How Do You Like Your Vehicles Grouped?

[dmccoy1693]

So I'm working on some vehicles. So far, I've got a decent mix of wheeled, walkers, grav, etc. I was thinking of starting the layout and I was wondering in what way would they be most helpful to you? Some thoughts for possible way to group them:

Chassis/Method of Movement
ex. wheeled, walker, grav, etc

Manufacturing Nation
ex. Imperium, Zhodani, Avalar, Vargr, etc

Role/General Purpose
Civilian, Military, Emergency Services, etc

Alphabetical/Price/TL
Pretty self explanatory

Please vote and tell us your thoughts. Also, is there a specific kind of vehicle that you would like to see more of?

Edit: Clarified "role"

 

[phavoc]

Most players won't be able to tool around in a grav tank. So from a player perspective I like to see civilian and para-military vehicles.

But when I'm building up, err, 'targets', to oppose players, I like to be able to select vehicles that reflect the opposition. So then I do use other para-military as well as military vehicles.

In general I like for the designs to make sense. Vargr won't have TL15 tanks. And there's nothing wrong, in my opinion at least, to have two-three tanks of the same TL and basic capabilities listed for one side. They would (or should) be slight variants because they are coming from different manufacturer's. Not everybody will have a Heavy Walker, Titan class, 1 ea. Then you are having more like a civil war then just regular warfare.

 

[dragoner]

I see chassis and role having some overlap, such as a fighter is fighter; but I think it is easier to flip to grav vehicles, to find a tank, rather than to put mech's and tanks in the same category with other grav vehicles elsewhere.

 

[JRoss]

I agree with Dragoner, role and chassis are sort of interrelated. Air superiority is going to be one of a handful of different chassis and so is naval patrol.

I like to see a hierarchy like this:

- Role/Chassis (Role is Space, Ground/Air, Wet, Other) (Chassis is like the different types in the Vehicles books)
-- Alphabetical

I like to see a distinction between Military and Civilian, and it is nice to see nations grouped together, but those are usually done in separate books anyway.

 

[dmccoy1693]

I mean role and chassis to be two distinctly different things:

A role like "Passenger" (which would be better renamed "Civilian") includes ground cars and grav cars.

A chassis like "Grav" would include heavy military grav tanks and civilian gravcars.

I figured there would be secondary groupings inside the larger grouping, but do you want the table of contents to say:

Civilian Vehicles
-Civilian Ground Vehicles
-Civilian Grav Vehicles
Military Vehicles
-Military Ground Vehicles
-Military Grav Vehicles
etc

or do you want
Ground Vehicles
-Civilian Ground Vehicles
-Military Ground Vehicles
Grav Vehicles
-Civilian Grav Vehicles
-Military Grav Vehicles
etc

or

TL 10 Vehicles
-Civilian TL 10 Vehicles
-Military TL 10 Vehicles
TL 11 Vehicles
-Civilian TL 11 Vehicles
-Military TL 11 Vehicles
etc

or

etc.

 

[CosmicGamer]

So I'm working on some vehicles. So far, I've got a decent mix of wheeled, walkers, grav, etc. I was thinking of starting the layout and I was wondering in what way would they be most helpful to you? Some thoughts for possible way to group them:

Chassis/Method of Movement
ex. wheeled, walker, grav, etc

Manufacturing Nation
ex. Imperium, Zhodani, Avalar, Vargr, etc

Role/General Purpose
Passenger, Cargo, Light Fighter, Heavy Fighter, Emergency Services, etc

Alphabetical/Price/TL
Pretty self explanatory

Please vote and tell us your thoughts. Also, is there a specific kind of vehicle that you would like to see more of?

Nation, then general purpose, then skill required to drive/fly/pilot
Example:

I. Imperium
 A. Civilian
  1. Drive
   a. Wheeled
   b. Grav
  2. Fly
  3. Pilot
 B. Military
  1. Drive
   a. Wheeled
   b. Grav
  2. Fly
  3. Pilot
 C. Auxiliaries
  1. Drive
   a. Wheeled
   b. Grav
  2. Fly
  3. Pilot
II. Zhodani
 A. Civilian
  1. Drive
   a. Wheeled
   b. Grav
  2. Fly
  3. Pilot
 B. Military
  1. Drive
   a. Wheeled
   b. Grav
  2. Fly
  3. Pilot
 C. Auxiliaries
  1. Drive
   a. Wheeled
   b. Grav
  2. Fly
  3. Pilot

Note that Drive and Fly could be Ground and Air instead or whatever you want to call them.

Dale, you are the one that brought up nation, so I assume there is some reason in the designs that a vehicle would fall in that category and thus not be likely available to other nations?

If there are only a few nation specific vehicles and most are generic, then I'd go with
Civilian
Military
Auxiliaries
Zhodani
Vargr

 

[dmccoy1693]

Dale, you are the one that brought up nation, so I assume there is some reason in the designs that a vehicle would fall in that category and thus not be likely available to other nations?

