RFE: long battles/tied scenarios #2510
Description
One of the things found in various BattleTech fiction is long battles fought out over several hours, such as major battles in planetary assaults. Translated to the tabletop this would not be entirely in tactical turns or even on the same map - forces will occasionally disengage and spend time consolidating survivors in locations they hold, or pull back several mapsheets, before pushing back into contact. Similarly a cavalry or 'Mongol' formation will attack and pull back multiple times in quick succession to wear down a larger or stronger enemy.
As it stands, scenarios are one per day per deployed force, usually with adequate time for repairs in between. What I would like to see is a chance of additional scenarios being generated immediately based on a completed one. They wouldn't (necessarily) be linked by type e.g. a successful Breakthrough (attacker) wouldn't automatically lead to a Chase (attacker), just using the same forces in similar terrain and weather conditions.
The game mechanics would look like this. Based on the contract type, after each standard scenario is completed there is a percentage chance of a subsequent "long battle" scenario being generated. This is handled similar to the generation of special events such as "Big Battle" or "Star League Cache", being limited to one scenario a week. Contract types such as Planetary Assault would have the highest odds while types such as Guerilla Operations would have the least. The "long battle" scenario is on the same day, with the same daylight/weather conditions. The random map generation settings are slightly tweaked each time to help vary the terrain. Each "long battle" scenario also has a chance of another being generated at a reduced probability so that the highest rate contract types would typically generate three or four additional scenarios while the lowest would only generate one. The actual percentages for the first and subsequent "long battle" probabilities would be stored in the Campaign Settings for fine tuning by the user. These probabilities would also be influenced by the Strategy skill of the senior officer on each side, allowing them to either increase or decrease the probability of additional scenarios. Reinforcements can be added to "long battle" scenarios as normal; they are automatically included in subsequent scenarios. Conventional and aerospace fighters and DropShips may choose to disengage rather than than being deployed again, but may not return. DropShips that end a scenario landed are assumed to stay in that location and are unavailable for subsequent scenarios.
The surviving forces cannot be repaired or reloaded unless logistics support was also deployed (something with lift hoists, mobile field base, etc.). The time available is limited to somewhere between 15 - 60 minutes; having a fixed or min/max time as a Campaign Setting would be useful. Conventional and aerospace fighters, and DropShips, are assumed to stay airborne and cannot be repaired or reloaded. Salvaged units are still claimed at the end of each scenario as normal, but removal/use in the Repair Bay is limited by the available time.
One of the immediate stumbling blocks I can think of is handling surviving enemy/bot forces in a single-player campaign. Currently these are not tracked, aside from salvage collected by the player. There would need to be a means of saving the survivors, both unit and pilot/crew, in a persistent fashion so they are not overwritten if the player decides to handle an unrelated same-day scenario first. There is also a need to generate AtB reinforcements intelligently, enough to prevent either side from grinding down the other through sheer attrition. This is more a bot issued - without persistent forces or concerns for force preservation, they can throw as much as they want into the meatgrinder while the player is restricted to what they have on hand.
Another single player problem is handling repairs/reloads with AtB forces, as AtB only deploys friendly logistic units in civilian rescue and base attack scenario types. There may need to be a bit of hand waving to allow them a few reloads and/or minor repairs via a simplified points or probability system, modified by salvage.
There would need to be a chain of command, or at least a senior officer, determined for AtB forces. Currently they do not generate with ranks.