Thursday, March 22, 2012

Proposal: Sensible Ansible

Self-killed. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 23 Mar 2012 07:32:01 UTC

Add a new Institution:-

The Ansible: The Ansible’s Completion is tracked in this rule: it is currently 0% complete. When specifying a Direction to the Ansible, a Player may include with that Direction an Order of CONSTRUCT or DISMANTLE. If a Player influences the Ansible with an Order of CONSTRUCT, its Completion is increased by the number of Marines the Player Directed to it during this Cycle (to a maximum of 100%). If a Player influences the Ansible with an Order of DISMANTLE, its Completion is decreased by the number of Marines the Player Directed to it during this Cycle (to a minimum of zero).

Reword the rule “The End” to:-

If the Ansible is 100% complete, any Player who has more Councilmen than every other Player may broadcast a Transmission by posting a blog entry announcing this, with ‘Ansible Transmission’ in the title. Upon broadcasting their first Transmission, the broadcasting Player gains one tenth of the total amount of Power owned by all other players combined.

If the Ansible has broadcast a Transmission in the previous 24 hours and a single Player has more Power than every other Player, then that Player has achieved victory.

Having a go at an Ansible endgame mechanic, and humanising the “when a condition is met, some variables change automatically even if nobody realises” to “when a condition is met, a player who meets the criteria may take an action”.

posted by Kevan at 22 Mar 2012 11:48:00 UTC Comments (12)

Comments

Patrick:

22-03-2012 12:05:02 UTC

I really like this, but I think it would be better if one could only direct councilmen at the Ansible, that way the player with the highest chance of winning at the time would have to be wary with his resources.

southpointingchariot:

22-03-2012 12:15:17 UTC

imperial Will think about it, looks definitely workable.

@Patrick, I guess that would be fine.

I’ll try to have a draft of another idea up tonight.

Cpt_Koen:

22-03-2012 13:35:50 UTC

Since Completion is a percentage, I could argue that by directing N Marines to it, I increase it by N, and N = 100% of N, so 1 Marine is enough to raise the Completion by 100%.

In the same idea, “to a maximum of 100%/to a minimum of 0%” is ambiguous: does it mean “if the Completion is increased to more than 100%, it is set to 100% instead” or “a CONSTRUCT order that would raise the Completion to more than 100% is illegal”?

Lastly, the second part means that only a player with more Councilmen than every other player is eligible to end the game, which might lead to a stalemate if someone has a lot of Councilmen but very little Power.

ChronosPhaenon:

22-03-2012 15:16:16 UTC

against I love the general idea, but the last point of Koen’s comment (the stalemate condition) is a deal breaker.

BellEt:

22-03-2012 15:18:32 UTC

against I like this much better, though it has the technical flaws that have to be worked out first.

Klisz:

22-03-2012 16:07:44 UTC

imperial

Clucky: he/him

22-03-2012 16:41:05 UTC

against I like the concept, but the biggest flaw is that broadcasting the Transmission becomes optimal. It used to be “have the most Councilmen , get a bonus at end game but still need some power”, now its “have the most Councilmen, control endgame until you also have the most power”.

Josh: he/they

22-03-2012 17:51:37 UTC

for Given that none of the issues raised are game-breaking, and this is a nice mechanic, and Kevan tends not to repropose repeatedly, I lean heavily towards passing and modifying.

Kevan: he/him

22-03-2012 18:22:11 UTC

Actually, Koen’s first point is game-breaking given that there’s a victory condition in here, so I’ll self-kill. But yes, Transmission would be better as “any player may transmit, and the player with most Councilmen gets a bonus”. Feel free to repropose without the percentages, anyone.

against

Cpt_Koen:

22-03-2012 23:17:27 UTC

Also, some Players might argue that the condition “the Ansible has broadcast a Transmission in the previous 24h” cannot be met, because Transmissions are broadcast by Players.
(Though I would argue against it.)

Bucky:

23-03-2012 02:29:33 UTC

imperial

southpointingchariot:

23-03-2012 14:22:18 UTC

against