is outside the station when you are inside and who is inside when you are out. Ships inactive for more than 24 hours are moved to internal station docking by robot droids

Construction lasers. Used to build items directly by consuming materials in the hold of the ship versus dropping off items at a staging point and letting TRI do the work. Uses a wireframe hologram at the construction point with frame progressing from a center point outwards.

Command and Control Ship class - the detail in the following describes it pretty well.

Ikeprof sighed inwardly while pretending to listen sympathetically to the transport pilot complain about the new docking strut's length from the stations core. Nodding sagely and muttering appropriate "uh-huh's" at the correct interval Ikeprof thought about how old he was becoming.

The new docking system was a bit different than the old way but it was improving every day and sure as heck beat the mess that resulted when TRI expanded the recruiting effort without taking into account current station docking capacities. That fiasco resulted in 6 months of waiting for days at a time for a chance to dock while sitting in space exposed to the universe and attempting to sleep with one eye fixated on the radar scope and hundreds of ship losses due to poor docking pattern management. Before the struts, pilots had to coordinate the traffic themselves as they entered the single tube that allowed a ship to dock. Many a heavy laden tow was lost in collisions with the blundering attempts of a new pilot rotating on all three axis with engines flaring sporadically as they attempted to learn the trade of docking. In many respects Ikeprof preferred the new strut system. As soon as he entered a station sector, he could see at a glance what ships were docked, what ships were powered up and ready for flight, what squads were present and what the rough faction make-up of forces were in the sector.

Back in his early days as a TRI pilot, one was blind to who was in the station and when he docked, one became blind to who was in the sector. Under the new strut system, he simply could glance out his side window and see his friends and enemies ships all neatly in a line on all 4 faces of one of the struts. The familiar station transaction interface activated as soon as the docking clamps closed on the hatch ring in the nose of his ship, but could be toggled off if he needed to access his ships radar system to monitor incoming and outgoing vessels. Had the Quantars not perfected the station force field technology, the whole concept would have never been accepted by the general pilot population, but after proving that 16 morning stars and a fully loaded tow of plutonium could not dent the force field bubbles that protected each ship, the alternative of sitting in space waiting for an internal station bay quickly paled in it's appeal.

A pink flash of light signifying a collapsing force field bubble from his left viewport caught Ikeprofs attention.. Glancing left out the viewport, Ikeprof could make out the Solrain medium transport slowly departing a docking port 30 spots closer to the station. Realizing that Splooshie was waiting for a reply, Ikeprof muttered a "I couldn't agree with you more" response and quickly closed the comm link. Depressing the launch button on his station interface, Ikeprof watched the force field become visible as the shimmering energy of the force field bubble rushed from the rear of his ship towards the strut itself as it collapsed. Mere seconds later felt the gentle nudge as the docking clamps released his craft and pushed him away from the strut at roughly 100v backwards. In a practiced and deft motion, Ikeprof swung the nose of his ship parallel to the strut and roughly towards the station proper without negating his original rearward motion. Drifting sideways, he accelerated gently towards the now vacant shield bubble recently made available by the Solrain craft whose twin engine glow was still visible as it headed outward. Just prior to coming parallel to the docking clamps, he swung his ship on all three axis's at the same time until his inertial vector indicator was pointing directly to the rear of his ship. With a quick glance out the side viewport he timed a pulse of engine power and stopped the Venture class command vessel perfectly. The familiar green cone of the closest available docking port activated as he targeted the station but Ikeprof was beyond needing such docking aids. Rotating again, he lined the nose of his ship up and accelerated towards the docking clamps. One thing he was glad that didn't change was that the new strut system still allowed one to dock at 100v or less. The force field generators which protected the docked ships also served to brake a ship as it approached the clamps. The clang of the clamps engaging rang through his hull and the slight change in cockpit pressure indicated that he was back on station life support systems. A slower glow of pink light swirled around all of the ships viewports as the stations field generators formed a bubble around his ship. The glow cleared as the bubble stabilized and became completely transparent. The station interface appeared again on his HUD. From this spot he had a perfect view of almost the full length of this strut. Knowing that other squad command members were docked on 4 of the 6 other struts emerging on all 3 axis of the station he felt comfortable that minimal activity could occur here without the squad being aware of it.

[Ikeprof]

Continued...

A quick glance to the right showed one of the station port bots clamping on to an apparently abandoned Quantar mining vessel. When a pilot became disabled for over 24 hours, his ship was removed from the docking ports on the struts and placed in the now valuable interior station storage in order to make room for pilots who would be arriving and departing in 24 hours or less. The flare from the port bots engines illuminated the struts surfaces allowing him to truly appreciate the engineering marvel that it was. At over 2K in length on each axis, the strut allowed for hundreds of ships to dock at the same time on all 4 faces of the strut. The interior of the strut was a dizzying blur of high speed shuttles and bots ferrying the commodities, weapons, repair AI units and pilot support materials to the individual ships docked on the struts, but the smooth outside surfaces perfection was broken only by the docking clamps themselves.

