Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Blue Lion on January 12, 2004, 06:40:29 pm
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I was playing the main campaign (again) and I had a thought (which is rare)
How does command view the battlefield? I mean he's just a little talking head and I wonder, does he view it like the screen in the FS1 intro? 2D, 3D? Is it just one guy per battle? Also, where is command based? I've been playing this game for years and never really thought much about it.
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Well, command sits on the bridge of the Aquitane IIRC. He also sat in the flight deck of the Galatea, although he said "oh god, we've lost the Galatea!" when it gets destroyed as though he were not onboard. It's a bit of a mystery as to who or what he actually is. As to his perspective of the battlefield, think homeworld. I'd guess he has an interface somewhat similar to that.
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Command is a blind monkey who sits at a console inside of Fleet Headquarters, similar to the one that we see in the FS1 intro. He randomly dispenses additional ships to the various battlefields and botches what should be a simple matter of flanking the powerful, but less than well-rounded Shivan warships.
Command has never heard of a flanking manuver, proper force composition, or similar concepts.
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Originally posted by Blue Lion
How does command view the battlefield?
Thanks to the incredible foresight of President George Bush in the first part of the third millenium, Command is afforded an excellent view of the battlefield. At birth all cattle--er, citizens--are implanted with a transmitter and a neural decoder attached to the optic and auditory nerves. This program was instituted as part of WORLD-PATRIOT-2, during Dictator Bush's fifth term. Due to the Dictator's foresight, Command sees everything you see, and hears everything you hear. Unfortunately, however, the Dictator also decided to imprint his mind, and military experience on a series of Command clones. This is why Command always has the same face, and always makes the most incredibly stupid military decisions. I guess we should have imprinted the Command clones with the military experience of someone who DIDN'T join the reserves and go AWOL rather than face actual military duty. ;)
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Since in the mission 'Dunkerque' Command's messages are comming from the Arcadia (IIRC), he's based at 3rd Fleet HQ. He presumably sees the battle field through sub-space relayed ELINT
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He probably sees things through your ship's sensors at least, if not by other means.
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All the sensor data from all present ships is probably transmitted to, and corolated at, the fleet HQ. Then stupid commands are issued.
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That's a lot of ships to look at. Presumably there are battles everywhere. Does each system have it's own command? It would be really a stretch to think one group is following the actions of every pilot engaged at that time.
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Well I was thinking more along the lines that command talks to you and sees through your ship.. you being the only constant in each mission.
And I'd say there's a command attached to every mission/command ship. The mission being Alpha 1's and the Command ship being the Aquitaine. (Presumably the A1's missions would be the most important during the Aquitaine's FS2 time line Tour of Duty.)
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Though non canon, and thus presumably fairly irrelevent, for OR we're making the captain of your home ship Command, simply because it's the most powerful vessel in a backwater system, and the local fleet has no headquarters. If the ship was destroyed, Command authority would presumably pass down a chain, while Central command or GTVA Command refers to the GTVA governing council or whatever.
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Seems like a good explaination to me.. although I would think there would be a specific "Relay and Control Officer" or sommat to act in the function of Command, rather than the Captain himself. Unless he's just giving passive orders as such.
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He uses magic fairy vision.
What? You think as you rise in officer ranks all you get is more medals and the ability to boss people around? You should see the generals in the Pentagon fly. Though I guess technically you can't always, some of the senior staff are invisible.
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That was a bit of a stretch... even for you. :p
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My general opinion is that command would be a / the flight controller at your home ship, simply because it'd surely be impossible for a single person organize every wing on patrol from (eg) the Aquitane, never mind worry about the rest of the flight.
So you'd have dedicated flight controllers - ala air-control - acting as intermdiaries between the battle command in the fleet flagship and the individual fighter wings, and probably a system command based in a secure, fortified location.
Probably using detailed sensor readouts displayed in a manner akin, I dunno, homeworld2 or any 3ds rts, probably holographic.
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I've always thought each fleet has its own Command located on their home base (it seems a lot safer to have com-con functions off a destroyer in case it gets engaged in combat and is damaged or destroyed).
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I guess that 'the Command Guy' is just a sort of operator which relays the Security Council's orders. Though the Security Council is rather indirect, I guess it has subdivisions which oversee certain battles, and issue the orders from there.
The real Command probably uses an interface similar to a real-time strategy game's, and gets its info by long-range scanners, or flight recorders. Wouldn't it be cool to play FreeSpace from such a perspective? :D
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Well, 'command' would be the communications officer, I always assumed he was getting his orders from elsewhere.
Besides, isn't he the guy who looks round when you go the the Tech room section of the main hall?
