Devlog #1 - Flak, Bombers, and the Challenge of RPG Naval Combat

Why Flak Feels Strange

A common reaction, and one I can understand, is that people will often say that Flak is too powerful, too weak, or functions oddly. And the same with the Bombing Runs/planes. Indeed, it is a strange bit of math and interactions that come from resolving the differences between this game and its roots; as well as my fondness for non-linear mathematical interactions.

The Original Inspiration

A primary inspiration to this game is one from 1993 called The Grandest Fleet, which my family enjoyed when I was a child. In that game, flak values were quite similar and (from what archaeology I can dig up) it was a 50% to shoot down a plane per flak. Sounds easy enough.

The way planes worked were that if you had 4 planes you could make two bombing runs, and 8 or higher you could make three. Bombing runs always did full damage, flak was calculated at the end, and Bob's your uncle.

Each ship had a flak value and then a secondary flak value for how much they gave to neighbors, sounds familiar enough to you I bet.

Bringing It Into Real Time

But I wanted the planes to fly in real time for a bit more spectacle. Additionally, flying in real time gave the option to have Patrols and Interceptors which felt like perfect ways to enhance the old game by giving more tactical options.

Because of this we run into the first problem - if the ship that is the target can shoot flak at these planes, why not the ones along the way who look like a similar height difference? Well, how much more flak does that add? Can you be shot down before your target? Isn't this a huge nerf to Carriers? Finally, how do we represent this dice rolling system in real time?

You can see I was in quite the design conundrum.

Other oddities from the original game noted in the below are that you could lose 5 planes out of five from your first bombing run, then still fly the second.

In the above you can see there it has undergone a lot of thought and testing to try and understand how I had changed it from the original game.

So How Does Flak Actually Work?

So how does flak actually work? How does it look like it's in real time but act like a dice rolling system? And how did I write your questions down in the past? Remarkable.

Flak functions like this:

• When a Flight (bombing run, interceptors, or recon) come into range (which is roughly 1 hex away, but determined by a 2d oval)

• Roll dice equal to the number of Supporting Flak we have (usually 1) or our Flak value (if we're the target of a bombing run.) These 'dice' have (currently) a 25% chance to succeed (e.g. a 4 on a D4)

• For each kill - one plane in the Sortie gets "marked for death"

Wait... What Does "Marked for Death" Mean?

Wait.. what? How does a plane get shot down?

Well.. "Marked for death" means that a plane rolls another dice to determine how far between where it currently is and the target, times 2. What that means is that half the time it'll be shot down before it drops its bombs, and half the time it'll be after. After a delay, this is what the white-smoke means.

This allows the game to apply 'real time' flak values to the planes as they fly in 2d space but still act like a dice game. What happens when they are all marked for death and even more flak comes in? Well I'm glad you asked, as the next paragraph makes a lot more sense now.

What Happens When Even More Flak Hits?

When additional flak comes in and there are no more planes to 'mark', it starts rerolling those distances with a new distance, each one having a 50% chance to die before it reaches the target, with the caveat that if you were already going to die before you reached the target, you can't suddenly live longer because you hit by more flak.

Why do some planes with white smoke survive? (You're on fire with these questions btw. Congrats.)

This is because there is one more oddity in here - I won't let the plane die if it's not being shot at, purely for the sake of immersion.

I know, I know - Carrier's OP.

But one of the fun side effects of this is that it creates a bit of excitement when they're flying home to see if you do get to keep or shoot down that dang plane.

Bombers and Non-Linear Damage

So that's flak. What about Bombers? Why do they seem to do full damage all the dang time?

Here in lies my fondness for nonlinear functions and systems.

First, you can tell that I'm really trying to keep a similar balance to the original game, with adjustments to ensure it's actually balanced.

To that end, the more you shoot planes down before they get there, the farther the balance gets out of whack.

You might notice that the dang battleship has more Flak than in those old design notes as well, screwing up everything! (But it looks so good with all those guns, it has to be 3 flak :))

The Philosophy Behind Plane Damage

My aim has been that planes should usually manage to drop their bombs, with attrition largely affecting the carrier's future damage.

Originally my sorties were 3 planes each, rather than 4. CVLs had a mere 5 planes, Carriers 7.

The damage of 5, vs a battleship for instance, would thus be proportional to that, 5 at 3 planes, 3-4 at 3 planes, and 2ish at 1 plane.

I really liked this functionality.

When I increased the sortie to 4 planes you can obviously have a nice 5/4/3/2 for the 4 planes and how much damage they'll deal, or vs targets where they deal 4, an easy 4/3/2/1.

This is fine and dandy.

But I also hate it.

First, sending in 1 plane for 1 damage sucks. It feels bad.

Second, you're still often not doing full damage.

So what is really going on with planes?

Well, the 4th plane (when present) is a buffer. It neither adds nor subtracts damage, only resistance to being shot down.

This design allows me to keep my non-linear damage function, helps planes reliably deal their full damage, lets players shoot down even more planes, and lets those singleton planes go for gold by striking for 2 by themselves.

Closing Thoughts

With all of this knowledge, put it to the test in the Demo now.

Dread Admiral Demo Also, if you'd like to leave a review, please do so. It helps immensely.