Legends of Nomord

[OldnGrey]

Brennall,
Shipyard VFv60 20110818 posted over on mj12, just thought I'd let you know.

Paul

[Tyrel Lohr]

Haven't Decided yet: -
CG 4.13 Random Events

I like using the random events, but the best solutions I have found for controlling their frequency is either to have it be a straight up 5% chance per empire per turn (20 on a D20), like Master of Orion and Master of Magic always did it; a +5% chance per empire per turn, so it slowly becomes more likely than an empire will get a random event; or tie the chance to an empire's total Census, like Census / 2% (round up) chance per empire per turn.

Re: Vandervecken's Excellent Comments

I am jumping in late having been on vacation, but I do admit that the rules can get a little top heavy once you add in a grab bag of optional rules into the mix. Many of the optional rules in Brennall's list are fairly short, and of those some are situational and only get used or referenced once in a blue moon.
That all being said, part of the reason for VBAM 2E's long production cycle is that the game started meandering too far down the Imperial Starfire path and becoming a bloated mess that tried doing too many things at once and obfuscating the rules in the process. Stripping the game back to the bare essentials (plus a few necessary bits and bobs that might as well be in the rules instead of appearing as one- or two-paragraphs options later on) has left us with about 150 pages of content in the main book. Still enough to scare off some players, but still better than the 200 pages I think the draft was at a year and a half ago.

Trying to get players to commit to a game is always difficult. I think the two best case scenarios are to either run a weekly PBEM with a mandatory "turns are generated on this day and time" generation cycle; or an in-person campaign where players meet every week or every other week for a few hours to play through 3-4 turns in rapid-fire succession. For PBEM you pretty much have to stick to a set turn generation cycle, otherwise things like vacations and individual schedules get in the way and end up derailing the game. Allow players to draft basic or placeholder orders or, if two empires are allied or otherwise very friendly, you could allow the other player to draft orders for them for a turn while the other player is unavailable. Everyone is going to have some weeks that they don't get their turns in for one reason or another, so it is an equal disadvantage.

Combat resolution is the biggest issue in any game like this, and that is what usually derails a campaign fast. That's why I recommend in CM'd games that the CM resolve all combat encounters just to keep the game flowing. It can become a burden on the CM in larger games, but it at least allows the game to keep moving forward.

Another thing I've found is that though players like to play in large, epic campaigns... in reality, they would probably have more fun playing in smaller campaigns that give the players more assets at the start of the game and reduce the length of the early and middle phases of the game so that they can jump into the game quickly and start doing things. Large campaigns are fun, but they really are more manageable for solo players that have the time to sit down and player an hour or two here or there as scheduling allows compared to someone that is trying to run a game for 6+ players and get turns generated on a weekly basis.

[Brennall]

Thanks Paul ... your work is appreciated ... its already downloaded and in action!

Tyrel, I like the increasing percentage of random event per turn linked to census. Will be adding that to the rules currently chosen.

[Brennall]

Ok .. having been playing for a while now (I am out on turn 36 on my spreadsheets) I have decided to summarise the important events and descisions I am taking and at the same time "share" via google my turn spreadsheets so if anyone is interested they can see whats happening without me making pointless large posts.

Year 0.3
Gas Giant Station building continues and will do so till the Home system is full, The Council of Nomord has said all resources must be gathered!

073 Possor has been surveyed.

Year 0.4
Production on Nomord II is raised even though the climatic variance is 60% from Nomord normal.

Year 0.5
A second Transport Fleet is constructed, as well as 8 Guardian Gunboats
The Guardian Gunboat fleet begin regularly patrolling Nomord.
There is good news on Nomord II as all of the population are gainfully employed, morale rises.

Year 0.6
An administrative institute is founded on the Homeworld and the second transport fleet joins the first deploying new Gas Giant Stations to the outer zones of Nomord.

Year 0.7
Explorer Fleet 2 is founded with the building of 4 Explorator class ships.

Year 0.8
Explorer Fleet 2 begins searching for more Jump lanes as ExF 1 returns from Possor.

Year 0.9
ExF 1 & 2 continue searching, however ExF 1 suffers mechanical failure while exploring and is forced to return to the homeworld.

Year 0.10
ExF1 & 2 continue searching, sadly finding nothing.

Year 0.11
Our building of Gas Giant Stations is having a significant effect on the economy, roughly 1/3 of our income is now from the outer zone Gas Giants.
ExF1 & 2 continue searching, sadly finding nothing.

Year 0.12
The investment in reseach (paid as a lump sum in this turn) pays off, with the advancement of our significant gains in our Shield Technology. The other hurried investment into Special Equipment failed to generate significant results.

With the senior classes from both the Military & Administative institute graduating this month, one outstanding student has joined the ranks of out Military. Lieutenant Elisha Kenaga has shown consistently superior ground based tactical skills, especially in the area of Defence. Sadly there appears to be no equivalent shining star from the Administrative institute, but we have hopes for the future.

Our population on the Homeworld increased significantly this year, as the Councils calls for our people to Rise to the stars seems to have led to a baby boom. [I am using the rules from Gareth's Thread with some placement rules I developed based upon the AIX statistics which can be found here!

At a personal level I was pleased with the first year, I got faster working on turns and my "Google Spreadsheet" tools helped, especially with being able to hyperlink between sheets and have the Data stored on the web (which helped a lot on the train to Milton Keynes) and using my own Commodore level system generator.

If only I could find a way to get Paul's spreadsheet to work on Google Spreadsheets too .. I would have a total solution!

The "Order Sheet" for the year can be found here!
The Ship Designs Sheet can be found here
My System Sheet can be found here
Finally my Fleet Control list sheet is here

The Order and Fleet sheets are time based, however the Ships designs and System sheet are not and therefore show the future development of my campaign.

I am enjoying myself so far and will put Year 1 up tomorrow hopefully.

[Chyll]

I enjoyed reading your preparation to ramp up to your campaign. I will watch to see how things progress - it looks promising.

Last night I took a glance at Stars Divided : Terran Civil War ... it helps a lot trying to understand the VBAM-Starmada connection, I would recommend it to anyone going this route.

I am glad to hear the material was useful (outside of just playing Stars Divided).