Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Game Diary Summary - July

7/3/2007
I haven't done a lot with the game the last few days: I started writing the actual rules, but that's about it. Kind of feeling burned out at the moment, although I know I will get a second wind soon.

7/5/2007
My creative juices have returned and I've been able to write some starship rules. In many ways, it's a carbon copy of the robots chapter so that helps guide me a lot.

7/10/2007
Good progress over the weekend, although I was too busy with work yesterday to do anything.

7/16/2007
More progress: I'm more than 2/3rds done with the starship construction part of the rules, although I still have the starship combat section to do. I also decided to add a short section at the beginning of the chapter talking about getting a starship and a quick primer on FTL jumps, etc.

7/17/2007
I created drone examples: both combat and scout (light, medium, heavy = 5, 10, & 15 tons respectively). I also wrote some brief rules.

I need to rewrite the Drone skill somewhat to reflect how I implemented drone. Case in point, there's no astroid mining (at least not yet), so there's no mining drones.

7/18/2007
While was working on the rules last night, I came across some documentation I had written for an earlier version of the game. I had totally forgotten about it, but this will be somewhat helpful (ie: save time) since that text has already been written.

As for the rules, I'm nearly done with the construction section. Still need to add the construction examples, the combat section, and the introductory section. Yes, a lot to do!

I'm having a little internal debate about using the term "Mach" for spacecraft speed. Since Mach is the speed of sound and there's no sound in space, this may raise eyebrows. I could simply call it "squares of movement" (ie: the ship has a speed of 6, meaning it can go 6 squares per round). Not sure.

7/19/2007
I think I'm moving the Agility (AGI) value under thrusters instead of hull sizes. If I use the defense formula d20+AGI Mod+Size Mod (which imitates the regular def formula of d20+DEX Mod+Size Mod), then the defender would get a double bonus (both related to its hull size).

I wrote quite a bit for the beginning section of the chapter, detailing interstellar travel options and getting your own ship.

For one of my To Do items, I have "create more Psi abilities." However, I think I'll do the opposite: currently there are 36 combat abilities and nearly 80 psi abilities. This would be fine if psi was a major part of Imperium lore. However, it isn't which makes the number of abilities very lopsided. So, I'm going to combine several Psi abilities (like lesser and greater clairvoyance), which would reduce the total number down to around 50 or so. I still need to add additional non-combat and non-psi abilities, which should even things out better.

7/23/2007
I was out of town over the weekend so I wasn't able to do any work on the game. However, last night I did add in the stuff for the first part of the starships chapter that I had written last week. That takes care of most if not all of the first part of the chapter. The middle part (starship construction) is roughly 75% done. I need to finish up construction, add the examples (most of which are done), and then add the combat section (which should be pretty straight forward).

I've started to outline the combat section: this is more about how I want to organize the info more than actually creating the info.

7/24/2007
I updated the wiki to include information from the Introduction and chapter 1: Characters. I'm including general info without any specifics. As rule of thumb, if the info has actual numbers (stats) then I don't include it on the wiki. I don't want to include too much info otherwise there won't be any reason to buy the rules themselves.

7/25/2007
I began writing the rules for combat based on an outline I made last week.

I've also started to redo some of the Psi abilities now that I've decided to remove some of them. Lastly, I've started looking at the races section of the character chapter in an effort to make them more informative: specifically, the strengths and weaknesses of each race.

7/30/2007
I started creating the tables for the starship construction section. This is very time consuming, but i'm working my way through it.

7/31/2007
While working on the weapons tables for starships, i decided that there needs to be more weapons that cause kinetic damage. Currently there are only two, so I need to add more (maybe another 2). I thought about adding artillery (guns) but they would only have explosive damage so that wouldn't really help (although I might still add it for variety).

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

New Banner!

I’ve updated the website with a new title and nav banner. The old one was pretty lame so I’m hoping the new one looks better. My overall goal is to redo the whole site or at least the home page so it looks more professional. Unfortunately, I’m not a professional web designer so whatever I come up with tends to look amateurish. I’m also too cheap to have a professional do it since I don’t get any money from the site anyway. Sigh.

Of course my main goal is to finish the role playing game and try to sell that from my site (among other places). Not sure how much, if anything, will come of that, but I’d like to at least try to make money from what I enjoy doing. ;-)

Monday, July 02, 2007

Bundle of Arrows

I was watching Pan’s Labyrinth over the weekend and spotted a symbol on one of the cars: a bundle of five arrows. This perked my interest because I’ve used a bundle of five arrows to symbolize the five royal families (on the Imperium flag). So today I did some research and found some interesting information about it: the symbol on the car in the movie was the so called “yoke and arrows” which was used by the fascists during and after the Spanish Civil war. At this point I grew a little concerned since I didn’t really want the five families to be associated with Fascism. However, I did some additional digging and found that the fascists had taken the symbol from the so-called Catholic Monarchs of Spain. This made me happier since of course the five families are royalty.

So what’s interesting here is that when I first created the symbol for the five families, I don’t think I had any previous knowledge of how this symbol was used in Spain. Yet, I discovered that indeed it had been used, in a very similar fashion as I had done. Not sure what any of this means, but I think it’s interesting.

