Starship Artemis ================ These are a stab at "sailing instructions" for Starship Artemis. It discusses strategy (which overlaps with Captain), then each station in more detail. Strategy ======== The normal mode of engagement is to make use of the superior speed of the Artemis to attack from out of the enemy's range with torpedoes, to fight only one enemy at once in a beam engagement, and to disengage to reload at friendly stations - ideally after a subset of the enemies in a group have been destroyed, so the Artemis can do permanent damage but come back to the fight fresh. The Artemis itself can never suffer permanent consequences short of destruction until all friendly stations are destroyed; then dead damage control teams cannot be replaced, and expended nukes/ECM/mines are gone forever. The converse does apply; an enemy ship will regenerate all shield and internal damage eventually, so a kill/surrender is a far superior result to any other. All torpedoes tend to follow the target they were fired at, but the area-effect ones (ECM/nuke) are not averse to going off on people they meet en route. This implies it is a bad plan to use them on distant targets in a close engagement with fighters. Any torpedo fired without a lock will proceed in a straight line until it sees a target nearby... with no friend/foe distinction. With a jump drive it is probably quite practical to nuke yourself. The ECM torpedo knocks enemy shields down to 50% - not by 50% - and changes shield frequencies, tending to weaken them across the board. This makes it an effective opening move, but useless later on. Nukes, which have a 1km blast radius like ECM, do respectable damage in that radius. They are most useful on groups, but do a great deal more damage than homers even against single targets. You'd use them all the time if the supply wasn't limited. Firing ECM then nuke then going in with beam weapons is a basic tactic. With the introduction of reverse movement, the retrograde is the standard tactic for beam combat. Helm comes into range of one enemy, using reverse movement and adjusting impulse power to keep them in range while denying other enemy ships an opportunity to fire. This is power-efficient, with no need to reinforce the rear shield or provide high maneuver power. Some enemies have longer-range weapons, and there the Helm officer may have to expose the Artemis to the fire of more than one. When the front shield is failing, Helm has an awkward choice between increasing impulse to reverse out of range, trying to turn off and warp away, or trying to warp directly through the pack. The traditional beam combat technique was to dogfight, trying to use high maneuver power and short warp hops to get behind an opponent and stay there. Most strong opponents have guns out the back, but in lesser quantity. Against a cluster, this does tend to mean the rest can all open fire, but at least their fire is split between shields. It is obviously more power-hungry than a retrograde engagement; it may still, especially in a smaller ship, be a sensible way to dispatch a single fearsome opponent. One advantage is that it's easier to disengage - in a retrograde the enemy are usually clustered right in front of you, just where you'd go at warp speed, but even in a dogfight against multiple opponents they tend to be pretty scattered with a reasonable route out. Mines do respectable damage, but are harder to use. The tactic of dropping mines and kiting the enemy across them is less effective than it might seem; unless already in a stern chase, by the time the Artemis has joggled around to get enemies on the right course, damaged enemy shields have had time to regenerate. It does have the compelling advantage that it can be used while limping away on impulse with the ship almost dry of power. Therefore, the usual approach with mines is a warp-speed overrun, calling for close coordination between Helm and Weapons; Weapons will drop their mine(s) right in the centre of the enemy ships. The Artemis will take a pounding on the way in, but at warp speed it won't be for long; and once through the cluster, the enemy ships must all come about to counterattack, giving a breathing space to assess the situation. Skaaran vessels get "elite" abilities such as cloaking or a limited warp drive; additionally, they are considerably faster than other enemy types, so they are extremely likely to be first to threaten friendly stations. They should typically be attacked first and with full force; it's easy for the Artemis to get stuck in a prolonged fight with one in an attempt to save energy and torpedoes - resources which could be replaced if the Skaaran was killed, allowing the Artemis to dock at a nearby station - while the slower-moving enemies crawl into range and render the scenario impossible. They are the exception to the rule about homers being more valuable as an energy reserve; once a Skaaran has been hit with an ECM, Weapons should spam homers at them in an effort to secure a kill. In Artemis 2, Skaarans get a wide variety of annoying abilities like being able to block torps or mines, but Science can determine what abilities each Skaaran has. Finding this out before engaging one is obviously vital. Arvonians bring carriers, which obviously come with fighters. The carriers are tough