Thursday, September 22, 2011

This is how good games are made.. I think.

Sorry for the lack of new posts, I'll do better..
I'm seeing more hits on the site and that makes me happy.. I'm seeing a new subcriber too. The interest is there.. Just need to get the word out. Tough to do when you don't have funding.
Moving on...
Here ia a great bit of feedback that I got on Warseer from Easy E. Thanks Easy E..
Quote Read part 1. Mind if I make some comments?
On a first, quick read through I was unsure about when Players did what within the Turn system. I may have missed something. I see where players calculate their Action points per pilot, and then I see when a Mecha could shoot/H2H, etc.

However, is this an I-Go-U-Go system, Alternate Activation, Action/reaction, Initiative based, etc? I'm not sure. It seems like pilots can choose to spend action points at different points, such as when they are being shot at, choosing to shoot, to avoid falling etc. However, I'm not sure who initiates all these actions.
First Off, Thank you for the comments, these will go a long way to make the game better. In the downloads section of the blog Part 1 and Part 2 go together to make the full game rules. The terrain is a big gameplay element as well.

Moving forward, I will clarify a bit more in the rules that this is a turn based action/reaction game where players are allowed to do offensive actions only in their own phase, But as long as a player has action points they may use them as they wish in any turn as long as they are physically allowed to. (The allowable actions are on the mecha stat sheets). So you may boost, dodge ect, in the offensive players turn.

Quote Perhaps it is covered in Part 2. Otherwise, I would love to discuss some ways to handle this going forward.

I like all the reactions a Pilot can take to getting shot. Pretty cool. There are several places where the rules reference up/down dodging to change elevations. Do you have some best practices for keeping track of this in a battle?
Elevations during a battle can be tracked on the field by way of a counter on the missile tracking sheet (there is a space there for your location) or a die showing your elevation 1, 2 or 3. But I hope to see elevation being tracked on the field with the actual model being elevated to the appropriate height with either a flight stand, elevation platform, or telescoping stand.. telescoping flight stand

Quote I think you might want to consider more elevations, with modifiers "To Hit" the more elevations distant you are, or perhaps impossible to hit if more than 1 elevation difference.

I love the missiles using Radar don't need LOS! That is cool.

Do the individual missile hits ever get a bit fiddly? I guess I have used a similar method for Torpedoes in Aquanautica Imperialis, but the numbers of missiles I envision in Robotech could get ugly.
Missiles are in part a big part of this game. I treat them as the third impartial player in the game. Once you fire the missiles they act independantly and blow up whatever they run into. Thanks for thinking the radar/LOS thing is cool.. it took a while to get that thought on paper.
As far as more elevations.. things tend to get more muddled as you add more height.. missiles behave differently and distances get longer.. I'm going with a quick skirmish route on the game and I want to keep things moving in game.

Quote Those are rule suggestions, here are some suggestions for making the game more appealing for people to play. You might want to make some Tokens for missiles barrages. The Robotech RPG's have different looks for different missiles.
I'll be placing an order for these soon. missiles. So, great suggestion. currently I use an arrow counter and die to represent the number of missiles in the volley.
Quote You need to "Jazz" up the rules and lay-out. You need more diagrams and examples to explain rules. You need the lay-out to follow the Turn system closely. Finally, More pictures!

All that being said, I'm totally going to try this game out when I get a chance. What size are the mecha counters? 28MM, 54mm, 20mm, 15mm? I think smaller scale would lead to more "epic" battles at range, but the show would lead me to believe 28MM with the ranges you mentioned. They felt like rather close fought things.
I couldn't agree with you more. I will be working on Jazzing up the game, adding diagrams, rules explanations and hobby tips for terrain, flight stands, gameplay pics and assorted other things. Most of all are the pictures.. There is a whole realm of pics out there that I can draw from.
Models currently are set to the range of 4 to 5 inches tall roughly 1/144 scale. I've been running things on 40mm bases...
I'm currently working on release Version 1.3 which will address the things you commented above. Also reworked, will be a more refined Close combat system with a few tweeks to Zentraedi weapon and HTH strength levels.

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