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So what medium are we going to use, exactly? I've heard OpenRPG is okay, but I don't know if it has a built in protractor, which I suspect will be useful.

Shall we nominate you to be our medium finder?

And a yet-again updated set of icons.

I'm told that OpenRPG is pretty decent; but it's not perfect.

It is, however, open source. Now I don't know python, but I might be able to figure it out and make a few minor changes (is it even object oriented? God I hope so...), or maybe someone else around here knows python and can help out.

More when I get back from work.

Well, we've got two methods open to us: passing around multi-layer GIMP files, or using OpenRPG. OpenRPG is a bit like an IRC program in that you both have to be online at the same time to play correct? If we get OpenRPG working it'll probably be the best. We've certainly can create our own resources. I guess we wait and see how it turns out?

In the meantime, we should consider points values, who's gonna run this mess and how many of each race we have.

Do you have any idea how long games would take if we played round-robin with a picture file? It's not like space empires where you can spend a good half an hour or more on a turn. Plus we still have to whitness the dice rolls because I can assure you, the honors system does not work. Everyone just needs to be able to settle in for a while and play the game, if it runs long everyone stops and picks it back up later.

I'm also thinking the nova cannon will need to be changed from a guess weapon to one which has a random offset. Because, you know, guessing doesn't work...

I'd be willing to GM this, at least at the strategic level and background (actual games require little GMing). If there's any support for that, I'll generate subsector maps and so on next week.

As for maps, if you want to take all the work out of it, do what the fleet would do! Use 'text' data, and if you like, put it on a map - or graph paper. You're unlikely to have more than a dozen ships on either side in most games of BFG, it's not likely to be that time consuming.

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Lord Vonrilyental
Position: 21,-13
Bearing: 021 degrees
Status: Burn Retros
Damage: Shields Intact, Undamaged.

---

Passing around info in that manner, while far from visually pleasing, is rather easy.

Open RPG isn't all that good for measuring. OTOH, it would be excellent for hex-based games - there's many hex-based space game systems out there that one could adapt to another setting - though of course, that's a highly complex job.

I think we have to make use of some visual form. Size of base marker and location of blast markers and ordinance are all quite important things that would be nigh-impossible to work out in text.

Ship heading should be recorded in text form, I agree, and all locations should be snapped to a grid, maybe 1/2 centimeter squares for easy measuring.

Give me a minute and I'll see if I can whip up something usable.

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Incidentally, the avatar in connection with your account rather got me by surprise...

EDIT: This pdf includes alternative nova cannon rules that we could use.
http://www.epic40k.co.uk/bfgmag/warprift09.pdf

What about a grid made out of a spreadsheet?

Meh. Text will have to do. How big are blast markers supposed to be?

Hmm... mostly thinking out loud here.



Players agree on a battlefield map image. Each player exchanges icons, apropriatly scaled to the agreed map. Players each setup their ships in their deployment zones (using seperate layers in their program of choice), and the multilayered image via email. One player (or GM) combines the two images. The compiled image is sent to all players.

Player A moves his ships on the file. Emails file to GM and player B.

GM handles rolling (via board or IRC whatever)

After turn is complete, player B then moves his ships on the recieved file, and sends it back via email to GM and player A.

Etc...

-----------------------------

Advantages:

Players can exhange the same file back and forth (with all ships on named layers), making the process simpler.
Using the .PSD format, photoshop users and GIMPs can still share files.

Disadvantages:

Assumes competancy in graphics program. Once set up, simply requires different layers to be moved around.
Players must have an email account large enough to handle the larger file sizes.

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One file is passed back and forth, so no room for mistakes. As long as the file sizes are kept down it'll be quite quick. I know that this would take myself around the same time as playing the real game.

Thoughts?

Acidburns wrote:Hmm... mostly thinking out loud here.



Players agree on a battlefield map image. Each player exchanges icons, apropriatly scaled to the agreed map. Players each setup their ships in their deployment zones (using seperate layers in their program of choice), and the multilayered image via email. One player (or GM) combines the two images. The compiled image is sent to all players.

Player A moves his ships on the file. Emails file to GM and player B.

GM handles rolling (via board or IRC whatever)

After turn is complete, player B then moves his ships on the recieved file, and sends it back via email to GM and player A.

Etc...

-----------------------------

Advantages:

Players can exhange the same file back and forth (with all ships on named layers), making the process simpler.
Using the .PSD format, photoshop users and GIMPs can still share files.