Friday, June 29, 2007

Game Diary Summary - June

6/4/2007
Made progress over the weekend: although I had some writers block Saturday morning. Still, I was able to get some stuff done at least.

I wrote up description of two megacorporations (for factions section): MoFoCo and Warlock Industries. Also, started some notes on vehicle maneuvers.

6/5/2007
I added the two new factions (see previous) to the rules. I also wrote text for shells and armor (which I didn't get done last night due to waining self confidence).

I stumbled across Google Books today which might be a way to improve visibilty for the game once it's published. Just a thought since it's free!

Since the next chapter is about starships, I've been revisiting my thoughts on that. Today I was playing around with speeds: and I may go with using mach numbers. Don't want to go into detail, but basically mach 1 would equal 1 space square (1,500 m) per round. Starships speeds would around mach 5-15. This is not exact (1 mach is greater in m/sec per round) but it's close enough to be clean and convenient.

6/7/2007
I've written up rules for Shells, Armor, Weapons, and Force Fields which I just need to add to the actual rules document itself (not just the Google scratch document I've been using). Basically, for each chapter I've been using a Google spreadsheet for raw data and tables, and a Google Doc for text. This allows me to access these files wherever I am, and then add them into the rules document when I'm at home.

6/8/2007
I put my notes into the main rules last night, but I'm still not satisfied with the armor section. I'm thinking I'll go back my original plan of having diff. thicknesses to keep it simple. I hate being indecisive, but I want to make it right.

So, I went back to the "thickness model" and I'm going to stick with that (until I change my mind again). ;-)

I started assembling the actual robot stats (similar to creatures) that can drop into the rules (hopefully soon).

6/11/2007
Friday night and Sunday, I made good progress on the rules. I even rendered three images for the different robots. I also added this game diary to my regular blog (one post per month w/ all the stuff from that month). Since I doubt people really see this diary, I wanted to give it greater visibility (for the few more people that read the blog).

6/12/2007
I wrote and added a robot design example to the rules last night. However, I still need to add costs as well.

6/13/2007
Yesterday I created stats for some of the nonstandard weapons (ie: blow torch, arc welder, nail gun). I'm putting their stats as part of the device desc, instead of in the weapons section since they aren't technically weapons.

6/18/2007
The robot chapter is nearly done: only the section listing rogue robots and their stats, and maybe a few loose ends to complete. The next chapter will have spaceships and space combat. I intend to take some of lessons I've learned (components, etc) for robots and use it for starships.

I updated the wiki to include some of the robot examples. I'll add pictures once I've reduced the resolution of the ones in the rulebook.

6/19/2007
I reviewed my previous starship notes, and added some to my online doc. I had a bunch of notes on scrap paper, so i needed to transfer some of that to my google docs.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to do that FTL fuel: whether to have takes based on slot sizes or not. I woke up at 5:30 this morning thinking about it and couldn't fall back to sleep. :-(

I've made significant progress today w/ some of the starship data.

6/20/2007
Continued with creating data for starships: mostly worked on weapons today. Trying to figure out how I want to do hit dice since I don't want to give starships actual XP levels.

6/21/2007
I'm really struggling with the hit dice (hit points) issue: trying to balance the small ships with the large ships is difficult. Either the small ones are too weak or the large ones are too stong (too many hit points).

6/22/2007
For now I've settled on the hit points. I'll see how it goes when I start doing some testing later. Meanwhile, I've also filled in lots of data so I'm happy with how things are going. I'll be gone this weekend, so I won't be able to work on the game.

6/25/2007
Although I didn't work directly on the game over the weekend, I did think of some things during our long periods of driving. For one thing, I decided to go with actual fuel consumption rates instead of having a set number of days of FTL travel. In other words, instead of having a built-in 5 days of travel per engine, I'm having a rate (mtons of fuel per light-year). This will allow for having actual fuel tanks that are separate from the engines. This will require using additional slots however.

I've been all about missiles today: figuring out how they will work in combat. I've been going back and forth a bit, but basically there will be guided or self-guided using radar and/or IR.

6/26/2007
Created 3 practice ships: after the second one, I changed the # of slots (increased them). While I was doing that, I discovered a huge mistake in the robot's chapter (forgot to actually list how much EPs each power plant produces!!). That was embarrassing.

6/27/2007
I turned one of the sample ships from yesterday into a gunboat. However, I'm still concerned that I'm not allowing for enough slots per hull because they're at a premium when I do a design: there isn't any space for additional stuff like extra staterooms, etc.

6/28/2007
I created another fighter, this one 50 tons. I'm a little more confident about the slot situation. I also added a few more components: drone bays and hangers. I also filled in data for countermeasures like flares and chaff.

6/29/2007
As I make practice ships, I find new things I need to adjust in the stats. This is good but of course then I have to go back and change the practice ships. ;-) Today I made a fuel tanker that provides fuel to military ships that don't have fuel scoops themselves (or streamlining to get their own fuel). Later, after yet more adjustments, I created a pirate raider.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Game Diary Summary - May

5/31/2007 I created two new robots (HK-1 and HK-2) which are a hunter/killer team: the first is the scout and the other is the killer.

