PBEM Scenario Creation

[Rabid_Cog (OP)]

I've gotten the idea into my head to make a few Aurora scenarios designed to be playable by email. At present the instability of v6 (can't do SM race starts) is prohibiting me from doing this, but as soon as Steve fixes these little things I shall get the ball rolling. The idea would be to create 'War' scenarios, not empire building scenarios, with expected durations of between 6 months and a year. Enough time for some limited research and expansion, but not enough time to outtech your opponent.

I need three things now. I need to know if anyone would be interested in this, I need ideas for scenarios and I need ideas for PBEM rules.

PBEM rules: As I have them so far
No SM access. Nobody starts with any tech points or OOB points anyway, all their tech and ships are already assigned.
No specific victory conditions, but victory guidelines rather. The winner is the one who can hold planet so and so, but there is no arbitrary requirement of 'a month' or anything silly like that. Instead, the opponent decides when he no longer feels he has a chance to oppose this condition.
Each player may press any of the time buttons at the top in his turn, but only once. Where the game stops, that's the next turn.
No spoilers except the basic ones.
No NPR's at the start, but perhaps allow them to be discovered?

Scenario ideas:
Just as an example, I present a simple scenario I call 'Crossing the Tee'.
Both sides have single system empires with a single system between them (scouted but not surveyed) containing a <1 colony cost planet. This planet is the victory guideline, whoever holds it is the 'winner'.
The only exit(s) from these three systems lie in the middle system itself. The home systems only have a warp point to the middle system.

Home-T-Home
         |
       Exit

Both sides start with TN and fighter (box launcher, etc) technology, ion engines and a fleet.

[sublight]

Interested, but war with no SM could be tricky. Each side will have different sensor detection ranges, so the side not advancing time could miss important information. Swapping the save on every interrupt 'just in case' sounds unplayably slow.

Anyway, I've been kicking around a few war scenario ideas myself for the old 5.6 versions.

Scenario Name: Titan Rebelion
Format: 2 factions (Earth, Titan) 1 SM. The players setup their sides, and write a 'the book' on tactics and contingency plans for their side. The SM runs both fleets 'by the book,' stopping time after each significant event (no more than once per game day) to send private message/email updates to the players to see if any wish to change tactics. If there is no victory after 6 months an armistice is declared and the scenario ends. If one player survived with significantly more assets that side is declared the marginal victory.

Victory Conditions: Destroy your opponent's ability to wage war while preserving your own. Typically by destroying our capturing your opponents ship yards and rendering their fleet ineffective.

Setup: Standard 500m TN start. Titan SM-teraformed to be a valid starting world.
Tech: 100k RP of your choice of base tech plus up to 20k RP of race components. No further research permitted.
Fleet: Standard Fast OOB creation. Missiles are not included free, but can be purchased at half cost from either Fleet or PDC build point pools. Additional missiles/fighters may be manufactured in-game.
Variant: With enough players this could be made into an aurora tournament. In this variant spent tech points may not be changed between matches, but unspent race component RP may be saved to redesign components in future matches.


Just another idea. I know some people see Aurora as the ultimate Space Fiction Assistant, but I see it as an ultimate Space Wargame Simulator. Here's to hoping a viable easily played multiplayer war scenario can be designed.

[Rabid_Cog (OP)]

Yeah, at present Aurora works better as a fiction assistant than a wargame simulator. Still, it's not far off, it's just not high up on Steve's priority list (understandably so). Little things like the ability to OOB ships in and tech without entering SM mode up to your points limit and the ability to alter points limits using SM mode would go a long way towards competetive gameplay and those are tiny changes.

I suppose you are right about the game becoming unplayably slow. SM it is then. I really like your 'book' idea. Sort of each player having to have his own doctrine written up or SM can do whatever the hell he wants. Game would be made accessable to the players only once every 5 days (in game days) or so or whenever a fleet would contact HQ for orders.

Earth v Titan is interesting and certainly a viable scenario. All I wonder is whether a better map than Sol can be made for it. Sol does have the advantage of having lots of orbital bodies, but a binary (or more) system might provide a better battlescape.

[sublight]

Yah, I'm sure a better battle field could be found with enough random system generations. Titan/Earth was just the simplest reproducible setup I could think off. The home worlds are a little closer together than would be ideal, but the asteroid belt does offer a middle ground of sorts even if it isn't centered.

Anyone else interested in a war scenario? If we had a third person we could each SM a test game between the other two.

[Rabid_Cog (OP)]

In time, for now we wait for the next version. Some things need fixing and making a scenario only to have to remake it later when Steve gives us a patch seems kinda pointless.

[Rabid_Cog (OP)]

Alright, new version is out so its time to get started. What do you guys think are the odds are Steve is going to release another database update shortly?