Future Developments

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BLHarrison
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Future Developments

Post by BLHarrison »

I'm wondering about some of the things we might see in future suppliments.

I beleive we already know that there will be rules introduce Nomatic Races, or Empires suffering through Civil Wars and (one of the things I'm most looking forward to) lots and lots of new technlogies beyond that in the basic book.

But I'm also wondering about some of the things I saw mentioned in 1st edition VBAM/Suppliments/ect.

For example, will I didn't like the title of "Underground Empires" I loved the overall concept, especially as I'm planing on using VBAM2 to help provide background for a RPG campain of mine. It wouldn't suprise me if many of the Special Tech/Ablities mentioned above could be used for such "Grand Factions" (which is one of the alternative names I've played with).

Also as part of that RPG background I started to wonder about some specific types of Special Tech/Abilities. For Example, Special Forces. I vaugly remember it being a possialbe trait in VBAM1 units. It could be something that would generate additional IP, but only for missions that orginated in the system where the unit was located and perhaps it couldn't be used for some missions (the diplomatic ones for example). It might cost 2mu/factor, so you buy a 1/2 point unit that at TL+0 would only produce that 1 IP, but it just might be critical. Also in the section about commerce raiding, the Special Ability that allows you to take prizes might also bonus IP to be spent, but only for Sabatoge:Piracy and/or Sabatoge: Commerce missions.

There is also the Powered Armor special ability, besides the above speculative Special Forces, will we be seeing any other "defineing" types of Special Abilities ground forces?

Well that is it for now. Thank you for your time.
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Tyrel Lohr
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Re: Future Developments

Post by Tyrel Lohr »

I'll go through the list you posted, and then give you some ideas that I have been kicking around for awhile:

Nomad Empires:
This is something that I want to see happen and could almost carry its own mini-supplement, but will probably find its way into either Companion or the next catch-all rules product after that. At its core its an easy concept and a lot of the techs that I copied and pasted into the current Sep 12 draft support Nomads. Specifically, Extraction is used to generate income, Construction to build flights, starbases or installations, Farming to create food, etc. Mobile Shipyards will also exist to allow for remote starship construction. The intent is for the rules to be able to handle a rag-tag fleet (Battlestar Galactia) or a massive quarian flotilla (Mass Effect).

Civil Wars: I have most of the rules written for civil wars, and they will appear in the Companion. Once your empire-wide Morale falls to a certain point you'll have the chance of sparking a civil war, at which point you divide the empire up into loyalist and rebel factions and fight it out.

Underworld Empires: I have some extensive notes from the 1E days when we had a supplement planned for an expanded version of the UE rules. My current plan is to take those notes and combine them with the pirate force rules that I originally wrote for 2E and create a book that would allow a player to run a pirate or civilian empire that runs in parallel with other national empires in a campaign. So you could be a pirate force that runs around raiding systems and trying to evade enemy patrols or a merchant freight corporation that is looking to establish trade routes and sponsor colony missions along the borders.

Great Powers: This is just a minor concept that is intended to recreate the Victorian concept of great powers and minor powers by giving great powers certain bonuses based on what criteria they used to achieve Great Power status. May or may not see the light of day, but should be small enough to fit into the Companion.

Galactic Senate: Another minor rules concept that will get fleshed out and included in the Companion. It will allow you to form and administer galactic-level governments similar to what you see in Master of Orion, Mass Effect, or Twilight Imperium. These "weak alliances" bind the powers together and allow them to vote on policies and enact laws that apply to its participants. Expect diplomatic modifiers to apply to these organizations so that it is easier to sign treaties with fellow members or declare against rogue states that exist outside its jurisdiction.

Star Charts: The Star Charts series will provide map data and sample system/planet stats for nearby star systems. The original intention was for the first book to give all stars within 20 ly of Sol, but that might get scaled back a bit (or not, depends on when I get back to the project).

Elite Officers: Those Who Serve will have the elite officer and crew rules, plus will probably be where an updated version of Noel Weer's political control rules will end up, if they don't get updated and put into the Companion.

Alien Species & Governments: The Menagerie will be updated for 2E with new concepts that build upon what we learned from the old edition. Expect more diversity this time through as far as alien species go, as each order of life will have its own advantages or disadvantages. The orders of life presented in the book will include Carbon, Silicon, Exotic, Hydrogen, Synthetic, and Transcendent. That gives us our squishy humanoids, rock monsters, bizarre biologies, gas giant aliens, robots, and energy creatures. Many of the physical traits from 1E will end up being subsumed into these orders of life.

Solo Campaign Guide: One of the projects I really want to work on after the core books are done is a book about solo campaign play that focuses less on rules and more on how to set one up, what to watch out for, tips and tricks, etc. More of an essay and how-to than rules crunch. If this ever happens it will probably be extremely cheap or free, depending on how long the book is and how much of a production budget it receives.

There's a lot of things we can do with the rules, and a lot of things I would like to do with them. Right now all that has to wait until 2E is finally finished and out the door.

