Gameplay: Central Command Centers

Maelios · 2013-04-13, 10:57 PM

So I saw a suggestion on a thread about orbital strikes to create a Central Command type of facility from which players with a certain command cert would be able to access specific abilities, player objectives, and orders commands. So I thought about how it might work and came up with this idea.

The Central Command Center:

The idea itself is fairly simple. A central command structure somewhere on the map or separately instanced. The structure itself would be small and hidden. An example of a location would be near the warpgate somewhere underground with a tunnel from the main warpgate facility connecting to it. Within the CCC (Central Command Center) there would be eleven command terminals that only players with a certain command cert could access.
The CCC would hopefully solve some of the more controversial topics such as orbital strikes.

Part I: The Command Terminal

The Command Terminal would be the primary access point to the features of the CCC and would function like a turret in that only one player may access it at a time and the player would be inside the terminal and impervious to damage while using the terminal. Only players who have certed a specific cert that unlocks the command terminal could use it. The cert itself would not be too expensive, however, expensive enough to deter most trolls. (I was thinking along the lines of 250-500 certs). Once "inside" the command terminal the player would utilize an interactive map that leads me into the next point Orders and Player Missions.

Part II: Orders and Player Missions

The players using the command terminals would be able to give orders with a new command chat. This command chat would replace the old command chat and would eliminate the zergfit recruiters. Players that want to give orders would then use the interactive map by selecting a territory and opening a menu. The menu would consist of several options one of which would be orders. There would be several orders option such as attack, defend, repair etc. These orders would appear over orders chat and on the center of all the players screen on the that continent. Each order would act as a player generated mission and players fighting toward that mission would get bonus exp. and the player that created the mission would get partial exp. For example, an NC commander gives an order to attack Hvar Tech Plant. All players will be alerted on their screens that an order has been given to capture Hvar Tech Plant. All soldiers fight there would get double exp. for fifteen minutes until the order expires. If the soldiers capture Hvar Tech they would get 2000 exp. and the commander would get 1000 exp. Other types of orders can be given and if you have suggestions for more post them below. A commander may only give an order once every ten minutes unless he/she is the Force Commander.

Part III:

A: The Force Commander

This one is interesting. The Force commander is somebody who is voted into this position by the other commanders. Their role is to be the lead commander and because of this gain access to more abilities aside from orders. The Force commander only needs a majority vote to be in his/her position and is in retains this position until he/she logs off, leaves the command terminal, or is voted out by the other members. In any voting situation the Force commander's vote counts thrice and the force commander may give orders every 2 1/2 minutes as opposed to ten.

B: Ablilities

This one will be the most controversial but it needs to be out there anyway.

i. Auraxium:

Also something I saw suggested, the (re)introduction of this resource could be the limiting factor for many of these abilities. In short Auraxium would be a resource collected faction-wide and would only be spendable by the commanders. Auraxium would be obtained by capturing territories. Territories that had not been capped in a long time would yield more Auraxium than other territories.

Territory Cap: 25 Auraxium for Small Facilities, 50 for Large and 100 for Main Bases + 10 for every hour not capped.

ii. Ablilties:

The majority of abilities would be accessible to all the commanders. Examples are creating hot-drop zones, or calling in small tactical airstrikes. All of these abilities would cost Auraxium and just like weapons or vehicles there would be some faction neutral abilities and some faction specific. If you have ideas for different abilities post them below.

iii. Orbital Strikes:

The big one, the one we can't decide on, the one that we fear will break the game. ORBITAL STRIKES! The tense, exhilarating, fulfilling moment where all your enemies are crushed by an huge KEW or device. Well they take some precision in design don't they? They can't be too powerful or too common, and you certainly can't let trolls get a hold of them. So what do we do? Well we make them A. unique B. Rare C. Hard to obtain and D. Expensive. So the system I came up with hopefully covers all those points. I'll start with A.

A. Unique:

The orbital strikes should be faction specific so I came up with an idea for each faction's Orbital Strike Weapon Ideas and would like feedback.

TR: A series of shells fired from orbit that break apart in the atmosphere creating bullet like projectiles that fall to the surface nigh on instantaneously killing all infantry in the target area

NC: An EMP device fired into the lower atmosphere and detonated resulting in all vehicles in the target area being disabled until destroyed or deconstructed.

