Aurora 4x
Astra Imperia => After Action Reports => Sematary's Community Game => Topic started by: Sematary on April 28, 2014, 01:09:53 PM
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Here are the rules.
Firstly, the game goes in turns and each turn is a month long (a month is defined in this as 30 days).
Secondly, each person has their own subforum in which we will do most of the game communicating.
Thirdly, the rules found in the Astra Imperia book hold true unless I specify differently.
Forthly, all battles will be automated for both RP and practical reasons. As a result I will need standard operating procedures from each of you. They can be as simple or as complex as you would like but there are pros and cons to both simple and complex SOPs. Also you can make various operations that have names, scopes, objectives, and as such their own SOPs.
Fifthly, I am taking the restriction about capital weapons being on cruisers or larger away. I forgot about that line and I have helped design more than one of the players and some NPRs without that restriction so in order to keep the game running smoothly that rule is out.
Sixth Rule Change: Teams
Teams may be formed for specific applications. Each team may be led by a Personality. Each team has a rating of 5d10. If a Personality is leading the team, add 10% of the Personality’s IQ to the team’s rating. The team’s rating is added to rolls.
Seventh Rule Change: Erik noticed that tactical rules talked about heat radiation but ship construction didn't have any rules about it here is a rule about ship construction and heat.
Radiator Rating
Each ship has a Radiator Rating equal to the hull divided by 500, with a minimum rating of one. Additional heat radiators may be purchased for 2MCr, 1 ton, and 1 LP per rating point.
Eight Rule Clarification: This comes up between the Promethian-Martian Embassy Exchange that was just done. Embassy teams and such need to actually be transported between the places. If its just a small group of people (20 or less) they don't need special transport capabilities on the ship they are using but large groups of people need to use transport ships.
Ninth Rule: Shields that are off at the beginning of combat may be activated. During the Bookkeeping phase they gain their natural regeneration rate, plus their power x 5 applied to the Collapse value. HEC rings may increase this rate. Shields that are damaged in this power up period have their reduced Collapse value available. This should make it that it takes two turns to power up shields.
That is all the big rules I can think of right now, but I may add or subtract from this as needed.
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What if I change the rule book? ;D
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Cheeky bastard. If that happens... well we will cross that bridge when we get to it.
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What if I change the rule book? ;D
I'll chase you down in Cyrodil :) (unless of course said rules changes benefit me)
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New Rule.
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A reminder to everyone, you can increase your taxation at the expense of your complacency index or decrease it to improve your complacency index.
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I've just been reading the Treaties section of the rules, and it got me thinking, wouldn't it be better if the relationship status level between the 2 empires would do a little more than just drive the thresholds of the different treaty levels? it seems to me that it should also maybe affect the likelihood of accepting/rejecting a treaty, for example if 2 species have had a peaceful border for 5 years, it seems that they would be more likely to agree to a non-aggression treaty than 2 species that have only known of each others existence for say 12 months.
just interested to see what everyone else thinks of this, It's always felt diplomacy has been an afterthought tacked on in every 4x game I've played.
Though I'm not convinced the relationship status number calculation should stay as it is, theoretically it's possible to get it to 98 and therefore a Limited Defence treaty 1 month after meeting
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Regarding Treaties.
It should probably be clearer than it is. When you encounter another race, the default status is No Contact, or zero. The treaties cannot jump levels. So even if they have a 98 "growth", the best they will have is Non-Intercourse, probably at 50. This must be in place for 2d10 months + 10% of XE. So a minimum of 2 months to increase to Non-Aggression, and a level of 75. This must also be in place for 2d10 months to move to Limited Defense.
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OK, that makes sense, though I still think a bonus for length of peaceful contact is something to consider, I dunno a small bonus to the acceptance roll for the next level of treaty every 12 months of an existing non hostile contact?
I just like that idea.
just small modifiers, just something to make it feel more long term diplomacy than random die roll.
this is probably not really the place I should've put this because it's more a long term suggestion for AI than something specifically for this game, I just figured the other players would be more likely to give feedback if I put it here.
honest
it's true
really
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I will look into what levels each of you should have with each other but it is possible that everyone would be heading to war with each other.
