[Blue Lion]

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.

[StratComm]

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.

[Liberator]

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.

[mikhael]

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.

[diamondgeezer]

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

[Knight Templar]

He probably sees things through your ship's sensors at least, if not by other means.

[Bri_Dog]

All the sensor data from all present ships is probably transmitted to, and corolated at, the fleet HQ. Then stupid commands are issued.

[Blue Lion]

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.

[Knight Templar]

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.)

[Black Wolf]

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.

[Knight Templar]

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.

[Stryke 9]

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.

[Knight Templar]

That was a bit of a stretch... even for you.

[aldo_14]

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.

[SadisticSid]

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).

[Shiva-jin Buu]

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?

[Flipside]

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?

[CP5670]

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.

Perhaps they perfected cloning technology in the future and made all the command guys look the same...

[J3Vr6]

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.

[aldo_14]

My idea of a command structure would be;

GTVA Command (Beta Aquilae)
       |
       |
Fleet Command (based on the fleet HQ, i.e. on a planet or installation.  Regional command structure)
       |
       |
Battlegroup command (based on the largest ship in a battlegroup - normally a destroyer, or possibly on a corvette crewed by senior personnel)
       |
       |
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.