Looking over my earlier attempt at doing a game of Astroid, I realized the major drawback of using a tabletop system as-is for a play-by-post game.
Now, taking major inspiration from Super Robot Wars, I am reworking the concept so that you no longer need a calculator to see where you can go and where your guns can reach.
And I'm supplementing it all with robots of my own design.
The following is a wall-o-text that describes the game the way I think it might work. It is not yet complete.
Preparations
Before each campaign, each player chooses a side. There will be three sides total - Colonists, Raiders, and Mercenaries. Also, each player is assigned a contingent of Astroids, representing the total force of each side from which the participants of any given battle are drawn. Unique unit names will be optional.
Game Proceedings and Goals
The campaign is fought until any given side's victory condition is reached. The Colonists want to defend their home - their goal is the reactivation of the colony's derelict orbital defence system. The Raiders want to plunder the colony's storage facilities - their goal is breaking into the colony's storage vault. The Mercenaries want to use the colony as their new base - their goal is the capture of the colony's main control center. Each side's goal naturally contradicts the others'.
Everything that doesn't involve fighting happens on a map like this:
OOCOO
OOOOO
ROOOM
For the sake of simplicity, that's just the colony's general area, nothing beyond that has any value for the participants. C is the Colonists force, at the colony's Control Center. M is the Mercenary force, at the colony Storage Facilities. R is the Raider force, at the Orbital Port. Every side is initially separated from their goal by 3 terrain tiles. Despite distances, any side can attack any tile, via dropships - one every turn. In response to any attack (even, or especially, on neutral tiles), other sides can send an attack force to prevent their enemy from settling in. If an attack is successful (all enemies are defeated or withdraw, or the attacker is uncontested), that tile becomes the attacker's outpost. If the attack is not successful (attacker force is destroyed or withdraws), the tile remains the way it was.
Battle set-up
For each battle, each side is allowed 9 units, minus the distance to the nearest friendly occupied terrain tile - the dropship installs extra fuel tanks instead of troop pods. Fighting on their own tile, defenders will always be able to deploy a full 9 units, as long as they have that many left to begin with, while attackers will fight with at most 8 - if they have an outpost in the neighboring tile.
Units are drawn from the contingent assigned at the beginning of the game, or whatever is left of it by the time of the battle. Only number of units matters.
Battle proceedings
Players take turns moving their sides' units. Moving is N/E/S/W only, with move distance calculated from the unit's Move stat and the terrain cost for moving.
During a turn, a unit can perform three actions. A Move, an Attack, and a Sub-Attack. Greater actions can be replaced by lesser ones, and can be done in any order. For example, an Astroid can fire a major weapon, move, and sub-attack (i.e. melee) an enemy, or do not move but fire a major weapon twice and perform a sub-attack, or sub-attack thrice.
There is always a clear Attacking side in a battle - this side wins if it eliminates all enemy opposition. There can also be a Defending, and a Supporting side. During attacks on neutral tiles, both non-Attacking sides are Defending - their victory goal is the elimination of the Attacking side, they do not need to eliminate each other (though they can). During attacks on owned tiles, one side can be Supporting - it has no set goal, as such it can attack either the Attacker or the Defender, and may withdraw at any time without losing anything.
Unit statistics
Each unit has base Size, Move and Shield stats, as well as individual Health for the Torso, Left and Right Arm, Legs, and Powerpack.
Size: Affects how hard the unit is to hit.
Move: Affects how far a given unit may move, in conjunction with the move costs of terrain tiles.
Type: Affects the move cost of specific terrain types. (covered in a later section)
Shield: Affects how hard the unit is to damage.
Health: Represents the general state of each part.
Units can be equipped with Weapons and perform Special Attacks, but they do not posess offensive parameters by themselves.
Damage to different parts introduces penalties to unit parameters.
Damage to Left or Right Arm reduces the Accuracy of all weapons mounted on that arm, by 1 point for each point of damage incurred.
Damage to Legs reduces the Move statistic of the unit, by 1 point for each point of damage incurred.
Damage to Powerpack reduces the Shield statistic of the unit, by 1 point for each point of damage incurred.
Destruction of Left or Right Arm disables all weapons mounted on that arm, and reduces the unit's Size statistic by 1.
