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Hey everyone,

I'm working on a game, but need a bit of advice on constructing a fun rules system.

The game is played on a map similar to risk. However, there are different kinds of units e.g. Infantry, commandos, artillery, a variety of planes etc. As players research stuff on a tech tree they will gain access to these improved units. Players can also research various tactical doctrines e.g. trench warfare, guerrilla warfare which will give bonuses to their units in certain circumstances.

The game will be played over the internet, so I'm not sure if there is anywhere were dice can be rolled without having to rely upon trust. It may end up with me calculating the results of the battle in private and then posting a short story of what happened in the battle to the players. I don't want it to be entirely random though.

It can be based on dice, or random percentages etc.

Current ideas that I have are that each unit has an initiative value, e.g. Infantry are init 1, mechanised infantry would be init. 2, jet planes might be init. 8. The higher initiatives would strike first and it would work its way down.

The chance of causing damage could be expressed as a percentage. For example, fighter plane with bombs - 45%. Factors such as Anti aircraft guns, or enemy troops being in trenches could reduce the percentage, whilst upgrades like radar, napalm bomb etc. could improve the percentage.

What do you guys think? I've made quite a few board games in the past, but this will be my first online one with an absence of dice, so I need a new system to make this work.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Marsden

There are a few free random number generators out there. I'm pretty sure you could fairly easily integrate them into the code. Its designing the actual units that will be tough.


Say you say your system is going to be D6 based(and multiples thereof)

When a unit attacks another unit, it compares stat X against enemy stat Y. Now you can either have the defending unit have a static value for Y, or you can have it be Y+ a D6 roll. The attacker can be X+a D6 roll/2D6/3D6 etc... You could use dice as one of the variables. Unit Z gains an additional D6 when its in a certain terrain or behind a wall, or 2D6 if its in both!

I've generally found a percentile system works best when you're designing a new system. but if you're working of dice d10's are always doable. And there's enough dice-rolling programs out there, many of which can be used inside a chat function.

 Marsden wrote:
Hey everyone,

I'm working on a game, but need a bit of advice on constructing a fun rules system.

The game is played on a map similar to risk. However, there are different kinds of units e.g. Infantry, commandos, artillery, a variety of planes etc. As players research stuff on a tech tree they will gain access to these improved units. Players can also research various tactical doctrines e.g. trench warfare, guerrilla warfare which will give bonuses to their units in certain circumstances.

So a game like Axis and Allies. Cool.

The game will be played over the internet, so I'm not sure if there is anywhere were dice can be rolled without having to rely upon trust. It may end up with me calculating the results of the battle in private and then posting a short story of what happened in the battle to the players. I don't want it to be entirely random though.

It can be based on dice, or random percentages etc.

Current ideas that I have are that each unit has an initiative value, e.g. Infantry are init 1, mechanised infantry would be init. 2, jet planes might be init. 8. The higher initiatives would strike first and it would work its way down.

The chance of causing damage could be expressed as a percentage. For example, fighter plane with bombs - 45%. Factors such as Anti aircraft guns, or enemy troops being in trenches could reduce the percentage, whilst upgrades like radar, napalm bomb etc. could improve the percentage.

What do you guys think? I've made quite a few board games in the past, but this will be my first online one with an absence of dice, so I need a new system to make this work.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Marsden

absence of dice? Make each unit have a power and defense number, and have a deck of cards adding into each power and defense on a random draw maybe?

That is fantastic, thanks for the help guys!

I like the ideas of percentages and cards.

I'm thinking that percentages allow for tiny increments to be made, representing smaller technological advancements e.g. the research of machine guns adding +3% to a unit's defence.

Cards could work well; I'm thinking that these 'Cards' could represent tactical decisions that have been researched/stocked up/produced, and can be played by players before battles happen.

An couple of examples of cards could be "Sustained Barrage" which costs 50 iron, 20 coal, 10 fuel, 5 rare resources. This card means the attacker gets d6 attacks at the beginning of the battle before the defender can react.

Or "Faux Assault" which costs 100 population, this represents unarmed conscripts being sent in first with fake weapons to waste enemy ammunition. Defenders count as having low ammunition following this card.

The fact that you won't know what cards your opponent has, or what he is playing should create some excellent surprise moments in battles!

Thanks guys! I really appreciate the help you've given me.

I'm going to continue using this thread to post units and ideas on to get feedback.