Aurora 4x

New Players => The Academy => Topic started by: Zook on September 10, 2012, 05:58:48 AM

Title: Aurora succession game
Post by: Zook on September 10, 2012, 05:58:48 AM
Would anyone like to play a succession game of Aurora? Sort of Boatmurdered in Space, if you know what I mean. One player starts the game and plays for a couple of years; five, perhaps, more for the first players. Then he sends the zipped database to the next player, who now takes over the presidency (or the crown, or the Grand-Poobah-ship, or whatever it is).

Being the new El Presidente means, of course, that he's free to ignore all plans and intentions of his predecessors and implement a totally new, better, saner policy. Abandon Mars. Scrap the missile boats. Reforms!

The president would have to write an ongoing AAR, perhaps with yearly reports in the forum, unless absolutely nothing happened that year. That might be the case during the first couple of years. It would be good if he could post a screenshot now and then, for the benefit of the general public.

There shouldn't be a strict time limit to finish a mandate, but it would be good if the player could finish his term in a week or two, depending of course on what happens. If you know that Real Life (tm) will prevent you from finishing your turn, please post a message (and the turn file - the forum does allow file uploads in *.zip format).

Newbies are welcome, but please apply only if you're sure that you'll actually play.

And a little roleplaying would add a little spice, I imagine. Remember, you're the president. Nobody can fire you, just because you're incompetent or insane.

--------------------

Update: The game has begun, the AAR is in a different thread in this subforum. That's the order of players so far

Zook
Havear --> active
telegraph
Bouchart
Panopticon
niflheimr
Sinensis
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: telegraph on September 10, 2012, 06:08:50 AM
Nice idea. Count me in.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: sublight on September 10, 2012, 10:07:23 PM
Very interested, but enough Real Life is happening that it will be about a month before I could actually start a new game. you probably shouldn't put me down any earlier than 4th in line.

5 years is probably too long. You could probably scrap, redesign, and rebuild a small battle fleet in that time. DF succession games seem to be mostly about using what your predecessor left you while building stuff for the next guy. So... 3 years? The initial turns probably don't need to be lengthened unless a conventional start is used.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Zook on September 11, 2012, 10:45:14 AM
I have only limited experience with the game. I'd say the first twenty years shouldn't see much action, unless you explore very aggressively, or get really unlucky. And even if you meet strangers out there, they are usually more keen on selling you plastic toys than pillaging your colonies.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: telegraph on September 11, 2012, 12:15:43 PM
I once encountered the nasties in the very first system I discovered. Right next to the Sol. They indeed kind of sold me some plastic toys. Those toys destroyed all of my ships, bombarded Mars and Earth and landed an invasion force that obliterated my initial ground troops.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Havear on September 11, 2012, 12:19:48 PM
If the period of play was ~ a year, I'm all in. Not sure if I'd have the time for a longer game, but I'll still watch and comment.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: telegraph on September 11, 2012, 12:59:34 PM
we might go with variable turn length. Like play however long you like, but no more then 10 in-game years and no more then one week of real-life time.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Zook on September 11, 2012, 01:14:42 PM
Sounds good. Instead of figuring out elaborate rules we just make it up as we go. But some initial parameters have to be set, like the number of systems or NPR creation chance. And we might want to have a loose theme for RP'ing the game, like The UN Space Program or Templars (there's a theme already) searching for the Holy Grail. Can be anything; I'd be fine with Muppets, too.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: telegraph on September 11, 2012, 02:09:32 PM
digging Piggy's treasures?
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Havear on September 12, 2012, 07:32:49 AM
Theme will often determine play-style. Actually, what would be better, a conventional, TN, or limited-TN start? Conventional might be interesting, but I've always associated that with multi-empire games, limited-TN something like very basic groundwork and maybe an extra tech here or there (i.e., a backstory where during a worldwide war, TN tech was first discovered and that gave the discovering size the decisive advantage to win. TN ground units, perhaps ICBM silos with TN missiles still loaded, primitive gauss stations still in orbit from the war, etc.), or full-TN where we sort of "take the reins" after the initial conversions.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Zook on September 12, 2012, 09:03:25 AM
I never played with pre-TN tech, but I think we should get into space ASAP without the drawn-out foreplay.

We have four players now (Me, Havear, telegraph, sublight), maybe others will join later if we can create an interesting campaign. Do we allow SM'ing, and if so, how much? IMO, we need an empty SM password to space-time-bubble systems in combat. Do we want players to mess with the universe in order to keep the story interesting? Or is it better to try and find an independent SM?
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Bouchart on September 12, 2012, 04:37:38 PM
Count me in, but I'd rather not go first.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Havear on September 12, 2012, 04:42:35 PM
I'd leave SM open to quickly fix anything that comes up, but for anything other than a bugfix a vote should probably be called.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Panopticon on September 12, 2012, 05:06:33 PM
I'd like to play, this sounds like it could be interesting.

I agree with Havear as to the uses of SM mode. The idea of an independent SM sounds kinda cool though, I imagine it as someone who messes with things once in a while just to make things interesting, like turning on Invaders, messing with unrest, economy, or planetary ecology, or something like making the sun start to heat up or die and then leaving it up to the next person in line to start working on rather than someone who plays a full turn.

Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Zook on September 12, 2012, 07:19:46 PM
Fine! I've launched a game called The Gold Rush, and for simplicity's sake it's pretty much a default TN start. Actually, Earth has a random number of jump points, everything else is per the default values.

Main empire theme is French at the moment, but the scenario leaves plenty of room for any nationality.

I'll start a new thread for the story and my initial reports to the stockholders.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: niflheimr on September 13, 2012, 10:39:00 AM
Put me in the queue .  Should be interesting :D
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Zook on September 14, 2012, 06:29:57 PM
June 2034

I didn't get to accomplish half of what I had planned, but there's a new development. And I think it's time for the board to think about new leadership, because Zatapatique seems to be in real trouble now. But the job won't be easy...

(Sorry, I had to split it and the server only allows .zip files, but it's actually a .rar archive. Rename the files to stevefire.part1.rar etc. and unpack normally.)
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: niflheimr on September 14, 2012, 07:58:45 PM
Who's next ?
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Zook on September 14, 2012, 08:17:51 PM
I don't know. telegraph was the first to reply to the initial idea, so I'd say it's his choice. If he doesn't want to play now, I'd say the presidency is up for grabs.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: telegraph on September 15, 2012, 03:34:00 AM
I am taking my turn. I have some justice to administer :)
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Havear on September 15, 2012, 10:35:43 AM
I figure just queue in order of request. That'd be Zook, telegraph, myself, Bouchart, Panopticon, and niflheimr.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: tryrar on September 15, 2012, 11:52:20 PM
Best way of handling this is to put a turn order in first post(this is generally how we do it of Dwarf Fortress). This way everyone can keep track of whose turn it is and whats going on
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Sinensis on September 16, 2012, 07:36:50 PM
Count me in. . . 

For maximum hilarity I wont read the AAR until I get my turn. . .  Blind start was the most enjoyable. . .

I just hope I know what this lever ships doing here. . .
I just hope I know what am I doing. . .
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Zook on September 17, 2012, 05:52:15 AM
Noted. I've put the order of player in the first post.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Havear on September 17, 2012, 06:19:42 PM
Any updates telegraph?
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Zook on September 19, 2012, 07:09:12 PM
Any updates telegraph?

Real life can be a bitch, I guess. If telegraph is busy, would you take the next turn?
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Havear on September 20, 2012, 06:44:26 AM
If he doesn't reply by later today I'll take my turn.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Victuz on September 20, 2012, 06:51:13 AM
I've actually just started playing the game yesterday so but I'd be up for this later on.
By the time it gets to my turn I should be reasonably ok at the game, it's kind of the benefit of being completely and utterly unemployed.
The only benefit probably.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Zook on September 20, 2012, 10:55:54 AM
Look at the bright side. It teaches you valuable job skills, if you can find a job opening for managing a mining empire, or a navy.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Havear on September 20, 2012, 02:31:06 PM
I've got a paper to write and potentially something coming up tonight, but I'll try to push out an update before tomorrow, and assuming somehow I don't finish my turn by the weekend I'll focus on it then.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: telegraph on September 21, 2012, 05:45:09 AM
sorry mates, got some nasty work load in RL and was always about to do my turn "tomorrow", but every tomorrow brings me more load so far. Please go ahead with turns, I'll try to join you once I finish my sprint.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Havear on September 22, 2012, 05:26:07 PM
Posted the first of my updates this weekend. Right now I'm just closing out January of 2035. My plans right now are to get more freighters built since we have but one, get SOME sort of military set up, and modernize the survey fleet. The events in Credit Suisse reminded me why I hate using three types of ships for surveying, but I haven't decided if I'm going to use my normal hybrid Tomcat designs or maybe a dedicated jump\grav and then a non-jump geo. I like the hybridized ships for their lack of micromanagement and ability to do everything themselves without support, especially since detached geo-ships have a habit of wandering into unfriendlies two jumps down the chain while the geos are trying to hitchhike their way back home.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Havear on September 27, 2012, 07:27:55 AM
I've got most of the stuff re-prioritized right now, especially research. I'm hoping the industrial changes finish soon, but I expect the production lines won't be free for another couple of years. A new survey ship will be laid down as soon as the jumpdrive research completes. I apologize for getting back to it so late, but with midterm exams this week and next, plus a campus-wide power outage, it's been hard finding time. The originally agreed week limit's pretty much up, so if the next person in line wants to start I can upload the DB, otherwise I'll keep playing until mid 2036.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Zook on October 05, 2012, 07:51:15 AM
If you're busy at the moment, can you please upload the DB?
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Victuz on October 05, 2012, 08:23:30 AM
Sorry to inform but I probably won't be able to continue the succession game if it comes to me, so I guess you'll have to redo the rotation when it comes to me.

I'd love to do it but I now realize I simply won't have the time for it, on one side searching for a job actually takes about as much time away as actually having one. On the other side I've been asked by my friends to DM a D&D 3.5 game so I probably won't have nearly enough creativity left in me to write up on the events (I know that because I always take DM'ing to the extreme that completely drains me out xD)

So sorry about that :(.
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Havear on October 07, 2012, 07:16:15 PM
I apologize for the delay, you do *not* want to know how my week went. Here's as far as I got, I think it's a little bit farther than the writeup. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/34739133/Stevefire.mdb
Title: Re: Aurora succession game
Post by: Zook on October 08, 2012, 06:17:29 AM
So, how was your week?