Work in progress! I have a pretty good idea where I am going with this, so check back for updates.
EDIT: I'm told people are having a hard time reading the story and other parts due to length. This is a pain for me because I read quite fast and I am a very poor judge of appropriate post length. So just let me know if you want me to cut them into smaller chunks.
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One thing I noticed while playing Sins is that the gameplay is very strategic, extemely even. This is not really a "problem" per se but it means that the tactical side of things is lacking. But what exactly is the difference between tactics and strategy?
Lets say you were defending a castle. Tactics is defending a castle. Strategy is defending a castle... with as few casualties as possible because you know you will be attacked tommorow.
Sins is a very strategic game. How you send ships into combat is almost irrelevant compared to how many. Combat is pretty but cold, split second descisions have little bearing on any given fight. One of my hopes is that this can be changed in a future expansion. Prior to Entrenchment defensive combat was almost impossible, the only thing to do was spam turrets and hope for the best. With a more tactical combat system Sins can become fast paced. Engagements between fleets would become fast and deadly. Knowing when and where to engage can affect the fate of entire planets.
To to that effect I present to you an idea. Sins of a Solar Empire: Escalation
----
The opening blurb:
Entrenchment had one so I suppose Escalation should have one too. The story behind Entrenchment is that the war fronts have all come to a stalemate. New fortification technologies have been developed to dig in futher before the inevidable storm. Entrenchment in other words, I quote:
"After nearly 15 years, the war which raged across dozens of star systems is nearing a stand-still. The great fleets of the Trader Emergency Coalition, the Vasari Empire and the Advent are near stalemate. With the fronts temporarily stabilized, there is time to regroup, and entrench. Great defensive battlestations are being deployed and critical choke points fortified. Will this buy the TEC, Vasari or Advent enough time to organize an all-out offensive?"
The next expansion has to do with diplomacy. (SoaSE: Entrancement, hehe) It stands to reason that people who are unable to kill each other, but would like to, will talk to each other instead. If only to exchange insults. With all of the new starbases defending the"critical choke points" as the lore mentions its obvious that no major action will take place until at least one side feels confident that they can break the stalemate through force of arms. So while plans are in formation the diplomats come out to buy thier empires time to develope and grow. The blurb for this expansion will probably look something like this:
"Many years of stalemate have gone by and the great empires stand, idle in action but frantic in growth. The great starbases hang in every sky, symbols of death but also of hope. Soldiers who watched thier brothers die at war now watch thier sons take up arms with pride. Dreading the day when the conflict begins anew. Citizens who once wished for survival dare to dream of peace. The great empires who before met only over the crossed blade of swords now extend empty hands in friendship. Will the TEC, Vasari and Advent find the will to craft a lasting peace? Or will they discover that the only peace that lasts forever is found in death?"
The entirity of Entrenchment can easily be described as "Fortify". The premise of Entrancement (or whatever name it ends up with) could be described as "Hope for peace, but prepare for war". Words that are relatively few but contain great meaning. The planned events and story of Escalation can be described with only two:
"Zero hour"
"No one knows who fired the first shot, but all know it was returned a hundredfold. The sounds of silence and peace lie shattered by the wake of woken fleets. Weapons that once existed only in nightmares now arm the soldiers of a new generation. One born to conflict, trained from birth in the art of survival. To them thier fathers pass the torch. Once bright with the light of hope, now obscured by smoke and the thunder of guns. It is with sorrow, not hate that the great empires return to thier battle lines. Hopes for peace are dashed, for the moment. A dream dies, a war begins."
Stay tuned.
EDIT: The story has kicked off pretty well. Between the chapters there will be some discussion on proposed ideas. New chapters will be listed here:
wow, very nice, great creativity
i would personally love this idea, though i havent heard anything in support or denial of such an expansion (no surprised however, they are most likely still working on the current expansion (Entrancement)
great creativity, the "Weapons that once existed only in nightmares..." gave me a shiver... ooo, cant wait =P
This is awesome!
nicely written, I'll be waiting for the rest.
one small note: entrenchment is not quite about only fortifying, but also about breaking them. advent starfish and ogrov make short work of defenses, if you let them. but then, I don't think you meant defense-breaching content as much as material that makes combat in general more tactical, which is a good thing in general. just consider the level of attention you can give to combat with so many other things to do during a real time game. something like e.g. total war like battles during empire management would be overkill imo.
That really was very well crafted! You have me on the edge of my seat!
Isn't it amazing how Sins inspires people? By that, I mean a lot of games inspire people in a negative fashion (i.e., fix this, change that), but Sins inspires people in a positive fashion by triggering all sorts of new ideas to make the game even better and more 'complete' in terms of being the ultimate sci-fi strategy game. It's not about what's wrong as much as it is about what's right!
thats nice.... beatifull how you came up with those explen ations of expansions
as of yet the third expansion is unknown, but an expansion in the thought of "everlasting peace is but a fantasy"
the community remains relatively small but i have seen alot of good idea's concercning improvements in a positive way... so i think your right >.>
Thanks guys. I guess I should start by explaining the grand vision. This is not a plan per se, merely an ideal to work towards. And as always it is subject to change.
Most 4X strategy games have a separation between strategic and tactical space. In Master of Orion you run your empire from a grand map of stars, fleets of ships are nothing more than little icons among the stars. When those dots converge a battle is joined. Your view changes to a much closer perspective. Sins has none of this. The same strategic enviroment we use to build an empire doubles as a battleground in that empire's defense. Such things do not mesh well with real time strategy mechanics. While your fleets are in combat, you can't simply stop time while you decide how many trade centers to queue up.
Combat in Sins starts the moment hostile ships enter phase space bound for a target planet. In Master of Orion you tell your fleets to attack other fleets today, and assuming you auto-resolve, you only get to learn how they performed the next day. Sins lacks such "turns", there are no imminent conflicts, just conflicts happening NOW. These require your full attention and this forces you to balance your attention between the small and big picture.
Because you have no control over battles until they begin, there is very little tactical depth to the system. There is no point in sending strike craft out to patrol the halo because enemies can't hide. Why bother placing turrets at the border of a system when the enemy fleet will simply move past them? It is these questions that Escalation will begin to answer.
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Before I get into the nitty gritty details, I'm going to start things off with a story. A while ago I learned something from a game called Dwarf Fortress, more specifically its creator Tarn Adams . This thing is the concept of "power goals". They may have another name, but that is the name he used so I shall as well.
A power goal is a (most often) simple story that depicts things (gameplay in this case) that we hope could be possible in other mediums. So if Tarn wrote a story about a dwarf melting cheese for a fondue party then perhaps one day fondue parties will be possible in a game of DF. One power goal that Tarn wrote had to do with getting dropped in a pit and getting eaten alive while you claw our your fingernails in your desparation to climb out. (DF has some pretty morbid moments) As of now it is not possible yet for a dwarf in the game to lose his fingernails, in fact they probably don't even have any. But the last time I checked in the dwarves were well on thier way to getting hair and skin. The ideas are there and progress is made.
So without futher ado, here is a power goal based on the idea of an expansion called Escalation. See how many ideas you can spot!
