Page 1 of 1

VBAM status?

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 2:08 pm
by Caplin
Hi All,

I was just reminded of VBAM 2E, and have thought once again about trying to get a solo game going. I am a bit discouraged to see the lack of new activity on the boards recently—I realize this is a niche game, but I hope the project hasn't been abandoned.

I'd appreciate reassurance if there is still work ongoing on new products. In particular, any kind of 2E CMC would be most welcome.
Thanks much :)

Re: VBAM status?

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 11:49 am
by BroAdso
I'm actually getting a little worried - I'm still plugging away at testing some of the neat galaxies/unity ideas we were batting around, but I haven't seen Tyrel post in several months now and I don't have a good external email for him. I hope it's just a temporary blip (we all have them!) and I'd encourage you to join me with some ideas, commentary, tests in the Galaxies forum. It's a bit echoey in there.

Re: VBAM status?

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 4:59 pm
by Caplin
I'd love to, if the opinion of someone who's never played any iteration of the rules would be of value. ) Are you using any particular basis for the playtesting, or just the latest posted Galaxies google doc?

Re: VBAM status?

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 5:02 am
by Tyrel Lohr
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 very good progress on a new version of Galaxies/Rebirth that we can look at running a public playtest of in early March.

I need to play through another 2-3 years of my current solo playtest to get a good feel for any remaining rules that need to change in the current alpha draft. I am testing diplomacy and intel changes, a few tweaks to economy and construction, and making sure that the game progression feel right with those changes in place.

I've also started work on a mission/agenda based replacement for the NPE rules that combines idea from With a Purpose with a very basic relationship shift system similar to the 1E rules, but less time intensive. The goal is that the neutral systems on the map will still be a bit unpredictable diplomatically, but also have clearly defined goals for what they want to do. I've run into two neutrals in my playtest game. One of them rolled a military agenda and decided they wanted to go raid their neighbor. The other rolled that they wanted to improve Productivity in their systems.

I'm attempting to flesh out those goals/agendas to make them a bit more versatile, but at that point as a CM you'll be able to tell what the neutral powers want to do. Meanwhile, the relationship shifts will tell you if they want to improve or degrade relations with a random neighbor -- which in turn gives you a diplomatic objective to go with whatever else they may have rolled up.

The NPE that rolled the military object also happened to start with a Precursor Heavy Cruiser (derelict) in their home system. :twisted:

Re: VBAM status?

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 6:27 pm
by aelius
Tyrel Lohr wrote:The NPE that rolled the military object also happened to start with a Precursor Heavy Cruiser (derelict) in their home system. :twisted:
Oops :shock:
Well, that ought to make things interesting.