I really have my heart set on doing a coversion of the PC game XCOM UFO defense. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, it features squad level combat with the player using a select team of soldiers, who "investigate" (meaning shoot anything that moves) UFO crash sites and zap aleins. The feel of the game is very, very tense because the terrain is completely covered, and you never know when an "alein" is lurking just around the corner. The problem is converting the "fog" of war or unknown into the board game. Players can easily see tokens, and other visible counters, ruining the surprise, or thrill. Any ideas?
Fog of War Ideas?
Fri, 05/23/2003 - 14:24
Thu, 05/22/2003 - 14:24
#1
Fog of War Ideas?
Quote:
22-05-2003 at 09:59, Mind4u2c wrote:
I really have my heart set on doing a coversion of the PC game XCOM UFO defense. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, it features squad level combat with the player using a select team of soldiers, who "investigate" (meaning shoot anything that moves) UFO crash sites and zap aleins. The feel of the game is very, very tense because the terrain is completely covered, and you never know when an "alein" is lurking just around the corner. The problem is converting the "fog" of war or unknown into the board game. Players can easily see tokens, and other visible counters, ruining the surprise, or thrill. Any ideas?
Not sure exactly what you
Fri, 05/23/2003 - 09:21
#3
Fog of War Ideas?
If you can figure out a good idea to do this, by all means let us know.
Fri, 05/23/2003 - 09:52
#5
Fog of War Ideas?
That would be highly ironic given that the original creator of the X-COM games was an avid boardgamer and his first designs came out precisely because there were some things he couldn
Fri, 05/23/2003 - 12:24
#7
Fog of War Ideas?
If it is a 2-player game you could use the idea of "blocks" such as in "Hammer of the Scots" or "Stratego". That way you know where your opponents units are, but not exactly what they are and vice versa of course. Presents some great opportunities for bluffing, too.
Thu, 04/01/2004 - 07:27
#10
Fog of War Ideas?
i thought i'd go way back and check out all of the messages for ideas and interesting topics i could bump up with ideas or questions and ran into this... i have been thinking about this type of game for quite some time now (as, it would seem, is everyone else... :wink: ) and am interested to see what you come up with.
i had this thought and i'm not sure why i didn't think of it before...
have you ever played "space hulk" by GW? it's about an unlucky squad or max two (five to ten guys armed to the teeth but slow on their feet) that needs to infiltrate a hellish warren of a ship (or compound... whatever as long as it's got lot's of corridors) to eliminate the threat of the nefarious body snatching aliens, the "gene-stealers".
it's a great game with two releases.. i actually like the original a bit better as the space marine player was timed on a stopwatch.. they only got like two minutes max to make all decisions, move AND roll for combat and if your seargent eats it (or rather.. is eaten) then you have even LESS time as your command structure falls apart. add this to the fact that at most he would have ten and usually only five guys that are easily killed versus the aliens with unlimited amount of both aliens and time to play them... it got REAL hairy in every single game and always came down to one final guy with a suicide mission to get to his objective with just one.. more... turn...!
very good game... i'll have to pull it out again..
but i digress...
the thing is the aliens had two distinct deployments. they started out as "blips". flat counters representing movement radar information. the marines knew (or thought they knew!) something was moving kind of... over there...
when line of sight was established the blip was turned over and revealed anything from a false signal to one, two or three (i think there was even a SIX alien peice in an expansion!!) aliens centered on that blip. in one of the expansions the blip could represent that number of aliens (which by the way had no ranged weapons but if your marines were adjacent they better say their prayers and dang quick) or a number of physically weaker aliens carrying guns OR psychic magus aliens that could really really make you wish you'd just stayed in bed..
you just never knew what was out there... and by the time you planned your strategy around your guesses and then found out the reality of the situation...wel.. it was usually far far too late...
anyway, you may have kicked this idea around but i thought i'd bring it up as it really worked quite well in giving the feeling of "oh man, somethings moving! i don't know what it is but it's coming this waaaayyyYYYAAAAAGHHH!!!!!"
.... ahem....
if you get my meaning.
Thu, 04/01/2004 - 12:20
#13
Fog of War Ideas?
About 10 years ago, my friend made a robosport like game using heroquest pieces and 2 boards. Each player would make a certain amount of points to create robots and then they would battle with each player using a different board and a screen in the middle. The person not playing would be the gamemaster. It worked really well, and because games took only took at the most 10 to 15 minutes and we all switched off, we all had a ton of fun.
I already worked on an update to it, but I'm going to try to figure out a way to get rid of the gamemaster. Right now, I don't think it's possible, not without losing some of the strategy from it. With the battles so short, maybe it doesn't matter.
-Steve
Fri, 04/02/2004 - 13:19
#16
Fog of War Ideas?
In my stratagy game I have something kind of like this.
My pieces (polyhedral dice) are associated with a stack of cards, however they can be face down until revealed. (They can also pick up more cards) This way your piece can be practically anything (As long as its HP <= the sides on the polyhedral dice) until revealed.
I also have a spell that creates illusionary duplicates of a piece, of which 1 is real and the others are fake. Which can be moved separately. Hehe
All good suggestions, I think my idea came across scrambled. One player plays the role of a aleins, so the challenge becomes keeping movement hidden from both parties, almost like diplomacy, but instead of straight up resolutions the complexity changes because it is squad level combat. (Line of sight, fear, etc.) The Games Workshop game "Necromunda" is a good start, but it