As for Special Forces, I need to go through TCW again and see how they interacted in those rules and add them back into the CG or EM.
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BLHarrison
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Re: Future Developments

Post by BLHarrison »

Tyrel Lohr wrote:
Nomad Empires:
This is something that I want to see happen and could almost carry its own mini-supplement, but will probably find its way into either Companion or the next catch-all rules product after that. At its core its an easy concept and a lot of the techs that I copied and pasted into the current Sep 12 draft support Nomads. Specifically, Extraction is used to generate income, Construction to build flights, starbases or installations, Farming to create food, etc. Mobile Shipyards will also exist to allow for remote starship construction. The intent is for the rules to be able to handle a rag-tag fleet (Battlestar Galactia) or a massive quarian flotilla (Mass Effect).
Glad it has this range because I want to show at least two groups as "rag-tag fleets" I assume that you will also include some way for such a group to finally find a home?
Tyrel Lohr wrote: Civil Wars: I have most of the rules written for civil wars, and they will appear in the Companion. Once your empire-wide Morale falls to a certain point you'll have the chance of sparking a civil war, at which point you divide the empire up into loyalist and rebel factions and fight it out.
Glad again as in the very rough "future history" I've made my solo empire will go through one such event.
Tyrel Lohr wrote: Underworld Empires: I have some extensive notes from the 1E days when we had a supplement planned for an expanded version of the UE rules. My current plan is to take those notes and combine them with the pirate force rules that I originally wrote for 2E and create a book that would allow a player to run a pirate or civilian empire that runs in parallel with other national empires in a campaign. So you could be a pirate force that runs around raiding systems and trying to evade enemy patrols or a merchant freight corporation that is looking to establish trade routes and sponsor colony missions along the borders.
Or perhaps a sprawling manufacturer with factories on most if not all worlds? Or a holding company with fingers in many pies? Could it also handle a subornate government, such as the rulers of a single world within a much larger Empire?
Tyrel Lohr wrote: Star Charts: The Star Charts series will provide map data and sample system/planet stats for nearby star systems. The original intention was for the first book to give all stars within 20 ly of Sol, but that might get scaled back a bit (or not, depends on when I get back to the project).
I would realy like to see this one. I've done a "flat map" with spinward, coreward, rimward, anti-spinward orientation for the area around Earth, but as the sourse was a Traveller set of maps with only a few of the stars being identified with thier current names and a bit of a scale difference I am not totaly satified.
Tyrel Lohr wrote: Elite Officers: Those Who Serve will have the elite officer and crew rules, plus will probably be where an updated version of Noel Weer's political control rules will end up, if they don't get updated and put into the Companion.
If you do put the political rules in the Companion along with the other things you mentioned, the Compainion is looking to be a large book.
Tyrel Lohr wrote: Alien Species & Governments: The Menagerie will be updated for 2E with new concepts that build upon what we learned from the old edition. Expect more diversity this time through as far as alien species go, as each order of life will have its own advantages or disadvantages. The orders of life presented in the book will include Carbon, Silicon, Exotic, Hydrogen, Synthetic, and Transcendent. That gives us our squishy humanoids, rock monsters, bizarre biologies, gas giant aliens, robots, and energy creatures. Many of the physical traits from 1E will end up being subsumed into these orders of life.
The Menagerie is yet nother thing I'm looking forward to, I've already got some Ideas about some of the species in my 'verse and would like to stat them out.
Tyrel Lohr wrote: Solo Campaign Guide: One of the projects I really want to work on after the core books are done is a book about solo campaign play that focuses less on rules and more on how to set one up, what to watch out for, tips and tricks, etc. More of an essay and how-to than rules crunch. If this ever happens it will probably be extremely cheap or free, depending on how long the book is and how much of a production budget it receives.
Another thing I would be looking out for as it looks like I'll be going solo most campains anyway.

Thanks for your time and effort!!!
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Re: Future Developments

Post by Redspade07 »

I personally hope the solo campaign book comes out soon, because I am going to have to play vbam solo, and that book would be very helpful to me.
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Re: Future Developments

Post by Chyll »

Tyrel Lohr wrote: Elite Officers: Those Who Serve will have the elite officer and crew rules, plus will probably be where an updated version of Noel Weer's political control rules will end up, if they don't get updated and put into the Companion.
I tend to agree with BL, that it sounds like the Companion could start to get a little.... hefty. :)
OTOH, I am sure the political rules could be tightened up some.

Looking at a couple of the similar It may be interesting to see how they could be structured to fit within a 'Administrative' supplement (probably better name for that).

Politics, governments, galactic senate, civil war, etc. could all be considered related....
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Re: Future Developments

Post by nimrodd »

Chyll wrote:Looking at a couple of the similar It may be interesting to see how they could be structured to fit within a 'Administrative' supplement (probably better name for that).

Politics, governments, galactic senate, civil war, etc. could all be considered related....
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Re: Future Developments

Post by Emiricol »

Definitely of interest.
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Re: Future Developments

Post by Tyrel Lohr »

BLHarrison wrote:Glad it has this range because I want to show at least two groups as "rag-tag fleets" I assume that you will also include some way for such a group to finally find a home?
The trick will be for the empire to have enough remote mining vessels to earn the economic points required to purchase a new colony, then establish enough Agriculture infrastructure to get population growth ramped up so that they can purchase some Census. It will take them some doing, but it is possible.
Or perhaps a sprawling manufacturer with factories on most if not all worlds? Or a holding company with fingers in many pies? Could it also handle a subornate government, such as the rulers of a single world within a much larger Empire?
The original UE rules handled this by giving UEs "Corruption" points at colonies that they could use to earn income. A non-underworld version of this called "Influence" was also created in a subsequent set of UE rules that covered corporate-style influence over colonies. Eventually the two concepts should be combined into a single set of rules, just for simplicity, but that's a bridge I'll cross once the main rules are finished.
If you do put the political rules in the Companion along with the other things you mentioned, the Compainion is looking to be a large book.
The Companion was a huge catch all in first edition, and I have a feeling the same will be true in 2E.

The idea of an "administrative" supplement to contain those rules does seem fairly logical, and there is enough meet there to make that a sensible way of combining the rules. Hmm... I'll have to think on that.
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