> On Mon, 7 Jul 1997, Mikko Kurki-Suonio wrote:
> On Fri, 4 Jul 1997, Oerjan Ohlson wrote:
...
> I use "inferior" here to mean "not worth the cost". Even the best ship
Sure. Of course, once I figure out roughly how badly overpriced they are, I'll
adjust their costs downwards for use in friendly games.
The module "Warhounds" for SD:TNM springs to mind here...
> Thus as a designer you're faced with the hard task of inventing
There is a third alternative: inventing something superior, but more expensive
(in game points terms). In that way you can maintain some sort
of balance. Of course, if it _is_ correctly priced/sized, it isn't
"superior" any longer:)
Later,
> On Mon, 7 Jul 1997, Oerjan Ohlson wrote:
> Sure. Of course, once I figure out roughly how badly overpriced they
But then you'd be playing an unsanctioned, unofficial house variant :-)
Sadly, for certain games/gamers, this is a major point.
Even with less anal retentive gamers, it tends to destroy playability with
strangers. If I could get a dime for every time I tried to play Car Wars
only to find out halfway through the game that the opponent had either
- used house rules without telling me
- seriously misunderstood basic rules (14,000lb. lux cars! hello?
reality check?)
- never heard of the current errata...
> expensive (in game points terms). In that way you can maintain some
I don't know... if it's powerful but overpriced, people will play it a few
times to see the xyzzygun in play, but sooner or later they will realize the
stuff is not worth the cost and either stop using it or change the costs.
If it's weak and still overpriced, you might not even get to the testing
phase unless the stuff is especially colorful/different. Who wants to
try
out "mini-laser: exactly as pulse laser, but half damage"?
> Of course, if it _is_ correctly priced/sized, it isn't
Exactly.
In message <Pine.LNX.3.91.970707131706.6206A-100000@swob.dna.fi>
> Mikko Kurki-Suonio <maxxon@swob.dna.fi> wrote:
> I don't know... if it's powerful but overpriced, people will play it a
I've always liked the idea of less high-tech weapons being
more reliable. The AA battery uses this idea - it's powerful,
but has chances of failure.
Going the other way, you could rule that lesser powered weapons (maybe beams
with 9" range categories) have a
very high fault tolerance - they need to fail two
threshold checks before failing for instance.