(UNSC) NPC Mission Discussion

[MrKill]

Let's not stretch the truth.

The 15th Fleet can engage the Covenant, I'm fine with that, but I'd like to point out the Covenant have retreated or at least stayed beyond UNSC weapon range in the Halo Universe until something has happened; Regret's fleet (15 CCS and 2 CAS class warships) stayed outside weapon range until two Orbital Defense Platforms were destroyed - and likely some UNSC warships - and then moved into the area. The Cairo station wasn't in weapons range until after it's local cluster had already been destroyed, and only then did the defending UNSC fleet engage the Covenant.

Over Reach, before the Covenant engaged the UNSC (and before they were in UNSC weapon range), they launched boarding craft - which took over Gamma station or something like that - and sent two huge invasion groups to the north and south poles of the planet which arrived roughly the same time as the Covenant did an inner-system jump in order to attack the defended Orbital Defense Platforms.

I'm not saying the Covenant would leave the system entirely, I'm just saying it's plausible they'd avoid combat long enough until either a few warships were destroyed or the Iowa was - being that it's the most powerful warship in the fleet - even with a SMAC armed super carrier. Additionally, I was also referring to other Covenant patrols in the same system when I said 'leave the area and collect reinforcements'.

I didn't mean jump out of the system entirely, my apologies. I just meant stay outside UNSC weapon range long enough for the Covenant boarders to do some damage or wait until they had sufficient military power to engage the large UNSC fleet.

[охотник]

Apr 5, 2018 17:43:35 GMT -6 MrKill said:

Let's not stretch the truth.

The 15th Fleet can engage the Covenant, I'm fine with that, but I'd like to point out the Covenant have retreated or at least stayed beyond UNSC weapon range in the Halo Universe until something has happened; Regret's fleet (15 CCS and 2 CAS class warships) stayed outside weapon range until two Orbital Defense Platforms were destroyed - and likely some UNSC warships - and then moved into the area. The Cairo station wasn't in weapons range until after it's local cluster had already been destroyed, and only then did the defending UNSC fleet engage the Covenant.

Over Reach, before the Covenant engaged the UNSC (and before they were in UNSC weapon range), they launched boarding craft - which took over Gamma station or something like that - and sent two huge invasion groups to the north and south poles of the planet which arrived roughly the same time as the Covenant did an inner-system jump in order to attack the defended Orbital Defense Platforms.

I'm not saying the Covenant would leave the system entirely, I'm just saying it's plausible they'd avoid combat long enough until either a few warships were destroyed or the Iowa was - being that it's the most powerful warship in the fleet - even with a SMAC armed super carrier. Additionally, I was also referring to other Covenant patrols in the same system when I said 'leave the area and collect reinforcements'.

I didn't mean jump out of the system entirely, my apologies. I just meant stay outside UNSC weapon range long enough for the Covenant boarders to do some damage or wait until they had sufficient military power to engage the large UNSC fleet.

That makes a bit more sense, I also wasn't saying that the covenant couldn't stay out of weapons range I was just providing an alternative. Though yeah, this sounds good

[Faclan]

That would work, and pretty Covenant of them to hang back the main force till victory is mroe assured. Only to find out that the borders didn't work :>

[tento125]

I'm imagining that the Iowa is escaping from a disastrous battle against a Covenant fleet. Before the cruiser managed to jump into slipspace, multiple Covenant boarding parities have latched on and so the cruiser's compliment of marines would have to search through each and every room and corridor to clear out the aliens.

The thread could begin with the final stages of the battle and warnings that multiple Covenant boarding craft has latched on just before the Iowa made the transition to slipspace.

I don't know, just an idea in mind.

[oyubaat]

I'm not entirely sure about the backstory to this discussion/to the Iowa, but I do think as an observer it would be cool if a minor campaign or counter-effort were to be staged between the various UNSC divisions to push Covenant forces off of Earth. I've had a discussion briefly with Cabel about setting up a mission where UNSC forces have to push back Covenant forces over Seattle and think that could be ripe for a potential noir/midnight operation.

