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Gamers Zone / Gang of Five - Minecraft Server!
« on: June 26, 2019, 09:06:14 PM »
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2
It's Party Time! / How high can we count while the forum is in limbo
« on: May 23, 2018, 09:20:23 PM »
2
3
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: May 15, 2018, 07:03:20 PM »
Hey everyone!
I'm looking to run another game, featuring the latest version!
Date: June 3rd
Time: 11am MST (GMT -7), as usual.
It sounds like Ducky123, Darkwolf and Rhombus will likely be joining us.
Please let me know if you'd like to get in on this! I have 3 more player slots open!
** BIGGEST CHANGES FROM THE LAST VERSION **
- Streamlining and condensing. Game will be SHORTER and each turn will be more important / dramatic. Game is now 14 turns instead of 20.
- Introduction of Catastrophes, as an alternative to Assisting / Sabotaging events. This is the biggest new system I'd like to test.
- Introduction of a new 6th character: Please welcome Reginald the Gentleman! Thanks to Reginald, we can support 6 players!
- Completely rewrote every single deck in the game and rebalanced each character while maintaining playstyles / personalities of each character.
- Completely reworked scoring system.
I'm looking to run another game, featuring the latest version!
Date: June 3rd
Time: 11am MST (GMT -7), as usual.
It sounds like Ducky123, Darkwolf and Rhombus will likely be joining us.
Please let me know if you'd like to get in on this! I have 3 more player slots open!
** BIGGEST CHANGES FROM THE LAST VERSION **
- Streamlining and condensing. Game will be SHORTER and each turn will be more important / dramatic. Game is now 14 turns instead of 20.
- Introduction of Catastrophes, as an alternative to Assisting / Sabotaging events. This is the biggest new system I'd like to test.
- Introduction of a new 6th character: Please welcome Reginald the Gentleman! Thanks to Reginald, we can support 6 players!
- Completely rewrote every single deck in the game and rebalanced each character while maintaining playstyles / personalities of each character.
- Completely reworked scoring system.
4
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: March 18, 2018, 01:21:07 PM »
I agree with basically everything you said, Flathead.
One of the most difficult design problems for this game has been getting the balance right between co-operative play and competitive play. In most versions, including the most recent, the cooperative aspect tends to feel very shoehorned in and isn't fleshed out very well.
The reworking of the Event system into the Curse system is one way I am addressing this problem. Curses will have a variety of conditions that must be met in order to remove them. They won't all simply be about spending enough Energy on them. They could be things like "overthrow the Captain", "get someone to -3 Clout", "Everyone sacrifices 4 Life to the Evil Spirits", "One player must sacrifice 3 Loot", etc. All sorts of crazy removal conditions could exist on curses to torment players. Things like "one player must sacrifice 3 Loot" really puts a selfless act into the game - someone must make the noble stand to lose their own loot for the sake of removing a curse. Note too that curses have other effects while they're active. For example, that curse may cause everyone to lose 2 Life per turn until someone sacrifices 3 Loot or something.
That may or may not be an actual Curse card yet, I don't know, but that's kind of the idea.
I will still be keeping the concept of immediate events, but in a somewhat different form. Every so often, an immediate event can take place will likely be designed to reward anyone who contributes to it, harm everyone who doesn't, give ways for a powerful player to use their advantage at the moment, give everyone else ways to reel in someone who's running away with the game a little bit, etc.
The "Event on every space" is being removed though, and being replaced with a system that spawns Curses and triggers immediate events every-so-often.
Why is this better? This means we can have clearer LOSE conditions that will obviously come about if players do not work together on removing curses. It becomes much clearer that it will be necessary to remove most curses.
What about the problem of trolling? Couldn't a losing player simply refuse to help and cause everyone to lose?
Well, yes they can...but you do have one option: KILL THE TROLL! If the troll dies, they can't be part of the curse removal equation anymore and this problem goes away. If someone's trolling, focus on killing them, which will be much easier to do now.
Now for your questions:
I will be keeping conditional cards as a concept, yes. Being able to play cards when it's not your turn, or in response to something happening, opens up so much flexibility and can be so rewarding and satisfying that there's no way I'm removing this feature.
In the event that 3 Curses are applied, all living players lose and all Ghosts win. As such, there is always a very clear relationship between curses, living players and ghosts:
For a living player, curses are basically always bad. They want to get rid of curses.
For a ghost, curses are basically always good. They want to pile on the curses.
For example "I get angry and the ship loses 1 Durability but all opponents lose 3 Life" or something.
So Ship durability can still be a useful mechanic. I'll leave it in for now. If it turns out to be redundant I may remove it but at the moment I'm seeing a lot of ways it can still be utilized.
With that said, I am changing the WIN/LOSS conditions around Ship Durability. If the Ship sinks, living players LOSE and Ghosts WIN. This further makes it clear what the relationship between living players and Ghosts is. This also eliminates the problem of "oh, the ghosts are going to win. let's just sink the ship so they can't."
It will indeed be a nasty game design balancing act to get this to work well.
My ultimate goal is for the game to feel like this:
- Surviving the entire trip is quite hard. There will be at least 1 or 2 deaths every game, with most games having a handful of deaths.
- A living player will win about 33-50% of the time. The ghosts will win 50-66% of the time. I would like it to feel more rewarding to win as a player than to win as a ghost because I want to REWARD players for AVOIDING death and making it to the end alive. I definitely want ghosts to be able to win, but I want the ultimate feeling of accomplishment in the game to come from winning while also being alive!
