Topic: Ruleset and other game play Specifics

[Javora]

I hope we are at that point by the time you join us.

I'll be here, I'm not missing this.  Just might be limited for a week or two.

[Javora]

I appreciate having a clear look at the abyss we are looking into.  Although from a legal standpoint I'm not sure this should have been posted here.   I know Exeter said specifically he didn't want to look at ADB's material so he can avoid that particular pitfall.

Personally that list didn't phase me at all.  I played AD&D for decade, the PH had as much.  I was interested on how they did time-  32 segments in a turn?  If a turn equal to a minute then one segment equal 1.875 seconds.  Where as my time clock at work, an hour is devided into tenths.  Now apply that to a minute, each tenths of a minute equals six seconds.  Most noncharging/repaired actions should be done in 6 seconds.  We can even divide a tenth of a second in half for 3 seconds.  That is the way to go, speed up the game a to IMHO.

[Corbomite]

I appreciate having a clear look at the abyss we are looking into.  Although from a legal standpoint I'm not sure this should have been posted here.   I know Exeter said specifically he didn't want to look at ADB's material so he can avoid that particular pitfall.

Personally that list didn't phase me at all.  I played AD&D for decade, the PH had as much.  I was interested on how they did time-  32 segments in a turn?  If a turn equal to a minute then one segment equal 1.875 seconds.  Where as my time clock at work, an hour is devided into tenths.  Now apply that to a minute, each tenths of a minute equals six seconds.  Most noncharging/repaired actions should be done in 6 seconds.  We can even divide a tenth of a second in half for 3 seconds.  That is the way to go, speed up the game a to IMHO.

There is no law against posting a table of contents. It's just a bunch of meaningless terms w/o context. And once again, it is to give form and function to our format, not steal IP.

Time is relative and will be based on the game slider like it is now. The difference between this and AD&D is Rule 0. Here it all matters and must be done.

[[UFP]Exeter]

we need to remember we are uing a computer, to simplify and to do thing for us. 

[Corbomite]

we need to remember we are uing a computer, to simplify and to do thing for us.

Right, and SFC did a great job of that which we need to copy as much as possible while improving it as well.

[Lieutenant_Q]

Wow... I go away for a week and over 200 messages posted...  Guess I need to catch up.  A couple of things I noticed from glancing through the thread.

1. I'll get the NDA signed and sent tomorrow morning.
2. Shields.  A couple of things regarding them. I think shields need to have multiple values.
a. Shield Power: The raw absorption amount.  Once this value is reduced to zero, there is nothing between the hull and weapons fire.
b. Shield Max: The Maximum Amount of absorption power the particular shield can take.  More power causes damage to the shield generators. (A weapon can be designed to specifically pump more power into the shield generators than the system can handle for example)
c. Shield Recharge Rate: The amount of power the shields can be recharged per time unit.  This is not automatic, and requires power to be put into the mechanism.
d. Shield Threshold: The amount of damage that a weapon needs to inflict to reduce the Shield Power.  If the weapon doesn't do at least this amount of damage, the shield shrugs it off.
e. Shield Leakage: This is probably the most complicated item, I don't know if it needs to be in there at all, but I'm putting it up just see what the feel is.  If the shields take more than this amount of damage in a hit, (10%, 15% of current shield power for example) the weapon inflicts a random critical hit. I don't know what the critical hit table would look like, but if there's a chance for a "no-effect" result, then there's a chance that the critical hit simply inflicts hull/armor damage.  The idea behind this concept is that you REALLY don't want to get hit by an R-torp, and even if you have the shields to withstand the hit, you are still going to be hurting from the impact.  Stronger shields can shrug off stronger attacks, while shields that have been strained will let more damage through.
3.  There's no need to re-designate any ship classes.  SFB borrowed heavily from standard Naval Terms, and they cannot cry foul over that.
4.  One thing I do worry about though, is that ADB decides to file suit knowing that they can't win, but hopes that legal fees will force the ending of the project.  Harmony Gold did that with FASA 20 years ago, FASA had the legal right to use the material, but couldn't afford a lawyer to defend themselves from the suit.

[Corbomite]

1. I'll get the NDA signed and sent tomorrow morning.

Good. Looks like it's best to PM it in.Get TS up and running too.

