My Sci-Fi Space wargame coming along...

[Jacob_Gallagher]

Hi, I write computer games and board wargames, and currently I'm working on a space-set wargame setting with a theme of a mix of Western and Far Eastern cultures (Not quite like Firefly... similar). I'm currently working on the basic rules, but I figured that I'd start looking for a possible title - and a symbol (Japanese) for the game. So, how's this seem?

星
Lonely

The symbol is that for 'Star'- partially because I am having difficulty finding an English word that translates to one character, and also because it fits the theme. The thing I'm asking is if anyone thinks the title terrible, or has some connotation with something else, or if I screwed up the translation and just put up the symbol for 'Celebrity'.

And in any case, all comments are appreciated!

[Amotis]

They're Chinese actually.

[Missing Shoe]

I am having a hard time understanding what you mean.

Maybe this will help? (http://www.trussel.com/f_nih.htm)

[Ravyn]

Can you tell me more about the feel of it? Easier to come up with words when I know how they're supposed to associate.

[Lilivati]

Star is one of the few kanji I remember, I think you got it right. Lonely seems like kind of a weird title for a game though? Unless you mean it to be "Lonely Star" or something.

[Portent]

Decent place to look up Chinese characters, which has both an "input English" and "search by radical/stroke count" engine: http://zhongwen.com/

Great place for "quick generation" names if you don't mind what they mean: http://wotg.raventower.com/

No one suspects Quiet Mist Ye Guo-qing!

edit: if you still want Japanese names, you can scope out http://samurai-archives.com/ and look through famous samurai and noble names.

[Jacob_Gallagher]

Ach, I changed the focus of the topic as I was writing it, but forgot to change the title... oh well.

The focus of the game is simple. The time is some point roughly five to eight hundred years from now. Space travel has been accomplished via wormholes that form between LaGrange Points (places where the gravities of celestial bodies cancel out). Only about ten systems have been colonized, and only three are really more than scattered colonies and research bases. The government, a United Commonwealth, holds absolute power- but space is a large place, and so corporations have the power to do nearly whatever they want. The chances of finding a ship in a random place is virtually nil. LaGrange points can be monitored, but there are always more being found, and in some of the systems (which have 20+ planets, and 50+ moons total) there are just too many to keep track of. Travel is accomplished via these LaGrange points. The one(s) formed between the large(st) planet(s) and the star is(are) the only one(s) capable of inter-system travel. The others can link to any LaGrange points within several hundred thousand miles- it isn't a set destination, so it is easy to escape by translating to any one of several possible exits- and remember, some might not have been discovered by the pursuers. Anyway, back to the point. The colonists on the outer systems become tired of not recieving supplies they need, protection from marauders, or enough compensation for the work, and an independence movement forms. It starts politically, but as the mining colonies are able to process raw materials and construct a Navy, the revolution becomes military. A Coalition of Outer Systems is formed, and begin to set up blockades against the Commonwealth in some systems. The blockade creeps closer to the main systems, neither side willing to commit to open warfare, despite the seeming aggressiveness of the Coalition. Naturally, combat begins. Refugees from all the systems move to the few core systems- and when the bloodshed reaches those, the refugees move to Sol. The majority of the human population in the galaxy is now in Sol. After a year of fighting, the final battle begins: a fight for control over the Sol LaGrange point. The Commonwealth begins to gain the upper hand, and so in desperation the Coalition launches a suicide ship- one of their largest battleships, the October Hunt, packed with thermonuclear explosives. It spearheads a desperate attack on the LaGrange point, and is able to get through- but not before a mine is attached to the hull of the ship, detonating at a crucial point and setting off the explosives. The detonation is affected strangely by the jump- and the LaGrange point is sealed off, with incredibly lethal radiation clouds on both ends. Earth is cut off from the colonies, and thus the Coalition is able to turn the tide. It becomes a constant battle between this fraction of the Commonwealth, and the Coalition- already starting to fracture due to political and economic stress. Remember when I said that the majority of the people had fled to Earth? There isn't much left. It's a Lonely place.

