Online ACTA campaign (via vassel) ?

[H]

anyone got the time to organise this perhaps? I have only one local player nowadays, and a 2 player campaign would be a bit dull as we know each other too well lol.

I remember partaking in a vassal tourney once, and staying up all night due to a match against Colonial opponents, so would rather see a UK based one if anyone could organise it? obviously room for some real tabletop if a few playrs were local to each other

I can get games in on a couple of evenings a week probably

 

[katadder]

if I was going to be around I would definitely do this. probably have to wait until next year before i can organise anything

 

[locarno24]

Sounds interesting.
Would be worth setting up properly (get a quick web page set up or something), and not having too many players, but it could be good fun.

 

[H]

Sounds interesting.
Would be worth setting up properly (get a quick web page set up or something), and not having too many players, but it could be good fun.

well, looks like you and me so far, web page is easy enough to do

 

[locarno24]

I know - but remembering the last one I was involved in, having the fleet lists & system map posted somewhere publicly visible helps immensely in keeping everyone co-ordinated. Something like a moonfruit page or something with everyone having the password.


Hmm....will see if I can recruit any other minions. I have a friend in Portsmouthish* who's interested in having a go.

For the sake of sanity I recommend not having too many people involved.

I've tried to go through the Vassal module and put in a few updates (things like the official P&P ships, and the 'extras' like the Omicron cruisers, Kilikkiwhatsits and the Dark Star), so I'll try and get that finished.

 

[Democratus]

We run our campaigns using a spreadsheet on Google Docs. It's easy to use and everyone has the same place to go look. One tab for each fleet, a tab for all the moves, one for economy, etc...

If you are curious about how this would be structured, I'd be happy to share with you what ours looks like.

-D

 

[H]

it's easy to set up a site, map and forum, I'll stick it on my websace IF this is lookign possible. Say we limit it to 5 or so players, and Democratus spreadsheet and tabs idea sounds plausible too.

 

[locarno24]

Wouldn't mind a link.

 

[nightshade]

I'd be interested in participating, but I'm just a "colonial" (feels like I should be fighting the Cylons...).

I'd also be interested in the Google docs spreadsheet for running a campaign.

 

[H]

Nightshade, I wasn't being mean (well maybe a tad ;-) ), but from a vassall tourney, having to stay up all night, to play someone in the US was a rough day for me, the time difference would be a real hinderance for playing games in a campaign. No reason of course not to have a couple running, one Europe (the minimal time difference to "most" countries is alright), and then one stateside. I appreciate there are still some fair sized time differences again though, so maybe an eastand west approach

 

[Democratus]

But you are talking about a campaign here, not a tourney. Right?

Battles during campaign turns are fought at the convenience of the two opposing players. There's no requirement for you all to fight at the same time on a particular day. Just make a rule that players are required to be done with thier battles by midnight GMT every other Saturday (or whatever timer you put on it).

This means a Texan could get online at 10 AM on a Saturday and play out a game with a Brit - where it is only 4 PM.

Does that make sense?

 

[KennyBoy]

Quite right young fella! 8)

I'd be interested in this, where do I sign up?

 

[Democratus]

Okay. I've downloaded our campaign spreadsheet in Excel format.

Since we use it as a google shared document, I can't just make a link to it. I think google share is the best way to handle it, because it allows everyone to open and edit what is needed.

To whom should I email it so it can be viewed in all its glory?

 

[Clanger]

I would be interested in giving it a go and see what it is like.

 

[H]

But you are talking about a campaign here, not a tourney. Right?

Battles during campaign turns are fought at the convenience of the two opposing players. There's no requirement for you all to fight at the same time on a particular day. Just make a rule that players are required to be done with thier battles by midnight GMT every other Saturday (or whatever timer you put on it).

This means a Texan could get online at 10 AM on a Saturday and play out a game with a Brit - where it is only 4 PM.

Does that make sense?

yes indeed a campaign not a tourney, It isn't impossible of course to get a time match which isn't too inconvenient for everyone, but I would worry a bit for the US person because it would be harder to find a time convenient to both players.

OK, With a limited playlist
We have me (hiff)
Locarno (who for some reason i always thought was stateside)
Kennyboy
Clanger
Nightshade if we think we can make the time difference work

Democratus, thanks for your support, I didn't think you actually wanted to join in, but if you do I reckon we could squeeze another in
Mail the sheet to Myself or Locarno i guess.

as a start I think we have a good number of players, Shall I generate the system as per standard rules, and get a map sorted?
As it's all online, I will look at getting a version of Demo's spreadsheet working for us for fleet selections etc..

game on!