VS: A Nanite reprogramming device that causes Nanites in a target area to attack and deconstruct all living tissue for 10 minutes resulting in a prolonged area denial. The zone would deal damage similar to a restricted area pain zone.

Target Area = One current in-game hex.

B. Rare:

All orbital strikes would have a four hour cooldown

C. Hard to obtain:

Only the Force Commander could order an orbital strike and even if he did it would go to a majority vote system within the CCC.

D. Expensive

The Orbital strikes would cost 10000 Auraxium at the least.

Let me know your thoughts on the orbital strike idea.

Conclusion: The CCC system would create a huge meta-game shift and change the face of the game. The system would appeal to the more strategically minded players and would create a solution to many of the controversial topics on the Roadmap. The CCC would make faction coordination much easier and make the guiding of pugs much easier.

Questions:

Is the system too complex?

What further suggestions might you have?

Could this system create an elitist commander community?

Does this give players too much control over their faction?

Would the metagame shift be a good thing?

Things to remember before posting:

Try to make your post constructive.

No system is perfect, but we must find the one that is the closest to perfection.

leifnielsen · 2013-04-14, 05:13 AM

Originally Posted by Maelios

TR: A series of shells fired from orbit that break apart in the atmosphere creating bullet like projectiles that fall to the surface nigh on instantaneously killing all infantry in the target area

NC: An EMP device fired into the lower atmosphere and detonated resulting in all vehicles in the target area being disabled until destroyed or deconstructed.

VS: A Nanite reprogramming device that causes Nanites in a target area to attack and deconstruct all living tissue for 10 minutes resulting in a prolonged area denial. The zone would deal damage similar to a restricted area pain zone.

The TR's is extremely underpowered, since infantry can just instantly spawn again at any sunderers in the area, whereas the VS's is extremely overpowered due to the area denial effect. NC sounds good.

Maelios · 2013-04-14, 02:23 PM

Originally Posted by leifnielsen

The TR's is extremely underpowered, since infantry can just instantly spawn again at any sunderers in the area, whereas the VS's is extremely overpowered due to the area denial effect. NC sounds good.

Thanks! I'll look into it, I really want VS to be more of an area denial type thing though, and the TR's is like a rain of death that lasts for about a minute and damages anything out in the open like heavy machine gun fire. I just wanted to sum it up so I didn't add more details.

Ohaunlaim · 2013-04-15, 10:19 AM

Each orbital strike should affect all units to some degree. But nothing should insta-kill anything, because that is what most people hate: something you cant react to.

The TR might be better off as a series of smaller cluster bombs within the target area. These would nearly kill infantry and do some damage to vehicles. I would lower the duration of the strike to about 30 seconds. People could find cover, retreat from the area, or hope their luck holds and stay in it. This is still very anti-infantry but damaged vehicles may be killed too.

The NC's EMP sounds nice. In addition to affecting vehicles it also needs to affect infantry exactly like the current EMP grenades do. Again this should be a series of smaller EMP munitions so when people see them coming in they have the option to try and leave the area. Vehicles, again, shouldn't be one-hit-useless (EMP wont kill them). Maybe two shots to make them temporary bricks. The first to remove their weapons, the second to shut them down completely. Make both affects last 30 seconds. Affects on infantry could last half that (15 sec). Make the duration here shorter but more intense, say... 20 seconds. This is definitely more useful against vehicles, but not totally useless against infantry. (perhaps allow engineers to "repair" the EMP affects?)

The VS nanite swarm area denial thing is nice too. I would make the damage quite low since there is no way to avoid it. This allows people to cross the affected area knowing they might survive it, barely, so long as no enemies shoot them. I would make this the longest duration but still only about 40 seconds. Balance this against infantry and vehicles by doing equal percentages of damage to everything (ie 5% damage per second or something)

** Another possibility, to keep the theme of multiple munitions raining down, is to have the smaller nanite bomb's affect area stick around for 10 seconds or so before dissipating. This way the area of denial is constantly morphing. This would allow for higher damage rates because they could be avoided.

Maelios · 2013-04-15, 12:27 PM

Originally Posted by Ohaunlaim

Each orbital strike should affect all units to some degree. But nothing should insta-kill anything, because that is what most people hate: something you cant react to.