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I have figured out how I want to implement corporations. Each of your factions will get one corporation who has 1,000Mc. You can subsidize them one of several ways, you can give them money, you can pay for things for them, or if you are getting tax income from them you can wave some or all of it.
Now what can a corporation do?
They can mine at the cost of 1,000MC per 1/10th of the total of each mineral wealth of a body, example if a body has 10 Industrial Metals and 10 Radioactives for 1,000MC the company could start mining 1 Industrial Metal or 1 Radioactive per turn. If they put in another 1,000MC they can mine another 1/10 of the mineral they are already mining or do a different kind (no current in game benefit to that choice). The faction that owns the body that they are mining on can take 20% of their total in tax, the faction that owns the body they end up selling the minerals on can take 20%, and any faction that lays claim to the space used to transport the minerals through can take 10% meaning that a faction that controls all three can take 50% of the total wealth mined in taxes.
They can buy time in your shipyards to build a ship. This will give you money but it will obviously tie up your shipyard for quite awhile. Most of the time this will be a freighter but unless you put restrictions on weapons and/or other systems they will be able to build whatever they want. There are no limits on what restrictions you can or can't place on them regarding shipbuilding.
If you allow them to use the orbital or ground slots they can open a shipyard themselves which they can use or they can sell the shipbuilding capabilities to either governments or other corporations.
Most of the ships they build with be freighters that they will use to move mined minerals to colonies to sell. They will also be available to send colonists on but that will cost the normal cost plus extra though the total cost will be less than building a freighter.
Corporations will attempt to trade with anyone nearby unless there is a faction that will give them a better deal or a faction that has a better relationship with them (generally decided via things like taxation and restrictions) however they will almost always prefer their home faction to others with the second tier of preference being any factions that are currently trading with their home faction.
This is a new proposed system that has had very little playtest and will be tried out here. It is open to revision and possible deletion depending on how this turns out. As a note this system also plays into my idea on how to in game create pirates like the Obsidian Blade talked about in the default setting.
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I have figured out how I want to implement corporations. Each of your factions will get one corporation who has 1,000Mc. You can subsidize them one of several ways, you can give them money, you can pay for things for them, or if you are getting tax income from them you can wave some or all of it.
Now what can a corporation do?
They can mine at the cost of 1,000MC per 1/10th of the total of each mineral wealth of a body, example if a body has 10 Industrial Metals and 10 Radioactives for 1,000MC the company could start mining 1 Industrial Metal or 1 Radioactive per turn. If they put in another 1,000MC they can mine another 1/10 of the mineral they are already mining or do a different kind (no current in game benefit to that choice). The faction that owns the body that they are mining on can take 20% of their total in tax, the faction that owns the body they end up selling the minerals on can take 20%, and any faction that lays claim to the space used to transport the minerals through can take 10% meaning that a faction that controls all three can take 50% of the total wealth mined in taxes.
They can buy time in your shipyards to build a ship. This will give you money but it will obviously tie up your shipyard for quite awhile. Most of the time this will be a freighter but unless you put restrictions on weapons and/or other systems they will be able to build whatever they want. There are no limits on what restrictions you can or can't place on them regarding shipbuilding.
If you allow them to use the orbital or ground slots they can open a shipyard themselves which they can use or they can sell the shipbuilding capabilities to either governments or other corporations.
Most of the ships they build with be freighters that they will use to move mined minerals to colonies to sell. They will also be available to send colonists on but that will cost the normal cost plus extra though the total cost will be less than building a freighter.
Corporations will attempt to trade with anyone nearby unless there is a faction that will give them a better deal or a faction that has a better relationship with them (generally decided via things like taxation and restrictions) however they will almost always prefer their home faction to others with the second tier of preference being any factions that are currently trading with their home faction.
This is a new proposed system that has had very little playtest and will be tried out here. It is open to revision and possible deletion depending on how this turns out. As a note this system also plays into my idea on how to in game create pirates like the Obsidian Blade talked about in the default setting.
I would tax at the rate the empire has set up.
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I would tax at the rate the empire has set up.