Disadvantages:

Assumes competancy in graphics program. Once set up, simply requires different layers to be moved around.
Players must have an email account large enough to handle the larger file sizes.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One file is passed back and forth, so no room for mistakes. As long as the file sizes are kept down it'll be quite quick. I know that this would take myself around the same time as playing the real game.

Thoughts?

As Titanic pointed out, we could do that in Excell. 27 row hight; 4.5 column width gives a grid of approximately 1cm squares, and images in excell are free-floating and can have one color set to transparent.

We can do that for ship locations, I suppose, with everything else being text-only.

InnocentBystander wrote:

weemadando wrote:The Eldar fleet under the guidance of Farseer Weema D'ando is likely to be lurking somewhere too assuming I ever have the time for this.

What sort of space battle would it be if the eldar didn't show up when no one wants them to?

the fact that there's ando's eldar, an my leldar privateers.....

The Yosemite Bear wrote:

InnocentBystander wrote:

weemadando wrote:The Eldar fleet under the guidance of Farseer Weema D'ando is likely to be lurking somewhere too assuming I ever have the time for this.

What sort of space battle would it be if the eldar didn't show up when no one wants them to?

the fact that there's ando's eldar, an my leldar privateers.....

That was more of an encouragement for him to Find the Time. I may play eldar myself; I like their ships and strike tactics.

let's just say I'solde the Doomed's fleet is made up of traveling musicians and dancers, and while they do raid tau and humans they mostlyy hav an Anti-choas interest. (no we wouldn't say what I'solde really is, just that it's her fate that when she dies, no matter how, her soul becomes S. chow.)

Alright... I think it's time for a test run. If anyone (preferably someone who has experience with the game, unlike me) is avaialble for the next couple of hours, has Excell and some kind of IRC, and is up for a test round of this thing, could you shoot me a PM?

EDIT: Apparently not. Maybe tomorrow.

I think we're (the inexperienced players) going to all need a few days to absorb the rules and come up with a fleet. Hopefully with some guidance from more experienced players.

The game is pretty easy to learn. Eldar and Necrons have a host of special rules, so they can be tricky. A quick trial game, even against yourself, with scrap paper on your kitchen table should be quite helpful.

How will we doing scatter dice?

Two in three chance of scattering. Randomly generate a number from 1 to 360 for scatter.

The Jester wrote:Two in three chance of scattering. Randomly generate a number from 1 to 360 for scatter.

Or 1-8, or 1-6. I mean, seriously, is there any significant difference over 2-10 centimeters between 180 degress and 181 degrees?

8 points wouldn't be enough IMO. I reckon we should be looking at 32 at the least for a decent scatter dice.

That said, how easy would the 360 degree version be to use, given that i assume we have programs to help on the angles? That would be the ultimate scatter dice simulation.

I'd reccomend we use a D8 and equate them results (1-8 ) to pi/4 pi/2 3pi/4 pi 5pi/4 3pi/2 7pi/4 2pi, for easy conversion into X and Y displacement of the distance. We'll be snapping things to a grid, anyway, or this would take forever.

I played around with OpenRPG a little last night; it's a bit clunky, but it should make for a faster game than a round-robin paint file; and doesn't require a GM.

I've been experimenting with it too. You can't rotate the icons however, otherwise it would have been perfect. Personally I prefer the round-robin paint so far I think. Mostly because I know very little about spreadsheets. I've always played Imperial, so I think I'll have a bash at Chaos, time to browse the fleetlists.....

So... I've been thinking about campaign ideas.

As we seem to have quite a few players interested, I'm thinking that we could probably spread it out over quite a few sub-sectors. If no one particularly wants to play 'Crons, Tau, or Tyranids, I'm thinking a campaign set around 200.M41 in Segmentum Pacificus could be interesting.

I was thinking about following the chaos that results from the passage of a craftworld through six sub-sectors of Imperial space...

Forget six sub-sectors... More space is needed.

1. 2000AD: Imperial Navy
2. Acidburns: Chaos
3. Azazal:
4. Brother Captain Gauis:
5. Dark Hellion: Blood Angels Offshoot
6. Feil:
7. General Tacitus:
8. Imperial Overlord:
9. Innocent Bystander:
10. Keevan_Colton:
11. Moebius:
12. SirNitram: Duskguard Marines?
13. Starship Titanic:
14. The Jester:
15. Thirdfain:
16. Weemadando: Eldar (Craftworld?)
17. Yos: Eldar corsairs

This is quite a long list of prospective players. About 100 systems between you would be more appropriate, I think.