"SPACE FIGHT!" Starship combat boardgame

[Flatus Maximus]

OK, I've made a preliminary update. Needs tweaking, but the basic concept is there!

What determines when the movement turn is completed? You say a ship must move its current speed each round, but its speed might change during the round. For example, a ship is flying at speed 12, slows down to 3 and then moves 3 hexes. Is the movement turn over? In other words, it sounds like the ship can adjust speed, then move (including turns), then adjust speed (if there are any speed points left).

 

[Morrus]

What determines when the movement turn is completed? You say a ship must move its current speed each round, but its speed might change during the round. For example, a ship is flying at speed 12, slows down to 3 and then moves 3 hexes. Is the movement turn over? In other words, it sounds like the ship can adjust speed, then move (including turns), then adjust speed (if there are any speed points left).

Excellent point! The only way I can see it working is one velocity change per round, at a predefined point (either beginning or end of round). You can change your velocity by as much as you have speed points, but only the once.

 

[Flatus Maximus]

Excellent point! The only way I can see it working is one velocity change per round, at a predefined point (either beginning or end of round). You can change your velocity by as much as you have speed points, but only the once.

Straightforward and you can still do most trajectories, so long as you can make multiple turns per round. Allowing speed changes at the beginning and end of the turn, however, would prevent wasted, unspent speed points, which could prevent less maneuverable ships from flying off the map!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Note:

Clarify the terms you use in the Movement Section. It reads a little confusing at times, since sometimes you say "Current Speed" but I assume you mean "Velocity".

I would try to clarify the times:

- Velocity: The number of hexes you move this round.
- Speed: (Maybe a different name is required): The amount hexes you can use to change your velocity or direction.
- Direction: The direction of your velocity, e.g. the direction you are moving toward. ??? (I don't know if this should be its own term, or be named differently.
- Maneuverability: The number of speed points it costs you to change your direction by 60 degrees. Your current Velocity divided by your Maneuverability determines the number of hexes the ship must move before making its next 60 degree turn.

...

Oh, wait a moment? Is it intended that a ship with a low maneuverability score can turn very often (it costs very little speed) but it has to move very far before it can turn? Either I am reading it wrong or something is wrong.

A ship with speed 8 and maneuverability 1 could perform 8 turns, except at velocity, say, 12, it can turn effectively only once, since it can turn only every 12 / 1 = 12 hexes?

EDIT:
Oh wait, I think I am getting confused. The freighter example has 3 values - speed points, turn cost and maneuverability, but the sample ship at the start omits one value...

 

[Morrus]

I've clarified those terms in the latest update.

The example ships don't have those values yet, because I still want to reduce the three values to only two.

Other updates in the latest version include explosions, a slight alteration to the Hero section, and an introductory background section detailing the factions. I haven't yet updated the example ships to reflect the factions.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I've clarified those terms in the latest update.

The example ships don't have those values yet, because I still want to reduce the three values to only two.

Other updates in the latest version include explosions, a slight alteration to the Hero section, and an introductory background section detailing the factions. I haven't yet updated the example ships to reflect the factions.

Hmm. Maybe you don't need to set a movement cost for changing turns, just the "divider" the ship uses? Effectively you just say how many turns a ship can make per round that way.

 

[Flatus Maximus]

I've clarified those terms in the latest update.

The example ships don't have those values yet, because I still want to reduce the three values to only two.

Other updates in the latest version include explosions, a slight alteration to the Hero section, and an introductory background section detailing the factions. I haven't yet updated the example ships to reflect the factions.

Is it redundant to have both a Maneuverability score and a cost associated with turning? Presumably clumsy ships will have both a low Maneuverability score and a high cost associated with turning, so it seems like such a ship is being penalized twice. IMHO, it seems like you could get away with one or the other.

In any case, it also seems that there should either be a standard number of speed points, with costs for changing speed/heading varying from ship to ship; or a standard cost for changing speed/heading, with speed points varying from ship to ship. The second option means you only have one number per ship. Determining all three for each ship seems redundant.

Is there no longer a max speed? If you want one and you went with the second option above, you could make max speed = speed points for simplicity and so that your speed points have a physical meaning: the speed a ship can achieve, starting from rest, in the span of one turn.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

A danger regarding a model where inertia is returned - at least one I think might crop up - is that participants move very far on the battlegrid, and the distances might be too far for the typical map...

Just think of when you play Asteroids - how easy it is to become too quick and go over the borders...

 

[Morrus]

Is it redundant to have both a Maneuverability score and a cost associated with turning? Presumably clumsy ships will have both a low Maneuverability score and a high cost associated with turning, so it seems like such a ship is being penalized twice. IMHO, it seems like you could get away with one or the other.

Yes; that's why I keep saying that! I want to combine those two numbers.

The problem, as alluded to above, it that one of them is higher=better and the other is lower=better given the way they need to be used.

Is there no longer a max speed? If you want one and you went with the second option above, you could make max speed = speed points for simplicity and so that your speed points have a physical meaning: the speed a ship can achieve, starting from rest, in the span of one turn.

Wavering on it. That's a fundamental design decision I need to make a call on.

 

[Flatus Maximus]

Yes; that's why I keep saying that! I want to combine those two numbers.

It seems to me that the Maneuverability score obviates the need to combine the two numbers, but it sounds like you want the cost for turning to depend on the ship, right? Will the cost to speed up/down also depend on the ship? This approach, as opposed to having a flat cost for turning and speeding up/down, will be more complicated both in play and design.

For what it's worth, here's how I would define the terms:

Top Speed: The largest number of hexes the ship can move in one round.
Current Speed: The number of hexes the ship must move this round. (May be adjusted once, at the beginning of the round, before the ship actually moves.)
Current Location: The hex that the ship occupies.
Direction: The face of the Current Location hex that the ship must exit when initiating subsequent movement.
Maneuverability: Determines the number of hexes a ship must move before changing Direction by 60 degrees. (Example: A ship traveling with Current Speed=12 and Maneuverability=4 must move 3 hexes before changing Direction by 60 degrees.)
Speed Points: Points per round that can be spent to speed up/down. (Example: Speed Points=Top Speed, and speeding up/down by one hex costs one Speed Point, for simplicity.)

As you can see, there is no cost to change Direction, only to speed up/down. Two ships with different Maneuverability scores will, in general, have different turning radii (so the penalty for having a low Maneuverability score is here -- of course, such a ship can change Direction more rapidly by slowing down).

To keep physicists happy
Velocity: A datum that specifies both the Current Speed and Direction.

Edit: After considering what it would mean to have Maneuverability=1, I replaced "turning" with "change in Direction," since otherwise such a ship could never change Direction! Instead, such a ship may now move, then change Direction (new heading for the next turn).