opponents in and of themselves, but the fighters' high speed makes it easy for them to arrive unexpectedly at an inopportune moment, effectively greatly extending the range of a carrier group. However, we've observed they often seem to launch at the limit of their endurance; rather than closing the range, the Artemis should back off slightly and allow the fighters to turn around. Once fighters have turned away to return to the carrier, they are meat on the table for a warp-equipped Artemis; the fighters cannot turn back, so they can be blown apart from behind with impunity. Torgoth ships are very hard to kill with fearsome fore and aft beam arrays; Torgoth Leviathans carry a double-range beam similar to that on the Dreadnought. However, their unique threat is their torpedo tubes, one apiece; the Weapons officer must be on the alert for incoming missiles, and of course this diminishes the firepower available for engaging them. (In Artemis 2, some Arvonians may also carry torpedo tubes). Kraliens are chaff; even the Kralien Dreadnought is no harder to kill than an Arvonian Light Carrier (far weaker than a Torgoth or a Skaaran), and they have no special abilities whatsoever. This makes them prime targets for nukes. In recent engagements, we've made more use of the friendly destroyers. Positioning them at a station at one end of the map while the Artemis clears up matters at the other served to delay the destruction of that station long enough to save it; but later, with Captain and Comms more on the ball, we ended up bringing the destroyers in to actively engage alongside the Artemis. Especially in a small ship like a Scout, every additional unit pounding on a hostile's shield helps to bring it down; coldbloodedly, fire at the destroyers is not directed at the Artemis; and the friendlies can be left to tie up the enemy while the Artemis warps back for resupply. However, remember friendly ships are stupid. They will continue on their plotted course no matter what - through minefields, singularities, or Arvonian carrier groups - except that in these cases the word "through" is rarely strictly accurate. Furthermore, they are not greatly faster than the enemy; a friendly ship cannot pull away from combat to refresh its shields unless the Artemis engages in their place. Ordering them to pull away will just result in their being destroyed from behind. The converse is that enemy ships are no smarter. A group that's heading for a minefield will continue to head for that minefield if left alone, allowing the Artemis to concentrate on other targets. This also means that, late in the scenario, an Artemis low on energy and expendable ordnance can attack enemies then kite them across obstructions. Conversely, an enemy that's survived a minefield should be attacked directly, before their shields regenerate or their damage is repaired. Ship Types ========== The Light Cruiser, with 2 beams and 2 tubes, is the baseline ship. The Battleship is a nastier version of the Light Cruiser. It's equipped with 4 beams instead of 2 and much stronger shields, but it maneuvers exactly like a Light Cruiser (and has exactly the same ordnance stores). Hence, it can use exactly the same tactics; the advantage of stronger shields and double the firepower in a retrograde is obvious, but a Battleship Captain should not forget it's no worse off in a dogfight - better, in fact, with slightly wider overall weapons arcs. It's more energy-hungry, but that's mainly because it cranks out more firepower. The Dreadnought is slower moving and less maneuverable, but comes with a rear beam weapon and a double-range high-damage beam to the front. This strongly suggests retrograde tactics, which can be used with complete impunity from long range... but sometimes it would be better to let the enemy in short range to polish them off quicker. The Dreadnought is not a good dogfighter, but the rear beam weapon at least means that an alert Weapons officer can keep up a more continuous fire on overrunning targets - especially fighters - and that there is less need to worry about missiles coming from out of arc. With 3 tubes, the Dreadnought has more options; an ECM can be followed with a volley of two nukes, or a mine can be kept in reserve in case of a change of plans. It also carries slightly larger ordnance stores - nice for the special torps, but the two extra homers serve mainly only to compensate for the ship's phenomenal appetite for energy. The Scout is faster and more maneuverable, but has only one beam and one tube. Its modest energy requirements make homing missiles a more viable option - and its limited firepower tends to make them a necessary one; as well as only mounting one beam, the Scout cannot carry nukes, and can only carry two apiece ECM and mines. The single tube means the Captain must plan carefully in advance; and it may be the one vessel in which you might convert energy to homers. The Missile Cruiser has no beams, but four tubes and a large reserve of ordnance, demanding different tactics. There is little point in Helm closing into range to get shot at, unless trying to kite enemies off a station or do a mine overrun. Science has little to do, with no need to rescan enemies; but Comms's ability to make targets surrender is valuable when destroying an enemy is not just a matter of