Prologue: A Mourning Dawn
The admiral sat at his desk. Before him a screen glowed, lines of text slowly scrolled past in a patient arc. A letter to his family, read for the hundredth time. Thoughts swirled in his mind. The war could begin again at any moment. Had he forgotten anything? Were there any words left to say? No, the letter was complete. His hand moved to the key that would send the message on its way. An alarm chirped. His hand slowed, then stopped. "Channel open" He said. A static pop. "Admiral sir?" A call from the bridge. "Yes what is it." He answered. "Hostiles inbound". Silence. "I'm on my way, channel close". A static pop. He turned back and slapped the send key and stood. Then hesitated, returned to his console. A new message, same address, to be sent immediatly with maximum encryption. "It has begun" he wrote. "I'm sorry".
With a shaking hand he pressed the send key once more, then turned to leave. Stopping by the door he paused and surveyed the room that had been home for most of his career. A room he might never set foot in again. "Lights off". The door closed with a final hiss.
-
Heavy blast doors opened with the groaning of rusted hinges. Beyond the portal the light and sound of an Argonev class starbase command deck spilled through. "ADMIRAL ON DECK!". Heads turned. "As you were" He snapped, and strode to the main tactical console, now swarming with lights of hostile colours. He turned to his executive officer, the acting tactitian. "Status report?". "Inbound phase signatures, Advent configuration". The man said, his face never leaving his console.
"How many" The admiral asked, turning to a second man, the phase analyst. "We have two capital class signatures, our systems estimate at least 40 frigates and half as many cruisers". He paused. "Sir? There is something else, something big. We can't tell what it is, too much interference.". The admiral nodded. "One problem at a time, what forces can we muster?". "The system fleet is standing by. The battleship Masakara is en route along with the carrier Synova. Both are fully armed and ready." The exec turned back to his display. "We outgun them by a third all told, not counting us" He thumped his console.
The admiral sat in his command throne. He twitched a few keys and the main screen lit up with a flicker. "What of the asteroid base?" He asked, turning again to his exec. "The surface to orbit gauss array is live as is the turret network. The base squadrons were out on a training excercise when the alarm came in, they are rearming now". A flutter of keypresses. "The evacuation measures worked perfectly, all civilian personell are aboard ships and the first of them are just now entering phase". He turned and looked the admiral in the eye. "Were ready". The admiral nodded. "All channels open."
As he stood, activity on the bridge came to a halt. The buzz of conversation and command slowly ebbed to silence. "This is admiral Haledon addressing the fleet. The day we had hope to never see again has arrived. You all know your duty. You all know why we fight".
"Our actions now will shape the future. A future that we borrow from our children. A future they will one day come to inherit. The long peace has ended, our task is to ensure that peace may dawn on us once again."
He paused. "I want you all to know that I consider myself blessed to have served with each and every one of you." He turned to his throne and sat.
"Battle stations" He whispered, and all hell broke loose.
........ WOW.........
makes me wanna spea alone in my SP game.... to add a little ambiance!!!!
Great stuff Looking forward to seeing what the 'something big' is. As for idea spotting:
Surface to orbit gauss array - sounds new to me. Also can we currently view what's coming towards us in a phase lane? I know there's that PSIDAR (or is it PSYDAR) research but I can't for the life of me think what it does.
Yeah we do get techs like that. The advent and TEC can see ships move around 2 phase lanes away from friendly planets. Vasari can tech up to the point where they get to watch ships move anywhere in the galaxy.
So moving on. Here is where the power goal really starts to shine. When you read through the story imagine the depicted events happening within a game of Sins. When I wrote the story I didn't have any sort of plan or agenda, I just wrote what I thought would work. Analyzing the prologue reveals some interesting things:
--- Hurry up and wait:
When the incoming Advent fleet was spotted everything stayed relatively calm. Forces are being mustered, weapons are checked and activated and civilians are evacuated out of danger. Only when things are good and ready does the Admiral in command order everyone to full alert. What this shows is that the "gameplay" has yet to make the transition from stategic to tactical space. The enemy is on the horizon, but there not yet "here" by any measure.
How then would this translate into a game of Sins? First of all you have to understand that space is a big place. Really damn big. Interstellar war is not a game of hopscotch. No matter how much applied phlebonium you put into your method of travel, things take time to happen. One thing that Sins does a bad job of is conveying the scale of whats going on to the player. I remember reading once that if you took a Kol battleship and poked it into the surface of a terran planet. Just one of the beam cannon barrels mounted on the front would crush an area stretching from Vancouver to well past Seattle. Probably more, its hard to tell. If you zoom down all the way and examing a Cobalt frigate you will notice that it has windows. Assuming each window is about 2 feet tall you can begin to see just how out of wack things are.
Lets craft something a little more realistic shall we? Imagine a terran planet in Sins. Put down a typical fleet of ships (capital ship/frigates/cruisers etc) beside it. Now double the size of that planet. Twice as wide, twice as tall. Plop down a moon about half a planet length away. This is Earth, that little fleet certainly seems tiny by comparison doesn't it?
When an enemy fleet jumps into this system combat does not take place immediately. Those incoming ships will remain in phase space for a period of time. Time that you must spend wisely to prepare for thier arrival. This is where the separation of tactical and strategic space comes into play. The strategy leading up to this moment would look something like this:
The enemy fleet eventually arrives, but until he makes his move, this remains strategic space. You can only assume what he can do and have already planned accordingly. The enemy fleet might attack your shipping routes. It might attack the research base on the Moon you just set up. Anything is possible.
This separation is what Sins currently lacks. There is no seam between the tactical part of the game and the strategic part. As a result you are forced to ignore one while you deal with the other. What should happen instead is that you have the tools to micromanage the one you feel is more important as well as macromanage the other with the certainty that things will be executed in a competent fashion while your attention is elsewhere.
Lets say the enemy fleet makes a beeline for the planet. At this moment the game transitions to tactical space. You are now responding to events even as you watch them happen. In response to the threat you order the system fleet to intercept. You now have some very tough choices to make.
Now pause for a second. At this moment in time you recieve an alert, several more enemy fleets are en route to neightboring planets. There is a battle going on and soon more of them will require your full attention. This is where the separation of strategic and tactical space proves its worth. Strategy is about planning, tactics is about picking which plan to use and when. Once the two are separated you have the ability to excercise them in tandem, not just in sequence.
Your defending fleets already know what to do. There are plans, contingencies and tactics already in place. Thought each battle plan will need to be "tweaked" to fit the situation. No matter what happens in your absense, you can watch all of the battles from a strategic perspective. Confident that your units will respond to all possible threats in a competent manner. All you have to do is give the word.
"Battle Stations"
I know all of that might be a confusing read, but what you should have walked away with is the notion that combat in Sins can be given much more tactical depth. And it certainly can.
Just imagine attacking an enemy planet, wiping out the defending fleet with a brilliant series of surgical strikes. Only to have your entire fleet destroyed in a flanking action by a single starbase. A starbase that was hiding behind the moon...
That was the first idea I spotted in the prologue of this power goal. How many more can you see?
I'm sorry, but that is one of the most idiotic statements that I've ever heard on these forums.