My own personal take on Foreven involves intergovernmental trade. For example, I made sure that when laying out the People's Militia of Malforge (as found in Foreven Worlds: Fessor Subsector [/shameless plug]), I made sure to have in the designs that Malforge bought an export variant of a Zhodani capital ship. At the same time, Malforge exports their armed vehicles to other worlds.

Its analogous to our world how India is buying US-made P-8 aircraft to replace their aging Soviet made aircraft. Or how the AK-47 was originally made in the USSR, other governments have copied the design and made their own.

In the same way, I'm building that into the Foreven vehicles I'm currently working on. So a lower tech Zhodani grav tank that is being replaced with newer tech is being sold off to other governments that are allies of the Zhodanis. Meanwhile the Avalars have the capability to make their own are saving time with by buying a few of those tanks and reverse engineering the design. Compare that to Malforge which will buy a few and keep them in reserve are only TL 10. They may get a tech boost from reverse engineering, but they simply do not have the capability to reproduce it at this time.

So the advantage of having it listed by nation built is that while you are in Malforge, you know that the People's Militia produces their own vehicles but they also buy from the Zhos. So all your vehicles would primarily come from the Malforge section and some others from the Zhodani section. Or if you are on a world that does not produce its own vehicles, you just look up who its allies/trading partners are and pull from there.

If there are only a few nation specific vehicles and most are generic, then I'd go with
Civilian
Military
Auxiliaries
Zhodani
Vargr

Pretty much everything here is going to have a manufacturer tagged with it. If it is not the government itself, it'll be a company that has ties to a specific government (either close or loose, but still ties). Mongoose made the general book so I'm working on the Foreven specific book.

 

[phavoc]

If you aren't going to have a lot of vehicles, then I'd say break it down by nation, and then by civilian/military.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Unless there's a groundswell of votes to the contrary, it looks like role is the winner. Now the only question is: chassis or manufacturing nation the next sorting characteristic?

 

[Jame Rowe]

I would go primarily by role, and then sub-divide by the other options.

EG:
1.Taxis
a. (Engine) wheeled
b. (engine) tracked
c. (engine) helicopter/seagoing
d. (engine) gravitic
e. Zhodani
f. Vargr
g. Aslan
h. Other

2. Cargo
(subnotes as above)

3. Personal
(subnotes as 1)

And so forth - purpose, then engine/propulsion, then by nationality.

 

[dmccoy1693]

a. (Engine) wheeled
b. (engine) tracked
c. (engine) helicopter/seagoing
d. (engine) gravitic
e. Zhodani
f. Vargr
g. Aslan
h. Other

Here's the problem with this list that I do not think I am conveying properly: there will be no "general vehicles" in this book that I am working on. None. Everything is going to have a nation or a corporation or some other kind of group attached to it.

Everything in the book will be things like:
Malforge Groundcar Police Interceptor
Zhodani Grav Cargo Platform
Avalar Rocket Bike
Zhodani Export Grav Tank

Analog to our world: even though there is a VW plant in Tennessee, people still think of the golf as a "German" car. So if this were for a modern setting, the VW Golf would be listed as a German Compact Car.

So there won't be a whole chapter of general grav drive hover cars followed by a chapter that contains a zhodani grav drive hover cars. Mongoose has already made the book of general vehicles so I do not feel the need to make a book of general vehicles.

What I am asking is:

• do you want the grav chapter to start off with the zhodani grav family car, zhodani sports grav car, zhodani SUV grav vehicle, avalar grav family car, avalar sports grav car, Coalition of worlds grav car, coalition of worlds SUV grav car; later in the chapter, you get the zhodani, Coalition of Worlds, avalar, and cornathian cargo platforms; the chapter ending with zhodani heavy grav tank, zhodani light grav tank, zhodani export light grav tank, avalar light grav tank, coalition of worlds heavy weapons platform, Cornathian grav weapons bunker.
• Or would you rather have the malforge wheeled police interceptor, malforge wheeled sports car, malforge wheeled SUV, etc mixed in with the above ground civilian vehicles in one chapter, the above cargo platform mixed in with large wheeled cargo haulers and the animal drawn cargo haulers,
• Or would you rather have all those zho vehicles in one chapter, all the cornathian vehicles in their own chapter, all the avalar vehicles in one chapter,
• Or etc.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

It might be best to drop "Nation". A lot of people (certainly the majority it seems round here) don't use the 3rd Imperium.

 

[dmccoy1693]

It might be best to drop "Nation". A lot of people (certainly the majority it seems round here) don't use the 3rd Imperium.

Its going to be a Foreven Worlds release, not a general supplement. The text description of each will detail how they fit into this 3I sector. So while there is nothing saying you can't use them in another setting, everything within will be flavored for the setting.

 

[ieqo]

Ideally I like them grouped by role, then sorted by TL.