I considered that but that started getting messy when three + empires were involved. Plus it got to the point where the corporation wasn't getting enough per mining haul to gain more money to do stuff. So I am testing this idea out and calling it a Corporate Tax.
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have you considered what would trigger a new corporation forming?
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have you considered what would trigger a new corporation forming?
Still working on that.
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One thing I was contemplating while driving across iowa, was an optional rule for social expenditures. Original thought was a 20% tax on income. Any plus or minus on this affects happiness.
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maybe basing it on the profitability of the existing one?
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One thing I was contemplating while driving across iowa, was an optional rule for social expenditures. Original thought was a 20% tax on income. Any plus or minus on this affects happiness.
hmm should probably be more unbalanced, you get the most effect under and up to the norm, spend a lot in a rich country on social projects actually seems to get you less happiness, as expectations are higher.
maybe halving the rate for spending more than 20%?
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hmm should probably be more unbalanced, you get the most effect under and up to the norm, spend a lot in a rich country on social projects actually seems to get you less happiness, as expectations are higher.
maybe halving the rate for spending more than 20%?
I'm on a tablet, so bear with me. 20% is the status quo. Less than that increases unhappiness as money is "wasted" on military and science. More than that increases the happiness.
Now I'll need to reread the rules on happiness and revolutions to come up with any viable rules.
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I considered that but that started getting messy when three + empires were involved. Plus it got to the point where the corporation wasn't getting enough per mining haul to gain more money to do stuff. So I am testing this idea out and calling it a Corporate Tax.
What about smuggling and commerce raiding? And is the player going to be able to set the tax rate? If so, I'd say no more than 20-25%.
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The west spends more on social programs than important stuff like the military and space monkeys, how much happiness does it buy?
Unless you're Norwegian or one of those other crazy countries with free heathcare, education, mental health stuff, etc. Those misguided fools!
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I like the discussions but I'd like to see how things go with my system first then teak as may be needed. The ideas put forward will be the first ones used to tweak when and if we get to that point. I am in the process of moving right now so I will process the next turn on either Sunday night or sometime Monday.
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I better catch up quickly then!
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The west spends more on social programs than important stuff like the military and space monkeys, how much happiness does it buy?
Unless you're Norwegian or one of those other crazy countries with free heathcare, education, mental health stuff, etc. Those misguided fools!
I am :P
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I like the discussions but I'd like to see how things go with my system first then teak as may be needed. The ideas put forward will be the first ones used to tweak when and if we get to that point. I am in the process of moving right now so I will process the next turn on either Sunday night or sometime Monday.
I still can't get into my sub forum, so hopefully nothing interesting will happen!
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I have just added three rule changes. I hope to have turn 16 done today but considering my work schedule that may or may not happen.
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I have just added three rule changes. I hope to have turn 16 done today but considering my work schedule that may or may not happen.
Are you going to share those? :D
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They are in the first post of this thread. Sorry I thought that was clear.
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I have figured out how I want to implement corporations. Each of your factions will get one corporation who has 1,000Mc. You can subsidize them one of several ways, you can give them money, you can pay for things for them, or if you are getting tax income from them you can wave some or all of it.
Now what can a corporation do?
They can mine at the cost of 1,000MC per 1/10th of the total of each mineral wealth of a body, example if a body has 10 Industrial Metals and 10 Radioactives for 1,000MC the company could start mining 1 Industrial Metal or 1 Radioactive per turn. If they put in another 1,000MC they can mine another 1/10 of the mineral they are already mining or do a different kind (no current in game benefit to that choice). The faction that owns the body that they are mining on can take 20% of their total in tax, the faction that owns the body they end up selling the minerals on can take 20%, and any faction that lays claim to the space used to transport the minerals through can take 10% meaning that a faction that controls all three can take 50% of the total wealth mined in taxes.
They can buy time in your shipyards to build a ship. This will give you money but it will obviously tie up your shipyard for quite awhile. Most of the time this will be a freighter but unless you put restrictions on weapons and/or other systems they will be able to build whatever they want. There are no limits on what restrictions you can or can't place on them regarding shipbuilding.