What sort of PC could handle even a slightly more realistic atronomical scale???
The human mind cannot even comprehend astronomical scales so of course Sins can't even come remotely close to conveying the scale of whats happening !!!
Making the scale bigger is pointless. Sins does a VERY good job of conveying scale within reasonable limits. GC2 did a terrible job of this. Planets, stars and ships were all the same size, rofl.
This was already tried in the beta, but this caused the gameplay to suck terribly. The devs HAD to change it to the way it is now.
Well, at the very least gas giants and all other planets should not be pretty much the same size. I understand what he means there, because we can anly assume that is how big these ships are. They might actually be a LOT smaller (and I think they are). If those are 2 foot windows, and the ships are in scale with each other, then the capital ships would only be a bit bigger than a very massive ocean liner.
What reasonable limits are these, kindergarden astronomy? If I were to put a realistic Kol battleship beside a terran planet it would be even less than half the size of the torpedoes used by TEC strike craft, and that is just a wild ass guess. Im probably still off the mark.
The purpose of this expansion is to increase tactical depth. How then does it help us to have homogenous star systems? Planets should vary in size, gravity and climate. Landmass even! They should have unique features. They should be far more valuable to us individually. And you should have to work hard to protect them. Check behind every moon for a hidden star base. Conquer the Moon FIRST and bombard the Earth from your moon castle. Anything is possible.
Oh come on. Thats like saying seatbelts on an airplane are a stupid idea because the Wright Brothers used them and thought they chafed too much.
I read through the prologue once more and these are the rest of the points that stand out to me:
There are a few more, but some of them will be retold in greater detail later. Now stressing the point of the power goal. This is not a roadmap of things we want to have possible in a new expansion. This is a picture of where we wish to go. The next step in the process is to design and build the roads, bridges and other infrastructure that will allow us to get there.
I have been asked already why I don't simply type out these ideas in a list with bulletpoints. A fair question and this is the answer. As of now I have not yet conviced myself (or most of you for that matter) that these things would be fun. If something fails to convince me on paper then it has little hope in other mediums. There are two things you can do in this situation, drop the idea, or keep polishing it until you feel the spark.
Before beginning chapter 2 and introducing more concepts I will expand on a couple more of them, starting at the top. Most of them will be a lot shorter than the first, I promise.
--- Admiral on deck:
In the story the Admiral is commander of his own starbase. He is also the ranking officer in the system and has authority over all of the present forces. In Sins capital ship crews are a logistics cap that control the mount of capital ships we can build at once. They eventually cap at 16 in number and cost an increasingly large amount of resources. Apart from appearing as a statistic they have no personality to speak of and no set of skills.
So lets change the system around a bit. Instead of one capital ship crew being a number, they would a set of competent individuals capable of running a large starship or starbase. Crews like this are not a finite resource but they take considerable effort to maintain and train. Essentially they are the Sins scifi version of "heroes".
So lets say you start a new game of Sins. You start with a number of scouts, cobalt frigates and some low tech gauss turrets. You have one command crew at your disposal and they are currently on the planet. When you first start the game you only have one command crew. Because your starting planet does not have any capital ships, space stations or starbases they command from the surface of the planet.
At this point you would probably build your free capital ship, but just as an example lets skip that for now. In orbit are 2 Scout frigates and 10 Light frigates. (you play TEC for this game). These ships are the system fleet, when a command crew is in residence they automatically manage system defenses. Among other things this includes maintaining a small fleet of ships to defend the local area.
You dispatch the scouts to patrol the local solar system. Apart from your starting terran planet the system is empty, so you tell them to phase to the nearest neightboring star. The report they send back indicates a habitable ice planet along with a small fleet of pirates. Time for some action. The 10 light frigates in orbit will make an effective fighting force, a capital ship is not required to lead them. But sent into combat alone they will not perform very well, they need command experience to back them up and that radius ends at the system boundary. The solution? Transfer the command crew to one of the Cobalt frigates.
When a crew takes command of a ship a couple things happen. The ship they occupy becomes tougher and its appearance changes to indicate things like upgraded comm equipment and extra armour. The 10 frigates sitting in orbit have now become a fleet. The fleet forms up into a simple line formation and phase out of the system.
Now we have a fleet in the field and a single planet without a command staff. Thought you only have the one planet, its connection to the uncolonized system next door makes this the "front line" as far as defending your empire is concerned. In order to plug the gap we need to train a second command crew. The training of crews happens automatically to fill "gaps". The bigger your empire gets the more crews are trained to fill available positions. The more crews you have in service at once the faster crews will be trained through shared experience.
However the more complicated your empire gets the more crews will be required to defend it. A fully developed system with a moon, a space station/space elevator and a starbase will require 4 separate crews. One each to command assets on the planet, the moon and the space station. These crews are suboordinate to the commander of the starbase.
Because fleets led by experienced crews are more effective, veteran crews will be a very valuable resource akin to level 10 capital ships in the current game. You will be constantly drafting crews away from stationary duty and less experienced crews will be transferred from rear areas to fill vacated positions. The way the system should be balanced is that you never quite have as many crews as you could and never quite have as many as you need.
As far as giving command crews a personality, everything depicted here is the foundation that would make such a thing possible. The traits that define individual crews can be thought up later but they should be easy enough to figure out. To make a good frigate captain you need to command a frigate. Get shot at a lot and you will become very familiar with just how much damage you can take. This lets you decide when to roll with a punch or suck it up. And so on.
You have some very good ideas, but some may make the game insanely complicated which will put off many new players. Others will simply cause too much lag.
Reasonable limits are: something that people with a fairly low-end machine can actually run and something that is convenient for the players.
Planets vary in type, tax income, resource income, bonuses and artefacts. They DO have unique features!
Sins already has various tactics, but these are limited to various uses for abilities and ship synergies. I agree, Sins should increase the number of tactical and strategic options, but the game should not become overly complicated.
It is not like that at all. Lots of people complained, not just a few. In a game, convenience can make the difference between victory and defeat, thats why there are hotkeys. Bigger planets were inconvenient for everyone. Thats why I said that it was bad for gameplay.
The scale could use a little work, but saying that the scale is bad is rediculous.
Chapter 1 will be coming up very soon. I won't be discussing most of the ideas I pointed out just yet because some of them will appear again in the story with far greater detail. However its worth going over #2.
One big change that Escalation has in mind is a reorganization of the main strategic map. A typical game of Sins will have large clusters of planets and other stellar bodies connected to a central star. The star in turn connects to other stars, enabeling travel between clusters. The changes made by Escalation would allow for a different configuration Instead of clusters, Escalation would make possible the use of solar systems. The overall zoomed out view of the game map would look like a large field of stars, very much like a game of Master of Orion or a small galaxy map from Galciv 2. Each star system will have different features within it. Some would have actual ring shaped asteroid belts. Others might have neighboring anomalies such as plasma storms. But mostly stars will play host to planets.
