Invasion from the Beach!
Lately we've been talking in depth about how landing craft fit into the game and what sort of vehicles are appropriate for our time period. This invariably leads to discussions about the Americans. Ah the vaunted yanks. The stuff off marketeers wet nights. How, of great gods of war shall we fit them into our game. Here's a clue! Let history be your guide!But I have not come here today to speak of such things. No, the invasions I reference are invasions of culture. Virtual cultures to be exact. Anyone who has spent time around the motley lot that is our rabid fan base knows that of which I speak. Our exploits are legendary. Other virtual communities pale in the light of our fanaticism. Those WoW monkeys who complain about class war and dropping their iPods in toilets hold no candle.
This, then brings me to a new online virtual world. The kind of stuff that makes TerraNovans get all hopped up on Starbuck's and prattle into the wee hours. This my friends is the second coming of a second age. Or at least a really silly rip off of There.com based on an equally silly TV show made for the latest derivative of the MTV generation. Sure to be an internet classic combining all the stalking of MySpace, the Furries of Second Life, the drama of LARPing and hopefully some of that old timey magic that brought us PK's in UO. Ah the memories. Is it then, my lads, time to make new? Beware, for the launch of the SS Virtual Laguna Beach is at hand!
Let the invasion begin!
Edit: I have recently been alerted to a possible culture strike against Tribal Wars. Good game that.
8 Comments:
Can I play a creepy but benign vagrant who has a penchant for running his fingers through blonde hair? I'm sure he'd be one of the better solo classes.
Also, when did your blog get a British accent?
I read the "Jessie wall" story - you're proud of that?!
Type/size is *more* design-critical than time period.
LCMs and Pil-boats, at ~15 meter length, believably could be boom-launched from deck racks on 125 meter Hog Islander attack transports.
LCTs (US or Brit), at 47 to 65 meters, and MFPs/MLs at 55 meters are not believable in that regard.
If the design concept is spawn-at-sea, I hope the choice is LCMs and Pil-boats.
I haven't a clue what you should do for the French, given the design boundaries you've established for yourselves. I suppose they could use British boats, since the first tanks transported into combat by the Brits were French H39s.
"Jessie wall" isn't remotely the whole story. I am not proud, nor did I have anything to do with WWIIOLers in SL. I am fascinated by the way a group of people can move to a virtual world and make a part of it their own. Shadowclan has recently started back up on WoW playing gnomish borgs called the Cog. The group invasion is pretty interesting to me in its many forms.
You can always count on J to bring it back.
I think the choices there are really Dependant on IF you are planning to only allow these vehicles to spawn from a transport, or if they have to be carried in a transport. Lately, I've really been mulling over the time to battle issues with the navy and what a MS option might be for boats. A fleet staging point for instance. I do think that our solution needs to allow for tanks to be a part of the invasion.
Option:
- transports spawn LCM
- LCM lands on shore, deploys as Inf MS and Army missions can then use it for an origin
- Tanks spawn on the deployed transport as a MS, also used as an army mission origin? Inelegant because inf might also take that option. Is then the LCM an Inf MS for the mission created to the deployed transport? That seems better, more consistent. How them tanks gettin' ashore again?
BTW I disagree that type is more important than time. That's like saying we should put Tigers in Tier 1. Hey, if you don't get landing craft until Tier 4 then you don't.
British LCA to start tier zero and on up through late LCS and LCT? Tough to pick one that is worth a damn. Kinda like SPAA, what really, is the point of tier 0 when for the same modeling time we could start at tier 2 or 3 and have good stuff. It's a philosophical answer. If the right answer for LC was in my hands, I'd be pressing it a lot faster I think.
Time to battle issues are a whole other can of worms. Whether you do a FB variation or a Fleet type mobile spawn for ships, someone's always gonna hate it.
Spaas and LC do not need to be T0. People can wait to have them in T2
One topic at a time:
IMO the game needs a philosophy-audit regarding the difference between technical-progression-dependent development (can't develop the PzKpfW IV L/48 until after the PzKpfW L/24 and the PzKpfW III series, and so forth) and campaign-events-dependent development. The latter should not be locked to an historical calendar that means *nothing* in totally different campaign circumstances.
WRT SPAA, if the war in Europe had been slow-moving and relatively balanced like a typical WWIIOL campaign, and both sides had significant air ground-attack capability, then clearly both sides would have developed AA with better firepower and mobility.
It dramatically screws up the game's ability to immersively represent how such a campaign would have developed for AA not to be statistically highly effective against very low altitude aircraft from Tier 0 onward.
IMO, a strict historical-usage-and-dates design standard for SPAA conflicts with CRS's choice to bend the historical record to make both sides' air forces comparably effective from Tier 0 onward at ground attack, and a viable force throughout each campaign.
What's needed is effective (i.e. multiple-barrel autocannon, with workable gunsights) SPAA for *all* nations for *Tier 0*. If there's a desire to give a nod to the historical record, start the Allied off with less SPAA than the Germans in Tier 0, and bring in the full numbers for Tier 1.
