The Dreamliner Operations

The Dreamliner Operations:

A Complete Guide by the Expedition Omega Crew 

By; Omri, Cressida, Liana, Yppn, Diamond

Dreamliner Operations, Navigation Training

by Omri

Importance of Navigation:

The Dreamliner Revenge cannot, in its travel, cross through its previous path. Going in any direction breaks a part on the corresponding wall. Additional difficulty is posed by defined Skerries, sections of the Dreaming that do not allow passage.

Posing additional risk is in the Dreaming there are skerries, specifically established ones that form hard obstacles that must be maneuvered around.

Navigation kept track of the Dreamliner, and kept track of our destinations, and the paths we took to traverse between them. We also kept track of mines placed.

The maps used were pretty familiar to me in concept, it moved in a three-dimensional space. This was broken down by each layer of the Dreaming being a separate two-dimensional map. Top most layer was Most Known and it went next More Known, Known, Forgotten, More Forgotten, and the bottom most layer was most Forgotten. The two-dimensional directions were Faeward, Hellward, Realmsward, and Dreamsward. Unclear whether dreams in those locations were more from the respective denizens of those places.

Dreamwalking, in addition to fixing wards, will erase the paths previously taken so that relatively we are starting with a blank slate.

Collaboration is key. The shortest distance is not the best path, considering that going one direction for too long could cause damage, as with each movement in a certain direction, Engineering must direct an outlet of energy to damage certain components in a release. They can control it to work along a chain, making repair easier once all components on a chain are broken, but that requires coordination between Engineering and Navigation to chart the best path that tactically breaks parts for fixing, and doesn’t cause too much damage. Communications is also collaborated with to determine possible enemy movements.

Lianna and Cressida spearheaded Engineering for most of the day, with John Baptise sacrificing for the away teams and for them by acting as runner to manage damage. Lianna could do the controls without even looking, although talking to her messed her up, don’t do that. Ypnn was glued to Communications, with Kai assisting, coming to Navigation to request the current location. Fern set up Navigations, which Bogen started off with me, and at one point was just me, then Leo came and helped and made it so that we could start planning ahead more, leading to away team coming back and immediately re-deploying.

Photo courtesy of Bri Marie, showing Omri and Bogen working on navigation

Dreamliner Operations, Engineering Training

by Cressida

Our job in engineering is to keep the ship up and running while charging the various systems relating to combat, enemy combatant locations, quick jumps and wards. We would analyze the various circuits around the dreamliner and depending on the direction we needed to move, work as an engineering team to recover the parts that were breaking down in relation to different systems on the dreamliner and repair them. Once an entire circuit was used up it would be instantly repaired, but this often required us to check in with navigation on whether we could move toward the direction needed to finish using that circuit. In addition to directions being crucial for repair, we could also not remove the necessary components without use of our Simon System. For the first half of our voyage we needed to align the color corresponding to the necessary part in immediate duplicate in order to remove it from the circuit. After some magical intervention, we were able to more immediately remove colors without the need for duplicate immediate light flashes. In emergencies where we needed to move a certain direction, but did not have the circuit power to do so, we could do more permanent damage to the dreamliner with options not part of the circuits, these were non-repairable with the exception of a Dreamwalk. During a Dreamwalk, which fixed all the nodes on the outside of the ship, it enabled us to fully repair the inside of the dreamliner. In addition to keeping the ship running and repaired, we focused on charging systems, gaining power use after every move. These systems were crucial to repairing any damage taken from enemy ships, moving quickly, locating combatants and revealing their number of ships, and for preparing mines and torpedoes.

Dreamliner Operations, Engineering Training

By Liana

[The colors of the miniagame maps to which systems?] I had Yellow as Comms, Red as Weapons, Blue as Navigation and Green (White) as ...ugh, idk

The Black Fire Resource nodes were a finite source that supported the whole ship.

I tried to keep tabs on what Communications had for concerns - when nothing in her station was working- and Ypnn and cohort (sorry, was that Kai?) did a great job despite how loud the away teams were sometimes!!

My other notation would be that while it was not connected to any system or station the other two things I was acutely aware of were: Spirit and Engines

Spirit was informative, sometimes vague, and loved to repeat what we were confirming to Spirit. Loved to confirm that they had appropriately heard and understood whatever action or request was being made of Spirit.

