Author Topic: where do you get BTS???  (Read 35469 times)

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Offline Þórgrímr

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Re: where do you get BTS???
« Reply #30 on: August 02, 2011, 08:48:29 PM »
Well, I did a workaround - I used a local Brazilian Email Provider, and it worked! Now I only need to wait the confirmation of the Admins. (Who I think is you and Haegan) I'll hit the Ruler after the confirmation and talk to you after I read 'em all.

You have been approved. Welcome aboard.  :) I will leave you a PM on WoTG as to what you need to do, to join the playtesters.  :)



Cheers, Thor
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Offline Xkill

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Re: where do you get BTS???
« Reply #31 on: August 02, 2011, 09:02:33 PM »
Cool, i'm anxious to start!
 

Offline mavikfelna

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Re: where do you get BTS???
« Reply #32 on: August 03, 2011, 11:22:32 AM »
Just be aware that it's a HUGELY complex game. The playtests helped find and fix a bunch of stuff but it needs yet more playtests to refine things.

Still, if you don't mind the complexity it's pretty thorough and hugely variable which should lead to alot of interesting gameplay.

--Mav
 

Offline Þórgrímr

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Re: where do you get BTS???
« Reply #33 on: August 03, 2011, 05:03:19 PM »
Just be aware that it's a HUGELY complex game. The playtests helped find and fix a bunch of stuff but it needs yet more playtests to refine things.

Still, if you don't mind the complexity it's pretty thorough and hugely variable which should lead to alot of interesting gameplay.

--Mav

The following paragraph's are aimed at the whole board and not just Xkill.  :)

I have to qualify Mav's statement a bit. Since the word 'complex' has gotten a bad rap with today's gamer.

The complexity in the game comes from the sheer amount of things you can do. With the unitmaker, leadermaker, speed checker, and colony cost programs the actual complex things are greatly simplified. With no slight towards Mav, he has seen the design docs but has not participated in a playtest yet. So has no experience in what is and is not dealt with by the player. Now Backstab, has participated in the tests, and is qualified to comment.

One thing I believe is to allow the gamers to do pretty much what they wish in the game. And to allow that you need a pretty hefty set of rules. But as an aside, the rules Mav and the tester's have seen are the design docs. Pretty much 75% of those the actual player will never see.

I would say that Aurora is more complex, in its minutia, than BTS! is. We just do not have a fancy program to hide our innards.  ;) ;D

My final point is do not let the word 'complex' make your decison for you, you may miss something that you will enjoy for years, and not just for a few months and grow bored with.

BTS! is going to be the type of game that what you put into it is what you get out of it. You want great detail, the data is there. If you want quick, that is covered also. Playing the game is, actually, quite simple. In the last playtest it was taking the players, as they told me, between 10 and 20 minutes to make their orders.

If this sounds like a 'sales pitch', in a way it is. It is also an attempt to deflect the negative conotations of the word 'complex'. One man's complex is another man's dumbed down. ;D



Cheers, Thor

« Last Edit: August 03, 2011, 05:05:14 PM by Þórgrímr »
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Offline Xkill

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Re: where do you get BTS???
« Reply #34 on: August 03, 2011, 07:24:00 PM »
Calm down Þórgrímr, I still want to play the game...  :)

But, leaving the comic (Or not) comment above, I like the complex games - If the game isn't complex you run out of things to do; if its too simple you will master the game way too quickly making it boring. Aurora is a "Way too much" game - I actually stopped playing it for awile because I was afraid that I was going to abandon a Campaign because of the complexity. :P

So bottom line: No game is the "Middle Term" (At least not the ones that I know of) the perfect game is the one that you have fun playing for a long time.

But now to the questions: (They would come sooner or later)  ;D

1: How does the "Space Age" is played properly? (Is there any kind of Ship Design, Space Battles, Pirates, etc...)

2: Do we all get dropped in a single planet and battle our way out? (Like some sort of World Domination eventually reaching the Space Age)

3: Oh, The Research! :P   How does it function? (You know, Tech Trees, Espionage, maybe research facilities like in Aurora)

4: About the Sheet Stuff... I'm not sure of the huge amount of Sheets that people talked about... (I completely SUCK at Math so my own calculations will suck too. Well, maybe... And yes I know about the Calculator but not even it can calculate more complex calculations)

5th and possibly last one: The Cold War!  *cue dramatic music* (Or Hot one in this case) How does actual Planetary Combat Works? (Does it work like a RTS: Sheer Amount over Strategy; like a Grand Strategy: HOI3 Has Come! Beware its Divisions! or maybe a TBS: It's your turn pal...)

I'm a joker ain't I?

