"Programmed Full Thrust Opponent (Solo gaming)" Topic

In another thread, someone else asked for rules in any ruleset, but I thought I'd specifically ask if anyone had something worked up for Full Thrust.

I've found references to some rules Mark Drake made up, but they appear to be for programmed cloaked opponents.

I had some general 'if in this fire arc, this range, do this' kind of thing in mind, but would love to hear anything attempted.

Thanks!

Doug

I stole a mechanism from a land combat game many years ago and cant remember the game any longer. Over time the rule morphed into something different than the mechanism I original stole. For of the programed ships movement determine the nearest enemy. Move toward it if it is smaller or away if it is the same size or larger. The programed ship must move as close or as far away as possible. If two ships are at the same distance use a die roll to decide which option to choose. In making this move you decide whether their move puts them closer to some other ship than the one which governed their movement. Programmed ships fire at the nearest ship. As the player you can apply some gamesmanship to your moves. Like moving a small ship closer to a large ship to draw the larger ship. I try not to do this. One thing that I found was that if all the small ships are gone from your fleet or moved to a distance this mechanism causes the fleet controlled by the rules tends to move off/disengage.

Robots have always known the better part of valor; check out Bender. ;->=

Thanks!

A place to start, though I tend to cheat ('apply some gamesmanship') in spite of myself. Sounds more like duel-to-small group of ships, so I'll think on adding squadron maneuvers.

Doug

I've seen others too, where you have to pick the overall army's strategy, e.g. aggressive, cautious, balanced.

Using that as a starting basis, you then roll on a chart for tactical moves, e.g. aggressive commanders will usually charge right in; cautious ones might dither, or move much more slowly; balanced would be in between the two strategies, perhaps looking for a tactical advantage in maneuvering, before committing to the attack, etc.

Add in moves to the center of the board, left-flank, right-flank, etc., and then go from there.

Also, in terms of firing, ships may all concentrate on one, or only several vessels; spread their fire evenly amongst the fleet; attack the smaller vessels first; attack the largest vessels first, etc.

With tactical nuances like that, which you may roll for randomly for your opponent, and/or choose in advance for them, you should be able to have a pretty good game.

I'd suggest having to choose, or write out your own orders and plot vessel courses first, before you roll randomly for your opponent, just to make life interesting.

Finally, create several opposing fleets, of different compositions, and roll randomly to determine which you encounter, only after plotting your fleet's movement and tactics in advance as well, just for grins. If desired, you could even use vessels chits, so you don't know what vessels you are going up against in the fight, and/or maneuvering towards, before they are detected by your sensors.

That will work for fleet actions too.

Having done solo rules for Wings of Glory, I think it would be possible to do a solo set for this game, but as tactics depend on what weapons and which arcs are available, a good set would have to be fiendishly complicated IMHO.

Good luck anyone who manages to do one!

…a good set would have to be fiendishly complicated IMHO.

Thanks; I'll shoot for 'usable' before good.

@Mako11 That seems like further along in the process; however, you've given me the notion that instead of rolling for things like accel/decel, turn port/starbrd, 1/2/3 pts, go for general terms for maneuvers that accomplish the same.

Maybe I can design some movement templates I considered long ago.

THEN I can try to sort out aggressive/cautious.

Doug

Doug,

Thanks for the mention!

I seem to remember reading suggestions for more of what you are looking for either here or at Star-Ranger's site.Perhaps try the Solo board here too?

Sorry am not more help to you;good luck on whatever you come up with.

Mark

TMP link

Did have this bookmarked from way back…..

Thanks, Mark!

I actually looked at the thread, and the first few responses didn't seem in the vein I had in mind, but scanning further down, I may have been hasty…

I'll give it a thorough going over!

Doug

The Bender Protocol………close if the enemy are weaker/smaller, back off if bigger and stronger……

What about building some scenarios that make the decisions less complicated.

I'm thinking a blockade run. The "robotic" ships are trying to break through and you are running the blockade. The ships will largely just be accelerating to get through your line while attacking on the way through. You can scale the forces so that it comes in waves and/or add extra forces to the breakthrough forces to account for their limited options and the fact that they will be running straight into your line of ships.

You could use random deployment of both forces so you have an unpredictable element. For the blockade runners, you could write each unit/ship on a note card, shuffle them and deal 3, 4, etc for each wave and that is what will be coming on in that wave. Give it 3 or 4 turns and then the next wave comes. If you find it too easy, add to the number of cards that are flipped in each wave or shorten the time between waves.

Doug,

Here re the two articles I was thinking of:

link

link

Now, that's what I'm talking about, though I'm getting this feeling, in the case of maneuver by die, maybe the tactical situation will give modifiers.

Thanks again!

Doug