waiting for the beams to cycle. Once Science has scanned everything once their role should be to provide updates on shield strength and internal damage on the current target, to aid Comms; Comms will also have more work to do in monitoring station ordnance stocks. Weapons should be given more discretion about firing ordnance than in a normal ship. One of our major problems was that at first Weapons waited for orders to fire as they might in a one-tube Scout. There is probably a happy medium between that and Weapons spamming nukes without orders. Engineering, if working with presets, needs to adjust them - there's no point having power in beam weapons, and conversely plenty of torpedo power should let the ship spam off impressive salvos of homers or impromptu minefields. More so than any other ship, the Missile Cruiser should hit and run, redocking for resupply. A Battleship or a Dreadnought can fight on without ordnance stores; a Missile Cruiser is useless. It may actually be desireable to convert energy to homers while docked; if so, Helm should coordinate with Weapons so that the ship does not undock an instant before Weapons scoffs 900 energy for torpedoes. Captain ======= The real responsibility of the Captain is to have a clear objective in mind. Realistically, an experienced Helm and Weapons could fight without a Captain, and indeed the Captain may wish to leave the business of killing a given group to their officers; but the Captain must decide whether this is the right group to be killing, which group to target next, whether the situation justifies expending nukes, etc. The Captain must be familiar with the capabilities of their vessel; the arrangement of beam weapons, the number of torpedo tubes, the general power-hungriness. Weapons in particular should make sure the Captain is aware of these details. Other stations should remember that, unless they are able to look over the shoulders of the Helm or Weapons officers, the Captain does not have that nice top-down close-in view. They can zoom in with the Captain's Map (and then lose awareness of the strategic situation), put Tactical on Main Screen (which is zoomed out too far for dogfighting), or look out the front window. None is ideal, and Helm should remember the Captain will find it difficult to give precise orders for how a close engagement is to proceed. The Captain's life is still worse if they can't see the Main Screen. Remember you can run two windowed copies of the client on the same display - particularly useful with a widescreen display, but even two slightly-overlapping 800x600 windows on a 4:3 display is better than not being able to see the Main Screen. If the Captain is using a tablet but in the room with another officer, try and get a Main Screen up on their display. If there is no jump drive, there is no need to give an order to undock; the ship can do anything else while docked, and staying docked until the ship actually moves away conserves power. However, it is useful if the Captain can hint which vector will be wanted after undocking (or a jump); it takes time to turn the ship around with normal maneuver power. I think the Captain should give Weapons a standing order to convert homing torpedoes to energy when below 300 energy, and recognise that, unless in a Scout, homers are far more valuable as an energy reserve than as weapons, especially because they occupy tubes that could be used for nukes, ECM, or mines. (As discussed above, this may not be true against Skaarans). Additionally, the Captain should consider a standing order that Weapons can use ECM at their own discretion. Helm finds it vexing to be told "go to DS1" without a bearing and range, unless they are adept at using the long-range scanner. Weapons finds it vexing not to be told what to load in the tubes, especially after firing - do they risk second-guessing and then having to unload and reload, or do they leave tubes empty? Science finds it vexing not to know which groups the Captain proposes to engage first. Engineering finds it vexing when they don't know what's going on, which makes it difficult to select the right settings; Engineering and Comms's displays have no information about ship positions. Comms finds it vexing to be told to ask "them" to surrender without a ship ID. Captain's Map ============= No-one should take the Map except the Captain. It's undeniably useful, but Artemis's gameplay relies on the clumsiness of the UI. If Helm can look up their own movement vectors, or Weapons their own shield frequencies, the game is easier but not so playable. Somewhat confusedly, I also think when the Captain orders long-range movement, they should inform Helm of the bearing and distance themselves, if possible, not relying on Science. Helm and Weapons ================ The shortcut key for "raise shields" is K. Always use it; then when both Helm and Weapons go to raise shields, they don't toggle them on and off, resulting in comedy. Don't wait for orders to raise shields when entering combat; but the Captain should give such orders anyway. The ship burns significantly less (2/3?) power when warping if the shields are down; if Helm is feeling flashy they can turn them off (L) during warp travel, as long as they don't forget to turn them back on. Try not to get unexpectedly ganked by decloaking