(Now its worth mentioning that I have no idea what science the developers use to explain the function and use of phase drives. Or if they had any to begin with. Everything after this point I am pulling out of a thinking hat)
Phase drives allow travel between stellar bodies. In order to use one you have to start within a certain distance of a stellar body, specifically inside its gravity well. When you jump towards a destination there must be a second gravity well there in order to "pull" your ship out of phase space. If you try to set a course for the middle of nowhere you will dissapear into phase and will probably never be seen again. The smaller the gravity well of an object the harder and more risky it is to jump to it. This makes scouting a very dangerous and precise science. In the early game all exploration will be directly between stars. You can't aim for specific planets yet because you don't know where they are and how many exist.
Stars have huge gravity wells that can capture other stellar bodies like planets and with a skilled navigator can start and end a phase jump anywhere inside the inner and outer boundary of a star system with a surprising degree of accuracy. If you wanted to you could make a jump from the middle of nowhere near star A and arrive at a specific point in the middle of nowhere near star B. The closer you are to a concrete end point such as a planet, the higher your chance for a safe uneventful and accurate jump.
However there are dangers. No phase jump is completetly on the mark. Until you tech up, ships will always drift to some degree. Two ships emerging within the same space can have catastrophic consequences. Unstable phase jumps will result in damage to ship and crew. A phase jump that exits too close to a stellar body may find itself unable to pull away and will be drawn in and destroyed. A fire extinguisher might be standard issue on a warship, but a parachute? Not so much.
Because phasing around would be so much more dangerous there would be a new set of tools and research trees that help make phase jumps more reliable and safe. At the very beginning your scouts use antimatter to drop phase beacons beside stellar objects in a solar system. Once these objects are marked you can use them as jump points. Colonized planets have much more elaborate and permanent setups which are required for things like civilian trade shipping. The more developed your systems get the easier it is for friendly traffic to get around.
Jumping into enemy systems without scouting them first is impossible. If the enemy finds and destroys your beacons you can still jump to where you think the beacon was. But this is extremely dangerous, planets DO orbit thier stars after all and a zone that was safe 5 minutes ago might be on the other side of a star by now.
A typical small game of sins might have one star and about 10 planets and other objects. A small game using the Escalation type of map would have about 4-6 stars, each star playing host to a random number of planets, asteroids and other anomalies. This allows it to be highly scalable. Want a bigger map? Add more stars. Want a smaller map? Use fewer stars, or increase the number of planets per star.
Now I know what your thinking. "But Tamren what is the point of messing with the game scale like this? It changes too much!". The short answer is I just thought it sounded cool. But the long answer has a few major points.
A little while back I was listening to Blair being interviewed on a podcast. The subject of singleplayer campaigns came up and the consensus was that the current game just wouldn't work for such a thing. Just think about it, how boring would the campaign be if all you did was fight over a series of random skirmish maps? Even if they were linked by a great story the game just doesn't have enough variation to pull it off.
This is where the changes intended with Escalation come into play. Sins maps are a bit like a world map, planets form the continents and star form portals that link these patches of "terrain". In Escalation you would have star systems filled with planets. Each star and each planet would a varying amount of "terrain". Star A might have 2 terran planets and an asteroid belt, Star B might have a volcanic planet close to the sun and an arctic planet further out. Terran Planet A might have 5 whole continents but Terran Planet B might have 1 continent and 3 moons.
This "variation of terrain" as you could describe it makes each system unique and far more interesting. It also allows us with a blank canvas to make interesting singleplayer missions. Imagine a campaign that contains such game types as:
Chapter 1 is called "Angels Fall First" and should be up by tommorow night at the latest. Or tonight I suppose, given that its already 30 mins past midnight. (EDIT: Part 1 is now up and I'm changing the chapter orders a bit)
worst explanation of the difference between tactics and strategy I've ever seen
but some amazing ideas there.
"insanely" complicated is aguable. The new stuff from Entrenchment required me to re-learn the gameplay but it didn't make the game unrecognizeable. Escalation would in no way jump the shark either. None of this could be implemented overnight. As I said this is the ideal destination, not the road map. And it is is completetly subject to change. The idea behind (and definition of) "Escalation" is an increase in magnitude for all facets of combat. In other words combat will not happen as often because the amount of ground to cover has increased. However when they do happen space battles will be much more deadly. This means descisive engagements can take place with far fewer ships. Smaller mobile fleets fighting Homeworld style will be more common.
One thing I am about to get into in more detail is the improvement of strike craft. If I simply made strike craft stronger, more people would use them and the lag would increase greatly. But if I made them far more dangerous I could greatly cut the size of squadrons. 6 percherons would bring 12 strike craft each, not 20, and would generally have only 4 or 6 of them in combat at once. That sounds like a reduction in firepower until you learn that one squadron of space superiority fighters can cut a fully shielded Cobalt frigate in half with one pass.
When I said kindergarden astronomy I wasn't quite joking. Ask a six year old to draw you a picture of the sun and he will use a crayon to draw a yellow circle, perhaps with a happy face. Ask him to draw some more stars around it and he would blanked the area around that sun with dots of all colours. A little connect the dots and you can add the big dipper. Zoom out the view on a Sins game and what do you see? A field of coloured dots, connected by lines. Kindergarden Astronomy 101.
As far as map generation goes the only big change would be replace to all of those coloured dots with other coloured dots. Instead of planets connected by phase lanes we have stars. Each star is then orbited by a number of planets. There is nothing terribly complex about this, and your computer would have about the same number of planets to manage, Just more stars.
What this allows for is quicker battles with bigger fleets on smaller game maps that have far more "terrain" than the previous generation. The strategy is all there, and getting into the action is much more convenient.
Got a better one that isn't too large? I actually wrote a multi-paragraph explanation and then deleted it because I thought it took up too much room.
i dont think this expansion would sell and i think it is kind of dumm
"kind of" is still workable, what part don't you like about it?
Im going to flex my writing muscles a bit more. The outline in my head has been growing and I now have a lot more detail to work with. Futher chapters will start to be longer, and I may go back and re-do the prologue if you guys want me to.
EDIT: Did some spellchecking. I'm pretty sure I flipped tenses a couple time too so I will go over it again tommorow.
Chapter 1: Angels Fall First Part 1
The hangar bay echoed with frantic activity. Flight crews bustled about, checking and double checking. A loud clank announced the arrival of the high speed freight elevator, normally used to carry munitions up from the starbase magazine. Today it carried weapons of another sort. "See? I told you it was a shortcut!" Cried the first pilot as he jumped off the platform, past an audience of startled weapon technicians. "Shut up Icarus, we just had a 50/50 chance to arrive with interceptor missiles perforating our collective spleens". Said another pilot who cuffed the first over the head. "If we hadn't hopped trains at that intersection we would have-" The launch alarm roared into life, cutting short further conversation and the pilots broke into a run.
The squadron leader, callsign Icarus, reached his fighter first and stopped to pat the squadron mascot painted on the side of his fighter. A pair of angels with flaming swords. They would have looked plenty heroic, only the angel on the right was wearing a blindfold and a cocky grin and the angel on the left was about 3 seconds away from realizing his wings were on fire. He grinned and vaulted off a nearby missile pallet (now empty) and onto the hull of his fighter. A quick hop and skip and he dropped into the cockpit with practiced ease. His hands passed through the familiar motions of a pre-launch check. "Weapons HOT!" Yelled the flight crew, a light on his console flashed green. "Torpedo HOT!". A second light turned green. He gave them a thumbs up and they withdrew at a run.
