Unstable Space Fleet Operations notes

I wanted to post an update on the Fleet Operation work that I have been coding. I wanted to post a design document, but the ideas are changing too fast as I build and discard prototypes. But enough has become stable that I feel everyone should hear about it.

The whole concept of Fleet Operations has been a major breakthrough in the Meta Game design and pretty exciting to me.

Station Turns

There is a station update task that runs each day. This task finishes stations that are under construction and sets them to normal operations. It also grows back station guards which have been killed.

The most important job of the task is to spawn new fleet operations.

See tStationRules.pog for update and operation spawning.

Spawning Fleet Operations

The station update task checks each station to see if has lost any Fleet Operations and if it has capacity to spawn more. Some stations, like Pirate Bases host a bunch of operations. And some stations, like Habitats, host none.

If there is room for another Operation, a timer is set for the number of days it takes to build the operation. When the timer is up, the operation is created and placed at the station.

This is a very simple and CPU efficient system. If operations are destroyed, they will slowly return.

See prod_data.ini file for details on which operations are produced by which station.

Operation Features

Every operation is represented by a Ship and a Name. So when the player encounters the same operation twice, it is easy to recognize.

Every operation keeps track of how strong its fleet is in “threat points�. When PS built EoC they assigned every ship type a “threat� value that indicates how strong it is. When the player encounters an operation, the number of ships in the fleet will be determined by the operation threat level / threat value of each ship.

If a ship in the operation fleet is destroyed, then its threat value is subtracted from the operations total. Thus the operation remembers combat damage. A player can hit and run damage down a strong operation.

See tLFleet.pog for tracking threat values.

Operation Turns

Operations get a chance to update once every few days. The number of days between turns will depend on CPU limits, because the action AI is fairly processor intensive.

During a turn the Operation chooses where it will move next. It will return home if damaged. It will move to chase a player. It might just sit still (such as a pirate fence happily earning money). The actions are dependent on the kind of operation.

Operations can also attack other operations located at the same station. Or even attack the station guards and the station itself.

See tsFleetOpUpdate.pog for more details.
See tsFoEmbezzle.pog for fence example behavior.

Operation Combat

Operations can attack and destroy each other. When two dislike or hostile operations are on the same station, they will fight. Fleet strength is compared directly, and some fleets are destroyed from each. (For now a flat percentage is used for each attack).

Non-combat operations (such as fences) will flee from any combat. Most fighting operations will not attempt to flee until they are badly damaged.

If an operation loses all of its fleets, it is destroyed and removed from the game.

See tsFleetOpCombat.pog for more details.

Station Combat

Operations can attack stations. If there are no defending operations remaining, an operation can attack the station guards. The guards get an attack bonus from the station guns. And they get a defense bonus (they can flee a short distance to repair while the attackers are focused on the station).

If all the station defenders are killed, then the station is either captured, destroyed, or abandoned. The exact effect depends on the attacking faction. A corporation can capture the stations of another corporation, but cannot capture pirate stations.

(Station destruction won’t be supported in Unstable Space. Soon however.)

Player and Operations

So far I have described the virtual life of operations far from the player view. But this is all for the fun of the player.

Most of the operations are designed to interact with the player. Embezzle operations fence stolen cargo. Pirate protection rackets charge the player fees to cross lpoints and visit stations. And navy customs tolls charge the player taxes. These behaviors are all taken from the Middle States code.

The player can now attack and destroy these operations. Destroying a member of the operation fleet will deduct it from the operation total. Some operations can be destroyed by just destroying the central ship (such as fences).

The new reputation system gives strong penalty for destroying an operation.

See tsPilotSetup.pog for details on subtracting fleets and destroying operations on ship death.

Planned Operations

Given the limited time until US releases, there won’t be time to code many new operations. Here is a list of those that I would like to see finished.

