Yet Another Half-Baked Idea From the Creator of the Alarishi
Empire...
(you know, I don't know about you, but _I_ find that phrase a
little worrying)...
I'm thinking that what we really ought to have is a version of Diplomacy with,
say, 2 years per turn. Start when FTL is discovered. Player positions are (the
majors) EU, NAC, ESU and (the minors) LLAR, IF, IC, OU, PAU. Each player has a
certain amount of population and a certain number of regions. Regions with
population produce resources, up
to a point; excess population in a region _consumes_ resources
(think "bread and circuses"). Population points can be destroyed through war,
or relocated by shipping them to a colony, and lost if the colony dies out.
Obviously the population will grow over time, so you can't just sit there and
do nothing. When you participate in a war, you will lose population and you
may lose territory--this is bad. Or you may lose population and
gain territory, which will improve your "population/sqare
kilometer" ratio.
Your first colony will be _very_ expensive; the price goes down
after that with every colony you launch (and/or the chance of it
surviving goes up). You can spread the expense of launching a colony among
several players, in which case they all get credit
toward their colony expertise count--this is to simulate things
like the US/Russian space ventures and, more importantly, the
"historical" cooperation of EU with IF and PAU. Colonies which succeed may
secede. But at least the population is no longer your worry.
Sounds like a good start. What would be the basis for movement, something like
to old StarForce map? Or a mapless system?
Michael Brown
[quoted original message omitted]
> Sounds like a good start. What would be the basis for
Since I haven't seen StarForce, I can't say.
Let's say "area" based movement. On Earth you'd have, say: NAC: Eastern North
America, North American Pacific Rim, SW North Am, UK.
EU: Central Europe, Western Europe, Scandinavia, Italy/Balkans
ESU: Northern China, Southern China, Siberia, Urals, N India, S India Japan:
Japan. IC: Indonesia, Indochina IF: Middle East, North Africa OU: Australia,
NZ PAU: West Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa LLAR: Central America,
Northern SAmerica, Southern S America.
Then for each star system, you'd have, for example, 2d6 areas available, but
you wouldn't know how many until you got there. Of course, it's cheaper to
expand a colony you've already got than to start in a completely new system.
If we're saying 1 turn per 2 years, then you wouldn't really have to worry
about travel time.
> Laserlight wrote:
> Yet Another Half-Baked Idea From the Creator of the Alarishi
Or you could just pay Stellar Conquest with an population efficiancy ratio.
For every 20 pop., reduce the per the total economic prodction of the planet 1
i.p. per pop.
[quoted original message omitted]
I have Stellar Conquest, but I have never seen Diplomacy...
Has anyone here have/played both games?
I can comment on SC.
It is an "explore the universe/colonize/build ships/research tech" game.
Aside from that the players are free to make/break deals...:-)
The map is a hexagonal map (32 x 20) with 54 stars. There are 8
gas/dust clouds.
The map scale is 1/8th of a light-year.
The stars are divided into 5 different colors (spectrum based). There are 78
star cards. (when a star is explored, you draw a card from the proper color
pile)
The ship counters number 520.
Over all, the game is worth the cost. Play it as intended, or use the
components for any other strategic game.
Donald Hosford
> Laserlight wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----