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Posted by: Haegan2005
« on: February 15, 2013, 07:31:49 PM »

Gov creation screen is done, spot created in the DB for it, and load code for when the game is loaded is done!

Onto coding the national advantages / disadvantages!
Posted by: Þórgrímr
« on: February 13, 2013, 11:21:25 AM »

Today's example is for National Advantages and Disadvantages.  :)


The next thing in Power creation you want to do is decide what Advantages and Disadvantages you wish to take. Powers can take Advantages and Disadvantages to give themselves special capabilities, reinforce a distinct characteristic, or just to burn or scrounge a few extra nation points. Advantages cost you points, while Disadvantages give you more points to spend. The Advantages and Disadvantages listed in the National Customization document are just examples. Players can take these, or think up their own, based on the costs of existing Advantages and Disadvantages. However, if you want a new or modified Advantage or Disadvantage it must be cleared with the GM first. For the list of ads and disads see section [5.0] National Customization for greater details.

Example: The United States of Terra:

After Kevin envisions what the Terrans will be like he goes to the ads and disads to pick the ones that will help him realize that vision.

Knowing that population will be critical he decides to take Ginormus Population. So he notes Ginormus Population for 20 Nation Points.

Knowing that he will need to maintain a steady population growth Kevin takes Green Fields. Because he has the Ginormus Population Advantage it will cost him 50 Nation Points.

Knowing Humanity is a stiff-necked lot and not willing to bow to any alien species he takes Fanatical Population for 50 Nation Points.

Also, in keeping with his image of his Power Kevin takes Space Dwellers since he cannot imagine the Terrans not expanding into space and knowing that colonies on other worlds can be quite expensive to build without Space Dwellers and their advantages. So he jots down Space Dwellers for 20 Nation Points.

Knowing that Terra will have to rely on her industry to keep her Military on top Kevin next chooses Heavy Industry for his next Advantage for 5 Nation Points.

Knowing the United States in the 19th Century was a mercantile based nation, and also realizing that a large Military needs to be paid, while not really wishing to have his Militry rebel or disband due to non-payment of salaries, takes High Finance for 5 Nation Points.

Kevin knows that he will be setting up a lot of colonies and outposts so takes To the Stars! to double his Base Infrastructure construction rate in setting up new colonies offworld. This Advantage costs him 10 Nation Points.

Now Kevin must decide if he wishes to take any disadvantages. Disadvantages are not required, but they can cut down on the cost of your advangages. So in keeping with his wanting the UST to resemble a Spacefaring 19th Century America he decides to take some disadvantages.

After the Steel Plague Outbreak before WW3 Kevin knows Terra would never sanction a true AI so takes The Fourth Law as his first disad. This disad gives him 10 Nation Points.

Knowing the fervor over the Stem Cell and Cloning debates, Terra would never allow modification of the God-Given form bestowed to Humanity. So he takes True Species as his next disad. This disad gives him 10 Nation Points.

To the Terrans the nuclear exchange of WW3 nearly caused their extinction, so he has Terra take Nuke Free Zone to show the UST would not use weapons of mass destruction and would look down at any nation that would. This disad gives him 30 Nation points.

Kevin knows that before Humanity united they were very secretive about their military designs and technology. So he takes Not Invented Here for 25 Nation Points.

Knowing most former Terran nations were not open about their scientific secrets Kevin takes Patent Office as his final disadvantage. This disad gives him 5 Nation Points.



Cheers, Thor
Posted by: Þórgrímr
« on: February 13, 2013, 11:12:03 AM »

I'm just wondering, how different will the types of government be from each other? Maybe some traits could be easier/cheaper to get depending on what governmnet type you pick (ex While it IS possible for a democracy to get military police, it'd be much easier for a dictator to do ut.)