He settled into his seat, the canopy closed over his head with the hiss of an engaging vacuum seal. The seat harness snapped into place and began to tighten. His helmet slowly began to fill with liquid breathing medium, a clear liquid that would fill his lungs and protect them from collapse. "Channel open, hey Kody did you get the new goop too?". "Yeah, I saw them switching canisters". Said the pilot to his left. "I hope this batch doesn't taste like expired shagurgl-" His voice garbled as the liquid rose past his mouth, then steadied as the microphone by his throat took over. "-ecause I swear those techs have been mixing liquid from the wrong storage tank." "Heh I hear that, the day this crap tastes like strawberries is the day AFTER I retire".
"Channel open". He said, punching up the squadron frequency. "This is Icarus, squadron sound off". "Spitfire here", "Flashpoint here" and so on down the line, 7 other pilots in all. "Check main systems". "Reactor online, weapons online, all system nominal". He nodded. "Channel open, TAC COM we are good for launch". "Acknowledged" Came the response. "Squadron 9 has permission to depart, good luck Blazing Angels".
"Copy that TAC COM". He said, moving his hand over to a big red button. "Engage".
Off in the distance the Advent fleet was starting to appear. Ships of a sleek and deadly design hurtled out of phase space, shedding blankets of glowing energy. The mirrored hulls of the fleet made the spectacle look like an evening gown with a few too many sequins. "Heads up! Here come the glitter girls!" Icarus slammed his stick to the right and changed vectors, the rest of the squadron followed. "Our orders are the usual, keep those drones busy while the interceptors handle the bombers!". To the left of squadron 9 a tight diamond formation of 4 strike craft zipped past them, squadron 7.
TEC interceptors were thin arrowhead shaped strike craft, they carried oversized extended range missiles and a single very deadly spinal mount gauss cannon. Thier preferred target was enemy bomber type strike craft. Bombers which always travelled with large escorts of- "Drones breaking right!" Shouted the leader of the interceptors. "Shields up! They're coming right at us!".
The Interceptor squadron fired the opening shots, 4 glowing spikes zipped towards the oncoming drones. 3 hits, one miss. Then the interceptors scattered in all directions, using thier extreme speed to curve around the incoming drones in a claw maneuver. Before the drone formation could turn to follow they ran headfirst into squadron 9. A game of interception instantly changed into a massive game of team-chicken. A blizzard of laser fire erupted, thin blue needles zipped past his cockpit as Icarus slammed his trigger down. A storm of thick red laser bolts streaked out in response as the rest of the squadron opened fire.
By far the most common of the next generation strike craft, the new TEC space superiority fighters packed 2 banks of triple laser cannons and powerful full-arc shields. The mainstay of the TEC strike core these fighters were built to excel in a standup fight. And survive one too.
Behind the main pack of drones a single straggling fighter drone rushed to catch up to his fellows. The Advent pilot controlling the drone through a psionic link cursed the launch problems that had led to this delay. As the rest of the surviving drones began to turn and peel off they revealed the oncoming TEC fighters. The pilot locked in the closest enemy target and opened fire.
Icarus swore as laser blasts peppered his bow shields in a brilliant flicker of light. Throwing his fighter into a spin he spotted the lone figher drone and returned fire. "Dead on! he cried as his laser blasts ripped through the drones left wing. But suddenly the drones power core exploded in a cyan flash and the right wing spun into his flight path. There was no time to dodge. "SHIT!" He cried as the wing segment impacted on his forward shields and shattered. A series of warning lights on his HUD flickered from green to red and slowly back to green. As he canceled the spin the impact had thrown his fighter into worried questions spilled over the comm. "Can the chatter I'm all right, my bow shields are down to a fifth" " That was too damn close." He muttered.
The comm pinged, it was the interceptor squadron. "9 this is 7 were locked in". "Copy that Birds of Prey we are right behind you.". As one the Blazing Angels hit thier afterburners and streaked after the now distant interceptors. Behind them the remnants of the drones were pounced on by squadron 3 and annihilated.
Advent bomber drones like thier TEC counterparts relied on large packets of high powered ordinance that they dump effectively on thier target's doorstep to help them survive point defense fire. Unlike TEC craft which used large torpedoes Advent bombers were armed with large packets of explosive plasma, backed up by an array of beam cannons. As the flight of 10 drones swooped in on final approach to thier target, the TEC command destroyer turned and opened up with its broadside point defences. Its sophisticated targetting equipment analyzed the path of the oncoming drones and passed the information on even as it raked them with bursts of explosive flak.
"Missiles away!" Came the shout over the comm, and the pilots of squadron 9 watched the 8 missiles streak out. The beam tailguns on the bomber drones opened up, knocking out half of the missiles. Then they impacted, the last missile to arrive was a dud but it still struck with such force that the drone lost all shields and was quickly destroyed by the clouds of flak thrown out by the destroyer. The surviving 6 bombers broke off thier attack and looped around, heading for the relative safety of an Advent corvette squadron. The interceptors screamed in and claimed another bomber with thier bow cannons, then they were past and away. Thier extreme speed made repeat attack runs impractical. "7 calling 9 they're all yours". Chattered the comm. "Roger 7, cleaning up now". And the Blazing Angels began another attack run.
As they pulled in behind the Advent drones, tailguns spat beams of cyan fire at them. Even at this stage of the war TEC scientists still were not sure if Advent beam weapons were laser or plasma based. The damage caused by the beams showed characteristics of both. All they could figure out was that the exotic crystals that powered and focused Advent energy weapons were not of natural composition or manufacture. None of this mattered to Icarus as be bobbed and weaved. A near miss punched through both shield walls of the fighter behind him and he cursed. "They sure didn't brief us on THIS crap" He spat, jerking the control stick to the left and avoiding another beam.
As quickly as it began the beam fire petered out. The reason became immediatly obvious as scattered laser fire flashed past them. Another squadron of fighter drones was coming up from behind. Ducking and weaving even harder now Icarus keyed his comm. "Channel open, 8 are you there? Were in deep here and could really use some help!". Assault squadron 8 answered immediatly. "We are down to cannons now but we'll give em our best shots. Peel off as soon as you can and curve around that cruiser wreck, we'll ambush them there. 8 out."
Suddenly his HUD flickered, target aquired. "Let em have it!". And the squadron opened up as one, shedding one drone then another. It was at that moment the Blazing Angels suffered thier first casualty of the day. Fighter #5, Coldfire's craft exploded as laser fire ripped through his engines. "Stay on target!" Icarus said, his voice tight. A third bomber drone spun from a near miss and a second hit destroyed its cockpit. "Stay on target!" "The drones are getting too clo-" "MISSILES AWAY!"
"BREAK RIGHT" He screamed and squadron 9 slammed into a hard turn. Behind them the remaining bomber drones reeled under a second barrage of missiles, the lone survivor didn't have time to blink as it caught a trio of spikes dead center and desintigrated.
