morale/parked command in SG2 and ESM in space
From: "Thomas Barclay" <kaladorn@f...>
Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 02:56:25 -0400
Subject: morale/parked command in SG2 and ESM in space
Morale/commander movement:
Here's some ideas to correct "static
commander syndrome":
1) Transfers from outside LoS of the
commander are at +1 difficulty
2) Rally attempts outside of 6" are at +2
difficulty
3) Surprise enemy squad (lesson: you aren't
safe by yourself even in the "cleared" woods).
4) SNIPER!
5) Run a con scenario and let the players of the
various squads know that their survival is part
of the victory conditions and then you'll find
them perhaps more willing to pretend they
didn't get a transmission or whatever... ;)
ESM in FT (well, in real world, but extended):
I understand it is a difficult thing to execute real
life analysis of ESM data for several reasons
relating to wash from your own radar if it is on,
reflections from everything (ships water
whatever) and the fact that a given pulse
detected from a given area might only give you
a broad angle to the bogey and that
determining range is another feat on tomp of
that. Plus you have to determine if you get
multiple pulses if you have more than one
target, or if it is a reflection, if it is an air or sea
target, etc. etc.
And the enemy has systems in his active
systems which screw up the signature of his
system so it won't match the one in your
database (maybe they even vary dynamically)
and therefore your stats on pulse repetition
(fixed or incremental) and such might be hard
to corellate.
Additionally, you introduce a pile of civilian
contacts in any moderately busy system and
you throw in the fact that the enemy emitter
may well be able to tune his rig to look like
something else (a civilian active system
perhaps? or an allied vessel?) and you have
quite a challenge.
Will this collection of challenges vanish in FT?
Some terrain related ones might, but what
impact does spacial terrain and energy fields
have on this picture? And will civilian shipping
be a problem? In the busy areas, I'd think so.
And for every step forward in ESM analysis,
don't you get a step forward in the opposite
(screwing up ESM by messing up the signature
of your active systems?). Someone described
the competition like this:
"You have a pentium-V running at 2 GHz
analyzing incoming signal pulses. You have to
sort out bounces, reflections, your own
emissions, and then take the data, determine
range and bearing and how many of them
there are, and do this from a fragmentary and
maybe not up to date database. Meanwhile,
EACH enemy vessel has a pentium-V running 2
GHz messing up their outgoing signal in new
ways or imitating some other kind of rig. It's a
one against many competition."
Sounds like anyone trying to use ESM to
passively figure out what is going on is going to
have a bit of a time, no?
To quote Los the oft-right, "for every measure,
a counter measure".