(UNSC) NPC Mission Discussion

[Faclan]

Just because it says UNSC don't be afraid to post questions/suggestions if you mainly play Covie. You could always play an NPC alien

Annnyway the poll I had about NPC missions was a resounding 'yes we want this'. So the time has come for them to be put out into the community to discuss and plan before they are released proper. As we (staff) would like you all to enjoy them as much as possible and to launch with as little confusion as possible.

This will be the discussion for the UNSC led mission. Meaning that the UNSC players will be using their PC characters for it and the opposition, the Covenant, will be NPCs. This means that the UNSC will win and have the huge share of the power in this thread - to give them a time in the spotlight without sneaky Aliens trying to fry them with plasma (that much).

The main idea for the thread, that you are welcome to suggest additions or edits too, will be as follows;
There was a totally bog standard city battle between UNSC and Covenant forces. With the Covenant deploying from a battleship against a pretty trapped and against the wall Army (or Marine) defense force for the planet. But unknown to the glory seeking Covenant Shipmaster some more Humans were in the system and lining up their Mac Guns. This is the PC forces. They had been in contact with the ground Commander (possibly with ONI assistance to keep it hush hush) and worked out a plan to suddenly pull back their forces. Make the Covenant confused - or some other sneaky Keys like plan. Then the PC ship(s) would dash in and blow the hell out of the Covie ship. With that taken care off perhaps the Human evacuated city was bombed and the fresh and ready Humans would then move through in kill teams. Or maybe they just landed and cleared the city. Or maybe it was all televised to show the might of the Humans. Maybe the PCs were on the ground initially and now get some revenge.


You could suggest some civilians that the UNSC were evacuating or that are now stuck in the city as an example. Perhaps they evacuated the civilians through some secret sewers or the like as I suggested in the vote thread. Or maybe there is some high value target the UNSC wants - many possible side objectives besides just murder time. But the UNSC will have a big advantage here. Feel free to discuss.

[AlphaWolf]

City battles are always fun. Anything can happen in a metro. NPC humans would mostly be civilians I'd imagine, or maybe an Army defense force or a militia. I'd imagine the bulk of this mission would take place on the ground, with Marines and ODSTs being deployed by Pelican to the planet's surface to secure high value targets and locations. ODSTs would possibly even insert via HEV pod if their is a target of high enough value that needs to be secured.

I'd expect high value locations to include:

• planetary and city government headquarters
• hospitals
• Army barracks and installations
• local law enforcement buildings
• UNSC government buildings

High value targets could include:

• Planetary governor
• Other high-ranking governmental officials
• ONI???

A metro setting would also lend itself to a large use of vehicles. Armored columns, Warthog-mounted infantry, Falcon, Pelican, and other close air support, etc. I also really like your suggestion about it being televised to show the might of the UNSC. This would be one of the few situations where the UNSC has the upper hand and with all elements combined has not only a high chance, but an almost guarentee of crushing the Covenant. It'd be great for morale.

[MrKill]

Also, I don't think the UNSC should win hands-down. Just because it is against non-playable characters doesn't mean it's a smooth effort; there needs to be some variables, some situations that are developed by the staff where it's either pull-back/retreat or die, no exceptions. Even Guardians and Gurus could develop situations in where the UNSC is literally getting their faced kicked in.

[Faclan]

I didn't intend for this to be a walkover MrKill . I just said that 'x will win' just so people know from the outset so we dont have 'well no we win because *blank*' arguments like we've had before. This isn't a social thread its a main combat thread just with only one main playable side. Otherwise it will contain the same kind of hurdles and dangers as normal missions. Perhaps the Covenant get desperate and try to take a lot of Human Civilian/Army hostages to try and trade those lives for their own. Or the Covenant use the remainder of their gear to try and bobby trap as much of the city as possible.

Glad you liked the film idea AlphaWolf - Hunt the Truth was a really interesting view into the Human propaganda game and I thought this would be the perfect chance for the Camera people to try and convince the UNSC officers 'no you need to stand over there it would look way better' when they are trying to command a sweep and clear. And getting very GTA feels from the idea of warthogs wubadadadadadada-ing down metro stairs to smash through the ticket machine to then be on the tracks. That would be something to be televised for sure. And those are fine locations for the Covenant to try and hold up for their lives

I think one of the important questions we should try to decide on is if we should have the city bombed. That would set the tone as it were for the mission. Either a destroyed city to pick through and stomp out the bugs. Or a normal city to carefully move through and take out the pockets of resistance.

