Very Simple Combat

andstrauss · Post by **andstrauss** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:05 am

Hey Guys,

The 1st year of the Campaign is done, and no combat has been done yet. The players are slowly growing their boundaries. I talked with several players and the current feeling is that they want to handle only the strategic part of the campaign. They don't want to do the (space or ground) combat part. So it's me that'll have to do all the work.

There are several choices to do in a VBAM combat, starting from the scenario choice to the actual turn to turn combat.

Has anyone done any Excel sheet/program that can do CSCR combat in a more abstract way? Something I could list the vessels on each side, it's formations and general guidelines to stance (aggressive, moderate, defensive, pursuiters, etc) and the press GO and get the results from the battle?

I'm asking 1st, because I may eventually do something to handle that, but I'm still out of ideas as to how.

Cheers,

mwaschak · Post by **mwaschak** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:28 pm

Hello Andy,

Combat resolution is probably one of the more open ended items in VBAM. I have a few CSCR excel sheets around here that help organize and track damage. They don't roll dice but generally a nice PBEM dice roller can handle that. I could send what I have if you are interested.
The other alternatives are a tactical system if you are fortunate to meet face to face with your players. Right now links exist for several systems. The other option in this line is to try the new CSCR Tabletop system I kicked up as a more interactive CSCR module. The latter will probably be a free download so you are more than welcome to give it a look over.

-Jay

mriddle · Post by **mriddle** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 2:26 pm

I am about to attempt this task..
It will not be in excel though (I am not excel guy)
It will be several months probably though..

Mike

andstrauss · Post by **andstrauss** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 6:46 pm

Thanks guys for the response. I'll wait a little more then and continue to do the combat manually for the time beign. I'm interested in the CSCR excel sheets.

Cheers,

Bandit · Post by **Bandit** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:46 pm

I have some excel combat sheets that will allow you to input ships and resolve the battle phase by phase. I need to clean them up a bit before I release them to the public.

mriddle · Post by **mriddle** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:30 pm

An alpha version is available for testing http://www.rsolutionsnc.com/auto_battle_resolver/
there is little to no validation of data

Comments/suggestions welcome..

Mike

Bandit · Post by **Bandit** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:38 pm

That is pretty spiffy. Would make raider battles quicker once you got the forces set up in the format.

I am not getting the side values. Why does one have it as 2,2,2 and the other 0,2,3.

mriddle · Post by **mriddle** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:12 am

Bandit wrote:That is pretty spiffy. Would make raider battles quicker once you got the forces set up in the format.

I am not getting the side values. Why does one have it as 2,2,2 and the other 0,2,3.

Thanks for checking it out..

I was simulating a defensive battle (CONFED attacking KITTY) so CONFED is +2 to readiness roll as attacker, and Kitties are 0..
Both sides choose 2 Turns
Confed choose to be a little more aggressive+3 vs a + 2

Mike

jygro · Post by **jygro** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 4:32 am

This is a great start to helping out players with the battles. I ran it a bunch of times to see all the results. Awesome.

-Bren

andstrauss · Post by **andstrauss** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 6:14 am

mriddle wrote:An alpha version is available for testing http://www.rsolutionsnc.com/auto_battle_resolver/
there is little to no validation of data
Comments/suggestions welcome..
Mike

Looks very good! I did some test battles, works like a charm. It will be very handy in my campaign.

Thanks!

mriddle · Post by **mriddle** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:48 pm

andstrauss wrote:
mriddle wrote:An alpha version is available for testing http://www.rsolutionsnc.com/auto_battle_resolver/
there is little to no validation of data
Comments/suggestions welcome..
Mike
Looks very good! I did some test battles, works like a charm. It will be very handy in my campaign.

Thanks!

Good..

Anything it does not do that you need ?