- Even Surviving to the end should be hard. Being the WINNER at the end while also surviving should be a big accomplishment.
One of the most difficult design problems for this game has been getting the balance right between co-operative play and competitive play. In most versions, including the most recent, the cooperative aspect tends to feel very shoehorned in and isn't fleshed out very well.
The reworking of the Event system into the Curse system is one way I am addressing this problem. Curses will have a variety of conditions that must be met in order to remove them. They won't all simply be about spending enough Energy on them. They could be things like "overthrow the Captain", "get someone to -3 Clout", "Everyone sacrifices 4 Life to the Evil Spirits", "One player must sacrifice 3 Loot", etc. All sorts of crazy removal conditions could exist on curses to torment players. Things like "one player must sacrifice 3 Loot" really puts a selfless act into the game - someone must make the noble stand to lose their own loot for the sake of removing a curse. Note too that curses have other effects while they're active. For example, that curse may cause everyone to lose 2 Life per turn until someone sacrifices 3 Loot or something.
That may or may not be an actual Curse card yet, I don't know, but that's kind of the idea.
Quote
I completely agree and this is one of the major reasons that I'm reworking the Events. Yes, I could just make the numbers bigger on the events but the decisions around them still weren't very interesting. They devolved into a simple calculation: "Are the numbers on the event big enough to be worth investing energy into, yes or no?" If yes, everyone invested. If no, nobody invested. It wasn't exactly an interesting decision.
The problem I had with events is that almost all of them felt like they weren't worth the energy to contribute and I would rather spend them upgrading the ship or my ability (especially knowing Jordy was probably going to just sabotage anyways).
I will still be keeping the concept of immediate events, but in a somewhat different form. Every so often, an immediate event can take place will likely be designed to reward anyone who contributes to it, harm everyone who doesn't, give ways for a powerful player to use their advantage at the moment, give everyone else ways to reel in someone who's running away with the game a little bit, etc.
The "Event on every space" is being removed though, and being replaced with a system that spawns Curses and triggers immediate events every-so-often.
Why is this better? This means we can have clearer LOSE conditions that will obviously come about if players do not work together on removing curses. It becomes much clearer that it will be necessary to remove most curses.
What about the problem of trolling? Couldn't a losing player simply refuse to help and cause everyone to lose?
Well, yes they can...but you do have one option: KILL THE TROLL! If the troll dies, they can't be part of the curse removal equation anymore and this problem goes away. If someone's trolling, focus on killing them, which will be much easier to do now.
Now for your questions:
Quote
1) For the basic spending energy actions, will certain modifier/conditional cards work with/against them or will that be not an interesting enough card to include in the decks?I am removing MODIFIER cards. They're too similar to conditional cards and I can simply combine the mechanic into conditional cards. The intention of MODIFIER cards was to clarify what the card was for but this is really unnecessary.
I will be keeping conditional cards as a concept, yes. Being able to play cards when it's not your turn, or in response to something happening, opens up so much flexibility and can be so rewarding and satisfying that there's no way I'm removing this feature.
Quote
2) You mention that everyone loses in the event 3 curses are applied. Does that include ghosts since they involve using curses? That could create a bit of a balancing act, though I have no idea on how it will all play out at the moment obviously and that could be too easy for a victory condition.
In the event that 3 Curses are applied, all living players lose and all Ghosts win. As such, there is always a very clear relationship between curses, living players and ghosts:
For a living player, curses are basically always bad. They want to get rid of curses.
For a ghost, curses are basically always good. They want to pile on the curses.
Quote
3) Ghost victory conditions are either the captain or everyone dies and also the game is now themed around curses. So will ship durability still be in the game?Ship durability will remain in the game since it can be a very handy target for ghosts and curses. It can also be useful as a resource that players can spend to do selfish actions.
For example "I get angry and the ship loses 1 Durability but all opponents lose 3 Life" or something.
So Ship durability can still be a useful mechanic. I'll leave it in for now. If it turns out to be redundant I may remove it but at the moment I'm seeing a lot of ways it can still be utilized.
With that said, I am changing the WIN/LOSS conditions around Ship Durability. If the Ship sinks, living players LOSE and Ghosts WIN. This further makes it clear what the relationship between living players and Ghosts is. This also eliminates the problem of "oh, the ghosts are going to win. let's just sink the ship so they can't."
It will indeed be a nasty game design balancing act to get this to work well.
My ultimate goal is for the game to feel like this:
- Surviving the entire trip is quite hard. There will be at least 1 or 2 deaths every game, with most games having a handful of deaths.
- A living player will win about 33-50% of the time. The ghosts will win 50-66% of the time. I would like it to feel more rewarding to win as a player than to win as a ghost because I want to REWARD players for AVOIDING death and making it to the end alive. I definitely want ghosts to be able to win, but I want the ultimate feeling of accomplishment in the game to come from winning while also being alive!
- Even Surviving to the end should be hard. Being the WINNER at the end while also surviving should be a big accomplishment.
Quote
PS: Where's Reginald?He'll be in the next game!
5
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: March 17, 2018, 02:15:17 PM »
Hey everyone and thanks for the game last week!
I just wanted to share some progress for the game's development.
