War, Elite and your tactical decisions
My intention with this post is to reflect on how war works and what this means to Elite and the players expectations. I come at this from a war gaming background, i'm not in the military and I'm sure there are many people more knowledgeable than me on these forums, however that doesn't stop me from thinking about it! Also, bear with me, I know Elite is about the individual players but I feel this information is relevant, and this post is also about generics so please don't get hung up on specifics because you once encountered a situation that worked out different.
So, with that said, to the point (generically)...
Whenever you are engaged in combat you have to make a quick tactical choice. Either you are stronger than your opponent or you are not, hence fight or flee. In the real world, no force deliberately engages an enemy that could be its equal as this would imply the chance of success is 50%. Even if you win in this scenario, you probably lose a lot of your units which is almost certainly an unacceptable loss of life. So the principle is, use overwhelming force to defeat your enemy quickly with minimum losses or make them surrender early. Obviously, through history there have been many wars of attrition. Sometimes you have to fight regardless of the cost but i'm not wanting to have a debate here about the ethics and philosophy of war. I am just highlighting the ideal engagement scenario. You are very strong and your enemy is weak.
Lets also consider chess for a moment. Two equally strong forces oppose each other (not ideal but it is a game). The generals (chess players!) send forward their pawns and for the most part these pawns are destroyed in the war of attrition.
How does this relate to Elite?
Scenario 1 - You are in your Sidewinder in the asteroid belt resource gathering area. There are a few pirates about with bounties on their heads. If you engage one, mostly everyone else (NPCs anyway!) will leave you alone. You have 2 gimballed pulse lasers, the pirates are also sidewinders and you are a reasonable pilot. Fight or flight? In the game, fight! In real life taking on a single opponent of similar capabilities would not be "overwhelming force". Most games and sports tend to pit opponents against each other with broadly similar capabilities, boxing, football (soccer!), long distance running etc. In war, this is not the case, and nor would you choose it (if you have a choice!) for the reasons I set out above. In the game however, an NPC might be expected to be worse than you unless you are a complete newbie, and this is by design.
Scenario 2 - interdiction by 1 cobra pirate
You have your Sidewinder as before, single Cobra pirate interdicts you. If you can close the distance, you can outmanoeuvre the Cobra and probably take it out unless it has loads of missiles or rail guns and gets you early. Again, in the game, fight! But the reality angle is the same or worse than scenario 1.
Scenario 3 - interdiction 2 or 3 cobra pirates
You in your Sidewinder, 2 or 3 Cobra pirates interdict you. The problem you have here is that there will always be one Cobra with range on you to keep pummelling your shields and hull. If you are a good pilot you can get close to one and use it as a shield from the others whilst you are taking it out, but this is difficult. Chances of success are much reduced. However, as this is a game, you may decide that you are a great pilot and that you can afford the ship insurance to take them on. You are not really going to die! In reality, taking on 2 or 3 probably superior opponents is committing suicide. I'm not saying it never happened in the Battle of Britain or whatever, but those were desperate times and most pilots in that position were probably killed. However, for lesser gaming pilots, this is a flee situation. Your opponent has the overwhelming force. I will just add one thing to this though. In the original Elite, it was possible to fire off a couple of seeking missiles which would distract a couple of the enemies for a short time as they tried to evade. This can turn the tide but really just increases the number of ships the pirates need to regain their upper hand for this scenario.
Scenario 4 - war zone / federal distress signal
In a war zone, as in chess, the foot soldiers (pawns) and small units tend to be cannon fodder. They absorb fire and distract the enemy whilst the larger mission goal is underway. They test the enemies positions and if they get annihilated, no one is really surprised. It was a necessary sacrifice. If you enter a war zone in Elite, you are the pawn and you must expect to eventually lose your ship if you are committed to the larger objective. (Hyper spacing away is not a commitment! You may leave the main supply fleet or Capitol ship undefended or at least weakened by your absence). However, as it currently stands in the Premium Beta, the war zones don't have a proper military objective so we can't really avoid the current game play of trying to kill enough opponents to cover your insurance before you yourself are obliterated. You are fine so long as they only come at you one or two at a time. As soon as more start to take notice of you, they have the overwhelming force so bug out quick.
In all of these scenarios, you are not able to use the most desirable engagement scenario, overwhelming force. The game is designed (or should be) to give a competent pilot a chance against a small number of opponents but this is probably not mirrored in the real world.
If you can get into a Cobra and give it some serious teeth, scenarios 1-3 are looking much better for you, until the pirates start turning up in bigger fleets combined with Anacondas in which case you are back to being the whipping boy if you are not careful.
Being a game, you don't really die so if you can afford the insurance, it's worth a go a lot of the time. If you are destroyed, do some more trading in safe areas until you have plenty of insurance money. You are balancing risk and cost basically.
Summary - In Elite, you are mostly harmless cannon fodder in any combat scenario where you are facing more than 2-4 opponents simultaneously. This reflects real life and you should expect to sacrifice yourself for the greater mission goal in war zones. The game should still be fun if FD can balance it right. Most fighting in the original was against small groups of pirates and it was great! A lot of the time you could beat them, often it was a close call, but mainly it was brilliant. ED will be too.