The TR might be better off as a series of smaller cluster bombs within the target area. These would nearly kill infantry and do some damage to vehicles. I would lower the duration of the strike to about 30 seconds. People could find cover, retreat from the area, or hope their luck holds and stay in it. This is still very anti-infantry but damaged vehicles may be killed too.

The NC's EMP sounds nice. In addition to affecting vehicles it also needs to affect infantry exactly like the current EMP grenades do. Again this should be a series of smaller EMP munitions so when people see them coming in they have the option to try and leave the area. Vehicles, again, shouldn't be one-hit-useless (EMP wont kill them). Maybe two shots to make them temporary bricks. The first to remove their weapons, the second to shut them down completely. Make both affects last 30 seconds. Affects on infantry could last half that (15 sec). Make the duration here shorter but more intense, say... 20 seconds. This is definitely more useful against vehicles, but not totally useless against infantry. (perhaps allow engineers to "repair" the EMP affects?)

The VS nanite swarm area denial thing is nice too. I would make the damage quite low since there is no way to avoid it. This allows people to cross the affected area knowing they might survive it, barely, so long as no enemies shoot them. I would make this the longest duration but still only about 40 seconds. Balance this against infantry and vehicles by doing equal percentages of damage to everything (ie 5% damage per second or something)

** Another possibility, to keep the theme of multiple munitions raining down, is to have the smaller nanite bomb's affect area stick around for 10 seconds or so before dissipating. This way the area of denial is constantly morphing. This would allow for higher damage rates because they could be avoided.

Thanks for the input!

Remember orbital strikes must be powerful enough to justify the 10000 Auraxium cost and the four hour cooldown, while your suggestions are still powerful they would not justify hours or possibly days of work, they have to be something that would be able to invariably turn the tide of a battle in your favor unless the enemy pulled a very sophisticated counter.

As for the ideas you gave I agree that the Vanu strike's duration should be lowered to a few minutes (somewhere between 3-5) and the TR's should last 30 sec and do enough damage to destroy anything that does not find cover soon enough. As for the second idea for the TR's change in orbital strike I have been toying around with the idea of an NS orbital strike that anyone could use which would act similar to that.

The engineer idea for repairing tanks is great, but if it were to be implemented I think that the NC's orbital strike's effect should be permanent to compensate, also only engineers who have a repair tool that is certed to a certain extent should be able to repair the damage.

Your thoughts have a valid concern but I just wouldn't use an orbital strike that would almost maybe stop a zerg when it has a four hour cooldown and costs so many resources.

Thanks for the input I hope we can start something with this.

Ohaunlaim · 2013-04-16, 04:53 AM

Yea, I wasnt really considering their cool down times and resource costs when brain storming there.

That being said, I would rather they be weaker and uncommon than over powered and rare. Again it comes down to giving the players a chance to react to, avoid, or flee the OS.

Making something too rare (by whatever method) causes the people that use it to demand it be worth the cost, so it tends to become over powered when compared to other things in the game (but, perhaps, not compared to resource costs.) Then, when it becomes known that it has such power, everyone will want to use it. Eventually a majority becomes able to use it and that 'rare' thing isn't so rare anymore, but still over powered.

As I see it, for balance's sake, an OS should cost the equivalent amount of resources as two liberators, dish out the average damage two of them do in their average life-times (distributed in a wide area for a set time), have four to six times the cool down at least (cause a liberator needs crew while an OS doesn't), etc.

I would rather have it use current resources too, all of them. That way somebody could either use their OS or pull a liberator/ESTank/multiple MAX units. And if they were running low on any one resource due to vehicle/equipment purchases then no OS for them.

What do you think about mixing in a way to prevent an OS from going off or from being used once 'purchased'? Would that help make the things more acceptable? Something like a deploy-able field command console that would need to be set up and manned until the OS goes off?

Carbon Copied · 2013-04-16, 08:26 AM

Personally I think the orbital strikes should take on the form of a prolonged EMP effect for all 3 factions. Why?

There's a chance to fairly counter it in that you aren't just "dead".
Relies on tactical usage not just "grid x looks likely target - just carpet bomb it even though theres no friendlies there to make use of it" in order to get the damage payout from it you've got to have troops on the ground to dish that side out.
Still can be used as a siege breaker for prepping a force to be hit hard.
EMP drops the shields among other effects for any side caught in it so you've got to make sure you're placing it correctly theres that "punishment" if you get it wrong.
EMP could be used to affect gate shields/electronics etc of any base defense which gives it more versatility.
Probably look graphically more exciting than just explosions everywhere.

