Re: Ongoing Strategy Games.

From: pmf@astro.cf.ac.uk (Phillip Fayers)

Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1993 11:28:46 +0000

In article 21gb0oINNdkr@uwm.edu, bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu (Bruno Wolff III) writes:
>From article <CEDMAN.93Jul7213950@golem.uci.edu>, by cedman@golem.ps.uci.edu (Carl Edman):
>] In article <21f9enINN7tl@uwm.edu> bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu (Bruno Wolff III) writes:
>]    I would like to see more discussion on this topic. I haven't been
>]    too impressed by many ongoing games I have seen. I think your idea
>]    of having the rules favor forming vassal states is a good
>]    one. Though it may not be easy to do.
>]
>] You could for example require that a unit receiving orders must be in
>] the same location as the unit giving the orders.  Furthermore require
>] that a unit giving a report must be in the same location as the one
>] receiving.  The player only sees events which have been reported all
>] the way back to his main unit and units only receive orders which have
>] been transmitted in some fashion all the way down to them.
>]
>] Add to this relatively slow movement and a single player sustaining a
>] large empire without other players as vassals which manage part of the
>] empire becomes a real challenge.
>]
>I have toyed with rules implementing, something like the above, where turn
>reports and/or orders are delayed based on how far away the units are from
>the capitol. I kind of came to the conclusion that this might not be a very
>playable system. To make it work you need a way to have workable contingency
>orders in outlying areas. This is not going to be easy to do well.

Why not try doing it the way the Legends games do? Give the players a list
of possible orders as long as your arm. Require parts of the to be written
in a particular order (Force manipulation then Transfer and Training then
General). Have some quite complex order formats.

With this method controlling a small position is easy, its a short task to
check everything you have written. When you get to `big' positions and have
200ish orders to write you are bound to make mistakes which usually foul
you up. eg. Our faction leader in RTI 3 (UK) was going to transfer a Priest
into a force belonging to me, he wrote the wrong Character number on the
order, it failed, the priest then left with the force he wasn't supposed to
be in any more and ended up miles away. The position was so big he didn't
have any spare movement orders (the number of movement orders doesn't scale
linearly with the size of the order sheet) so the priest is now on his way
back, approximately 3 months later!

---
Phillip Fayers                           JANET    : P.Fayers@uk.ac.cf.astro
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University of Wales, College of Cardiff  phone    : 0222 874000 ext 5282
Department of Physics and Astronomy
P.O. Box 913, Cardiff, CF2 3QD.

References

Re: Ongoing Strategy Games.
bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu (Bruno Wolff III)
Thu, 08 Jul 1993 05:23:36 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Ongoing Strategy Games.
bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu (Bruno Wolff III)
Thu, 08 Jul 1993 05:23:36 +0000