WEST: Planets & Relics

Weapon Damage

Includes Important with TW Comparison

Weapons Damage: Mid-Tier Tech

The graph above shows many different weapons and their damage output over time, but there is one clear, important fact to take from this: For purposes of White Star engagements (PvP), Lasers really begin to dominate Battery technology starting around L6-7.

Here, you can see that for an average human Battleship, a Laser 6 under Time Warp 8 (1.9x) almost beats a B10 under that same Time Warp.

The chart below this text picks up where this leaves off (L7), and includes many Laser research tiers (L7-L10) compared only with the highest level Battery (10-12).

Weapons Damage: Upper-Tier Tech

Weapons: Multi-Cannon (only): Comparison Chart

WEST: APEX Formula: Assess, Plan, Execute & Exploit

I. Assess

Each White Star will involve getting a good familiarity with what the Strategic Plan will detail high level strategy, phase-based sub-strategies and layout a clear set of tactical expectations for each Captain and Task Force within that particular White Star Fleet.

In addition to the obvious need to gain and control the military initiative, it is often also our goal to make a major impact on the enemy's capacity to mine and/or deliver Hydrogen to a planet in system.

This is very high-level on purpose. Much more detail is provided in the secret Battle Plans, which are made available to each participating Captain prior to a WS engagement.

II: Plan: Develop Strategy, Tactics & Fleet Architecture

We take great care in selecting our Weapon & Support Module profile for optimal Fleet Integration

1. Optimizing the individual and collective equipment "load-outs"
   • Deciding in advance on the equipment, weapons and shields for our military ships; as well as the specialized equipment and Support Modules available on our participating civilian Starcraft is highly desirable.
2. Prior to each WS engagement, a set of guidelines like those on this page will be distributed to each participating WS Admiral (and at times, published to the full Team).
3. All Captains: Prior to match start, each Captain must carefully ensure compliance with their specific assigned load-out configuration. If for any reason unable or if there are concerns/questions then that Captain must contact Admiral Sentar as soon as possible prior to WS go-time.

III. Engagement: Presence & Communication

Use of our corporate chat services on Discord is mandatory and infers many valuable benefits to both you and the squad. You will find channel access information on the main and welcome pages of this site.

IV: Execute: Follow Plan; but Exploit Change

Among the several highly significant aspects of Tactical Operations, well-timed Actions (Equipment Activation) and intelligent, timely utilization of their inherent abilities is perhaps second only to the critical edge a Team gets through superior Communication, Tactical Awareness and Situational Response. Also a part of this aspect are things like "Micro Maneuvers" & "Flex Flanking".

Essential Intelligence

Minimum Engagement

Much of the essential information each Captain will need to make the best decisions throughout a match will come only through information sharing with their fellow Captains and the Admiralty. Conversely, nearly all of the unnecessary mistakes occur as a result of poor communication and/or lack of essential, timely information.

All Captain are strongly encouraged to communicate on group channels"continuously", and make timely response tohaz receiving notifications and alerts, and respond as necessary i when they are needed on their respective ECBs (Executive Command Bridge), but in any case required to perform a minimally a minimum check-in every 4-6 hours is expected.

Winning the War

A given White Star event is rarely won through straight-ahead domination and overwhelming offense. It more often a matter of superior intelligence (knowledge about the enemy), smart choices, making the fewer number of unnecessary mistakes, and adapting to change by way of excellent communication from start-to-finish, which is the exclusive means to achieve optimal coordination with other members in the Fleet, especially the Admirality.

Custom Tailored Battle Plan

Every White Star deployment includes a custom strategy developed with the benefit of system reveal and enemy reconnisance, and a database of Module Technology status for each sub-fleet. This is published in turn at a unique URL and provided to each Fleet Captain prior to start of combat.
* Such Battle Plans are drafted, discussed, refined by members of that particular White Star Fleet, then published for easy reference during the engagement with information such as enemy reconnaissance and other intelligence.
* At the end of the match, typically a video of the game (standard in-game Replay) is created, edited and annotated with important opportunities to learn and improve.
* Each White Star Battle Plan is archived prior to the start of the next.

