Officer of the Fleet (WIP)(~90k words)

[T_Chaney]

In the year 2169 humanity’s understanding of the universe was irrevocably changed. When intelligent life appeared on the edges of the solar system there was curiosity, excitement, even celebration. When that intelligent life showed its hostile intentions, those feelings turned to fear.

Humanity was brought to the edge of extinction, pushed to its breaking point and fighting an enemy like none they’d faced before. The struggle was intense. Earth became a warzone as battles raged against the alien menace. But in the end, humanity prevailed.

That was five years ago.

In the wake of such devastation, and with the understanding that the Enemy was only pushed back and not ultimately defeated, Earth and the frontier colonies of the solar system set themselves to rebuilding and rearming. The forces of the United Fleet were greatly expanded as new and advanced spacefaring warships were designed and constructed. But warships and fleets mean nothing without officers. Officers of tactical mind and merit. Officers of bravery and boldness. Officers capable of leading their fellows into the jaws of death.

Officers like you.

The Academy serves as a place of study for the best and brightest young minds in the solar system. A highly exclusive, exceptionally competitive, and intensive program. Its goal is to train the next generation of leaders for the next generation of warfare. You’ve been accepted into the program but that’s only just the start of your journey. Prove yourself capable and you may find yourself in command of your own ship, your own flotilla, your own fleet.

The opportunities are endless, the dangers immense, the Enemy looming, and humanity’s survival hangs in the balance. Are you up to the challenge?

Do you have what it takes to be an Officer of the Fleet?

Summary

Officer of the Fleet has been something I’ve been working on for a little over eight months. You play as a young cadet and eventually as an officer rising the ranks of the United Fleet, defending the Earth from an alien threat. It’s inspired by works like Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Choice of Broadsides by Adam Strong-Morse, Heather Albano, and Dan Fabulich, and The Dragoon Saga by Paul Wang, but I hope I’ve added enough of my own flair to make it unique.

Currently the demo consists of only the first two Chapters which revolve around the MC and their time at the Academy. However, Chapters 3-8 will involve leaving the Academy, acquiring your own real forces and leading them in the fight against the Enemy. You’ll start small, with only one ship under your leadership, but your command, and responsibilities, will grow as you continue to climb ever higher.

Features

• Play as male, female, or non-binary.
• Play as straight, gay, bisexual, or asexual.
• Rise the ranks of the United Fleet from Cadet to Admiral
• Command through tactical brilliance, quick thinking, or inspiring leadership
• Determine who lives and dies in a war for survival
• Uncover the intentions of the mysterious alien menace
• Upgrade your fleet
• Choose, promote, and fire your subordinates
• Romance a total of six+ characters (Still in early stages)
• Prove you have what it takes to be an Officer of the Fleet

***Note that many of these are planned for future chapters and not implemented fully yet.

Length

Currently the active word count sits around 90k including code. A single playthrough will like see around 20% of that. The plan is to have eight chapters in total. I have outlined the next six chapters and that outline alone runs about 75k words so I suspect the final project will sit around 400-500k words upon completion.

Desired Feedback

I’d welcome just about anything.

Any type of low-level feedback such as pointing out coding errors, awkward writing, disjointed sections, or the like are all deeply appreciated. I’ve gone over everything a few times, but I’m only one set of eyes and I’m confident that I have missed plenty of things. Don’t worry too much about the placement of commas and the like, but pointing out misspelled words is totally fine and appreciated.

High level feedback is also great. If you have any thoughts on how the story, setting, characters, plot, or mechanics are presented, I would absolutely love to hear them. Specifically, a lot of this game revolves around battles so I’d love feedback in that regard. Did the choices make sense? Did the actions feel fair? Were the choices signposted enough? Did certain results feel too difficult to achieve? Too easy? My hope is that this game can be challenging without being brutal. So any thoughts on that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this. It means a lot to me!

The demo: CoGDemos

[Random_Person]

First mistake of this story is that the river thames would ever not be a cesspool of human waste and pollution

[Queen_Zelda]

Sounds like up my alley, I bookmarked it and will read it, thank you so much for writing

[T_Chaney]

@Random_Person

First mistake of this story is that the river thames would ever not be a cesspool of human waste and pollution

I mean there’s got to be some suspension of disbelief when it comes to Science-Fiction right? Thanks for reading!

@Queen_Zelda

Sounds like up my alley, I bookmarked it and will read it, thank you so much for writing

Thank you for giving it a look!

[Random_Person]

For choosing your strengths and weaknesses, I didn’t like the choosing what your weak at, since I had a base stat of 60 for adaptability so I thought I could sacrifice it for like an 50 or something, it immediately went down to 36, and it seems strange to start out with 60 pre academy only to go to 36 in the academy

[Gapaot]

there’s that, my character peered into the 4th wall

[T_Chaney]

@Random_Person

For choosing your strengths and weaknesses, I didn’t like the choosing what your weak at, since I had a base stat of 60 for adaptability so I thought I could sacrifice it for like an 50 or something, it immediately went down to 36, and it seems strange to start out with 60 pre academy only to go to 36 in the academy

I can see how that could be frustrating. The idea is that your base stats are determined by your upbringing and homeworld and then affected by your personal strengths and weaknesses. I can consider a rework if it proves to be too off putting. Thanks for the feedback!

