AI Historians already began their work in P1, so probably they will work over the next days too for P2.
Do you have a source/Link or are you just guessing? (Just asking not impuning your credibility or anything like that)
Isn't it fascinating how Pan O's win percentage jumped up in Phase 2! They all figured out how to play better after we schooled them in Phase 1.
Nice work! (Though you could really use the 50% line on the second chart as the graph scaling makes it harder to see the changes in win percentages.)
I could gather this: then the most to least fought over sites: Given the main competitors at the most fought over sites it was more an inner conflict of the Human Sphere than a proper invasion. Also interesting: no one really cared about Alfutna even the Raveneye Ammo Module had seen more battles despite only being available in the 1st Phase and a comparision between this and the previous campaign: despite fewer registered commanders the active commanders were roughly the same
OOC: Like that you can see the CA objective shift in phase 2 where we swapped from Darpan to Zebu, the intensity trends show through quite nicely in that regard.
I'd like to point out that Durgama campaign was - if memory serves me - significantly shorter, than Asteroid Blues. A lot of the games were played online via TTS, which was not a thing back in the days of Asteroid Blues.
Message from the Office of Hachib in response to the events that occurred on Durgama Peninsula. “To the citizens and soldiers of Concilium Prima and our allies, The Nation of Haqqislam is distraught at the occurrences of the Raveneye Orbital and Durgama Peninsula where the Combined Army gained significant ground. We put our trust into O-12 and Panoceania and found it misplaced. The so-called “Great Hyperpower” decided to place its limited resources and capabilities in not the defense of Humanity, but in its own interests and in so doing allowed the Raveneye Orbital to become infested in the soldiers of the EI. Yu Jing not only eliminated Combined Army forces from Cameliard, and secured the facilities against further aggression, they stymied a direct offensive. The nation of Yu Jing should be praised in keeping secrets of humanity and the nation of Panoceania out of the EI hands, but instead Panoceania saw this as a challenge and threat greater than that of the EI to humanity, and acted on its own interests. This is of dire concern in all future operations involving the Panoceanian military in joint operations and will request that the Hyper Power stand down from any future leadership positions. Further, we now know why Haqqislams grave concerns of Equinox infiltration of Darpan fell on deaf ears in O-12. It was due to infighting, sabotage, and betrayal within the very organization that purports to unite humanity. Their orders to have all nations withhold their own troops into their own areas of operations can only be seen now, in perspective, as that of sabotage and assistance of the great enemy. The ICAF was a weakening factor in this conflict and the Durgama Defense Coalition regrets that the great soldiers of Ariadna fell into and for this organization. The diplomats, and soldiers of Ariadna worked tirelessly in the ninth hour to try and restore Raveneye to human control, and with assistance from the Nomad Nation, both forces were close. It is regretful that they were not successful, and our Nation will mourn their losses as our own. Haqqislam is providing any and all medical assistance to these two nations as it can. Ariadna and Nomads should be lauded for their heroic efforts, and Haqqislam hopes to work to mend relationships with its once close ally of Ariadna. Talks have begun with ALEPH in earnest, who is beginning to understand the threat of the Equinox Organization due to the sum of evidence brought forth directly to it. While the blood spilled within the Darpan Facility is a tragic consequence, we hope that moving forward, we may work hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder instead of fighting. In recompense, Haqqislam biomedical scientists will work more closely with ALEPH in assistance with advancing humanity and its knowledge. The Durgama Defense Coalition was a powerful and tight alliance that showed its might and capabilities on the Durgama Peninsula. Haqqislam hopes that in future joint operations with the nations of Yu Jing, the Nomads, and Tohaa can take place with such great results. Further we would reach out to the other nations, to join us, not only in defense of each other, but in the defense of humanity as a whole. Only together can we rise higher than our beginnings and face down the existential threat of the Combined Army. Inshallah! Office of the Hachib, Bourak”
Respectfully , I submit the the only thing ICAF weakened was the near treasonous aspirations of YuJing and the Nomad nations. Their attempts to seize Camelaird and "a second railgun for Corry" severely limited the response to the CA assault, and might have cost humanity Concilium...