MrAnderson, your government type affects many, many different things that occur in BTS!. In addition, ALL forms of government have both benefits and Detriments. So no one type is a sure lock to victory.  ;)

The best advice I can give concerning your government choice is to have it reflect what you are trying to accomplish with your Power.  ;D



Cheers, Thor
Posted by: MrAnderson
« on: February 13, 2013, 09:44:39 AM »

I'm just wondering, how different will the types of government be from each other? Maybe some traits could be easier/cheaper to get depending on what governmnet type you pick (ex While it IS possible for a democracy to get military police, it'd be much easier for a dictator to do ut.)
Posted by: Þórgrímr
« on: February 12, 2013, 10:41:37 AM »

Today's example is for designing your beginning government and picking the economy type.  :)


The next thing Kevin needs to pick is his economy type and initial taxation levels. Since he is basing his United States of Terra off of the 19th Century US, and not the later version, he takes Free Market Economy and begins with a 30% National Tax Average on his private sector and sets his population taxes at 0%, for an overall tax rate of 30%. See Section [8.3.4] Economy Types, for further details.

The next thing Kevin knows that he must do is design his form of government. Since his entire philosophy is based on the US Constitution his choices for Government are pretty much set in stone.

The first thing he picks is his Initial Government Type. See section [10.1.2] Initial Government Type for greater details. He picks Large Groups to represent the US Congress.

His next choice involves how the ruling government is chosen. Since Large Groups are limited to Appointment, Elections, or Merit he chooses Elections.

The next step Kevin must do is to determine the Benefits and Detriments, see section [10.1.3] Benefits and Detriments for details, his choices have given him. He checks and sees that a Legislature gives him 2 Benefits and 1 Detriment. In Addition, since he chose Elections as the method his government is convened he notes that he automatically has the following Benefits: Loyalty, Stability, and Free Trade.

Next Kevin must determine the random Benefits and Detriments his Legislature has given him. He rolls his Benefits/Detriment for his base Government Type. He rolls a 6 Loyalty, a 3 Command Initiative, and for his Detriment he rolls a 4, Cost Overruns. Ouch! So his starting government statistics are as follows:

A legislature with its members Elected.
+4 to all Governor Loyalty Ratings.
-1 from number of rebelling regions.
+1 WU per world.
+1 to all Formation Commanders Training Levels.
+10% to all Mil Wu & Iuu costs.



Cheers, Thor
Posted by: Haegan2005
« on: February 11, 2013, 07:05:20 PM »

On the flip side, some species choices are basically fluff, like the bio-classification. Speaking of which, we may want to find animal pics and stuff for the player to choose from. In fact, I will create a spot in the racial table for this tonight. if we use it its there, if not, no coding will be lost on this owie... :D
Posted by: Þórgrímr
« on: February 11, 2013, 03:16:44 PM »

So how do some of the choices affect gameplay? i.e. DNA and diet?

DNA type affects the colonization costs. BTS! only has Earth as a sample to base our decisions on, so we assume that life will develop at the DNA level similar to ours, Dextro-Amino Acid. However, we let the Player choose to have a Levo-Amino Acid type if he wishes. Since this DNA is oppositely twisted from ours, the plant and animal life that is Levo Twisted provides no nutritional value, but at the same time cannot affect you, AKA, no sickness. So modifies the COL Cost in the formula.  :)

Diet also affects Colonization Costs. Here is an example of one of our more 'rare' diet type: Acetelivorous (10 SP's) Acetelcoline feeders. Available only for races with Resistance is Futile. Benefits at the GM's discretion.  ;D



Cheers, Thor
Posted by: Erik L
« on: February 11, 2013, 02:33:38 PM »

So how do some of the choices affect gameplay? i.e. DNA and diet?
Posted by: Þórgrímr
« on: February 11, 2013, 02:04:24 PM »

Over the next couple of posts I will be giving examples of certain design concepts we use in Beyond the Stars!. First up will be examples of Species Creation.  :)

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.  ;D


The first thing in Power creation you want to do is decide what your species will consist of. Powers can take special abilities and species disadvantages to give themselves special capabilities, reinforce a distinct characteristic, or just to burn or scrounge a few extra species points. Special abilities cost you points, while species disadvantages give you more SPs to spend. The special abilities and species disadvantages are listed in section [3.1] Species Design and are just examples. Players can take these, or think up their own, based on the costs of existing special abilities and species disadvantages. However, if you want a new or modified Advantage or Disadvantage it must be cleared with the GM first. For the list of special abilities and species disads see section [3.1] Species Design.

