TCL987's Blog

As I fell toward the surface along with thousands of others just like me I closed my eyes and I thought about how this all began.

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It was only last week that I was recruited to fight for this Capsuleer. I don’t know his name or what he looks like but I know that like the rest of them he posesses vast wealth and great power. From what I’ve heard from other recruits the Capsuleers have been sending recruiters to various planets offering rewards in exchange for joining their armies. I have to admit it sounds like a pretty sweet deal, it was enough to suck me in after all. There were fifty of us in the group from my planet They put us through a minor training program and provided us with equipment but from the look of this armour I can’t help but get the feeling they don’t value their soldiers much. After finishing the training we were lead into a rifter class frigate and taken to a battleship owned by the capsuleer who had recruited us. We were ferried over in small shuttles. Once all fifty of us were aboard we were lead through a corridor to a large door. When the door opened I and the rest of my group couldn’t help but gasp at what we saw. On the other side of the door was a massive hangar full of mechs, hundreds of tanks and drop ships.  There were thousands of people all boarding or waiting to board drop ships.  We were instructed to proceed across the room to the personel office and check in.  I was assigned a squad and directed on where to go.  I felt the ship enter warp and a minute later we dropped out of warp and met up with at least a dozen other ships.  I saw some other battleships and some larger capital ships.  The fleet headed to the target planet and within minutes we were there.

In an instant the orbital defences opened fire on the fleet. Round after round impacted the ship’s shields but they held.  The capital ships began jumping in and the fleet began firing on the orbital batteries.  Not long after the fighting began a call went out over the load speaker and several loaded dropships took off and went to board the now vulnerable defense batteries.  I watched as the ships flew away when suddenly one of the orbital guns swept it’s fire across them, destroying them instantly.  Another call went out and several more dropships launched.  The guns turned their fire on them but a few managed to make it through and board the gun.  I watched as the guns stopped firing one by one either from damage or the boarding parties.  I didn’t have long to watch before another call went out and I was loaded into a dropship bound for the surface.  I watched as the other ships launched dropships as well.  The number of ships was staggering, there must have been hundreds of them all heading toward the planet below.

I glanced out the small window behind a fellow soldier just in time to see a dozen or more dropships get blown out of the sky by anti-air gun fire.  I watched as the anti-air turrets destroyed hundreds of dropships, wondering how many of us would actually make it to the ground.   I felt a sharp jolt as the left wing was hit sending the ship into a downward spiral.  I felt a sharp jolt as the left wing was hit sending the ship into a downward spiral.  As the ship fell closer and closer to the ground I closed my eyes and though about how this all began.

SIGNAL LOST

LOG TERMINATED

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The operation was a success, over two thousand dropships each carrying fifty people were deployed to the planet and the space above the colony.  Of those two thousand only one hundred and fifty made it to the surface.  Further losses on the surface give the operation a total operational cost of approximately 111,687 lives.

Evaluation: MINIMAL LOSSES

Mechanics

- Planets

Planets are divided into multiple regions each having varying characteristics based on the type of planet and location on the planet.  For example polar regions on human habitable planets are harder to colonize than regions closer to the equator due to their colder climate.  Resource distribution also varies from region to region.  Each region can have a single colony and a limited number of additional structures depending on the region.

- Colonies

Colonies are the main planetary structure, colonies are the planetary equivalent to control towers.  In order for a colony to be established in a particular region a planetary colony construction platform suitable for the selected region and materials necessary for the construction must be deployed to the planets surface.  The material cost varies depending on the conditions of the selected region.  Once constructed colonies require personnel and supplies in order to function, personnel are not consumed during operation.  Colonies unlike control towers can’t survive without sufficient supplies based on the size of the colony and the number of personnel in the colony.  Colonies without supplies will lose personnel and fall into a state of disrepair until either supplies are recieved or the colony disappears.  A colony that is in a state of disrepair will operate at reduced capacity and require additional supplies for repairs.  Colonies can be captured or destroyed.