[MrKill]

Mar 6, 2018 18:37:18 GMT -6 Faclan said:

I didn't intend for this to be a walkover MrKill . I just said that 'x will win' just so people know from the outset so we dont have 'well no we win because *blank*' arguments like we've had before. This isn't a social thread its a main combat thread just with only one main playable side. Otherwise it will contain the same kind of hurdles and dangers as normal missions. Perhaps the Covenant get desperate and try to take a lot of Human Civilian/Army hostages to try and trade those lives for their own. Or the Covenant use the remainder of their gear to try and bobby trap as much of the city as possible.

Let me express myself further.

I don't think that these NPC missions should be so black and white that 'x side wins' even if it's against NPCs.

If the UNSC is outgunned, outmatched and out-manned when the mission starts - it should be a reasonable expectation that the UNSC Forces would lose, but I understand dynamic missions don't always work like that; what I'm saying is one side shouldn't be scripted to win just because it's a ______ vs. NPC mission where only one side is posting combat details.

I'm suggesting the staff intervene from time to time and go:

"While the UNSC were responding to the attack, another Covenant force entered the AO via troop transports and rapidly deployed in various locations around the Marine perimeter. Initial defenses were quickly overwhelmed and the core elements of the MEU are now at risk; unless a proper tactic is developed to counter the breach, the UNSC will be overwhelmed soon."

"The Covenant have pressed too far into the city and got cornered by local resistance. Both UNSC Army, ______ Police Service and Militia have managed to cut your forces off from reinforcements. Your outnumbered five-to-one in this fight and human forces are quickly gaining ground. Commanders must decide what to do: Fight to the death, or attempt to make a hole in the advancing lines in order to retreat."



If anything, sometimes the PC side of NPC missions should lose. UNSC or Covenant, and our characters should be vulnerable to the choices they made in-character while inside any type of mission, including death if it's absolutely necessary; as authors we make characters we get attached too, but in reality our attachment to these characters leads us down a repetitive path where they always survive encounters that - well - they probably shouldn't have.

[Faclan]

That does make more sense after you explained it but if you look over 9.5 I've been for lack of a better term DMing that mission in the background too add in flavor like what you are suggesting. So don't worry we'll be up for intervening like that. And that may be somthing we can delve more into but for the first go of big scale NPC missions I'd like to keep it more simple of 'you will be in danger but likely win' kind of situation.

[Llau]

We can have a tense mission without killing any of our PCs, but that is why we're letting people come up with quick characters (NPCs) they could kill off if they want to. I get your point though, Kill. About how the characters we have grown attached to always survive after each mission, when they probably shouldn't. Many canon characters from Halo, or any other fandom should be dead as well, but they drive the plot forward, and so do our PCs.

I have more to say about this, but that is for another thread.

[MrKill]

Mar 6, 2018 23:38:16 GMT -6 Llau said:

We can have a tense mission without killing any of our PCs, but that is why we're letting people come up with quick characters (NPCs) they could kill off if they want to. I get your point though, Kill. About how the characters we have grown attached to always survive after each mission, when they probably shouldn't. Many canon characters from Halo, or any other fandom should be dead as well, but they drive the plot forward, and so do our PCs.

I have more to say about this, but that is for another thread.

Part of the reason I've lost a lot of my desire to RP is exactly that. Sure, protagonists drive the plot of a story, but deaths of prominent characters also add depth. I can safely say both John and Eric (my Colonel and Admiral) should safely be 100% dead right now if they didn't have that invisible protective status everyone gives their characters here. I can save the rest for that other thread. lol

[Faclan]

Not really sure what you are trying to get at here MrKill - sorry. In the end its up to you what happens to your character all stories on these kinds of forums can do is provide interesting situations that you then react too however youd like. But the other thread would be a better place to discuss this as this thread is for ideas and suggestions for this specific NPC mission.

[tento125]

I like the idea of these "NPC" missions. Anyways, what I have in mind is that to have a UNSC launch a raid on a Covenant outpost somewhere. Maybe on some former human colony that the Covenant decided to set up shop on. It wouldn't be a big outpost or anything, maybe a mining facility or something.

Also would be cool to see the UNSC going on the offense for a change.

[Faclan]

Oooh thats a big switch. I'm game for editing the mission if people are up for that though. But with the city idea if the PCs are coming to the Humans aid they will be offensive too.

So people want to be the heros rushing to the rescue?

or

Assault a Covie base and be the big scary monsters this turn?

[AlphaWolf]

I'm all for heroes rushing to the rescue. Could always do the assault on the next NPC mission.

[MrKill]

Honestly, the UNSC has gone on the offensive quite a few times already.

The Super Carrier comes to mind as a clear example, but there was the offensive in Zenith on the Covenant bases, M6's EMP driven offensive on the Covenant holding the relic disabling electronics, etc, etc; I think it would be cool to have a mission where the UNSC MEU is defending off boarders. Like a huge massive scale onslaught on the Iowa during an unfortunate space battle.