Most mentioned already but I don't think the OS mechanic has to be strictly damage front orientated for them to be fair, useful and deadly.

The carpet bomb effect could be co-ordinated through a galaxy/liberator cluster bomb drop or something that relies on more co-ordinated use than a fire and forget.

Getting hammered by a bomb OS then hammered again by A2G, then swept up by a tank and infantry push would be demoralisingly repetitive I think and not invoke as good team work. Yes there will be those that might argue this is how it "works in the real world" but isn't necessarily a good game mechanic.

Maelios · 2013-04-16, 11:42 PM

Originally Posted by Ohaunlaim

Yea, I wasnt really considering their cool down times and resource costs when brain storming there.

That being said, I would rather they be weaker and uncommon than over powered and rare. Again it comes down to giving the players a chance to react to, avoid, or flee the OS.

Making something too rare (by whatever method) causes the people that use it to demand it be worth the cost, so it tends to become over powered when compared to other things in the game (but, perhaps, not compared to resource costs.) Then, when it becomes known that it has such power, everyone will want to use it. Eventually a majority becomes able to use it and that 'rare' thing isn't so rare anymore, but still over powered.

As I see it, for balance's sake, an OS should cost the equivalent amount of resources as two liberators, dish out the average damage two of them do in their average life-times (distributed in a wide area for a set time), have four to six times the cool down at least (cause a liberator needs crew while an OS doesn't), etc.

I would rather have it use current resources too, all of them. That way somebody could either use their OS or pull a liberator/ESTank/multiple MAX units. And if they were running low on any one resource due to vehicle/equipment purchases then no OS for them.

What do you think about mixing in a way to prevent an OS from going off or from being used once 'purchased'? Would that help make the things more acceptable? Something like a deploy-able field command console that would need to be set up and manned until the OS goes off?

Originally Posted by Carbon Copied

Personally I think the orbital strikes should take on the form of a prolonged EMP effect for all 3 factions. Why?

There's a chance to fairly counter it in that you aren't just "dead".
Relies on tactical usage not just "grid x looks likely target - just carpet bomb it even though theres no friendlies there to make use of it" in order to get the damage payout from it you've got to have troops on the ground to dish that side out.
Still can be used as a siege breaker for prepping a force to be hit hard.
EMP drops the shields among other effects for any side caught in it so you've got to make sure you're placing it correctly theres that "punishment" if you get it wrong.
EMP could be used to affect gate shields/electronics etc of any base defense which gives it more versatility.
Probably look graphically more exciting than just explosions everywhere.

Most mentioned already but I don't think the OS mechanic has to be strictly damage front orientated for them to be fair, useful and deadly.

The carpet bomb effect could be co-ordinated through a galaxy/liberator cluster bomb drop or something that relies on more co-ordinated use than a fire and forget.

Getting hammered by a bomb OS then hammered again by A2G, then swept up by a tank and infantry push would be demoralisingly repetitive I think and not invoke as good team work. Yes there will be those that might argue this is how it "works in the real world" but isn't necessarily a good game mechanic.

I think that the both of you misunderstood my OP.

The OS idea functions within the CCC, and must go through a vote before it is used. Orbital strikes are not the only ability within the CCC and are not used on an individual basis. The purpose of orbital strikes is to provide an alternate option to several different difficult situations that will provide a solution if platoon leaders are organizing and communicating with the commanders.

To answer Ohaunlain's concern it's not a surprise insta-gib that kills everyone without warning. There would be a thirty second warning where alarms within buildings would flash and make noise and the player's HUD would turn red and a message would flash once across the screen saying something like "Orbital Strike Incoming, find cover or flee the area." The resources used are specific to the commanders and cannot be used by others. This ensures that all abilities are under the control of the current commanders. All the orbital strikes would be rare because it's a faction based cooldown. So if commander A uses an OS then when Commander B comes in and there is 11225 Auraxium he still can't use the OS. On top of that all OS's go to a majority vote where the Force Commander's vote counts three times. So the average Joe can't get orbital strikes and platoon leads can't have their guys pull 48 orbital strikes because they have the cert.

