Ruleset Starshaper (Discussion and Player Signup)

A section for that silly thing called "role play" and other forum games.

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AmnEn
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Ruleset Starshaper (Discussion and Player Signup)

Post by AmnEn »

What is this?
So far it is the Work in Progess of a Ruleset for a Forumgame. The goal is to provide an Elite or Freelancer like experience with Battleships Forever as the Base for this. Ideally there will also be opportunity for Roleplay inbetween the actions and good roleplay will be rewarded.

The way this game will be held is a mixture of Turnbased Gameplay and Battles played out in Battleships Forever. There will be a chance to buy Ships, modify existing types with weapons or modules of your choice.
The difference to a normal game of BSF is that you need to pay IC Credits for those things. Plus you get the ships in a done dio deal without modifying them yourself unless you explicetely pay for a custom job.

On the other hand, you'll have the opportunity to trade goods or go the pirate route, you can take over wrecked ships if you're lucky and might be able to sell them. You might become an explorer, maybe even find alien Artefacts that give you an edge.


1. Basic Ruleset
1.1 Worldupdates
1.2 Action Points
1.3 Action Queue

2 Stations and Planets
2.1 Factions
2.2 Docking Points
2.3 Cargo/Slots etc
2.4 Shipmodification
2.5 Equipment Variants

3 Combat
3.1 Combatphase
3.2 End of Combat

4 Exploration
5 Roleplay
6 Example
7 Last Words


1.1 Worldupdates
Consider the Worldupdates basically the heartbeat of the Universe. Each time a worldupdate happens, stations and Planets update their Goods based upon Supply and Demand. Special Events might occur that can be beneficial to you or hazardous.
There will be one Worldupdate every day. The Update isn't necessarily every 24 hours but in the long run it will be one Update every day. Posts that contain a Worldupdate will be specifically noted as such. Once a Worldupdate is in Progress, all your Action Points get transformed into credits at the rate of 125 Credits per AP.

A worldupdate will also end all active conflicts and the Gamemaster will rule a winner, a loser or maybe a draw. There will be a moment of tolerance in this. If you're 20 minutes late you will still have the opportunity to react and act. Based upon the old worldupdate however.

Under special circumstances, it is possible to refresh Action Points without actually doing a Worldupdate. This case occurs when a majority of players have allready spend their APs.

1.2 Action Points
Each Worldupdate, each player is granted 50 Action Points. Each type of ship also comes with its own Bonus to your Action Points or AP in short. This reflects the far greater speed of a fighter versus a heavy Cargo Transport.

Everything you do, except for talking or other social actions on stations or in space costs a certain amount of Action Points. Here is the complete list of costs, the actions will be explained immediately afterwards.

Cargo Actions: 5 AP
Initiate Combat: 5 AP
Takeover: 10 AP
Intercept: 15 AP
Scan Area: 5 AP
Movement: 1 AP/Sector

As time goes by and the game environment grows, there will be additional Actions to do. As well as some modules may improve one aspect or another. There might be a "Combat AI" for example, that nullifies the cost to start some small term war. Or a cargo management system, lowering the APs... etc etc.

Cargo Actions
This includes every cargo related action that you do. One Cargo Action is enough for all your cargo related needs. Cargo Actions include the following:

Buy/Load Cargo from a local station
Sell/Unload Cargo to a local station
Jettison Cargo while in Space
Salvage Cargo while in Space
Fuel your Ship

Initiate Combat
If you're in the sector or an adjacent sector of a target, you may initiate
combat. If you do this, your ship will automatically enter the target sector and engage combat. If it is a PVP Fight the Judge, aka the DM will run the combat on his machine. If it is a PVE Fight, the DM will upload the participating Ships for you and give you the layout of the Battlefield. There will be in depth information concerning Combat later on.

Takeover
If you're lucky and manage to shoot down a ship there is a slight chance that it may turn into a wreck. You can piggyback a wrecked ship and guide it back to a friendly station but be prepared to see a raised eyebrow or two if you're docking with the Cargo Ship in your tow that you just shot down.
Of course for the right amount of credits... or docking at the right station...

Intercept
Intercepting is the Action that gets your ship close to your target. You can only plot an intercept course while you're in space and aware of your target (read: must have scanned it). Intercepting is the only way to get close enough to a ship.
Should you chose to approach normally the other ship is given the choice of Escape. Intercept does not include Combat Iniative so you must pay for that too.

Scan Area
You may pay a certain amount to Scan the local area for an amount of Sectors which is based upon the installed scanner on your ship. Scanning reveals all Ships and Artefacts in the Area, unless there is a certain reason for them to not appear on your scanner.