This is Hsien Yue Fei of the Durian Investigation Unit, reporting on behalf of the High Command on a solid campaign victory for Yu Jing! We held XianDao and protected our corporate interests, then seized Cameliard from Pan Oceania, safeguarding it from the Combined Army threat and proving to everybody that we truly are Number One in the Human Sphere. The published results of the second phase at Cameliard are baffling, as it appears that O-12 and Pan Oceanian media outlets have temporarily disabled the AI Historian that normally reports on military campaigns, no doubt as a ploy to puff up some fragile egos. As always, when we have to deal with these untrusted competitors, we will do our own analysis and provide our own trusted news for you. In the meantime, anyone doing a cursory examination of the published reports will see that the only real edge Pan O hold in that location is a brief and incomprehensible prayer, shouted at the last minute from the foaming lips of a religious maniac, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. On behalf of the Yu Jing High Command and our forces stationed in the Durgama peninsula, I would like to thank our allies in the Durgama Defence Coalition. I salute you all for your camaraderie, dedication, honour and being the bulwark of the human sphere in the face of the Pan Oceanian failure of leadership and their subsequent retreat to Vikruti Beach. Haqqislam, we thank you for sending your hazmat teams to assist us clearing up the tactically deployed piles of rotten Durian that we scattered around XianDao to scare away JSA and Ariadnan troops. To the Nomads, we thank you for seizing control of the news outlets and making sure our side of the story cut through Pan Oceanian and O-12 propaganda. Tohaa, please do not e-mitter me again. To all the Yu Jing generals and commanders, you have fought against a larger opponent and shown them that we are more than their equal. Your contributions now go down in history and you shall be rewarded. Remember this campaign as a step on our way to our rightful place in the Human Sphere!
To all Tohaa commanders operating within the Human Sphere, Since the destruction of the Daedalus Gate we have found ourselves marooned here, strangers in a land that is anything but strange. Our fate on the edge of the wind, as the EI and the implementation of its will, the forces of the Combined army, remain a constant threat to our very being, even as the fate of the home systems remains unknown. We have made overtures to work with the council which claims to speak for the entirety of the Human Sphere, but they have wanted little of us beyond our technology in order to strengthen their own position. Yet, by looking beyond this council, to the nations and people of this region of space, we find hope. We Tohaa have always found ourselves made better and stronger by the coalitions we build with other like minded aliens within the vastness of the universe. Though this assault by the Combined army has been as ferocious as any we have witnessed, they too lack the numbers they have brought to bare on our home systems. Through our continued alliance with these humans who will truly band together in the face of our collective doom, perhaps it is here, within the Human Sphere, that we may finally blunt and break the spear of the EI. When the universe reaches its final chapter, may the Digesters catalog the Tohaa as inspiration for all Heralds, and as a dire warning to all those who would become Seekers. -Naami MuuKar Tohaa Diplomatic Corps
OK, first thing I should note is that I loved the Durgama campaign and I’m kinda sad that I managed to sneak only four games in my schedule. It’s great that we’re able to have such events and the ability to participate both in person and over TTS. This was a great community event overall and I think we can surely do with having one annually. This said, I couldn’t help but think of some suggestions for the next campaign, aimed at diversifying the strategic objectives and encouraging varied playstyle on the table. I know I’m really late to the party in this thread, but as I’ve mentioned – my schedule is a bitch. I. Add objectives different than locations Since we are essentially dealing with black ops and sabotages, the actual map, that we have on Durgama is a bit less of a priority. Even nowadays it is very common for armed forces to have completely different objectives than controlling a certain physical location. When you have the vastness of space and iota-scarcity, this is even more true. And while nothing in the Durgama campaign said “faction X needs to take location Y” there was nothing else to do, which sort of cemented territory-taking as the default win condition. Which was a bit rigid and needlessly limiting. To illustrate what I think, let’s say we have a map with five zones – Nomad asteroid mining site, PanO Hexahedron black jail, Ariadna Kosmoflot training site, Long-range quantronic communication network, Commercial trade routes. Three of them are exact physical locations, the other are just a broadly-described background for a small-scale confrontation. Naturally every faction wants to keep its own location. That’s the type of objective we have now. But not every faction starts with one. O-12 wants to regulate the trade routes. Haqqislam wants its karavansarais undisturbed by nosy administrators. That’s an objective at most one of the factions can gain. Then there’s the CA. It’s goal is to weaken the human sphere. It doesn’t need to establish control over the trade routes or the com network. As long as its among the three most influential factions in both, its goal is achieved. Its goal is compatible with both the goals of Haqqislam and O-12. However, let’s say Tohaa wants the Combined Army to spend as many resources for nothing