Vehicle Combat

Vehicle Combat Overview

Fighting in vehicles is a little different from personal combat.

People In Vehicles

You can join combat as either a pilot or a passenger in a vehicle. The pilot is the person flying or driving the vehicle. Passengers are anyone else - gunners, navigators, weapons officers, even repair crews or honest-to-goodness passengers.

When you join a combat as a pilot or passenger, you have to specify which vehicle you're in. Normally this will be obvious by the game's vehicle code. If you are currently sitting in a Sabre 13BS-4, then your combat vehicle will be 13BS-4. Things get a little more difficult if you are a passenger in a generic ship such as for mock-combat. More on that in a moment.

Targeting Vehicles

To target a vehicle in combat, you target its pilot. The pilot's driving/piloting skill is used to defend the attack. You cannot directly attack the people in the vehicle; that's just a limitation of the combat system.

Taking Damage

When a vehicle is hit, the vehicle takes the damage. There is a chance that the people inside will be hurt as well, but the vehicle will take the brunt of it.

Vehicle Database

As mentioned above, normally your combat vehicle will be obvious by the game's vehicle code. However, the system supports 'virtual' vehicles that are tracked internally to the combat system.

The +gear command shows generic vehicle types and lets you view their weapons, armor and other statistics. To see individual vehicles, you use the +vehicles command instead. For example, a Sabre fighter-bomber is a vehicle type. Sabre-2345g is an individual vehicle that has been temporally created.

  • +gear/vehicles - Lists all vehicle types.
  • +gear/vehicle <type> - Shows stats about a given type.
  • +vehicles - Lists vehicles
  • +vehicle <name> - Details of a specific vehicle

When you join combat, you can either specify an individual vehicle (from the +vehicles list), or a general vehicle type. If you specify a general type, the system will auto-generate an individual vehicle for you. For example, you can do:

+combat/join #627/pilot/Sabre-8277g
<COMBAT> Faraday has joined the combat as a pilot in Sabre-8277g on team 1.

or

+combat/join #627/pilot/Sabre
<COMBAT> Faraday has joined the combat as a pilot in Sabre-9698V on team 1.

Preparation

Pilots and passengers have the following preparation commands available to them. Remember that you can use any number of preparation commands during a given turn.

Weapons and Armor

When you join combat as a pilot or passenger, the system automatically assigns you that vehicle's default weapon. You can change this to another weapon if you so desire, but use +gear/vehicles to determine which weapons are available to your vehicle.

Vehicle armor is automatically factored in when a vehicle is targeted; you don't have to do anything special. If your character is wearing armor himself (while sitting in the vehicle), you can use the armor command to set that up. Use +gear/armor to see a list of armor types.

Some special equipment, like an ECM jammer, can be considered a 'weapon' even though it does no damage.

  • +combat/weapon <weapon> - Sets weapon.
  • +combat/armor <armor> - Sets armor.

Stance

Pilots may choose their stance: Banzai, Aggressive, Normal, Cautious, Evade, Cover or OutOfSight. Since passengers are not directly targeted, they don't get to choose a stance.

  • Banzai is a reckless offensive stance that gives you a bonus to attack but opens you up to counterattack.
  • Evade means you're dodging and weaving, making it very difficult to hit you but also for you to hit back.
  • Cautious means taking it slow. You're harder to hit because you're more wary, but you also suffer a penalty to attack.
  • Aggressive means you are heavily focused on an opponent but you aren't totally ignoring what is attacking you.
  • Cover means you're in cover. You suffer no penalties, but attacks aimed at you might hit the cover instead of you.
  • OutOfSight means that you cannot be seen/targeted at all.
  • +combat/stance <stance> - Sets stance (banzai, aggressive, normal, evade, cautious, cover, outofsight)

Actions

Pilots and passengers may take a single action each turn.

Attack

The attack command shoots at a single target with your currently equipped weapon. You may specify special options if they are available:

  • Burst - Some weapons support burst fire, shooting 3 rounds at a target.
  • Called Shot - Normally vehicle attacks are aimed at the body. If you would like to aim at a particular location, use the called shot option. It's harder to hit, but you're more likely to hit where you want. (Though please note that you might miss the desired location and hit someplace nearby.) If you do a called shot for a critical area such as the Cockpit you are more likely to do more damage. You can get a list of hit locations from the +combat/hitlocs command.
  • Range - If the target is far away, specify the range. If they are very close, don't bother.