Example: The United States of Terra:

After Kevin envisions what the Terrans will be like he goes to the special abilities and species disads to pick the ones that will help him realize that vision.

The very first thing he does is to decide how much he wants to spend on biology and this will determine his starting Species Points. He decides that he will not max out all of his techs so spends 70 NPs giving him 700 points in Biology, making his Biology TL 7.0, and so he begins with 50 Species Points to spend on his species creation.

To design his species he must first design their homeworld. He uses Earth as his template but he goes with an Earth that has just a bit more land mass.

For size he picks Terran Type Planet for 0 SP's. Kevin then picks Normal Climate for Temperature. Next up he picks Large Continents for Water coverage. Finally he picks Normal Tectonic Activity for Tectonics. So his planet is described thusly, 656554. See Section [2.1] The Planetary Data for a detailed description of the P-Dat.

In his vision Kevin sees them as normal Humans, biologically speaking. So for Biology/Physiology he picks Dextro-Amino Acid DNA, Standard Earth type. For his Biological Classification he picks Hominidae, Human-like. Finally for Diet type he picks Omnivore.

Next Kevin begins the process of describing his species by picking their Species Abilities. Knowing Humanity's penchant for exploring and colonizing he takes 4 levels in Expansive Colonization Program. This species ability will reduce his cost to colonize new regions and worlds by 20%. In Addition, for a Power that is going to massively expand that is a major help. So he notes Expansive Colonization Program for 20 Species Points in his running talley of Species Points.

Knowing that research will be vital his next species ability is Increased Acetelcoline Output for 5 Species Points.

Knowing that Terrans are great reverse engineers he takes Expert Deductive Reasoning for 5 Species Points.

Knowing that Terrans are also good in the practical application of technology he takes Excellent Practical Application Techniques for 5 Species Points.

Knowing that Terra produced some of the best researchers known he takes Excellent Theoretical Techniques for 5 Species Points.

Knowing that he is going to base the UST on the premise of Earth uniting under the US Constitution he knows that Terran commerce will explode under the deregulation that will entail. So he takes 2 levels of Yankee Capitalists for 10 Species Points.

Knowing that Terra is the epitome of the hard work ethic he takes 2 levels of Hardcore Work Ethic for 10 Species Points.

And last, but certainly not least, Kevin knows that some humans can sell ice water to other humans living in the arctic. So to reflect this fact and its possible effect on aliens he takes 1 level of Have I Got a Deal for You!. This species ability costs him 5 Species Points.

Kevin's running talley of SPs used is 65 SPs. So he realizes that he must take a couple of Species Disadvantages to balance out the total used.

The first disadvantage he decides to take is Free Society. Knowing Earth under the US Constitution would never tolerate any from of draconian government he takes this disad. This disad gives him 5 Species Points.

Knowing Terrans would never sanction a massive amount of taxes takes Taxpayer Revolt! as his next disad. This disad gives him 5 Species Points.

Knowing that humans see how the economy either expands or contracts as a measure of how well their government is taking care of them, Kevin takes The Economy Must Expand! as his final disad. This disad gives him 5 Species Points. This balances out his Species points used in the creation process. So Kevin decides to end his species design at this point. He is satisfied with his design up to this point in the process.



Cheers, Thor
Posted by: Þórgrímr
« on: February 09, 2013, 06:10:25 PM »

NP(Nation Points) are now PGP(pregame points)?  You expanded this doc a lot.

Yep, sure did. There was a very real need to bring the docs up to dat with what we have.  :)



Cheers, Thor
Posted by: Haegan2005
« on: February 09, 2013, 02:38:53 PM »

NP(Nation Points) are now PGP(pregame points)?  You expanded this doc a lot.
Posted by: Þórgrímr
« on: February 07, 2013, 09:53:45 AM »

Finished updating the Game Maps and Pre-Game Setup Docs.

Up next is the Nation Creation Doc.



Cheers, Thor
Posted by: Þórgrímr
« on: February 05, 2013, 10:42:55 AM »

Below is the newest version of the introduction for the Game Maps Rules Doc. As Haegan can attest to, I created a new Stellar Coordinate System that we are going to use in BTS!.

