The bridge crew and standing orders
The bridge crew is the officers who fly and fight a ship while time runs. Standing orders are the rules that tell each officer when to act alone and when to ask the captain.
21 numbers, 2 with an outside source
- A0 numbers at grade A
- B1 numbers at grade B
- C0 numbers at grade C
- D1 numbers at grade D
- E19 numbers at grade E
Functionality
3 topics
The bridge
- [1] to [4] | the helm, weapons, sensors and engineering stations, each with its own orders.
- [7] | the drone station, on a hull with a drone bay.
- [0] | the observer, who watches each contact.
- [5] | the standing orders. [6] | the wing.
- [8] [9] | step through the hostiles and the wing.
- [V] | the camera. [I] | every instrument.
- [M] | the ways out of the fight.
- ENTER | pauses the clock or runs it.
- [T] | its speed: real time, faster or fastest.
- [N] | skips to the next call from the crew.
The Second asks
- Each station is manned by its department, at that department's skill.
- When two officers want things that cannot both happen, the clock stops and the Second asks you.
- Each officer states an order and its cost, and the Second recommends one.
- [O] | sets each kind of question to act and report, or to ask you first.
- A hull with a complement under 10 hands has no Second, so the bridge asks.
- The Second flies by your nerve, from the STANDING ORDERS screen.
- Once a fight, the Second hands the ship back if the crew breaks off or the ship cannot answer.
- Then you surrender, try to run, or give it back.
Standing orders
- The standing orders on [5] are what the crew does without asking you.
- FIRE RULE | at will in reach, in the kill zone only, or held.
- DODGE | weave, sidestep, every called round, or hold course.
- SPARE SINKS | when the crew swaps a cold sink into a hot gun.
- TARGET | the contact the crew works now.
- NEXT TARGET | the weakest, the nearest, the heaviest guns, or the one shooting at us.
- KEEL GUN | the glossary explains its three orders.
- PROCEDURES | eight kinds of question, each acted on or asked first.
Values
21 numbers: 1 B, 1 D, 19 E
Each value is read from the game code. Sort by any column heading, or filter by grade or by a word.
| Quantity | Value | Grade | Source | Why this value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turn rate of a hull with no catalog entry, set so a quarter turn takes the old time | 1.6 deg/s^2 | EAuthored | No source recorded | Kept equal to the old fixed-rate turn: a quarter turn, rest to rest, in the same time, as an acceleration. It is arithmetic on an authored turn rate, so no source backs it. |
| Crew skill: seconds of warning, chance to miss a call, launch sighting, report precision, gun spread and helm turn | rookie call 8, misscall 0.25, launch False, precision 100, spread 1.5, turn 0.8, seasoned call 20, misscall 0.05, launch True, precision 10, spread 1, turn 1, veteran call 30, misscall 0, launch True, precision 0, spread 0.7, turn 1.25 mixed | EAuthored | Atomic Rockets, controldeck, Ship Control Officers, Combat Information Center | Skill changes timing, precision and hands. The game chose every figure for play, and the three steps follow the hire pool. The sources are silent on this figure. |
| How close each officer temperament wants to fight | hot-blooded 10, calm 20, cautious 50 km | EAuthored | No source recorded | One table serves the captain's weapons officer and every hostile captain. The game chose a hot-blooded officer to close, a calm one to hold, and a cautious one to stay far. |
| Share of a line straight up or down past which a contact is called overhead or under the keel | 0.9 share | EAuthored | No source recorded | High and low have no nautical word, so the game picked a steep cutoff past which the helm says overhead. |
| Bearing sectors in a seaman's words: ahead, bow, beam, quarter and astern | 22.5, ahead, 67.5, bow, 112.5, beam, 157.5, quarter, 180, astern deg | BSecondary | IHO Hydrographic Dictionary (S-32): relative bearing terms, entries on the beam, on the bow, on the quarter | The IHO dictionary puts the bow at about 045, the beam at about 090 and the quarter at about 135 relative. COLREGS Rule 21, in a web transcription, ends the forward light arcs at 22.5 degrees abaft the beam (112.5 from ahead), which is the game's beam and quarter edge. The other sector edges are the game's even split. The IMO text was not opened. |
| Heat one dodge adds, on average | 5.55 heat units | EAuthored | No source recorded | Computed from the game's own dodge time, drive heat and lit share. It is arithmetic on authored figures, so no source backs it. |
| Hull share below which the helm asks whether to run | 35 % of hull | EAuthored | No source recorded | The game chose it to match the point at which a cautious captain turns away. |
| Share of the hull's maximum that makes a volley massive | 0.25 share of hull | EAuthored | No source recorded | A playtest saw ten rounds take a ship from 100 percent to 1 percent in five seconds, so the game chose a quarter hull as the point at which the Second asks. |
| Fire control aim error at the start of a new target, by crew skill | rookie 1.2, seasoned 0.8, veteran 0.5 mrad | EAuthored | No source recorded | A long shot is a probe, and the game chose a fixed starting error that each round the crew sees takes a share of. |