4.  One thing I do worry about though, is that ADB decides to file suit knowing that they can't win, but hopes that legal fees will force the ending of the project.  Harmony Gold did that with FASA 20 years ago, FASA had the legal right to use the material, but couldn't afford a lawyer to defend themselves from the suit.

We are not using anything ADB can sue over. SFC is abandoned and free to use. Our generic engine will have nothing in it to sue over. Our SFC/SFB mod that we are going to use as a test bed and demo will be free. I see no issues. And we can counter sue for legal fees.

The rest of the stuff you posted can be used in our generic game design we will probably need for the generic engine release.

[Tulwar]

One thing that struck me is what a bad job SFB did with the naming conventions of phasers and plasma torpedoes.  Phasers were named for the order they were made up for the game, while plasmas were named on a complete whim.  I suggest that they be named for generation and power.  Captain Pike may have fired 50 Tetra Joule Generation 1 phasers, while Captain Kirk took command of the Big E after they were upgraded to Gen 2 Phasers  w/ %50 more power.  SFC could have handled this making Pike's phasers Type II and Kirk's Type I.  I'd rather call them something like Type I50 and II75.  That way, Picard's phasers could be descriped as VII 5K.

Personally, I think generation could simply be an over-complication for the game.  A 500 TJ phaser would be just as deadly built in Pikes time as Picard's.  Some folks might just want to newer designs to be more efficient than older designs.  I would simply name the weapon for the amount of power it took to charge or its damage potential.  SFB phasers would change:  Type I = P100, Type II = P067, Type III = P050, and Type IV = P200.  Plasma Torpedoes could be named for maximum damage potential, were something like a Type R would be named "Plas 50."  This would make weapons infinitely scale-able.

My daydream is the idea of a scale-able firing chart for phasers.  This isn't realistic notion to try to code, just where my thinking of a truly new game goes.  That is, the range of the weapon would increase with the amount of power applied.  That is, at a range of 0, a 50 TJ phaser would do 1/2 the damage of a 100TJ phaser, but at any greater range do less damage.  I'm sure there is a way to describe this with an equation that could be applied to whatever power level is applied to the weapon.  From there, players could control the power setting of their phasers, or even create a defensive mode where a P100 could fire four times as a P025.  This is too deep for our purposes.

[Corbomite]

One thing that struck me is what a bad job SFB did with the naming conventions of phasers and plasma torpedoes.  Phasers were named for the order they were made up for the game, while plasmas were named on a complete whim.  I suggest that they be named for generation and power.  Captain Pike may have fired 50 Tetra Joule Generation 1 phasers, while Captain Kirk took command of the Big E after they were upgraded to Gen 2 Phasers  w/ %50 more power.  SFC could have handled this making Pike's phasers Type II and Kirk's Type I.  I'd rather call them something like Type I50 and II75.  That way, Picard's phasers could be descriped as VII 5K.

ADB had no rights to TNG at all and you have to realize that the game started in the early '70s with two ships: F-CA and K-D7. So yeah, the phasers are pretty dopey. A PH-4 should be a PH-1 and the rest go down a notch in the list. But SB's were much later so...

Plasmas actually do make sense, mostly:

R= Romulan - First appearance of any weapon of this type.

G= Gorn - Gorn version, removing the need to build a ship around it and require such a high energy cost.

S= Formerly the GII, the Gorn upgrade to the G. Changed to remove confusion.

F= Some debate on this one since there is no clear answer. It's either for "fast" because you can charge it faster in a bigger launcher, or for "Federation" since this is the torp that they got from the Gorn alliance and don't use any other type.

[Tulwar]

Thanks, I'll keep a copy in my glove compartment, just in case I get lost.

[[UFP]Exeter]

I realize it id not SFC but what about LCARS tyle fo the UI with the sme information displayed

[Corbomite]

All the Fed stuff in SFC is LCARS style in design, or were you talking overall design of the generic menus and interfaces?

[[UFP]Exeter]

everything.

[Captain Adam]

.

[Corbomite]

That'd be cool. I guess we just have to decide whether we want an overall starfleet feel to the generic game.

[Javora]

I think we should go with a Star Trek feel since this is SFC but we just need to keep things as modular as possible.

[Corbomite]

The general interfaces in SFC are pretty neutral as it is. Why not just reuse them?

[Captain Adam]

.

[Javora]

Ok this is the thread that should be moved to the private section.

[Corbomite]

If Exeter agrees I'll move it.