[R. RitnourKeymaster]

K’TAL diplomats have accused MUTOS OF RHATSIBAHN and THE HILEAH of secretly conspiring to support rebel forces on several K’UTAK worlds.

[R. RitnourKeymaster]

Phantatwain Empire starships are rumored to have destroyed a KOPITAK warship in a running gun battle.

[R. RitnourKeymaster]

SCAREE scientists are heavily engaged in R & D.

[R. RitnourKeymaster]

The THULE FREE TRADERS starship BOONE18 met a messy end while jumping through hyperspace. It seems a midshipman at the navigation console entered a two letter sector coordinate that caused the ship to veer off course. She came out in the middle of a space debris field and smashed into something big. It brought down her shields and then crushed the hull.

[R. RitnourKeymaster]

If fleets and fighters attack a planet, do you have to designate what you want them to attack, or do they attack what is there. For example if there are just MU’s will they attack them?

The fighters attack a planet as an action code and will attack anything there. However if a fleet is in orbit with cap up then the fighters will have to fight their way through the cap first before attacking the planet. Fighters attacking a planet mostly attack the fighters and marines on the planet although all defenses have anti-fighter combat values so you’ll lose some fighters to Forts if they exist on the planet although the fighters can’t damage or destroy them. Fleets will attack fighters and forts on a planet and there is no specific action code for them to attack certain targets either. They just attack what they can on the planet same as fighters. If a fleet is in orbit then the fleet will engage the enemy fleet first and so will have to fight their way through that first.

[R. RitnourKeymaster]

I think that we have that one figured out. We started using a streamlined system that employed MS Outlook for turn receipt and results. Turns out that Outlook doesn’t play well with some other email systems. a lot of players didn’t get their turns and you and at least one other player got run together turn results. We will go back to the old system immediately. Please let us know if that fixes the problem.

[R. RitnourKeymaster]

By the way — against an unknown planet, a massed fleet of Missile Sloops
targeting POP can be very effective. Don’t even have to know the owner of
the planet or other military forces. Just tell the fleet to target POP, or
FORTS, or HMU, or MC, or PC. They swoop in, fire missiles, and swoop out.
Sure, this is simplifying what can happen (overrides of some missiles, ABM’s
to stop some, even the planet firing on the fleet first in some cases).
But, rather than leave an unknown planet there plotting who knows what, you
destroy it’s value. Swoop in to target PC’s or POP (either hurt) and
blast them. You don’t need to take a planet. Leave it a smoldering ruin
with huge HMU or MU amounts but no POP, MC, or PC. No RU production = No
value.

How’s this for an attack order:

First attack — Missile sloops target forts. Knock out Forts to destroy fire
power and torpedoes, so…
Second attack — Fighters from Carriers attack fighter force
Third attack — Missile Sloops or better target POP
Forth attack on — continue to fire on POP and MC and PC as desired
(assuming attacks 1 and 2 took out the primary planetary defenses).

Yep. I know where you’re coming from. Although I
haven’t seen any alien fleets yet, my home sector is
lousy with alien planets. I’ve had probes and
explorers shot down by fighters, forts and ABMs, and
practically an entire fleet wiped out by an Ancient
Civ. I’ve sent diplomatic messages to a few of them,
and have had no replies (didn’t expect any from the
obviously NPC worlds, though). I gave one planet two
turns to lease the planet or bug out… but got no
reply. Needless to say, he’s no longer in the
neighborhood, and I own the planet now.

For what it’s worth, I masked my first turn, and
haven’t done so since, nor do I plan to. There may be
an occasion where it is necessary or prudent to do so
later on, but for now, I’m flying my true colors. If
you see a masked alien fleet in your system, rest
assured it isn’t mine. I’ll let you know when I’m in
the neighborhood.

On the other hand, if you see an Explorer wandering
blindly into a nearby star, it’s probably from the
Doormats Empire…. Awww, come on Rob… a little
good natured ribbing is healthy from time to time…

As a Pirate, I can see you have another way of dealing with planets — steal
the POP. Very effective.

Missile ships / fleets can come under fire. Or they can fire their missiles
before being detected. The idea behind missile carrying ships is to come in
close enough to fire missiles, yet not engage the enemy (forts and fighters).
They attack from the AAA#### (the star) or AAA### (subsector) location.
Move there on one action, and make the attack run the second. Once the run
is done, they are back at AAA### (subsector). So you can see, they are not
attacking the planet like a normal attack (where at the end of the turn you
are at AAA##### or the planet). Here’s an example result of an attack:

-Action 37-
Fleet x entering strike range on AAA98765 from AAA9876
10 Missile(s) ready for firing from Fleet x
Fleet x making final target selection(s).
10 Missile(s) launched.
10 ABM’s launched from planet. 8 missiles destroyed.
Planet’s Combat Control Centers are attempting to override missile
control
Missile strike has destroyed 2 Fort(s) on AAA98765
Fleet Admiral reports multiple secondary explosions.
Planetary torpedoes may have been present within Fort complexes.
Fleet is moving off to deep space AAA987

(All numbers have been changed to protect the innocence of the soon to be
crushed world).

