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Author Topic: Researching Star Control Board Game Interest  (Read 8410 times)
Jason Hartgrave
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Researching Star Control Board Game Interest
« on: October 30, 2004, 12:27:21 am »

Let's just throw this idea out to you Star Control Fans and see what kind of response I get...what if....

I created a crazy Star Control Board game which plays like melee combat in the game, would any one have interest in buying it?
Why or why not? And if you are interested in it, what kind of features would you like to see in the game? Ideas, comments, concerns, any sort of feedback is welcome.

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Re: Researching Star Control Board Game Interest
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2004, 03:38:20 am »

I would not buy it, because it sounds like it would be a step down from the computor version of melee.
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Re: Researching Star Control Board Game Interest
« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2004, 05:10:26 am »

if you can get it to play like axis n allies, then i might be interested.

~DEFIANT
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Re: Researching Star Control Board Game Interest
« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2004, 07:29:12 am »

Hey, yeah, a Risk version of UQM. That's an interesting idea.
Would I buy it? No, probably not.
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Re: Researching Star Control Board Game Interest
« Reply #4 on: October 30, 2004, 10:34:50 am »

Better yet. Chess!

Modify the chess board so it's 16*16 instead of your standard 8*8. Add a second tier of pieces that have their own movement rules.

Pieces are, Alliance and Hierarchy respectively...

Pawn - Shofixti/Umgah
Pawn Mk II - ZoqFotPiq/Thraddash
Rook - Human/Ilwrath
Rook Mk II - Pkunk/Druuge*
Bishop - Syreen/VUX
Bishop Mk II - Supox/Spathi**
Knight - Yehat/Mycon
Knight Mk II - Utwig/Androsynth
Queen - Chenjesu/Ur-Quan
Queen Mk II - Chmmr/Kohr-Ah***
King - Starbase/Starbase
King Mk II - Vindicator/Sa-Matra

*I'm aware that the Druuge are "Neutral" but since they hate the captain and for lack of any other race to throw in,  they wind up there.

**I know they slave shielded themselves but what the hell. Lets just say the 'Quan threatened them. Harshly.

***The Kohr-Ah is superior to the Dreadnought after all and tears through most ships with ease.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2004, 10:36:45 am by Cronos » Logged
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Re: Researching Star Control Board Game Interest
« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2004, 12:40:50 pm »

I can imagine a translation of melee as a card battle game, like Magic: The Gathering. Still, that would probably be boring compared to the excitment of a melee battle. I think something cooler might be a conquest game, like some people have suggested. This could be based off of SC1-style strategy. Another approach would be to make an adventure game a la SC2, where you build up a flagship and navigate the stars, perhaps with some melee along the way. It woud sort of be like 'careers' set in space.

I enjoy board games, but I'm not sure that I'd want to buy one unless there would be something in the board game that is more interesting than playing Star Control on a computer. If you can come up with a game that has that, I'd probably buy it if it was reasonably priced (under $20.00).
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Re: Researching Star Control Board Game Interest
« Reply #6 on: October 30, 2004, 06:10:54 pm »

I've put a lot of thought into this subject before, and have a set of ideas that could form a boardgame version of SC1, only with more features, where battles are fought through fast card play. The components for the game would be pretty cheap too, so it would be possible to actually get it published and sold at a low price.

Who knows, I actually might do this at some point.
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Re: Researching Star Control Board Game Interest
« Reply #7 on: November 01, 2004, 11:07:44 pm »

I'm glad to know there's at least some limited interest in the subject material and the main problem I see is that most people tend to equate board games with only the "classics" like Risk, Chess, Careers and the like. While there's nothing wrong with those games, they are older in design. Modern board games (similar to modern video games as opposed to classics) are far more engaging and dynamic than the game designs of the past. For some recent examples of what I'm talking about there is a board game conversion of Microsoft Computer game title "Age of Mythology" made by Eagle Games and "Warcraft 3 The Board Game" made by Fantasy Flight Games. There are also conversions of Sid Meyers "Civilization" and "Doom 3" is currently being developed.

The premise of the game I'm creating is something like this. The mechanics of the game: Each player pilots a ship (Hopefully from the Star Control Univers) representing an alien faction flying right into a massive melee. Players are each given a plastic ship placed on a giant map of space and a set of dice where each die represents a specific action or order that can be selected or activated on a given turn. An example of this: one die activates weapons, one die moves the ship, one die repairs, and one die uses a special ability or alien power, ECT. Each round each player or captain secretly selects a limited number of their dice to use and the dice are then revealed and the carnage is sorted out. The basic effect is that no one knows what the other captains are going to try to do or what the exact results of those choices are going to be because there is a small variation within each die and limitless combinations for any given turn. For example I choose to activate engines but the actual roll determines how far I moved and if I didn’t choose to roll the initiative die there’s a chance I might process my orders last and get blown out of the water before my engines kick in. This description may sound slightly chaotic but rest assured the game supports a wealth of strategic choice and isn’t as random as you might think, meaning little Timmy can play the game just fine but old Dad’s tactics will always clean his clock if he doesn’t think on his toes.  