Over the last couple of games I have found a few mechanic problems that I am changing for the next version:
----------------------------------------------------
1) I have not been very happy with the Event system at all. Why?
a) The fact that every Event is simply resolved with Energy makes them all kind of feel the same. I would prefer to change the condition that succeeds / fails the event.
b) I can't really do that with the Event structure that we have right now. The Event mechanic we have no requires us to resolve an event at the end of each turn and draw a new one at the beginning of the next turn. This doesn't really create much tension or sense of dynamic gameplay. It's pretty static and not all that interesting.
c) Due to the fact that there are 4 different kinds of spaces to land on, no one type of event happens often enough in the course of a game. This is especially a problem with the Savage Seas, which do most of the damage to the ship. If the players SUCCEED a Savage Seas event, the ship is probably going to be perfectly safe and there won't be any threat to the Ship until the next Savage Seas, likely many turns away. This sucks.
d) Everyone's Energy is always worth the same amount. This means that the player going last is always given the burden of having to dump a bunch of energy into the Event to succeed / fail it. I would like to encourage more decision-making by everyone, rather than just the players later in the turn.
----------------------------------------------------
2) Too many cards in each deck just aren't that interesting to play.
The fun cards are the ones that have a noticeable, meaningful impact on the game right now. It's not fun to whittle everyone down by 1 Life or 1 Clout a turn for 4 hours. I tried that and it didn't work. I would like each player's deck to be more concentrated with interesting cards that have more game-changing impact while maintaining the basic idea that we've already seen for the player decks.
----------------------------------------------------
3) Ghosts. Ghosts weren't all that fun to play, were too hard to create and their role in the game was just unclear.
a) Life has always been the crappiest stat on a card. If you could choose between attacking someone's Life or someone's Clout/Loot, you would never choose Life. It was just a bad move most of the time.
b) There were too many cases where it was better to die than to stay alive. This created a seriously weird dynamic.
c) It was never really clear what Ghosts were going to do. The fact that they didn't have Energy and didn't contribute to Events made them 100% about their cards. Ghosts are another reason the Event system is a bit broken.
d) Ghosts got far too many points too easily once you had more than 1 of them.
----------------------------------------------------
4) Deciding where to move the Ship. Deciding which way to go has never been a very interesting choice, partly due to the random nature of the events. You really can't make an informed decision.
a) Yet another reason the Event system is broken.
----------------------------------------------------
So how am I going to fix all of these problems?
Like this!
READ HERE FOR CHANGES:
Theme changes:
Rather than everyone simply being "an adventurer", players are now GREEDY ADVENTURERS, embarking on a perilous journey through cursed waters for great fortune and glory.
The Temporary name of the game is changing from "Seaworthy" to "Sea of Cursed Souls"
Events as we known them (Mild Seas, Savage Seas, etc.) are being REMOVED from the game!
Introducing CURSES. Curses apply to everyone and last until they are dispelled! If you accumulate 3 Curses at the same time, the game is over and everyone loses! Therefore players MUST work together to dispel the curses.
Curses apply countless effects such as :
"The Captain loses DOUBLE Life from all sources" or
"If 2 Curses of Death exist at the same time, the player with the lowest Life dies immediately".
This replaces the EVENT system. Again, these last until they are removed from the board so you will often have more than 1 curse at the same time!
Basic actions can always be done once per turn, at the cost of 1 Energy. These include:
"Pick an opponent. They lose 1 Life."
"Pick an opponent. They lose 1 Clout."
"Pick an opponent. They lose 1 Loot."
These do not require cards and are available to EVERYONE once per turn. This means that we can REMOVE all such lame cards from all decks, allowing me to concentrate more powerful cards into the decks which should be much more fun! Everyone should have more dramatic hands of cards at all times now.
The map will have Immediate Events instead of the Event cards that we're familiar with. Some will spawn CURSES. Others will be things like "The Captain gains 1 Life / Loot / etc." This makes is crystal clear to the Captain which way to travel at all times. This also means we can make powerful Immediate Events hidden behind some nasty other spaces that trigger all sorts of awful things...if the Captain feels brave enough to go for them! This gives the game much more of a sense of adventure and real risk-taking.
Ghosts will have their roles more-clearly defined. Ghosts ALWAYS like curses and players basically ALWAYS hate them. Ghosts will attempt to spawn more curses and do other nasty things to living players.
Ghost scoring will be a little different: GHOSTS CAN'T GET POINTS!
Ghosts now win if everyone dies OR if the Captain dies, rather than it coming down to points.
We'll see how this goes!
I just wanted to share some progress for the game's development.
Over the last couple of games I have found a few mechanic problems that I am changing for the next version:
----------------------------------------------------
1) I have not been very happy with the Event system at all. Why?
a) The fact that every Event is simply resolved with Energy makes them all kind of feel the same. I would prefer to change the condition that succeeds / fails the event.
b) I can't really do that with the Event structure that we have right now. The Event mechanic we have no requires us to resolve an event at the end of each turn and draw a new one at the beginning of the next turn. This doesn't really create much tension or sense of dynamic gameplay. It's pretty static and not all that interesting.
c) Due to the fact that there are 4 different kinds of spaces to land on, no one type of event happens often enough in the course of a game. This is especially a problem with the Savage Seas, which do most of the damage to the ship. If the players SUCCEED a Savage Seas event, the ship is probably going to be perfectly safe and there won't be any threat to the Ship until the next Savage Seas, likely many turns away. This sucks.
d) Everyone's Energy is always worth the same amount. This means that the player going last is always given the burden of having to dump a bunch of energy into the Event to succeed / fail it. I would like to encourage more decision-making by everyone, rather than just the players later in the turn.
----------------------------------------------------
2) Too many cards in each deck just aren't that interesting to play.
The fun cards are the ones that have a noticeable, meaningful impact on the game right now. It's not fun to whittle everyone down by 1 Life or 1 Clout a turn for 4 hours. I tried that and it didn't work. I would like each player's deck to be more concentrated with interesting cards that have more game-changing impact while maintaining the basic idea that we've already seen for the player decks.
