• Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Topic: Game Mechanic thought

Hi all, I am working on a campaign setting where the ships are pretty slow (fastest ships have an engine rating of 4) and I was thinking of adding a campaign specific game mechanic to make things more interesting. The "Tactical Micro Jump" is a fairly common tactic in sci fi literature which includes ships with hyperdrives that operate like the basic S:AE system. Used to move closer to the enemy quickly, evade, or attack from another direction the tactic is something I want to try to add to my setting. I was originally thinking of using a similar  system to the old Stutterdrive from S:X, but I decided to take a stab at something a little different. Here is what I thought:

Hyperdrive activated in the Orders Phase and a target hex is  chosen anywhere on the game board. Since the distance being jumped is very short, it is not necessary to "charge" the hyperdrive as in the normal rules for its use.

On the Movement phase, roll a D6, and if it comes up 1, the Hyperdrive stalls and the ship doesn't jump and follows the same course and maintains its current speed (no "backup" movement orders are allowed). If successful, the ship immediately jumps to hyperspace. Roll a D6, if the roll comes up 5 or 6 the ship returns to normal space exactly where it intended, on a 3 or 4 it misses its mark by 1 hex, and on a 1 or 2 it misses its intended hex by D6 hexes. If the target hex is missed roll a D6 for bearing of the miss, and go clockwise around the target hex with one being on the "top" of the hex.

Ships return to normal space on the same bearing and with the same velocity that they had when they made the jump.
Following a tactical micro jump or even a hyperdrive stall, the ship cannot initiate hyperdrive startup (of any kind) on the next turn.

Well, that's the idea anyway. Any thoughts? I know I tend to over complicate things  wink  so if anyone has a better idea of how I could do this, please let me know.
Cheers,
Erik
PS if it seems like a lot of die rolls please forgive me as I have an affinity for buckets of dice. I intend to use some of the options like DC rules and criticals in this setting, so that should tell you right there that I'm not afraid of dice!  lol

  • Registered: 2010-02-16
  • Posts: 42

Re: Game Mechanic thought

Yeah ! Picard Maneuver !

Seems good, but I think it needs the possibility of something getting seriusly wrong when attempting it.

I propose :

On the first die roll, a 2 or 3 make the hyperdrive stalls, and a 1 destroy the ship.

If the ship emerge from hyperspace less than 3 hex of any abject (fighter, celestial body, ship ...), it suffers some damage (3 damage, without any help from shields).

What do you think ?

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Game Mechanic thought

Brazouck wrote:

Yeah ! Picard Maneuver !

Seems good, but I think it needs the possibility of something getting seriusly wrong when attempting it.

I propose :

On the first die roll, a 2 or 3 make the hyperdrive stalls, and a 1 destroy the ship.

If the ship emerge from hyperspace less than 3 hex of any abject (fighter, celestial body, ship ...), it suffers some damage (3 damage, without any help from shields).

What do you think ?

Well, obviously, if the ship emerged into a hex occupied by a planet, black hole, asteroid, destruction would be immediate and complete. I don't think I would include any dire consequences for getting too close to ships and so forth, and I'd rather the ship not blow up on a 1...I roll WAAAAAY too many of those!  lol
Cheers,
Erik

  • Registered: 2010-12-25
  • Posts: 30

Re: Game Mechanic thought

Erik,

Depending on how accurate you want your jump to be, you could simply always roll some number of dice to scatter.  A perfect jump would be when the scatter dice move you out of the hex and back into it (a 1/36 chance with two dice).  This would in reduce the number of dice and make the tactical jump a little chancier, especially in an environment that had some terrain.  It's not like you are giving the computers a lot of time to calculate if you are making a rapid tactical jump.  You could also tie the number of dice rolled to scatter to the distance hopped - one die for each N hexes.  Another thing you could implement would be to reduce the scatter for each turn spent calculating the jump (which could involve restriction on movement, etc).  If you want to improve the accuracy, you could do something like allow the player to roll 2 dice on the final scatter and choose one.



1 in 6 is definitely too much for total ship destruction.

Brian

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Game Mechanic thought

bcantwell wrote:

Erik,

Depending on how accurate you want your jump to be, you could simply always roll some number of dice to scatter.  A perfect jump would be when the scatter dice move you out of the hex and back into it (a 1/36 chance with two dice).  This would in reduce the number of dice and make the tactical jump a little chancier, especially in an environment that had some terrain.  It's not like you are giving the computers a lot of time to calculate if you are making a rapid tactical jump.  You could also tie the number of dice rolled to scatter to the distance hopped - one die for each N hexes.  Another thing you could implement would be to reduce the scatter for each turn spent calculating the jump (which could involve restriction on movement, etc).  If you want to improve the accuracy, you could do something like allow the player to roll 2 dice on the final scatter and choose one.



1 in 6 is definitely too much for total ship destruction.

Brian

Personally, I think that the distance of the jump across the game board is so short relative to the distance of an interstellar jump that the chances of hitting your mark should be such that a 33% chance isn't unreasonable. This also means that there is a 33% chance of throwing just 1 die for the whole process and and a 66% chance of throwing 2, and each die roll beyond the first is dependent on the previous, so there is little confusion (at least to me). I don't feel that a micro-jump should have a greater chance of deviation based on the length of the jump for the same reason as above, the distances are relatively minor for a vessel capable of interstellar travel. The fact that it is done "on the fly" and without very much prep is what I think accounts for the any scattering, rather than the distance involved.
Cheers,
Erik

  • Registered: 2008-11-30
  • Posts: 79

Re: Game Mechanic thought

You may want to wait and see what happens with displacement devices when/if Andromedans are converted to Trekmada, as that does almost the same thing you are looking for.

  • Registered: 2010-12-25
  • Posts: 30

Re: Game Mechanic thought

Might not want to wait that long... ADB just published their planned 2011 release schedule on TMP.  Distant Armada is listed as the next Starmada product with a release date this summer (for Origins).  Hydrans, Lyrans, and Wyn, Oh My!

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Game Mechanic thought

RobinStirzaker wrote:

You may want to wait and see what happens with displacement devices when/if Andromedans are converted to Trekmada, as that does almost the same thing you are looking for.

Nah, I'm the impatient type  wink  Besides, what I'm  looking to do is something that is a capability of  hyperdrives in a  number settings, not adding in another piece of special equipment.
Cheers,
Erik

  • Registered: 2009-08-03
  • Posts: 245

Re: Game Mechanic thought

I like it!  It means fleets composed entirely of ships with engines 0 are slightly more viable than before.

Also, applying a little conditional probability:
1 die: 1/6 = 3/18
2 dice: 5/6 * 1/3 = 5/18
3 dice: 5/6 * 1/3 = 5/18 (initial roll, degree of scatter roll of 3-4, and roll for scatter direction)
4 dice: 5/6 * 1/3 = 5/18 (initial, degree of 5-6, distance, and direction)

Expected number of rolls: (3 + 10 + 15 + 20) / 18 = 48/18 = 2.67.  So not too bad; I mean, how many ships are you going to jump all in one turn?  I could see using it en masse as a good opener on a large map to beat the Range-30s...