Notum Wars, The Tabletop Game?

[Windguaerd]

Ok back on topic.

The game could have alternative sets of rules. Maybe depending on number of players, or different goals to win the game.

Here are some ideas.

1. In a two player game... PvP style, you got to destroy your opponent utterly to win. This can be achieved by acquiring a certain amount of notum fields, killing a key enemy unit (which is located in a heavily defended area) or force your opponent to surrender. This style of game could be based on a mix of cards & dice.

2. In a game with 3 or more players... a more strategic sort of play. You can form alliances with other players for short periods of time with a 1-2 turn opening at the end of it to either end the alliance in good terms or betray your ally to weaken him/her. During an alliance players can help each other strengthen their defenses but are limited to only the use of half their unit when working together in an attack (this prevents a player from being zerged). The notum fields can be "upgraded" through "research" and stealing tech from other players. The player who is able to reach the highest upgrade for all his fields win. This style of game could be based on a mix of cards & dice.

3. "Anarchist Mode" does not allow alliances, everyone starts with a specific "tech" advantage which can be stolen by another player through force or deception. To win a player must have acquired a set number of advantages. This style of game could be based on a mix of cards & dice.

4. Players work together, fighting mercenaries (cameo by Mercenary Ian Warr) and even waves of aliens (and an alien general or admiral) while defending different tower fields. The final boss would be a giant nickel statue of Means pointing at the sky like an astronaut... ok maybe not that, but something that would be classic AO... a giant Eremite? This style of game would be mostly dice based.

5. Each player works on his own (not against each other) through a tower field to reach the control tower to win. With different obstacles, like ambushes, traps, warps, snares, roots, etc. This style of game would be mostly dice based.

This could give the game a replay value if the board can be reset for all these different goals. Maybe using both sides of the board?

[Silvana]

Definitely sounds like Risk with an AO skin put on it

More like the newer FB version of Risk than the original, though.

[Keldros]

...or fund this at the level where you can get AO-themed units.

[Windguaerd]

Al-rightly, let us collaborate on the first set of rules, units and board.

1. In a two player game... PvP style, you got to destroy your opponent utterly to win. This can be achieved by acquiring a certain amount of notum fields, killing a key enemy unit (which is located in a heavily defended area) or force your opponent to surrender. This style of game could be based on a mix of cards & dice.

My question here would be, how should factions be featured? can both players have the freedom to pick the same side? clan vs. clan for example. If not, the easier solution would be to roll a 20 sided die and whomever has the highest number gets to be omni (in keeping with the storyline).

As for units, I think a mix of professions would be great to have. Here are some ideas.

Cards

Enforcer (Atrox) - This melee unit is the juggernaut of units, with a bonus to health and ability to stun but with a weakness to roots, snares and below average damage. He also is able to fight multiple units (2-3?), which is unique to this unit.

Stats: 1000HP, 850 Nano. Base Dmg 180 + one roll of a 20 sided dice. When attacked by snare or root he can only resist if he rolls 18 or higher on a 20 sided dice. He has the option to stun instead of doing a normal attack, to succeed he needs to roll 6 or higher on a 12 sided dice.

Agent (Opifex) - This ranged unit is your assassin, he has a bonus to critical damage and has chance to kill most units with one shot. He has low health so he is an easy target for melee units.

Stats: 350HP, 400 Nano. Base Dmg 300 + one roll of a 20 sided dice. Roll one 6 sided dice for critical, only fails when landing on the number 1. When attacked by snare or root he can easily resist if he rolls a 17 or lower on a 20 sided dice, rolling 18-20 means he failed to resist.

Bureaucrat (Solitus) - This ranged unit is able to snare and root enemy units (natural resist against them), has a weakness to stuns but has a pet that will take damage for him until it dies, he can only repair or remake a pet while out of combat (unit can't move while this happens).

Stats: 450HP, 500 Nano. Base Dmg 250 + one roll of a 12 sided dice. He can only resist a stun attack if he rolls 18 or higher on a 20 sided dice. When attacked by snare or root he can easily resist if he rolls a 2 or higher on a 6 sided dice, rolling 1 means he failed to resist.
Pet Stats: 225 HP. Base Dmg 125. When attacked by snare or root he can easily resist if he rolls a 2 or higher on a 6 sided dice, rolling 1 means he failed to resist.


This is just 3 professions so far, and with feedback I'm sure we can improve them to make them as close to their AO counterparts as possible.