▸  See: WEST Division:
Some procedures and tactics are provided as examples below. Many more can be found at WEST, a section of the site better dedicated to this topic and should ideally be reviewed by each Captain prior to each White Star engagement.

WEST Mining Operations

White Star Mining Operations

This section contains a general overview of White Star Mining. When preparing for a White Star battle, always reference the specific White Star Battle Plan and within it, the Mining Plan section which will include MN assignments, vectors and sectors priorities.

Miner: Standard Module Priority

1. Remote Mining
2. Mining Boost
3. Mining Unity (Unless Crunch | Enrich spec'd)
4. Crunch (Unless Enrich | Genesis spec'd)

Mining Procedures

#1: MN: Before Warping In

• Mining Plan: Review the Mining Plan for your current White Star
• Vectors/Group Assignment: Know your Miner's assigned Vectors & Mining Group
• Retrofit: Verify your Miner's Module Retrofitting Orders

#2: MN: Before Leaving Home Warp

Miner Groups: Normally a Single Formation*

See: White Star Mining Plan

Miner Groups ✱=Why Move as a Group?=✱

Our Miners should travel together for multiple reasons as stated above

1. MN travel very slowly, and are an obvious target for a typical E-Assassin, which can close very quickly. Therefore, Fleet Protocol calls for our Miners to stay in single, tight-formation, as it is easier to provide a defensive perimeter and protection.
2. This frees up more Offensive Capacity which allows us to strike at the enemy in more places, and in more ways, which means we are more likely to destroy enemy Battleships.
3. Each additional Miner adds a significant bonus through Mining Unity, at just Level 6 each additional MN increases the speed of a given Miner by 50%!

Typically, a number of Sectors in every White Star will be Hydrogen-Rich, and because it takes time to travel between Sectors, it is generally better to travel directly to and fully mine these ("Hydrogen-Rich sectors)", i.e., Total Hydrogen extracted is most likely to be higher over full course of the White Star.

Mining Bonuses Do "Stack"

1. MiningBoost⁶ = 450% Faster

2. Mining Unity⁴ = +40% per additional teammate mining in the same Sector -there is no upper limit to this potential bonus.

   • Calculation: Three friendly players mining in a single sector and one of them equipped with MiningUnity, the math looks like this: 4.5x × 180% ＝ 8.1x faster!**

#3: Mining: Clearing Sectors

1. It only takes Crunch Level-2 to clear the standard sectors (350H) in a White Star.

Mining Module in Focus: Remote Mining

Remote Mining Module: When Does It Pay?

▸ Beginning at Level 5* (5º), Remote Mining pays off (more H/hour) with just two Asteroids minimum per Sector.

The rate goes from x0.49 to x0.57, and so with two Asteroids to mine, the effective "single asteroid" speed would be 98% vs. 114%. Prior to that, a Sector must have had three (3) asteroids to be worthwhile, otherwise a Miner without Remote Mining would have been faster. Beyond (2) Asteroids in the system, Remote Mining offers a solid, highly beneficial upgrade (read: do it).

For example, in the scenario where a Sector has five (5) Asteroids and is being mined with all three of: Remote Mining, MiningBoost and Mining Unity (with two Mining buddies per above example), the formula looks like this: (8.1x) + (5 x .57 or 2.85x) for a total of 10.95x faster than "base level, single asteroid speed".

Special Forces; Modules & Tactics

Special Forces may consist of one or more ships, typically with special capabilities and/or equipment, and often involving specialized shields such as Delta Shields and/or a multi-cannon weapon. These ships are then paired with specialized modules carried by a Battleship and possibly its Civilian counterpart, and together they execute a special operation or "tactic" either ad hoc or from our "play book".

Each White Star Plan will detail the specific "SWAT" to potentially be employed in that particular engagement.

Essential Modules & Concepts

Combat Support Transports

Support Module such as Suppress, Repair, Barrier or another utility that can potentially on a Transport and flown nearby to be useful to Battleships in combat. In such cases, such Transports will typically be equipped also with Dispatch, as an Emergency Hyperspace Jump utility. Usually, an acceptable, Dispatch default destination planet will be prepared or otherwise reliably anticipated prior to Transports entering the actual combat zone. (See, xPAD Task Force, ("'X' Planet for Active Dispatch").