+combat/attack <target>see below>

Specials are optional, and can include:

  • burst - Fire a short burst if the weapon is capable of it.
  • range=<range in meters> - If not specified, system assumes range is point-blank.
  • called=<location> - Perform a called shot to a particular hit location.

Use +combat/hitlocs <target> to see a list of valid hit locations.
Use commas to separate multiple options.

Special Attacks

If your weapon is capable of fully automatic fire, you can also execute a 'fullauto' attack against one or more targets. Fullauto is highly inaccurate for most weapons, but very effective at suppressing targets.

Lastly, if you have an explosive weapon, like a grenade, you can attack one or more targets within the blast radius. The weapon stats (see +gear) will tell you the blast radius for an explosive weapon. The command lets you specify two groups: those '''right next to''' the target of the explosion (i.e. within a few meters of where you are aiming) and those further away but still within the blast radius. Please note: Some anti-vehicle missiles are not treated as explosive weapons because they do not really have a blast radius.

These special attacks do not support called shots or range. Called shots make no sense, and these weapons are simply not effective at long ranges. Usually fullauto weapons are batteries of lasers or flak found on capships.

  • +combat/fullauto <list of one or more targets, separated by commas>
  • +combat/explode <targets right next to explosion, separated by commas>/<near targets, separated by commas>

Aim

You can spend a turn aiming at a target to get a bonus to hit if you fire at that same target next turn. "Aiming" in the sense of fighters or other fast-moving vehicles can represent maneuvering into a tailing position or something similar to get a better shot. You may only aim at a single target, and you get the same bonus no matter how long you spend aiming. Aiming is particularly useful if your vehicle is damaged or you have other special modifiers that make it harder for you to hit the target.

  • +combat/aim <target>

Suppress

Suppression fire is used to suppress a target, giving them a negative modifier to attack. This can reflect distracting moves, suppressing fire, ECM jamming, warning shots, etc. As with attacking, you may suppress multiple targets if you have a full-auto or defensive weapon. A fullauto attack also can suppress a target, but the suppress command is more effective, though it will not do any damage.

  • +combat/suppress <target, or comma-separated list of targets for a fullauto/defensive weapon>

Reload

Fighters normally run out of missiles and can't reload. Capships that have torpedoes or missiles don't run of missiles and can reload their tubes in one round.

  • +combat/reload

Treat

You can spend an action to treat a vehicle, which represents quick jury-rigging (just like first aid does for people). This can make a big difference because a treated wound imposes less of a damage modifier and less of a chance of KO'ing the character. It also has a chance of un-KO'ing a KO'd player.

  • +combat/treat <target>

Pass

If you are not taking any action this turn, use the pass command. It is important to do this so everyone knows you're not doing anything and doesn't wait for you. Often if you too far away from an enemy, you will use this command to indicate movement toward a target. Also if you are attempting to flee a combat, you will need to pass for one or more rounds until the organizer clears you to leave combat or go into observer mode.

  • +combat/pass

Rally

The rally command can be used to rally a KO'd player, giving them a chance at getting back into the fight. This is a little harder to justify in vehicle combat than in soldier combat because it's the ''vehicle'' that's been KO'd, and not the character. You can't slap a tank on the cheek and shout "Get back on the line, soldier! You're not dead yet!" Nonetheless, the command is allowed for roleplay-appropriate situations, like talking someone through a system reboot to get their ship back up and running, or encouraging them to get out of the tailspin. Use at the organizer's discretion. Rally can only be used on PCs.

  • +combat/rally <name>

Soldier Commands

The subdue and escape commands are for soldiers only; they do not apply in vehicle combat.

Gear

Gear includes weapons, armor and vehicle types (not to be confused with individual vehicles.) The +gear command lets you view statistics for the various types of gear.

  • +gear/weapons - Lists weapon stats
  • +gear/armor - Lists armor stats
  • +gear/vehicles - Lists vehicle stats