----------------------------------------------------
3) Ghosts. Ghosts weren't all that fun to play, were too hard to create and their role in the game was just unclear.
a) Life has always been the crappiest stat on a card. If you could choose between attacking someone's Life or someone's Clout/Loot, you would never choose Life. It was just a bad move most of the time.
b) There were too many cases where it was better to die than to stay alive. This created a seriously weird dynamic.
c) It was never really clear what Ghosts were going to do. The fact that they didn't have Energy and didn't contribute to Events made them 100% about their cards. Ghosts are another reason the Event system is a bit broken.
d) Ghosts got far too many points too easily once you had more than 1 of them.
----------------------------------------------------
4) Deciding where to move the Ship. Deciding which way to go has never been a very interesting choice, partly due to the random nature of the events. You really can't make an informed decision.
a) Yet another reason the Event system is broken.
----------------------------------------------------
So how am I going to fix all of these problems?
Like this!
READ HERE FOR CHANGES:
Theme changes:
Rather than everyone simply being "an adventurer", players are now GREEDY ADVENTURERS, embarking on a perilous journey through cursed waters for great fortune and glory.
The Temporary name of the game is changing from "Seaworthy" to "Sea of Cursed Souls"
Events as we known them (Mild Seas, Savage Seas, etc.) are being REMOVED from the game!
Introducing CURSES. Curses apply to everyone and last until they are dispelled! If you accumulate 3 Curses at the same time, the game is over and everyone loses! Therefore players MUST work together to dispel the curses.
Curses apply countless effects such as :
"The Captain loses DOUBLE Life from all sources" or
"If 2 Curses of Death exist at the same time, the player with the lowest Life dies immediately".
This replaces the EVENT system. Again, these last until they are removed from the board so you will often have more than 1 curse at the same time!
Basic actions can always be done once per turn, at the cost of 1 Energy. These include:
"Pick an opponent. They lose 1 Life."
"Pick an opponent. They lose 1 Clout."
"Pick an opponent. They lose 1 Loot."
These do not require cards and are available to EVERYONE once per turn. This means that we can REMOVE all such lame cards from all decks, allowing me to concentrate more powerful cards into the decks which should be much more fun! Everyone should have more dramatic hands of cards at all times now.
The map will have Immediate Events instead of the Event cards that we're familiar with. Some will spawn CURSES. Others will be things like "The Captain gains 1 Life / Loot / etc." This makes is crystal clear to the Captain which way to travel at all times. This also means we can make powerful Immediate Events hidden behind some nasty other spaces that trigger all sorts of awful things...if the Captain feels brave enough to go for them! This gives the game much more of a sense of adventure and real risk-taking.
Ghosts will have their roles more-clearly defined. Ghosts ALWAYS like curses and players basically ALWAYS hate them. Ghosts will attempt to spawn more curses and do other nasty things to living players.
Ghost scoring will be a little different: GHOSTS CAN'T GET POINTS!
Ghosts now win if everyone dies OR if the Captain dies, rather than it coming down to points.
We'll see how this goes!
6
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: March 07, 2018, 05:53:42 PM »
Great! I'll see you guys on Sunday!
7
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: March 05, 2018, 12:52:48 AM »
Hey everyone!
I'm almost finished making the changes for the next version and I'm looking to set up another playtest!
WHEN: Sunday, March 11th, 11am GMT -7 (Same time as the last game).
Ducky123 and Rhombus are already going to be joining in.
I have room for 3 more players! First 3 volunteers are in the game! After that, you're welcome and encouraged to hang out, chat and watch the game!
Look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday!
----------
LIST OF CHANGES:
1) Expanded the Energy mechanic.
- Energy is no longer used exclusively for co-operative actions. A bunch of new ways to spend Energy in selfish ways have been introduced.
- Each Character has a unique ability that is unlocked after investing 10 Energy into it.
- Energy must now be carefully rationed and players need to constantly choose between using it cooperatively or being a jerk and maximizing their own gains. The game's design has been adjusted to be more about encouraging players to be as big of jerks as they can get away with being without sinking the ship and killing everyone.
2) Reworked Events:
- Most Events are more game-changing. Players are more likely to die and the Ship is more likely to sink!
- Rebalanced Event Energy costs.
- Introduced a few new Event mechanics: "The Captain chooses who takes an effect", "rob a player that the robbers vote on"
- Added an event in the Savage Seas deck that can instantly kill players and demands a lot of energy.
- Removed TRIGGERED EVENTS. They aren't worth the trouble.
- More Events exist to let players focus down a player who is running away with the game.
3) Game Length Map:
- Reduced the maximum number of turns (aka. the length of the Journey) from 20 turns to 16 turns.
- Reduced the number of legs in the journey from 5 to 4.
4) Map:
- Reworked the map layout to create a better sense of progression and prevent players from "Easy-mode"ing the game by visiting a bunch of towns.
- Removed the "Ship gains 1 Durability" effect from Towns.
5) Items:
- That overpowered "Gain 1 Loot every time you gain Loot" item has been removed!
- The cost of items is lower at Towns later in the game, to compensate for the fact that you won't have the item as long.
6) Characters:
- Zeke has been buffed slightly.
- Gracie and Scarlet have been nerfed slightly.
- All characters have been given more cards to reduce opponents' Clout.
- All characters have had their decks reworked a bit, making it more likely that you will have a useful card in your hand at any given time.
- Each character now has a passive and / or active ability that is unique to them. It is unlocked after investing 10 Energy into yourself.