Movement
While moving long distances, each ship has the very same speed. This is due to the special drive necessary for stellar distances. It is possible to enter Overdrive which is used to Intercept Ships, or escape from encounters if you've got the opportunity to (aka the foe choses to approach normally).
Each AP you spend on Movement allows you to travel one Sector unless stated otherwise. Once you're in combat, the Momement Values of your ship take full priority. Movement includes the docking procedure. Each moved sector has a cost on fuel which is based upon the installed engine.

1.3 Action Queue
Basically you can setup a Queue that is a sequence of actions your ship will follow. Special Events that occur while being in the Actionqueue are placed at the back of the queue or until the queue is interrupted by you.
Sometimes events outrule another event, in this case the event that occured first counts. For example if you get two pirate attacks on your ship and the first one crushes your ship, the second one would not occur in that case.
At the end of a day (read Worldupdate has passed) unused APs are transformed into Credits. So if you're out of luck you can allways chose to rest a bit and gather credits.

Stations and Planets
2.1 Factions
At the start of the game, there will be two factions. Each Station or Planet belongs to one Faction and will react accordingly towards another Faction.

Eurasian Commonwealth
When the world nearly crumbled from the last big war, the remaining states of Earth collected to form a never before seen Unity. The Eurasian Commonwealth was born and soon governed over all of Earth. The shattered remains of the United Earth Defense later on joined the Commonwealth though they don't have a lot of hearsay as they're still held responsible for the big war that nearly wiped earth.
Even today, nearly 400 years after the foundation of the Commonwealth this is enough kindling for small fires here and there and the Unity is not as stable as many want it to be. Still, the Commonwealth controls the major traderoutes and is the place every Player starts in.

Outlaws
Where lots of Credits exchange their owner, criminals are allways near. The Outlaw Faction basically are the modern brethren of Piracy. Known outlaws are shot down on sight by the Commonwealth and their bases are well hidden in Asteroid Fields or Nebulaes.
Still, some people think it is worth the risk to join the Ranks of the Pirates. The pirates are currently not interested in politics.

2.2 Docking Points
Each Station and each colonized Planet possesses a docking Point. Once you've docked your Spaceship you can engage in commercial exchange with the Station.
Each Station has different needs and interests as well as offering other goods. Docking at a station will automatically fully repair your ship while refueling your ship requires a Cargo Action and money. If your ship runs out of fuel on the way to its target, you might be lucky to get dragged along by another Pilot - for a fee or have to wait for someone to help you.

2.3 Cargo/Slots etc
Each ship comes with a predefined amount of Cargo that it can store things in as well as certain Slots for additional Equipment. Cargo as well as those Slots are limited in quantity and if you want more slots you will need a better ship.
Fuel also requires Cargospace so don't load your ship to the Brim and then forget to fuel it.

Installing things comes easy and doesn't require additional money other than the amount you need to buy it. It is also possible to deinstall things and sell them at 80% of the price you bought it for.

Each Equipment Slot has a predefined purpose and that purpose differs with each ship. A cargoship for example may offer up to 8 Slots for Equipment but those Slots are only good for installing additional Cargo or fuel Containers.
A fighter might have one Computer Slot where you can install a combat AI or fuel management or... your choice really.

2.4 Shipmodification
Updating your existing ship is a cheap way to improve its performance without paying uber amounts of money. Updating your ship includes adding another engine, optimizing the hull design or simply paying for a custom job.
A custom job allows you to rearrange the parts of your ship (but not to replace them or add new ones) or changing the AI behavior (like Range or Flanking AI).

2.5 Equipment Variants
Sometimes Equipment can come in more than one variant. Each variant raises the cost by a certain percentage and improves upon the equipment. Let's give a basic example:

Plytek Blaster RC9.81 - 1.500 Credits
"A Plytek Blaster is the Softair Gun of the Universe. It lacks in Power, Speed, Accuracy and basically everything else. Still it is the cheapest weapon you can slap on your ship and for that reason alone a favorite amongst many newcomers"

The Plytek Blaster can come in 2 Variants:
R - Rapidfire - 1.12x
"Utilizing special conduits, the firing rate of the Blaster has been drastically
increased"

W - Wide Angle - 1.5x
"An optimized turning mechanism not only allows for a far greater Firing Arc but also increases the Turning Rate of the weapon"

See? That leaves the following options, beneath the Standard Version:
A Plytek Blaster RC9.81 R would cost:
1.500 * 1.12 -> 1.680 Credits
A Plytek Blaster RC9.81 RW would cost:
1.500 * 1.12 * 1.5 -> 2.520 Credits
A Plytek Blaster RC9.81 W would cost:
1.500 * 1.5 -> 2.250 Credits



3.1 Combatphase
Sooner or later you will face enemies. Those enemies might be NPCs or another Player. A PVP Battle is initiated by one of the two sides entering an Intercept Action or both sides agreeing on the Battle.
A PVP Battle is held by the DM. The DM Will place both Ships on a map and then Unpause it. A screenshot will be made of the victor.
If a PVE Battle occurs, you get the benefit of the doubt as the DM hands the ships to you. You may then control your own ship against the AI and post an image of your victory or loss. Now and then the DM will check the result to prevent abuse.