If you allow them to use the orbital or ground slots they can open a shipyard themselves which they can use or they can sell the shipbuilding capabilities to either governments or other corporations.
Most of the ships they build with be freighters that they will use to move mined minerals to colonies to sell. They will also be available to send colonists on but that will cost the normal cost plus extra though the total cost will be less than building a freighter.
Corporations will attempt to trade with anyone nearby unless there is a faction that will give them a better deal or a faction that has a better relationship with them (generally decided via things like taxation and restrictions) however they will almost always prefer their home faction to others with the second tier of preference being any factions that are currently trading with their home faction.
This is a new proposed system that has had very little playtest and will be tried out here. It is open to revision and possible deletion depending on how this turns out. As a note this system also plays into my idea on how to in game create pirates like the Obsidian Blade talked about in the default setting.
Do the mining actions of the corporations reduce the EV available to the empire?
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At the moment no. Depending on how it works out through the play test maybe. Currently there aren't rules regarding multiple empires on the same body and I am running corporations as semi-empires.
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First issue with corp playtest. Somewhere along the way I added a zero to the end. I see four options for us going forward, I would like the input of all of my players about it.
We could leave it like it is but a corp that has fully "upgraded" its mines on a body they will get between 10+ times what an empire on that would get settled on that body. That would probably make corps eventually the strongest factions in the game. Advantage of this is with the current rules they will get their second advance after a year or two and then shorten per advance.
We could limit their mines to only one resource, one resource per body, per system, or just limit them to one resource period. This would put them back near the level of what empires would get on a body. This seems a decent compromise to me.
We could just take the zero back off and put it closer to what was intended. The problem with that is it would takes a corporation ~200 turns to get their first upgrade.
Last option is go with option two or three and lower the cost for the upgrades.
Feel free to suggest things and put your thoughts down.
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I'd say limit them to one resource per body, working for one of the biggest mining multinationals I know it's not especially accurate, but having one mining company have so much influence in my life is enough!
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No opinion here, I honestly don't know enough about it to make a judgement.
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I'd drop the zero and readjust the upgrade rates.
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I'd drop the zero and readjust the upgrade rates.
That was my first gut feel, and would probably model reality better, tbh at this stage of the game I'd be ok with any of the 4 options. my biggest issues TM are budgetary so big income from taxing a corp would be nice!
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I will go with dropping the zero then.
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Drop the zero and make the early upgrades easier?
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Drop the zero and make the early upgrades easier?
Yes, as an added benefit the people who already have companies mining will receive the same tax because with the 1000 Mc they would have made 10 mines instead of 1.
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I have just added a ninth rule. It deals with shields so everyone who either has shields or is planning on having shields soon should read it.
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This weekend I'll put up another iteration of the rules on DTRPG. It will include most of the rules outlined here except Sematary's house rules. :)
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Which means the new "edition" will have rules 6-9
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I don't know whether to say eek about rule 9, or be relieved!!
I might play it safe, and say EEK! and be relieved about it!
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An Erik question (hopefully the answer will make it into the next gen rulebook!)
Shield regeneration, Generation 1 of that tech only unlocks with Shields III, what's the regeneration rate for Alpha and Beta shields for civ's that haven't hit Shields III yet? since gen 1 regeneration is 2, is 1 the default if you haven't included a regen level into your shields?
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An Erik question (hopefully the answer will make it into the next gen rulebook!)
Shield regeneration, Generation 1 of that tech only unlocks with Shields III, what's the regeneration rate for Alpha and Beta shields for civ's that haven't hit Shields III yet? since gen 1 regeneration is 2, is 1 the default if you haven't included a regen level into your shields?
Zero. If you check the tactical rules, under special damage section I think; there is a bit on resetting the shields.
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All I can find in Special Situations (under Damage Control, where I'd expect it) is
Power Plants
Sensors
Life Support
Command Systems
Engines
Compensators
can't see anything about shields in there.
In the End Turn Bookkeeping Phase on page 6, you talk about Shield Regen, and Shield Rebalance, but I haven't been able to spot anything on Shield resetting
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All I can find in Special Situations (under Damage Control, where I'd expect it) is
Power Plants
Sensors
Life Support
Command Systems
Engines
Compensators
can't see anything about shields in there.