Four main factions to start, two more to come:
Commonwealth- What's left of the Commonwealth, a few planets and stations. Best equipment of all the races, but it uses little of the technologies available to the miners and explorers (argon weaponry and the like), and so has some drawbacks.
Coalition of Outer Planets- While the weaponry and equipment is sub-par, the Coalition uses advanced technologies adapted from mined materials to give high speed and long range to many vessels.
Independent Colonies- A few colonies and bases that are unafilliated with any major political power, the Colonies have cheap ships, and poor equipment- making use of slugthrowers and coilguns as armament. Cheap, however. And they have access to mercenaries and Privateers.
StarTech- A major corporation, Startech has made many advances in the Outer Colonies, and has access to incredibly advanced weaponry and equipment- they are not cut off from their home base, nor are they trying to run colonies of civilians. The ships are fast and lethal, but shielding is poor because of a lack of access to large amounts of the raw materials, the mines of which are zealously guarded by the other groups.

The other two, which will come some time in the future, after the basic game is done:
Corsairs: When its hard to be found out in the black, its easy to be a pirate. Due to the ramshackle nature of pirate ship construction, I will include mechanics to let players design their own ships, starting from a basic one and choosing weapons, adding upgrades and the like.
New Worlds Company: Ever heard of the East India Company? This is their sci-fi equivalent. They purchase decommissioned warships from the various nations, and convert them into combat-capable merchants. Not your average traders.

And there you have it. All comments appreciated. I might compile everything and repost it with a better title.

[Jacob_Gallagher]

Yah know what, new idea. I'm going to repost this with a different title. Please don't post in this thread.

Edit: It's alright, Voleta. That website is pretty useful. New topic is up.

[Voleta]

May not be anything like what you want, but its useful for names (not the actual scripts though)..

Inspiration Pad (http://www.rpginspiration.com/?src=ipad), Lots and lots of generators. That link is actually to the online generators for it, but you can download the program (which is tiny), here (http://www.nbos.com/products/ipad/ipad.htm).

Edit: In the time it took me to find the freaking links, you said not to post, but I don't see a thread up with it. So, here they are anyway?

[Jacob_Gallagher]

Well, I've been working on a sci-fi wargame called Lonely. The basic plot is as follows:

The focus of the game isn't quite simple. The time is some point roughly five to eight hundred years from now. Space travel has been accomplished via wormholes that form between LaGrange Points (places where the gravities of celestial bodies cancel out). Only about ten systems have been colonized, and only three are really more than scattered colonies and research bases. The government, a United Commonwealth, holds absolute power- but space is a large place, and so corporations have the power to do nearly whatever they want. The chances of finding a ship in a random place is virtually nil. LaGrange points can be monitored, but there are always more being found, and in some of the systems (which have 20+ planets, and 50+ moons total) there are just too many to keep track of. Travel is accomplished via these LaGrange points. The one(s) formed between the large(st) planet(s) and the star is(are) the only one(s) capable of inter-system travel. The others can link to any LaGrange points within several hundred thousand miles- it isn't a set destination, so it is easy to escape by translating to any one of several possible exits- and remember, some might not have been discovered by the pursuers. Anyway, back to the point. The colonists on the outer systems become tired of not recieving supplies they need, protection from marauders, or enough compensation for the work, and an independence movement forms. It starts politically, but as the mining colonies are able to process raw materials and construct a Navy, the revolution becomes military. A Coalition of Outer Systems is formed, and begin to set up blockades against the Commonwealth in some systems. The blockade creeps closer to the main systems, neither side willing to commit to open warfare, despite the seeming aggressiveness of the Coalition. Naturally, combat begins. Refugees from all the systems move to the few core systems- and when the bloodshed reaches those, the refugees move to Sol. The majority of the human population in the galaxy is now in Sol. After a year of fighting, the final battle begins: a fight for control over the Sol LaGrange point. The Commonwealth begins to gain the upper hand, and so in desperation the Coalition launches a suicide ship- one of their largest battleships, the October Hunt, packed with thermonuclear explosives. It spearheads a desperate attack on the LaGrange point, and is able to get through- but not before a mine is attached to the hull of the ship, detonating at a crucial point and setting off the explosives. The detonation is affected strangely by the translation- and the LaGrange point is sealed off, with incredibly lethal radiation clouds on both ends. Earth is cut off from the colonies, and thus the Coalition is able to turn the tide. It becomes a constant battle between this fraction of the Commonwealth, and the Coalition- already starting to fracture due to political and economic stress. Remember when I said that the majority of the people had fled to Earth? There isn't much left. It's a Lonely place.

