A proposition on the finer details of taking over a planet.
I'm not dead yet! Still working on a simpler version.
Layout:
The map is laid out in a 3000x1500 vertical rectangle. The attackers will start from the north side. The defenders will hold two positions in the southern half.
1500 north of the bottom (the middle of the map) will be the initial postion of the defender's fleet (See "Combatants")
800 north of the bottom will be the defender's orbital defenses (See "Combatants")
Objectives:
Planetary Defense:
The objective of the planetary defense is to destroy the enemy fleet's dropships (if they are attempting to capture the planet, see "Combatants"), or to destroy the enemy fleet and force a retreat.
Attackers:
The objective of the attackers (in the case of a planetary seige and planned occupation) is to escort their dropships to the planet's "surface", the lower end of the map (See "Combatants"). If a certain amount of the initial dropships are lost, the mission is a failure and the planet cannot be captured.
Combatants:
Attackers:
Combat Fleet
Standard fleet of warships. However, any ship larger than 400 size is prohibited from crossing 750 distance from the bottom of the map (due to possible re-entry into atmosphere). Any ships smaller than 400, including strikecraft can enter the 750 distance.
Dropships
Dropships are required to capture the planet (if the attackers are intending to). They are heavily armored, but lightly armed. Dropships start at the top of the map. Their movement is a single order to the planet's surface (the bottom of the map). Once the dropships have been ordered, their course cannot be altered. However, they can be set to retreat in a similar fashion, by ordering all dropships to the top of the map. The attacking fleet cannot retreat safely before the dropships reach the top. If the fleet does retreat, the dropships are lost.
The amount of dropships needed to conquer a planet is dependant on the planet's population. More of this will be worked out as soon as planetary population and resources are worked out.
Defenders:
Defense Fleet
Plays the same as the attacker's combat fleet. Includes as many in-galaxy ships as the commander chooses.
Orbital Defenses
Stationary platforms that are heavily armed and armored, but completely immobile. Default tracking of these platforms are 180 degrees, facing north. Defense platforms, once purchased on the planet, are for use on that planet only, and may not be moved to another planet. Defense Platforms have a 1.5x bonus in Mass Allowance/Threat Level to compensate.
Pre-Combat Preparations
Attackers
The commander will set the terms for advance and retreat, as well as dropship launch. The commander also sets the retreat conditions for the dropships to turn around.
Defenders
The defending commander can organize his available orbital defenses as he may please, but all defenses are within 750 of the bottom of the map.
Post-Combat Conditions
Victory Conditions
As soon as the minimum number of dropships required "lands" on the planet (touching the bottom of the screen), the battle is ended and the attacker wins. The defender wins when no enemy forces are present in the battlefield, or if the attackers have retreated.
Devastation v.1.1
Depending on how well the planet is defended, the loss of the orbital defenses will cause a drop in planet morale. The revised formula is this:
Post combat morale loss:
Code: Select all
(-(((I-E)/I)*100)^2/300)*C+M
Code: Select all
C=I^2/200
The post combat morale loss number is the percentage of morale remaining.
Example:
Both planets take the same percent of damage (50%).
Planet A has 10 defenses. Therefore, it's porportion constant is .5
Planet A loses 5 of those defenses. Therefore it's percent morale remaining is 95%.
Planet B has 30 defenses. Therefore, it's porportion constant is 4.5
Planet B loses 15 of those defenses. Therfore, it's percent morale remaining is 62.5%
The premise of this system is that the more damage done to the orbital defenses, the more morale will drop (due to the loss of loved ones, etc). However, this effect scales non-linearly as the initial number of platforms increase. This means that a small planet losing all of it's platforms will be less devastating on morale than a large, heavily defended planet losing a third of it's defenses. This is also to add risk to overloading a planet with defenses and playing "turtle". Depending on how orbital defenses are, the proportion constant may scale more slowly to compensate.