It was evident that many of the pilots were enjoying the decrease in combat activities as at least half of the ships on this strut had darkened navigation lights signifying that the pilots were not manning their ships. A quick count showed that a few cargo transport vessels, 1 Quantar fast transport craft and 3 Octavian medium fighters were manned with the rest of the assorted craft showing as powered down.

Knowing that he was due to go on duty in less than 4 hours, Ikeprof tapped the control that adjusted his command chair for sleep settings. �Not enough time to head to the officers quarters� he thought to himself as he drifted off to a restless sleep.

A distorted beeping and the bright blue text of a squad communication message appeared on Ikeprofs HUD at the very top. Wakening from a restless sleep and sitting up in his seat he noted that it was the expected automated reminder telling him it was time to go on combat coordinator duty. Stretching tiredly he de-activated the station interface, glanced out both side cockpit windows and toggled his radar range to maximum. Setting the radar to �in-flight� only mode, he checked the scope for hostiles and bountied pilots. Satisfied the scope was clear, Ikeprof re-activated the station interface and quickly purchased one of the new MK II Morning star missles. Almost immediately he felt the faint tremor as the equipping bot attached the missle to his ships pylon. While the Venture class ship was not directly a combat capable ship given it�s single gun and minimal shielding, it could still mount a missle as a last ditch self defense measure.

Tapping the launch button on the station interface, Ikeprof flipped the ship smoothly over onto it�s back and accelerated quickly towards the Arkans cloud jumpgate after clearing the docking strut and the other ships. Establishing communications with on duty combat coordinator, he confirmed that the battle had lessened to some degree but the conflict in Dark Gateway between Octavian and Solrain forces still raged.

Knowing that he had time before he was required in sector, Ikeprof aimed for The Blasted Corner jumpgate rather than Arkans Cloud. The swirl of blue and white energy cleared his viewport as he jumped, and he slowly rotated towards the anomaly while scanning his radar for anything unusual. A dozen OEC pilots where working side by side with other Octavian ships in constructing the new jumpgate around the anomaly. As TRI budgets shrank, the secret Zirgmirg construction laser were released to the general pilot population. Prior to this, TRI construction drones were responsible for all new station and jumpgate construction, but the exponential rate of growth of the rapidly discovered universe quickly outpaced the ability of TRI to keep up with construction demands. The day�s of dropping off construction materials to a staging station and allowing the TRI drones to do the work were over. Now faction pilots not only had to accumulate the construction materials for new projects, they also had to load these materials into their holds and fly to the construction location with a Zirgmirg laser equipped and take an active part in building whatever the focus of the day was. The Zirgmirg laser slowly used the commodities as it contributed to the construction of a project. A wire frame holoimage told the pilots where to aim the conlaser and if one watched closely, you could see the solid construct form before your eyes.

Ikeprof chucked at the thought of the time that Capt DJMTPocket got his ship trapped between two walls of a supply depot while proclaiming loudly that �he knew damn well which way the wall was going to form�.

�Some people are fighters and some are construction workers� Ikeprof thought to himself.

[Ikeprof]

Continued...

It looked as if the new jumpgate was � done. Data probes had revealed that this gate should lead to the newly discovered �outer loop�. This loop so far had consumed each probe in heavy conflux fire by yet to be identified conflux class frigates, but the promise of discovery and reward had energized most of TRI. Probe data had been intermittent, but vast patches of pure roid fields and some artifact signatures had been mixed in with the data prior to the probes demise. The name Outer Loop was a rough name as it only circled 2/3rds of TRI space at this time, but the general consensus was that it would eventually form a complete circle. Armchairs Wound was the first sector discovered in the outer loop connected to the Path of Hordes sector. It was unanimously decided that the honor should go to Pilot Armchair especially after he suffered his disfigurement during his pod malfunction while studying the original anomaly.

Satisfied that all was well in the sector, Ikeprof, jumped back into Outpost Station sector and went full burn towards Arkans Cloud. Jumping without incident, he traversed Arkans Cloud and Primus Point sectors quickly. Tensing his thumb over the flashfire button, he quickly inquired about gate camp issues at the gate into Dark Gateway. The combat coordinator on duty informed him that no vessels were within 10K of the gate. Ikeprof tensed slightly as he always did when jumping into a known combat sector and was relieved at the lack of shield flaring that indicated incoming fire.