Gareth_Perkins · Post by **Gareth_Perkins** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:16 pm

It would be cool if you could define ship class rather than having to build each ship from the ground up (like you have with the fighters),

So, by way of example:

CLASS,Mauler,CA,6,6,2
SHIP,Kitties,Sqdn1,Mauler,CA2,8,NO,0
SHIP,Kitties,Sqdn1,Mauler,CA3,8,NO,0
SHIP,Kitties,Sqdn1,Mauler,CA4,8,NO,0

Generic Form:
CLASS, < Class ID >, <Class Abbr >, < DV >, < AS >, < AF >
SHIP, < SIDE >, < SQUAD >, <CLASS>, < ID >, < VALUE >, < CRIPPPLED >, < DAMAGE >

This way you can keep a library of ship classes and paste them straight in when you need to run a battle,

What is the 'Value' field for?

mriddle · Post by **mriddle** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:47 pm

Gareth_Perkins wrote:It would be cool if you could define ship class rather than having to build each ship from the ground up (like you have with the fighters),

So, by way of example:

CLASS,Mauler,CA,6,6,2
SHIP,Kitties,Sqdn1,Mauler,CA2,8,NO,0
SHIP,Kitties,Sqdn1,Mauler,CA3,8,NO,0
SHIP,Kitties,Sqdn1,Mauler,CA4,8,NO,0

Generic Form:
CLASS, < Class ID >, <Class Abbr >, < DV >, < AS >, < AF >
SHIP, < SIDE >, < SQUAD >, <CLASS>, < ID >, < VALUE >, < CRIPPPLED >, < DAMAGE >

This way you can keep a library of ship classes and paste them straight in when you need to run a battle,

What is the 'Value' field for?

I considered doing that, but I was trying to handle officers as well as Out Of Supply modifiers.. it seemed to me to be easier with out classes..
Steph suggested classes and the modifiers/overrides in the ship entry and maybe that is the way to go..

ie..

CLASS,Mauler,CA,6,6,2
SHIP,Kitties,Sqdn1,Mauler,CA2,8,NO,0
SHIP,Kitties,Sqdn1,Mauler,CA3,8,NO,0, AS=+2
SHIP,Kitties,Sqdn1,Mauler,CA4,8,NO,0, AF=-1, DV=-1

Value is how "important" a ship is.. it is used to assign damage..
non-directed damage is assigned to low value ships first..
directed damage is assigned to high value ships first..

crippled ships are given a bonus in value..

Gareth_Perkins · Post by **Gareth_Perkins** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:55 pm

Could you assign officers as another separate entity (especially since flights will also be affected by officers)?

OFFICER <NAME>,<ASSIGNED_UNIT>,<AS>,<SQDN_AS>,<AF>,<SQDN_AF>,etc

Again, this would allow for the GM keeping a 'game library' of officers and classes to paste into the program,

Catch is you would need to code in all of the different effects...

Out of supply is irritating, as it's effects vary by unit (and ballistic ships work differently to other ships). But you could consider adding it as a unit value, and coding in the effects

SHIP, < SIDE >, < SQUAD >, <CLASS>, < ID >, < VALUE >, < CRIPPPLED >, < DAMAGE >, < OOS_LEVELS >

And similarly for flights,

mriddle · Post by **mriddle** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:22 pm

Gareth_Perkins wrote:Could you assign officers as another separate entity (especially since flights will also be affected by officers)?

OFFICER <NAME>,<ASSIGNED_UNIT>,<AS>,<SQDN_AS>,<AF>,<SQDN_AF>,etc

Again, this would allow for the GM keeping a 'game library' of officers and classes to paste into the program,

Catch is you would need to code in all of the different effects...

Out of supply is irritating, as it's effects vary by unit (and ballistic ships work differently to other ships). But you could consider adding it as a unit value, and coding in the effects

SHIP, < SIDE >, < SQUAD >, <CLASS>, < ID >, < VALUE >, < CRIPPPLED >, < DAMAGE >, < OOS_LEVELS >

And similarly for flights,

The pain that is OOS is why I left that up the user, guessing what they wanted was a real pain..

And the same with the officers..
I did not want to deal with where flights are based (which affects squadron bonuses etc)

Now the good thing is I will allow multi modifiers .. ie
SHIP, < SIDE >, < SQUAD >, <CLASS>, < ID >, <CRIPPLED>, AF=+1, AF=+2, DV=+1

so if you do have a group of officers you just paste the bonus to applicable ships..

There will be a difference between
AF = 2 and AF=+2 ... AF =2 is an over ride.., AF = +2 is a modifier.

Mike