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Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

15 replies [Last post]
Sat, 01/08/2005 - 03:20
Anonymous

How many game ideas can I come up with in a day? today has been insane. I wrote out a first draft of what you would possibly find on the back of the box if this was published. What is that called? well it is meant to draw you in.

The year is 2083, the Terran Exploration Force had recently discovered that space is indeed flat and 2 dimensional, allowing for the folding of space. Within the year, the ability to fold space became a reality making inter-galactic travel possible. The TEF maintains maps of all know space to humans, but there is still much to find and be exploited. Of course, it is the global corporations that are the first to sieze the opportunity with the ambitions of becoming inter-galactic corporations. You are the CEO of such a company, it is time to make your mark.

As far as if this will work or how... that I still need to figure out. Would this sound interesting to anybody at all?

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Sat, 01/08/2005 - 03:45
#1
Anonymous
Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

I have some ideas for game mechanics, although I imagine I am trying to add too much to this, and I will only be dissapointed when I play the game, if ever.

1. Hidden game board. Created in hexes when an area is explored (by a probe)

2. Each CEO can hire different lackys with different abilities (specializing their workforce)

3. Players have different stuff they can build: Starbases, asteroid mines, gas mines, tourist hotels, transport ships, freight ships, cruise ships, probes, solar power harnessers, colonies, Dyson sphere

4. Players get VPs based on what they build, what stuff they send back to Earth (prestige), how much space they occupy.

5. Tech advancement tracks (meant to be very basic)

6. Different kind of space locations: stars, planets, asteroids, gas clouds, derelict spacecraft.

Now I just need to give this the Vulcan mind-meld and turn it into a game

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Sat, 01/08/2005 - 13:56
#2
Anonymous
Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

Ohh man, you stole my idea (lol)

Just kidding, I noticed you posted your idea first, and strangely enough it sounds pretty much the same thing that came to me when I was sitting at my computer the other day.

If you're going with it, good luck, if you ever need help on it PM me, I'll do my best.

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Sat, 01/08/2005 - 14:01
#3
Anonymous
Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

I would love to do a collaberative effort if you are willing. as of right now I have ideas for things players can do, and very little mechanics to make it happen. the only thing that I have come up with is the way the hex board could be mapped and explored.

each space piece would be a hex, and the player play along the edges. so at any one intersection of space there could be 3 different space locations like planets, stars, asteroids, etc. and then there would be a cost associated with exploring an area. when exploration is done, a new hex is drawn and placed in the area explored. this way when players explore a plethora of new options will come up. I think this will falicitate the players feeling like something is actually happening in the game.

as for movement, building, costs, shipping, anything like this I have no idea about yet.

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Sat, 01/08/2005 - 15:13
#4
Anonymous
Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

Yeah, I think I understand what you're saying about the exploration part. I'm not sure how often I would be available to help though, so you're probably better off working on it alone. But if you do want my help let me know.

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Sat, 01/08/2005 - 15:44
#5
sedjtroll
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Joined: 07/21/2008
Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

DrMayhem wrote:
each space piece would be a hex, and the player play along the edges. so at any one intersection of space there could be 3 different space locations like planets, stars, asteroids, etc.

I like the settlers-style 'play on the vertices' thing. Any time a ship is at a vertex, all three hexes should be there. So each player starts at 1 vertex of 3 hexes, and you see what's at the other vertices, but not everything. If you move there then you see the rest, and more options open up of whch you have partial knowledge.

I imagine a largeish board with a hex grid on it, with a couple different starting locations for players. Each vertex would be like an area or "sector", like you said with up to 3 things at it... planets, wormholes (which could connect to each other) Space Stations, asteroids... things like that. One of those things (or empy space) would be on each corner of each hex tile.

Actions would be things like
* Civilization: set up shop on a planet.
* Collect resources: depending on the color of the planet you can get resources if you have a colonization there. If you choose this action, maybe all colonized planets produce their resource, even opponents' planets.
* Build a space station. Maybe only 1 player can colonize a planet, but maybe you could build a space station in that sector which does something like produce an extra resource whenever that planet produces, which is stored in the space station until someone comes and gets it. Maximum capacity 1 (or 3 or whatever). The resources themselves could be colored cubes, there'd be plenty of room to place them next to space stations.
* Move your spaceship 1 sector, maybe pay resources to move further.
* Upgrade ship: pay resources to buy an upgrade: weapons (inflict damage), shields (take more damage), cargo hold (hold more stuff), fuel cells (move an extra sector for free (or at all), or maybe just cheaper movement).