Pitching quickly away from the mess of red and blue dots appearing on his scope Ikeprof aimed his ship away from the battle and into deep space in the sector. At 100K from the Primus Point gate, Ikeprof pitched 90 degrees upward and continued on another 100K in case any enemy ships noticed his original vector and was patiently waiting off scope to follow him out. Thoughtlessly he flipped his ship and braked it in a practiced motion. His hands moved quickly across his control panel as he systematically shut most of his ships subsystems down. Shields, ships radar, weapons systems all went dark as he activated his cloaking modx. Satisfied he would present minimal energy emissions, he notified the combat coordinator on duty that he was in position and ready to assume control of the squads forces. The departing CC officer had little to say, most likely due to his being under qualified for the position. Ikeprof was fine with that as most of the time he found his tactics clashed with those of other CC�s and he knew the men would respond as they always did when he took control.

Activating his ships CC modx system, his entire hud exploded into one huge 3d radar scope of brilliant colors and motion. The three on duty squad scout craft with their powerful radars and electronic systems fed massive torrents of information to his ship real time, allowing him to have a perfect tactical view of the entire battlefield within the 50K radar range of each scout in addition to the information provided by the lesser radars of the other squad combat and cargo craft in the sector. Ikeprof was pleased that at least the departing CC had placed the Griffens in a nice triangle surrounding the bulk of the battle action. Having gotten used to operating with only 2 scout craft, Ikeprof was even more comfortable with the additional information provided by the third scout. Each enemy blue dot on the scope carried a pilot name, squad tags, ship type, shield and armor status, velocity, and current vector indicated by the pointy end of the arrow attached to each dot. Each friendly squad pilots red dot also showed him current number of missiles and afterburner and flashfire counters. The fact that this display filled the screen prevented him from flying at all, but he knew that his job was as important as any other pilots job in this battle.

Having proven long ago that voice communications were inefficient in the milliseconds between life and death battles of the time, the Venture class command coordinator craft were developed by Octavian engineers. Only in conjunction with a scout craft did the ship realize it�s potential. The oversized radars of the scouts were useful in their own, but having the ability to transmit that information to a command ship allowed the larger squads to truly coordinate their efforts as a team. For years the scout craft was dismissed as an ineffective and useless craft in combat, but after the Venture class ship went into production, the scout craft became an integral part of most combat encounters and allowed the newer pilots the ability to take part in some massive battles. Without the scout craft Ikeprof would not be blind, but he knew he would be lacking the important vector and velocity information that only the scouts could provide.

[Ikeprof]

Continued..

Ikeprof quickly scanned the action on the CC scope, rotating it dynamically while taking stock of friendly and foe forces. Apparently the typical strengths and weaknesses of the factional craft were showing through again. The bulk of the Octavian bombers and heavy fighters were concentrated mid sector in an almost perfect sphere with guns pointing outwards. 3 Condor class tows were parked in the center of the sphere loaded out with PWD100�s in order to negate missile threats. A scattering of light fighters equipped with relic gear harassed the enemy bombers and heavy fighters with minimal success at the top of the display. Watching as the vectors of 4 of the enemy bombers converged at the top, Ikeprof readied himself to counter what was obviously the preparation for some form of assualt.

Using the Mechanical Organic Unified Sensory Enhancer (Mouse), Ikeprof simply had to click on a friendly dot, drag the dot onto an enemy dot to create a target for his pilots to concentrate fire upon. Using a variety of key presses on his ships data entry keyboard, he could elevate a target�s level of urgency, create fire teams to work together on a target, create flight groups that he could communicate to directly. The huge radar scope was capable of rotating on any axis using his ships flight control hotas in order to get the best angle to view the battle.

Dragging a box around the 4 bombers, Ikeprof tagged them as a group. Dragging a box around the sphere of his main forces, he deftly tapped the key strokes signifying the primary targets and ordering them to maintain current position and attitude while awaiting the next move.

Quick acknowledgements from his pilots filled his comms screen as the enemy bombers began their run. Mentally extending their vector forwards, he could see they intended to pass tangentially to the sphere and focus on one or two of his bombers rather than attempting to pass through the middle of it and exposing themselves to the bulk of his pilots devastating firepower.

Having seen this type of run before, Ikeprof knew the lightness of the Solrain bomber made vector extrapolation deceptive. If these pilots were under the command of a competent CC, it may be a ruse to which any attempt to counter position his forces could result in more damage than simply bearing the brunt of the run as it stood. He decided that patience was the only option.

Watching the progress of the bombers, Ikeprof realized the opposing CC was not new at this. At roughly 10K distance the first enemy bomber released a single morning star. Bomber pilot Quick indicated missile lock but calmly held his position. At 1K intervals each of the other enemy bombers released a single Morning Star missile also. This type of run was very textbook in terms of forcing exhaustion of PWD100�s. With 15 PWD�s left in the Condor group, Ikeprof was not worried.