as possible. So they win their objective by not letting CA achieve their faction goal or conquer a location. Finally Yu Jing. It wants to expose the cruelty of the Hexahedron, but Yue Minerals also wants, well, minerals. Yu Jing does not necessarily need to control the black site. As long as it has achieved a certain number (and/or percentage) of successful antenna activations in the communication network missions and controlled consoles in the jail missions, they gain their objective (having obtained enough compromising data). They can score a second objective if they take the mines from the Nomads, but only if their primary objective is achieved. Else some brass will have hard time explaining why they pandered to a corporation and failed the orders of the Party :P Finally, allow NA2 army commanders to pick which of the main factions they want to align with. That’s sort of the reason for being a merc. Of course, this is a very crude, incomplete example and not very balanced for the factions, but its purpose is just to show that we can have different objectives than just conquering a zone. Sabotage another faction’s efforts, gain subtle influence, score mission or classified objectives are all viable goals. The positions of each faction need not to be symmetric, or equally achievable, but it shouldn’t feel like someone is in the NPC faction or someone is destined for success/failure. Finally, CA should not always be in a position in which “Everybody vs CA” makes narrative sense. The outcome is way too predictable. And yeah, of course players will decide that they want to disregard some of the goals or invent their own. That’s not a bug, that’s a feature. II Add faction rules to certain locations First, I really loved the crazy mods for some of the missions. Parachuting Geckos is fun. What I missed was the feeling that you are attacking someone’s home turf or defending your own. This is the reason why I suggest that some factions receive bonuses for certain locations. Attacking the Nomad stations? Well, unfortunately there has been a minor morlock ‘infestation’ in the ventilation systems. They get FD(+4). Wanting to breach into the Hexa prison? They have a turret. And the Ariadna facility? Their foxholes are extremely well-defended – Mimetism(-6) We can also have such rules for the attackers, which can help factions struggling with a certain type of missions or in order to gently nudge some factions towards certain locations, for extra chaos. More extreme cases might even feature asymmetric missions. Will it be perfectly balanced? Well, no, but missions weren’t well balanced in Durgama either, and it’s a narrative event, not a tournament. Also, it’s a great way to test rules for future ITS seasons or balance patches. III. Add guidelines for the map layout. I don’t mean something overly complex, but short advise for how visible should be deployment zones from one-another, how much verticality is good and so on… It may motivate people to try new types of maps or nudge the mission towards a certain type of problem solving or improve some ballance here and there. And it will also help newbies. Of course nothing mandatory that will make people bitch for, when evaluating the game reports. IV Add Code One support. Seriously, this should have been a thing, since narrative campaigns are easier for new people to join and C1 is supposed to be the gateway. Yeah, it is some extra work, but it could have hooked people. V. Some more front time and swag Announce the campaign a bit earlier so people are able to organize events around it, as well as get a bit more prep time for their own armies and tables. Furthermore, narrative campaigns feel like a very good reason to start selling swag on demand – T-shirts, stickers, mugs, potentially patches… Discount bundles, containing terrain packs, objective markers (like the TAG raid ones) and maybe some random swag like in the ITS boxes might also be a good idea.
Completely agree with all of this but unfortunately its all been brought up at length to the CB and they have not changed anything. At this point in time the small Narrative campaign community that sticks with it, basically just turns it into their own thing and weaves in the CB storyline as it can.If I remember right Asteroid Blues from a community story perspective turned into something completely different than what CB put forth. Its one of the reasons player faction leaders usually put forth their own objectives to engage the players more directly. We all hate that CB has grown far more distant from the online campaigns as they have progressed. Flames Strike and Wotan had a ton of engagement from CB, but Kurage it started slipping, and Asteroid Blues had....like...2 or 3 posts. This one had 2.
@theGricks easy now, it’s not easy to manage something like a global campaign, especially with team members who already have a lot of other work. The issue is probably more about resources than how much the creators -want- to work on an online event. Seems like using a few community volunteers under a paid CB staffer would be a good way to increase the manpower supporting a campaign (and bring in fresh ideas, like those mostly great ones from @UpirLihi above). @Bostria or @HellLois do you guys already do anything like that for the campaigns? Do you have volunteers to help you and the OTT folks out before or during the campaign? If not, would you guys be interested in that? Like maybe 3 volunteers to help with structure/engagement/hype for your next online campaign?
If CB gave the story a bit in advance, personally it would help me to find a roleplay and participate a bit more and make some parodies. And if CB would return to the old organization of the campaigns in the forum, it would help to find ourselves in the roleplays of the campaign,
