Thanks to @Norsehound for he suggestion I am working a version of Hero's of the Aturi Cluster for Armada.

A few things about this. First the system will have a rebel campaign and an Imperial campaign.

What is this?

This is a single faction campaign where you and a few friends control a ship each or you on your own can complete missions for your faction.

If you want to disrupt Imperial supply lines, capture Imperial ships, and bring peace back to the galaxy you can.

However if you want to crush the Rebellion beneath the guns of your Turbo Laser batteries, rule uncontested, and enforce order as an Imperial Commander you are more than able to.

How is this different from a normal game? Well in this style of game your Commander will gain experience for his kills and mission successes. Your Commander can be promoted, gain abilities and climb the ranks to command some of the biggest ships in Armada, however failure can lead to destruction and death of all you have worked for.

How this will work:

The game will be played by a player or group of players from one faction completing missions vs the other faction. The other faction will be AI operated. What this means is that he AI will have orders of operations that it will follow to complete its actions. This includes what commands it will pick to what ships it will go after.

Norsehound brought up a good point. AI ships will not have a Command stack. These commanders are experienced enough to have he abilities to accurately select their commands according to the situation at hand.

Each ship type will have its own Command Preferences and Targeting Priorities. So a Quasar will behave inherently different from an Arquitens or VSD, while at the same time a ISD Cymoon Refit will behave differently from an ISD 1.

This allows subtle changes to missions and the feel of the game as well as a more realistic approach to ships and their inherent functions.

More to come based on questions and input

Reserved for rules

Reserved for AI design

Activation Priority:
For all AI ships that have not activated, activate one ship in the following priority.

1. Closest ship to an un-activated player ship
2. first ship in activation priority (which is assigned during scenario setup)

Archetype AI’s Examples

Carrier

(ships with 3 squadron or more VSD1, ISD1 Quasar, Assault Frigate, MC80 Home One. I would limit to large and medium but the Pelta Command is a pretty good carrier so probably that too)

1. Select Target:

   1. Most Squadrons in range
   2. Most dice usable
   3. Most Damaged ship
   4. Mission priority target
   5. Lowest Starting hull
   6. Nearest Squadrons
   7. Nearest Enemy
2. Select Command
   1. Navigate command; When a terrain feature is in the Front Arc at Distance 1-2
   2. Squadron Command: If there are at least Squadron Value -1 in command range or in hangers if enemy ship is within distance 4 of AI
   3. Engineering Command: If the ship's health is less than half (Ship health is Hull + Shields). Move Shields to max towards Target, Repair weakest shields, Remove Damage Cards
   4. Navigation Command: Target is in weaker arc
   5. Concentrate Fire Command: Target is in best arc
3. Select Movement
   1. Maintain command range of at least squadron - 1 of squadrons
   2. Prevent overlapping
   3. Maintain medium range from player ships

Brawler

(Mostly small base black dice ships designed to take out big hard targets MC30s, Glads, Hammerheads, Raiders. Maybe a few large base exceptions MC75 and some ISD Variants but mostly more of a hit and run type ship. VSD1 can fall into this category)

1. Select Target:

   1. Most dice usable
   2. Most Damaged ship
   3. Mission priority target
   4. Lowest Starting hull
   5. Nearest enemy
   6. Nearest Squadrons

2. Select Command

   1. Concentrate Fire Command: Target is in best arc with most dice
   2. Engineering Command: If the ship's health is less than half (Ship health is Hull + Shields). Move Shields to max towards Target, Repair weakest shields, Remove Damage Cards
   3. Navigation Command: To maintain target in best arc
   4. Squadron Command: If there are at least Squadron Value -1 in command range
3. Select Movement

   1. Move towards weakest hull zone of target ship

   2. Prevent overlapping

   3. Move in fashion to double arc target ship

Flanker

(long range small and medium based ships that focus on flanking rather than direct attacks, Arquitens, CR90, Assualt Frigate)

1. Select Target:
   1. Most dice usable
   2. Most Damaged ship
   3. Mission priority target
   4. Lowest Starting hull
   5. Nearest enemy
   6. Nearest Squadrons

2. Select Command

   1. Engineering Command: If the ship's health is less than half (Ship health is Hull + Shields). Move Shields to max towards Target, Repair weakest shields, Remove Damage Cards
   2. Navigation Command: To maintain target in best arc
   3. Squadron Command: If there are at least Squadron Value -1 in command range
   4. Concentrate Fire Command: Target is in best arc

Support ship

(Ships that are less combat focused and there to provide benefits to other ships, Flotillas, Peltas not geared for fighters, Interdictors, some variants of large based ships depending on upgrades)