To answer to Carbon Copied's Concern giving eveyone the same OS takes away from point A: Unique. They need to have a sense of individuality to add to the faction pride and create strategies base on what your enemy can and can't do with their weapons, vehicles and abilities. Once again it's hardly a kill everything, point, click, win button. The general strategic intention of an OS is to stop an zerg in it's tracks. Here are some examples of ways to use each factions unique OS's in unique ways to turn the tide of battle and avert zergs to other areas:

A. The Vanu are struggling in their assault against the TR at the Bastion in Amerish. They have two platoons at the Bastion against the TR's 3. They want to pull their platoon from Mekala Tech but the NC are pushing hard from the south. The NC arsenal flips to Vanu Control giving them enough resources to use an orbital. The FC calls for permission to use an orbital strike and is approved. He uses it right in front of the NC advance at Mekala, preventing them from attacking right away. This gives the platoon at Mekala enough time to pull galaxies from the Tech plant and flank the TR at the Bastion before heading back, winning them the battle while being able to defend Mekala.

B. The TR were just pushed out of the Bastion by the VS. (Some Gal-drop or something

) They have decided to push the NC at Wokuk but run into heavy resistance at West Pass Watch-Tower. The FC calls for an OS and is approved. He uses it on top of the tower itself forcing all the NC to find cover. During the 30 seconds of bullet rain (much worse than acid rain) the prowlers get enough time to position themselves to barrage the tower and surrounding buildings. After the OS concludes the barrage commences, forcing the NC to fall back to Wokuk Amp Station.

C. The NC have been pushed to Wokuk Amp Station and the TR's armor column is on the way. The FC thinks it's the perfect time for an EMP and so do the rest of the commanders. The NC pulls air from Wokuk and watch the TR try to find an escape route but the terrain is too rough. The EMP lands and the libs and reavers pick off sundies and skyguards first then move to the prowlers. This forces the TR to fall back to West Pass, allowing the NC to focus on more of an offensive.

The graphical design can be cool too, especially with OS's this unique. The possibilities are endless. Before you let your fear of OS's being overpowered get the best of you try to think of ways that can avoid that problem and still keep with the current theme.

Thanks for the input guys, you are really helping me think all this through, even though what I thought of in the initial four hours of my own brainstorming was mostly covered.

Maelios · 2013-05-13, 03:14 PM

So I have been thinking and discussing the OS stuff with my outfit mates and first off we came to the conclusion that the TR OS was underpowered. Here's the solution:

Change the TR OS to this

A series of large, tungsten shells fires from space that reach high speeds very quickly resulting in roughly 20 seconds of armor piercing rounds raining from the sky. Vehicles hit would be critically injured and infantry caught in the small blast radii are blown to pieces.

Second, what do you think about an NS Orbital Strike somewhere along the lines of an Ion Cannon from CnC 3?

Ait'al · 2013-05-17, 09:07 AM

http://www.planetside-universe.com/s...ad.php?t=25289

TR:

a HUGE Air transport with two huge underside dual ground pounding cannon pods (250 mm with like 4-6 seconds between shots), two front side forward 310-120 degree machine guns (40mm rapid fire), two top side mid wing upward facing ones or something (25mm) and one normal back on like on the gal(but 50mm)(these would all be dual barreled and fire simultaneously, and move around like a slow WW2 pod). It would be like 2.5-5 times the gal size hold up to 4 vehicles(up to prowler size) 6 troops and 4 maxs(minus gunners and pilot). It looks just like a gal besides all hte gun turrets(theyre all like the superfortress underside pods but futuristic looking) and it has delta wings instead. There could only be two per continent (maybe more)and it cant leave through the warpgates because of its size. (i came up these before i started playing but.. and before they split auraxis as youll se in the nc one! *)

Here was my idea. Could be used with this one!

Maelios · 2013-06-23, 11:50 PM

Bump. I want to hear your ideas guys!

TheAadvark · 2013-06-24, 04:26 AM

I posted this in a separate thread but now that I've seen this i thought it was appropriate to post here.

Basically I wanted to integrate "on the ground" gains and territories held into the meta game. I haven't mentioned orbital strikes though.... anyway just tell me what you think.

Tactical Warheads:

Core mechanics

Basics

Tech Plants – Explosive / Chemical.

Bio Labs – Biological.

Amp Station - At least one Amp Station must be connected to either of the above facilities, to provide power.

