Search found 1392 matches

by Tyrel Lohr
Wed Mar 07, 2018 5:05 am
Forum: VBAM Galaxies
Topic: Rebirth: Combat Demo
Replies: 16
Views: 15483

Re: Rebirth: Combat Demo

The current round of combat tests came about because of a desire to address some existing criticisms (internal and external) of how combat worked. Most of 2017 was probably spent pushing these concepts around to see what stuck. We've run into a few issues with our internal rules build in our test ga...
by Tyrel Lohr
Wed Mar 07, 2018 4:55 am
Forum: VBAM Galaxies
Topic: Tech, Special Abilities, and Unit Design
Replies: 90
Views: 41482

Re: Tech, Special Abilities, and Unit Design

I think a system like what you've outlined is roughly along the lines of what I think would work for an advanced set of research rules. I am going to keep the more standard tech advancement rules for the basic rules, however, but the major difference there is that you end up with a more start-and-st...
by Tyrel Lohr
Sat Feb 24, 2018 11:12 pm
Forum: VBAM Galaxies
Topic: Tech, Special Abilities, and Unit Design
Replies: 90
Views: 41482

Re: Tech, Special Abilities, and Unit Design

We actually tried the "evolutionary design" path during 2E's development. That led to a few problems in that players were more or less locked in to a certain design path and you couldn't replicate equivalents of some of the post-Washington Treaty pre-WWII refits where battlecruisers were c...
by Tyrel Lohr
Tue Feb 20, 2018 12:34 am
Forum: VBAM Galaxies
Topic: Tech, Special Abilities, and Unit Design
Replies: 90
Views: 41482

Re: Tech, Special Abilities, and Unit Design

What I've found with the tech rules is that we have a few different outcomes that players generally want, and they are at issue with one another: A linear tech progression to handle historical scenarios Pre-generated force lists that make empires unique and so players don't have to touch the unit co...
by Tyrel Lohr
Sat Feb 17, 2018 9:06 pm
Forum: VBAM Galaxies
Topic: Tech, Special Abilities, and Unit Design
Replies: 90
Views: 41482

Re: Tech, Special Abilities, and Unit Design

The initial spread of units is currently covering everything that you'll need as a baseline to play the game. That means ships through CA size (have being been doing through CL, but that seems limiting), including support craft, starbases, and troops. Unique versions could be created for each empire...
by Tyrel Lohr
Thu Feb 15, 2018 11:16 pm
Forum: VBAM Galaxies
Topic: Tech, Special Abilities, and Unit Design
Replies: 90
Views: 41482

Re: Tech, Special Abilities, and Unit Design

Revisiting this breakdown, it looks like right now the rules have settled into 5 tech levels instead with the following tech year subdivisions: TL-1: 3000-3004 TL-2: 3005-3009 TL-3: 3010-3014 TL-4: 3015-3019 TL-5: 3020-3024 This breaks the game timeline into 5 year chunks, and right now I have penci...
by Tyrel Lohr
Thu Feb 15, 2018 10:53 pm
Forum: VBAM Galaxies
Topic: Rebirth: Combat Demo
Replies: 16
Views: 15483

Re: Rebirth: Combat Demo

Gunboats are likely going to end up in the "tech expansion" book because Geoff needs them to do something special for the Nexus setting supplements he's writing, and because the other interpretations that we've tried so far have not been terribly compelling. The two prototypes that I have ...
by Tyrel Lohr
Thu Feb 15, 2018 10:44 pm
Forum: VBAM Galaxies
Topic: VBAM Galaxies
Replies: 41
Views: 19922

Re: VBAM Galaxies

The Rebirth iteration of the Galaxies rules keeps just three system importance levels (unimportant, minor, major) and eliminates the colony size. The special traits have been re-skinned to use effectively the same bonuses as we saw in 1E/2E, but with some actual background flavor applied to them. Fo...
by Tyrel Lohr
Wed Feb 14, 2018 5:04 am
Forum: War Room
Topic: The Second Solar War
Replies: 15
Views: 14454

Re: The Second Solar War

I think the playtest died, unfortunately. :(

I think a few of the players dropped out and Jay didn't have time to continue. It has just been a really bad last few years for VBAM development due to time constraints on all sides.
by Tyrel Lohr
Wed Feb 14, 2018 5:02 am
Forum: Officer's Lounge
Topic: VBAM status?
Replies: 4
Views: 5171

Re: VBAM status?

Yeah, from September to November last year I had to work almost every Saturday, and the weekends I didn't work I was completely mentally blasted and couldn't do much more than inch forwards with VBAM. I had time to work on things starting again in December and January, however, and have made some ve...
by Tyrel Lohr
Wed Feb 14, 2018 4:40 am
Forum: VBAM Galaxies
Topic: Rebirth: Combat Demo
Replies: 16
Views: 15483

Re: Rebirth: Combat Demo

Here is a quick one round example that I did for one of the internal testers a few weeks ago. I updated it a bit to update some rule references that had changed, but the core elements have stayed the same. While squadrons have survived, they are now an organizational unit that is used to control the...
by Tyrel Lohr
Wed Feb 14, 2018 4:17 am
Forum: VBAM Galaxies
Topic: VBAM Galaxies
Replies: 41
Views: 19922

Re: VBAM Galaxies

I'm thinking about 2 weeks until we can get started, so be sure to check back and I'll IM you when we're ready to give it a go. I think I have 2-3 players that would be willing to commit to the playtest game, but I was really hoping to grab some more from here because I think a 6 player test is goin...
by Tyrel Lohr
Wed Feb 14, 2018 3:55 am
Forum: VBAM Galaxies
Topic: VBAM Galaxies
Replies: 41
Views: 19922

Re: VBAM Galaxies

We should have more to announce in about 2 weeks. I've been rounding up edits and doing some testing on a 6-player game to test out what looks to be some final changes to the diplomacy and intel rules. The 2017 combat development has ended up arriving as a general consensus that consolidates a lot o...
by Tyrel Lohr
Wed Feb 14, 2018 12:13 am
Forum: VBAM Galaxies
Topic: How are things going on Galaxies/Rebirth?
Replies: 2
Views: 3872

Re: How are things going on Galaxies/Rebirth?

I'm about two months late with a reply, but I can give a quick status report. Work has been picking back up on Galaxies/Rebirth. I didn't manage to get much done on it last Fall due to a hectic work schedule, but we kept shooting emails back and forth and prototyping rules options in the interim. Ri...
by Tyrel Lohr
Sat Jun 17, 2017 9:22 pm
Forum: VBAM Galaxies
Topic: Tackling the 4X Experience
Replies: 9
Views: 6444

Re: Tackling the 4X Experience

Picking up where we left off at the start of Turn 5, here is where I think all of our forces are: Scout Fleet 1 @ Moria 5 Icarus FF Scout Fleet 2 @ Nexus 5 Icarus FF Scout Fleet 3 @ Rhodes 3 Icarus FF Patrol Fleet 4 @ Atlas 1 Minotaur CA, 1 Demeter CA, 1 Crete CL, 4 Phalanx DD, 4 Hydra LF Home Fleet...