Vector movement

What is this Marre-red maneuver Sir?

It was invented by a rather colourful pirate named Mauricio Redondo way back and is used when you come out of the sun and assume your enemy is hiding in the planetary shadow. You approach the planet building up quite some speed, say 30 to 50 clicks a second, and drift as you pass above or below the planet with your powerplant off. Keep drifting ’til you think you passed the enemy then power up the reactor and start braking hard. You are now ‘south’ of your opponent facing him, in the planet shadow with your enemy to sun-ward yet no risk of any sun-blinding. Then you take him out son.

Intercept comes with a bunch of ready-made maps, empty, with a small or large planet or our beloved Earth and Luna system. Aside from the grid squares and boxes there are some features that might not be that obvious. This little post will teach you what they are and how to use them. Oh, and if anyone want a custom map with planets and asteroids give me a message here on the blog and I’ll add them.

Map coordinates

The Intercept map consist of individual squares and larger boxes, each box holding five by five squares, each box has a column letter and a row number to help identify which box you mean, individual squares within a box are numbered left to right and then top to bottom. The top left square of the top left box is A1-1-1 for example and the top right square of the third box on the second row of boxes is C3-5-1.

The top left box of each mapsheet has the columns and rows numbered for you.

Note that the rightmost column of boxes is labeled G/A and the lowest two rows are labeled 10/1 and 11/2. If you wish to play on an area larger than a single mapsheet the rightmost column form the first column of the next sheet and the lower two rows for m the first and second of the sheet below. This overlap is there to simplify maneuvering straddling the two sheets. Note that playing on more than one sheet complicates the game quite a bit so don’t do it unless you feel like it is really needed. Simply stating that ships flying outside the sheet are lost works fine too and is much simpler.

The box G/A 10/1 also has the columns and rows numbered for you, this is to help you remember that this box might be the top left box of the next sheet to the right and down.

Sunfactor

The sun is always shining from the top of the mapsheet as indicated by an arrow. To the left of the arrow there’s a box where you write the actual Sunfactor used in the scenario. The Sunfactor is 6 for Earth & Luna or any planet in the biozone. Each orbit outside of the biozone and the Sunfactor goes down by 1, down to 0 and for each orbit inside the biozone increase the Sunfactor by 1, Mars is 5, Venus 7 and Mercury 8 for example. Sunfactor 9 or above will be hot enough for the ships to require special rules outside of the scope of this little blog post, stay tuned.

If you have detailed information about the star system you play in, specifically the relative luminosity of the central star (the Sun has 1.0) and the orbit radius in AU (Earth has radius 1.0) use this formula (Round to the nearest whole number but never below 0):

Sunfactor = 6 – 4 * Log10( L / R )

L = Luminosity, R = Orbit radius in AU

Turn number and A/B order

Sensor scans are done in A/B order and the final Initiative tie breaker is also done inA/B.  A/B order means that side A scans first and wins initiative ties on odd turns and B on even turns. There is a row of boxes at the bottom of the mapsheet, cross them off as each turn is performed. The leftmost uncrossed box tell you if it is an A or B turn.

Fractional thrust etc)

Ships with factional thrust (1.33, 0.85 etc) can always thrust the integer part on any turn but the fractional part may give them +1 G to use on certain turns. This is shown on the ship DataCard but the information is also available in the turn number boxes (the 0.25+, 0.75+, 0.5+ values). Let’s say your ship has a thrust of 1.33, it will thrust 1 G at every turn but as 0.33 >= 0.25 it will thrust 2 G during the first turn of every four. The 0.85 G ship has less than 1 G of thrust so all of its thrust is fractional; 1G at the first, second and third turn but no thrust on the fourth turn of every block of four.

Map out your future – but do it in pencil. – Jon Bon Jovi

That’s all, stay cool, and in the shadows people.

Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires – William Shakespeare, Macbeth

We’re deep in space. Corner of no and where. You take extra care. ‘Cause we’re very much alone out here – Captain Malcolm, Firefly

In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth – Patti Smith

Intercept have four sensor types and five types of scans (Optical sensors can scan using Visual or IR). Each scan type in Intercept (Visual, IR, Radar, Neutrino and Mass) have their own strengths and weaknesses. To get a basic a basic understanding of how the different types actually work you should read Sensors part 1.