As squadron 9 curved around the wreck of an advent cruiser they passed squadron 8 coming the other way. TEC assault fighters were the second most common type of the new strike craft. Where space superiority fighters were designed for staying power and interceptors were designed for range and speed. Assault fighters were designed with one purpose in mind, wanton destruction of property. Instead of lasers, assault fighters carried a variety of solid projectile cannons and multiple missile banks. Thought they needed to rearm frequently they could dish out a lot of hurt with every attack run.
Curving in behind them the swarm of Advent drones packed tighter as they made the hairpin turn. The moment squadron 9 passed below them the surviving 6 craft of squadron 8 opened up at once with thier spike cannons. To get some idea of how these weapons work, just imagine a shotgun big enough to cover a 50 foot wide cone shaped area with foot long solid metal flechettes. Each assault fighter of the squadron was mounted with 2. They didn't miss. "All clear, weapons out, squadron 8 withdrawing"
"Copy that Hammerheads, thanks for the assist". As the rest of the squadron formed up around him the comm pinged again. "Blazing Angels this is TAC COM, we have a situation"...
End of part 1. Its getting rather too big to keep in one piece. And instead of making this chapter 2 I'm going to pull a retcon or whatever and change this chapter to chapter 1 and the original chapter 1 into the prologue. That would make more sense.
I have stuff to do tommorow but with luck part 2 should be up by the day after at the latest. In the meantime any and all feedback on the story or the ideas it contains would be very helpful!
Although your game ideas are a bit radical; you are one AMAZING writer and I'm suprised that Ironclad hasn't signed you up by now!
Escalation easily could though. I don't want to devote my life to this game just so that I can win online etc. If changes like these are implemeted and they don't overcomplicate the game, then thats great!
Then that would not be Sins of a Solar Empire, that change would tranform the game into "Sins of a Galactic Empire" (nod to that StarWars mod)
These changes are waaay too radical for a micro-expansion. Sounds like a sequal or maybe a totally different game to me.
I'm pretty sure that these proposed game features are inconvenient because Blair said in some interview that originally Sins has bigger planets but players spent too much time manouvring around these giant spheres and lots of people complained.
In would be better if ships were smaller. Same effect, but no inconvenience.
Maybe enlarged planets might not be bad. I can't say for certain, but the according to Blair and the original Beta testers, it sucked.
Sins orginally had no phase lanes and this MEGA-sucked. Sins originally had revolving planets and this sucked also. Sins had greater realism but it didn't work for a game at all.
Anyway, you are a very good writer!
Not bad for someone with written output disorder.
That hits on one of the points I forgot to mention. The Sins community is relatively small and the fraction of us that play random multiplayer games is tiny compared to the whole. What we need is a game-mode that supports faster paced and shorter gameplay. Escalation would fit the bill for this. You don't have to remove the old style strategic gameplay, you can just add another mode to it. One that more heavily favours tactical combat.
The stuff I have described so far is pretty scalable and if you wanted to play a huge long campaign you still could. But if you just want to fire up multiplayer and blast through a 30 minute game of tower defence with a pickup group of random players, that works too.
Anything at all is still better than being labeled Sins of a Stagnated Genre.
I agree that the changes described are far too extreme for a single expansion. But the components that make it up are completetly doable. Entrenchment gave us starbases and minefields. Escalation might only give us space superiority fighters and leveling command crews, but that is still a step forward. Hell, I'd buy it! Besides, not getting everything done in the same expansion would give me an excuse to write another story.
I know increasing the scale ratio between ships and other objects seems like it would make the game slow. But this is actually necessary for us to up the movement speeds of ships. Starships in Sins handle about as well as a concrete boat on a lake of molasses. Seriously, they turn ponderously and they bump into each other all the time. The exception are strike craft which have a bit more zip, but they still fly like aircraft in an atmosphere. Real space has no friction to speak of, a moving object will stay moving until a force is used to counteract forward momentum. Any contact between ships can result in a fender bender to say the least.
Ships in Escalation would follow real world physics a little more closely. Ships would no longer have a concrete maximum speed, instead they would have different rates of acceleration. A ship on one side of the planet trying to attack a ship on the opposite side would gun its engines and use the gravity of the planet to sllingshot around. Even if you account for the change in scale, ships in Escalation could circle planets in about the same time it takes for a scout to make a round trip in the current game.
And because the area ships have to move in is so much bigger collisions are easy to avoid, we wouldn't have to scratch our heads in confusion as we watch whole enemy fleets fly right through a starbase. And that is even before you take into account the Z axis.
Its here, and its a doozie. Better bring a snack and some coffe for this one.
Chapter 1: Angels Fall First (Part 2)
As TAC COM explained the problem at hand Icarus keyed up his tactical display to get a better view of the situation. The TEC system fleet had deployed in a crescent shaped arc around the asteroid base with the starbase anchoring one end. The Advent forces had split into two teardrop shaped fleets. The first fleet was moving to intercept the Masakara and Synova who were rapidly approaching from the side, escorted by a fleet of various reinforcements. The second fleet, led by a carrier, was embroiled in a skirmish with the leading elements of the TEC line. It was on the edge of this battle that squadron 9 currently flew. Behind them a third Advent fleet was only now exiting phase space.
"-on the last pass the bombers managed to disable one shield array and the corvettes managed to disable one of the carrier's engines. But they both took heavy losses and had to withdraw. The system fleet is gearing up to advance on the Advent reinforcements, but at its current speed the carrier will escape. You are the only healthy asset in the area we have with anti capship abilities." Icarus scanned his display, then responded. "Copy that TAC COM, were on it. Channel close". Icarus punched up the squadron frequency. "Did you get all that?". A chorus of ayes. "Good, now listen up".
"We will have one and ONLY one shot at this, so we have to make it a good one. The carrier will be absolutely crawling with drones and the escorts will no doubt see us coming. TAC COM will be giving us a distraction that should take care of the escorts and most of the drones. If we get lucky the distraction will even kill the carrier itself, but if not we are plan B." Icarus began to single out targets on his tactical display. "The only areas TAC COM guarantees will be safe for the duration are here and here" He said, marking out two zones. "2 3 and 4 will stick with me on this vector, as soon as the storm passes we will break right and head directly for the carriers midsection. 6 7 and 8 will do the same on the opposite side. One face of the carrier is unshielded, so if nothing else goes right at least one of us should be in position to nail them with a torpedo. You have all seen what these can do on the firing range, all it should take is one."
He collapsed his tactical display. "Any questions?". He asked. "So let me get this straight". muttered Torch, the pilot of fighter #8. "The strike core beat the crap out of the carrier escorts and the corvettes beat the crap out of the carrier.". "Yup". "So now they won't send in the corvettes because its too dangerous, they won't send in the bombers because its too dangerous, and the rest of the fleet will arrive too late". "Yup" Said Icarus as he tilted his control stick and put his fighter on an intercept course. The rest of the squadron followed. "Sounds like a suicide mission". The comm went silent.
"So what the hell are we waiting for!" Said Icarus as he flipped the protective cover off a red switch and flicked it on. "Arm torpedoes. Were going in!"