Four main factions to start, two more to come:
Commonwealth- What's left of the Commonwealth, a few planets and stations. Best equipment of all the races, but it uses little of the technologies available to the miners and explorers (argon weaponry and the like), and so has some drawbacks.
Coalition of Outer Systems- While the weaponry and equipment is sub-par, the Coalition uses advanced technologies adapted from mined materials to give high speed and long range to many vessels.
Independent Colonies- A few colonies and bases that are unaffiliated with any major political power, the Colonies have cheap ships, and poor equipment- making use of slugthrowers and coilguns as armament. Cheap, however. And they have access to mercenaries and Privateers.
StarTech- A major corporation, Startech has made many advances in the Outer Colonies, and has access to incredibly advanced weaponry and equipment- they are not cut off from their home base, nor are they trying to run colonies of civilians. The ships are fast and lethal, but shielding is poor because of a lack of access to large amounts of the raw materials, the mines of which are zealously guarded by the other groups.

The other two, which will come some time in the future, after the basic game is done:
Corsairs: When it's hard to be found out in the black, it's easy to be a pirate. Due to the ramshackle nature of pirate ship construction, I will include mechanics to let players design their own ships, starting from a basic one and choosing weapons, adding upgrades and the like.
New Worlds Company: Ever heard of the East India Company? This is their sci-fi equivalent. They purchase decommissioned warships from the various nations, and convert them into combat-capable merchants. Not your average traders.

Culture-wise, I'm trying to blend Far Eastern and Western cultures. One associate has likened it to Serenity, but I disagree somewhat. It'll be unique.

Gameplay is going to be based off of real-world predictions for futuristic warfare- sensors will play a key role, weapons with relatively slow-moving projectiles have differing accuracy based on relative trajectory of the target, a torpedo is unguided due to ECM but thermonuclear warhead means nobody within a few thousand miles is safe. Each group has different technologies, so their weapons all work differently from one another- even things such as how shielding technology works in-game can vary. More to come soon.

P.S. Anyone know a website where I can post all my stuff (but without $$) before it actually gets released?

[Dr._Weird]

Can I call you Parson?

(I didn't have the time to read that wall of text now, I'll comment later)

[beholder]

I like some ideas, like the Lagrange points, but there are Huge similarites to serenity, with the independent and conformist factions, right down to the mixture of western cultures. try mixing cultures different to the firefly world. for example, india is a possible superpower, so is china.maybe mix these two cultures.obviously this is just my two cents

[Gorbash Kazdar]

One thing to note - Japanese kanji and Chinese hanzi do vary a bit, both in meaning and appearance. Kanji tend to be more simplified (though not as simplified as the official simplified Chinese characters) and some meanings have shifted. Of course, in some cases the Japanese character is the more complicated version, or both have been simplified but in different ways.

For example, 圖 is the Traditional Chinese version of "picture, or diagram." Simplified Chinese uses 图, while Japanese uses 図. Or take the ones for Bhudda - Chinese uses 佛, while Japanese uses 仏. Another thing to keep in mind is that Chinese words will be written entirely in hanzi, Japanese often mixes in hiragana (for native words) or katakana (for foreign words), the two syllabaries. A single kanji would suffice for a word, but any sort of phrase or sentence is almost certain to include hiragana, and possibly katakana. For example, 名前はゴルバシュ includes kanji (名前 for namae, or name), hiragana (は for wa, a particle indicating that that the "topic" for namae is what follows), and katakana (ゴルバシュ, Gorubashu, or Gorbash). Even some words mix both - 好き, which is "suki," meaning like, has き, which is hiragana for "ki." Verbs always have a hiragana ending as well.

