Simple Multiplayer FoF Campaign?

[Molon Labe]

Now that we've finished LWAMI 3.11 and I released my China single-player campaign, I'm hoping to go back to actually playing DW instead of just working on it.

But rather than getting into duels again, I was thinking about making a Force-on-Force campaign, one which would hopefully be much simpler than the GDT experiment a few years back. So here is what I have in mind.

Premise: Two opposing navies fight for resources in a relatively confined geographic location with lots of small islands; perhaps the Aegean. The navies will be composed of DW platforms: playable platforms, AI warships, aircraft, amphibs, merchants, etc. Each side is played by one or more players, in theory one per side is adequate, but obviously the more people that can join in the better the battles will be. The territory each side controls will earn resources/victory points for that side. The campaign can end at a set number of points or when one side runs out of ships or territory. The turns can be divided into Three phases.

Phase 1: Ante up
Each side declares what they're going to do with their units. The commands would essentially be "invade island X" or "protect island Y" or so forth. No detailed movement tracking is required, so a dedicated GM is not needed. Declarations can be done via email with password protected Word attachments. The password is revealed after emails are exchanged, so no one sees the other side's declaration before they have made their own.

Phase 2: Battle
Anytime two groups end up trying to fight in same spot, a DW mission is belted out and the fight is played.

Phase 3: Resolution and Resources
A side that successfully invades an island takes control of it. If both sides land, then the side with more troops will take control. There is room to add some complexity here with contested territory and casualties (e.g. control is achieved at 2-to-1 advantage, losing side takes casualties based on ratio of forces, reinforcements can be landed, evacuations can be so the troops can be used somewhere else). Territory that is controlled generates resources for the side that controls it. Those resources get stored on-site.
On-site resources can be shipped out in commerce as part of the Phase 1 declaration. If this is successful (the merchies don't get sunk), the side will receive revenues from this. There may also be some fixed income as well (i.e. taxes from the motherland). So you have money to spend to train troops or purchase new platforms. (The purchase would actually take place in Phase 1 of the next turn).


That's pretty much it. I see some details that need to be worked out with mission design, abstracted land combat, and figuring out the available units and their prices, but those issues don't seem insurmountable. Definitely easier than the GDT was. And the best part from my perspective is that this format doesn't need a dedicated GM because there is no need for any secret movements to be tracked; the players themselves can run it. Which means I can run it and be a player!

So, would anyone want to do this?

Very good idea, something fun to do when inside on summer time!
( It is summer here right now, where I live, in Finland)

My question is, is this going to played via Hamachi or similar, or just using DW's own connect to host service?
Because everytime I have had Hamachi or similar installed to my comp, It somehow screws up my DW. It seems I cant use DW's own connect to host service after that, and it is annoying.
I have tried to make the correct changes to DW's danerouswaters.ini, but with no joy.
So if you guys decide after all to use Hamachi or such, please write down some instructions how to make it work, Thanks!

[Molon Labe]

I personally don't care for Hamachi (the program...the fish is excellent!) but that would really come down to how many people can't connect without it vs. how many people can't connect with it.

[Hawk66]

How would you design the missions...I mean would there be AI units in such battles and would you randomize the locations/events so that the mission designer itself has no advantage ?

Hm...have to try out multiplayer...surely makes fun, especially multistations, I guess; the only drawback seems to be that you have to play several hours without interruption.

[Molon Labe]

I'm working that out.

Missions for something like this can be pretty simple because all you really need to to as a designer is put the right pieces in place. And the units present will be the units declared to that area by the players. My basic thought would be that you would have a goal line one side needs to reach or an area that one side must force enemy platforms out of. As for starting positions, you'd probably have a wedge or band of possible spawn locations... such that they start within 15-30 minutes of detection of each other, can fight the battle out in 2-3 hours max, and maybe with enough randomness to prevent spawn-killing and/or undue advantage due to a drop/restart.


Right now I'm assuming both sides see the .mu in advance of the match--no secrets. If secrecy is needed, there would have to be a dedicated GM to handle that.

[dd149]

This is pretty much the way the French and Italian community do it, with the recent progresses in the gameplay, a batch of new missions has been designed.

Any news about this?

[Molon Labe]

I've got a preliminary map based in the south pacific with a set of roughly symmetrical islands that I think would work well.

Any news?

[Molon Labe]

Sorry, RL had me tied up this week. I'll work on some details this weekend, I promise.


@dd149: Would you mind sharing some of what you know from the French and Italian communities? I'm especially interested in strategic goal ideas and how they let those factors influence mission design. Or any rules or abstracted events they use to figure out what happens outside of DW.

[Molon Labe]

Quick update:

This is the roughly symetrical set of islands I found:



Right now, I think that you should only be able to "skip" one island from what you already control, the idea being that if you attempted to go further into contested territory you'd be intercepted anyways. So that keeps you from taking over the home base on the first turn.

For merchant raids, I'm thinking each island has lane of commerce that can be attacked/defended. But you'd also have the option to move cargo amongst your islands instead of shipping immediately, so you can convoy. For combat purposes, transferred ships would be considered at the destination in case the island is attacked, so moving them around carries some risk.

I am considering having a carrier that might influence ground troops strength within a certain radius... such as 1 space for helos and 2 for harriers. If this was done, the carrier would have to be placed in a sea space that could then be attacked. I'm a little concerned with this because it more or less means going after the carrier would be like playing battleship; you have to attack the right space to find it. It might not be worth it; but I definitely want to have DW objects that affect the overall game somehow and this seems like an obvious way to do it.