5/30/2007 I completed most of the tables for robots, which is not really hard but kinda busy work. I showed off a draft copy of the whole rules to some of my coworkers: they said it looked like a lot of work and that I had too much time on my hands. ;-)

5/29/2007 Over the holiday i made good progress on the rules, incorporating the changes I had made. I also formatted some of the tables and added those into the rules. I need to also add an Example section that steps the reader through the building process (for robots).

5/25/2007 Yesterday I created another two robots: a PAbot (for personal assistant) like Cornelius, Prince Richard's robot; and the Interpeterbot like the spy used by the Magna Embassador.

I just reread my game diary for the last month (concerning the Robots chapter): it's interesting how much this chapter has evolved over the last month.

5/24/2007 I've started to rewrite the robot rules to reflect the changes I made. I can keep most of what I've already done, so I don't think I'll lose too much time doing this. Yesterday, I also created a sweeperbot (the same one that appeared in Ch1 of Alexander the Prince) and a GenBot (which appeared in several different chapters (including Ch1).

5/23/2007 Using the changes I made to robots, I created a medical and attack bot. I'm fairly happy with the outcome so I might go with the current rules. As for my suggestion of changing some stuff in the Encounters chapter, after rereading the chapter, I'm going to just leave things the way they are. At this point, changing stuff might do more harm than good.

5/22/2007 I'm back from my vacation and I used the long drive times to think about the game. I decided to do some consolidation in the Encounter section to make the species more relevant. For robots, I added Attributes directly to the chassis table, with some attributes modified by controller, shell, arms, and hands. Also, I've changed the armor section to be more consistant with the armor in the Gear chapter.

Currently I'm using a cost multiplier (of the base chassis cost) instead of set prices. However, for components that don't actually change in size/power for different chassis sizes, it's not very fair to charge more for larger robots. I will probably have to go with flat prices per component.

5/16/2007 With the new robot system, the biggest stumbling block is the allocation of the slots: how many hi, lo, and average slots the player gets. The total number is easy, but dividing them up is proving hard for me. I think instead of having a set number of slots, I'm going to start with a base number of slots and allow the player to divide up them between hi, lo, and av; but with the max hi slots depending on PP.

I've been making more tweaks: Instead of slots only known by their power, I've changed it to have slots by sizes (small, med, large) and then the player needs to power those slots (if necessary). I'm going back to using EPs, but in a much simpler way (again using lo, av, and hi power that cost 1, 2, and 3 EPs respectively). I've been doing some more tests and so far it's promising. I hope I don't find something that ruins my day.

5/15/2007 Okay, I decided that my original robot design simply isn't working the way I want: it's just too complicated and anything that has too much math cannot be good. J/K. However, I struck on an idea I had for starships (borrowed from Eve Online) involving low, average, and high energy slots. I'm going to play with that and see if it works better. I'll be out of town Thur through Monday so I'll have some time to contemplate what I want to do.

I've been able to essentially redo everything already and I'm pretty happy with the result: it's much more simple, but still allows for great variety.

5/14/2007 Started working on weapons: going to have set CP across sizes since the weapon doesn't get bigger on larger sized robots. Debated about doing this for other components; will likely redo sensors and comm.

After making the changes above, and reducing the EP output of the reactors, I went back at the three practice robots and I'm happier with the result. Of course, I need to do more testing, especially for military bots.

I ended up recalculating the Drive Train values also. Trying not to get depressed . . .

5/12/2007 After redoing some of the CPs for some of the components, I decided I needed to change the total number of CPs per chassis (up by 25%). I may now look at reducing the EP capacity by 25% but i need to run some more tests first. Keep in mind that I was using the old values to determine the CP costs for each individual component.

5/11/2007 I completed most of the EP numbers and now I'm done enough that I can actually start creating robot builds. To that end, this morning I started to create the little robot from Alexander the Prince. During this process, I made changes to the CPs for Standard/Positronic/Gravitronic CPUs.

My first impressions are that CPs seem a little low and EPs seem a little high. I may need to adjust them accordingly.

5/8/2007 Today I'd like to write up some notes on communications and sensors for robots: there will be a default and enhanced version, plus additional ones for greater capabilities.

5/7/2007 Got some more done on robots over the weekend (controllers). At this rate, however, I doubt i'll be able to publish the rules by the Fall as I had hoped: I'm just taking way too much time to get things done (and I have no one to blame but myself, or perhaps the makers of LOTRO)

5/4/2007 I wrote alittle about the Robot Freedom League and what could be described as an underground railroad for runaway robots.

5/2/2007 I'm struggling with what i want to do with robot programs. I want to make it fairly straight forward, but I also want to give the game flexibility.

Need to add rules for changing out robot components (cybernetics roll)

5/1/2007 I updated the Wiki to include Factions & Reputation, and the overview of robots. Sunday, I wrote more about controllers, end effectors, and arms. For controllers, there;'s still a lot of details to do, like stats on hacking and operations: might include set "programs" that a robot can run with a particular cpu.