7) Scoring:
- The values of Life and Clout have been increased slightly to help keep up with the exploding value of Loot throughout the game, so Loot isn't quite as dominant of a stat.
- Killing other players now awards 6 points instead of 3.
- You must now contribute at least 3 Energy to an Upgrade to gain bonus points instead of 2 Energy. Encourages cooperation.
8) Upgrades:
Potion Making's Energy cost doubled, from 7 to 14. It is now the same as the Reinforced Hull Energy cost.
I'm almost finished making the changes for the next version and I'm looking to set up another playtest!
WHEN: Sunday, March 11th, 11am GMT -7 (Same time as the last game).
Ducky123 and Rhombus are already going to be joining in.
I have room for 3 more players! First 3 volunteers are in the game! After that, you're welcome and encouraged to hang out, chat and watch the game!
Look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday!
----------
LIST OF CHANGES:
1) Expanded the Energy mechanic.
- Energy is no longer used exclusively for co-operative actions. A bunch of new ways to spend Energy in selfish ways have been introduced.
- Each Character has a unique ability that is unlocked after investing 10 Energy into it.
- Energy must now be carefully rationed and players need to constantly choose between using it cooperatively or being a jerk and maximizing their own gains. The game's design has been adjusted to be more about encouraging players to be as big of jerks as they can get away with being without sinking the ship and killing everyone.
2) Reworked Events:
- Most Events are more game-changing. Players are more likely to die and the Ship is more likely to sink!
- Rebalanced Event Energy costs.
- Introduced a few new Event mechanics: "The Captain chooses who takes an effect", "rob a player that the robbers vote on"
- Added an event in the Savage Seas deck that can instantly kill players and demands a lot of energy.
- Removed TRIGGERED EVENTS. They aren't worth the trouble.
- More Events exist to let players focus down a player who is running away with the game.
3) Game Length Map:
- Reduced the maximum number of turns (aka. the length of the Journey) from 20 turns to 16 turns.
- Reduced the number of legs in the journey from 5 to 4.
4) Map:
- Reworked the map layout to create a better sense of progression and prevent players from "Easy-mode"ing the game by visiting a bunch of towns.
- Removed the "Ship gains 1 Durability" effect from Towns.
5) Items:
- That overpowered "Gain 1 Loot every time you gain Loot" item has been removed!
- The cost of items is lower at Towns later in the game, to compensate for the fact that you won't have the item as long.
6) Characters:
- Zeke has been buffed slightly.
- Gracie and Scarlet have been nerfed slightly.
- All characters have been given more cards to reduce opponents' Clout.
- All characters have had their decks reworked a bit, making it more likely that you will have a useful card in your hand at any given time.
- Each character now has a passive and / or active ability that is unique to them. It is unlocked after investing 10 Energy into yourself.
7) Scoring:
- The values of Life and Clout have been increased slightly to help keep up with the exploding value of Loot throughout the game, so Loot isn't quite as dominant of a stat.
- Killing other players now awards 6 points instead of 3.
- You must now contribute at least 3 Energy to an Upgrade to gain bonus points instead of 2 Energy. Encourages cooperation.
8) Upgrades:
Potion Making's Energy cost doubled, from 7 to 14. It is now the same as the Reinforced Hull Energy cost.
8
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: February 25, 2018, 06:51:51 PM »
Thank you everyone for the game! I learned a ton of useful things and I'll do my best to get it SHORTER for next time haha!
Look forward to the next game (to be announced later!)
Look forward to the next game (to be announced later!)
9
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: February 24, 2018, 03:50:18 PM »
I just sent a PM to everyone playing in tomorrow's game.
I look forward to seeing you all there! If you have any questions or concerns, just let me know!
I look forward to seeing you all there! If you have any questions or concerns, just let me know!
10
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: February 22, 2018, 11:07:15 PM »
I'm hoping it's fixed now. It seems that Steam didn't properly apply my "Friends Only" permission to my mod. I know you and I have worked around this, Rhombus.
Everyone else - Please let me know if you can't access the mod and I'll get you a working link.
Again, here's a link to the mod. You must be logged into Steam AND have me on your Steam Friends List in order for the link to work:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1310224053
----------
After you subscribe to the game, I recommend running it once in single player just to download all the images from my Cloud. To do this:
1) Open Tabletop Simulator
2) Create
3) Single Player
---
At this point you may find Tabletop Simulator just...gets stuck. For some reason the first time when you subscribe to a new mod it breaks sometimes. Simply close and re-open Tabletop Simulator to fix this.
4) Workshop -> Seaworthy Playtest Edition
The game should start to load with no errors or missing images. If you get errors, please let me know! It seems like it's working. If you have a slow internet connection, please give it some time. It's about a 200 MB download.
Once you've done it once, you won't have to download any graphics in the future (until I add new content haha). As such, I recommend running the game in single player before our multiplayer test, just so you have everything downloaded.
Everyone else - Please let me know if you can't access the mod and I'll get you a working link.
Again, here's a link to the mod. You must be logged into Steam AND have me on your Steam Friends List in order for the link to work:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1310224053
----------
After you subscribe to the game, I recommend running it once in single player just to download all the images from my Cloud. To do this:
1) Open Tabletop Simulator
2) Create
3) Single Player
---
At this point you may find Tabletop Simulator just...gets stuck. For some reason the first time when you subscribe to a new mod it breaks sometimes. Simply close and re-open Tabletop Simulator to fix this.