1. Select Target:

   1. Upgrade Ability set to Primary Friendly ships
   2. Upgrade Ability set to Secondary ships
   3. Most dice usable
   4. Most Damaged ship
   5. Mission priority target
   6. Lowest Starting hull
   7. Nearest enemy
   8. Nearest Squadrons

2. Select Command

   1. Engineering Command: If the ship's health is less than half (Ship health is Hull + Shields). Move Shields to max towards Target, Repair weakest shields, Remove Damage Cards
   2. Engineering Command: For Upgrade to shift shields to another ship when that ship has a hull zone with no shields
   3. Squadron Command: If there are at least Squadron Value -1 in command range
   4. Navigation Command: Target is in weaker arc
   5. Concentrate Fire Command: Target is in best arc

Ships of the line

(ISDs VSDII, MC80 Libertys and MC75s, maybe assault frigates. Ships that are designed to get into the middle of the fight but aren't hit and run brawlers)

1. Select Target:
   1. Most dice usable
   2. Most Damaged ship
   3. Mission priority target
   4. Lowest Starting hull
   5. Nearest enemy
   6. Nearest Squadrons

2. Select Command

   1. Engineering Command: If the ship's health is less than half (Ship health is Hull + Shields). Move Shields to max towards Target, Repair weakest shields, Remove Damage Cards
   2. Squadron Command: If there are at least Squadron Value -1 in command range
   3. Navigation Command: Target is in weaker arc
   4. Concentrate Fire Command: Target is in best arc

Duelers

(sort of similar to flankers but mostly larger heavily armed and armored ships that prefer to sit at range or orbit but really never want to be at close range. Nebulon-B, Cymoons, MC80 Home One, Assault frigates.

1. Select Target:

   1. Most dice usable
   2. Most Damaged ship
   3. Mission priority target
   4. Lowest Starting hull
   5. Nearest enemy
   6. Nearest Squadrons

2. Select Command

   1. Engineering Command: If the ship's health is less than half (Ship health is Hull + Shields). Move Shields to max towards Target, Repair weakest shields, Remove Damage Cards
   2. Navigation Command: To maintain target in best arc
   3. Squadron Command: If there are at least Squadron Value -1 in command range
   4. Concentrate Fire Command: Target is in best arc

1. Activate Squadrons

   1. Begin with all unique squadrons.
   2. Enemy Squadrons in Range activate Fighters first
      1. Fighters go after squadrons when in range and ships when no other targets present
   3. With no Enemy squadrons in range activate Bombers First
      1. Bombers go after ships when not engaged and squadrons with no targets in range

2. Attack Target

   1. Attack Targeted ship/squadrons
   2. Use second attack against targeted ship/squadrons if in a second arc.
   3. If equipped with Gunnery Teams Reselect target for this attack only ignoring original Targeted Ship
   4. If Targeted ship is not in a second arc, re-select target for this attack only ignoring original Targeted Ship/squadron

Resolving Accuracies:

1. Target Unexhausted Defense Tokens before Exhausted

• Scatter
• Brace
• Evade
• As many Redirects as possible
• Contain

5. Movement:

   1. Follow Chart rolling for the amount of clicks.
   2. Use Navigate Command if one was selected to avoid Overlapping Obstacles and if possible ships.
   3. Slow down when Target is in optimal range
   4. Turn towards direction Target is facing
   5. Do not go to speed 0

Reserved for missions

Reserved for promotion tiers and upgrades

Reserved for things I missed

Reserved for Extra missed things

I already started work on something like this a little while back, let me dig up the rule set and post it.

EDIT: Link to document with comment permissions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aht89dPpS1FAzViLoaix4-fPDHEAY64Be80OZ-aBeXE/edit?usp=sharing

My local group played through the first four missions under the original ruleset, and it went fairly well. some things I found necessary though:

1. Activation limits, so that people playing big ships don't get board.

2. Simpler AI. Maybe just nav every turn and either change speed or add click + some other command determined by ship type?

3. As a part of #1 escorts and task forces.

4. Squadron limit goes up to start with, but decreases over time (Or you just all agree on something).

And things It still needs:

1. Testing. Lots, and lots of testing (Over vassal if we want)

2. AI improvement

3. Missions. I plan on having a campaign be about 4-5 arcs, but we can have more than that and make people mix and match if we like.

4. Visuals

13 minutes ago, Do I need a Username said:

1. Activation limits, so that people playing big ships don't get board.

2. Simpler AI. Maybe just nav every turn and either change speed or add click + some other command determined by ship type?