Here’s an example failure (same world on an earlier turn)

-Action 34-
Fleet x entering strike range on AAA98765 from AAA9876
10 Missile(s) ready for firing from Fleet x
Alert ! Alert ! System and planet defenses have been activated.
Planet AAA98765 is attacking Fleet x
Planet AAA98765 is launching torpedoes!
Fleet x is taking evasive action!!
Ship MBRIG4 destroyed.
Ship MBRIG3 destroyed.
Ship MBRIG1 destroyed.
Summary of Torpedo Combat
Number of torpedoes launched was 5
131 total damage inflicted on MBR class ship(s)
3 ships destroyed; ( 1 by critical hits)
Fleet is moving off to deep space AAA987

So, a missile attack can go either way.

SOURCE – TANGENT ARCHIVAL RECORDS

[R. RitnourKeymaster]

Let me recount a tale from early in the game. It was turn 3, and I notice a
fleet or fleets coming into orbit around planets I owned, but NOT scanning.
Probes appeared the next turn over some worlds, which of course were shot
down. But I was worried. This soon into the game, and I already have
someone in my area? Could I be targeted to be wiped out before I even
started?

Over the course of the following turns, I tried everything to contact the
owner of the ships. The ships ID as being GENESIS. I tried the then
message board — and no one knew of GENESIS. I tried sending a diplomatic
message. Nothing. I emailed everyone in the game I could locate.
Eventually, one of the current players managed to get me in contact with
GENESIS. But not be we had several small fleet battles (if you call
destroying an unarmed Supply ship, and lightly armed Explorer battles…).

It turns out GENESIS was attempting to contact me as well. GENESIS had
declared alliance on an earlier turn (and I overlooked the 1 single line on
the turn results stating this … read your turns carefully). But the
mechanisms in the game made it difficult for GENESIS to contact me, or me
him.

So, if this is the results when two people who are OPEN attempt to
communicate, imagine the chaos if you go around being masked. D’Arc is
right — shoot first, ask questions later when masked ships are encountered.

SOURCE – ENGLAR ARCHIVE

[R. RitnourKeymaster]

“Certainly masking your fleets has it’s advantages, as well as its
drawbacks. Diplomatic communication is not impossible, but is
severely limited when a planet is masked. You can always send a
diplomatic message directly to the planet. Masked fleets, on the
other hand, pose a greater challenge. Particularly so because we do
not have a regularly published forum for diplomatic traffic like many
games of this nature. And, until/if this e-list gains popularity, or
an “official” e-list is created, the chances of sending out a
mass “Who Raided My Planet?” message and getting a legit response is
pretty slim.

Add to this “annonymous” feeling the fact that probes and whatnot
tend to fail when in the presence of a masked fleet (even your own),
and it can seem like a pretty big downside.

On the upside, however…. masking allows us Pirate-types to slip in
and out of a system more cleverly disguised. If our ships happen to
be spotted, it’s going to be a tough job tracking us down and finding
our Homeworlds or bases. Also, there is the fact that most players
are reluctant to attack an “unknown” planet, for fear that it may be
an Ancient Civ, or chock-a-block with a gazillion Marine Units!

I don’t believe NPC worlds actually “mask”, though, so this may not
completely apply. I rather think they simply refuse to identify
themselves. It’s pretty obvious when a “masked” planet is scanned
(“Unknown Code IUXJ”, for example).

If you come across a planet such as this, you can pretty much bet it
is player controlled. And, they could be masking for a number of
reasons, as well (new to the game and trying to hide for awhile, or,
hiding because they are *not* new to the game, and have made a few
enemies, etc…)”

SOURCE – TANGENT ARCHIVAL RECORDS

• This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by .

[R. RitnourKeymaster]

“As far as I know, all Rift travel is risky. The subsector you come out in
within the target sector is random. And every sector I know of always has
at least one space hazard (like a Rift or SN). So there is always a chance
your fleet will be destroyed. And the stresses of the jump can still
destroy ships that successfully jump. At our current tech levels the ships
have about a 1 in 4 (at least what I’ve gotten from experiments) chance of
failing to survive the travel through the rift to begin with. Plus of
course, the travel is one way. So you would need to find rifts heading back
in the other direction, or a set of rifts to “circle” back, each with a good
chance to destroy ships.”

SOURCE – ENGLAR ARCHIVE

• This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by .
• This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by .

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