Sunday 30 December 2012

Engineering Almost Complete, and Thoughts on Tips and Advice

Over the past week I have had little time to continue writing the handbook, however today I have managed to turn my focus back to the Engineering section and it is almost complete. Currently, I am adding specific information on different ships and how their way of operating affects the engineering role. Once finished, I intend to release it as a smaller handbook specifically on Engineering, as well as including it within the larger Officer's Handbook.

Creating the Engineering section has been an interesting because of the discussions I have had and my observations as well as articles or comments I have read on managing engineering. I have found myself considering methods that many people use and advice that is widely accepted, and disagreeing with some approaches.

There is a particular tip which I recently considered to do with boosting power to beams. It seems widely known that Primary Beam cool down is calculated based on the power setting at the exact moment the Primary Beams fire, so if the power setting is at 300% when the beams fire, then cool down time will be at its minimum. Many engineers therefore boost power just before firing and drop it just after to avoid overheating to the system. It seems a sound tactic, one with a great benefit and little drawback, but yet I disagree. What if, at the point of firing, the enemy is only in one primary beam arc? What happens when your ship manoeuvres so the second primary beam is within arc? Do you then have to double your focus on boosting power at the right time, one for each beam weapon? And what about the focus on the 7 other power settings? Focusing too much on one setting means you are not focusing on others. However, the most fundamental question I occurs to me is, how long is the recharge rate of Primary beam and how do you keep track of it? Surely it is impossible to sit counting accurately whilst managing so many systems, damage control teams as well as monitoring vital ship readouts such as energy level and shield strengths.

In my opinion, it would be much more effective to set a high level to beam weapons (~200%) when the ship is in close quarter combat with enemies rather then trying boost power to maximum in time with each shot. At ~200% you don't get the quickest beam recharge rate, but it does mean you can focus on getting other power settings right. An engagement isn't won just by firing quickly, it is won by a combination of different tactics, from manoeuvring the ship in to the best position to using certain firing patterns (e.g. different torpedo salvoes).

Sunday 23 December 2012

Grappling with Engineering

Today I have been focusing my efforts on providing guidance on how to manage engineering effectively. In my own opinion, being an Engineer is probably the most challenging role because if you get it wrong, at the very least you annoy your crew mates and captain, and at the very worst, you endanger the ship. From experience, I have observed crews which almost come to blows over power to systems; usually the engineer is overloaded with shouts for more power, or isn't reacting quickly enough to be effective. Aboard my own ship, I expect my engineer to keep systems at readiness, making sure they adapt power levels so that my officers can carry out my orders effectively, whatever the situation.

Writing guidance for how to operate the engineering console has been a challenge, however. Not because of a lack of knowledge or ability on my part, but because of the amount of variables involved, such as how a situation develops or how different captains run their ship. Initially I thought I might provide settings for particular manoeuvres or tactical situations (the settings for each system for a High Energy Turn, or for engaging at close range with Primary Beams), but then I realised this wouldn't work. Although I could tell you specific settings for a HET, as an Engineer I would still tweak them dependant on the situation, and I couldn't possibly detail what to tweak when and why. Like I said, there are just too many variables!

After trying out several variations, I think I have found one that I can settle on. Rather than show particular settings, I have been writing up ideas of minimum and maximum settings, recommendations for particular situations and other advice to adjust settings. I have given standardised values, for example never take any system below 20% without an order from the captain, or put systems to ~30% when recharging, as that level provides sufficient reduction to power consumption to recharge. The intention is to give guidelines and recommendations that doesn't overly restrict how an engineer operates, but rather provides advice and ideas.

It'll be interesting to see the reactions to my recommendations. It is meant for guidance and to give a standard so captains can be confident that a minimum power will always be maintained in combat or out of combat. Below are a few points summarising what I have written:

  • Never cut power below 20% unless ordered
  • In combat all systems must be kept at a minimum level of 75%
  • Never increase power to over 220% unless ordered
  • To recharge, reduce power levels to 30% on all systems
  • In normal running mode, keep all systems at 50% or greater
  • In combat mode, keep all systems at 75% or greater
  • In combat mode, manoeuvre and impulse must be kept at 100% minimum
  • Even a small boost to a system (e.g. 150%) can provide benefits
  • Coolant levels are not sufficient to keep multiple systems running at levels such as 200% for long periods
  • Cutting a system back to 100% rather than letting it overheat is better than keeping it high and causing damage to systems

Saturday 22 December 2012

Continuing the Handbook updates

Just an update on the handbooks. I am looking back through them and adding in content, rewriting sections and continually reviewing them to try to perfect them. 

I have been rewriting parts of the Officer's Handbook to make it clearer. I am planning to add in some content about engineering presets too, though I don't want to make it too prescribed. I think most of the information on the presets will be ideas and guidance rather than specific settings for energy and coolant levels. That way it will give Engineering Officers initial ideas and the opportunity to fine tune their own presets to suit how their own ship operates. I have also included information on giving a status report, and who can and should give particular information. A new contact report will be included within the handbook too, detailing a manoeuvre that saved a station and eliminated two heavy enemy fleets. 

Extra sections are being added to the Tactical Handbook too. I wanted to add information about how to operate a fleet of ships commanded by an Admiral, but I still need to put more thought in to how it would all work. At the moment I am focusing more on the Division tactics section, coming up with ideas for formations and patterns of attack. Formations were included in the preliminary release of the handbook, however I decided to remove them as they needed refining first. At the moment I have written up one complete formation, trying to keep it relatively simple and clear. It details the position of ships, the role different ship types should play, fall-back procedures and how to coordinate fire.

That's all for now. I am going to be conferring with captains and crews later regarding the content of the handbooks and refining the ideas further. I'll post more as I continue to update the handbooks.


Friday 21 December 2012

Captain Xavier Wise; T.S.N. Falcon CL-245

Greetings Captains and Crews of the Terran Stellar Navy,

I have made the decision to begin a Blog about my career as a Captain of the T.S.N. Many of you may already have read the various handbooks that I have created, so as part of this blog I will be talking about my ideas and development of these handbooks. I also intend to post about significant missions and events that occur during my career.

I think that will be all for my first post. I hope to continue posting regularly with updates and details about my career as it advances. 

Captain Xavier Wise