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Besides, isn't he the guy who looks round when you go the the Tech room section of the main hall?
That's a good point; it means he must sitting in the Aquitaine or whatever destroyer you are based on. But I would think that he is one of maybe 20 such people, as he couldn't possibly be looking over all missions launched from that destroyer. The biggest discrepancy is that he also follows you around in the Vasudan missions, where you're in a different fleet altogether.
As for how he sees what you're doing, that much is rather obvious; he probably sees through cameras and sensors mounted on any GTVA ships the area.
Since in the mission 'Dunkerque' Command's messages are comming from the Arcadia (IIRC), he's based at 3rd Fleet HQ. He presumably sees the battle field through sub-space relayed ELINT
This guy's a nut. I just opened up that mission and it turns out that he sends messages from both the 3rd Fleet HQ and the Messana in the same mission. And to make things even more confusing, some messages are just sent with the generic "Command" identifier. Either he has a twin brother or he can somehow teleport between the ships. :p
Perhaps they perfected cloning technology in the future and made all the command guys look the same... :p :D
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I see it that way too. I would think it's like combat today, where your destroyer or base of operations would get orders from a higher command. You as a pilot speak directly to your base of operations command officer during a mission, where they have the perogative (based on parameters set by a higher command) on how many ships can be used for the mission, mission design, reinforcements, etc and still be able to operate in the theater of combat. Your command ship in turn reports to their high command when they need to be authorized for a change in objectives.
For instance, the high command orders your command ship/destroyer to disable a new weapons facility. Your command ship would have capable officers to create the mission from start to finish based on high commands objectives, how much force would be needed and how many ships would be needed to disable that facility and still be a viable resource to that theater.
If, during that mission, one of the pilots discovers a transport leaving the facility, your command ship has the personal capacity to modify the objectives without high commands involvement to include disabling, scanning, or destroying that transport. But if there is a particular circumstance that would drastically change the outcome of the mission or the war itself, your command ship would have to notify the high command for further orders during that mission.
On how your command actually sees: I think it's like what others have said already. They see a 3d representation of the theater, using information sent from the sensors on every ship in that theater (whether it be capital, fighter, probe, beacon, turret, etc) in real-time.
High command (based in some command installation away from the theater of war so as to not get destroyed) wouldn't know exactly what each theater had going on in real-time. They'd have a larger "map" of space showing where the particular engagements and positions were and update it periodically by their communications officers coordinating with your command ship.
Anyway, I could just be talking fluff.
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My idea of a command structure would be;
GTVA Command (Beta Aquilae)
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Fleet Command (based on the fleet HQ, i.e. on a planet or installation. Regional command structure)
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Battlegroup command (based on the largest ship in a battlegroup - normally a destroyer, or possibly on a corvette crewed by senior personnel)
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Fighter command (A group of staff dedicated to organising the deployment of squadrons, akin to air traffic control in some respects. Liases with battlegroup command, possibly via a single fighter controller. )
This is largely guesswork, and excludes the likes of the GTVI and SOC. It may very well be contradictory to FS2 itself, cos i haven;t played the main campaign for years.
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I think "Battlegroup Command" would be Fleet Command in the FS universe (Terran at least, don't know about Vasudan) Pretty logical otherwise though.
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The whole chaos derives from the fact that :V: was lazzy to properly do all the missions.
In FRED it's just assigning a persona to a message.
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Originally posted by magatsu1
I think "Battlegroup Command" would be Fleet Command in the FS universe (Terran at least, don't know about Vasudan) Pretty logical otherwise though.
That's what I though, except I think there's an ambiguity because - IIRC - one mission has you rescuing crew from the 3rd(?) Fleet HQ, in an Arcadia installation. But at the same time it often seems that the Aquitane is in command of local ships.
And if I am right about it being the 3rd fleet HQ, that's importnat because the Aquitane is the 3rd fleet flagship - implying some difference between the responsibilities of a flagship and HQ.
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Originally posted by CP5670
That's a good point; it means he must sitting in the Aquitaine or whatever destroyer you are based on. But I would think that he is one of maybe 20 such people, as he couldn't possibly be looking over all missions launched from that destroyer. The biggest discrepancy is that he also follows you around in the Vasudan missions, where you're in a different fleet altogether.
This guy's a nut. I just opened up that mission and it turns out that he sends messages from both the 3rd Fleet HQ and the Messana in the same mission. And to make things even more confusing, some messages are just sent with the generic "Command" identifier. Either he has a twin brother or he can somehow teleport between the ships. :p
Perhaps they perfected cloning technology in the future and made all the command guys look the same... :p :D
- Perhaps the Psamtik fell under 3rd fleet jurisdiction at the time?