My intention with this post is to reflect on how war works and what this means to Elite and the players expectations. I come at this from a war gaming background, i'm not in the military and I'm sure there are many people more knowledgeable than me on these forums, however that doesn't stop me from thinking about it! Also, bear with me, I know Elite is about the individual players but I feel this information is relevant, and this post is also about generics so please don't get hung up on specifics because you once encountered a situation that worked out different.
So, with that said, to the point (generically)...
Whenever you are engaged in combat you have to make a quick tactical choice. Either you are stronger than your opponent or you are not, hence fight or flee. In the real world, no force deliberately engages an enemy that could be its equal as this would imply the chance of success is 50%. Even if you win in this scenario, you probably lose a lot of your units which is almost certainly an unacceptable loss of life. So the principle is, use overwhelming force to defeat your enemy quickly with minimum losses or make them surrender early. Obviously, through history there have been many wars of attrition. Sometimes you have to fight regardless of the cost but i'm not wanting to have a debate here about the ethics and philosophy of war. I am just highlighting the ideal engagement scenario. You are very strong and your enemy is weak.
Lets also consider chess for a moment. Two equally strong forces oppose each other (not ideal but it is a game). The generals (chess players!) send forward their pawns and for the most part these pawns are destroyed in the war of attrition.
How does this relate to Elite?
Scenario 1 - You are in your Sidewinder in the asteroid belt resource gathering area. There are a few pirates about with bounties on their heads. If you engage one, mostly everyone else (NPCs anyway!) will leave you alone. You have 2 gimballed pulse lasers, the pirates are also sidewinders and you are a reasonable pilot. Fight or flight? In the game, fight! In real life taking on a single opponent of similar capabilities would not be "overwhelming force". Most games and sports tend to pit opponents against each other with broadly similar capabilities, boxing, football (soccer!), long distance running etc. In war, this is not the case, and nor would you choose it (if you have a choice!) for the reasons I set out above. In the game however, an NPC might be expected to be worse than you unless you are a complete newbie, and this is by design.
Scenario 2 - interdiction by 1 cobra pirate
You have your Sidewinder as before, single Cobra pirate interdicts you. If you can close the distance, you can outmanoeuvre the Cobra and probably take it out unless it has loads of missiles or rail guns and gets you early. Again, in the game, fight! But the reality angle is the same or worse than scenario 1.
Scenario 3 - interdiction 2 or 3 cobra pirates
You in your Sidewinder, 2 or 3 Cobra pirates interdict you. The problem you have here is that there will always be one Cobra with range on you to keep pummelling your shields and hull. If you are a good pilot you can get close to one and use it as a shield from the others whilst you are taking it out, but this is difficult. Chances of success are much reduced. However, as this is a game, you may decide that you are a great pilot and that you can afford the ship insurance to take them on. You are not really going to die! In reality, taking on 2 or 3 probably superior opponents is committing suicide. I'm not saying it never happened in the Battle of Britain or whatever, but those were desperate times and most pilots in that position were probably killed. However, for lesser gaming pilots, this is a flee situation. Your opponent has the overwhelming force. I will just add one thing to this though. In the original Elite, it was possible to fire off a couple of seeking missiles which would distract a couple of the enemies for a short time as they tried to evade. This can turn the tide but really just increases the number of ships the pirates need to regain their upper hand for this scenario.
Scenario 4 - war zone / federal distress signal
In a war zone, as in chess, the foot soldiers (pawns) and small units tend to be cannon fodder. They absorb fire and distract the enemy whilst the larger mission goal is underway. They test the enemies positions and if they get annihilated, no one is really surprised. It was a necessary sacrifice. If you enter a war zone in Elite, you are the pawn and you must expect to eventually lose your ship if you are committed to the larger objective. (Hyper spacing away is not a commitment! You may leave the main supply fleet or Capitol ship undefended or at least weakened by your absence). However, as it currently stands in the Premium Beta, the war zones don't have a proper military objective so we can't really avoid the current game play of trying to kill enough opponents to cover your insurance before you yourself are obliterated. You are fine so long as they only come at you one or two at a time. As soon as more start to take notice of you, they have the overwhelming force so bug out quick.
In all of these scenarios, you are not able to use the most desirable engagement scenario, overwhelming force. The game is designed (or should be) to give a competent pilot a chance against a small number of opponents but this is probably not mirrored in the real world.
If you can get into a Cobra and give it some serious teeth, scenarios 1-3 are looking much better for you, until the pirates start turning up in bigger fleets combined with Anacondas in which case you are back to being the whipping boy if you are not careful.
Being a game, you don't really die so if you can afford the insurance, it's worth a go a lot of the time. If you are destroyed, do some more trading in safe areas until you have plenty of insurance money. You are balancing risk and cost basically.
Summary - In Elite, you are mostly harmless cannon fodder in any combat scenario where you are facing more than 2-4 opponents simultaneously. This reflects real life and you should expect to sacrifice yourself for the greater mission goal in war zones. The game should still be fun if FD can balance it right. Most fighting in the original was against small groups of pirates and it was great! A lot of the time you could beat them, often it was a close call, but mainly it was brilliant. ED will be too.