Some more progress

I knew right up front this was going to be an under taking. I just don't believe you truly understand until you completely commit to it. Even three years ago I thought this couldnt be to hard, like anyone could just do it. Lol. Truth be told its not hard, yes it can be difficult to wrap your head around how to do things. But once you commit to it, something inside your head flicks on. Ideas and thought processes just start to flow out and most likely will be sparked from the weirdest daily interactions.  Thankfully I try to keep a pen and paper around to jot down the basic idea. The Keep app on my phone has been a life saver in this processes.

So I knew right up front I was going to have to design a lot of cards to make this game work properly. I just didn't know how many this might be. Last time I posted I mentioned I had 88 cards writen out. Well that number has reached over 170 and I removed 30 some cards out of this part of the design phase. Which I could still integrate back in with out an issue.
Currently I have 70 Resource Cards and I set a tempory limit of 70 Event Cards. I reworked the 12 Colony Cards, Got some 20 plus Colonial Ship Cards and etc...

The Event Cards are currently limited to 70 for now. I could see this number reaching 100 if I didnt place a limit for now. 70 gives me a good sample to work with during play testing.
The Resource Cards are some thing new. I just didn't have a solid way for players to expand their fleet and or replenish their squadrons. So the Resource Cards came to me over Christmas while I was on Vacation in Jamaica.  Again thank god for the Keep app.
The idea behind the Resource Cards is as you do missions you will find stuff. Either from the Mission it self, enemy ships and etc... If your Fleet attempts to do a Mission at a higher difficulty level, the base number of these cards will increase. Some of these cards will help the Fleet with Supplies,  Food, Water, Tylium, Intel and Admiralty.

Intel and Admiralty are now two new game mechanics.
Intel is just that, advanced intelligence on what is going on and possibly the near future.  I needed away for the players to avoid a bad situation during the Event Phase. This gives players a chance to alter their fate and have some sort of control. Lets say your fleet gets an event card that could seriously endanger one or more of your ships. Once the Event Card is flipped over, your fleet will have two options. One to either resolve that event or secondly ignore that event completely by Expending 1Intel. Intel is not going to be easy to accumulate currently you have a 1in 7th chance of gaining +1 intel. Plus the fact you have 7 days in the Event Phase I would use your Intel wisely.

Admiralty reflects how the Colonial Admirals view your Fleets Performace. These points can ne spent to gain favors from the Admiralty. Like reinforcements, Foundry Plans so you can start building your own Mk II Viper Squadrons etc...Again you are going to want to spend these wisely.

Yesterday I designed and orders two Flight Stands for this game. One for my Galactica model and the other for my Osiris resin kit. Both stands incorporate magnets in them to keep the model pointed in the right direction with the ability to be stowed away in storage. One is an 80mm base the other is a 60mm. Both of these hit the 3D printer this afternoon.
I also ordered 30 Cylon Razor fighters which should be here in the next few days.  I am debating on doing flight stands of 3 to represent a squadron. Custom dice is also a must,  I know what I am doing for the Colonials. Still havent focused to much on the Cylon dice yet.

Oh yes, I will most likely create an Event board. To make the Event Phase run smoother. I already found a company that can do game boards. Why I bring this up. Most Missions normally take 3 days to reach on this board.  On day 4 the Fleet will have to expend one of ots resources to move into day 4. Plus resolve any Event Cards that maybe on that day as well. On day 7 the fleet will again have to pay to move forward. Showing the fact the Fleet isover extending it self for this Mission. Now you should start to understand how thr Event Phase helps tell the story of the Fleet between each Mission.

There is more I have yet to cover but that will come In later up dates. My next focus is going to ne the Cylon AI deck. I roughly know how the Command Cards will work and be worded. But aspects of that may change due to the Cylon AI deck. Again the Cylon AI cards will ne robust so each confrontation will/should play out differently.

Thats it for now. Oh one last thing,  I intend to have a playable version of this game before this time next year.

Developing Battlestar Galactica tabletop/board game.

For the past three years I have been writing down notes and ideas to develop a table top minatures game. I would spend a good few months writing down my ideas and game mechanics. I would pack up the project for a few months and once again approach the project with a fresh set of eyes. In most cases it would totally mean scrapping out sections to improve the game flow while not making it overly complicated. Part of the problem I was facing was picking a theme. I have enough notes and ideas to do one hell of an Robotech Space Combat tabletop game. It is painfully hard NOT to do one when I have the ability to 3D print all my REF ship models. I have even gone as far as asking my contact in Harmony Gold if I could create it for them. Which was a no.

So I am switching my Theme to Battlestar Galactica.
Yes, I know I dont have the licensing rights to do so. I am creating this game for myself 1st and for most. Plus prove to myself and others that it can be done. It is a huge undertaking, designing the mechanics, keeping the theme throughout it all, while making it a co-op and not making it complicated.  Then there is all of the graphics work that will need to be done.

So this past week I started to design out my cards for this game, just the mehanics and wording for them. I quickly hit 88 cards written out and this doesn't even scratch the surface of the game.

Let me explain, the over all idea of the game. You and your friends will be captains in the colonial fleet at the start of the Cylon's war. The first mission will get the story going and take you threw all of the phases and steps. This will function as a story and teaching the players the rules. You will have choices and actions that will have effects on your fleet that might not seem obvious at the time. Once you get past a few of the basic missions, you willjabe even more choices in mission selection. Each play session represents 1 week in the fleet in which you try to complete the mission. From here we zoom into what happened during the week of this mission.  There will be 7 squares for each day of that week. A mission objective will be placed on one of these days. Each day may have an Event Card or possibly left blank to represent a very quite day in the fleet. The Mission objective as an example could be on Day 4 and a Cylon Basestar could be on Day 7. As the fleet attempts to each their objective they must reveal the Event Card for that day and resolve it. As an example you might reveal  a Delay card, which advances your mission objective 1 day further down the week. So it is now on Day 5. You might reveal a card that moves the Basestar 1 Day closer to your fleet and your objective.  There is both good and bad results in these themed Event Cards. Do not get to attached to certain ships in your fleet. Just like the show there are times you may have a 20% chance of loosing one. Which will affect the out come of your fleet. Once you or the Cylon reaches the Mission Objective is when the Battle phase starts. This is where the tabletop side of the game comes out. Cylons will function off an AI card deck. The deck will be robust with the ability to bring out aggressive and defensive behavior.  There will be enough variations to ensure that it will not react the same way each time. Just attacking may cause a reaction.

Its been a fun process so far, there have been several times this week where a new Event Card idea has made me laugh out loud at work. Thank fully I keep scrap papper to write on so I dont loose the thought or idea completely.