Skaarans. The shortcuts for zooming in and out are T and Y. I feel that, absent orders from the Captain, Helm is in charge of selecting targets in an engagement against multiple ships, and Weapons must adapt themselves to the targets presented. This is because it is easy for Weapons to switch to a target that is in arc, but difficult for Helm to turn the ship around because Weapons has targetted some clown behind you. This is not to say that Weapons should slavishly split fire between several targets' shields, of course. Dave disagrees, because he has a very different Helm style, relying more on the visual display; he feels Weapons should select targets, because they can more readily see who is closer. I feel that with effective use of zoom levels on the top-down display, Helm need not look out the window. The significant point is that Helm and Weapons must agree who selects targets. Helm ==== Space bar is full stop, centre rudder - use twice if at warp. The "1" key toggles warp 1 on and off, which is about eight times as much use as fiddling with the slider; conversely, the impulse power slider is quite useful. Esc toggles reverse. Don't forget you can't warp when moving in reverse, which is important to remember when a shield gets punched in and you want to flee. I find the easiest way to steer the ship is by clicking on the compass rose to set a desired bearing. If using the jump drive, remember that jumping is the one thing you can't do while docked; and I suggest that in combat, Helm should always have a short jump programmed in. Sometimes it doesn't matter where you go, as long as it's "away". Conversely, with warp drive, when the ship starts to take internal damage I believe Helm should run away without waiting for orders, unless explicitly forbidden to do so. I always use short warp hops to expedite docking or closing the range. In the end, it's more power efficient than crawling in under impulse with all systems eating energy; and it's certainly more time-efficient. The other main use of warp is in getting behind a single opponent with a view to out-turning them. In a dogfight, Engineering should be giving Helm extra maneuvering power without asking; Helm should howl with protest if that is not the case, preferably before you cop a missile up the stern tubes because you couldn't turn around in time. Warp should also be used to keep a fleeing fighter in range in order that Weapons can score a kill; a fighter that retreats damaged will come back in full working order. While I don't want Helm to take the Captain's Map, they should use LRS (long-range scan) - mainly to keep track of where the ship has got to during a long journey under warp, but also to anticipate the bearing that will be required when the ship undocks. With careful reference to LRS you can easily warp to a remote destination without information from Science. Especially in an overrun, the Helm officer should know collisions with ships are not damaging, but they do slow things down. You don't want to drop a mine then flail about trying to get away until it goes off. The tablet interface is known to be unsuitable for Helm. Some Helm officers like the Main Screen, and if so, should consider running two clients as discussed under Captain. If a station is nearby when the scenario begins, I think Helm should dock immediately without orders. That way the ship will be full of energy when the Captain has decided what to attack first. Weapons ======= Unless the ship is very short of energy, Weapons should err on the side of opening fire. Don't wait for a beam frequency (but do complain about not having one), don't wait for an order to pick out a vulnerable target (shields down, fighters), don't hold fire while Comms requests a surrender unless ordered to do so - a dead target is just as good as a surrendered one. Weapons' job is not as complex as many. They should bother the Captain to select a loadout for the tubes, including a reload each time one is fired. However, Weapons does have considerable potential for comedy. Drop a mine while retrograding? Boom. Fire a nuke with a station directly in front of you? Boom. And on top of that there is the old favourite of forgetting to select a target. Clicking into empty space deselects the current target, which is useful when ordered to cease fire. "B" toggles auto beams on and off, which would also cease fire, but this brings up the manual firing interface, which... ... would be more use if you could see incoming missiles while using it. If you do try the manual firing interface, I would make sure Helm will announce incoming missiles, using "B" to get out of the interface so you can click on the missile. Apparently you can punch through shields to a target's vitals with it, so it is not devoid of utility. Weapons also needs to be ready to act quickly in an overrun, possibly seeking authority to drop mines as they see fit (given the good view of the situation their interface offers.) Finally, try and make it clear when you are inflicting internal damage (ie, firing beams at a target whose shields are down), with the target identifier. That will help Comms to spam surrender requests. As mentioned above, Weapons might seek authority to autonomously refill energy with homing torps and/or to use ECM torps. Science ======= Science is not as obvious