Marko Ramius piloted an early version of the Pabro.
Typical Gameplay setup for each station, in the context of the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders
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introducingThe Hunt for Red MithunaIt's the year 2180. The renowned Martian Smart Product Design Lab (MSPDL) is known for designing the greatest mechatronics systems in the galaxy, and MSPDL Team Pabros has produced the fearsome Pabro submarine. The Pabro is designed for sub-to-sub combat in the rusty, lawless seas of Mars. There are three stations aboard the Pabro: the Console of Naval Navigation (CONN), the Sound Navigation And Ranging station (SONAR), and the Tactical Ordained Range Potatoes with Extremely Disastrous Output station (TORPEDO).
CONN handles all communication between stations and between the Pabro and other submarines. SONAR uses pings to locate enemy submarines. SONAR also passively listens for enemy launches and pings. TORPEDO launches torpedos at enemy submarines. |
the playing field
Mare Utopia
The MSPDL created a detailed virtual simulation of the Mare Utopia sea using a hexagonal grid, as depicted in Figure 1. Coordinates are defined such that for any hex cell, x + y + z = 21. Each submarine is randomly assigned an (x, y, z) starting position and heading (up, left-up, right-up, down, left-down, right-down) at the beginning of the game. Since each hexagon is roughly 100 square miles, multiple submarines can occupy a single square.
Fig 1. The Ocean. Three axes are defined at the bottom left. Example coordinates are given for three specific grid cells.
combat
Gameplay
MSPDL regularly runs combat simulations (aka "games") amongst the submarines in its fleet. During a typical game, each submarine is remotely operated by three people, one per station.
The game is battle-royale style, which means that each submarine tries to be the last live submarine in the sea. The games are turn based. Each submarine is allowed one action per station per turn. It's up to each submarine to accurately respond to enemy pings and torpedos.
Visit the Communications Protocol section for the details on how turns and actions are communicated.
The game is battle-royale style, which means that each submarine tries to be the last live submarine in the sea. The games are turn based. Each submarine is allowed one action per station per turn. It's up to each submarine to accurately respond to enemy pings and torpedos.
Visit the Communications Protocol section for the details on how turns and actions are communicated.
Captain Marko strategizes which submarine to target based on SONAR operator Anatoly's analysis of enemy positions.
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Serial Output view of a full game
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