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playing surface size

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Tue, 04/02/2013 - 16:13
Donahue
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map size.PNG

i am currently working on a space combat game. the problem i am having is the size of the board. this is much more of a playability question and not a production question. the game consists of hex tiles mostly grouped into 7 hex "flowers". i need to balance space in the individual hexes with overall size limitation of both a players reach and the size of tables that most people have. as is the hexes are about 2-15/16" tall and the over all size size is just under 48" diameter. the units will range is size from about dime to about quarter sized.

any suggestions?

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Wed, 04/03/2013 - 00:27
#1
JustActCasual
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Yeah, 4' x 4 1/2' is pretty

Yeah, 4' x 4 1/2' is pretty big. You could save a fair bit of room simply rotating the playspace so there's not some much dead space on the board. 3' x 3' is about the largest table you could reasonably expect people to have: of course, you could always make people play on the floor.

A quarter is about 1" diameter, so you could probably play with a smaller hex as well.

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Wed, 04/03/2013 - 11:10
#2
Donahue
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there could be several units

there could be several units per hex. each hex represents a sector in which two (or more) large forces could meet. the initial units will likely be tokens that can be stacked to save space, but there will likely still be a want for space. even without the hex table i have shown, the actual game pieces puts the widest point at about 45" in diameter.

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Wed, 04/03/2013 - 12:56
#3
JustActCasual
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Have you thought about using a separate smaller board for combat? Then you could use the compact stacks for the galaxy board, and have them adjourn to the smaller board for the more expansive combat when they came to the same space.

How dense is the galaxy board with relevant information right now? Could it be possible to only use 1-3 arms at a time, and switch them out as people travelled? Could the dead space between planets be compressed into a more molecular model? (ie. more of a power grid or ticket to ride look, where you just put a link and the distance to the closest planets)

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Wed, 04/03/2013 - 14:11
#4
Donahue
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I have thought about having a

I have thought about having a small size board that the players would move their pieces to when entering combat. that would help with attacking and defending assignments. i have also thought about giving players fleet tokens that could be used to represent all the units in a sector that might travel together, just to keep things from getting too busy.

the board however is going to be like risk in space. there is no way to make sections removable because every section will be used at the same time. each hex will have a planet with a surface and an orbit. i have considered having a card that represents the system (7 hex flower tile) that could be used to store a lot of the info so the planets could be smaller (and therefore the hexes could be too). this might especially work if i simplified the ground assault portion that you suggested in the other thread. the main combat in this game occurs in the orbit space of the hexes, hence the need to lots of space (if the planets were also large)

do you know how big the tiles are for Twilight Imperium?

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Wed, 04/03/2013 - 15:30
#5
JustActCasual
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TI size

Twilight Imperium tiles seem to be about 4" diameter. The widest point of a standard setup is 7 tiles stacked flat, which makes a board setup of around 2 1/2' square.

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Wed, 04/03/2013 - 15:46
#6
Donahue
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yeah, mine is 15 hexes flat

yeah, mine is 15 hexes flat at its widest point. its going to have similar types of information and units in each hex as TI

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Wed, 04/03/2013 - 18:56
#7
Donahue
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well, i was trying to upload

well, i was trying to upload another image, or even figure out how to add an image url so that it would show up here, but i cannot seem to get any sort of familar code to work.

anyways, i ended up shrinking down everything by a factor of 2/3. now the actual hex area is about 28" x 32" and with a 5" boarder for the player area it gets to 38" x 44" which is still pretty big. i printed this out full size so i can play around with it but i may have to just make the sacrifice. i am probably looking at tokens that are now no bigger than about 5/8"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--a__gsNpWSQ/UVywhPw-9xI/AAAAAAAAFxc/J...

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Wed, 04/03/2013 - 20:35
#8
JustActCasual
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Could you detach the player

Could you detach the player border into player boards? Sure it takes up the same area, but it allows people a bit more flexibility in their table setup. 28" x 32" should be workable.

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Thu, 04/04/2013 - 11:02
#9
Donahue
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yeah, i printed it out last

yeah, i printed it out last night and played around with different layouts for the player areas. i think i came to the decision that having a dedicated player area layout just takes up too much room. i think i will give have the game board, and let the players place the other items as they see fit and have room.

another issue i ran into was where to roll the dice, and where to have the draw and discard piles for the card aspect. ideally they would be in the center where all players could reach them. the only way i could think to make this happen was to have a tray that was on little stilts that could float above the playing surface, but that seems hoaky to me. i may just have to have those things off to one side, and leave it up to the players what to do with it.

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Thu, 04/04/2013 - 11:47
#10
JustActCasual
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You could square off the

You could square off the board design and then punch a whole in each corner to use as a dice rolling tray.

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Mon, 04/08/2013 - 16:05
#11
Donahue
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i am considering just having

i am considering just having a tray that floats around, or gets passed from player to player that functions as the dice rolling area and for the draw and discard pile.

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