Basically, it's important to keep in mind that mixing in Japanese elements is going to work a bit differently than mixing in Chinese the way Firefly did.

For something that has a fairly distinctive Japanese flavor to it, perhaps:
寂しいSTAR
Read as Sabishii Star, or "Lonely/Desolate Star." Pronounce 寂しい "sa-be-she-ee," roughly. You could also use an even more quirky way of writing it, which would fit a Japanese style, and be pronounced the same way:
寂しい☆

[Jacob_Gallagher]

That's interesting, I've never actually seen Serenity or Firefly. I'm thinking of perhaps adding a strong British flavor to the Commonwealth, a la Space 1889. That would give it a different feel. I'm thinking of perhaps basing the Independent Colonies on Middle Eastern cultures. The driving point is that no matter what 'feel' I give to the various factions, the culture of the universe is still East meets West. I'll look into it.

And no, you may not call me Parson. Trust me, this is nothing- the basic premise of this loneliness just popped into my head, and everything else just took half an hour of writing stuff down. I come up with unique ideas easily, I just have difficulty implementing it efficiently into game terms.

Oh, and I am going to make the loneliness apparent in the game. Your average Light Cruiser, about three hundred meters long, has a bridge crew of five and a forty-man repair and maintenance crew. Automation is good. Anyone who has played the Independence War series knows the kind of thing I'm talking about. This also means that you don't want to get boarded by a ship carrying Marines- you don't have a crew really to fight them off with. Doors can be locked, bulkheads dropped into place, but eventually its either fight and die, get captured, detach the bridge, get on an escape pod, or scuttle. Or, if you're lucky, win the battle, then get allied Marines onboard.

[McDeath]

I like the idea of abttles being fought silently between two or three ships, out in the dark depths of space...stylistically cool. What kind of combat system?

[Jacob_Gallagher]

Big point: Although patrols do meet occasionally and fight, there are big battles. Just because you have few people doesn't mean you have few ships- they have the technology, but only a few people. That's one of the things I'm driving at. There's all this equipment, technology, everything but not enough people to use it. Thus, crew are very valuable, and almost every ship has eject/escape pod/ entire bridge detaches and can fly away.