As for missions in general, I must confess that I'm still confused as to how missions work. What I should probably say is that in the SW roleplay forum that I am apart of, missions don't really exist per se, but rather operations/events take place alongside the main event or in connection with it. We don't strictly have the main story separated from non-canon or outside missions, so I don't understand quite how missions work in relation to a) how they affect the main storyline and b) their outcome/situation with respect to the various combat theaters in the known galaxy. An example might be if we had a mission over say... Venezia where an ODST team would have to drop and push back Covenant forces. If that were to be done as a side mission, would it be considered as forming part of the overall war effort/ongoing action against the Covvies?

Sorry if I'm not entirely making sense here by the way

[MrKill]

Main missions are linear stories that accelerate the websites time frame forward. For example, M9 took place in late 2551, but the next [website] canonical mission would be 'I can't believe they're gone...' which takes place in early 2552, a funeral thread for one of my characters. Since it is the most recent mission to be 'canon' here on the website, the current month of the RP would be January 2552.

Canonically, they exist alongside actual canon material from the games - although I will say we base our lore off the books rather than the video games and movies, as they tend to have plot points or balancing for a better user experience. Books on the other hand tell a more clear story without the need to keep movie-goers engaged or people entertained on a video game.

When the UNSC NPC Mission starts this mission will push the date further along, and since it is a few weeks (or a month) after the funeral thread, it could take place in Funerary 2552.

While we're technically in 2552 now, the battles over Reach and Earth won't happen until later in 2552, so unfortunately your suggestion about pushing the Covenant back on Earth aren't viable until we reach that date in our websites timeline.

I'll try my best to answer your questions.


A) Our missions don't effect the main timeline (main canon) introduced by the games, novels, movies and comics; in fact, our own timeline is dictated by the events that happened in official canon, such as the destruction of Reach in 2552 - that will happen here as well, instead of us 'saving' Reach from destruction. We follow Halo canon strictly, so anything that has happened in the Halo Universe also happened - or happens - here on the website as well.

Instead, our missions focus on adding backstory to the universe and allow everyone to share their perspective of that universe without having to RP a SPARTAN or Arbiter; for the UNSC we follow a group of Marines in the 120th MEU, the 15th fleet that carries the MEU and ONI Prowlers (which in turn house our PC ONI characters), and more. The Covenant are vise-versa.



B) Most of the planets we create, systems we imagine and backstories we construct are... unofficial. They don't exist in the Halo Universe outside of our website, so most of the battles - victory or defeat - don't effect the main events of the games, novels, etc, etc; however, they do play a role on our website, sometimes an extremely important role. If the Covenant glass a major production planet supplying the UNSC with Titanium, that is simulated across the RP by those who are effected by the outcome. In this particular incident, the UNSC's production and repair of warships slows down because they can't equip/repair their warships with Titanium A Armor as fast or efficiently now.

Most missions take place in one thread, rather than numerous side-threads, especially if they're on a singular planet. We do this here to avoid confusion, because micro-managing multiple side-threads can become taxing and overwhelming for the staff team here on the website. Although, within a mission, you can push a hostile force back and be pushed back by a hostile force. Front lines shift, the AO changes and tactics have to adapt a changing environment.

But note we're not that active anymore, so most of these dynamic changes happen because we're trying to get people posting again. (lol)

PC CO's may choose to order a retreat, while others may order an aggressive advance into enemy territory.

We'd like to think every decision by a playable character has an effect on the overall story here on the website.

Every action taken within a thread can change how a battle if fought in the middle of the engagement.




I hope this helps.

[oyubaat]

That was a wonderful explanation Mr.Kill

Very thought out out and coherent, I am grateful for you taking the time to lay that out.

Just some more questions I thought I would bullet-point for ease:

• With respect to missions, who can organise/start them up? Say for example I may be in the mood for a small skirmish in the Rubble, but have an ODST character that isn't with senior command or doesn't have an automatic mission to act on. Do I therefore have to receive an order from a PC to go in and do that mission or can I just roleplay having received orders from NPC command? I guess my question is more about maneuverability and missions that I can and cannot start up.
• I've asked Prez this in relation to a non-canon based mission, but can we spawn/deploy vehicles on the battlefield during our posts? Say for example I might want to roleplay an armoured column of Scorpions/warthogs proceeding through a town, would I be able to include those vehicles or would I need to consult with other people writing for that mission topic?