I don't think that's been done yet. Well, not for an actual mission anyway.

[tento125]

I actually like that idea kill. I vote for it.

[AlphaWolf]

Fending off boarders would be a neat idea for a mission too. +1 there.

[Faclan]

Oooh that would be an interesting and 'close to home' mission.

If we do go that route however I have some questions for you hoomen players so we can start to plan it out;

1) Wouldn't that be pretty Cole Protocol if the Covenant are on the ship and working their way toward the bridge? What goal are the Covenant going to risk being blown up with the ship to go for?

2) Would you want the thread to start after the boarding has already started or to maybe have some semi social time before the boarding pods arrive?

3) Want the Iowa to be the only ship generally mentioned or have it be part of a much larger battle and maybe other boarding(s)?

4) Any particular space place you'd like the thread to take place? Above a planet of some repute? Maybe the Iowa is on the ground (if it can do that I'm not sure it can reenter the atmosphere) and getting boarded then?

5) Do you happen to have or know of a layout for the Iowas class? So we can be able to reference rooms and locations by name and have a map? Or if there isn't one perhaps a ship layout to use as a substitute.

Of course feel free to suggest or ask other things than the questions I have so we can plan this out.

[AlphaWolf]

1) Yes. The crew would be prepared to wipe the nav databases and secure the AI if the Covenant got too close to important systems. Perhaps would even already begin it.

2) Before. The ship is in a battle, maybe engines go down, the Covenant is launching boarding pods, oh god we're being boarded

3) Eh, no opinion here

4) Same as above

5) I do not, but check with Cabel. He just got that Warfleet book with ship cutouts, don't know if there is an Iowa class in there or not.

[MrKill]

1) As soon as the Iowa or any remote listening outpost detected any Covenant ships the Cole Protocol would have been implemented immediately; by the time the Covenant boarded any information regarding UNSC Navigation Data would have been removed and erased numerous times. The only time there was a breach in Cole Protocol the Covenant were already attacking Reach and a station was overwhelmed before being able to delete the data.

That being said it is possible that there was a database glitch or perhaps a shortage after being hit, but there are redundancies for these kind of failures including backup power to the computers so the data purge can be completed. The Cole Protocol was so effective even the Sangheili credited the human retreat patterns as 'brilliantly conceived'. I guess at the same time he also said hopelessly random, but none-the-less the Cole Protocol was extremely effective.





2) I'd be more comfortable with starting the thread prior to the boarding, but not so much so that social time collapses the activity potential of the mission itself. I'd say the thread starts with a general quarters / action stations call and the Marines start to gear up. They have some time before the Covenant boarding pods even get to the Iowa in the first place, so they could also set up defenses around crucial areas like the bridge and engine rooms, MAC Ammo storage and firing controls, Combat Information Center, Servers, etc, etc.

Alternatively, we can have it just prior to the call for general quarters and give some people a chance to socialize and what not around the ship for... say half a page before general quarters is finally called.





3) The Iowa is the flagship of the 15th Fleet, so at least a large chunk of that fleet would be present in a space battle. If we're going for total surprise, I'd recommend having a few dozen cloaked Corvettes launch boarding parties, all though cloaked warships are still visible to thermal sensors. The only reason Reach never detected the Halo: Reach Super Carrier cloaked in low orbit was a game mechanic to advancing the story. *grumble*

For any boarding party to even have the potential to overrun 1, 000 Marines and a healthy chunk of ODSTs you'd need a far larger warship. At least a CCS Class Battle Cruiser or two.

My overall suggestion would be the 15th fleet encountering a Covenant battle group that launched boarding pods before the UNSC got into weapons range and retreated from the area to collect reinforcements while their boarders tried to destroy the ships from within. I know the Covenant don't retreat often, but perhaps the 15th fleet overwhelmingly outnumbered these ships.

Other warships in the fleet would be boarded as well, but the Iowa would be the main target.





4) Unfortunately the Iowa can't enter the orbit of another planet on its own power. The highest orbit it can achieve safely is geosynchronous orbit, anything lower than that gravity has already won. The Iowa would have to roll 90 degrees to the planet and use it's main engines to escape the gravitational pull. The Iowa is a Marathon-II Class Heavy Cruiser and exceptionally heavier than the typical Marathon or Halcyon cruisers, so if it was going to a planet side dry dock it would need atmospheric boosters as seen in Halo: Reach when the Pillar of Autumn lifted off.... just a lot more of them everywhere.