Visual

Location

Stay in the shadow columns of planets and asteroids or stay directly north of your target forcing him to scan with Sunglare. Have planets block the enemy scans of you if you know their location.

In shadow columns the Sun factor is 0 instead of the typical +6 but if your enemy is clever he will scan specifically in the shadow column using IR so, if approaching via the shadow column take your time and drift in with power off.

Approaching from the sun is another way of avoiding detection. Forcing your opponent to scan with Sunglare reduces his scan with the Sunfactor, typically by 6.

Self
Avoid thrusting unless absolutely necessary, drift instead.

Don’t thrust, specially if you have fission or fusion thrusters with their huge signatures, but even impulse or floater drives normally give off the same signature as your hull in sunshine.

IR

Location
Approach from the sun and force the opponent to scan with Sunglare. Use fission or fusion thrusters as little as possible. Have planets block the enemy scans of you if you know their location.

Just as for Visual scans approaching from the sun will force your opponent to scan with Sunglare and IR scans too subtract Sunfactor from the scan, typically 6. This is your only option, the shadow column won’t help your IR signature at all.

Self
Turn off the powerplant using Silent running. Use fission or fusion thrusters as little as possible.

Silent running reduce every signature of yours except Visual. Your ship would only have IR(Hull) for IR, typically with the same low strength as your hull in shadows. Don’t use fusion and fission thrusters except when absolutely necessary, impulse and floaters are fine but you need to have the powerplant running to use them of course. Keep in mind that if your powerplant is off you need to power it up using your repair crew which on larger vessels can take a turn.

Radar

Location
Have the planet block radar scans. Keep distance to the enemy.

Radar is rarely used except when the enemy knows they are detected. Try to keep distance to your enemy as radar falls off much faster than other sensors by range. Radar is unaffected by Sunglare so coming from the sun won’t help you.

Self
Pop in to reduce signature. Works on any ship except Open frame ships.

Popping in will reduce the radar signature of your ship by 6 on all ships except open frame hulls whose signatures are unaffected by popping in. Note that if you pop in you can no longer scan (except with neutrino or mass sensor), you will also lose any tracks you have (once again except if you track using neutrino mass sensors) and finally you will lose any launched missiles, drifting decoys remain however.

Neutrino

Location
Stay north of the enemy forcing him to scan with Sunglare. Neutrino sensors are always subject to Sunglare, even when in planetary shadow.

Coming from the sun forces your opponent to scan with Sunglare. Sunglare reduces the scan by Sunfactor, typically subtracting 6 from the Scan. As neutrinos can travel straight through a planet Sunglare affects scans even when a planet would normally block (sun column, shadow column questions are ignored for neutrino scans).

Self
Turn off your powerplant using Silent running. This works with both fission and fusion reactors. Use fission and fusion thrusters as little as possible.

Neutrinos are only given off in detectable quantities from fission or fusion reactors and fission or fusion thrusters. So, turn off your powerplant using silent running and don’t use your fission and fusion thrusters. With these off your ship has no Neutrino signature at all and thus no chance of detection from neutrino scans whatsoever.

Mass

Location
Stay away from known mass sensors, their falloff is as bad as radar so range alone might save you. Coming from the sun has no effect on mass scans, they ignore Sunglare.

Mass sensors fall off much faster than regular sensors because they rely on tidal force rather than gravity directly. Try to stay away from known mass sensors is about all you can do.

Self
Don’t use Impulse, Grav or Floater thrusters needlessly, fission and fusion thrusters work fine. Turn off floor field when drifting.

Thrusting using Impulse or Floater give off huge signatures, on par with fission or fusion thrusters for Visual and IR scans. Use them only when you absolutely must. Fission or fusion thrusters are actually fine and won’t show up on mass scans. When you are not thrusting your strongest signature comes from your floor field, turn it off when drifting. Your ship have a mass signature like a ship in sunshine when the floorfield is on and like a ship in shadow when the floorfield is off.

That’s all folks, stay cold, dark and inert.