Station Guards

Stations are protected by light combat ships and fighters. They patrol around the station looking for hostiles to attack. They will answer short range distress calls from very close freighters. The number of guards will be based on the type of station. Mines have very few and navy bases have many.

tPcGuards.pog for the implementation of the physical station guards.

Police and Security Patrols

These patrols move around friendly stations that are near the police base. They drive away pirates and other disliked operations. They answer short range distress calls. Small in number, they are more for patrolling than for fighting major combats.

Customs Patrols

The government stations spawn these tax collects to patrol the lpoints and other stations and collect funds from passing traffic. They only charge the player once during a visit to the same system. They have stronger numbers than police patrols.

tPcCustomsToll.pog for the implementation of the customs ships.

Navy Guards

Navy stations spawn these larger defensive fleets. They will move to non-pirate stations where they see pirates. (pirate stations are assumed to be hidden). They guard the Lpoints and move from station to station when they don’t see pirates nearby.

Pirate Fences

Pirate fences deal in stolen cargo for the player. The player will want to help keep these operations alive and well if they intend to survive as in a pirate career. These ships flee at the first sight of trouble. And they are happy to find a production station where they can launder stolen property. They don’t move until someone chases them off.

tsFoEmbezzle.pog for the operation behavior.
tPcEmbezzlOp.pog for the ship behavior.

Pirate Protection Rackets

The Protection rackets replace the Pirate Tolls of Middle States. They park on Lpoints and stations. They move fairly often between the non-hostile stations in the system. It is hard to know when you will meet up with one.

The protection rackets charge the player a fee depending on how well they like the player.

tPcPirateToll.pog for the ship behavior.

Pirate Thugs

Pirate thugs patrol the stations near a pirate base and drive away police, corporate security and other pirates. They are a large and well armed bunch of trouble makers. Thugs will pick a fight with the player who has a below friendly standing. They move from station to station fairly often. They don’t visit hostile stations.

Pirate Raiders

Pirate raiders do visit hostile stations. They hang way out on the edges and attack cargo ships that try to visit the station. Actually, they act much like pirate players. If the player gets hit with an LDSI missile, this is the reason. They shoot at ships that get too close, so it will be worth the players while to pick a careful route into and out of stations. Best upgrade your sensors, too.

Initial implementation will just have the pirate attack. Possibly later they will collect up cargo and leave when full.

Some Future Operation Ideas

Not all operations have to be pirates and combat forces.

Construction Operation

Once stations can be destroyed, there needs to be a way to build new ones. Faction HQs can build construction operations. These operations are based around an giant LOR ship and can build any type of station.

If the operation is destroyed, the station will halt construction.

Construction operations interact with the player by purchasing construction materials at a bonus rate.

We will need to think up some way of limiting the rate of new construction, or balancing new construction against station destruction.

Station Repair

Not all factions can afford to build new stations. Some will use Repair teams to recover stations that have been abandoned by other factions. Repair teams can also construct the smallest of new stations, such as pirate bases, outposts, and coves.

Repair teams interact with the player by purchasing construction materials at a bonus. Criminal repair teams are happy to take stolen goods - much like the Haven Station construction foreman in EoC.

Mining Operations

Mining operations are launched by corporations to find and start new mines. They can be found exploring the uncharted areas. They have fuel tankers and refining ships as well as drilling rigs and escorts.

Sometimes they attempt to claim jump wealthy asteroids owned by the player. But they can also provide fuel and provisions, if the player should run out.

And the player can sell claims to these operations for large sums of money. The player would prospect a claim, and then find a mining operation. Using the comms function the player would offer to lead the operation to the claim. Once the operation has arrived, it would offer the player a sum for the claim (based on richness). The player could lead the operation into a trap to benefit another corporation, or possibly as part of a mission.

Once a mining operation takes over an asteroid, it attaches (becomes) the mining station and vanishes.

Depleting Mines

One design concept being kicked around is having mines deplete as they produce ore. Once depleted the mine is worthless and abandond. This forces corporations (and the player) to move ever further into the less stable parts of the cluster to keep producing ore.