Before them the remains of the Advent and TEC skirmish fleets were starting to untangle. As both groups separated a line of empty space began to grow between them. It was into this gap that squadron 9 flew, afterburners blazing. "Damn... the corvies sure took a beating" muttered Icarus, as they swerved around a cluster of wounded TEC Corvettes. The corvette class of ships were another new addition to the TEC fleet. Advances in engineering allowed TEC shipwrights to craft a ship smaller than the old frigates but nearly twice as powerful in every way. The increasing average experience level of the TEC navy combined with advances in training and control systems allowed these new corvettes to operate with very small crews. The result was an agile ship with about as much offensive power as 4 strike craft, but twice the combined armour and shielding.
Corvettes filled a critical niche between strike craft and the second generation frigates. They couldn't quite match the agility and speed of an interceptor and the armour of a frigate. But with enough armour to weather most point defence and enough agility to dodge shots from heavy capship weapons corvettes excelled at fighting in the gaps between larger ships. It was this role that they played today. As squadron 9 curved around the bulk of a wounded destroyer they passed a cluster of corvettes providing the bigger ship with a rearguard.
"Wing 2 this is Blazing Angels, were coming in on your six and are headed for the big fish, can you give us a distraction?". No answer came but as they passed the line of corvettes a flock of mirage missiles was launched. In the eyes of enemy sensors these missiles appeared and acted like flights of strike craft. Far from being simple decoys each missile was a powerful weapon in its own right. Point defence gunners who could tell the difference ignored them at thier own peril.
"Scatter!" Said Icarus and the squadron split into two, the mirage missles followed, forming 2 clouds that fell into formation with them. Seconds later the leading edge of the Advent rearguard opened fire. As he bobbed and weaved dodging laser blasts and blobs of plasma Icarus's comm pinged again, it was TAC COM. "Distraction in 20 seconds!".
Deep within asteroid base Sigma Tau capacitors whined with stored power. On the surface a cluster of 4 massive towers slowly oriented onto a distant cloud of sparkling lights. Inside the base command center crews checked and double checked thier readouts, calling out information to each other in frantic whispers. "Capacitor D At 90%, Capacitor E charging!" "Coolant tanks filled and primed!" "Magazine loading complete!" "Firing solutions locked in!" "Destroyer wings report all system go!"
Amid the organized chaos one man sat at his console, slowly flipping through a series of protective covers one by one. "No sense taking chances", the man thought. "Not with this much power on tap." The tenth cover flipped away to reveal a pair of small red buttons deeply recessed into the console. He glanced up at his screen, then pressed the first button. The second button turned from red to green. Then it began to blink. "We are go! Coming up on ten seconds!" His eyes locked onto his tactical display, a green circle slowly moved towards a red circle... As he watched, the timer at the bottom ticked away to zero. "Six... Five... Four... Three... Two... One..."
*click*
The gauss array roared into life. Pillars of blinding light pierced the heavens. Capacitors dumped thier stored power and coolant systems struggled to counter the furious heat released. 12 massive slugs rocked in thier magazines, then they were out and away. As the slugs passed the TEC battle line groups of destroyers cut loose with thier spinal mount gauss cannons. The lance of doom speared towards the Advent fleet, unstoppable.
As he dodged another burst of laser fire Icarus screamed into his comm. "GET OUT OF THERE, IMPACT IN 5!" They really were in deep now. The mirage missiles had bought them time to pass the first picket, distracting point defence batteries even as they homed in on and destroyed them. All around them Advent ships were frantically changing vectors, trying to dodge their rapidly approaching doom. Fighters 1-4 reached their safe zone and turned to follow its length. But fighters 6-8... Icarus watched in horror as they hit thier afterburners and slammed into a desparate turn, only to be blocked by an Advent cruiser. They wouldn't make it.
The wave hit. Just short of the fleet the massive slugs exploded into shards. Whole squadrons of drones scattered in confusion as massive holes were ripped in thier ranks. Frigates desintigrated under the onslaught and the larger cruisers reeled. Then they exploded as thier shields failed and power cores were breached releasing white hot fire. Icarus saw none of this, his eyes were glued to the trio of fighters he had ordered into the line of fire. Even as he watched, Torch's fighter was obliterated and Dragon's shout was cut short as another shard ripped his fighter in half.
Then it was over and Icarus banked right, orienting on the Advent carrier. "HERE WE GO, BURNERS TO FULL!". The fighters of squadron 9 blasted through the Advent fleet, dodging past stunned ships and lone scattered fighter drones. Suddenly they burst into the clear and roared in on the carrier in a wide pincer movement. The Advent carrier was the furthest ship away from the gauss array and so had the most time to dodge. It used this time well managing to avoid the worst of the shards. But it couldn't dodge what came next. The spray of spikes launched by the TEC destroyers formed a wide disk. The gunners had aimed well and the carrier sat dead center, catching the barrage on its flat upper face. The vast majority of the spikes missed completetly but an amazing 3 scored direct hits and the carrier's shields collapsed. A fourth bolt smashed the tip off a wing section. Then it was over.
Spitfire screamed as plasma melted through her canopy, then her voice was cut short as her fighter exploded. Its volatile payload cooking off in the intense heat. "Only four of us left" thought Icarus. "It has to be enough..." A storm of point defence fire slewed at them from all along the carriers length. Here and there crippled drones swooped in on crude attack runs as the carrier launched its damaged reserves in desparation. "Closer! The torpedoes will never make it past that flak!". "I can't take this!" yelled Prometheus. As the lone fighter attacking the carriers underside, he was the only target available. "Shields failing! I-" Static. And then there were three.
"TORPEDOES AWAY!"
Inside hangar 3 of the Advent carrier Anathema the dockmaster watched with horror as the trio of torpedoes punched through the roof. The first torpedo deflected off a gantry crane and smashed a log shaped depression into the hangar deck. The second torpedo also hit the gantry, but missed the crane. It punched its way past the framework of metal beams and nailed a bomber drone to the deck like a giant silver beetle. The third torpedo had pierced the outer hull and wound up inside a long air duct. It busted through the thin grating at the end, emerging into the hangar with little loss of momentum. Then it crashed through the hangar deck and dissapeared, coming to rest on a lower level.
Deck crews ran for cover. Above them atmosphere shrieked out of the holes in the ceiling, then stopped as the emergency repair systems took over, sealing the hull breaches. The dockmaster braced for an explosion but none came. Instead the torpedoes split with an almight "FUMPHF" and rust coloured smoke billowed outwards in gigantic clouds.. The dockmaster stared in confusion, then she activated the fire control protocols.
Atmosphere again started to vent, slowly pulling the smoke clouds up to the ceiling even as fresh air blew in from below. The intention of the safety protocols was to collect smoke at the ceiling where it could be vented into space. While at the same time supplying the flight crews with fresh air, giving them a chance to control any fire on the deck. The anima controlling the hangar surveillance drones zoomed in on the first torpedo. It happened to come to rest with its serial number facing the camera. Beside it a line of text. The dockmaster squinted as she struggled to read it through wisps of opaque smoke.
ACAPT PHOENIX AP-FAE
In the back of her mind a memory jumped up and down, frantically waving its hands and yelling at the top of its voice. She looked at the text and wondered why it seemed familiar. Then she froze, her blood ran cold. She HAD seen these acronyms before. A for armour, P for piercing... F for fuel, A for air, E for...
