GCWIII -- New Combat Model? Let's Mock!

[SWSF Hoppus]

Fair enough I'm sold on Eriadu. Time to do a little research.

[gallpizi]

Fair enough I'm sold on Eriadu. Time to do a little research.

BOOM

[SWSF Hoppus]

Stray thought as I'm heading out the door - somewhat standard (traditional) rules with very minimal dice rolling (if any) as one stage of battle, but also having a 'micro battle' within the larger battle that holds some sway using more dice sort of like the example Eidolon gave for miniatures - somehow weighting the two results and then going from there?

Because the problem we are trying to solve is the linear nature here - bring as many guns and ships as you can and let them go at it. There's no surprises and retreats are rare or impossible, it's not a big surprise and it gets old fast. So what if we found a way to sort of 'distill' combat into something representative of the whole? Like in a large engagement, focusing on one smaller engagement.. i don't know, this are stray thoughts! Just throwing them out there, maybe they will fire something in someone's mind that's more useful.

[SWSF Eidolon]

   Gravy train. So Eriadu?   Wookies article on it isn't the greatest.  So typed directlyed from the SW Atlas on my lap. . .


   Eriadu

   Grid Location: M-18

   Terrain: Industrial cityscape, waste zones

   Diameter: 13,490km

   Length of Year: 360 local days

   Population: 22 billion

   Sentient Species: Humans, various other alien species.

   Species Mix: Humans 86%, other 14%

   Language: Basic

   Government: Imperial Governship

   Major Exports: Computer technology, manufacturing, textiles, droids

   Major Imports: Foodstuffs, Medicinals, lommite ore (and illicit weapons for the Eriaduan Opposition!)

   System/Star: Eriadu/Eriadu

   Planets     Type              Moons
   Muntiadu  Molten Rock      0
   Jaroona    Volcanic Rock    0
   Erinar       Volcanic Rock    1
   Eriadu      Terrestrial         1
   Tarastra   Gas giant          7
   Kelliadu    Ice ball              0

   Eriadu, it's said, is a Core World in all things except geography.  But while the planet is inarguably in the Outer Rim, it sits squarely at the most prestigious, economically vital, and strategic spot in the entire region: the intersection of the Hydian Way and the Rimma Trade Route (not to mention two lesser but still important routes, the Lipsec Run and the Yankirk Route).

   Eriadu is a badly polluted factory world of rugged landmasses and shallow seas.  For years it was known more for it's delicate shellwork jewelry than for it's economic might-- but that all changed under the guidance of the Quintad, five powerful, ambitious Corulag families who emigrated to Eriadu around 900BBY.  The Quintad-- the most famous branch of which is the Tarkin clan-- remade Eriadu into a manufacturing giant with prestigious shipyards, seeking to turn their world into "the Coruscant of the Outer Rim."  They largely succeeded: Few mention Eriaduan shellwork anymore. (And just as well-- the Eriaduan flow-mollusks are extinct, the victims of inceased ocean acidity that dissolved their shells.)

   Eriadu was a flashpoint during the Clone Wars.  A Republic bastion amid Separatist sectors, it served as the headquarters for the Greater Sesweena Sector's Army, overseen by Wilhuff Tarkin.  After Palpatine's ascension to Emperor, the Greater Sesweena was reorganized into Oversector Outer, making Tarkin the most powerful man in the Outer Rim.

   Rabidly pro-Imperial.  Eriadu would eventually become a grudging member of the New Republic as economic considerations out-weighed political leanings.  It was bypassed by the Yuuhzan Vong and emerged from the conflict with its importance and power greatly enhanced.

   Many Eriaduans are extremely touchy about their place in the galaxy.  Their accents are "more Core than Core," and they even regard the most innocent remarks about the Rim as potential insults.


END SW ATLAS ENTRY


   The Wookiepedia entry is relatively in line with this for most part though brief.  It notes some Islamic like cultural attributes of traditional men and women wearing beards and veils respectively.  Obviously 22billion people don't all behave and think the same, so there's room for all sorts of personal interpretation as well.

[SWSF Eidolon]

Stray thought as I'm heading out the door - somewhat standard (traditional) rules with very minimal dice rolling (if any) as one stage of battle, but also having a 'micro battle' within the larger battle that holds some sway using more dice sort of like the example Eidolon gave for miniatures - somehow weighting the two results and then going from there?

Because the problem we are trying to solve is the linear nature here - bring as many guns and ships as you can and let them go at it. There's no surprises and retreats are rare or impossible, it's not a big surprise and it gets old fast. So what if we found a way to sort of 'distill' combat into something representative of the whole? Like in a large engagement, focusing on one smaller engagement.. i don't know, this are stray thoughts! Just throwing them out there, maybe they will fire something in someone's mind that's more useful.

Could be a cool idea, almost like, Hero Units or Groups being the fighting that determines where the whole thing goes?  The larger engagement occurs, and we have some value to all the other components of it, but in terms of micro-managed battles, it's smaller or at least more dynamic and intricate for what's happening around our actual main characters?  Hope im expressing this appropriately. The larger battle is more checkers, the smaller battle is more chess in the aspect of technicals.  This then makes managing fleets much easier for Hale and Gal I'd think, maybe your command ships and a small support contigent fight a more detailed battle, while your other heavy ships and picket lines are fighting a more simplistic battle in the background, that could even be affected by what's happening between yours guys "Character Duel" battle. .

