So, the first real round of play testing has been completed. I saw first real round because previous all the play testing had been either myself playing against myself, or myself and a friend, who has been largely involved in the development of the game itself. This time it was 5 people who, while they knew I was developing this game and I had occasionally chatted with them about it, they had not been really involved in the rule development. So this was really the first 'real' play testing. And... it went about as badly as I expected.
I had originally had it setup for 6 people to play and I would observe, make notes of issues, and clarify rules points and the like.
We had planned to start at 11, people didn't show up until 11:45.
I asked people to bring something to take notes on like a note pad or tablet... no one brought anything of the sort.
I sent copies of the hand book out 3 weeks ahead of time asking people to read through it... only 1 person read any of it before hand.
I had 6 people who said they were coming, 5 show up.
so got started an hour later then I planned, had to spend half an hour going over rules, and I had to play to get an even 3 team in addition to trying to observe and make notes.
Still, all of that having happened: seeing the game actually being played did help solidify a lot of material for me.
for one thing: 9 times out of 10 when I look at a rule and my gut instinct is that it needs works/is a problem, I should follow it. There were a lot of times where the play testers ran into problems with rules that I not changed because I thought I was being overly critical about it. Stuff like the laser cannon having a range of 18 inches, or not explicitly telling players that each cannon inflicts it's own damage.
So some updates to the system:
1- There is now an 'activation phase'. Starting with whatever pilot has the highest pilot skill, you declare your movement and make it. Then the pilot with the next highest pilot skill, and so forth.
This helps to break up the inclination to 'wait and see' what your opponent does.
2- Minimum required movement. At the end of a players movement phase, unless the ships have the keyword 'stationary', they must end their movement phase at least 2" away from where they started the phase.
3- ships that move more get differing bonuses based on their movement.
- When one ship is shooting at another, for every 2" the target ship moved further then the attacking ship, the attacking ship suffers a -1 to their pilot skill while attempting to shoot that particular ship.
- For every non-consecutive turn after the first that a ship makes in a given movement phase, it gains a +1 to it's pilot skill for the purpose of dodge checks for that turn.
4- Weapons have 2 new stats.
| (D)mg | [R]ng | [E]-Distance | Effect | [S]hots | [SP]ecial |
| Laser Canon | 1 | 18 | 9 | -3 shots | 6 | |
the [E]-Distance is the weapons engagement distance, or the distance up the point that the weapon is considered to be most effective. Beyond that distance, up to it's maximum range, the weapon still works but it suffers some kind of negative effect. The effect of such a shot is listed under the weapons 'effect'. The laser cannon for instance gets -3 shots if it is shot at a target that is more then 9 inches away but less then 18. Generally the engagement distance is half the weapons max range, but not always.
I've also started drafting some special rules for weapons. At the moment what I have are:
Ionic Cascade: Attacks made by weapons with this rule Inflicts double damage against shields.
Particle Onslaught: Weapons with this rule inflict half damage against shields but inflict double damage against hull points.
Fission Decay: Weapons with this rule inflict double damage when they strike targets with their engagement distance.
Neutron Decay: Some weapons deposit radiologically active particles into a ships hull when it is used. The decay of these particles over time cause continuing damage against the ship. These effects do not work if the hits are made against the shields of a ship as the particles are simply vaporized following impact. If a ship takes damage to its hull points from a weapon with this rule, place a marker of some sort near the token to indicate that the ship has taken Neutron damage. Each turn after the damage is sustained, the ship will receive additional damage in a decreasing amount each turn. The first turn after the damage was inflicted, it will take 1 less point of damage then the weapon itself made in the previous turn. The second turn, it will receive 2 less, and so forth until either the ship is reduced to 0 hull points, or the amount of damage inflicted is reduced to 0.
5- Taunts are now 'communication actions' and have been diversified into 4 categories that include 1- Taunt enemy, 2- Intimidate Enemy, 3- Direct Wing Mate, and 4- Assist Wing Mate. You can only make 1 communication action per member in your wing per game. So if you have 3 Hornets in your wing, you may make 3 communication actions. Not each member can make 3 actions, just 3 communication actions per game.
- Taunt Enemy - An attempt to piss off the enemy and get them to attack you.
- intimidate Enemy - an attempt to gain some psychological advantage over your enemy
- Direct Wing Mate - issue orders to a wing mate. Typically comes with some sort of bonus.
- Assist Wing mate - try to talk a wing mate down from a taunt or stressful situation.
I'm working on compiling this new material into a version 0.02 of the hand book and hopefully will have it up next week.