Factions within a continent that control an amp station and any of these facilities will have acess to warheads mounted on (a) cruise missiles (b )Dumb bombs dropped from a Galaxy or (c) launched from a modified Sunderer. Continent control leads to control of an ICBM. Reliable and competent Command structure.

Warhead

Explosive - I suggest a decent area of effect on the warhead, but the effect should not be to devastating. For Explosive warheads vehicles and infantry at the center of the blast radius should go down immediately , and should peter out towards the edge of the blast radius leaving vehicles at below or at half health.

Chemical- These should affect only infantry and have an area of denial effect for at least 30 seconds to a minute. Anyone caught in the middle of the AOE should die with the DPS. With players on the outside there will be a drop off on the DPS the moment they exit the AOE. Also an infantry exiting their vehicles in the AOE should be affected as well.

Biological – The biological warhead will have lasting effects on players. To differentiate this from the Chemical warhead I propose, that if two or more infected players encounter an uninfected player he will develop “symptoms”. Symptoms might be (a) Half health but full shield (b) Slower movement (c) Nausea affecting players balance, coordination and sight such as concussion grenades but not as severe.

Delivery Systems

Cruise missiles- Pretty much self explanatory. Now on a previous post discussing Empire Specific Orbital Strikes. There were some issues regarding the sudden death factor of it, that players had no warning of the impending strike, (a) Respective faction intelligence reports the launch of a Cruise Missile and (b) an audio and visual cue that the missile is e.g. 5km away. On top of that the missile should be vulnerable to Flak and should have enough health as a liberator and travel at slightly faster than a mosquito with afterburners. This gives a chance for opposition to shoot it down and the direction should be determined with a glance at the map showing which tech plants/bio labs the enemy posses.

Dumb Bomb- A modified galaxy takes off at the facility this galaxy is basically a WW2 Allied bomber with it’s turrets and a bombardier. I don’t believe there should be any warning as to it’s location but an announcement can be made that an enemy bomber has taken off. The bomb will be dropped by the bombardier who basically has the liberator camera modified to show speed and altitude, which he uses to judge the right time to drop the bomb.

Vehicle Mounted Rocket- Here’s the tricky one. The sunderer picks up the rocket and proceeds to site of launch. Now how does it fire? It should have the capability to be pin point precise but also have a margin of error if not done correctly.So use three infiltrators with laser designators that help guide the rocket. If the margin of error for launch is say 40 meters for every Infi on point the margin decreases by ten giving it a margin of error of 10 meters if all lasers are pointing at the same place. This will be difficult as to set up three Infiltrators in three vantage points in the middle of a battle as well as encountering other infiltrators most likely sniping in the same area will make this interesting

Meta Game

Within a continent whoever has access to the facilities have these tactical strikes unlocked. Now what happens when you are pushed back to the warp gate? For every continent owned by an empire they have the option of three types of Warheads which will be in ICBM form only. The timer on these ICBM’s will be pretty long but should be powerful.

Commander

I have never played Planet side 1 but I understand there were certain players who gained CR5 and (having read Malorn’s document) these individuals had a great impact on strategy. But soon every Tom Dick and Harry attained this ranks and unfortunately most of them were dicks. So there should be a select few elected players who enjoy global and continent wide powers. This is essential for any further implementation of commander powers such as orbital strikes, Fleet carriers and so on.

TheAadvark · 2013-06-24, 04:47 AM

Your post is way more detailed and I was looking at a compeletly different mechanic, you could comment on the different warhead effects I described though. I was thinking orbital strikes should be this massive damage weapon, while these are smaller.

Also I strongly believe that a Supreme commander on each server should be elected and its okay if there is a council, but in the heat of war they will start bickering as to where the Strike should be fielded; he should have the choice of disregarding their opinions and acting on his own. Supreme command could be rotational ? Every few weeks or months and picked from the council.

MrMak · 2013-06-25, 08:17 AM

Well some of the effects for the Orbital strikes have been leaked to the PTS. Look like they are just going for "shell the crap out of the area". Looking at the NC and TR ones they are clearly not finished yet though.

Hyncharas · 2013-06-26, 02:12 PM

I can't say I particularly like any of those blast patterns.

For TR it should be like a point-to-point Warthog strafing run, with NC it should be random over a fixed radius, and then for VS it should be a fixed radius that works inwards to the center. That would thus make each orbital strike unique and thorough, based on the empires' own tactics.