Engines - thankfully for the entire mission, I checked with Spirit, and the four Great Fire Elementals who were "powering" the engines were in fact HAPPY with their jobs and environments.

Had they not been, I had informed Spirit that I would free them immediately, the mission be damned.

Thankfully, this did not have to be taken into consideration.

Photo courtesy of Bri Marie, showing Liana and Cressida working on Engineering

Dreamliner Operations, Communications Training 

By Yppn

Communications was all about the enemy ships. We could intercept messages from ships that weren't too far away, hearing as their captains directed their own crews to perform movements and other actions just as Baron Diamond did as the captain of our ship. As such, we didn't necessarily know where these ships were from communications alone, but we could gather other Intel from them.

We could sometimes figure out which plane a ship was on based on their movements - such as series of movements that suggested a lot of open space in the plane a ship was on - but there were three ways we could figure out where a ship was at with certainty: Engineering could run a check for us for the exact coordinates, or their captain would start sending commands to fire a torpedo, which indicated that we were in range of the ship (regardless of if the torpedo hit), or us failing to move into a spot due to a ship being located there.

Once identifying where a ship is at, we could fire at it or try to escape it - communications being vital for the latter. You could generally identify which voice was the captain of the ship based on either the firing of torpedos, or based off the ship's movements, as they would start to match those of the Dreamliner. There were often periods of time where every movement by the Dreamliner was matched by another ship's movements, leading to a messy game of chase as the rest of the crew was working on repairs and reaching portals. But, while there was one point where we got cornered in by two ships and knew a third was on the way from communications' information, and another where we were being chased for well over 20 minutes, Communications was ultimately helpful in keeping the ship out of the line of fire as much as possible.

Photo courtesy of Bri Marie, showing Yppn working on communications

Dreamliner Operations, Captain’s training

By Diamond 

All stations need to know the names of the basic directions when navigating the Dreaming. They are “Faeward” (corresponds to how North would be orientated more familiar maps), “Hellward” (East), “Realmsward” (South), “Dreamward” (West), “Known” (upward), and “Forgotten” (downward). Orient the Navigation station such that “Faeward” on the maps matches “Faeward” on the Dreamliner. There are six up and down levels of the map from “Most Known” to “Most Forgotten”. 

As captain, it is your responsibility to see that the crew is working well together towards the quest’s goal. This last expedition, our goal was to drop off questing parties to as many planes as possible, so there was great time pressure to get between the planes quickly. Fast navigation also helped keep enemy Dreamliners from being able to keep firing on us. Finally, moving quickly charges the systems faster. Quick operation of the Dreamliner by the crew had multiple benefits, and to get that the crew needs to know what they needed to do. To that end a routine for the crew greatly helped keep things clear, on the same page, and operating efficiently. The Operating Routine will be outlined below. While a CAPTAIN must both think ahead and act decisively, their most important attribute is a loud, clear voice, so that their crew can hear them in a crowded Dreamliner.

From the Captain’s point of view, NAVIAGATION plots the course, keeping track of what route we have taken as we are normally blocked from crossing our path. They also keep track where we have dropped mines.  They can see where Skerries (dream islands) are, with which we need to avoid colliding. COMMUNICATION gathers information on what enemy Dreamliners are up to, and gives you best guesses on where the enemy are and their intentions. ENGINEERING makes the moves happen, but moving causes faults which restrict how much we can go in particular directions. They will periodically need you to make moves in specific directions to clear faults. Too many faults in a particular direction will cause damage to the ship. Four damages will destroy the Dreamliner. In addition to causing faults, moving charges the systems. Technically, the Captain does only two things: call out the movement direction, and using the actions enabled by the ship’s systems. ENGINEERING will tell you what systems are available and when a move has been completed, allowing you to make the next move.