- Structures

Structures are sent down as construction platforms with additional minerals, construction time depends on the personnel of the colony and construction can be run in parallel if sufficient personnel are available.

– Generators

Generators provide additional power to the colony at the cost of increased supply needs.

– Central Processing Facility

Central Processing Facilities provide additional CPU to the colony at the cost of increased supply needs.

– Mines and Harvesters

Mines extract ore from beneath the planets surface which can be refined and either used to satisfy the supply needs of the colony or be exported via a space elevator for use elsewhere.

Harvesters like Mines produce raw resources that can be processed for use either by the colony or elsewhere.

– Refinery

Refines raw ore into usable materials.

– Processing Plant

Processes raw food.

– Space Elevator

The space elevator is required to efficiently  import and export resources from a colony into space.  Without one a colony’s capabilities are severely hindered.  Also provides orbital structures their required power and CPU.

– Planetary Transport System

Allows the transport of goods between colonies on the same planet via cargo planes.

– Defence Systems

— Anti-Air Defence System

A defence network of anti-air turrets and missile launchers designed to attack air forces. Consumes power and CPU.

— Point Defence System

A defence network of turrets along the other walls designed to attack ground forces attempting to enter the colony.

— Shield Generator System

A system designed to project a shield over a colony to protect it during an attack.  Uses power, cpu and fuel.  Fuel is only used during an attack and usage is dependant on the amount of damage being sustained during orbital bombardment.  Prevents air forces from landing inside the area of effect while active.

-Orbital Structures

Orbital Structures are deployed like POS structures and take a fixed time to setup.

– Orbital Batteries

Orbital Batteries come in two different groups, Anti-Dropship and Orbital Defence.  Orbital Defence batteries are large guns designed to target and attack large ships such as Battleships and Capital Ships.  Anti-Dropship batteries target and destroy dropships.  Both batteries can be targeted and either destroyed or boarded.  The batteries will continue to fire through structure but at a decreased capacity the further damaged they are.  When the batteries hit zero structure they will explode and a destroyed battery will be left.  Consumes power and/or cpu depending on the type of batteries.

- Combat

When attacking a colony you may either destroy it or capture it.  If captured a colony will lose most if not all of  its personnel and often become damaged from the fighting.

A poorly defended colony can take a small force minutes to capture while a well defended colony can take a large army hours.  A couple thousand or more dropships deployed is fairly standard for any operation against a reasonably defended colony.  Without anti-air or anti-dropship batteries there is nothing stopping a small number of dropships from capturing a colony.  It is because of this that colonies are more suited to well defended space in an alliance’s core space rather than a system at the edge of their space.

-- Destroying a Colony

You may destroy a colony through orbital bombardment using Battleships, Dreadnoughts or Titans using orbital bombardment weapons.  Ships smaller than a Battleship are too small to fit orbital bombardment weapons. Carriers and Motherships can deploy planetary bombers to aid in the bombardment.

– Capturing a Colony

You may capture a colony by deploying soldiers to the surface to take control of the colony.  Using a deployment module that can be fit to any ship Battleship and larger, troops can be deployed to the surface.  Troop options consist of dropships containing either soldiers or a tank.  Dropships are loaded like ammo into the deployment module and launched to the planet every cycle.  Dropships can be shot down either by Anti-Dropship Batteries or Anti-Air Batteries.  Carriers and Motherships can deploy planetary bombers or fighters to aid in the battle.

– Defending a Colony

If a colony is attacked its owner is informed and can mount a defence, you can destroy the ships in orbit to prevent the sending of reinforcements and deploy dropships of your own to counter their soldiers already on the ground.Carriers and Motherships can deploy planetary bombers or fighters to aid in the battle.

-User Interface

All interaction with a planet will be done via the planetary interface.  The planetary interface is a window that displays all known information about the current planet, the status of any battles currently in progress on the planet and options relating to colony operations and the deployment of construction platforms.