Less of a naval feel than games like Battlefleet Gothic or any age of sail game. Ships are equipped with combat drives as well as main engines. Main engines go fast, but have limited turning. Combat drives allow the ship to move in any direction and turn nearly on a dime. Close quarters combat between two ships is a small ballet of using the combat drives to try and get in the rear of the enemy, make sure he's closing rather than moving abeam, etc. The trick is to know which drive to use, and when. Oh, and did I mention complete Newtonian physics? You don't slow down by deciding not to use the engines. You slow down by firing the ones on the front instead of the ones on the back. Also, because of alternating actions, battles are very fluid. I've countered one of the inherent flaws in the system by creating a rule that balances out uneven numbers of ships. Basically, whichever side outnumbers the other has to act with two ships, one right after another, at some point, so that that player doesn't just move a whole bunch at the end after the opponent has run out of ships to use. If they outnumber better than 2:1, then three will act at a time at some points, and two at others. And so on. Torpedoes and ordnance (which are usually unguided) all move first at the same time, then ships move, then finally fighters (see bottom of page). Shields also work differently from many games. A shield has roughly a 2/3 chance to block a shot, but the differences don't stop there- a shield can only track one target at a time. This means that battleships are cheaper than they might other wise be, and small escorts more expensive- although capships often carry multiple shields. All ships have varying capabilities for their crew- navigation, gunnery, engineering, etc. (especially as on some cruisers the above is handled by 1 person each), which are rolled randomly. The skill of the captain modifies the skill of the others, and is not random, but rather purchased at a set value and then a roll is made to either boost or lower it, because in real life you can't transplant your best captain to another ship and expect him to do just as well (or he might do better, who knows). The skills can give bonuses to maneuvering, gunnery, and the like- but only if the crew is very good. Usually, the skills grant access to better abilities. One example of a very basic Navigation skill is Rotate Through the Arcs. With this ability, the ship spins, and can throw off enemy targeting on specific systems. Other skill levels of the other crew can affect it as well- for example, in RTTA, a good gunner can use both port and starboard turrets on one target because the ship is rotating (bringing all guns to bear in sequence), or a good engineer can have both a dorsal and ventral shield block shots, also in sequence, to spread out the damage. This will pave the way for good campaign rules, and will even allow things like transferring crew from one ship to another. The crew become even more personal when each side gets certain crew bonuses and penalties, and both specific bonuses for high skills with special orders but even unique special orders for the faction itself. Again, places very much emphasis on the people, and the crew. Most weapons have multiple arcs of fire, unlike Battlefleet Gothic, and have wildly differing ranges. Most ships of a certain class (cruiser, for example) are based around a certain hull, which has various hardpoints that I place weapons and equipment on. A normal cruiser has several slots empty, a heavy cruiser has extra shielding and weapons at the cost of speed, and a battlecruiser has lots of guns and speed but at the cost of shielding. Battleships continue this trend, with a light or 'pocket battleship' having a few empty, and the big dreadnoughts full to the brim. Light cruisers are either unique designs or cut-down cruiser hulls, and emphasize a support role. They often carry specialized armament to either offset or complement that of whatever ship you deploy them with- they really for the most part aren't balanced enough to be good on their own, although there are some (read: Destroyer-hunting) exceptions. Destroyers (next size down) in groups can kill off light cruisers and harass larger vessels, and individually hunt frigates. Frigates are very small vessels, some carry armament and are a cheap screen, but the majority are either sensor support or anti-prowler. What is a prowler, you ask? Well, space is big, and so with ECM, a ship can be very hard to detect with sensors (more on that in a moment). Prowlers have a very low sensor signature, and so they can go silent running and drift close to a target. They then launch torpedoes, fire a heavy cannon, or drain their batteries with an overcharged laser (depending on type) and then get out. /how is this possible, you ask? Well, a ship has a basic Detection value, which is then modified by all kinds of things (engine use, shields up, weapons fire, enemy has sensors, etc.). If no ship is within this value (in hexes) of the enemy ship, the enemy can create two 'ghost' counters, which look like the real thing, don't disappear when shot, and are only removed if a ship (or fighter, although their sensors are very basic) comes near enough to detect it- and if the real ship fires, the player need not state which is the real firing ship. This means that even a long-range fleet must be sure to detect the enemy, or they waste a lot of shots. One thing- you may notice that I said Frigates are either sensor support or anti-prowler. They actually don't mean the same thing. Just put a thermonuclear warhead in a little box, stat moving towards the general direction if the prowler, release, and let momentum do the rest. With the prowler on silent running, they have no shields, and although the bomb may not be close enough to destroy the prowler, the EMP will fry systems and possibly render it harmless- or better yet, salvage. I can't get into too much detail about how the guns will function, but generally each actual gun (as opposed to, say, an unguided torpedo) has a 'concept speed'. This is something I set for myself, and it influences how the gun behaves. A gun with a slow-moving projectile (low concept speed) will be best against targets closing with the firer, a little worse against targets moving away, and very poor against targets moving abeam- and then must roll against the target's armor value. Weapons with a faster projectile speed are affected less by the orientation, or unaffected- lasers, for example, not only hit instantly, but also burn straight through armor, and thus only need to make one roll at a fixed value to inflict a hit. Some guns also partially combine these two extremes- coilguns hit almost instantly, but are affected by armor, and some guns are extremely affected by the orientation but when they hit, burn right through armor. And there's always oddballs- like autocannons, an Independent Colony favorite, which have a random strength, because each volley is a quick burst of automatic fire diected towards a specific area. The volley can be spot-on (you roll a six) or miss almost completely (you roll a one). Then, you roll for the individual shots in the volley like a normal cannon. The big problem I'm having is finding a way to make sheets for the ships. I found a program called SSDPrint to make easy outlines of the ships, and I'll just come up with backgrounds, and those can be counters- but I'm going to have to fiddle with stuff to make good ship sheets. Oh well.