The economy simulation is dynamic with respect to stations and so trade routes and pay would shift and change as time went on.

Not exactly Fleet Operation material, but it fits together well.

I know we have been talking about this a bit lately, but these two posts really clarified things, and brought the scope of your changes to the fore. You are not the only one excited about this!

It has been a bit of a coding frenzy over here.

Yeah, this is shaping up to be cool. Imagine flying in to your favorite Processing Plant and arriving in a wreckage field that once was the station.

You open your News Net and sure enough, find an article about how the station was blasted by Brethren just last week. You say your own prayers about how you missed the carnage. (News was created automatically when the station was destroyed by the meta game).

Which reminds me of another cool feature idea and another Operation type.

Scrappers

Each station keeps track of "Wreck points" which are fleets that have died while orbiting the station. (dying ships add thier threat value to the locations wreck total). When the player arrives at a station, the wrecks are created. (We would need your super simplified ship art for this to work).

The scrappers are a Fleet Operation that scavenges these wrecks. They travel around the cluster slowly clearing up wrecks. The player can haul them wrecks for salvage pay. Tugs would be good at this, making it a good starting occupation.

Of course the player can also sell the scrappers cargo pods for scrap, just as they do today. And scrappers could sell equipment at low prices, but only to people they like.

Now, in areas where the the Scrappers cannot go, say Epitaph, the wrecks just mount up. Imagine a cluster that decorates itself as time goes by?

Which brings up yet another idea I wanted to ask you about: Is it possible to make "holes" in the asteroid models. And then put a "cap" sim over the hole so the player cannot see it?

Watch the intro movie for EoC again. The asteroid being drilled there has all these deep holes. It would be cool if we could do something similar. On an operating mine, the holes would have lights down inside (flitters and such). On an old dead mine, the asteroid would look like old dark swiss cheese.

Perhaps if the "cap" were a crater or something, it would look ok. Maybe if the edges have some transparent blending or something. I am sure you modeler types can figure this out.

I guess where I am going with all this is thinking about making the art less like decoration, and more like a reflection of the state of the stations or the cluster. Just an angle to brainstorm on.

Sounds like you are even coding at work

I really like the sound of the scrappers. That is a good way of reflecting changes in the game via art. And could harness things we already have..or could produce easily. I had already been trying to work the idea of wrecks piling up in Epitaph into the Env files. Having it work as a function of events in game would be much better. There might be something similar to this we could do with some of the other Env objects.

I had already imagined making asteroids with holes and craters. Could be tricky to get it to work well though. I suppose we could build an asteroid with a large number of similar 'craters' in it..then attach a cargo pod type dock to the bottom of the crater, and populate each dock with a cargo pod like object, masquerading as a chunk of ore. The 'pods' might be made to blend in at the surface. Without a lot of work, I wonder whether it could be made to look good. Could be a way to pull it off though.

Don't forget about our idea to delay the purchase of ships, to allow time for the shipyard to actually build the ship, complete with stages of construction displayed in the station 'ribs'. That fits in well with this 'art as a reflection of the state of the cluster' idea.

I will have to brainstorm on this some more...

One of your suggestions on the delay idea can be implemented right now. That is the idea that operations pool forces together before heading off. This happens already when operations heal battle damage. As the fleet value regrows, they grow more ships. So how we implement your idea is have the operations spawned sooner, but with less fleets. They wait at home until "healed" slowly pooling up forces.

Navy Depots also have ribs. Perhaps we could have major navy vessels "constructed" over a months time. It would make a cool player spy mission as well, to need to sneak in for close range photographs of a navy ship while under construction. We can make navy bases off limits to players that are not allied.

The fun thing about these kinds of ideas is how fast you can think up ways they link back into the game. At first it is an art object. Then it becomes a real object under construction. Once that happens it becomes the object of multiple kinds of missions.