Hey guys. I've talked about my idea for fleet movement for the purpose of transporting materials, injured personnel, as well as reinforcing the front and allowing damaged ships to retreat before they are destroyed. The main strengths of this plan is that it provides protection to our convoys without diverting resources away from the front, it maintains strong instances at our front so we can keep winnable odds in all battles, and it allows us to evacuate recovered pilots and injured personnel without diverting from our active SAR force away from where they are needed. However, I feel that it needs to be seen to get a grasp of it. What follows is a series of 30 images showing fleet movement. I tried to make a gif animation, and it works, but PhotoBucket won't accept it. The plan is generalized so it can be used regardless of our attack route. The images are rendered in a higher resolution than is accepted on this forum, so you can follow the links for the full resolution images. I also tried to represent most things visually, so the plan can be understood by those who don't speak English.

1) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement01_zps3218f69c.png


2) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement02_zpse436b123.png


3) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement03_zps3574727f.png


4) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement04_zps0d72927f.png


5) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement05_zpsba5fb5ed.png


6) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement06_zps9ef4462e.png


7) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement07_zps9111d4e9.png


8) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement08_zps45988f2d.png


9) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement09_zps49190730.png


10) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement10_zpsd94665a0.png


11) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement11_zpsc87dc087.png


12) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement12_zpsd70a5a7a.png


13) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement13_zpsd69e714e.png


14) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement14_zpsb8c848a0.png


15) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement15_zps9d69472e.png


16) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement16_zpsc4634849.png


17) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement17_zpsc259b54b.png


18) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement18_zps636e8ede.png


19) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement19_zps6864394d.png


20) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement20_zpscf572d76.png


21) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement21_zpsa42d6432.png


22) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement22_zps5e1ed6e4.png


23) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement23_zps65756e60.png


24) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement24_zpsd5cbf19f.png


25) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement25_zps9e84087a.png


26) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement26_zpsb3304be4.png


27) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement27_zpsf0d947cf.png


28) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement28_zps7d9a5d6d.png


29) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement29_zpsf930765a.png


30) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Knightcrawler/Operation%20Pitchfork/FleetMovement30_zps3bc6daf2.png



I'm sure some people are wondering a few things:

* Why are the rescued pilots being dropped off at the Rear Staging Ground. Specifically, why the Idris?

- Rescued pilots will likely undergo medical treatment while aboard their SAR ship, and again aboard the Battle Instance Idris/command ship after being dropped off by the SAR ship. They can possibly also receive medical treatment aboard the freighters that retrieve them away from the front. There's no telling how long medical treatment will take in Star Citizen, but in order to balance it against respawning, I'm willing to bet this is enough time to at least get them walking again. The Rear Staging Ground will be where they can get final medical treatment and arrange for transport to their nearest hangar to get another ship. They will not (and likely cannot) all be dropped aboard a single Idris, so that is not what I intend to represent. They'll likely be dropped off on a variety of larger ships at the Rear Staging Ground.

Some may not be very injured and may wish to return to the battle as part of a boarding party, or they may want their actual character to come aboard a friend's ship as crew instead of taking over an NPC. People with such desires may wish to stay aboard their battle instance's command ship, or a large ship at the Front Staging Ground.


* Why aren't any bombers represented in the battle instances? Why are they all hanging out at the Forward Staging Ground?

- That's a topic for another post.


* What happens if all the battle instances are filled and more attack craft arrive?

- Typically they'd wait for a damaged ship to retreat to the Forward Staging Ground or be destroyed. If there are many people waiting, they can remain at the Forward Staging Ground to protect it, or protect the Transit Region. Once enough build up, they can start a new battle instance. This will probably happen a few times over the weekend as certain times are likely to be more populated than others.


* Why not start as many instances as possible?