As always, comments are requested.  :)

[2.0] THE GAME MAPS

Since the dawn of time as the species of the universe began to spread themselves to other star systems, they learned that stellar cartography was an entirely new level of mapmaking. It is easy for someone to imagine the two dimensional nature of a planet's surface and to draw boundaries across it. Space, however, is three dimensional. It does not fit well on the two dimensional maps frequently used by star nations.

Beyond the Stars! has chosen to make such representations 'top views' of the galaxy, and thus making the 'depth' of the galaxy the Z-axis. But such 2D star maps are, as one might expect, horribly inaccurate.

Just as space is 3D, so are the interstellar borders between Star Nations. A star on one XY-axis coordinate could be in the UST and another star on the exact same XY-axis coordinate, but a few light years away on the Z-axis, above or below, could be in the Numerian Commonwealth. Proper 3D political maps are, generally, giant globs of irregular-shaped masses, each with salients into each others space.

Sometimes you could come upon a straight line or 'wall' where expansion treaties or peace treaties from one or two centuries before had cleanly delineated lines of control. But, for the most part, the lines were irregular and misshapen, testimony to the struggle for rich and wealthy star systems amongst the empires.


[2.1] THE MILKY WAY GALAXY

The Milky Way is classified as a Barred Spiral Galaxy, which is roughly 13 billion years old. It is estimated that it has a diameter of 100,000 light years, a core thickness of 15,000 light years and a stellar population of 500 billion stars. It is divided into four quadrants, the Orion, the Scutum-Centarus, the Norma, and finally, the Sagittarius quadrant. The Galaxy consists of four major, Perseus, Scutum-Centarus, Sagittarius, and Outer, three minor, Near 3KPC, Norma, Far 3KPC, arms, and one spur, Orion.

The Perseus Arm has it's beginning on the northeastern end of the Galactic Bar, and is the closest arm to the Orion Spur, where Sol is located, and wraps through all four quadrants. Rimward of the Perseus Arm is the Outer Arm on the southern edge of the galaxy, which stretches through the Orion and Scutum-Centarus quadrants. The Orion Spur, mentioned earlier, is located between the Perseus and Sagittarius Arms. The Orion Spur give this quadrant it's name, the Orion Quadrant and straddles the Orion and S-C quadrant border. The Scutum-Centarus arm has it's beginning at the southwestern end of the Galactic Bar and winds it's way around the galaxy to peter out before it re-enters the Orion quadrant again. The Norma arm begins near the S-C / Norma quadrant borders and peters out before stretching into the Sagittarius Quadrant. The Sagittarius arm begins near the far side of the Galactic Bar from Sol and winds itself around until it peters out just before re-entering the Sagittarius quadrant. The two 3KPC arms are minor arms that begin and end near their respective sides of the Galactic Bar, Near and Far.

The population I stars in the galaxy's spiral arms tend to be young and towards the blue end of the spectrum, while the population II stars in the galactic core tend to be older and towards the red end of the spectrum.

Our local group of galaxies includes two very large spiral galaxies, the Milky Way and the Andromeda or M33, 2.2 million LY away, galaxies, and several dozen smaller, mostly irregular, galaxies that cluster around the two giants. The Large, 179,000 LY away, and Small, 210,000 LY away, Magellanic Clouds are satellites of the Milky Way, while the SagDEG is a dwarf erratic galaxy in the process of colliding with our own. Globular star clusters populate the galaxy's halo, and are concentrated near the galactic core. There are also migrating globular clusters located between the galaxies in intergalactic space.



Cheers, Thor
Posted by: Þórgrímr
« on: February 05, 2013, 09:24:32 AM »

I finished updating the Air Units doc to reflect the new formation and training rules.

Up next is to bring the Game Maps doc up to date.



Cheers, Thor
Posted by: Þórgrímr
« on: February 04, 2013, 05:44:10 PM »

1.) Added the Naval Tactical Aircraft to the Simple Air Force Unit List.

2.) Added Escort Carriers to the Simple Naval Unit List.

3.) Added the new unit the Seaplane Tender to the Simple Naval Unit List.

4.) Added the Seaplane Cap to the Simple Air Caps List.

5.) Added the Atmospheric Only Reduced Cap to the Complex Air Cap List.



Cheers, Thor