[dd149]

I will try to post some of the missions for reference, but they have been developped for RA due to database issues. Will try to do it during this week.
The pre briefing is on the forum some days before due date, and the map only is known, with the baseline of the scenario.
Usually the game lasts around 3 hours with around 6-8 players.

[Molon Labe]

It's just one game?

[sertore]

Originally Posted by Molon Labe

It's just one game?

Hello ML and dd149,
just a quick from Italian side: we play weekly in a close group of 5/12 commanders, every time with a new scenario, usually two sides, with different mission goals and lots of civilians and biological, sometimes few sides on AI. Due to the huge number of contacts we play with automatic TMA and active intercept. Current MOD is RA 1.32, but we can play with any other MOD if necessary.
Italian and french communities have a join venture active with ISS (International Sonar School), where they exchange 1 commander to get experience and information from other group: french community play usually with manual TMA and different type of scenario, usually doggy.
Briefing and rules to play the scenarios are pretty the same, with few different ROE in case of doggy on french side (limited number of weapons used in the same time, dd149 correct me if I am wrong); italian games keep usually no more than 2-2,30 hours.
Simmetrical set of island is an interesting scenario to develop a campaign: keep you work up and we will see if will be possible to participate with some of our players (time issue is relevant for us).
Thanks for effort and good idea (and LWAMI 3.11 for sure!)

[Molon Labe]

A few ideas to throw out for comments:

1. Aircraft use
Close Air support: Adding a strike aircraft/helicopter to a land battle will increase that side's attacking strength (numbers TBD). Aircraft may not perform CAS if the enemy forces have tactical or area-defense SAMs.

Naval Strike: Strike aircraft can attack naval forces in a DW match. The mission would be designed either to have the aircraft perform a stand-off attack, or to persist on the map (and risk being shot down); players' preference.

CAP/Escort: CAP is a defense assignment that denies airspace to enemy aircraft. Each fighter on CAP can deny one standoff naval attack (fighter's choice) or all CAS or persistent naval strike aircraft. Escort is an offensive assignment that nullifies CAP; each escorting fighter can nullify the effect of a CAP fighter (escort's choice). CAP declares first, allowing the Escorts to more or less choose which aircraft they are protecting. Fighter/Bombers can perform the Escort role if they abandon their CAS/Strike mission. The way this works in the end is if you have more attacking aircraft than the enemy has defending, you get "leakers" through. Optional: attrition for fighter battles

Airports:
Aircraft Housed: If the airport is damaged, then the % damage done to the airport is also the % chance that each individual aircraft was destroyed. If any aircraft was sortied in that turn, then there is a 25% chance that it was away when the airport was hit and is not eligible to be destroyed--but it may have to land somewhere else. Optional: individual target-able hangar entities, each with a chance of housing an aircraft; overflow does to the tarmac, where they have double the vulnerability described above.

Runway plates: each runway will have 5 runway "plates", represented by helipads. The location of the plates will be automatically known in a DW match. A plate damaged to 75% or more is considered cratered. To launch/recover, all plates must be in working order. Two cratered plates can be patched per turn (starting the turn after the attack).

2. Special Warfare
Sabotage: A SPECOPS team inserted into enemy territory can sabotage a target located within 30nmi of their point of insertion. If the target is a production site, dock, or shipyard, its productivity is cut in half. It can be attacked again, but cannot go below 0%. Repairs will restore 10% per day. If the target is an airport, then the team can destroy two aircraft. If the target is a military unit, then the team can destroy up to two units located within 2nmi of each other (or one SAM site entity that represents multiple units). Finally, if the targets are ships at dock, the team can either sabotage their propulsion or can attach charges. Sabotage can target two ships if their database displacement is 10,000 tons or less. SPECOPS units remain eligible to attack normally within a DW match.

Recon: Although there aren't any "secret" deployments in this campaign, knowing something is there doesn't mean it's targetable in DW. Recon makes the location of a target appear in a DW match.
Short range: 100% chance of locating any target within 8nmi of insertion point or last point of action.
Medium range: 50% chance of locating any target within 15nmi of insertion point or last point of action.
Maximum range: 25% chance of locating any target within 30nmi of insertion point or last point of action.
Move-search: 100% chance of locating any target within 5nmi of a point within 15nmi of the insertion point or last point of action.

Defense/Capture: Ground forces not currently engaged in fighting off an invasion can protect facilities. I haven't worked out the numbers yet, but depending on the size of the facility being protected, a certain number of soldiers are needed to protect it. Protected facilities cannot be sabotaged, but can still be recon'ed. Optional: partially protected facilities that have a % change of success vs % chance of capture. Optional: ground forces assigned to hunt SPECOPS teams.

Deployment/Recovery:
Deployment and recovery must be within 40nmi of the intended landing/departure site. The actual position the raft goes ashore is considered the Insertion Point for future SPECOPS missions, and should be within 30nmi of the intended target. The departure site chosen by the recovering side and must be within 30nmi of the last point of action. Mission design for recovery may require recusal of the GM to keep the launch/extraction points unknown to prevent camping. Multiple random launch/extraction pairs can also be created, with a radio message sent to the launching submarine at mission start. Recovery trigger criteria will be according to standard SCS recovery missions... probably .25nmi, <2 knots, etc, 5 minutes, periscope depth, etc. (Should the raft be allowed to Link for this?)