- uh.. well if Command was at 3rd fleet HQ, and then he evacuated, that'd make a lot of sense to me..
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Obviously Command uses a device not unlike the black ball thingy with the eye in it that Saruman used to communicate with Sauron. That's how he sees all and knows all. And he's probably a little afflicted in the head which is why he's such a sucky tactician.
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I sure hope it's not the same command for the entire GTVA. At least I hope he has a way of talking to just one battlegroup at a time. Just imagine what would happen if he's paying attention to one battle and every terran fighter in the galaxy could hear.
Kappa Wing is peacefully patrolling the delta serpentis jump node. Meanwhile, Alpha Wing and Beta Wing are engaging a shivan assault in upsilon pegasi.
Command: Four wings of mara class fighters have just jumped in!
Kappa 1: AHH! We're gonna die! We're flying Ulysses with morningstars!
Kappa 2: Hey, I don't see anything.
Kappa 1: Command, what's the deal?
Command: close within 3000 meters of the Rakshasa, Alpha.
Kappa 3: What? what are you talking about? what Rakshasa?
Command: ETA five Minutes.
Kappa 1: Until what?
Command: A Sathanas just jumped in!
Kappa 2: AHHHH!!!! We're doomed! I'm bugging out!
*warpout*
Command: Beta Wing! The repair ship is a traitor! Destroy him!
Kappa's Repair Ship: What? no i'm not! hey, stop shooting me! AAAAHHHH!!!!
*BOOM*
*court martial ensues*
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- uh.. well if Command was at 3rd fleet HQ, and then he evacuated, that'd make a lot of sense to me..
Actually those Messana messages are sent if either of the transports are destroyed, so he would usually either be stranded on the HQ (unlikely) or would be on one of the transports.
I also looked at the messages where 3rd Fleet HQ suddenly become the generic Command, and they all occur when the Nebiros arrives. So he magically teleports out of there to get himself to safety. :D
Perhaps the Psamtik fell under 3rd fleet jurisdiction at the time?
There are repeated refences to 13th battle group doing this and that during those missions, and anyway it wouldn't make any sense to have the Psamtik change positions like that (leaving a vacancy in 13th) just for you. :p A more likely explanation is that the mission designers overlooked this.
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That or it's .. uh.. the 13th Battlegroup, 3rd fleet Capella! :D
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....:wtf:
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Yes, ph34r my intellectual prowess. :drevil:
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The only logical explanation is that since each command looks exactly the same... they are DESIGNER BABIES CREATED WITH ONLY ONE PURPOSE IN MIND.... they only botched the genetic processing so the order issuing capacity of their brain is affected
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What, my Dictator Bush Command Clones idea didn't catch on?
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so why is the Command guy the only black guy?
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Affirmative action gone too far?
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command is on the 3rd headquarters, every mission in the game is under 3rd fleet. The whole he was on the station or transport crap....whatever WHO CARES!! And I always thought that command could only communticate when his comm has subspace contact in that are or something. So when the admiral gets the order to attack a certain place, not sure how it works. Command has a period to set up communication contact whith that are befroe he can see or talk to the pilots.
Thats my theorie. :)
Lets try not to get in the talk about why is command the only black person, I rather not think about it!
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Maybe the officer who is 'Command' was placed there to follow Alpha 1 around. or maybe That guy is just in a dead end job unable to move further up the military ladder.
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hay wait a minute didnt alfa 1 smoek all that salvia n crack n pcp be4 his misions n isnt he just halucniating
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i don't think it would be a good idea using crack B4 each mission.
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Spam!!!! man that makes me mad. :mad:
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Each Squadron probably has their own 'Command' personnel. someone who's in touch with intell and Ship Admiralty. The 'Command' Officer that we know probably happens to be with you all the time because they figure Alpha 1 and "Crewmember #6" are great Team Members and haven't had a fight yet.
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Originally posted by jdjtcagle
Spam!!!! man that makes me mad. :mad:
You mean you can actually read that?
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:rolleyes: ;)
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Wow this devolved fast
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What were you expecting?
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At least another page of hidden spam first.
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command is in your buddy seat.
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Originally posted by Havock
command is in your buddy seat.
The NTF must have been pretty stupid to fail to notice him get in just before ..but hate the traitor then :D
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ypu mean you didn't already notice it was just an inflatable doll?
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Okay. This took a turn for the strange. :shaking: I know people go on about the loneliness of space but they don't mean it in those terms :D
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*sings*
I might be chasing waves of light
Out towards the rim
Where the stars are sparse
And the cold of space seeps in
Or I might be standing in a bar room
Drinking methylated gin
And thinking of the places
I have been