New Project

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BigJKU316
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New Project

Post by BigJKU316 »

In an effort to do something a bit simpler form a GM perspective and from a player perspective I need to shift gears for a couple of reasons.

1. I just found out my wife will be having our second child in late November. Figured this was coming and it was part of the push to bring Alpha towards a conclusion for me. I simply won't have the time to run something as free form and involved as that is.

2. Simpler might turn out to be more fun in the end.

Enough of the nonsense...here are the particulars for a proposed replacement.

1. We are going to look at doing Star Wars. Two other genres (or should I say eras) were considered but seemed to have limited appeal with our current player set (1918 Earth and 1970'ish Earth). I personally am very interested in both those dates and some of the work here would apply going forward if I elected to do those. But that is not really important to most here.

2. This will be set in the period just after Revenge of the Sith, except the Emperor and Vader lose and die so the Jedi and the force are gone. They won't be a factor in the game. Don't ask about it because the answer is no. More IC justification will be provided for this at the outset.

3. The powers that could be played are TBD, but will include a number of options for most players. Essentially in the game world the galaxy as it is known will be fragmented with a very very weak Senate after all the nonsense with Palpatine and the Jedi gets revealed. Options are effectively limitless and I personally don't have a problem creating a race for someone if the hundreds out there don't suit you in particular. The galaxy is proposed as big enough that probably anything you wanted could exist.

4. There is effectively no R&D. The solution to more power is more guns or missiles or shield power or armor. It does not get better. Tech is old and stagnant so it just sort of is what it is. This takes a huge amount off of my plate and makes the game more manageable.

5. Fully designable capitol ships and fighters. You can design anything you would like to have, though only a fixed number of each can be in service at any one time.

6. Did I mention fighters? They will be fully integrated into the game dynamic as they are critical to the genre. If things work out right...and as play tested so far they should...there should be a balance between the value of big ships, fighters and more flexible medium ships.

7. Simplified defense and movement. Though it is a bit of a fudge we will go the interconnected hyper-space lanes route. This means from one planet you can only go to certain other defined planets. This should simplify defending oneself from attack and increase conflict among players.

8. Hopefully a more robust and scarce resource system. More and different resources that vary from system to system should force more trading and create planets of strategic value to all players.

9. Far far far fewer ships. Though this is a direct violation of some EU cannon we are doing it just from a game play point of view. If you can only have a few hundred ships, of which possibly a dozen are of the very large type, then you will value them more and it will make fleet actions a bit more rational. Plus it will add anguish if you make a mistake and leave your fleet flagship that is pushing 8 KM's in length alone and watch it get blasted to bits by a couple dozen squadrons of heavy bombers.


That is basically where things stand right now. A few people are helping me put together the universe and test out some things on the spreadsheet. Will keep people advised and it is not time to claim player nations yet but if you are interested/have input put it here for now.
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Re: New Project

Post by stitch626 »

Great idea. I'm in.

I have no issue with the removal of force users. Most have died off and the ones that didn't would be hiding. No need to hear form them for a long time.

One question: how is ship combat performance determined?
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Re: New Project

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The sheet has its own calculator and it translates what emplacements you put on a capitol ship (turbo-lasers of various strength, ion cannons, lasers emplacements) into anti-capitol ship, anti-shield and anti-fighter ratings. Then each ship has a defensive rating based on its armor and shields.
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Re: New Project

Post by Sonic Glitch »

I admit, I am not very familiar with the greater SW universe, but I'm game.
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Re: New Project

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Sonic Glitch wrote:I admit, I am not very familiar with the greater SW universe, but I'm game.
Outside of the force stuff and the politics (which basically won't matter as I figure upon hearing the sad excuse for what the central government and Jedi did in the clone wars most systems would look to start fresh anyway) just think of WWII in space for the most part except some powers combine their carriers and battleships while others don't. That is the simplest way to get your head around it.
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Re: New Project

Post by Lighthawk »

Sounds like fun, I'll give it a shot
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Re: New Project

Post by Nickswitz »

I would be interested in this, at least until next semester when I will be swamped with school work. Also, would it be possible to do a person to person version of this, like ground rather than space. I just think that ground movements and deployment would be more fun, it may just be me although.
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Re: New Project

Post by BigJKU316 »

You mean to game out the ground battles like we did space battles?
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Re: New Project

Post by Nickswitz »

Yeah, pretty much, just because in my head it seems like it would be a little easier, and a little more, relatable.
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Re: New Project

Post by Deepcrush »

Honestly, planning out ground battles is a hell of a lot more detailed then space battles.
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Re: New Project

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Pretty much Deep. There is terrain to consider and other factors. What I think we will do after talking with a few people is this.

Every world will have a shield so the only way to take a system is to land troops. If the attacker wins they disable the shield and the population will in all cases surrender since the alternative is bombardment from orbit in most cases.

The combat system is basically a case of matching troops with the environment. Defenders have a built in advantage. Some types are better on some environments than others. Each world fits a certain type.
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Re: New Project

Post by Nickswitz »

Yeah, that's basically what I was thinking.
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Re: New Project

Post by Lighthawk »

BigJKU316 wrote:Pretty much Deep. There is terrain to consider and other factors. What I think we will do after talking with a few people is this.

Every world will have a shield so the only way to take a system is to land troops. If the attacker wins they disable the shield and the population will in all cases surrender since the alternative is bombardment from orbit in most cases.

The combat system is basically a case of matching troops with the environment. Defenders have a built in advantage. Some types are better on some environments than others. Each world fits a certain type.
Interesting. If that's how it is, I'll certainly go with it, but it strikes me as odd. How exactly are we landing troops through a shield? Unless the shield only covers the vital points on the world? Or do we concentrate fleet fire on one place to open a hole? Or doesn't SW differentiate between energy and physical shields? I guess if it was just energy shields...but then what stops us from raining proton torpedoes and concussion missiles?
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Re: New Project

Post by BigJKU316 »

The short answer as to why you can't just bombard, simplicity sake.
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Re: New Project

Post by Lighthawk »

Fair enough.
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