Comms Jamming: Disrupt Fleets

[Edymnion]

Over in the "Limit NPC Empire Sight" thread the idea of having some kind of communication jammer that would stop NPCs from reporting that they'd been attacked (and hence prevent the faction from going to war with you) came up, but it would be of really limited use if thats all it did. After all, it wouldn't do anything against players who could just hop on faction chat and call for help that way.

But...

What if we had comm jammers that could disrupt inter-vessel commands to AI? Aka, fleet order blocking?

Much like we have jump inhibitors to prevent a ship from jumping out of combat that can be used to lay traps, I'm picturing a Comm Jammer as being similar. A carrier or a fleet jumps into an ambush, and a powerful enough comm jammer would actively prevent the fleet commander from issuing any fleet commands to their other ships.

It wouldn't be that great right now, as fleet commands are pretty limited, but considering that we're told that more detailed and precise commands are coming (like being able to have sub-fleets you can order around independently, possibly to specify multiple different independent targets), the ability to disrupt that fine tuned control could be quite useful.

 

[jayman38]

That sounds fun.

As you said, I think in order for it to keep from making fleets completely useless, fleets need to have a hierarchical queue of fleet orders, so that they don't simply shut down when the comms are jammed.

I'm thinking along the lines of:
Follow Me (Primary)
Secondary:
Defend Me
Then
Stay Formation
Then
Attack Enemies in Range
Then
Destroy missiles

The fleet would continue to operate with its current queue, while the fleet commander may have tried and failed to make fleet commands to focus fire on a particular target, change formation, prioritize missile pd, etc, due to this new jamming mechanic.

 

[Edymnion]

Perhaps base it off of chambers?

Multiple ranks, and the amount of disruption you cause is based on how many chamber ranks you outdo the target's communication array by.

Beat it by one, maybe it only disables their ability to paint targets (choose specific targets to order an attack on). Beat it by 2, they can't issue an attack command at all. Beat it by 3, and they can't do anything but issue a "Follow in Formation" or "Carrier Recall" command.

I kind of like the chamber idea because its a bit of a trope to have the one hotshot pilot throwing up a jammer and flying through the mass chaos it causes.

 

[Nosajimiki]

I think you underestimate how useful an AI comm jammer without the extras could be, even against players. If you attack an AI defense fleet with something that "jams comms", you could prevent players from knowing that their fleet is being attacked, or better yet, you could use it to prevent an enemy faction from auto-war decking you which would be GREAT for covert ops like attacking a neutral (...or allied...) fleet without any political repercussions. As it levels up it could increase the amount of time you have to kill something before the faction is allerted, but if you kill it before the time expires, you can get away with your misdeeds scott free.

Also, using something like this against trade fleets would be devastating if it meant intercepting a shipment of millions of capsules without anyone (including the tradeguild) holding you responsible.

I think it should be a completely different field of chamber tech than AI inhibitors if any kind of AI control inhibitors are ever introduced. Also, this tech would be best paired with less forgiving AIs that don't just peace you after a a few minutes every time.

 

[MacThule]

I think that the idea sounds fun, and may be part of another missing dynamic - fleet limits.

The idea of fleet chambers has already been mentioned before, I believe, in terms of increasing the number of ships you can have in a fleet (chambers would have to be on the mothership), so just like the FTL chamber family this would seem to be a natural compliment to chambers that buffed fleet capacities, ranges, etc - a way to briefly disrupt fleet control.

The reason I think a fleet jammer would be best as part of a general family of fleet chambers, is so that it can have something to contest and a clear way for players to counter it, by investing their mothership heavily in fleet command & control features (at the cost of better defense, slower jumps, or whatever. of course).

But they are working on a fleet command system that involves sub-fleets and command hierarchies, and we know next to nothing about the details, so none of this may be sensible regarding the next fleet update that is already scheduled. They wanted us to put out more chamber ideas though, and this seems (from what we do know) to be a good one.

 

[JNC]

Now make wrecks persistent and have the AI ships generate journal entries for significant events (such as being ambushed) and BAM! You could go on a mission to discover a lost fleet and if the log books survived the battle, maybe find clues to the fleets demise! :D