[Faclan]

We have mission 9.5 as well >.> But thats good explanations Kill.

Anyway in regards to your questions oyubaat

1) Members can start canon missions if they like, in here link and heres some things to help you and a guide link . Just need to find people to post in it with you. However you mentioned The Rubble which is a kind of big Real Canon event. Thats going to be a bit more of an issue since we have a 'set-up' of how that situation goes. So trying to edit it may be a bit eugggh about that. HOWEVER - I love the Rubble and would love a non canon thread about that as Humans and Kiggles milling about would be a perfect place for Nek to be and trying to get some trade worked out. I don't think we would have that be a canon thread but maybe. That would be somthing for the staff and semi staff to discuss.

2) That more so depends on who else is in the thread with you. There are no hard and fast rules but for example if both sides were bombed in Tabels I wouldn't want the UNSC to suddenly have a million tanks. But since they are supposed to be in the power position I'm fine with it. If it helps think of threads as mini DnD campaigns, and if you want to add somthing to the story you would want to ok it with the DM (in regards to Tabels that would be me which you did) to makr sure everything runs smoothly. Hope that answers it for you :>

[Faclan]

Since the Rubble was 2535 it would need to be non cannon since were far past that timeline wise. My b I had forgotten when that took place

[MrKill]

We've got some conflicting information.

The Iowa is the flagship of a numbered fleet in the UNSC Navy. It wouldn't go anywhere with a meager two escorts, something was mis-communicated during the planning of this mission. If the Iowa was heading anywhere with so little escorts, it would be to Earth or another secured system, not towards a system they know is currently engaged.

The 15th is also home to a few PC Navy characters, although I believe the only active one at the moment is Cabel (UNSC Paschendale).

[Faclan]

It could be re-grouping with the fleet? I'm not an expert on Naval formations but I tried to come up with some kind of way for the boarding ships to actually reach the Iowa and not just get blown out of the 'sky' by the Iowas escort ships. I'm open to edit the post if would like to suggest a different set up.

[MrKill]

It could be regrouping with the fleet - as the 15th Fleet has a repair (refit) station among the numbers - but we'd need to explain why the Iowa left formation during slip-space prior to arriving in system. If we go that route it would have been planned, a FTL failure would have killed everyone on board once the drive was active.

It is possible the Iowa left formation to reinforce or escort a merchant ship travelling away from the system that called for help while the rest of the fleet jumped direct to. If that is the case, the Iowa would have a few destroyers and a flight of Frigates with it. Enough to be combat effective, but not enough to significantly weaken the rest of the 15th fleet. Something like a destroyers and four frigates.

[Caramel Raccoon]

Adding the additional destroyer and two frigates on top of the already existing two escorts would logically pose a major threat to successfully boarding the Iowa even though the assailants are leaving from Corvettes presently using stealth capabilities. The likelihood of boarders making it through a defense force like that is slim considering the UNSC would jump out of Slipspace ready to react to the most significant threat that would subdue their engagement. However, Faclan is letting my PC Corvette Trierarch play a role in things, acting as a command center for the boarding NPC forces. If the Covenant was prepared for the Iowa's arrival then they surely knew it left with an escort, therefore it wouldn't be unreasonable to say that perhaps a few heavier Covenant vessels were used to greet the Iowa upon re-entry into normal space.

This would provide the necessary distraction so that the boarding parties could successfully sneak past, as well as provide the necessary firepower to eliminate the escort group so that they couldn't do serious damage in the space battle, what with destroying the command center for the boarding operation, any hidden deployment vessels, and then continuing right on into the main battle. At least, that would be the hope for the Covenant's plan. As this is an NPC mission designed with the hope that the PC's will prevail, nothing about the situation would be too insurmountable, and the heavier vessels provided could be disposed of or heavily damaged once boarding craft have gotten on board and the purpose of the implementation has been served.