I will try and write some more about the rest of the cards this week and with any luck we'll have the unit cards done by next week. I would think the next step would be rules of engagement, how many cards per player, etc, etc. and finally the board itself.

[Chrys]

You're working the wrong way round - you are trying to mirror the game from the get-go without a working game.

You need to work out a basic working game first then proceed to add detail/color

So work out basic things like what does the board look like, how do they fight, how do they reinforce, what is the benefit of territory... then you can talk about details like HP, stats, special abilities etc

[Windguaerd]

You're working the wrong way round - you are trying to mirror the game from the get-go without a working game.

You need to work out a basic working game first then proceed to add detail/color

So work out basic things like what does the board look like, how do they fight, how do they reinforce, what is the benefit of territory... then you can talk about details like HP, stats, special abilities etc

Alright, lets get on the board then. I think something square may work, so I borrow one of the old "Travel to Rubi-Ka" maps.

So I think there are two possible choices for the type of board for this 1 on 1 style of play.

1. Have the map gridded, with grids where units can move forward/backward and also the defending player can place his turrets (attacks enemy) or guardian conductors (debuffs enemy) and control tower.

2. Have the map with a pre-set layout of turrets/guardian conductors with 3 possible roads towards the Control Tower.

Thoughts?

[Silvana]

I don't think the suggestion of knowing what the board would look like, meant it so literally. The graphic part won't do anything if you don't have the underlying design of it. How it is sectioned apart, how movement is done, etc. are the basics.

You need all kinds of numbers and math type things done for the base system before you start adding on top of that.

[Chrys]

Ya lol

What is NW all about? Land control. So you wanna make a land control game. I suggest you download some Risk clones and play a few rounds of that to see what most people's reference point to a land-control game is like

then talk about mechanics, how do people take over land? like Risk with armies? like wargames with specialist units? like mechwarrior with even smaller customized units? how does the fighting work?

Then we talk about the board, given the fighting mechanics, do you need a hex grid, square grid, risk-like map? do you have notum fields as overall territories (the size of a Risk board) and towers as a "mod" for its respective field? or are they gargantuan hex/square grids with places to fit individual towers so that people can pew pew them like real?

[Windguaerd]

Ya lol

What is NW all about? Land control. So you wanna make a land control game. I suggest you download some Risk clones and play a few rounds of that to see what most people's reference point to a land-control game is like

then talk about mechanics, how do people take over land? like Risk with armies? like wargames with specialist units? like mechwarrior with even smaller customized units? how does the fighting work?

Then we talk about the board, given the fighting mechanics, do you need a hex grid, square grid, risk-like map? do you have notum fields as overall territories (the size of a Risk board) and towers as a "mod" for its respective field? or are they gargantuan hex/square grids with places to fit individual towers so that people can pew pew them like real?

Any online games which are risk clones I can test against an AI so I get a basic idea?

[Chrys]

I have Landrule on my Android phone and its decent enough

for PC you could try one of these but I have never tried any of them: http://freepcservices.com/ris.html

Edit: another useful point of reference is mechwarrior tabletop... a good abandonware mechwarrior clone is Missionforce: Cyberstorm

[Arguru]

Enforcer (Atrox) - This melee unit is the god of the game, with a bonus to health and ability to stun and is practically invulnerable to roots, snares and below average damage. He also is able to fight multiple units (2-3?), which is unique to this unit. His combination of a 1-handed edged weapon and 1-handed blunt weapon, makes the Enforcer the f*cking king of the game. If the player also plays the "Mongo Rage" card he instantly wins the game.

Stats: 1000000000HP, 850 Nano. Base Dmg 180 + one roll of a 20 sided dice. Base Dmg is multiplied by 9001 when playing "Mongo Rage" When attacked by snare or root he can resist if he rolls 1 or higher on a 20 sided dice. He has the option to stun instead of doing a normal attack, to succeed he needs to roll 6 or higher on a 12 sided dice.

Agent (Opifex) - This ranged unit is your assassin, he has a bonus to critical damage and has chance to kill most units with one shot. He has low health so he is an easy target for melee units. Lol just kidding he'll just root your melee a*s and does AS/AS/AS/dead. Basically if your clsas is not Enforcer you're pretty much instant dead.