3. As a part of #1 escorts and task forces.

4. Squadron limit goes up to start with, but decreases over time (Or you just all agree on something).

And things It still needs:

1. Testing. Lots, and lots of testing (Over vassal if we want)

2. AI improvement

3. Missions. I plan on having a campaign be about 4-5 arcs, but we can have more than that and make people mix and match if we like.

4. Visuals

Good stuff in that document. The AI will behave differently but that's becuase I want each ship type to have its own stat card based on its target priorities. An ISD 1 will want to get in close for an aggressive play while a Arquitens would stay back more.

Yea, I will have to reinstall Vassal and get that all reset up. Need to work on the AI.

Not sure how task forces will go. It will cause length of play issues

6 minutes ago, Lyraeus said:

Good stuff in that document. The AI will behave differently but that's becuase I want each ship type to have its own stat card based on its target priorities. An ISD 1 will want to get in close for an aggressive play while a Arquitens would stay back more.

Yea, I will have to reinstall Vassal and get that all reset up. Need to work on the AI.

Not sure how task forces will go. It will cause length of play issues

You can create different variants for the same ship, i just didn't get that far yet.

As for task forces, it's better than the equivilant number of small ships in term of length of play.

1 minute ago, Do I need a Username said:

You can create different variants for the same ship, i just didn't get that far yet.

As for task forces, it's better than the equivilant number of small ships in term of length of play.

Fair. I think players can go that route as they gain experience as a commander but to start maybe not. Its something to test

9 minutes ago, Lyraeus said:

Fair. I think players can go that route as they gain experience as a commander but to start maybe not. Its something to test

Yup. No task forces or escorts till later. Hit 8 activations first.

1 hour ago, Do I need a Username said:

Yup. No task forces or escorts till later. Hit 8 activations first.

what do you think of my AI for the VSD?

42 minutes ago, Lyraeus said:

what do you think of my AI for the VSD?

I don't like rolling for clicks, otherwise I like it. I would make some format changes but I'm at work now so expect more later.

3 minutes ago, Do I need a Username said:

I don't like rolling for clicks, otherwise I like it. I would make some format changes but I'm at work now so expect more later.

Not worried about format so much right now. Rolling for clicks is is the best way I can think to get some variance otherwise its up to a player to decide how a ship moves. While I trust players, I also want this to be fair and fun

I think the VSD looks pretty good.

I have an idea though that might really help simplify and save a lot of development time at least to start and get you to play testing.

Instead of developing an AI for each ship and it's variants what about developing a half dozen or so archetypes at least to start with.

Here are some examples right off the top of my head.

Carrier (ships with 3 squadron or more VSD1, ISD1 Quasar, Assault Frigate, MC80 Home One. I would limit to large and medium but the Pelta Command is a pretty good carrier so probably that too)

Brawler (Mostly small base black dice ships designed to take out big hard targets MC30s, Glads, Hammerheads, Raiders. Maybe a few large base exceptions MC75 and some ISD Variants but mostly more of a hit and run type ship)

Flanker (long range small and medium based ships that focus on flanking rather than direct attacks, Arquitens, CR90, Assualt Frigate)

Support ship (Ships that are less combat focused and there to provide benefits to other ships, Flotillas, Peltas not geared for fighters, Interdictors, some variants of large based ships depending on upgrades)

Ships of the line (ISDs VSDII, MC80 Libertys and MC75s, maybe assault frigates. Ships that are designed to get into the middle of the fight but aren't hit and run brawlers)

Duelers (sort of similar to flankers but mostly larger heavily armed and armored ships that prefer to sit at range or orbit but really never want to be at close range. Nebulon-B, Cymoons, MC80 Home One, Assault frigates.

Some ships can obviously fit more than one role and you could have certain basic builds for the AI that differentiate which category a ship would be in. At minimum you could start there and then if you feel that isn't giving enough variety you could spin off some additional varieties. This also makes it less ambiguous when building a scenario about what the ship is there to do. If a VSD is a carrier it might still be more valuable for it to forgo repairing to keep pushing squadrons. That is a hard thing to build in to an AI for one ship variant unless you are limiting that variant to only ever playing one role.

It might be a little less granular but it seems like it would be easier for players to understand what the AI is trying to do. At the same time it opens up a lot more ship builds for scenarios and better guarantees that that ship will do what it is there to do.

Thoughts?

BTW I am pumped that this could be a thing and would be happy to play test with my local crew.

Well @Gorthaur25 archtypes can work but it limits a few things. Would an ISD 1 with Expanded Hanger Bays and Boosted Comms be a Brawler or a Carrier?