3.2 End of Combat
There is only one way to end combat. One side wins. To save your own ship you may chose to surrender and jettison your cargo. This way you alteast keep your ship.
If you chose to fight and lose the battle you lose all your cargo, the enemy might even get lucky and salvage your wreck as well as you are teleported back to your last station and issued a new ship. Not without deducting 80% of the original cost of your ships hull. If you can't afford any other ship you're given a fresh start.
A battle may also be declared as a duel. In a duel no ship is destroyed and no cargo exchanges the owner. It is a duel for honor or a previously declared price.

However attacking another Ship (Player or AI) outside of a duel counts as an act of Piracy and you'll get a personal file with the police. Each line in your file increases the Fee you have to pay for your name to be clean again. If you get a lot of trigger happy moments, the Commonwealth declares kill on sight for you - you better stay away from the major trade routes afterwards.

4 Exploration
Exploration is the act of entering unknown space. At the beginning of a game there will only be a map of an Area. All planets are known as well as some unknown Pirate Stations here and there. The moment you reach the border of this Area you will be given a new Map to explore. The Map will be made out of simple ASCII Letters - its easier that way for me. However be wary of your Fuel Status. Running out of fuel deep down in the Universe equals certain doom as the chances of someone coming around are basically zero. However you will be given a warning if you've reached the maximum distance where you can still turn around and fly back.

A new Area will be completely Unexplored at First. Your ship itself uncovers the sector it is in as well as each adjacent sector. A scanner sweep may reveal far better results however.

The Starmap:
P is the symbol for a planet. Several of those symbols may make up a huge planet
D is the Symbol for a dockable Station.
S is the sun of the current System
X is unexplored space
. is explored space
T is Treasure
W is a Shipwreck

You can chose to explore every planet or station for the cost of a movement point for each sector. Thus a huge planet of 20 Symbols will take you 20 AP to explore.
You can't use Deep Space Scanners to scan a Planet but you might find other technology to help with that aspect. Each Area is divided into a coordinate System. Exploration is unveiled to everyone (as it can't be really done any other way :/). Every now and then the Area you're in starts to be part of another solar System which will then be noted.


Example:

The Evil Example System:

Code: Select all

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789
AXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
BXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
CXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
DXXXXXXXXX....XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
EXXXXXXXX......XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
FXXXXXXX...PP...XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
GXXXXXX...PPPP...XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
HXXXXXX...PPPP...XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
IXXXXXX....PP....XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
JXXXX.....................XXXXXXXXXX
KXX............................XXXXX
LX..............................XXXX
MX............................XXXXXX
NXX..........................XXXXXXX
OXXX..............T..........XXXXXXX
PXXXX........................XXXXXXX
QXXX...........................XXXXX
RXX..............................XXX
SX................................XX
T..................................X
U...................................
V...................................
W...................................
X...................................
Y....W..............................
Z...................................
So basically the Treasure Thing would be in the Sector "OS" while the Planet occupies several sectors. As you can see there is no Symbol for active ships as you can only detect those when they're near or within range for your Scanner Sweep.

5 Roleplay
The final component. Good roleplay can result in sudden bonusses and there are opportunities for sidequests. As such, you really should provide a post along with your action.
Instead of just saying, I launch my ship, You describe how you launch your ship, some things that happen etc. If it is good enough you might suddenly find yourself hailed by another ship that wants to make contact with you, drawing you right into a sidequest.

6 Example Play
Now, reading rules can sure be annoying at times and thus I give an example. You decide that you want to be a pirate and for this reason you bought yourself a basic ship with a basic gun. The ship is slow as hell but well armored for its price. Besides, speed does not matter that much outside of a battle since everyone uses the same Stellar Drive.

You achieve a total amount of Actionpoints of 60 (50 STD, +10 from Ship).
With these 60 AP you decides to fuel your ship, launch and fly to a sector that is 7 squares away. There you want to play sitting duck and do a Scanner Sweep.
5 AP used for a Cargo Action
1 AP used for the Launch Procedure
7 AP used to reach the Destination
5 AP used for the Scanner Sweep

* You detect several Ships in the Vincinity. An ultra Heavy Cargo hauler, protected by nothing less than a Battle Frigatte. Definitely not within your
limits. But you also scan a low profile transport drifting along in the engine wash of the Hauler. You decide to open communications with the transport. As a pirate you chose to be a tricky person and thus attempt to offer yourself as an escort for the transport. Communications cost no APs.
The Transport agrees, lucky roll. The transport slows down for you to meet with him. Once you're close you decide to take him out cold. Since you convinced the Transport with the use of Roleplay, you don't need to Intercept him.

