Dreary Futures II (Episode two: Kobayashi Maru) Feedback

[Lucaken]

Thank you for everyone participating in today's event. As always, this thread is here for everyone to voice their opinions. Besides the usual lore feedback, you are also welcome to post any mechanical changes to the Horizon's weapons mechanics, too. 

We are especially interested in the opinions of people actively participating in the round. Thank you.

[Gem]

cool event.

[ElizabethDame]

I think the event was overall rather uninteresting as it was as someone said from the staff a "stress test for the weapons". Still though, my biggest issue was with the sounds that came with the weapons. They were grating, and after like an hour of them they actually were bringing on a head-ache. Otherwise, there seems to be a perhaps unintentional bug where the magboots cannot keep you up while the ship maneuvers.

[Kintsugi]

I've always been a big fan of the concept of a ship-to-ship weapon system and haven't kept that a secret. All in all, I think it's in a very solid place. It works as it is and it is fun - the only real changes I'd make would be more types of weapon systems and for more subsystems to make it more interesting for people not playing BC. Mainly countermeasures that engineering and research would be responsible for - like I suggested to Matt, I think chaff/jamming systems that engineering would be responsible for and electronic warfare/hacking systems that science could use to disable the enemy's sensors or target lock would really spice things up.

Otherwise, the only changes I think we should make are mapping ones. The exposed Horizon bridge just isn't going to work for protracted ship-to-ship combat, and I think making the current bridge into an observation area and moving the bridge itself to a centrally-located CIC would be best. That, or an auxiliary CIC in the bunker as a stopgap measure.

All in all, I think we should nonetheless be careful with using the ship to ship combat system for events, and we should be sparing with ship to ship non-canon events. Hostile ships should be well-mapped - the death box approach really didn't work at all, and admins had to intervene constantly to keep it from falling apart.

[ImmortalRedshirt]

First off, for the love of all that is holy we need quieter guns.

Now, as a BC who was piloting both the Intrepid and Horizon in combat, I feel I can leave some feedback on how combat feels. Obviously, this is no NSV(and as much as I enjoy space combat there, it certainly wouldn't be appropriate for the Aurora), so it's going to be a fairly clunky experience. It is certainly enjoyable and tense, with good feedback on damage. However, due to the nature of combat and the helm console, some way to automatically provide better warning for maneuvers is needed.

[Omicega]

I think it's disappointing the event needed extensive adminbus for the combat to function properly once the Sol cruiser got ammo racked a few shots in, especially since the Horizon having shields and its counterpart having none (and no armour to speak of, really) kind of made things a foregone conclusion without longbow shells being spawned in so the Solarian cruiser could start slamfiring them -- and even then the shields ate over half of those shots. I think it's a shame the combat wasn't more representative of how this might go down organically without extensive admin intervention.

Beyond that, I think the ship-to-ship system as a whole suffers from being far too weighted towards BC involvement at the expense of basically anyone else, and I don't think it's ideal that the 'training wheels for command' role -- which was originally designed as a jump-in point for people to try out a command whitelist, correct me if I'm wrong -- has now become a main job for anyone looking to participate in basically any aspect of the actual combat. Bridge crew can load the guns (and outside of very populated rounds like this event one, have just been doing so regularly), fly the ship, fire the guns, and also handle all aspects of the Intrepid by themselves too. This is in addition to a role that, even on a regular round, has full command radio access to stay clued into what is happening and a significant amount of camera coverage too with both the computer program and a dedicated console on the bridge.

I would like to see bridge crew locked more onto the bridge itself and outright forced to cooperate with operations to get the guns loaded instead of having the option to do it themselves. I'd even like to see something like a dedicated Intrepid pilot role looked at, now that it has markedly more 'content' strapped to it rather than just being a glorified taxi.

Just now, ImmortalRedshirt said:

However, due to the nature of combat and the helm console, some way to automatically provide better warning for maneuvers is needed.

This is also something I can't echo hard enough -- again considering how much agency BCs have over these rounds now as it is. Even on the 'test firing' rounds outside the event itself, I found it really obnoxious to be slammed around and thrown about every 30 seconds to a minute, and the longbow in particular is way too loud as well. More warning would help but I think the ship needs easily accessible emergency magboots in the O2 lockers or something now. I can't really shake the overall feeling that ship-to-ship in its current state boils down to an exciting shouty LARP minigame for command that sees you overlooked in favour of it unless you're specifically needed for something to fuel it (engineering having to do big repairs, etc). It's kind of like the 'security monopolising antag rounds' problem all over again except on a different scale.

[Sparky_hotdog]

I'm firstly going to preface this by saying I was playing my Sec Officer for this, as I suspect that will influence things.

Personally, I loved this. The ship combat was exciting OOCly and fun to RP. The chaos was just measured enough to add spice whilst not feeling totally out of control. While this wasn't planned by the event staff, command did an excellent job of communicating the right amount of information to the crew too imo.

The ship combat also, to my eyes as a third party, kept a lot of the crew engaged with the round too. Engineering obviously had their hands full, Medical were dealing with wounded from the cruiser's barrages, command and the bridge were focused on sending out barrages of our own, operations was keeping everyone supplied (particularly the guns). Even research were getting involved I believe by handing out gear to departments to help. This was something I sorely underestimated the effect of, and am very happy to have done so.