Lastly, I want to talk about fighters. Fighters in this game are a very recent creation (do some research, generally it is believed fighters are not suitable for space combat), pioneered by the Commonwealth and promptly stolen (Commonwealth fighters are still the best). People say that large ships could go faster than them- but they can't, because of the inertia, and how difficult it would be to slow or change heading quickly. Fighters are rather large, however. The average launch bay-equipped cruiser carries four fighters (that is basically their whole armament- only a few other guns). A battleship with launch bays carries around eight. A real carrier (slow, little armor- very vulnerable) can carry about twelve. These are big- about fifty meters long. They're fast, they carry powerful (although short-ranged and front-firing) weaponry, but they are unarmored and have no shields. They have two big assets- maneuverability, and lack of importance. They fly around like bats outta Hell and avoid getting hit. The big thing, though, is that there are no anti-fighter weapons. Capital ships use their turrets against fighters. This means that if a ship wants to use a turret to take out a fighter, it has to devote that entire turret to taking out the fighter (turrets cannot split fire against multiple ships, although separate turrets can fire on separate targets). This means that a capital ship may just ignore it and concentrate on larger targets.

If you read all of the above, I salute you. Now tell me a website where I can get this stuff hosted for free :smallbiggrin:

[Gorbash Kazdar]

Comrade Gorby: This is a very interesting topic and concept, and one I think belongs down in Homebrew. So, I'm moving the thread there.

Also, we seem to have two threads on this topic. As such, I'm going to see if they can be merged into one in a way that isn't to confusing.

[Jacob_Gallagher]

I apologize, as I made the other one I realized that the title was misleading. Thanks.

But I thought Homebrew was D&D only...?

[Artemician]

A very interesting concept... seems very well put together. Good job on that so far.

However, there is one pressing issue. What will be your stand on AI? Will you take the Dune/WH40K approach and have only rudimentary AI to allay threats of the Robots taking over? Or will you take the Halo approach, and have advanced, human-level AI that does most of the menial calculations and more besides?

[Solaris]

A ship's AI would be exceedingly handy for automation with a brain. Only a moron would program an AI to be easily subverted or to be able to find it acceptable under any circumstances to turn against her crew, so there's no Terminator moments happening.
That, and it's awfully handy to be able to get into your quarters after having locked yourself out by just calling for the AI to open 'em up for you.

[Jacob_Gallagher]

No AI at all. Although the demand is certainly there (too many ships, not enough people), technology just hasn't come that far. I've done some programming with stuff like that, and believe me, it would take years for an entire team just to program a very basic one. Also, I'm using the general public fears, concerns, and general stubbornness- after all, the technology exists to have cars be computer-controlled, but the public would never accept the idea.

Ships do, however, have a high level of automation, so that they require few crew to function, but there is no intelligence.

Oh, and then there's the whole Rampancy thing that seems to happen to 'learning' AI, if you have played or know of Marathon...

[Roethke]

Just throwing this out there (as this is the type of game I adore), but have you considered adding 'gravity' type weapon to the game? Some fluff could explain it, but the vision I had was that it temporarily made a ship much, much more massive than its true mass. The result would be some suction of all nearby objects. (It could also be used to deflect the course of projectiles, just like in that old, old game 2-D gravity game where you had to wing your shot around a whole bunch of 'planets' of different masses to hit the other guy).

One of the complaints I've had about 'Newtonian Physics' space combat is the tendency to get lost during a dogfight. By the time you've nailed your bandit, the main action is 10,000km way off to the side.


Anyhow, keep it up, looks fun.

[Jacob_Gallagher]

Well, TBH those kinds of weapons aren't very realistic, which is what I'm going for here. And if group of ships all move in one direction, then yeah, the battle gets shoved over. But with combat drives, most battles become a localized brawl rather than two parallel lines of ships.

[Jacob_Gallagher]

Um... Anything else? Any support? Or should I just finish it and move on?

[Matthew]

Any further development on this front?