Brits: modified flatbed Morris truck as a stand-in for a CMP type, with triple Polsten 20mm. Historical records and museum photos available.
French: modified Laffley S20 truck as a stand-in for a heavier flatbed truck, with a Hotchkiss dual 25mm ground-mount gun deployed on the truck bed. Gun photos available.
Germans: SdKfz7 HT with FlaKVierling quad 20mm FlaK38-type. Plenty of documentation available.
Regarding not introducing LCs until later tiers:
> BTW I disagree that type is more important than time. That's like saying we should put Tigers in Tier 1. Hey, if you don't get landing craft until Tier 4 then you don't.
Not how my comment was meant. Historically, the British and German Tier 0/1 small LCs were pretty good, and as good as the game needs for now. There would be no historical/technical reason to wait until a later tier.
Brits get British LCM in Tier 0.
French get British LCM in Tier 1.
Germans get Pil boat in Tier 1.
At a later date, other LC options can be modeled, and equipment with US markings can be added.
Regarding how to handle infantry/heavy weapons spawning and missions IRT an amphibious landing:
>Option:
> transports spawn LCM
> LCM lands on shore, deploys as Inf MS and Army missions can then use it for an origin
> Tanks spawn on the deployed transport as a MS, also used as an army mission origin? Inelegant because inf might also take that option. Is then the LCM an Inf MS for the mission created to the deployed transport? That seems better, more consistent. How them tanks gettin' ashore again?
One problem with making either the transport or the LC the only kind of ground spawn point and mission origin available to invasions is that you don't know if for optimum TTB for most ground players as a particular invasion develops, the mission should originate at the shoreline or at a relatively distant inland point.
Instead, start with the Crate idea.
A Crate is the moveable form of a loadable/unloadable/deployable/consumable object, able to be moved by ship or truck. Crates initially would come in four generic flavors--Strategic Supply, Operational Supply, Ground MSP, Tactical Supply.
1. Strategic supply. Generated at an offshore source. When deployed at an industrial port, adds to a nation's RDP-point total. Movement of this crate type is the primary goal of German convoys, from virtual-Norway to Kiel Canal. Also moved along their away-from-front-lines coasts by the Brits and French.
2. Operational supply. Generated at a factory. When deployed within an AB in proximity to a Division location, adds to that Division's supply level for supporting itself and its attached and linked Brigades. Movement of this crate type from England to France is a key goal of British convoys.
Initially, an Infantry Brigade (say, <10 medium or heavy AFVs in its full TOE) might consume 1/10 crate of operational supply points per day; an Armored, Naval or Air Brigade, 4/10 crate.
3. Ground MSP. One of this type of crate, deployed by a suitably ranked player on land or in a deployed LC, becomes an infantry-MSP-capable truck which can load and transport another crate, and which itself can deploy to provide an appropriate spawn list. Three of this type of crate, unloaded within proximity to each other and deployed together by a suitably OIC, become a fixed infantry/heavy weapons spawn point object, with an appropriate spawn list.
4. Tactical supply. This type of crate, on a truck or unloaded, is a source of X number of Infantry Ammo Packs, Ordnance Boxes or Fuel Drums in any mix.
The gameplay sequence for Ground MSP crates might be:
1. Naval player operated transport picks up a mix of Ground MSP and Tactical Supply crates from a dock. (But not from any other terrain type.) Crates materialize at the pickup point as needed...no need for ground players to deliver them. Crates are decremented from the supply at all that nation's ports; that supply is generated by factory activity, as a tradeoff with other crate types.
2. Naval player sails transport to the target location. A TTB shortening mechanism may be involved.
3. Upon arrival, transport deploys. This makes it a naval spawn point, with a naval spawn list of several LCs.
4. Assuming that the transport is offshore, an LC alongside a transport can be loaded with up to two crates.
5. Upon the LC grounding on the beach and deploying, it becomes a ground spawn point, but only for suitably ranked officers.
6. One or more ground officers may spawn in and choose what action to take regarding crates, depending on their types. An officer may deploy them where they are as infantry MSP trucks, then deploy the trucks to source infantry for an assault landing. Or, the trucks could be driven off the LC and deployed at an inland point. Or, particularly if one of the crates on board is a Tactical Supply type, he may deploy one crate into truck form, load the supply crate onto it, and drive both objects to an inland point. A heavy weapons spawn point may be set up by moving enough Ground MSP crates to the same point.
7. One his LC is emptied, a naval player may undeploy and RTB to the transport. If he chooses to carry another load to the shoreline, that is a second mission.
8. Alternately, the transport can offload crates directly onto a dock. (But not any other ground terrain type.) However, the dock is not inherently a ground spawn point for officers, so unless ground players are already present or locally spawnable there is no way to deploy and/or move those crates.
9. The transport player gets credit for each crate he offloads into an LC or onto a dock.
10. It's still possible for transports to carry infantry and ground heavy weapons directly. However, they must be loaded from a dock and unloaded to a dock, a landing craft or (for infantry only) another ship or boat--not any other terrain type.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home