as it seems at first. There's a conflict between scanning everything once to identify it and getting a second scan to determine shield frequencies on the group selected for attack. As noted above, Skaarans are the number one priority; they generally arrive alone, so Science should begin by scanning solitary enemy ships once and alerting the Captain to any Skaarans spotted and special information about these ships. However, Science has the best overview of the situation of anyone besides the Captain, and perhaps their most important role - especially if the Captain has no Captain's Map - is to keep an eye open for difficulties developing; stations coming under attack, navigational hazards, etc. Helm and Weapons are focussed on the current fight, Comms and Engineering have no top-down view, the Captain has many responsibilities. Science must take the long-term view. Science should volunteer bearing and distance information for an ordered destination without being asked, and warn when the ship is off-course. Science can also see Weapons' target, and should announce its shield frequency without being asked - and more generally the shield frequencies for a group being approached. An inexperienced Helm officer will engage warp drive while still turning to the initial bearing, oblivious to the fact that the bearing is wrong if you shoot off sideways first, and then overshoot the objective, possibly describing circles around it. Try and nip this in the bud. Science is also able to report on the relative position of those annoying cloaking/teleporting Elites, letting the ship stay on top of them. Science's screen is roughly equivalent to the Captain's Map. If the Captain drops off voice comms, Science should take over command. Comms ===== Comms seems at first like they have an easy run of it, and after you have played for a bit, you will realise that first impression is accurate - except in some non-Invasion scenarios. However, it's not all plain sailing. Comms is busy at the start; they should redirect friendly ships out of danger (by ordering them to defend friendly stations) and make sure all friendly stations are building nukes or ECM (probably nukes, but check the supply of both; friendly stations always start with plenty of mines, and if by some miracle you exhaust their supply of homers, Artemis can make more while docked from the station's unlimited energy supply.) Unless ordered otherwise, Comms should do that without asking. Every friendly ship is better off going to a friendly station than forging into the unknown; every friendly station is better off building either nukes or ECM than it was with the default useless option to build homers. If the Captain has specific requirements, Comms can implement those later; at the start of the scenario the Captain has a lot on their plate anyway. An active Comms will monitor station stocks, ensure that what's being built matches what the ship is using, and advise the Captain as to which stations have ample supplies, freeing the Captain of any need to give orders. The "fetch quests" you get from stations are not as much use as you might think - if the Artemis has the situation well enough under control to do a fetch quest, you don't need the bonus from it to win the scenario. However, there's an exception; when you get a ship-station fetch quest, there's nothing stopping you ordering the ship to the station, and any visit to the relevant station will then do the quest. An important role for Comms, though, is to spam surrender requests. Encourage Weapons/Science to tell you when a target is taking internals and ripe for surrender, or look out the window for the absence of a shield bubble as the enemy takes fire; the "enemy ships" are sorted by proximity, so it is usually easy to find the current victim in the list. However, it's worth remembering that when an enemy surrenders, it is because they were close to destruction anyway; the advantage is not as great as it seems. Comms can taunt enemies, which may pull them off stations under attack; the Captain should remember the possibility exists. In Artemis 2, Science can provide information on enemies' likely vulnerability to taunts. Likewise when the Artemis is coordinating operations with friendly ships as discussed in Strategy the Comms officer may be in for a busy day. Comms also can monitor shield strength on a station under attack, making it clear when a crisis is developing. Comms can hail a friendly station to stand by for docking, increasing resupply rates for the next 30 seconds. As far as I know there is no penalty for sending bogus docking requests, so Comms should try to anticipate the Captain's orders. Unless forbidden, Comms should probably do some of this stuff pre- emptively. Taunting enemies off a station that would otherwise be destroyed is probably OK; absent orders, trying to route the friendly ships somewhere useful where they can assist the Artemis is no bad plan. Engineering =========== http://artemiswiki.pbworks.com/w/page/53567224/Engineering%20Preset%20Manager is a useful tool for setting up presets before play, which I think is vital; some adjustments can be made in-play, but the engineer should start with ten useful presets. The clumsiness of the Engineering interface makes switching presets far more useful than trying to adjust