Anyways, Thank you for aswering my questions and forgiving the terrible English of mine...
 

Offline Þórgrímr

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Re: where do you get BTS???
« Reply #35 on: August 03, 2011, 09:33:36 PM »
Calm down Þórgrímr, I still want to play the game...  :)

But, leaving the comic (Or not) comment above, I like the complex games - If the game isn't complex you run out of things to do; if its too simple you will master the game way too quickly making it boring. Aurora is a "Way too much" game - I actually stopped playing it for awile because I was afraid that I was going to abandon a Campaign because of the complexity. :P

So bottom line: No game is the "Middle Term" (At least not the ones that I know of) the perfect game is the one that you have fun playing for a long time.

But now to the questions: (They would come sooner or later)  ;D

1: How does the "Space Age" is played properly? (Is there any kind of Ship Design, Space Battles, Pirates, etc...)

2: Do we all get dropped in a single planet and battle our way out? (Like some sort of World Domination eventually reaching the Space Age)

3: Oh, The Research! :P   How does it function? (You know, Tech Trees, Espionage, maybe research facilities like in Aurora)

4: About the Sheet Stuff... I'm not sure of the huge amount of Sheets that people talked about... (I completely SUCK at Math so my own calculations will suck too. Well, maybe... And yes I know about the Calculator but not even it can calculate more complex calculations)

5th and possibly last one: The Cold War!  *cue dramatic music* (Or Hot one in this case) How does actual Planetary Combat Works? (Does it work like a RTS: Sheer Amount over Strategy; like a Grand Strategy: HOI3 Has Come! Beware its Divisions! or maybe a TBS: It's your turn pal...)

I'm a joker ain't I?

Anyways, Thank you for aswering my questions and forgiving the terrible English of mine...


Not mad, just setting a definiton is all.  ;D

1. I will give an example of a 'Dawn of the Space Age': It is the dawn of the American space exploration effort. The US has decided that to explore the final frontier and they will need a secure base in orbit to support efforts further out in the solar system.

They have a (star)port located in the Southeast region and will be using rockets to lift the IUUs and pop into orbit and in expectation of that have built quite a few of their Titan 2 lifting bodies. They pay the 100 WUs and lift the 500 pop and 10 IUUs into orbit. At the end of the fifth turn Skywatch One becomes operational with one Bastion.

Now let's continue with the example, BTW, these examples are right out of the design docs: The American space exploration effort has yielded spectacular success and Congress has decided it is time to move manufacturing into orbit to ease the cost of producing space based items. Therefore the US has decided that to expand Skywatch One into a proper space station.

They have a (star)port located in the Southeast region and will be using rockets to lift the IUUs into orbit and in expectation of that have built quite a few Saturn 5 Heavy Lifting Bodies. They pay the 200 WUs and lift the 2.5K pop and 20 IUUs into orbit. At the end of the turn Skywatch One transforms into Earth Two and becomes operational in 6 turns with a pop cap of 10K and with one Bastion. On the seventh turn the US designates the next infrastructure point to be built will be an sHI (Space Heavy Industry) and pays the 100 WUs then lifts the pop needed to run the infra and the 10 IUUs into orbit. 6 turns later Earth Two has been upgraded to a level two space station with 3K pop and one space-based heavy industry capacity available.

And yes, there are ship desgins, space battles, and you betcha, pirates!  ;D

2. In the next playtest all of the testers will be a nation on earth in 1969, just after Apollo 11 has landed. The main thrust of this playtest is to make sure the new Research and Development rules work as designed.

3. I will give an example research project and explain it's parts.

[] Rocketry: Manned Orbital Capsule Name of Project
Tech Level Requirement Engineering, Physics/Mathematics 6.9 Technology Levels required to open up the project
R&D Requirement Manned Capsule, 10 Rocket Manufactory Production Slots Technology required to research. Number of Manufacturing Slots needed
Beneficial Disciplines: Rocketry, Astronautics, Ballistics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Spacecraft Propulsion, Spacecraft Design The teams and scientists assigned to the project will have disciplines they excel at, these are the beneficial ones
Successes Required 2 Each Project has three stages, Theory, Develpoment, and Practical Application. These are the number of successes needed to progress.
Chemical cryogenic rockets use fuels that demand active storage measures in almost all star systems if used inside the 'snow line.' By far the most common such system is the liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen rocket, which uses plain water as fuel, split into its component elements. Such rockets typically have a impulse rating of 400 to 500 seconds, a thrust to weight ratio of less than 100 to 1 and a total delta-v of no more than 6.2 m/sec. Project Description
Completing the Rocketry: Manned Orbital Capsule project allows the Power to build a larger manned orbital space vehicle squadron. This carries more crew and equipment than the primitive Manned Capsule. It is capable of moving out of LEO into higher orbits, and leads the way to manned Space Platforms, Space Stations, and eventually the Moon. Benefits of the Project.