5 AP for Combat Initiative
5 AP used for the Cargo Action -> Looting the goods

32 AP left for you to spend. What next? Play the sitting duck again while just having shot down another Ship near a major trading route? Yikes. You better get running.

So as you can see, if you roleplay, you'll have it a lot easier. And if you play clever, you'll live a lot longer. Major Trading Routes, ugh.. but what about those Asteroid Miners near the edge of the System? *evil grin*



7 Final Words
So far I consider this semi complete.
Semi complete simply because the game will hopefully grow as time passes by and flaws are discovered in the Ruleset itself. Also the technology Level may raise now and then. This is primarily meant as a RPG. And while PVP is allowed, constant Playerkilling will result in half the Starsystem (including NPCs) being after your ass. And while killing NPCs will result in the same thing, it will take a lot longer. This is to ensure that certain players don't team up to bash newcomers.

Attention:
Each Player will keep track of his own Credits, Action Points and Fuel Status. Once I open the Gamethread, make no post without providing those 3 values. One time at the beginning of a post and one time at the end of your post with updated values.

For this game to start I need:

Interested Players
Feedback for the Ruleset

What I will provide if this starts:
Ships and Statistics, Descriptions, Starsystems, Background etc.
What I will provide if this turns out to work:
More Ships, better Ship Classes as Players advance, more Systems
Himura.Kenshin
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Post by Himura.Kenshin »

*Scrolls down*

That's alotta words. I'll read it when I have the attention span to >.>
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AmnEn
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Post by AmnEn »

Yes... once the ruleset has been established a short version would be a good call since many will just reply with a tl;dr. But it is still a bit early for that. Just a WIP Screenshot from one of the Ships :P

Image
"The Malianov is Maxcells commercial Workhorse. No other civilian Cargoship has been sold as often as the Malianov Series. Its cheap production costs and the high module compatiblity make it a great choice for new traders. The above picture is a Malianov out of the Construction Series 5.

Malianov CS5
Armor: 500 Points
Standard Issue Armor

Speed: 1.25
Standard Heavy Duty Engine

Turning: 0.4
Standard Vector Thrusters

Acceleration: 0.02
Standard Acceleration Array

Cargohold:
50 Units

Slots:
2 Cargoslots
4 Utilityslots
1 Turretslot
2 Front mounted Gunslots

This Malianov CS5 was later on modified to run the following Equipment:
2 Maxcell XL Cargomodules (+200 Cargohold)
3 Maxcell S Cargomodules (+75 Cargohold)
1 Ginetechnia Long Range Scanner Array (5 Sectors)
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Normandy
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Post by Normandy »

Interesting...

Trying to compress all those rules into nice bits of information I can understand...
AmnEn
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Post by AmnEn »

I'll try to compress the rules into a shorter Quickread tomorrow. I'll also try to get a basic Starsystem Generator working (probably in PHP).
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Atrum
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Post by Atrum »

Can we submit custom ships?

*Looks at the Regis-Class and her Refits*

Hehehe.
AmnEn
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Post by AmnEn »

No, that would ruin the whole point of this.
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Atrum
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Post by Atrum »

*grr* How about I give you the hull and pinpoint weapon mounting locations? It's vulnerable to shredding if you hit the broadside.
AmnEn
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Post by AmnEn »

The Starsystem Generator took a bit longer than planned so the Shortversion of the Ruleset will take a while longer. Another question though, are there even enough folks interested in it at all?
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Post by warhammer651 »

*reads first post*

that's a lotta info.

it will be nice when its compacted down.

if you can do that then i'll play.
it would be nice if we could submit custom ships. i have a few unarmed ones whose only (current) purpose is entitled "meat shield"
if everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.......idiot.
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Normandy
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Post by Normandy »

Yeah, I'm pretty interested, just that' I'm too busy with my own workings to submit detailed feedback.
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Post by Atrum »

I am SO in.
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Normandy
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Post by Normandy »

Hello? Knock knock? AmnEn?
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Post by Aralonia »

EV Nova much? Lol Ginetechnia.
DPUO wrote:<+AirHippo> Funnily enough, folks who abide by the law and try to make something of their lives don't appreciate the rich kids of rich parents getting away with murder and skimming through life.
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Post by kaaskopp »

hmm. im interested. looks nice, due the connection of the forums and and BSF...

and guys. thats some text but it aint lord of the rings.

btw: happy new year evereyone.
[img]http://i17.tinypic.com/71qxdkx.png[/img]

joa, hascht wasch gegn waischwuascht?
scheiß weißwurst. Geht um alkohol junge!!
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