"A bit rough on the edges in terms of execution, but still great fun !"
Planned Workflow:
- Split up participants into equal groups which then fight against eachother in a mini tournament.
- One of each group in a T1 industrial ("Hauler") with a tractor beam. The rest in smartbombing corvettes ("Defender") with guns & ecm.
- Tractor a "ball" (renamed jetcan) from the center of the playing field through your goal to score a point. Prevent your opponent team from doing so by either popping their corvettes or ecming the hauler.
Arena:
Picture is obvious. I had anchored small secure containers to designate the 4 points, and to not have to fiddle around with bookmarks. Both Haulers warp @ zero to the center. Everyone else @ warpin. After countdown i jetcan something in the center, which the Haulers then try to lock & move torwards their goal. It is also the cue for the Defenders to warp to the center and to start doing their thing. Note the 50km between the center and the goals. As they're closeish, Defenders cannot simply warp from A to B but are forced to use their MWD.
Ships:
Hauler:
Spoiler
[Nereus, Space Rugby]
400mm Rolled Tungsten Compact Plates
400mm Rolled Tungsten Compact Plates
400mm Rolled Tungsten Compact Plates
400mm Rolled Tungsten Compact Plates
400mm Rolled Tungsten Compact Plates
F-90 Compact Sensor Booster
F-90 Compact Sensor Booster
F-90 Compact Sensor Booster
Medium Shield Extender I
Medium Shield Extender I
Small Tractor Beam I
Scan Resolution Script x3
400mm Rolled Tungsten Compact Plates
400mm Rolled Tungsten Compact Plates
400mm Rolled Tungsten Compact Plates
400mm Rolled Tungsten Compact Plates
400mm Rolled Tungsten Compact Plates
F-90 Compact Sensor Booster
F-90 Compact Sensor Booster
F-90 Compact Sensor Booster
Medium Shield Extender I
Medium Shield Extender I
Small Tractor Beam I
Scan Resolution Script x3
Defender:
Spoiler
[Velator, Space Rugby]
Inertial Stabilizers I
Inertial Stabilizers I
Multispectral ECM I
5MN Microwarpdrive I
Small Rudimentary Concussion Bomb I
Light Electron Blaster I
Antimatter Charge S x200
Inertial Stabilizers I
Inertial Stabilizers I
Multispectral ECM I
5MN Microwarpdrive I
Small Rudimentary Concussion Bomb I
Light Electron Blaster I
Antimatter Charge S x200
Once a Defender dies, said person then can reship into a new one. As they are disposable, we need lots of them Fastest way to "produce" them is to park an Alt with an Orca on the undock of a station, then you dock, grab the ship, remove the 1 trit, undock, put it into the ship maintenance bay of that Orca, dock, repeat. I've become quite good at guessing the different session timers by now.
As i wanted this to be accessible as possible i had 64 of them prepared, and also free Skillbooks (Energy Pulse Weapon) available for those who didnt have it trained yet.
Play Day:
I've managed to attract 6 players, which i then divided into two teams of 3. Team A being Decklin Quark Reiger, Commander Aeris, and Ignar Anthar. Team B being Savannah Tokila, De W Javqe, and Ismaroo. Initial explanations were probably confusing for them.
I decided against two separate fleets, rather opting for using Tags and having the different teams using watchlist. Mumble was each team in their own subchannel (using whisper).
After an initial testround ppl understood what was expected of them. At first i had whoever got killed warp back to station to then trade there for a free reship. But my systemchoice wasnt good for this endeavour, having a ~70AU warp from the Arena to the Station. On subsequent rounds we then first "preloaded" the warpin spot with a couple of Defenders (warp to warpin, eject from ship, get a new one. 2-3 times each person) in order to allow for fast reship. This solution however also clutterred the Overview.
At first the jams on the hauler were ineffective (the first two rounds was whoever got the lock first wins), but we learned if both Defenders overheat them, then you can get a jam off. Which in subsequent rounds made for quite the spectacular "ballswitches". Players were working out howto best approach their enemies, consensus was to make this a Best-of-5. Which, in the end, was a hard fought battle with Team A being the winner after a score of 3-2. Paid each 5M as i didnt have a dedicated Prize organized.
Conclusion:
Great laughs were had, people seemed to really enjoy this event and Defenders were popping left and right. Makes for a very funny zkill page It turns out the absolute minimum is 3 per Team. My estimate for a maximum would be 4, otherwise the jams would become too oppressive.
Things to improve upon:
- Reshipping is an issue. At first i was planning to have an Orca sit on the Warpin and distribute the Defenders through the Ship Maintenance Bay (can take 16 fitted Defenders) but decided against that for not wanting to move the thing (aka "nah it'll be fine"). That was an error in hindsight.
- Absolutely needs 6 players at minimum ! I assume with me doing just a Calendar entry with a link to a brief overview on what this event is about instead of a full fledged Corporation Events post, and the location being somewhat far off, made ppl maybe not interrested. Those who attended however can attest they had a blast.
- Needs lots of Defenders. Even with just 4 players in them, for 5 rounds, we went through 35 ! Either limit the amount of reship per round or have someone else also "produce a few" as the process becomes tedious after some time.
Yop. i call this a success !
o/