4) Workshop -> Seaworthy Playtest Edition
The game should start to load with no errors or missing images. If you get errors, please let me know! It seems like it's working. If you have a slow internet connection, please give it some time. It's about a 200 MB download.
Once you've done it once, you won't have to download any graphics in the future (until I add new content haha). As such, I recommend running the game in single player before our multiplayer test, just so you have everything downloaded.
11
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: February 22, 2018, 09:47:14 PM »
Hi everyone!
I've posted up the game on Tabletop Simulator as a Mod.
In order to play it, you will need to subscribe to my Mod:
1) Add me on Steam as a friend. You'll only be able to see the mod if you're my friend
2) While you're logged into Steam go to this link: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1310224053
3) SUBSCRIBE to the Mod.
Now when you're in Tabletop Simulator, you'll see Seaworthy as a Mod when you create a game. I recommend trying to start a game of it once just to make sure it downloads properly
Thanks to how Steam handles mods, if I make any changes you'll automatically receive the updates. You'll never have to manually download a patch!
If you have any questions or problems, please just go ahead and let me know!
Playtest still on Sunday!
**NOTE**
If you have a slower internet connection, you may wish to come online a little early, as the game will take you a few minutes to download. It's about 200 MB.
I've posted up the game on Tabletop Simulator as a Mod.
In order to play it, you will need to subscribe to my Mod:
1) Add me on Steam as a friend. You'll only be able to see the mod if you're my friend
2) While you're logged into Steam go to this link: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1310224053
3) SUBSCRIBE to the Mod.
Now when you're in Tabletop Simulator, you'll see Seaworthy as a Mod when you create a game. I recommend trying to start a game of it once just to make sure it downloads properly
Thanks to how Steam handles mods, if I make any changes you'll automatically receive the updates. You'll never have to manually download a patch!
If you have any questions or problems, please just go ahead and let me know!
Playtest still on Sunday!
**NOTE**
If you have a slower internet connection, you may wish to come online a little early, as the game will take you a few minutes to download. It's about 200 MB.
12
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: February 20, 2018, 07:18:04 PM »
Hey everyone,
I've written up a complete set of rules for my board game. It's very long. I will look into shortening it and getting it more concise in the future, but for now it can be used to familiarize yourselves with the game.
SEAWORTHY - RULES
---------------
See you guys later!
I've written up a complete set of rules for my board game. It's very long. I will look into shortening it and getting it more concise in the future, but for now it can be used to familiarize yourselves with the game.
SEAWORTHY - RULES
---------------
See you guys later!
13
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: February 20, 2018, 03:14:00 PM »Quote from: vonboy on Feb 19 2018, 07:28:15 PM
hmm, if I can't play the first round, is there any way I can just join to spectate? (So I can record a video of itAbsolutely, please stop by! The Tabletop Simulator room will have space for 10 people to join, so I have room for up to 4 spectators (5 players, me, and 4 spectators).)
Either way, I'm free, if another spot opens up, too.
I'll bear you in mind if a spot does open up. There will be plenty of games in the future too, so I'm sure we'll get a chance to play soon!
I'll be streaming and recording the game as well, for my own reference later on (basically it's my way of taking notes throughout the playtest haha). So if the room is full, people can always watch my livestream!
14
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: February 19, 2018, 03:03:04 PM »
I will post up a document of the game's official rules in the next day or two.
Don't feel like you have to read them before the playtest, but you're more than welcome to in order to familiarize yourself with the game in more detail. Of course, we'll go over everything during the Sunday game!
See you all later!
Don't feel like you have to read them before the playtest, but you're more than welcome to in order to familiarize yourself with the game in more detail. Of course, we'll go over everything during the Sunday game!
See you all later!
15
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: February 19, 2018, 12:41:01 AM »
Hey everyone! It looks like I'm full on Sunday the 25th but I guarantee there will be another session soon!
You know what I'm seeing here? I'm seeing 5 volunteers!
[EDIT] I understand tht Flathead770 won't be able to make it. Jordy, the spot is yours! Flathead770, please correct me if I'm mistaken.
Rhombus
Hypno
Darkwolf91
Jordy
LettuceBacon&Tomato
If your name's on that list above, congratulations, you're playing in the first round on Sunday Feb 25th!
This means....I don't have to play! I'll join the room and watch but I'll let the 5 of you play. I will simply be there for guidance. I'll watch the game as a Game Master (so I can see everyone's cards, etc.) and just observe how the game plays.
Thank you to everyone! There WILL be more games in the future!
See you all on Sunday at 11am GMT -7! I will PM the 5 of you in the days before the game as a reminder! Additionally, I'll update everyone on exactly how to get the game. I will release it as a Steam Workshop mod for Tabletop Simulator in a few days. I'll post up the link and exactly how to install it right here when the time comes.
Thanks again!
You know what I'm seeing here? I'm seeing 5 volunteers!
[EDIT] I understand tht Flathead770 won't be able to make it. Jordy, the spot is yours! Flathead770, please correct me if I'm mistaken.
Rhombus
Hypno
Darkwolf91
Jordy
LettuceBacon&Tomato
If your name's on that list above, congratulations, you're playing in the first round on Sunday Feb 25th!
This means....I don't have to play! I'll join the room and watch but I'll let the 5 of you play. I will simply be there for guidance. I'll watch the game as a Game Master (so I can see everyone's cards, etc.) and just observe how the game plays.
Thank you to everyone! There WILL be more games in the future!
See you all on Sunday at 11am GMT -7! I will PM the 5 of you in the days before the game as a reminder! Additionally, I'll update everyone on exactly how to get the game. I will release it as a Steam Workshop mod for Tabletop Simulator in a few days. I'll post up the link and exactly how to install it right here when the time comes.