The only thing that changes which with the Quasar now done is that the Command selection priority differs and then Target selection is different as well

Likely it will end in archtypes though. . . doing EVERY SINGLE ship is going to be tedious.. . .

Now. . . do I do dice rolls for movement or is there a better method. . .

roll for dials? I'll theory test some

3 minutes ago, Do I need a Username said:

roll for dials? I'll theory test some

The command selection is built into the AI. The only think not inherent is the click movement

Lyraeus you have gone from absent to being overly commited in a short space of time. Is there a risk of burnout?

59 minutes ago, Lyraeus said:

Well @Gorthaur25 archtypes can work but it limits a few things. Would an ISD 1 with Expanded Hanger Bays and Boosted Comms be a Brawler or a Carrier?

The only thing that changes which with the Quasar now done is that the Command selection priority differs and then Target selection is different as well

Likely it will end in archtypes though. . . doing EVERY SINGLE ship is going to be tedious.. . .

Now. . . do I do dice rolls for movement or is there a better method. . .

If you go the archetype route I would build the movement rules into those instead "1. Maintain activation cohesion with the most squadrons" for carriers etc. If movement is random it will be too hard to keep ships from flying into irrelevant or horrible positions. Plus dice rolling would end up being more cumbersome. If they have a nav do you have to roll to see if they change there speed and then roll again to see if they add an extra click and then roll again to determine the final course? Plus at some speeds you will need a 20 sided die and then charts for every ship at every speed to show what each roll means.

10 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Lyraeus you have gone from absent to being overly commited in a short space of time. Is there a risk of burnout?

I have yet to play a game so its possible but I need to be distracted and this is far better than the worries on my mind. Thanks for the check in though, makes me happy to do this.

2 hours ago, Gorthaur25 said:

If you go the archetype route I would build the movement rules into those instead "1. Maintain activation cohesion with the most squadrons" for carriers etc. If movement is random it will be too hard to keep ships from flying into irrelevant or horrible positions. Plus dice rolling would end up being more cumbersome. If they have a nav do you have to roll to see if they change there speed and then roll again to see if they add an extra click and then roll again to determine the final course? Plus at some speeds you will need a 20 sided die and then charts for every ship at every speed to show what each roll means.

All VITAL points. Will work on this. I did create the first two steps already for each type and noticed there is only marginal differences.

Since the AI will be restricted to certain actions based on priority, I'd suggest you do away with all AI dials and instead they check their chart to determine which command is used. Now 3 command ships don't need to guess what their priority is 3 rounds ahead, and provides a buff to all AI fleets.

For navigating/yaw, you should create a priority based on their function/dice. Flankers have a high priority to maintain long range, or brawlers have a priority to maintain close range. Then you check distances for potential movements, and the final position which satisfies the most requirements is the chosen move. You could even build in dice priority, so a flanker that wants to maintain long range would move into medium if it generates more dice, such as a CR90A moving into a medium double arc instead of a long double arc.

You can create a very diverse priority pathway for ships based on their archetypes. Gladiators and MC30s could have "enter close range of the flagship/large" as highest priority, where as Raiders and HH have "enter close range of the closest ship" as highest priority.

Once that is fleshed out, I could see an additional layer built on top that changes the AI based on the current game state. Raider/HH wolf packs would change the normal movement priority to engage flag ships, which a lone raider would not do because they would die easily.

Just now, Undeadguy said:

Since the AI will be restricted to certain actions based on priority, I'd suggest you do away with all AI dials and instead they check their chart to determine which command is used. Now 3 command ships don't need to guess what their priority is 3 rounds ahead, and provides a buff to all AI fleets.

That Part was already done away with. Each turn you just go down the list and whichever command matched you do that one. I guess its like coding.

2 minutes ago, Undeadguy said:

For navigating/yaw, you should create a priority based on their function/dice. Flankers have a high priority to maintain long range, or brawlers have a priority to maintain close range. Then you check distances for potential movements, and the final position which satisfies the most requirements is the chosen move. You could even build in dice priority, so a flanker that wants to maintain long range would move into medium if it generates more dice, such as a CR90A moving into a medium double arc instead of a long double arc.

I swear its like you guessed what I was going to do! Are you in my mind?

This was my latest addition For carrier type ships

1. Select Movement

   1. Maintain command range of at least squadron - 1 of squadrons
   2. Prevent overlapping
   3. Maintain medium range from player ships

Here is the Brawler version

1. Select Movement
   1. Move towards weakest hull zone of target ship
   2. Prevent overlapping
   3. Move in fashion to double arc target ship

This gives the person making the movements a format to follow for fairness. This can allow me to get rid of the dice rolling @Do I need a Username didnt like