I want to make a "Star Control" themed board game to add that extra element of alein power chaos to the basic formula. I'll do this  by porting over all the cool alein abilities and quirks and make it come alive as opposed to being just a "vanilla" space shootem up.  
« Last Edit: November 01, 2004, 11:19:07 pm by GoldenGamesGuy » Logged
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Re: Researching Star Control Board Game Interest
« Reply #8 on: November 01, 2004, 11:31:28 pm »

This thread really resparked my interest in completing my vision of a Star Control boardgame. For the last few days I've been kicking around my ideas and writing a comprehensive set of rules, and I'm nearly finished now. My boardgame is essentially just a boardgame version of Star Control 1. You have a galaxy of a variable amount of stars, with 30 being the default. Each of the two players (usually) has a starbase which may produce ships from each of 7 different races (14 total). These ships may again explore the galaxy, colonizing worlds, building mines, and construction fortifications. Whenever the two players have ships on the same planet, combat occurs.

It took me a long time to figure out a good way to make a fast-paced system to emulate the frantic dogfights in Star Control, but I think I've come up with a great concept that captures most of the nuances in the computer games. My design takes a lot of inspiration from German boardgame designs, which means it's pretty abstract, but with strong game mechanics. I'm very pleased with how much these rules feel like Star Control.

In this system, you'll also get to play the different scenarios from Star Control 1, and possibly a few others. Supermelee alone is also possible, of course, and will be extensively detailed in the rules.

I hate dice, so there are only two situations in the game where you have to roll one. In these situations, you roll a 10-sided die. This happens only when besieging a fortification, or at the start of combat, when the distance between the ships is randomly determined.

Stay tuned for more information. Smiley
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Re: Researching Star Control Board Game Interest
« Reply #9 on: November 02, 2004, 12:09:07 am »

I've hosted a little SC2-inspired "board"-game on the SCDB, you can find it's rules here: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~starcontrol/board/YaBB.pl?board=heavyspace;action=display;num=1077890969

What I'd think be nice, if you can hook up battles with UQM itself.. Like if a battle occurs in the boardgame, you have to fire up UQM to decide who's the winner.. Wink
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Re: Researching Star Control Board Game Interest
« Reply #10 on: November 02, 2004, 02:13:45 am »

I thought about the possibility of using UQM for battles as an optional rule, but it would require some dedicated programming. For my boardgame, for example, you'd have to give each ship starting properties, like previously lost crew, any precursor artifacts in use, etc...
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Re: Researching Star Control Board Game Interest
« Reply #11 on: November 02, 2004, 04:05:26 am »

Quote
if you can get it to play like axis n allies, then i might be interested.

~DEFIANT



Grin Glad to know someone else likes old board games!
« Last Edit: November 02, 2004, 04:05:42 am by FalconMWC » Logged
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Re: Researching Star Control Board Game Interest
« Reply #12 on: November 02, 2004, 04:29:38 am »

Quote
Glad to know someone else likes old board games!


too bad there wasnt a way to play over the net, id love to play against a fellow AnA veteran. i remember long drawn out battles i used to play with my friends.we'd also make up some new rules, like rolling a 6 to get special weapons like nukes, that would devastate the production for a country for the rest of the game. they would be fired from a anti aircraft gun, that could move one space at one time. it made for some interesting battles. i wish i still had that game. gave it away a long time ago. i bought the computer counterpart, but i cant seem to find it... hmmm. well talk at you later. let me know if theres a way to play across the net, id love to conquer europe again Wink

~DEFIANT
« Last Edit: November 02, 2004, 04:30:11 am by DEFIANT » Logged
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Re: Researching Star Control Board Game Interest
« Reply #13 on: November 02, 2004, 04:57:02 pm »

Sure will - I see I was not the only one with the nuke idea. We played with researching and rolling a 6 twice in a row - if you got it - you pretty much won.  Grin

Hmm.... I am sure that there is someplace we can play online - I will look into it.....  Cheesy
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Re: Researching Star Control Board Game Interest
« Reply #14 on: November 02, 2004, 06:51:02 pm »

I'm also an Axis & Allies fan and although I'm not sure if there is an online element to this title, it doesn't cost much to try it out.

http://www.softwareandstuff.com/h_gme_axis.html

You also might be interested to know that Avalon Hill has revised and reprinted Axis and Allies for the masses.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/prod/axis

There are also new versions, or alternative versions like Axis and Allies Europe and Axis and Allies Pacific, both of which I own and can state they are pretty good. Eagle Games also makes a game called "Attack!" and the "Attack The expansion" which rock!
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