Thanks again!
16
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: February 18, 2018, 05:37:24 PM »
Sounds like we got one more: Archer (on Discord)!
We're up to 4 players now.
I have room for 1 more! Anyone else want in??
We're up to 4 players now.
I have room for 1 more! Anyone else want in??
17
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: February 18, 2018, 03:22:17 PM »Quote from: Hypno on Feb 18 2018, 01:48:21 PM
Count me inBeautiful, thank you!
I'll Gift you the other copy of Tabletop Simulator if you don't have one.
18
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: February 18, 2018, 02:21:14 PM »Quote from: rhombus on Feb 18 2018, 01:17:38 PM
That would be noon on Sunday Central Time, so I can certainly be there!Fantastic!You can count me in, though I do not have a copy of Tabletop Simulator at the moment.
Sounds like you can make that. I'll send you a copy of Tabletop Simulator.
1 Free Copy left, everyone!
19
The Fridge / Developing a board game - need online playtesters!
« on: February 18, 2018, 02:11:00 PM »
Hey everyone, long time no chat!
As a few people in the GoF Discord chat know, I have been working on making a board game for the last while. I've been playtesting it by myself a bit but there's only so much I can do alone!
In short, I'm looking for people who are eager to try out this potentially broken, alpha-state board game with me by playing online together!
First 4 volunteers to commit to a time will be selected!
[EDIT]
The game on Sunday, Feb 25, 2018 is FULL! I'd be happy to catch anyone I missed in the next play session (TBA)! Thanks for your interest!
[/EDIT]
IMPORTANT DETAILS ABOUT THE PLAYTEST:
Date and Time: Sunday, Feb 25th, 2018. I'm available all day and I propose 11am MST (GMT -7). Please let me know if there is a better time for you. I'm flexible, we just need to all agree on a time.
How are we going to play together? Tabletop Simulator on Steam. This game is a physics sandbox that lets people play board games together, just like in real life. You grab pieces, draw cards, throw coins at each other, all the normal stuff you can do at a real table. I converted my game into Tabletop Simulator so all I need to do is host a game and anyone with Tabletop Simulator can join!
I recommend messing around with Tabletop Simulator a bit on your own before our playtest so you can get a bit of a feel for its controls (how to draw and flip over cards, how to look at your hand, stuff like that).
I don't have Tabletop Simulator but I want to join! I have 2 copies to give away. The first two people who ask me for a copy and offer to playtest with me will receive one of my copies for free! [EDIT] Rhombus and Hypno have claimed my 2 free copies. Thanks guys!!
After that, Tabletop Simulator often goes on sale so you can pick it up pretty cheap.
Will you be running other playtests at later dates? I don't just want just to buy Tabletop Simulator to play this with you once. Absolutely! This will be an ongoing project that's already seen very good progress and has had a lot of time spent on it already. It's not being abandoned.
---------------
COOL! WHAT IS THE GAME ABOUT? WHAT IS IT?
Title: "Seaworthy" - Name subject to change.
Number of players: 4-5 ideally but I can handle more than 5 if it comes to that later on. For this test however, I'm looking to run no more than 5 players. If we only get 4 that's completely fine too.
Premise of the game:
Each player takes control of 1 of 5 seafaring adventurers on-board a ship together. The goal is to be the player with the highest score at the end of the journey...assuming you survive that long! Players will need to work together to keep the ship afloat through challenges. Gain points by doing better than your fellow crew members at maintaining your health, gaining Clout (power) over others, becoming the Captain (until someone snatches that title from you!) and amassing glorious Loot. Bonus points are awarded by helping take care of the ship and keeping others alive. It's a semi-cooperative experience full of diplomacy, backstabbing and pushing your way to victory!
It's a tense interplay of resource management and strategy as you need to decide when to do what, how greedy you want to be...and even when it may be best to die in a catastrophic pirate raid so you can haunt old crew members to victory!
At the beginning of the game, you choose between 1 of 5 characters. Each one has a unique deck of cards which you use throughout the game. These decks give each character a unique playstyle, from being a master thief to pummeling their way to victory and taking advantage of weaker players. Still others prefer to earn their way to victory more honestly and benefit greatly from being the Captain. Others are just here for the Loot and have countless ways to accumulate it. Want to be rewarded by keeping everyone alive? One character specifically focuses on achieving victory through this method! Want to kill everyone in sight? You can do that too! Want to be relentless and risky? You can. Want to play it safe? You can.
What if you end up dying an untimely death? You come back as a Ghost, still completely able to win the game. Every Ghost in the game works together with every other Ghost. Ghosts either all win together or all lose together! Be careful not to create too many ghosts too early or you WILL regret it!
Type of game: What will I be doing? Your turns will consist of playing cards from your hand to build up your Life, Clout and Loot, or pummeling the stats of other unsuspecting players. Every 4 turns, you regenerate your limited Energy, which can be used to help - or sabotage! - the current crisis, reinforce the ship or protect yourself from the cruelty of your fellow shipmates. It's a game of Energy resource management and strategic timing of how to use the cards you've been dealt.
----------
ENOUGH TALK! WHAT DOES THE GAME LOOK LIKE?
I'm no graphic designer, but here are some images from the game so you can get an idea of what it's really like:
How the game looks, in-progress, in Tabletop Simulator
Here are the 5 playable characters:
Gracie the Eccentric Archaeologist - the master of treasure hunting! Excels at amassing Loot
Zeke the Parrot Whisperer and his parrot, Shipwreck - The honest, quirky hard worker. Excels at amassing Clout and becoming Captain.
