Eve conversion

[SylvrDragon]

I was recently posting in a thread about converting Mass Effect to ACtA when I got hit with the idea of converting Eve over to ACtA. Just thought I'd make a thread specifically for this idea, since it seemed that there may be others interested in this endeavor.

 

[Burger]

I thought about doing it a while ago but it just got too nasty to implement. Some features I'd like to see, that are essential to maintaining the feel of the game...

- Big ships can't easily hit small ones
- Range modifiers for different ships a la Full Thrust
- Custom fittings for ships, so your Megathron could be long or short range setup
- Warping around the board ("Align for warp!" special action required the turn before, cov ops required for Picard Manouver style warps)
- Warp scrambling
- Webbing
- Cap warfare (neut/nos)
- Active vs passive tanking
- Different damage types and resistances, simplified of course
- Smacking in local (j/k )
- Disco Domi, the best ship of all time :lol:

 

[darknight]

all of the eve ships are so cool looking as well and i think for the feel you would need models of them, used to play eve a lot and the ccg, i designed a card for exile as well

 

[SylvrDragon]

I thought about doing it a while ago but it just got too nasty to implement. Some features I'd like to see, that are essential to maintaining the feel of the game...

- Big ships can't easily hit small ones
- Range modifiers for different ships a la Full Thrust
- Custom fittings for ships, so your Megathron could be long or short range setup
- Warping around the board ("Align for warp!" special action required the turn before, cov ops required for Picard Manouver style warps)
- Warp scrambling
- Webbing
- Cap warfare (neut/nos)
- Active vs passive tanking
- Different damage types and resistances, simplified of course
- Smacking in local (j/k )
- Disco Domi, the best ship of all time :lol:

I've been working on the big ships having a hard time hitting smaller ones. I've decided to cover this by giving all frigates a dodge score; usually 3+. Also, most frigate sized weapons have a form of anti-fighter to help them with dealing with other frigates. Also, I added a weapon trait called "Capital" that I placed on Dreadnought/Carrier/Titan weapons that grants a re-roll to dodge when applicable.

I haven't worked on ships moving at high speeds, but this is a good idea and I'm definitely going to work on it. The closest thing to this I've implemented is MWD for Interceptors, but all this does is grant them +1 dodge and a 1/45 degree turn when using "All Power to Engines".

Hm, custom fittings...I've been playing with this. The trick is to provide such options with out over complicating things. I was thinking of making "variants" available to cover this.

I have changed warp already. Currently I have it so that a ship ceases movement and weapons fire when activating its warp drive, and it must also wait a turn before it kick in. When it kick in a ships warp drive rockets it straight forward at triple the normal speed until it exits the board, or until the player cancels the action. I've also, thank to your suggestion, added an ability called "Rapid Warp" to allow certain ships to instantly enter warp.

I've already implemented rules for warp scrambling, stasis webbing and ECM. I thought they needed to be present for certain ships, such as the Blackbird, to be present.

As cool as Cap warfare could be, I think it's just too complicated for such a game. The same applies to active vs. passive tanking. Both would be cool, and I may make adjustments later, but I'm skipping both for now.

Different damage types is something I've been debating on. For now I'm just adding resistances for damage done to shields and armor, but I've been very tempted to add the full range of elements to it; simplified of course.

Please let me know if you have any other suggestions. I think this is a cool project and am glad to see others share my interest in the subject.

 

[David Anla Shok']

and this is the point where "someone" interjects with , "what in the frell is eve?"

 

[CaptBavo]

Its a MMORPG, set in space.

 

[SylvrDragon]

Its a MMORPG, set in space.

That it would be. Excellent game, I highly recommend checking it out if for no other reason than to just see how cool the game is. I'll post a link for it below. They have a complete database containing information on ships, races, and every piec3e of equipment that you could hope to find in the game on the following site.

http://www.eve-online.com/

 

[Burger]

I wouldn't worry about capital ships for now. Just get the frigates/cruisers/BS working, then add bigger stuff later.

For warp I'd recommend:

Frigates can enter warp immediately as a special action in the movement phase
Larger than frigates must peform special action "Align for warp", then can enter warp next turn

When in warp, a ship can either:
1) Warp off the table. In EVE battles this is common, and ships can return from off-table unlike ACTA. They must stay off-table for an entire turn, but can re-enter the table from any edge (since they could be warping around different planets), and can warp to within 3" of any allied ship (gang mate).
2) Warp on-table. They can warp to within 3" of any allied ship that is over 24" away, and in the ship's forward arc.

I think different resistances for shield/armour/hull is fine. No point making it any more complicated than that. Just give Caldari ships a big shield with good regen and Amarr ships a big armour with good repair. Other races in between or a bit of each or ship-dependent.

 

[SylvrDragon]

Oh, I hadn't even begun writing rules for Cruisers as of yet. I only mentioned Capitals because I will add them eventually. But I need to get the basics up and running first.

And I'd already made that adjustment for Frigates. Not long after I posted I made a note that Frigates could instantly jump and I also removed the "Rapid Jump" instant rule; to be honest I just threw the rule in as an on the moment thing anyways and I didn't even like it then. I didn't think about the "Align for Warp" though. Good call. I'll also add that you can reenter to the table later, and that you must wait a turn before doing so and that you must reenter with-in a certain range of an ally. Another good call.

Right now I'm considering taking things a few steps further. I'm debating on changing a few other core mechanics in an attempt to smooth over a couple rough edges in the current ACtA system. Mostly just stuff to make the game run smoother. One thing I was heavily considering, and will almost certainly do, is to convert the measurements over to cm instead of in. This makes dealing with the enormous range of some of the Eve weapons much easier, plus it gives more freedom in assigning ship speeds, and I personally like the metric system. lol

Another thing I may do is to simplify attack craft. They tend to bog the game down considerably at times; especially when playing fleets like EA or the Gaim. I want this conversion to run more quick and dirty, so that players spend more time plotting and planning and less time measuring and counting. Not sure how I'll simplify it yet though. I was just reading over my copy of Battle Fleet Gothic, a system I've always loved, and they have a nice simple means of dealing with attack craft that still leaves them as being very effective; I used to run a torpedo/bomber fleet back in the day and my fleet was a real killer!

 

[Burger]

Fighters = drones

How about going to D10, to add more granulity into the system? I know thats been a running joke in the past but since you're making so many changes, why not?

 

[SylvrDragon]

Fighters = drones

How about going to D10, to add more granulity into the system? I know thats been a running joke in the past but since you're making so many changes, why not?

Yea, that one was obvious to me. I've already been working on base rules using the current fighter system, but I've been hoping to improve on it.

d10? Hm, must've missed those threads somehow. Would offer a lot more freedom. One thing I've always hated about d6 games is just how limited of a scope that is available.

Don't get me wrong, ACtA is a solid system, but it's very much flawed. I attribute this to Mongoose lack of concentration. instead of just focusing on a few games, they are constantly distracting themselves with a plethora of lesser games. They're a lot like a 12 year old with ADD; they may have good ideas and intentions, but they just lack the focus to do what really needs to be done.