Destruction of Legs reduces the Move statistic of the unit to 1, and reduces the unit's Size statistic by 2.
Destruction of Powerpack reduces the Shield statistic of the unit to 0.
Weapon statistics
Weapons can be mounted to the Left Arm, Right Arm, or Torso. Weapons mounted on the Torso suffer no Accuracy penalties for incurred damage.
Every weapon has Range, Penetration, Accuracy, Damage, and can have Special Status.
Range: How far, in terrain tiles, a weapon shot may reach.
Penetration: How much of the target's Shield is bypassed when an attack hits.
Accuracy: How difficult is it to hit a target with this weapon.
Damage: How much Health is deducted from the target's damaged parts on a successful hit.
Special Status: May be one of: Sub-Weapon, Light Weapon, Burst Firing, Stationery Firing, Heavy Weapon, Charged Attack, Spread Fire, Area Effect.
Sub-Weapon: This weapon may be used as a Sub-Attack action.
Light Weapon: This weapon deals only half damage if used as a Sub-Attack action.
Burst Firing: This weapon deals only half damage if used after a Move action.
Stationery Firing: This weapon may not be used after a Move action.
Heavy Weapon: This weapon is used as a Move action.
Charged Attack: This weapon may not be used unless a Move Action was made.
Spread Fire: A hit of this weapon damages all parts of the target.
Area Effect: This weapon hits everything in a designated area. Area configuration varies by weapon.
Special Attack statistics
These are "improved" attacks using the weapons available to the Astroid.
Special Attacks can also be attacks performed without equipped weapons - presuming weapons or equipment inherent to Astroids.
Special Attacks share properties with Weapons, but can have different functions specific to each Attack, which are described in the status of each Astroid that has them.
Terrain Types and Unit Types
Terrain is broadly divided into these categories: Open Terrain, Obstructed Terrain, Impassable Terrain, Impassable Obstruction.
Examples:
Clear Terrain: Field, Hills, Paved Road. Movement Cost is 1 Move per tile travelled.
Obstructed Terrain: Forest, Light Constructions, Deep River. Movement cost is 2 Move per tile travelled.
Impassable Terrain: Acid Pool, Quicksand, Tar Pit. Movement cost is 3 Move per tile travelled, Damage may be incurred.
Impassable Obstruction: High Building, Sheer Cliff, Deep Pit. Movement is prohibited.
Certain Astroid models may have Types that allow them to alter the movement rules for certain terrain types.
Hovering: Treats Impassable Terrain, as well as non-object Obstructed Terrain, as Clear Terrain.
Flying: Treats Obstructed Terrain, Impassable Terrain, and some Impassable Obstructions as Clear Terrain.
Amphibious: Treats water-based Obstructed Terrain as Clear Terrain.
Juggernaut: Treats object-based Obstructed Terrain as Clear Terrain.
Resistant: Takes no damage from Impassable Terrain, and treats it as Obstructed Terrain.
Unit Experience
During battle, Astroids on the field gain experience, which comes in different forms.
Dealing damage to enemy unit: 1 point for every 1 point of damage dealt.
Receiving damage from enemy unit: 1 point for every 2 points of damage received.
Evading an attack of an enemy unit: 1 point.
Landing a killing blow on an enemy unit: 2 points.
Remaining on the field when victory is achieved: 3 points.
Fleeing from the battlefield: 1 point.
Every 10 points, an Astroids gains an Experience Level. Reaching specific levels unlocks Special Attacks inherent to each Astroid. In addition, levelling improves one of the Astroid's stats by one, using the following rolls:
First roll: 1-4 improves a weapon, 5-6 improves a unit stat.
Second roll: Chooses either a weapon (according to its position in unit's listing, rerolling on missing or disabled weapons) or main stat, 1-3 improving Move, 4-6 improving Shield.
Third roll: If improving a weapon, 1-2 improves Accuracy, 3-4 improves Penetration, 5 improves Range, 6 improves Damage.
The selected stat is improved by 1.
This is a listing of all available Astroid Models for each side. Choose well.
The preparations are all complete now.
for the test battle.
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Topic: Super Astroid Taisen (TBS/RPG) Test fight in progress! Pew Pew Pew Pow! (Read 5873 times)