I'm not sure combat really has a place in this game, but I guess it could. Players could attack each other (if you incapacitate a ship thet player has to go back to start but you get to loot them for the resources they were carrying first), or attack NPC space pirates which would be a hinderance. Pirates could be something on the tiles, whenever you enter a sector with Pirates you have to fight them- either you end up dead (respawn at home) or you destroy them and get some benefit. Astroids could work this way too, if you visit a sector with asteroids, you have to roll to avoid them and see if you take a damage. No fighting asteroids though.

So weapons would allow you better odds in combat. Maybe the normal combat is you roll a d6 for you and one for the Pirates, high roll takes a damage, Pirates win ties. Weapons let you roll an additional die and choose which to use. Pirates take 2 damage to kill or something. Or there could be a deck of Pirate cards, some more dangerous than others, and each with their own weapons/damage/payout printed on them.

As an alternative to the board, the game could be just tiles and everyone starts the game in the same place- probably on a starting tile, or on the vertex of three random tiles. A starting tile could be 3 connected hexes with a specific layout- like 1 of each planet plus a space station or something.

Players would probably get like 2 actions each turn. I'm not sure what thins would cost or how you;d score victory points. I keep thinking about Puerto Rico, where there's a shipping phase. Maybe in this game you unlad resources at the Home Base (if it's a common home base) and when someone chooses an 'Export' action then the resources are shipped off and people score VPs. Or maybe you score VPs when you unload, but there's limited capacity so someone needs to unlad the warehouse before it can be loaded again.

That's about all I can think of offhand. Does it jive with what you were thinking?

- Seth

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Sat, 01/08/2005 - 17:34
#6
Anonymous
Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

sedjtroll wrote:
I like the settlers-style 'play on the vertices' thing. Any time a ship is at a vertex, all three hexes should be there. So each player starts at 1 vertex of 3 hexes, and you see what's at the other vertices, but not everything. If you move there then you see the rest, and more options open up of whch you have partial knowledge.

Agreed. I was originally thinking that a space sector would have to be explored one hex at a time with a probe before going there, but moving to a place and then finding out what is there might not be too bad. Although I imagine the tone of some of our friends complaining about a good hex showing up. another thing is that hexes won't be symetrical, so when a hex is revealed how does it get placed down? exploring player's choice? certainly a vote of the players is out of the question as that would cause unneeded turmoil

Quote:

I imagine a largeish board with a hex grid on it, with a couple different starting locations for players. Each vertex would be like an area or "sector", like you said with up to 3 things at it... planets, wormholes (which could connect to each other) Space Stations, asteroids... things like that. One of those things (or empy space) would be on each corner of each hex tile.

You wouldn't need a hex grid board, just hex pieces. the board gets built as you play the game.

Quote:

Actions would be things like
* Civilization: set up shop on a planet.
* Collect resources: depending on the color of the planet you can get resources if you have a colonization there. If you choose this action, maybe all colonized planets produce their resource, even opponents' planets.
* Build a space station. Maybe only 1 player can colonize a planet, but maybe you could build a space station in that sector which does something like produce an extra resource whenever that planet produces, which is stored in the space station until someone comes and gets it. Maximum capacity 1 (or 3 or whatever). The resources themselves could be colored cubes, there'd be plenty of room to place them next to space stations.
* Move your spaceship 1 sector, maybe pay resources to move further.
* Upgrade ship: pay resources to buy an upgrade: weapons (inflict damage), shields (take more damage), cargo hold (hold more stuff), fuel cells (move an extra sector for free (or at all), or maybe just cheaper movement).

I'm not sure combat really has a place in this game, but I guess it could. Players could attack each other (if you incapacitate a ship thet player has to go back to start but you get to loot them for the resources they were carrying first), or attack NPC space pirates which would be a hinderance. Pirates could be something on the tiles, whenever you enter a sector with Pirates you have to fight them- either you end up dead (respawn at home) or you destroy them and get some benefit. Astroids could work this way too, if you visit a sector with asteroids, you have to roll to avoid them and see if you take a damage. No fighting asteroids though.

I agree with you on possible actions, those all sound good to me. I also agree that combat has no place in the game. And the premise of the game has a foundation for that. We'll assume there are no space pirates, and that the Terran Exploration Force keep corporations from fighting each other.