Watching the 4 enemy bombers pass by the defensive sphere Ikeprof grew frustrated at the stalemate situation that had developed as seemed par for course these days. Both sides had grown so adept at utilizing the strengths of their crafts that an almost unnatural balance had been achieved. The brutish firepower of the Octavian craft, combined with their heavy armor compensated for the lack of speed and in flight trajectory modification ability. The hard to hit Solrain bombers with their agility and speed suffered from their own deficiencies. Captain McInnus was responsible for the innovative and rather brave concept of the sphere turret defense formation with the PWD tows. Ikeprof suspected it actually evolved from an attempt at salvaging a losing battle, but regardless, it had become standard practice when outnumbered in battle as seemed to be the case the majority of the time. Prior to the development of that formation, Octavian forces had been taking a beating by the Solrain craft who could hit and fade easily at will while the Octavian craft never had that option.

Ikeprof�s continued to issue commands in an almost automatic fashion while pondering the situation. The Solrain bombers flew lazy 8 patterns to exhaust the missiles fired routinely by the fade side of his sphere group. As the missiles disappeared from his scope, the solrain bombers formed up for another pass with each side having inflicted minimal damage. A quick scan of remaining ammunition quantities showed that at least an hour or more of battle at this rate remained before replacement craft would be necessary. One of the Condor�s was almost out of PWD�s but had 4 morning stars equipped. Ikeprof tapped out a quick command instructing that pilot to maneuver to the side of the sphere opposite of the bombers and launch 2 MS�s on a single bomber after they had passed.

The 4 bombers began yet another run, appearing to try a split fork approach this time against the sphere. Two Solrain Intensities appeared in the Greater Locks gate and began an approach approximately 90 degrees from the bombers in an attempt to confuse his forces. Ikeprof assigned two of the bombers to target one of the heavies, while ignoring the other.

As the bombers and fighters arrived at the sphere at almost the same time Ikeprof was pleased to see one of the Intensities blink out of existence. Apparently the heavy had gotten a tad too close to the firepower of his bombers. The remaining intensity afterburned away as the condors PWD�d the incoming missiles. The almost empty Condor assigned to launch his missiles at the departing solrain bomber group did so perfectly as they passed by.

Suddenly at 12K from the sphere the enemy bomber group flipped and flashfired backwards towards the sphere while unloading a missile each. Caught unawares, Ikeprof had only time to issue an alert order and hoped his pilots were awake and sharp. The enemy bombers again vectored in an expanding V to pass on both sides of the sphere. Missiles disappeared as the condors did their job perfectly. Ikeprof relaxed as the surprise tactic by the enemy failed to achieve any measure of success. The enemy bomber group sharply vectored in a mirroring closure to their approach pattern flying again as one group. Rotating the display casually to get a clear view Ikeprof sat up on horror as he realized why the bombers had vectored so harshly to close their V pattern. The two morning star clusters launched by his Condor were attempting to track the original targeted enemy bomber. By flashfiring back at his sphere, the morning stars were left behind to follow. Only by closing the V would the enemy insure that the missiles would fly right back through the sphere. Ikeprof made no attempt to communicate with his pilots as he knew it would be too late to have any effect. A quick wrist motion rotated the display to an angle directly behind the missiles. The first morning star disappeared with the resultant drop in shields to one of his condor�s. The condor itself disappeared from the display as the second morning star impacted it�s hull after narrowly missing one of the bombers.

Ikeprof quickly surveyed his assets. 5 bombers with less than half full missile racks, one condor with 3 PWD�s and one condor with 2 missiles and no pwd�s. The condors had no flashfires and would be quickly overtaken by the enemy bombers. His 3 scouts were maintaining a circular flight pattern around the main battle area while keeping away from the enemy scout craft doing the same thing. Somewhere out there was his counterpart also motionless in space, cloaked and defenseless, coordinating the enemy forces.

[Karash]

Ike, I remember when you originally posted this and its applicable today as it was then. Well done on the fiction writing, but the gameplay/design points are solid imo.

[Radi]

Problem: how to know who is allied, enemy, or neutral?

[Karash]

Originally Posted by Radi

Problem: how to know who is allied, enemy, or neutral?

You should be able to set standings on a per squad basis to let you know who enemies and friends are, regardless of faction. Ike's story is based on faction warfare, but that is a small hurdle in implimenting his ideas based on current mechanics and politics.

[Wild_Bill]

Sounds good to me Ike.

[Radi]

Yes, but what about "temporary" alliances. "Enemy of my enemy is my friend".

I still remember when all factions got together to do a copper run to GBS that was blocked by a squad (I think it was ISU, but not sure)