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On Scanning (part 2) Thu, 28 March 2013 12:50 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Altruist is currently offline Altruist

 
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Registered: August 2005
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 On Scanning (part 2)

The next example is one of lack of scanning, as above this is the map in the year 2425, this time from the Messy Monkeys:

http://stars.arglos.net/games/fa8/img/fa8-scanning_2425_messy-monkeys-PP.png
From the map and knowing that the Messy Monkeys are PP it looks like a PP trying to mask his PRT and thus not sending out packets for scanning but it seems no scouts, either. On top of it, the PP is a factoryless design, forced to rapid expansion or demise. At 2425 he must know as much as possible about his surrounding neighbours because already now or very soon he needs to attack and expand into their space... but not with such a reconnaissance. It's literally like attacking into the unknown dark. (To be fair, this player was in a close alliance and due to shared intel probably knew a lot more than one can see here but it's a fine example of lacking scanning nevertheless.)

Diving a bit deeper into the m-file it's getting a bit more complex and some explanations seem obvious. Messy Monkey had the steep penalty to leave 100 leftover pts in the race wizard, thus they took NAS but not IFE (fuel mizer), did not check the tech 3 box and electronics was expensive, so the "best" scout available with the starting tech was this:
http://stars.arglos.net/games/fa8/img/scout-messy-monkeys_long-range-scout.png
As a matter of fact in the year 2425 there were no less than 17 scouts built (11 lost) of 6 different designs. So the bad scanning wasn't due to lack of trying. On the contrary, together with their ally the Beeblebrox (a PP as well) they seem to have tried to specialize in roles:
* Messy Monkey tried to scan with scouts while hiding being PP
* Beeblebrox (no NAS and thus with penetrating scan ability) gave away being PP by scanning via packets
I think they tried to pass scouts from Beeblebrox (with fuel mizer and better elec-tech=rhino scanner) to Messy Monkey but as you can see in the above map, the result wasn't satisfying.
It also shows the power of shooting down the scouts of other players... their knowledge of the universe keeps severly low.


Here the Beeblebrox' map of 2425:

http://stars.arglos.net/games/fa8/img/fa8-scanning_2425_beeblebrox-PP.png
A PP, too, who is not masking his PRT. PP is seldomly played and rarely with giving away the PRT so freely with scanning packets. But it's an interesting view how the universe looks like for a packet-scanning PP.. Four things are important to point out:
  1. The other players make it easy for the PP to scan. It would be so easy to detach any freighter to pick up the even penetrating scanner-packet and voila: darkness for the PP. But they let the packets move thru their space.
  2. Not only due to the above descibed countermeasure, it's risky to rely completly on packets for scanning, some scouts would be needed, too.
  3. It's rather expensive to scan with packets. It's also giving away your PRT too easily, nobody wants a PP as a neighbour and gone the advantage of surprise when a PP starts to throw big ugly chunks to annihilate whole planets.
  4. On the other hand the ability to make penetrating scans with packets, if the other players allow those packets to pass thru, is surely a nice thing.


The 5th and last example is a JoaT again, the Witchetty Grubs, and the map is from a bit earlier than the others, from 2420:

http://stars.arglos.net/games/fa8/img/fa8-scanning_2420_witchetty-grubs-JoaT.png
In general around 3/4 of the planets of the universe are already scanned, not as excellent as the JoaT Zorkians in example 1 but good enough. Nevertheless the number of scouts is just 5. While this shows what a JoaT can achieve with even such a low number, the danger is high of 1 or 2 scouts getting shot down and the whole scanning process is stopped. Scouts are cheap to rebuild but their position on the map, perhaps already 300-ly away from the HW is difficult to regain. And the later your scouts arrive, the higher the chance that they get shot down.

I have chosen the tactical map view to show some points:
  1. Previously I was refering several times to "2nd wave or later waves of scouts". Here you can see that only 1 wave of scouts was built. Meanwhile the direct surrounding of the core planets is not under watch anymore.
  2. Some of the Grubs' planets were not colonized in force but there are only 3.000 pop on them (mistake), easy prey for a pop-drop from an enemy.
  3. It would be very cheap and easy guard at least the "entry"-point to his corner. The arrows indicate the positions for only 4 needed scouts to detect every incoming ship. This is a tactic possible and useful for everybody but a JoaT has the additional advantages that often enough his penetrating scanners detect ships while they are even not aware of being detected (and possbily marked and targetted for shoot down).

So much about scanning for today. Later, perhaps, the "funniest" ship designs...

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