4. The player has two sheets. A System Sheet and an Empire sheet. The player does no math beyond basic planning. All of the math is done for him. All you do is enter the data and the math is calced by the sheet. Everything else is optional or a helper.

5. The player gives the orders for his military, and the GM processes them and returns the results. So like all Imperious rulers, you have to rely on your military to carry out your orders.  ;) ;D Needless to say, this is one reason the GM program is being made. Combat has a LOT of modifiers. The base unit is the Bn, and you build your own order of battle. AKA, make you own military as you see fit.  :)

I like jokers.  ;D

And I also like to answer questions, the more the merrier since it shows an interest.  :)



Cheers, Thor
Sic vis pacem, para bellum
If you want peace, prepare for war
 

Offline Þórgrímr

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Re: where do you get BTS???
« Reply #36 on: August 04, 2011, 06:32:46 PM »
Xkill, PM sent on WoTG.  :)



Cheers, Thor
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If you want peace, prepare for war
 

Offline dalord0

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Re: where do you get BTS???
« Reply #37 on: August 04, 2011, 07:58:39 PM »
I'm interested in playtesting this but my account hasn't been activated.... ;)  how long does it usually take?
 

Offline Þórgrímr

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Re: where do you get BTS???
« Reply #38 on: August 04, 2011, 08:43:18 PM »
I'm interested in playtesting this but my account hasn't been activated.... ;)  how long does it usually take?

Give me five minutes.  ;D Onced I approve it I will send you a PM about joining the playtest team.  :)

EDIT: I had an account of dalord and dalord0. I approved the latter one.



Cheers, Thor
« Last Edit: August 04, 2011, 08:46:04 PM by Þórgrímr »
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Offline haegan2007

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Re: where do you get BTS???
« Reply #39 on: August 04, 2011, 09:21:19 PM »
hello all.  We are getting close to finishing the GM one click.  Hopefully about 2 weeks.  I don't see the excel sheets changing from now till then.  Right now we are working on placing finished infra and facilities on the system sheet.  The next step is updating the Empire Economics sheet and then its a go i think!
 

Offline dalord0

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Re: where do you get BTS???
« Reply #40 on: August 04, 2011, 10:27:38 PM »
Give me five minutes.  ;D Onced I approve it I will send you a PM about joining the playtest team.  :)

EDIT: I had an account of dalord and dalord0. I approved the latter one.



Cheers, Thor

Cheers that was a mistake on my part :P
 

Offline Þórgrímr

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Re: where do you get BTS???
« Reply #41 on: August 04, 2011, 10:37:56 PM »
Cheers that was a mistake on my part :P

No worries bud. It happens to us all at one time or another.  ;D



Cheers, Thor
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If you want peace, prepare for war
 

Offline Þórgrímr

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Re: where do you get BTS???
« Reply #42 on: September 22, 2011, 02:29:47 PM »
Xkill and dalord, the game is about to start. If you are still intetested, please head over to WoTG and let me know.  :)



Cheers, Thor
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If you want peace, prepare for war
 

Offline Xkill

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Re: where do you get BTS???
« Reply #43 on: September 26, 2011, 06:38:49 PM »
Oh, hello Þórgrímr, look I think I'll have to pass this game; my PC got screwed. I'm about to get a Notebook from the local government as a prize, but, they didn't distributed them yet, and I don't know when it's going to get on my hands.

It was about to be delivered to the students at about 09/27/11, but they rescheduled it, and they didn't gave me the date yet. It is going to be delivered this year, in the end of October or November but I'm not sure.

As soon as I get my Notebook, I'll start contributing to the playtesting team.
 

Offline Þórgrímr

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Re: where do you get BTS???
« Reply #44 on: September 27, 2011, 02:41:50 AM »
Oh, hello Þórgrímr, look I think I'll have to pass this game; my PC got screwed. I'm about to get a Notebook from the local government as a prize, but, they didn't distributed them yet, and I don't know when it's going to get on my hands.

It was about to be delivered to the students at about 09/27/11, but they rescheduled it, and they didn't gave me the date yet. It is going to be delivered this year, in the end of October or November but I'm not sure.

As soon as I get my Notebook, I'll start contributing to the playtesting team.

Thanks for the heads up bud. We will be here when and if you get the time to play.  :)



Cheers, Thor
Sic vis pacem, para bellum
If you want peace, prepare for war