These actions, which can only be done when ENGINERING has powered the specified systems, are:

• “Fire Torpedo <a number 1-4> <direction>” fires a torpedo with the number of squares on the map in the specified direction. I believe a direct hit will do 2 damage, an adjacent square 1 damage.
• “Drop Mine” places a mine on the square the Dreamliner is occupying. Move away before activating the mine. One can “Activate Mine” at any time later (not requiring the system to be energized again), setting off an explosion which will do 2 damage to Dreamliners in that square, or 1 damage to adjacent squares.
• “Ward” re-enforces the hull, repairing a level of damage. We concentrated on keeping the ship repaired.
• “Turbo <direction> <a number 1-4>. This immediately moves the ship those many squares in the specified direction. Unlike normal movement, Turbo can cross one’s track and does not cause faults. So, it is convenient if one must move in a single direction for several squares, avoiding fault-direction-lock.
• “Guess <level>” tells you the number of enemy Dreamliners on the specified level.
• “Check” gives three co-ordinates of the nearest enemy Dreamliner, but one of those three co-ordinates will be wrong.  

Since our mission was to reach as many planes as possible, and not to fight the enemy Dreamliners, we barely used “Guess” and “Check”. Use of those would greatly synergize with COMMUNICATION’s efforts to locate the enemy for accurate weapons use. We only used the torpedo and mines defensively when the enemy located us and were firing on us from close range. Had our mission been to eliminate the enemy, we would have had to use “Guess” and “Check” to locate the enemy for accurate fire. Our combat tactic was when we happened to locate the enemy by bumping into them to quickly respond by either dropping a mine, moving quickly, then activating it; or by a quick torpedo response. Keep in mind damage from your own weapons, but given that the enemy Dreamliners seemed to only be able to take two damage, some close friendly damage could be an acceptable risk if one’s wards are in good shape. 

OPERATING ROUTINE FOR FAST OPERATION: I have adjusted the routine below with a few improvements I thought of later. For example, we used the longer and more awkward call “Acknowledged”, where “Aye” would have been better. Enforcing an operating routine seems awkward at first, but virtually eliminated miscommunication errors and sped everything up and helped the whole crew understand when they should act. 

Have the NAVIGATION team propose a course towards the next goal. They need to keep in mind that a straight course will cause too many faults in that direction, a partially twisted path will make ENGINEERING’s job easier. If the CAPTAIN approves the plan, start the first movements while they write out on scrap paper a plot of the next planned movements. This allows the CAPTAIN to make the next move immediately when ENGINEERING has completed the last move. Otherwise, it would be necessary for a time-consuming consultation with NAVIGATION every move. When I had begun a move, I would circle the movement order on the plot, and when movement was complete, I would cross it out. So, I could see at a glance if the crew was waiting for me or if I was waiting for ENGINEERING. With the plot paper, the CAPTAIN does not lose time. I found it helpful to add to the paper which systems were powered and thus available for use. A compass rose of the direction names would also have been a good idea. Thus, I had all the information I needed for decisive commands at my fingertips, eliminating the need for constant repeating of information. If changing circumstances require a change in the plan, updating or replacing the plot is necessary.

Periodically, the CAPTAIN should call out the basic short-term plan so that everyone was on the same page. Something like, “Attention Crew: The enemy is close. We will want to charge a mine so we can drop it soon, place it and move away quickly.” Or alternatively, “We will cruise briskly to the next plane, we need to be there by the time the last away team returns.” Then the CAPTAIN must call out a navigation direction, such as “Faeward”. If not following the instructions of NAVIGATION’s plot, it is necessary to first check on Navigation’s map that this move will not crash into a Skerry nor cross one’s track. NAVIGATION should verbally acknowledge the order, “Faeward, Aye. We are now at <Co-ordinates>, [ie, Gamma Ten Known].” Use of words instead of letters for the lettered co-ordinates would eliminate confusion as some letters sound similarly. This allows COMMUNICATION to know where the Dreamliner is, as it is vital to know where we are to properly understand the enemy’s intentions, and to know in what sphere we are hearing nearby enemy actions. As NAVIGATION does what they need to do to plan the next moves, ENGINEERING verbally acknowledges the order “Faeward, Aye” and swings into action in turn. While ENGINEERING is at work, the CAPTAIN is free to call out powered Actions; consult with NAVIGATION and COMMUNICATIONS to make sure the plan is still viable, and check with ENGINEERING if fault repair will necessitate a change of movement. After they have completed their work, ENGINEERING must call out, “Movement Complete” and the CAPTAIN must reply “Acknowledged, Engineering.” The CAPTAIN is then free to call out the next movement order and repeat as necessary. 