@Gapaot

there’s that, my character peered into the 4th wall

Oops… Thanks for pointing that out! Should be an easy fix!

[Gapaot]

another piece of code dripping in

[Random_Person]

Has anyone figured out how to succeed in micromanaging all the ships or is that just a loss either way

[cascat07]

I like it! Definitely gave me Ender’s Game vibes. One thing I think you need to put in a box a bit lore-wise is the artificial gravity. If we have the tech to casually manipulate gravity as shown so far it should have way bigger implications for the way fleets fight in space.

[T_Chaney]

@Random_Person

Has anyone figured out how to succeed in micromanaging all the ships or is that just a loss either way

Micromanaging all the ships in Chapter One is possible but it requires a very high adaptability stat of 65. In Chapter Two it is dependent on your Adaptability and the amount of practice you put in.

@cascat07

If we have the tech to casually manipulate gravity as shown so far it should have way bigger implications for the way fleets fight in space.

That’s definitely some food for thought. I honestly went with artificial gravity just because I didn’t like the idea of writing an entire story where people are floating in Zero-G the whole time. Thanks for the feedback, and I’m glad you enjoyed it!

[cascat07]

@T_Chaney

That’s definitely some food for thought. I honestly went with artificial gravity just because I didn’t like the idea of writing an entire story where people are floating in Zero-G the whole time. Thanks for the feedback, and I’m glad you enjoyed it!

I think it clashes with the otherwise “hard sci-fi” tone of the story. Gravity manipulation is such an advanced tech it begs the question why humans aren’t an interstellar civilization and why the Raptors are much of a threat at all. Gravity drives and torpedoes all become possible. One lower tech possibility that overcomes all the floating would be a constant acceleration drive like in The Expanse.

[smileyyy]

Very excited for this one

[T_Chaney]

Just out of curiosity…

What age did you pick?

• Eight
• Twelve
• Fourteen
• Eighteen

What home did you choose?

• Earth
• Mars
• Mining Vessel

What about your parents?

• Admiral
• Mining Ship Captain
• Military Family
• Civilian Family
• Orphan

[Scott_Redmond]

I recognised your profile from a previous IF that I found very interesting called “The Horizon Incident”. Is that project scrapped or on hold?

[T_Chaney]

(post deleted by author)

[kckolbe]

Definitely enjoyed it, but not sure what benefit (if any) leadership has. Text in the game makes it seem useless in the current demo, and my first playthrough with it as the main certainly suffered (winning only 20% and losing the final in a close match, a devastatingly poor result at 18). The second time, I neglected it completely and turned out to be a master (which makes sense for 18).

Starting age seems to have a pretty negligible effect on starting ability. I like that it seems to boost reputation, as your ceiling would appear to be higher, but there should be more a drop in floor as well.

[thegreatlorddragon]

Love this so far. Reminds me of the “old-school” CoG games in the best possible way.

[T_Chaney]

@kckolbe

Definitely enjoyed it, but not sure what benefit (if any) leadership has.

Leadership is under used in the demo currently, and that’s kind of by design. Right now, the MC is a Cadet playing war games. Actual leadership ability doesn’t factor into that very much. However, starting in Chapter 3 and onward, the MC actually has to lead people. People who, perhaps understandably, aren’t exactly thrilled that their CO is a 14 year old kid fresh out of genius school. Rest assured leadership will become very important later on, though perhaps I could do a better job of making that more clear.

@kckolbe

Starting age seems to have a pretty negligible effect on starting ability.

It also boosts (if older) and lowers (if younger) your leadership and to a lesser extent your intelligence stats. Those are subject to tweaks of course if people think they’re too punishing or not impactful enough.

@kckolbe

Well please count mine as in the “not impactful enough” camp

Will do. This is great feedback by the way. Balancing is going to be an important part of this process and getting that right is going to require feedback exactly like this. Beating Wagner should be hard, and if it didn’t feel that way then I might need to tweak some checks and stats.

@thegreatlorddragon

Reminds me of the “old-school” CoG games in the best possible way.

That makes me very happy, thank you!

[kckolbe]

@T_Chaney

Rest assured leadership will become very important later on, though perhaps I could do a better job of making that more clear.

[Age modifiers] are subject to tweaks of course if people think they’re too punishing or not impactful enough.

You do eventually make it clear to players who have high leadership when discussing Wagner, and the logic makes complete sense.

Well please count mine as in the “not impactful enough” camp. I feel like being able to pass the 60 Int strat check (the highest tier in the first fight) as an 8 year old is insane. Hell, even the 45 is pretty unreal. In my opinion, the lower ages should have the higher reputation in order to soak early losses, not to still be just as good.

Basically, how young do you want it to be possible to beat Wagner? How young to put up a close fight? Because she’s built up as a big deal, so that’s a big line depending on how “powerful” you want the MC to be.