She screamed.
As the survivors of squadron 9 blasted past the carrier and began to curve around, the torpedoes detonated. Massive clouds of fire billowed out of every open hangar. All over the mirrored hull plates of armour bulged outwards, then ripped away to reveal geysers of flame. For a moment things seemed to quiet down. Then the ship exploded, bulging out in the middle as the pressure wave propagated to the bow and stern. The bow split like the petals of a flower and a plume of debrit and fire emerged like the breath of a titanic dragon. Seconds later another plume ripped out the back. The flames funnelled out of the carriers engine ports before ripping them away. Then it was over.
"TAC COM, Blazing Angels report target destroyed".
Icarus called up his tac display and surveyed the situation. Grim. "We copy Blazing Angels, the fleet is on its way, good luck.". As Icarus examined his HUD he noticed the breathing medium inside his helmet was beginning to taste salty. Im probably sweating bullets, he though. The surviving Advent fleet converged on them from all directions. Icarus watched them approach for a moment, then keyed his comm one last time. "Its been a pleasure, I'll see you on the other side". He whispered. A storm of hostile energy hurtled towards them. Chaos ensued.
Icarus bobbed and weaved as he had so many times before. Spinning to the left he raked the bow of a frigate with his lasers, then dived under and past. A drone swooped in from above, only to be gutted by multiple hits. He could no longer see the other members of the squadron, couldn't afford the fraction of a second it would take to turn his head. His entire world shrunk to his HUD and his control stick. Dodge, Fire, Dodge, Spin, Jink, Fire, Dodge, Climb, Weave... A piercing alarm jerked him out of his focus and a flashing warning spelled out his doom. Engine failure. He took a deep breath and gis hand moved to a certain handle, one he never before had reason to pull.
"PUNCHING OUT!"
The handle clicked as it was pulled. Time slowed to a crawl. The canopy above his head split under the kick of explosive bolts even as a needle of cyan fire stabbed through it from behind. His world turned white. Then there was only darkness.
Icarus slowly came to. His vision swam and seemed to be tinted an odd shade of pink. He coughed and then frowned, tasting copper. "I must be bleeding" He gurgled. The liquid was also uncomfortably warm, a bad sign. That meant either his suit was overloaded, or it was damaged, maybe both. If the cooling system was gone the oxygen system couldn't be far behind. His mind continued to boot up and slowly realized two more things about the situation and filed them into good news and bad news.
The good news was that he seemed to be drifting towards the starbase. The chances of rescue for spaced pilots was incredibly slim, even in controlled circumstances. So much so that TEC instructors were unwilling to lose prospective pilots in such excercises and "live" ejections were never practiced. But with the starbase in sight Icarus knew he had a better chance than most.
The bad news was that his suit beacon didn't seem to be working, or else he would probably have been picked up by now. How long was he out for? Better phone home. "TAC COM this is Icarus, ejection successful, requesting pickup". Silence. "TAC COM this is Icarus respond?" Nothing. He reached up to the right side of his helmet where the comm circuits were mounted. The surface felt... odd. Pulling his hand into view he blinked at what he saw. His fingertips seemed to be covered with ash. He turned his head and froze.
The right shoulder of his pilots chair was missing. Vapourized. Judging from the damage around the absent portion the beam had punched through the back of his fighter and passed close enough to sever the shoulder strap and melt part of his helmet. After a period of time where his brain struggled to process this information, he spoke. "Well that explains the comm failure." he mused. Searching his memories he tried to recall what his training told him to do in this situation. The voice of a lecturing instructor sprang to life in his head. "...should you eject and are unable to contact friendly forces with your helmet comm, the emergency beacon built into the back of your pilots chair can double as a secondary comm. To activate the beacon press the emergency tab above your chair's right shoulder and..." He glanced at the missing shoulder. "Okay, we do this the hard way". He muttered.
Carefully unhooking the remaining straps of his harness Icarus looped the straps around his legs and began to pull himself around to the back of his chair. A panel outlined in red helpfully proclaimed "EMERGENCY BEACON". He pulled a tab and the assembly popped open, revealing a black box with a big red button on the front, but nothing that looked like a comm. He pushed the button which began to blink. Getting a firm grip on either side of the box he slowly remove it from the chair. The casing was slippery. Just as he began to wonder how he was going to carry it a strap started to unravel behind the box, wafting in the zero G. "Those clever bastards" He smiled. "They think of everything". Winding the strap around his chest he clipped it into place. On the back of the box another panel hinged open to reveal a wire and a jack. Plugging the jack into a port on the left side of his helmet he immediatly began to hear frantic voices.
"-wing 2 calling Blazing Angels, we see your beacon, acknowledge!"..."-epeat, this is TAC COM, pilot Icarus respond!" He breathed a sigh of relief. He suddenly noticed little spots in his field of vision. It took him a moment to realize what they were. Tears, floating in the breathing medium in front of his face. "TAC COM this is Icarus, ejection successful, primary comm failure, requesting pickup". Silence. "We-, we copy that Icarus, help is on the way. What happened out there?".
Icarus paused, then convulsively, he laughed.
"I... heh... I think I got too close to the sun."
Some time later he lay on a hospital bed, the embroidering on his gown reading TEC Synova. Beside him a medic explained his injuries, ticking items off a long list. "-ultiple shrapnel wounds and third degree burns all around your shoulder." He lowered his datapad. "Your lucky to be alive" He said. Icarus nodded weakly, the painkillers and stimulants his suit had given him automatically had long since wore off and the weight of his injuries pressed down on him with a crushing grip. "What about the rest of my squadron?" he asked.
"Not looking good" The medic said. "We have 7 CCD, so far no beacons have been activated, save yours.". CCD, confirmed craft destroyed. An automated one-shot beacon the TEC strike core used to mark casualties in space battles. The pilot beacons were also automatic and linked to a pilot's personal comm. Only a freak accident had kept his comm from working. If none of theirs had triggered then... "All gone" He closed his eyes. Flashpoint, Coldfire, Torch, hell even Freezer Burn. All gone.
The medic nodded in sympathy, then turned to leave. "Get some rest Icarus, you did your duty". His eyes snapped open. "Wait" he said. The medic paused at the door. "Don't call me that anymore, it... wouldn't be fitting". The medic nodded. "What is your callsign pilot?" He asked formally. With the last of his strength the pilot once known as Icarus raised his left hand to his forehead. A strike pilot's salute to the fallen. The Blazing Angels would live again. But not today.
"Wingless" He whispered, then drifted off to sleep.
See what I did there?
End of chapter 1. 5 hours worth of insomnia and noisy neighbors. Please drop a comment if you enjoyed it. There are also a ton of new ideas in there. Some I added intentionally as I thought them up, some are hidden. How many can you find?
You have two choices of perspective for chapter 2. The first is an officer on the Masakara. The second is an officer on the Synova. If you have a preference I'll take it into account but if I find inspiration for the other choice first I will go with that instead.
Now I'm off to bed...
Well done once again!
You don't run out of good ideas often do you?
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