One can only drop away teams when at a plane, and one can not easily cross one’s track. Since enemy action may require maneuvering, I found it wise to stop one movement away from the target plane and wait there if it was necessary to wait for an away team to return. That way if the enemy made it necessary to maneuver, we could without crossing the plane and eliminating the possibility of easily returning. This was also a prime location to employ the “JB Maneuver”, named after its originator, Jean-Baptise.  After I had used my knightly power to check that no innocents would be harmed, we once fired a torpedo at the gate location to try and clear enemy forces from the vicinity of the gate and clear the way for our questing team. When things were looking grim, and we feared we would run out of time for the questing parties to destabilize a sufficient number of enemy-held gates, so JB came up with a literal long shot: attaching a portal-destabilizer stick to a torpedo, maybe a torpedo so equipped could be fired at a portal should the away team fail or not have time to deploy. This latter expedient was mounted but not attempted. It’s unlikely to hit the portal directly enough, but when the situation looked grim and time was short we were for a time considering more desperate tactics.

Speaking of desperate situations, there was one more standard action which one could employ. This was not an innovative experiment like the tactics in the last paragraph, but a basic action always available. One could send a three-person team to exit and trace the outside of the Dreamliner, everyone keeping in contact with the Dreamliner or in a chain connected to a teammate connected to the Dreamliner. Once this trace is complete, faults are cleared and more importantly one’s path on the map is cleared, allowing one to reach or cross over someplace previously visited. Unfortunately, this action reveals the Dreamliner’s exact location to all enemy Dreamliners, so it should be done with care and rarely.

At one point during the last expedition, multiple enemy Dreamliners were firing at us. I felt it necessary to make a decisive maneuver to get out of their fire, and while I looked at the maps to make sure we would not run into a Skerry, I did not look far enough ahead and between our track and the Skerries, my quick actions led us into a dead end. With the enemy zeroing in on us, I called for the only possible action: I ordered Bogen to lead a team outside to do this action. The fate of the Dreamliner depended on it being done quickly. When they were away, I briefed the crew that we would need to maneuver quickly as soon as we were free to navigate. NAVIGATION had a plot ready, and ENGINEERING put in their best effort, and instantly upon the Outside team return, we leapt away from the kill zone in jig time. 

It is also wise to designate to Spirit (our Dreamliner’s control spirit) a second in command who can take the CAPTAIN’s place giving orders in case misadventure should put the CAPTAIN out of action. That way one sword swing would not disable the Dreamliner’s operation.

In our last expedition, we were all concentrating on getting the job done as fast as possible, and it was well we did so as it was a near run thing. Once we were well in the quest, the crew had learned their jobs admirably and we were very efficient and could maneuver at a speed undreamed of at the beginning of that day. If I had been looking farther ahead from this one voyage, I should have periodically rotated the crew roles so that everyone learned every job. Including the Captain’s position. That way we could have trained many people with the necessary skills and greatly increased the talent pool for future voyages. We were concentrating on maximum effectiveness for that particular voyage.

I greatly commend the hard work and ingenuity of the Dreamliner’s crew. Some of the tasks could get repetitive and stressful, and they worked hard for a long time with little relief. They maintained good morale and intelligent initiative. At NAVIGATION, Bogen showed officers thinking in looking ahead and assisting co-ordination. Omri worked extremely diligently, and without needing orders wisely expanded his duties to include keeping track of the Questing Party’s success or failure at each plane. Leo provided welcome relief. Ypnn showed great patience at COMMUNICATIONS Eventual relief came from Kai. At ENGINEERING, both Liana and Cressida became very skilled at looking ahead to choose which faults could be most easily righted, and performing the minigame such that those faults were selected. Cressida also allocated power according to the broad directives I periodically laid out, and always had a useful system powered. Elora came up with an innovative “Circuit diagram” which greatly aided the ENGINEER’s fault-clearing task. Sir Kovaks gave welcome relief. Jean-Baptise ran around with great energy, speed and endurance moving the faults as necessary, as well as coming up with clever maneuver ideas.