on the fly, and trying to set up presets while the scenario is ongoing is a disaster in the making. The only things that are easy to do in the interface is set a system to 0% or 100% (there's a sticky point on the slider). I am told the tablet interface can't use presets, but that it's considerably easier to make ordinary adjustments on a touchscreen. In my view presets should be heat-neutral; http://artemiswiki.pbworks.com/w/page/39352367/Engineering contains useful information about heat-neutral coolant levels. (By experiment, 170% and 200% power seem to be right for 3 and 5 coolant). It also gives an idea of the relative power expense of the ship's systems. If the engineer is remote, they should take a copy of Main Screen (or Tactical via the DATA display), and refer to that/LRS/VIS to have as good an idea as possible of what the ship is doing. There is little point in having dogfighting presets if you can't tell when the ship is dogfighting; and a preset that reduces power to an unused system will be disastrous if that system is needed - but at the same time saving power on unused systems is very important. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~damerell/games/engineeringSettings.dat are my own presets, which I suggest would make a reasonable starting point, or a set of defaults that can be used when there is no time to set up presets. This file can just be dropped into the Artemis directory. Details are below. Doubling Up =========== If someone has to run two stations, our default first option is "Captain does their own Science". It's not ideal, since the Captain can't then monitor the overall situation while also calling out close-in shield frequencies (unless they have a second display on LRS), but it's a good fit otherwise. For a second pairing, we'd suggest trying Weapons/Science (since Weapons is idle when not in combat), with the Captain using the Captain's Map to announce shield frequencies; Helm or Weapons/Comms (weak on surrender requests, but as noted above those might not be so vital); Engineering/Comms (although Engineering is important, it cannot destroy the ship by a moment's inattention as Helm and Weapons can). Helm/Weapons looks plausible, but actually is very bad. The identical appearance of the interfaces results in comedy when one tries to target a missile in the Helm interface, etc; additionally they often want to do things together, like targetting an enemy and maneuvering to attack them. Use of Main Screen ================== Artemis 2 introduces a new Data display type which can be switched between LRS, Tactical, and Info displays with the space bar. Additionally, of course, any display can be switched to VIS. This means that the Main Screen should be used for the sole benefit of the people sitting in front of the main shared display. (In Artemis 1, the only way to see Tactical was to get the Main Screen switched to it, causing a tension between remote officers who wanted to see that on their second display, and local officers who wanted to see VIS on the shared display). Specifics of Engineering Presets ================================ 1) Retrograde beam engagement. Primary beam and forward shield; forward shield could be reduced if in a dreadnought, engaging with the primary beam cannon (ie, out of the enemy's range.) 2) Dogfighting; maneuver and primary beam. In my view, it is much better to keep maneuver power up all the time in a dogfight than to try and liase with helm - by the time you've worked out that helm is trying to out-turn someone and fiddled with the maneuver settings, you've wasted more power than you saved by not just having the setting high to begin with. 3) Dogfighting, reinforce forward shield. 4) Dogfighting, reinforce aft shield. 5) Dogfighting, reinforce both shields. These are to be used as appropriate depending on where the ship is being damaged from. There is less maneuver power in setting 5, but still a good supply. It may seem odd to use half the presets on beam combat, but that is where the ship is in most danger and performance is critical. 6) Warp speed. For short-hop warp maneuvering; also, unlike the "high warp" setting below, this keeps the shields strong. (The shield power setting affects shield effectiveness as well as restoration rate). As with settings 8/9/0, Primary Beam is kept at 30% to avoid missile-related comedy. It could be turned off if not needed. 7) High warp. This is actually more power-efficient than 100% warp, and it gets you there quicker - quite a bit quicker, allowing the captain to reserve Warp 2 only for dire emergencies. However, it drains a lot of power at idle, so should be used only when actually in motion; and the low shield settings mean that setting 6 should be used with the enemy in range. 8) Restore shields, with only a minimum of anything else. If only one shield is badly damaged, the other one should be turned down - shields are very power-hungry. 9) Non-combat: extra power to sensors, but not a lot of anything else. A useful setting when the ship is sitting around without orders. 0) All off. All systems to 30%, the minimum level at which they work reliably. The ship recovers power at this setting. In extremis, the engineer could then turn off completely unused systems. And don't forget the 11th preset, Space Bar) All systems to 100%.