[MrKill]

UNSC slip-space is entirely unpredictable, not even the Covenant know when or where the UNSC would exit slip-space. It's more reasonable to detect the Iowa and send in three or four cloaked Corvettes with boarding craft or simply send dozens of boarding craft 'cold' towards the Iowa so they don't detect heat signatures from the reactors.

The rest is part of a whole different issue, it's not about the combat capabilities of any particular warship; that being said, just because the Iowa exits with additional warships doesn't mean they'd actually be in formation.

The UNSC slip-space technology is crude at best compared to the Covenant. For example, the Covenant can transition from slip-space to regular space still in formation. The UNSC has to allow a large distance between exit vectors because the probability of colliding with a planet, a star, another ship (even though they are small, a group travelling together posses a bigger risk), asteroids - you name it - is exceptionally high.

This is the exact reason that UNSC ships during the Human - Covenant war exit at the boundaries of systems rather than inside a system altogether; the only saving grace is slip-space beacons that inform UNSC computers where an exact exit vector is, and even then it's risky at best. UNSC ships arrive at the edge of a system and use sublight engines to close the distance to their actual objective.

There is no true way to predict how UNSC ships will exit slip-space. The Covenant have canonically tried to anticipate where they'd exit from and it's bitten them. The UNSC Pillar of Autumn was able to disable or destroy five Covenant warships after exiting slip-space near Installation 04 because the Covenant, although aware the human warship was coming, was ultimately unprepared for how close it actually exited slip-space relative to their position; Cortana deliberately modified the slip-space coordinates to exit closer to the ring rather than at the edge of the system.

Even though the Autumn was engaged after its arrival, the warship was ultimately able to destroy four of the picketing Covenant warships and disable the Truth and Reconciliation before getting close enough to Installation 04 the Covenant decided to send borders rather than risk firing at the ring accidentally.

We know the Autumn was being hit by plasma torpedoes during the boarding process, the engagement with the Covenant and even resuming as the Autumn got closer of the ring and the Covenant warships got a clearer shot at the human warship. Even Captain Keyes was impressed by the durability of the light cruisers hull by thinking they'd be dead if it were a plasma torpedo when it actually was a plasma torpedo.




As for the mission itself there doesn't need to be a distraction. All you'd have to do is launch the boarding craft, burn the engines for five minutes to gain speed, and cut the reactor; you'll cool down in space rapidly and be hurling towards the Iowa at the same speed as before since there is nearly zero drag in space. The only time you have to slow down or adjust course is when you're gaining on the Iowa.

Since the Iowa would be regrouping with its fleet, the initial course set by Klix would be linear. Directly towards his fleet, so the Covenant can anticipate the trajectory needed to intercept his ship with the boarding craft. By the time the Iowa sensors detect the incoming boarding craft it'll be too late, and the UNSC escorts won't be in position to envelop the Iowa in a defensive net for quite some time.

[Caramel Raccoon]

You know, I was thinking of something longer to say to really contribute to or add on to it from here but... really, all I can come up with is fair enough.

[Faclan]

So if I edit the opening post to have the Iowa on the way back to defend the refit station after leaving to support a Merchant ship with its 2-4 escort ships that would be good? With the stealth covie ship waiting at the systems borders and hoping it doesnt get warped into to then try and putter closer and then release the bees(boarding craft) once in range? Just so we don't need to edit again.

[MrKill]

It's easier to just say the half-dozen Corvettes, and maybe even a larger warship, launched fighters and boarding craft towards the Iowa when it was detected exiting slip space; the fighters would escort the drop ships to a certain point and retreat, while the boarding craft use their inertia force to glide towards the Iowa along it's flight path back towards the 15th Fleet while remaining undetected because their reactors are 'cold' and not producing any heat signatures.

By the time the Iowa detected the mass of boarding craft moving in formation it would have been too late to really respond to the likely 100+ boarding craft carrying 12-24 troops each. The Iowa might destroy some with point defense fire, and the alert fighters (typically five fighters ready to launch in an instant) would destroy some as well.

Iowa would still be defending off at least a thousand boarders. The perspective of the Iowa's hull from an escorting ship would look like she was attacked by thorns.

[Faclan]

Edited, let me know if it needs more fiddling.

[tetsu]

Let's get it boiiis