| Share of aim error left after each round the crew sees pass, by crew skill | rookie 0.6, seasoned 0.4, veteran 0.25 share | EAuthored | No source recorded | The game chose it so the first long shot misses, the second is closer and the third lands unless the target jinks. |
| Burst center distance, in target lengths, that finishes ranging on a target | 1 target lengths | EAuthored | No source recorded | The game chose one target length as the point at which the crew calls the range found. |
| The crew procedures: owner, what each raises and whether it acts or asks by default | board helm, Break a boarding match, act, next weapons, Take the next target after a kill, act, target weapons, A second ship comes into the kill zone: stay on your target, or ask, act, pursuit xo, A pursuer gains on us while we run, ask, stall xo, A stand-off: nobody closing, nothing landing, ask, vital xo, A vital steps down a state: cooling, drive, reactor, life support or the guns, ask, disabled xo, We are disabled and they mean to board, ask, fire xo, A fire we can vent, cut the power to or dump, ask, power engineering, A short bank: shed loads by the bill, act, volley xo, A massive volley is inbound: run or stay, ask, window weapons, A window opens on a hostile: strike or keep, ask table | EAuthored | Atomic Rockets, controldeck, Ship Control Officers, Combat Information Center | The mirror gives the frame in which stations report, an evaluator suggests and the captain decides. The list of procedures and each default is the game's own. The sources are silent on this figure. |
| Time a keel gun target must go without dodging before the weapons officer asks to hold the bow | 20 s | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen so a target that has not dodged this long counts as stopped, and an aim-while-cooling keel gun can land. |
| Words a second a crew says on the net, by skill | rookie 2, seasoned 2.8, veteran 3.6 words/s | DAnalogy | Wikipedia, Speech tempo and Words per minute, speaking rate of radio news | Wikipedia gives 168 words per minute for English radio news (cited to a radio study, not opened) and about 250 for auctioneers. The game's seasoned rate of 2.8 words per second is 168 words per minute. The rookie rate (2.0) and the veteran rate (3.6) are the game's steps around it. |
| Time one inbound call covers a gun stream | 10 s | EAuthored | No source recorded | The game chose it as about one jink, so the crew calls once for a stream and not once for each round. |
| Time with no hit and no closing before the Second calls a stand-off | 60 s | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen after a log showed two cautious hostiles holding range for hours while both ships gathered speed. |
| Closing speed below which nothing is closing, for a stand-off | 0.02 km/s | EAuthored | No source recorded | The game chose a small speed under which two ships count as holding range. |
| Time a pursuer must keep closing before the Second asks about it | 20 s | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen after a log where the Second asked 19 times in 8 fights. It is the delay before the question is raised. |
| Hull share at which the Second hands the ship back to the captain | 0.3, 0.15 hull share (first, second) | EAuthored | No source recorded | Taken from a playtest report. The Second hands the ship back first at one share and again at a lower one, and the game chose both. |
| Skill of the officers on a ship the world crews | seasoned skill tier | EAuthored | No source recorded | A hull the world crews carries seasoned officers, the hire pool's middle tier. The game chose it and no source gives a crew mix. |
| Opening gap of an ambush or a hull already alongside | 5, 15 km | EAuthored | No source recorded | Matches the menu fight's close opening band. Every other fight opens at the engine's own range. |
Real-world basis
4 points
- A real ship runs its watches through stations that report to a commander, and the commander decides.
- A crew that handles routine work alone and stops the clock only for a real choice keeps a fight playable.
- Skill changes how fast and how exactly a station reports, and temperament changes the advice it gives.
- A hostile ship flies the same crew routine as the captain, so one rule serves every ship.
Game and reality differences
2 points
- Every number here is authored for play. The bridge crew has no outside figure, and the notes say so.
- A real ship does not stop its clock for a decision. The game does, so the captain can read before choosing.
Source absences
3 points
- Atomic Rockets and the source shelf do not provide values for the following:
- Rate at which a crew repeats a question.
- Stand-off length before a Second calls it. 60 seconds is authored.
- Speech rate on a net. A Wikipedia speech tempo figure supplies the value.
Sources
2 documents
- Atomic Rockets, controldeck, Moment of Inertia: A long craft can jink faster by pushing sideways than by turning, which is why the helm's turn rate and the sidestep are separate numbers. (all uses)
- Atomic Rockets, controldeck, Ship Control Officers, Combat Information Center: Stations report, an evaluator suggests and the captain decides. The game uses this frame for its procedures. (all uses)