Space Opera

[GrumpyMel]

Uploaded a new version of this one to fix issues with Gunships. Also gave Frigates some bombardment capacity

[ghoward]

Looks like a lot of fun. Are there anymore docs anywhere? How do you get knights and nobles? produce? grow? clone? get lucky?

[GrumpyMel]

I haven't produced any docs yet. Was waiting till after I get a test game running (still need 1 more player to sign up for that) to see what kind of tweaking I might need to do before I produce documentation.

In answer to your specific question....Knights and Nobles are both Resources and SFT's.... You can only Produce these SFT's at your House's Seat (Starting Production City) and you have to have one resource of the appropriate type to produce each SFT. Each House automaticaly gets 1 Knight resource a month and 1 Noble every 6 months....how many you have in stock can be seen on the Strategic Overview screen along with the rest of your resources.

If you manage to align the Minor Noble Houses to your cause, the rate at which you get Knights/Nobles doubles. Other then that, there is no way to increase the number of Knights/Nobles you get per month. These units are very powerful, therefore intended to be fairly rare in quantity.

[GrumpyMel]

Uploaded a new version. Some revisions due to play testing. Here is the list of changes...

- Cleaned up the map to get rid of any unused space at the edges. This has significantly reduced the size of the scenerio file.

- Added new planet/system to beef up Drako/Romanov position

- Increased resource cost for units produced with Organics and Minerals. This was due to players being able to easly produce more resources then they needed. The new costs should help force players to keep an eye on thier resource stockpiles.

- Increased starting resource stockpiles to prevent higher costs from slowing down the game start.

- Increased starting forces for each House. This should help speed up the start some and get players into the action more quickly.

- Put in possible victory conditions. After 5 years, the House with the highest VP total will be proclaimed Emperor (i.e. winner). VP's are based off of control of Production Cities, the higher the production = the more VP's. Note, proclaimation of Emperor is just a message. Players CAN continue to play after that if they want.

- Increased resources gained by allying the Guild from 50 each per turn to 100 each. This should help make the Guild a little more attractive.

- Allying one of the factions (Minor Nobles, Church, Guild) will now allow you to build that factions custom unit type. This should make diplomacy more attractive. Units are as follows:

Minor Nobles = Allied Nobles/Allied Knight ..... These are mirror copies of the Knights and Nobles you can already build, however they do NOT need to be built in your capital. They can be built anywhere that foot troops can.

Church = Zealots..... These are similar to Militia, however they are strong on offense and weak on defense instead

Guild = Guild Smugglers.... Small Jumpships that can travel (slowly) through Deep Space! This allows you to avoid using JumpGates when traveling from system to system. The ships are also very stealthy. Usefull for running blockades! However to compensate the ships only have a small cargo capacity (25 troops & 1 Lander) and are somewhat weak in combat (about half as strong as a Frigate).



Enjoy!

[GrumpyMel]

Uploaded a new version with some minor tweaks & bugfixes.
 
- Squashed a few bugs, including one that prevented gunships from being built.
 
- Changed all non-Jump capable spacecraft to use minerals rather then isotopes. This should should slightly de-emphasize the importance of isotopes, allowing a player to build at least some defensive space forces without needing isotopes. It should also make space missles and some of the other small spacecraft more cost effective... as they now use a different resource then other spacecraft. The mineral cost for these units is significant though...meaning a player can't simply flood space with them. Building lots of these units will also have an impact on a players ability to produce ground units (particulary mechanized ones)....as they both use the same production facilities and resources now.  

[GrumpyMel]

Yet another version uploaded. This one should be pretty close to the final release. Some good changes here.
 
- Tweaked Psi Ops to make them a little more powerfull for the cost.
 
- Added a new unit class, Agents....most high value units (armor, gunships, artillery) don't kill these very well but foot troops do fairly well against them. Psi Ops and a new SFT Agents belong to this class.
 
- Added a new SFT called Agents. They have excellent Stealth & Recon values and good kill values against other agents and high value targets like tanks and artillery. Not as good against foot troops. Expensive to build. They require Covert Ops Tech to build.
 
- Added a new SFT called Heavy Infantry. Basicaly anti-tank infantry like bazookas in standard AT game. Require Advanced Foot Troop tech to build.
 
- Added a new action card called Covert Ops. When played it has a chance to cause partisan groups to appear in your targets territory. Each partisan group belongs to your regieme and has 1 Agent and 5 Militia SFT's. This should add a little more fluidity to the game and make rear areas a bit less secure. Requires that you research Covert Ops to play. Can only be played once per turn.
 
- Added lots of graphics to game.
 
 
enjoy!
 
 

[GrumpyMel]

Yet another update, based off some feedback from the first test game and some bug squashing.

- Fixed a bug that prevented Agents and Heavy Infantry from being built.

- Allowed Starbases to produce "AirCraft" SFT's (starfighters, starbombers, Landers, Assault Landers, space missles, PGM's). These SFT's are still producable in regular production cities on planets surfaces as well. This should raise the importance of star-bases slightly. Allow a few more unit types to be built on a regular basis and deal with the issue of StarBase's having nothing they can build if a player is low on Isotopes. Shouldn't have that significant an effect on game balance though...as it's still more valuable to use SB's to produce starships if the resources are available for them.

- Tweaked Warships to have the same bombardment values as Artillery. This should give Wet Water navies a little more bang for the buck considering thier limitations in use.

- Increased the movement speed of all wet water naval vessels, as AT's standard ship speeds were just too slow.

- Added a new wet water naval SFT - Fast Boats. These are small, fast patrol craft with a little transport capacity and some limited bombardment and naval combat capability. Not as effective as warships, but they have 1/3rd more movement...and are cheap to build. Costing only 1/3rd the Production and Resources. This should add a bit of variety for wet water navies.... and give players the ability to build some inexpensive surface vessels.

- Added a new SFT type - PGM's or Percision Guided Munitions. These are multi-role missles. They can be used in Space to Ground, Ground to Ground, Ground to Space or Space to Space Capacity. Like Space Missles, they destruct upon use. They are less capable in space combat then the space missle but are more versitile. They are specificaly designed to allow Space Forces to do a little planetary bombardment (without unbalancing the game in favor of space forces). They are too expensive for deployment in large quantities (or SHOULD prove to be)... but are a decent specialized weapon for allowing space based forces some limited direct fire support role in ground based combat. They are highly resistant to AA fire... and have good kill numbers against vehicles, guns, aircraft and surface vessels. Not as great against regular foot troops. Thier big advantage is that they are light enough to be carried aboard capital ships (i.e. no need for carriers or jump transports) and don't really need to worry much about interception....otherwise space-bombers are probably a more cost effective purchase (since they don't blow up on use).

- Modified all Capital SpaceShips to add enough Air Carry capacity to hold some PGM's. Destroyers can carry 1 PGM and Cruisers and Dreadnaughts can carry 2 each. Note that these ships don't have enough carry capacity to carry anything other then PGM's....but it should allow them some limited role in direct support of ground operations, if a player wants to pay for it.