Topic: Weird plotbunny that ain't going away...

I've been thinking about a setting using Starmada:AE, specifically a sort of steampunk/fantasy setting with airships. It would also have tanks and maybe even landships, too. However, I'm not sure how to model the movement of said tanks/landships and also terrain, such as cliffs and so on. It would use the 3D movement rules and, for the airships at least, etheric movement. My ideas so far are to maybe create a new type of movement--ground movement, which would be incorporated at the design stage. It would be half the usual engine factor, but would allow a unit to move only on the bottom level. For terrain, a simple extension to planets giving them 'mass' in the third dimension should be useful.

I've not got anything more than that, but if there is anyone who wants to suggest any ideas (even along the lines of putting down the coffee), they're welcome. Maybe I'll be able to think of other things...:D

Re: Weird plotbunny that ain't going away...

I'd limit the 'height' to something like landed/crashed, treetop, low, medium, high.

Re: Weird plotbunny that ain't going away...

The old movement system was often referred to as being "tank-style" - how about if ground units used basic movement (now option D1), while airships etc use the vector movement system?

If you limit the ground vehicles to being fairly slow, and make certain terrain features impassable, it might work quite well.

Re: Weird plotbunny that ain't going away...

I've been using the Basic Movement option for my experiments in ground-based Starmada (namely playtesting the OGRE version someone posted in the Basin, then some MechWarrior and some WH40k of my own design) and it works pretty well.  I'm not entirely happy with how slowly infantry turn, but so it goes.

Re: Weird plotbunny that ain't going away...

Infantry are small, mobile units...sounds like Starmada fighters to me.

"Leviathan" by Scott Westerfeld has some good WWI steampunk, crossed with bio-engineered monsters (Darwinists!) It's a young adult novel with illos by Keith Thompson--his website has lots of good images for the book and other games.

Re: Weird plotbunny that ain't going away...

The problem with infantry as fighters is that their range is stuck at 1.  This may or may not be acceptable, depending on the details of the setting you're trying to model.

Re: Weird plotbunny that ain't going away...

I just have to ask, why you are not using Wardogs for this?

Paul

Re: Weird plotbunny that ain't going away...

Because I don't own Wardogs, and its a plotbunny, not something I think I should blow some money on if it dies after I spend some cash on it.

Re: Weird plotbunny that ain't going away...

For infantry use the flotilla rules give them 360 fire arc