 

[locarno24]

Locarno (who for some reason i always thought was stateside)

....My spelling isn't that bad, is it?

Sounds good.

But you are talking about a campaign here, not a tourney. Right?

Battles during campaign turns are fought at the convenience of the two opposing players. There's no requirement for you all to fight at the same time on a particular day. Just make a rule that players are required to be done with thier battles by midnight GMT every other Saturday (or whatever timer you put on it).

This means a Texan could get online at 10 AM on a Saturday and play out a game with a Brit - where it is only 4 PM.

Will depend on how long you allow for a campaign turn in 'Real Time', but should be doable.


Quick question would be 'house rules':

1] Beam Rules
2] P&P ships & rules
3] "Unpublished" P&P ships -

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=40031

4] Redundancy
5] Fires
6] Admirals - bought/free/not used
7] Special Character Admirals
8] Stations
9] Unusual additions to fleets (like a technomage 'ally')
10] Any non-published house rules

Opinions?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5] I have to say I like most of the P&P rules, aside from the infamous 'hunting packs'. The unpublished ones I particularly like; I'm quite tempted to try the EA black ops/psi-corps fleet, and having the Dark Star gives you a raid level ship that's not going to result in squadrons of psi-corps motherships.

6] I like having a named 'flagship' but would never pay points for an admiral. I think that's probably true for most people, hence I quite like the idea of a 'free' flagship...

7] I'm not wild about special characters since they're invariably better than standard admirals.

8] New station rules are nice. I think the idea of giving a fleet a 'home base' on their main strategic objective feels quite nice, but I'm not that bothered if people disagree. I know some people have issues with the new station rules.

9] Just a thought.

 

[H]

depends on everyone elses thoughts, I think a week to 10 days for a turn shouldn't be too taxing, though I;m sure we can go to 2 weeks if needbe.

right then
1 - Beam Rules - I say we use Triggys beam system
2 - P+P ships and rules, I concur
3 - unpublished ships - not sure on this, they haven't been tested, "could" be a bit of a deal breaker, also only benefit a couple of fleets.... I'll leve it tothe "gang" for a consensus?
4 - Redundancy - heck lets give it a go
5 - Fires - I cannot say I haven't read them!
6 - Admirals - nahh...
7 - special characters - see above
8 - space stations... if you can build em then, well, build one..
9 - special allies? .... mmm, we had our complex campaign with a random roll per turn, you could gain some interesting things for your fleet, could write up a very simple one to add some "spice" perhaps?
10 - non published rules? short of maybe the random event roll I can't think of anything.

Oh I see you mentioned a "free" flagship, instead of the usual allocation of 10bp, we could say you get 10BP and one FREE warship that automatically gets CQ6 as your flagship?

 

[H]

not that i'm keen or anything, but I just did my fleet list... going to random .org to get my CQ's

CQ's rolled, Started off well, then my skirmishers got hit by ineptitude... stupid Random.org...

 

[locarno24]

Oh I see you mentioned a "free" flagship, instead of the usual allocation of 10bp, we could say you get 10BP and one FREE warship that automatically gets CQ6 as your flagship?

When I mentioned a 'free' flagship, I was more meaning a free admiral that you can tag onto one ship of your choice.

Having a free warship sounds good, but some people don't have a warship, and some don't have a warship that benefits from CQ6 as much as others.

3 - unpublished ships - not sure on this, they haven't been tested, "could" be a bit of a deal breaker, also only benefit a couple of fleets.... I'll leve it tothe "gang" for a consensus?

Happy to go either way. As noted, I'm aware that not every fleet has something. Will see what the general opinion is.

I still haven't really picked a fleet (the advantage of Vassal - models don't matter....)

One thing to go in [10] - date. If we're using it. Are we being strict about in service dates, and if so what's the year.

I would propose that if trying to be historically consistant, the decision mostly rests with finding out if anyone intends to play EA or Dilgar.

 

[H]

mmm, ok thats fair too i guess, though again some fleets benefit a whole lot more from an Admiral

as you say, untill people advise on a preffered fleet, then we can't consider ISD'd... my race plays through all ages