 That's one potential way to classify it.  Intricate battles are Character Duels, which could be against another player or the GM.  We try and give it more of an RPG treatment in some ways? Maybe there's some leveling system then to Character pursuits?  This could be the reward system per say, along with however you'd build up or improve your larger fleets or command ships.   We could slightly isolate scales of ships, so that say if a Fringer character is getting in on a Character Duel between Hale and Gal, he's never in a position to get totally destroyed really, he's more so zipping about the fighters, plucking some out, trying to accomplish whatever his story goal may be?  just more so booted out the battle and having some penalty?  Maybe he's got to run some routes or something.   Just a vague concept.  The smaller battle is in depth, the larger is more composite?

  Brainstorming for awhile.  If you don't hear from me the ole noggin finally broke down ;p

  Oh and I'll be out of town tomorrow, should be back in the discussion Sunday evening.

[SWSF Eidolon]

  If all is in general agreed from the Eriadu/Sesweena point on then, I'm set on my desire role I think. 

  My main character is going to be Major Peerless Safa'vid.  Concept that hopefully will work out is he commands the loyalty of a company or battalion of a particular Eriaduan cultural sect that happens to be highly traditional to ancient Eriaduan customs.  From there it could grow to something directly much larger or at least playing a role in it. The Safa'vids I think will be one of the major ancient families of Eriadu that still survive that pre-date the Quintad, thus pre-dating the mass industrializtion of Eriadu.

  I will need some way to exist amongst the mass Imperial majority might of Eriadu and Oversector Outer HQ.  A way to exist and work with the Rebellion!

[SWSF Hale]

I know you guys are really deadset on a planetside type of game, but I must stress this ought to be a game and not a group SL. If you came up with some way to represent an entire planet on a grid or in some other capacity, I'm sure the idea of cities constantly shifting hands until perhaps some sort of condition is triggered that forces a large scale space-to-ground battle for complete control of the planet.

As I've said before, a win condition metric we can use is Influence, just something to think about.

[gallpizi]

I agree with Hale.

[SWSF Hale]

Here is a Sector Map I made, we can use it or not.

[SWSF Hoppus]

So how are the rules going to look like?

[Ramano]

There is another option here for your dice rolling. I could be your GM. I dont particularly want to play but I could run in a GM capacity to do dice rolls and solve rule disputes thus freeing up some of the workload for everyone else and allowing you all to focus completely on combat... up to you.

[SWSF Hale]

How I Think We Should Go About Writing Rules...

1. Now that we've established a setting, and character archetypes to play (2 planetside players + 2 sector-level players) we make it a Team Game. Maybe some more people will join, sure, but we keep it Galactic Empire vs Rebel Alliance for simplicity sake (a 3rd party sim also didn't realistically exist, nor is it true to the spirit of GCW).

2. We continue to drill down on mapping the gameboard. We need to come up with generic planetary grid maps for our sector (3 should do). I recommend using a Mercator Projection, with 8 different grid sections. We can drill down even further by assigning up to 3 Cities to a single planet, and the cities could be Capital, Major, and Minor. These cities will have unique grids associated with them, so that battles aren't cookie cutter. Obviously a Capital will have major development, highly urban, whereas the Minor city will be less developed, more open. The goal of the game should be a simple Capture The Flag (take over the Capital) or King of the Hill (take over the Major + Minor).

3. A single, space grid for all systems would seem appropriate. I like the idea of a Hexagonal Space Grid, with lots of moving pieces but the overall action is simple (NEB moves to B-1, fires at ISD for 300 DMG... type stuff).

4. Bring in Character Attributes that influence game mechanics. Sort of how we already have with our current Hero System in GCW, only this time we can utilize some dice perhaps.

I think those four areas are a good starting place. Specs have, and always will be, quick and easy -- once we know how they'll be utilized.

[SWSF Eidolon]

Map looks good, except that Eriadu is off of the actual intersection of the major routes there? Uvena is 1 system, but if you mean to represent a diff of travel markers for HS regulations then makes sense- tho would no other systems/worlds then any of their additional worlds represented?  We have full canon info on Eriadu system and chances are these other Sesweena systems have noted settlements or cause to visit other worlds in the system.

I can get on board with most of the points in essence.  However I think maybe Eriadu itself should get some special treatment in terms of its scale compared to the other worlds.  Generic maps for other worlds, less goals than, expand Eriadus.  Could have 3 classes of systems, theres Eriadu, theres MiddleRoad and theres Backwater/LittleValue.  Then even difficulties of certain things change. If die were used for smuggling in somemechanic, its harder on Eriadu than a backwater world.

 The team aspect sounds cool.

 Remember in GCWIII how it was mentioned that you'd have main char units and then ancillary char units?  We should incorporate that.  Like for instance, as a ground battle commander, i could have some sort of little bonus units that support bulk of my inevitable force.  (i'm game for doing all reb ground as it gets worked up that is).  Maybe it is an artillery specialist with longest range damage abil or something, or maybe it's a smuggler that helpls increase some attribute after performing smuggling action, etc.  I guess basically sort of porting a lot of the concept that was going along for the entire galactic scope in GCWIII but just implement concepts of it in context of Sesweena and giving RPGish role. Reb v Imp GCW focus sector scale, battle game character driven thing.

 It sort of guides the hand of player to form character groups, yet keeps everything definitely game aspect as well.

[SWSF Hale]

I actually liked where we were going in terms of Rules & Specs for GCWIII, so I'm all for incorporating existing ideas regarding Hero Units, Auxiliary Characters, Elite Squads, etc.

Agree that Eriadu should be given special treatment in terms of game maps. In terms of what systems made it on the map, that's straight from Wookiepedia.

REVISED SECTOR MAP

[Dementat]

Hmm... seems I have much reading and catching up to do...