Stats: 350HP, 400 Nano. Base Dmg 300000000 + one roll of a 20 sided dice. Roll one 6 sided dice for critical, only fails when landing on the number 7. When attacked by snare or root he can easily resist if he rolls a 17 or lower on a 20 sided dice, rolling 18-20 means he failed to resist.

Bureaucrat (Solitus) - This ranged unit is able to do absolutely nothing. He has some pets though, meaning your opponents will take more time ramming the Tab button.

Stats: 450HP, 500 Nano. Base Dmg 5 + one roll of a 12 sided dice. He can only resist a stun attack if he rolls 18 or higher on a 20 sided dice. When attacked by snare or root he can easily resist if he rolls a 2 or higher on a 6 sided dice, rolling 1 means he failed to resist.
Pet Stats: 225 HP. Base Dmg 125. When attacked by snare or root he can easily resist if he rolls a 2 or higher on a 6 sided dice, rolling 1 means he failed to resist. When attacked with any offensive ability he instantly dies, no exceptions.

ftfy

[Kuegen]

Wow apparently we got some expert board game advisors here ;o

[Vhab]

Wow apparently we got some expert board game advisors here ;o

Some of the advice is pretty good

Board games are a pretty good entry point to game design and excellent practice overall.
The best part is that it only takes a pen, some paper, scissors and optionally glue to create prototypes for play testing.

The main thing you need to accept is that your first prototypes will be crap and point out glaring holes at the first play session within a few minutes of play.
It's very important to have access to enough players for play testing, preferably in real-life. Playing against yourself has terrible results.

Personally I've worked on designing a board game which is used as part of training workshop for shop owners in a certain industry.
It took about 2 months to design, test and refine. Which is a time-frame this project at the least will be looking at.

[Mastablasta]

After playing recent boardless boardgames, and seen some rather "punk" entries like Risk Legacy where you actually destroy the game as you play, the old style thinking here is kind of oldschool ;p

But good advice given. Way too swift movement from 0 -> here's some graphics, it's a game soon.

[IHaveHugeNick]

My hope, is that if we can collaborate and make a fun tabletop game which we can then play with friends who don't play AO... who afterwards you can tell "This game is based on an online game, Anarchy Online.... you may want to check it out."

Isn't that plan a little bit backwards? Why not jump straight away to the phase in which you tell friends about AO? Several months spend designing and producing a game in order to build up to 5 minute conversation seems like an awful lot of work.

[Windguaerd]

Isn't that plan a little bit backwards? Why not jump straight away to the phase in which you tell friends about AO? Several months spend designing and producing a game in order to build up to 5 minute conversation seems like an awful lot of work.

Well... most people I know, if they don't know what a game is about, they will google it.

One of the top results... Wikipedia, and at the bottom of that page...

Subscription revenue remained "steady" for the next three years, until 2009 when they were described as "slowly declining".[

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With so many options to play an MMO these days, it can easily take even a slight negative line to discourage a young player from trying AO.

Most of the successful things out there that supports AO, are not made by Funcom. They are made by the AO community. AOFroobs, Auno, Xyphos, AO Universe, AORK/AOSL Maps, etc.

Pretty much all of those resources directly enhance the gameplay of our favorite MMO and in some way also promotes it.

Is the idea for a Tabletop a bit over the top? Maybe.

But if we were to make something fun we can play around a table with friends, something which is as unique as Anarchy Online, wouldn't it be cool?

I'm just trying to find different ways to promote AO and at the same time, have fun. I would play an AO themed/base tabletop, do the simple reason... that I still play the game for over a decade because to me it's still fun.

[Silvana]

One big thing to keep in mind, you'd have to license the IP from Funcom

[Windguaerd]

One big thing to keep in mind, you'd have to license the IP from Funcom

Fanbase stuff usually notifies the copyright/trademark holder, but as to having license, paperwork, lawyers and their insane fees involves... nah, otherwise there wouldn't be thousands of fan based tabletop, videos, films, fanfic, cosplay, etc.

Now on topic (somewhat) I had some issues with my account which are now resolved (thank you Funcom!) so I'll be posting in the coming week(s) to hopefully start building the basics of the game and then it's alternative modes.

This is a fun challenge for most of us.

[Silvana]

I see what you mean. I had thought this was something you planned to market and get money out of, not just be a fan thing

[Windguaerd]

I see what you mean. I had thought this was something you planned to market and get money out of, not just be a fan thing

If that was the case, AO Universe would have started with RL advertising or a paid membership system to see "premium" content like guides.

Over my dead body...