- There is a craft limit in each instance. Because of the extreme number of Vanduul expected in these battles, they will likely completely fill their ship limit for the vast majority of the battle. So in every new instance that starts, the enemy force will always be maxed out. Starting an instance with fewer friendly forces will simply stack the odds against our allies in that instance. Instead of being outnumbered 100:200 (for example), these new instances would be outnumbered 50:200, or 20:200, or 10:200. The more a force is outnumbered by, the less effectively they can fight. An outnumbered force will most likely just get steamrolled, possibly destroying no enemy craft at all.


* Damaged fighters retreat before the supply ships and reinforcements arrive?

- Yes, to make room for the reinforcements and transports in their instance.


* Why are the damaged craft being repaired by the Caterpillars?

- It's been stated that Caterpillars will likely be the smallest craft able to carry repair bots. Since they're not suited for combat, they will perform repair work at the Rear Staging Ground. Other Caterpillars might choose to partake in boarding actions, but boarding actions will likely not be occurring consistently, and will be sent out as specific missions from the Forward Staging Ground.


* What is the Bengal doing?

- We have no way of knowing how many carriers we'll have, but I'll bet we have at least one. The Bengal will support our bomber groups first and foremost, repair craft whose engines are too damaged for them to make the trip to the Rear Staging Ground, repair and rearm lightly damaged craft if possible, as well as being a facility for medical treatment. Most importantly, our strategic command crew will likely be located here, and will be designating which players should join which instances, etc..


* What are those other ships in the Transit Region?

- If it's not clear, they're scout ships. Represented as 315ps, but of course there are many different scouting ships and configurations.


* Why aren't the Fabricators represented? Or other types of Vanduul ships?

- We don't know what they look like. It was quite a bit of work getting the Vanduul Carrier in the images. Just imagine the Vanduul carrier represents everything bigger than a transport, and the Scythe represents anything that size or smaller.


* What are the floating supplies in the Rear Staging Ground?

- They represent how we get supplies to our Rear Staging Ground. This could be planet-borne supply caches, a supply chain reaching into other systems, and/or a space stations we control or can buy supplies from.


* The carriers aren't to scale.

- I know. You can barely see the smaller ships as-is.


* Is this how big you expect each instance to be?

No, they're representations of the instances.


* No dedicated escort for the supply chain?

They could be, if that's what we need, or what the transport pilots want, or if there are pilots who don't want to go into a large battle or are trying to relax. I did not represent them because that isn't a very important message to convey in this plan (it's somewhat of a given what they would do), and because it'd be difficult to track which are which through all the images. You could say the scout craft in the Transit Region also represent dedicated escorts, in a sense.

I commend your effort on this post but perhaps a video would be a better way to convey your idea?

Otherwise, well thought, but I'm not sure if we'll have enough control over our own troops to accomplish this.

The Bubble View is the future of Star Citizen strategy planning. I'm calling it now!

Great work, Knightcrawler! That's one hell of a write up. Maybe you could do it as a Youtube video with a voice over explaining each movement? Get with the Youtube team down in OPPF Media and Artwork if you need to.

Thanks, guys. Yeah, as I mentioned... I tried doing it as a .gif, but that didn't upload to PhotoBucket properly. Go figure, a 30-frame, 1080x1080 animation of an old format meant for small images... not working properly. ;-) I've uploaded YouTube videos before, but I've never made a video out of images before. Worst comes to worst I could make it a PowerPoint presentation and record my desktop... but that'd lose so much quality. ;-) I guess I'll learn something new.

If you want some help with that, let me know. My screen capture is pretty good, will record voice overs, and the free TeamViewer was made for online meetings and presentations. Enough for still images and mouse movement. It would just be a matter of recording several cuts of each section, and splicing the best of them together.

Well I am all one for strategies.... so if you want my voice for the fleet movement video let me know I think I can hammer out a few things in my schedule.

Also good work.

A video about instancing.

8:15 - Orbital Instance
11:40 - Battle Instances (seems to be more dynamic than in the first post here(?))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f2IM0JAAzA