5) Unfortunately no deck arrangements exist for the Marathon (and thus the Marathon-II class), but the layout to these cruisers - minus the honey comb bracketing - can be inspired by Halo: Combat Evolved first mission. I suppose I can write up a deck summary, but there are about 120 decks on the Iowa alone, so maybe I'll just sum up what decks have the most important areas or something.

For internal structuring, think Pillar of Autumn with and without structural braces cutting through the decks. The Iowa has an internal hull standard to a Marathon, while the outer 'rim' of decks (following in the shape of the ship all around) are honey comb in design. So unless you're near a life pod, air lock, hanger or what ever else - you won't see the structural bracing. However, if you're around an air lock, life pod or hanger, the deck would look similar to the PoA.

[Llau]

Hmm. Nice idea. Brings back good memories of the first game we all know and love.

I say, once everyone posts their introductions, and follow-ups to any replies if anyone wants to socialise with other player's characters, then we can start the boarding action.

[Faclan]

Sounds like we got a plan then;
- Start the thread will the Iowa and its other fleet buddies heading toward a battle zone.
- People talking as they get their helmets all polished and ammo loaded.
- Zwoop they are in the battle and people are all ready.
- Oh no suddenly cloaked covie ships to supplement the ones already seen!
- Oh no borders!

And then the thread develops from there. With Staff (likely with some chit chat with Kill cause its his ship and he has much knowledge, probably Cabel too) putting up flag events happening on the ship while also occasionally posting battle statistics for the larger fight for those bridge officers to play with while also letting people who may be on a different ship also post. With some players playing the aliens if they want or just staff.

That sound ok? Feel free to make suggestions to ask questions if you have them.

Maybe use somthing like this;

link

To help people coordinate. 

[tento125]

Sounds good. 1 teeny tiny question, what's the date that this would take place in?

[Faclan]

Probably a few weeks to a month after the funeral thread.

[tento125]

May I suggest January 22 2552?

[Llau]

That'll be fine.

[Rexian]

Can I get involved at all?

[Faclan]

If you don't have a Human you could always take the place of an NPC alien who totally won't get thrown out an airlock by ODSTs

[охотник]

Mar 12, 2018 20:08:34 GMT -6 MrKill said:

My overall suggestion would be the 15th fleet encountering a Covenant battle group that launched boarding pods before the UNSC got into weapons range and retreated from the area to collect reinforcements while their boarders tried to destroy the ships from within. I know the Covenant don't retreat often, but perhaps the 15th fleet overwhelmingly outnumbered these ships.

Other warships in the fleet would be boarded as well, but the Iowa would be the main target.

I hope I'm not too late to the party here, I've had this thread up for like a month trying to figure out what to suggest but since I've been so busy and not well this fell behind but still! I don't think it's too late so...

In response to the qoute, I don't think launching boarding craft and leaving would be within the Covenant's best interests because the 15th fleet against boarding craft would be largely one sided unless all our commanders derped out. The mass MLA fire if the ships clustered would be insane.

My suggested fix to this is a pitched battle with a lean to the Covenant, this creates a much larger and in my head more likely scenario, have the ships engaged and fighting the Covenant whilst landing craft are heading in to provide them with cover and distraction.

[MrKill]

I disagree.

There has been numerous times boarding craft have made it into a ship or station while being outside typical MAC range while the Covenant were numerically outmatched. Point defense guns can track and engage multiple targets, but 15 CCS and 2 CAS vessels had enough boarding craft to take out two orbital stations, nearly a third, and presumably multiple warships as well.

Over Reach, the UNSC had multiple space installations boarded while the Covenant were out of weapon range of even the SMAC. When the Covenant launch hundreds of boarding craft, even a fleets joint arch of fire can't destroy them all. Even the mighty modern CWIS can only track and destroy one AsH missile at a time.

Additionally, if the 15th fleet had Longswords engaging boarding craft, the fleet won't fire into to mass because they could hit one of their own single ship fighters. It is entirely reasonable to have the Iowa and other warships boarded before any ship to ship engagement happened.

[охотник]

Okay but those incidences you mentioned had at some point engaged the UNSC after the boarding craft were launched and didn't leave the area. If I recall correctly, and from how I'm understanding this, this is what you suggested. I'll concede on the pitched battle point but I still wouldnt agree with the covenant capital ships leaving the area.

Especially if the covenant have any resemblance of a fleet and not just a scout force.

[Faclan]

I'm sure we could stretch the truth a bit for the sake of fun stuff. And if they were launched from stealthed big ships maybe they had some kind of cloaking tech too. So it was 'oh crap they are really close we got a few but they are here' because the Iowa didn't 'see' them until they got super close because they were too busy worrying about the bigger cloaked ships.