Hydrogen Rockets

Hydrogen Rockets

Hydrogen Rocket: If any of these MNs have Hydrogen Rocket, we may leverage the module using this "housekeeping" Hydrogen from near-sectors, potentially providing us a surprise angle of attack as Phase I further develops.

Time Machine

• Time Machine is an absolutely invaluable tool that any WS player must become highly proficient in.

Time Machine ("TM") is a scenario planning tool that is accessed via the WS Icon view screen. Time Machine let's you plan one or more of your next action(s) (Max = 8 in que), which you set to execute at a specific point in time in the future.

You can plan up to 48h into the future, and queue up to 8 moves. When the first of those 8 moves has occurred, you may add one more to the end of your queue, etc.

Dangers presented by enemy vessels can threaten to wreck your plans very quickly. To help mitigate this, and to better understand where your own ship will be in game future, use the TimeMachine.

TM: Prediction Problems

TM allows you to see what "will" happen, and what "could" happen, always depending on the actions you take and those taken by others. Sometimes these future events are 100% certain to occur, but most of the time you are only able to guess what is likely to happen around your moments of decision, and plan to your best accordingly.

Meanwhile, when not using Time Machine (to enter moves), the enemy will always "see" everything you see when looking at the star map directly. Therefore, when you post your waypoints and vectors manually (or once they become triggered due to a Time Machine move you scheduled earlier) you are essentially saying "this is where I am moving to, my precise arrivals times and the route I'm going to take to get there". However, this provides an opportunity to convey "bad information" to the enemy!! (see below.

In addition to using Time Machine, we have the ability to input move orders manually, as well as do so in near real-time. By doing so, you can plot a course to a way point in one direction, but then cancel that move prior to it becoming final. More on this technique below.

Every time you provide the enemy with information is also an opportunity to provide that enemy with dis-information —you can and often should, make an effort to confuse the enemy into thinking you are going to do one thing, ideally forcing them to "commit" to some form of reaction, only to then change your orders to take advantage of the opportunity you created.

✸ Understand this About Time Machine Orders! ✸ The proper way to enter multiple legs of a planned journey from Point A to Point B is to enter your first order, then fast forward TM up until the precise moment that leg of your journey ends because you arrive at a given Waypoint. You may let a few minutes pass in order to confuse the enemy expecting you to move immediately, or trigger your next move to be entered just moments before you arrive, to allow for uninterrupted travel.

Again: If you enter multiple Waypoints into Time Machine to go off at a single point in time in the future, all of them will also show up on everyone's radar the moment they go into effect, just as if you had manually done the same thing. The difference between this and fast forwarding Time Machine in order to enter the next move just in time is ☰All Important☰.

At the same time, it is surprisingly valuable to enter multiple hops only to then cancel them later as you arrive at a given Waypoint. Send the wrong message to the enemy as often as you can, and then once in awhile send the right one to keep them guessing.

▸ ▸ ▸ Remember any Ship can change it's destination or stop altogether at each and every Waypoint. Depending on their modules, they can accelerate, even EMP themselves (occasionally handy!) or of course Teleport mid-route.

All of those possibilities can get confusing ➞ which can be said just as much for the enemy as yourself. Accordingly, your goal should be to fully understand your enemy's indicated vs. most likely movements and also use your honed skills in Time Machine to make for maximum difficult and distraction in the mind of our opponents.

Waypoint Movement Tactics

In this Section we will talk a little bit about how to "telegraph a move" you want to seem to be planning to make, in order to deceive the enemy. (These techniques can also be used to "steer" Interceptors, btw!, remember to use TM scenarios until you find the very best solution, sometimes it takes getting creative in how you approach a given maneuver).

• Each waypoint provides the Captain the option to change course, slow their arrival or coordinate with other ships still making their way to a joint destination.
• Remember, it is often valuable to utilize a waypoint that will take you slightly off course, simply due to the tremendous advantage this can provide.

**While enroute to a destination, you should commit only to the next, closest waypoint within 10º-15º of what would be your direct to destination heading.

"Telegraphing" Your Intentions

Some repeat information below, regarding how to use Time Machine and how to plot and cancel moves etc...

What is it? How, Why and When? …Questions!

