LBB2 Ship Programming Idears

[jawillroy]

With the understanding that a lot of you guys won't touch ship's programming with missile probes at ten light seconds, I wondered if anyone who DOES monkey around with it might put forth some of the programs they'd cobbled together for it. There seems to be room for plenty, especially with special, MilSpec programming (that the PCs would seldom if ever see) but there might be other nifty stuff out there too.

Setting aside, please! any issues with copy-protect, machine tonnage, and medium.

There's two that I've got off the top of my head:
Dispersed Fire. Space 4, Cost ? (MilSpec) Allows a to fire its lasers in a broad pattern; multiple hits are sacrificed for the sake of achieving one. For every ten lasers committed to a target, add +1 to hit. There is one roll to hit; if the roll is successful, one laser hit is achieved. Target is also required; Predict, Multi-Target, Double-Fire and Return Fire may be used in conjunction with the program. Incompatible with Select and Gunner-Interact programs.
(Extends effective range of lasers)

Focused Fire. Space 4, Cost ? (MilSpec) Allows a to fire its lasers in an extremely tight pattern; Any number of the ship's laser turrets may be committed to a single target; all lasers from a given turret must be committed to that target. There is one roll to hit; if the roll is successful, all lasers do damage. Target is also required; Predict, Multi-Target, Double-Fire and Return Fire may be used in conjunction with the program. Incompatible with Select and Gunner-Interact programs.
(Can deliver killing blows in a laser duel; saves PCs and Ref from die-related carpal tunnel)

So what you got? Anything in particular for the civilian comps? Anything anyone's players have come up with?

 

[far-trader]

Check out this thread:

Program Loadouts

 

[jawillroy]

Oh,nifty!Thanks, Dan! Very cool stuff there.

Serve me right for lazy...

One thing that didn't pop up there on first glance: it struck me that one advantage of the bigger computers is that a lot of 'em have enough space to be fully engaged in combat while still crunching the numbers for a jump.

 

[Icosahedron]

Two civilian programs I've used are:

Freeze/Defrost: Space 1, Cost 0.2. Allows the computer to operate cold sleep berths automatically, removing the need for an attending medic. A Medic-1 equivalent is assumed.

Persona: Space = Skill No, Cost = Skill No. Allows the computer a limited intelligence and the ability to function as a low initiative crew member. Often it is programmed only with Liaison, Streetwise or Carousing to act as a companion of different personality styles, but may also contain any skill such as Pilot or Engineer (except JOT). Incorporation of computer skill allows self-operation so that no crew are needed to cycle programs.

 

[jawillroy]

That Persona program could be a real mean trick to play on PCs if they got one too powerful. "Open the pod bay doors, Hal..."

"Incoming ships? Man the turrets!"
"Well, actually, you get there, and neither target nor any other weapons programs are up and running. 'Puter's decided to calculate for jump instead."
"Are we even evading?"
"Erm, no. Not really."
*BANG*BANG*BANG*BANG*BANG*BANG*Whooooooosht.

 

[Gadrin]

Talk about Blue Screen o'Death !

"Targeting sub-system is offline during maintenance. Do you wish to defragment this sub-system now? Press any key to continue".


"Please insert media for the 300-mega-joule Laser now. Use Speed Install if you don't want to die in the next 30 seconds."

"Please enter the 256-character key before continuing..."

 

[jawillroy]

Persona: Often it is programmed only with Liaison, Streetwise or Carousing to act as a companion of different personality styles,

"Erm, Captain. About the computer."
"Yes?"
"The personality tape. It's a little unusual."
"Weeeelll... my family's aboard, and I want it to be able to keep Celeste busy."
"Ah. So that's why it talks like a four-year-old girl?"
"Is that going to be a problem?"
"Well, SPACE it all, Captain, she's afraid of the DARK! And we hand keep having to mop in the engine room every time a ship comes up on scan."

 

[far-trader]

Oh,nifty!Thanks, Dan! Very cool stuff there.

Serve me right for lazy...

You're welcome No worry about being lazy, resurrecting topics is cool, even as a new one. I just happened to recall the earlier one and thought linking it in would save copying ideas

Carry on...

 

[far-trader]

One thing that didn't pop up there on first glance: it struck me that one advantage of the bigger computers is that a lot of 'em have enough space to be fully engaged in combat while still crunching the numbers for a jump.

Yep, which can be a good thing. But there's ways there to fill some of that less productive space. Or was that in another related topic? I'll have to look through that old one again...

 

[jawillroy]

I think part of what I have in mind is making certain that there is some sort of operational difference between computers 6 and higher in LBB2 combat - at least in terms of background (since PCs don't often get ships of the line under their command or on their tails.)

 

[boomslang]

I think part of what I have in mind is making certain that there is some sort of operational difference between computers 6 and higher in LBB2 combat - at least in terms of background (since PCs don't often get ships of the line under their command or on their tails.)

First, there's the obvious

Area Anti-Missile: Allows Anti-Missile fire against all missiles within a specified radius of the defending vessel (program CPU size determines defensive radius). Used to screen friendly ships in formation.

and

Multi-Target-n: Allows a vessel (but not an individual turret) to engage a number of targets equal to n, where n equals "CPU allocated to the program minus x", where x is some arbitrary constant to be settled on in playtest reflecting the minimum CPU allocation required for the thing to run at all.

* * *

Plus, I once fiddled around with a client/server package to run hosted on fleet mainframes that let Tactics skill bonuses be pooled and dynamically-allocated among vessels in a squadron, but it got over-complexified and it became easier to just abstract it and wing it, but that program scaled up pretty huge, justifying the enormous computers needed to manage the server load.

It had co-locating capabilities and encrypted datalinks and automated handover in the event of casualties and/or network disruption... and Lotus Notes {inside joke}...

 

[boomslang]

Plus, I once fiddled around with a client/server package to run hosted on fleet mainframes that let Tactics skill bonuses be pooled and dynamically-allocated among vessels in a squadron, but it got over-complexified and it became easier to just abstract it and wing it, but that program scaled up pretty huge, justifying the enormous computers needed to manage the server load.

A smaller, lightweight version was also considered (possibly running hosted on a squadron-support fighter/cutter/boat -- BSG Raptors, anyone?) that would allow a squadron of fighters to pool their weaponry into a single massed battery in lieu of individual Gunner Interact and Targeting and whatever, but I never developed it further...

 

[jawillroy]

I've thought a "Fleet Ops" program might be useful, too - both for extending the Admiral's reach, and for pooling sensor data. I got bogged down in trying to decide what time lag would do with a spread-out fleet, though. If you've got an outrider 3 light seconds away, and he relays something on scan two light seconds further away, he'll be getting you his two-second- information 3 seconds too late...

Which, actually, isn't so bad. Useless for laser fire. I think it would give you something to throw a missile at, though, and it would give you something to chase....

I think that the fighter version would require the squadron to stay pretty tight together for that to work, cut down on timelag between ships in formation.

 

[boomslang]

If you've got an outrider 3 light seconds away, and he relays something on scan two light seconds further away, he'll be getting you his two-second- information 3 seconds too late...

Combat software is highly predictive, and a turn is ~1000 seconds long, so I'd think light lag wouldn't be an insurmountable issue...