BattleTech PBeM Development Group From: bc@fccn01.fccn.pt (Luis Miguel Sequeira) Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 18:38:21 +0000 ******************************************************************* B A T T L E T E C H P B e M D E V E L O P M E N T G R O U P ******************************************************************* Not bad, not bad. I was expecting some reactions only after the weekend, but I was surprised with some quick answers. My thanks to all of you. Just some points to discuss next week (sorry, I don't work during the weekend... my site is closed and locked, beginning at 08:00 pm fridays, that is, in less than one hour...): 1) Setting: one suggestion The game is played on a NxM bi-dimensional map with several planets, representing the domains of the Five Houses (shall we throw the Clans into the game, too?). Each planet is named according to the BattleTech Universe (if someone has a list, I'll be glad - I've only got the MechWarrior PC game as a source!!). They have also at least the following characteristics: Mountains in %, Lakes in %, Rough land in %, Plains in %, Light Woods in %, Dense Woods in %, etc. ... and allegiance to one of the Houses, of course. The purpose of this is to get a seed for the random battlefield generator. As an example, let's try a 16x32 hex grid, scaled according to the BattleTech rules. Terrain depends thus on the beforementioned probabilities. Perhaps a point on the planet for the battle should be generated in some way, and the battlefield, once generated, would be kept in the database, so that further battles at the same point would get the same battlefield. I don't know if this is pushing too far; for one, this may eat up lots of space, but it would permit, for instance, for a lance to withdraw from the battle, resupply itself, and fight on the same battlefield on the next turn. 2) Units I suggest that each player starts with one mercenary unit composed of a single lance with 4 'mechs. When joining the game for the first time, he may select one lance type (eg. Recon Lance, Light Lance, Medium Lance, Heavy Lance, Assault Lance, etc.), and will have some 'mechs of that type (or shall he buy them? In this case, does every player start with the same amount of money? And buy what he wishes?). He'll also have one MechWarrior directly controlled by him (just as on the MechWarrior PC/Amiga game), and three others who have been hired and are NPCs. Later on, he'll be able to buy new mechs, sell older ones (lease them? Hmmm...), etc., and recruiting new members for his MechForce. If he has the money, he'll also be able to contract other players' lances to do the dirty work... 3) Turns Adrian (agiblett@cch.coventry.ac.uk) proposed 4 battle turns followed by one diplomatic/economic turn. This seems a nice idea. On the dip/eco. turn, players would get a list of available 'mechs for sale, available MechWarriors for hire, costs for repairing/mantaining/resupplying existing 'mechs of the lance, etc. This would also be a phase where players could send messages to other players, and, of course, to announce contracts and to be hired. Here I find one big problem: how to get the Houses to announce contracts for the players? This will be the normal case. I'm still thinking about the MechWarrior PC game, where contracts appear randomly (is that really so? I've never played the game to an end). One alternative would be to have some players for the Houses, too, but they would obviously be mega-powerful... Suggestions are really needed here. Once this phase is over, we assume each player knows what he's going to do (i. e., depending on the contracts accepted). He's dropped on the chosen battlefield on the first of the 4 battle turns. Some way must be provided for the player to know what he's up to. For example, he'll know where a base is to be conquered, and an overall description of enemy & friendly 'mechs on the field (such as: "heavy mech, lightly damaged, on hex #463"). He'll also get a (partial?) map of the battlefield (which would change on subsequent turns, as his 'mechs advance on the field and find new features). Orders will be something like "attack heaviest mech" or "run to the base and seize it", "run to avoid", "ambush at hex #foo", etc. Actual weapon choice, etc., or precise movements are beyond the scope of a scale like this one (and, after all, the player has only 4 turns to win or lose...!). Of course, there must be a way to convert basic BattleTech stats into something like a points based system. Or should the computer fight the battle, and add a colorful description? E. g.: "Bloody Axes' Warhammer fires PPC on Blue Thunder's ShadowHawk" "A hit, ShadowHawk -12 armor on left arm and upper arm actuator destroyed" "Bloody Axes' Warhammer runs to base on hex #432 and destroys it" This would be nice, but it also implies that many actions must be dealt by the computer while he tries to obey the players' orders. Here a *LOT* of suggestions are welcome! --- Ok, that's for a beginning. Hope to see some suggestions on Monday... - Luis Sequeira _________________________________________________________________________ / / _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ Computer scientists do it byte by byte. _/ _/_/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ God created Law and Order from Chaos, _/ _/ _/ _/ but Chaos was created by computer _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ scientists. bc@fccn.pt Luis Miguel Sequeira Laboratorio Nacional de Engenharia Civil Phone 351-1-8482131 Ext. 2752 Centro Informatica/Grupo Sistemas Centrais "Don't call me, I'll call you" Av. Brasil, 101 - 1700 Lisboa, Portugal / _________________________________________________________________________/ Referenced By Up