Telegraph: Is a turn of phrase meant to convey the act of "deliberately disclosing future plans", such as planned movements or actions. By "telegraphing" such future plans, we can entice the enemy to make their own plans in reaction/response.

So far it sounds like we're going out of our way to give them a head start! However, the idea is to make a change to the plans you have been advertising at some point, intentionally seeking to exploit what the enemy did to initially react.

To be effective, you will generally need to enter moves manually, and often for multiple subsequent waypoints (2 or 3 is usually enough), because these will immediately show clear as day on enemy radar. It is also possible to do this same thing using Time Machine, by fast forwarding to some future point in time at which you plot a similar number of moves. **These moves will all show up on enemy radar at that scheduled moment you told Time Machine to commit to said moves.

Critically however, you must be physically attending your WS interface in order to make any later changes, because Time Machine moves will not override scheduled, manually entered moves under any circumstances**.

While it is technically possible to utilize Time Machine in this process, it is only for a limited aspect of it and requires (that you cancel any existing manual orders prior to the moment your TM is set to trigger a set of moves). I believe this is most often unnecessarily complicated and carries a heightened risk of making a mistake.

**It is also generally more effective to be "in the moment" making your false moves known to your enemy because you often will have a feel for what's going to work at a given time, and be able to effectively plan your actual moves in close coordination with other players in your immediate operational context.

Dropping in after being away for even a few hours can be disconcerting and/or cause you to miss something that has changed in the interim. Better to study carefully and then make attended decision and order entries.
 

Look specifically for opportunities to employ such tactic to distract or confuse the enemy, and look at multiple scenarios to make sure you discover the one that provides you the best opportunity to exploit a clever maneuver.
 

This is all of course usually best accomplished by careful coordination with other captains in the immediate area, or sometimes with AlphaRocket launches from Home Warp, etc. It takes a village to deceive the enemy as my grand-mammy used to say, in between chewing her cud.

Ξ NOTE Ξ Such tactics are especially effective when the specific enemy captain you are facing comes under time pressure to make a reactive tactical decision. Remain calm, watch your cancellation time-out carefully and you will often be able to take advantage of the less disciplined Captain sitting opposite yourself.

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Time Warp (TW): Essential Knowledge

Many Captains do not become fully familiar with Time Warp until RS5+, and many still do not grasp certain critical aspects of the technology. Here is a summary list of the most important factors:

TimeWarp & Combat Modules

Time Warp will speed-up any and all modules you have activated within its coverage area. This means that if you allow your own TimeWarp to come within range of an enemy ship you have EMP'd, you are doing that Captain a huge favor by speeding up the baseline holding period. This can be a very significant and often overlooked loss of efficiency, reducing your EMP, Barrier and other modules to less than 2/3rds of their capacity.

• Example: An EMP with a five (5) hour Active Period will instead be active for just three (3) hours. Think of the significance that represents in terms of missed opportunity to continue doing damage to your opponent. At 1500 Damage/h you deliver 4500 instead of 7500. This is equivalent to a mid-high tier Suppress module!.

WS: Enter & Exit Rules

• "2 Hour Rule" Once a given ship has been in the WS system for at least 2 Hours, it may leave and then immediately return, or another ship warped in to replace it.
• Destroyed (or Disassembled) Ships: Return to WS in: 18H

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WEST ⁝ Future Initiatives

Ideas & Issues: Discussion

Concept: Emergency Contact

A personal cell phone number is highly advantageous during a White Star. Provided to the Fleet Commander, it is used either in the event there was something that required your immediate attention in a WS, or according to parameters you specify (within reason).

Battle Log & Activity Triggers

An Alternative or perhaps complementary concept, I could maintain a special "log" of WS events and essentially maintain a "current situation report" in e.g., a Google Spreadsheet. This can be embedded within our website, or visited directly.

Using a "trigger", you could be alerted every time data changes in a certain column, and/or if a new row is added.

Confidential & Rule-Based

Understand that all of this would be setup so that your contact information is strictly confidential and known only to me, but we could make it such that anyone can add to certain areas of the Spreadsheet for example. Anything is possible. *One concept I have in mind here is this "log" would be constantly culled of any unnecessary or expired information, so, unlike the chat channels, you would only need to read what is truly worthwhile. The rest would be continually screened out.