As the keen observer may have noted, I missed security of my list of engaged departments despite playing there myself, and for good reason. There was no boarding action during the event, which meant ISD largely had nothing to do. I think having us ICly act out as if we were expecting one was the right call (This was a simulation/test after all, and it gave us something to do), even if command (and eventually us) OOCly knew this wasn't going to happen. I also wholeheartedly agree this was the right call on an event planning side: This event was to test ship combat. We did that, and I'd say it was a success.

The reason I still enjoyed this as security is because the mere idea of the ship being in combat was enough to prompt interesting RP, and while I was sceptical when I first saw how many parts of combat involved throwing the crew about, I can now say that it is somehow super fun to be thrown against the walls while trying to get around. I am definitely looking forward to the first time we have real boarding during ship-ship, but I am in no way regretful we didn't get any for this

Finally, service was also missing from that list, which I don't think is surprising: It takes a very specific type of event to involved them, and in this case a (un)lucky blow to the fore of the ship made their whole department inoperable for the rest of the round. I have no idea what the round was like for anyone playing that, but would be interested in seeing.

Overall, a very very fun event.

[Peppermint]

I only watched it, didn't play.

Agree we should probably split up responsibilities some. Operations should really be responsible for all loading I think; I don't see why they can't also assemble shells. BCs should still be allowed I reckon, but only if there's nobody else to do it.

I'm not sure how to give others other jobs though without making the horizon even more crazy strong. Issue with giving a giga weapon like the leviathon is that it's kind of hard not to justify just using it straight out, and it's not that  limited. I think it should need more hands-on somehow by engineering/science, or just require a lot more power before you can shoot. 

Agree with the mapping issues. Destroying the bridge and thus consoles is a bit too easy on pretty much any ship. Exact same thing happened whilst fighting the tcfl as SFA yesterday - one shot to either's bridge entirely ended combat until we boarded. 

Shields are also probably doing too much. Half+ of the sol's ships rounds completely missed and got eaten by them.

I would like direct damage from 40mm and the like to also be more lethal if possible. People shouldn't be able to shrug off a bunch of rounds, like some engineers did after getting shot in the main hallway.

[Infix]

I joined late but I was the janitor I enjoyed what little I was exposed to could of done with more destruction give the crew a higher challenge

 

[GeneralCamo]

I would like to preface this by stating that this simulation was a good initiative from the event staff: We were able to figure out flaws with the command structure and the ship, without the real risk of losing our characters. I will admit that I had some trouble getting used to the new maneuvers, but I believed I performed well in the second half until I exploded in the bridge.

I would now like to go ahead and bring forth the issues I noted, as Abdul Ibn Turkiel, Bridge Crewman:

• Crew -must- understand that during a combat situation, or really any dire emergency, comfort must come last. Complaining about being jostled around because we're evading shots in the bridge does not help us at all: We are trying to protect the ship and its crew from dying.
• That being said, things like surgery being interrupted as magboots and surgery tables did not properly buckle people in was not ideal. Even with warning this would have been extremely disruptive. I recommend the mapping team add more places to buckle down during an emergency situation like this, as they -will- get jostled. And the bugs with buckling be fixed as well.
• I noted major vulnerabilities with the ship and its systems. The bridge is a major issue as taking it out effectively kills command integrity. To offset this, I propose void suits be added nearby for bridge crew to take, without having to go two decks down to grab suits (which is not ideal in a true emergency situation, or an ambush). A CIC installed in the command bunker, allowing full control of the ship from there, was also proposed in discord; I recommend this to allow a backup command position. Void suits already exist nearby this area.
• Engines are far too unprotected. A good shot to the supermatter engine or the tesla would end a round. I recommend double walling these critical areas to protect them from such catastrophic damage.
• Research has basically nothing to do in this situation. Allowing them the ability to research and print experimental ship ammo types is a possible idea to give them something to do in this situation, and others.

Overall good fun to be had.

[Kaizr]

8 hours ago, Infix said:

I joined late but I was the janitor I enjoyed what little I was exposed to could of done with more destruction give the crew a higher challenge

 

Just gonna add a teeny tiny note:

As someone who was playing engineering that round, the level of destruction was MORE than enough.

[TrainTN]

13 hours ago, DanseMacabre said:

Otherwise, the only changes I think we should make are mapping ones. The exposed Horizon bridge just isn't going to work for protracted ship-to-ship combat, and I think making the current bridge into an observation area and moving the bridge itself to a centrally-located CIC would be best. That, or an auxiliary CIC in the bunker as a stopgap measure.

The Command deck does have a lot of free space on it that's used for things like open-air sections and mini lounges and a whole second bar. I agree that using that space to create a more central CIC department would be a good idea.

[omegaTracing]

I did not find much i could help with as a security officer, besides giving around oxygen tanks and preparing the Voidsuits! Current HoS put the team in guard duty, wich is an understandable decision, but personally i believe sec should focus on crowd control and keeping down the panic... of course, that's just an IC issue.

But i did find myself suffering some migraines afterwards, not sure why, they lasted for the rest of the day, and persisted even after a nap. Maybe it was the red lighting mixed with all the sounds, and having to pay attention to both chat and the screen? Sure was stressful! Maybe the lights SHOULDNT be constantly red?

Still, i personally had fun, and i'll make sure to always think ahead from now on!