Quote:

As an alternative to the board, the game could be just tiles and everyone starts the game in the same place- probably on a starting tile, or on the vertex of three random tiles. A starting tile could be 3 connected hexes with a specific layout- like 1 of each planet plus a space station or something.

Exactly

Quote:

Players would probably get like 2 actions each turn. I'm not sure what thins would cost or how you;d score victory points. I keep thinking about Puerto Rico, where there's a shipping phase. Maybe in this game you unlad resources at the Home Base (if it's a common home base) and when someone chooses an 'Export' action then the resources are shipped off and people score VPs. Or maybe you score VPs when you unload, but there's limited capacity so someone needs to unlad the warehouse before it can be loaded again.

That's about all I can think of offhand. Does it jive with what you were thinking?

- Seth Shipping could just be free. and everybody scores VPs... that I dunno about

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Sun, 01/09/2005 - 14:45
#7
jwarrend
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Joined: 08/03/2008
Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

I haven't completely read all the posts in the thread, but is the game you're proposing very close to Starfarers of Catan? I haven't played that game, but from reading a brief description of it, it sounds somewhat similar to the ideas you're proposing here. You might check it out if interested...

-J

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Sun, 01/09/2005 - 18:00
#8
sedjtroll
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Joined: 07/21/2008
Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

jwarrend wrote:
I haven't completely read all the posts in the thread, but is the game you're proposing very close to Starfarers of Catan? I haven't played that game, but from reading a brief description of it, it sounds somewhat similar to the ideas you're proposing here.

I have never played that game, but I've heard of it. The extent of my knowledge is that it's "settlers in space".

But since you mentioned it I loked it up, and I'll be damned if it doesn't sound exactly the same. :/

Mechanics are different, but almost every aspect appears in both.

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Sun, 01/09/2005 - 18:08
#9
Anonymous
Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

except starfareres looks like it would suck. I would play Star Mogul.

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Sun, 01/09/2005 - 18:21
#10
Scurra
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Joined: 09/11/2008
Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

Starfarers is a perfectly decent game - and indeed covers most of the stuff you have outlined.
Except that I suspect that Starfarers would still be the better game; no disrespect but Settlers has a solid trackrecord in design and the game works. It's not ideal but the economic, exploration and adventure components integrate nicely and the huge rocketships are just cool. You'll have to work hard to make your design as smooth.
Then again, you have the advantage of not having to use the Settlers resource generation mechanic, which is quite a considerable one :-)

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Sun, 01/09/2005 - 20:27
#11
Anonymous
Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

so the fact that there is another game already established in the genre is still a major deterent. The thing is if I want to play Settlers, why not just play settlers. Maybe with KNight's and Cities which is a decent play.

I in general am not a big fan of playing 3-4 different versions of the same game. I would have bought starfarers if I wasn't so sure it is settlers in space. Theme is not that important to me. And I think many people will feel similarly

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Sun, 01/09/2005 - 21:15
#12
GeminiWeb
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Joined: 07/31/2008
Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

I actually prefer Starfarers to Settlers, although the rocketship gimmicks seems to break fairly easy (where the boosters are attached).

That said, it is also quite expensive and still uses the mechanic, roll a dice and people with adjavcent colonies get that resource (although the number is hidden until colonised and can be peeked at by passing ships).

VPs can be gained from
- colonies/spaceports
- trade links with alines (which give game benefits)
- terraforming ice planets (need enough freight rings)
- defeating pirate outposts (need enough cannons)

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Tue, 01/11/2005 - 15:33
#13
Anonymous
Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

I have a small rulebook for this game now. I handwrote out just over 6 pages. I will be posting this in a journal entry soon which will be titled Terra Prime.

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Thu, 02/10/2005 - 18:24
#14
sedjtroll
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Joined: 07/21/2008
Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

For further development of this game I suggest checking out Nautilus by Mayfair. It does a lot of similar things, and in fact was originally set in space.

- Seth

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Wed, 02/16/2005 - 17:23
#15
akacamper
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Game idea: Star Mogul (or space exploration and exploitation

this game is somewhat close to what i am making, i am using tiles that you flip and also a VP system. It is bases in space, and i have made about 15 different space hexes sections. Main difference in our games are mine is sort based on a mix of MOO video game, pirates CCG and settlers with a card based system for all parts of the game. you will hold the cards like you are playing UNO.

playtest will tell me if my game will work but i hve to finish all the cards.

camper

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