Re: PBM design: advice please

From: "[Tariz] The Dungeon Master" <adnd@mailandnews.com>

Date: Mon, 07 Jun 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Hi,

Greg Lindahl <lindahl@pbm.com> wrote in message
news:7jeub5$1bii@news1.newsguy.com...

> Um, that's a nice theory which many designers have tried, but it's
> hard to pull off in practice. Players get annoyed when they can't
> predict if they're going to win or lose a battle, or how much money
> they're going to make given certain inputs.

Appreciated.  This is how I was going to work it:

Say for example in the games starships are made from an overall design and
have "hulls" in different sections (a bit like BSE... ok, a lot like in this
respect).  Players know of the available ship designs (such as Destroyer,
Light Cruiser, Dreadnought etc.).  They also contain items ranging from
weapons, through shields to engines and whatnot.  Players will know that a
Laser-cannon will have a set mass, a description of their combat
effectiveness and that it requires no ammo (it uses self-replenishing
batteries).  So they can make an informed decision about whether to deploy
10 Laser-cannons or 10 Pulsar-beams or whatever.

With some combat experience the players will learn the approximite
likeliness of each of these weapons to do damage and the amount of the
damage (which gives an inexperienced player an initial disadvantage but this
can be overcome by using diplomacy to get some information from allied
persons, something essential in the game).  However, what they will not know
is the specific mechanics of the system.  I figure this will help people
roleplay their positions rather than think of it all as just algebra.

So a newbie will say, "Cool.  I know my Destroyer armed to the teeth with
Photon Blasters and Heavy Shields can take on that petty little War Galley
with its Pulsar-beams!" whereas a newbie might have figured out that he can
do on average 100-120 mass points of damage a round whilst the W.G. can only
do 40-60.

Anyway, I hope this is the right sort of balance.  Any feedback is as always
appreciated.

--
Cheers,

Seyed
Dungeon Master
Ascension at Tariz
adnd@mailandnews.com
http://strata.kmpinternet.com/adnd/

References

Re: PBM design: advice please
"[Tariz] The Dungeon Master" <adnd@mailandnews.com>
Sat, 05 Jun 1999 00:00:00 +0000
Re: PBM design: advice please
lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl)
Sun, 06 Jun 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Re: PBM design: advice please
"[Tariz] The Dungeon Master" <adnd@mailandnews.com>
Sat, 05 Jun 1999 00:00:00 +0000
Re: PBM design: advice please
lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl)
Sun, 06 Jun 1999 00:00:00 +0000