In the End Turn Bookkeeping Phase on page 6, you talk about Shield Regen, and Shield Rebalance, but I haven't been able to spot anything on Shield resetting
Hmmm, I vaguely remember something in there for shield resetting. I will dig through prior versions.
Did you also search the PDF for shield reset?
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yes, nothing
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Actually, I am considering modifying shields and armor somewhat.
As it is right now, the EM/Th/K values are reduced as damage is sustained. This applies to shields and armor. What I am thinking is removing the Mitigation... well, shifting the mitigation values to the EM/Th/K values. Have those reduce the incoming damage, and have all remaining damage applied to the Collapse value.
As for regeneration, I am thinking of adding a value to each that adds to the collapse value per turn. Shield regenerators would act as a multiplier to that value. Or maybe additive. I'll need to play with numbers.
If I do go with the first idea, shield and armor EM/Th/K values would be reduced.
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Actually that sounds pretty good, so basically your shields (or armour) would have Em/Th/K Collapse and regen only
I think that would be simpler in action as well as easier to wrap your thinking gear around
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Actually that sounds pretty good, so basically your shields (or armour) would have Em/Th/K Collapse and regen only
I think that would be simpler in action as well as easier to wrap your thinking gear around
The EM/Th/K values would be mitigation for both shields and armor. So if a 2pt fission warhead hits shields, it would do 2/4/2. The 2EM applies to the Collapse, the 4Th and 2K get mitigated down. Not sure how far yet, as I've not played with any numbers.
This makes ships harder to kill I think.
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Right now I am in favor of things that make ships harder to kill. Currently in small engagements (and this includes all of your designs from each player) he who hits first wins in over 90% of the cases I have tried. Right now each of you have salvos that would cripple any other design as long as something like 50% of your shots hit.
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Numbers I am playing with are a reduction in the EM/Th/K values to 1/3 current. The collapse values increase between 32% and 64%.
I've not looked at armor yet, but I'm leaning towards the same ratios.
For example: Alpha Shields are now 2EM/5TH/4K/33 Collapse. A 2 pt warhead doing 2/4/2 would bounce off the shield. Of course, multiple missiles in one salvo are added together, so a volley of 5 missiles does 10/20/10 for 8/15/6 bleed through to armor and a new collapse of 4.
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Armor values stayed pretty much the same. Except Reactive armor. This went up.
So regular armor is okay, Reactive is better with a higher collapse value (maxed at 340). Organic starts the with the same collapse as reactive, but tops out at 300. Organic regenerates, normal and reactive do not.
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Looks like your next iteration will be pretty busy.
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I'll get this out Sunday.
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Did I see an email link for the new version this morning (my time), I could have sworn I did, but can't see it now, and the only version in my RPGNow library has the timestamp 2014-06-24 16:18:02
I'm quite happy to accept I was delusional earlier, it was 6am Monday morning after all
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You're delusional :)
I didn't get one sent out.
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it's not the first time I've seen emails that aren't there...
I suppose that's what I get for using yahoo as a spam trap account
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I've been contemplating a change in how diplomacy works. But it is sort of nebulous at the moment. So no change at this time.
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One thing that's struck me on diplomacy from my Unification game (still setting up, that'll teach me for starting 10 Empires on one planet!)
I think the automatic change to diplomatic score might be a little extreme, as all my empires have embassies with each other, even the un-friendliest of them will be moving up the attitude tree towards mutual respect and admiration pretty quickly.
I don't really have a solution, unless you do something like add an attitude to diplomacy, so you can set how you interact with other nations, ie; you can set your diplomatic attitude to; Friendly, build co-operation; to increase your diplomatic relations, or to Watchful, distrustful; wont make relations worse, but won't improve them either, or Insulting to slowly lower your diplomacy, trying to provoke them to declaring war.
and actually maybe a penalty to all your other diplomatic relations when you do declare war on someone...
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Since I am getting that annoying bug, I am attaching the post as a text file.
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something else that may be nice, espionage having a chance to hurt your diplomatic relations (even successful espionage should have a chance)