Victor the Pirate Hunter - The short-tempered fellow who whips out his pistol at every opportunity. Excels at attacking opponents' Life and taking advantage of players at low Life.
Scarlet the Adventurous - This one is sly, cunning and manipulative - a great thief. She exploits the Captain at every opportunity.
Norah the Enchanted Mermaid - She's been enchanted into Human form but still retains her mystical healing and natural powers! She excels at keeping the crew alive, resurrecting players who are killed and being rewarded generously for doing so! Don't get on her bad side or she may sacrifice some of her OWN lifeforce to put you out of your misery!
The HAUNTING DECK - This is what all Ghosts use in their gameplay instead of their original Character deck. All sorts of spooky effects lie in here, including the imfamous POSSESSION card, where a Ghost can take a turn FOR a living player (provided the Ghost has enough Clout) MUAHAHAHAHA!
---------------------------
A few examples of the other side of some cards:
Victor the Pirate Hunter:
Norah the Enchanted Mermaid:
Scarlet the Adventurous:
---------
Post back if you're interested!
I will post up the game's FULL rules ahead of time so you can be familiar with the game before we start testing. Of course, I'll be in the game too to guide and answer questions!
Thanks everyone!
As a few people in the GoF Discord chat know, I have been working on making a board game for the last while. I've been playtesting it by myself a bit but there's only so much I can do alone!
In short, I'm looking for people who are eager to try out this potentially broken, alpha-state board game with me by playing online together!
First 4 volunteers to commit to a time will be selected!
[EDIT]
The game on Sunday, Feb 25, 2018 is FULL! I'd be happy to catch anyone I missed in the next play session (TBA)! Thanks for your interest!
[/EDIT]
IMPORTANT DETAILS ABOUT THE PLAYTEST:
Date and Time: Sunday, Feb 25th, 2018. I'm available all day and I propose 11am MST (GMT -7). Please let me know if there is a better time for you. I'm flexible, we just need to all agree on a time.
How are we going to play together? Tabletop Simulator on Steam. This game is a physics sandbox that lets people play board games together, just like in real life. You grab pieces, draw cards, throw coins at each other, all the normal stuff you can do at a real table. I converted my game into Tabletop Simulator so all I need to do is host a game and anyone with Tabletop Simulator can join!
I recommend messing around with Tabletop Simulator a bit on your own before our playtest so you can get a bit of a feel for its controls (how to draw and flip over cards, how to look at your hand, stuff like that).
I don't have Tabletop Simulator but I want to join! I have 2 copies to give away. The first two people who ask me for a copy and offer to playtest with me will receive one of my copies for free! [EDIT] Rhombus and Hypno have claimed my 2 free copies. Thanks guys!!
After that, Tabletop Simulator often goes on sale so you can pick it up pretty cheap.
Will you be running other playtests at later dates? I don't just want just to buy Tabletop Simulator to play this with you once. Absolutely! This will be an ongoing project that's already seen very good progress and has had a lot of time spent on it already. It's not being abandoned.
---------------
COOL! WHAT IS THE GAME ABOUT? WHAT IS IT?
Title: "Seaworthy" - Name subject to change.
Number of players: 4-5 ideally but I can handle more than 5 if it comes to that later on. For this test however, I'm looking to run no more than 5 players. If we only get 4 that's completely fine too.
Premise of the game:
Each player takes control of 1 of 5 seafaring adventurers on-board a ship together. The goal is to be the player with the highest score at the end of the journey...assuming you survive that long! Players will need to work together to keep the ship afloat through challenges. Gain points by doing better than your fellow crew members at maintaining your health, gaining Clout (power) over others, becoming the Captain (until someone snatches that title from you!) and amassing glorious Loot. Bonus points are awarded by helping take care of the ship and keeping others alive. It's a semi-cooperative experience full of diplomacy, backstabbing and pushing your way to victory!
It's a tense interplay of resource management and strategy as you need to decide when to do what, how greedy you want to be...and even when it may be best to die in a catastrophic pirate raid so you can haunt old crew members to victory!
At the beginning of the game, you choose between 1 of 5 characters. Each one has a unique deck of cards which you use throughout the game. These decks give each character a unique playstyle, from being a master thief to pummeling their way to victory and taking advantage of weaker players. Still others prefer to earn their way to victory more honestly and benefit greatly from being the Captain. Others are just here for the Loot and have countless ways to accumulate it. Want to be rewarded by keeping everyone alive? One character specifically focuses on achieving victory through this method! Want to kill everyone in sight? You can do that too! Want to be relentless and risky? You can. Want to play it safe? You can.
What if you end up dying an untimely death? You come back as a Ghost, still completely able to win the game. Every Ghost in the game works together with every other Ghost. Ghosts either all win together or all lose together! Be careful not to create too many ghosts too early or you WILL regret it!
Type of game: What will I be doing? Your turns will consist of playing cards from your hand to build up your Life, Clout and Loot, or pummeling the stats of other unsuspecting players. Every 4 turns, you regenerate your limited Energy, which can be used to help - or sabotage! - the current crisis, reinforce the ship or protect yourself from the cruelty of your fellow shipmates. It's a game of Energy resource management and strategic timing of how to use the cards you've been dealt.
----------
ENOUGH TALK! WHAT DOES THE GAME LOOK LIKE?
I'm no graphic designer, but here are some images from the game so you can get an idea of what it's really like:
How the game looks, in-progress, in Tabletop Simulator
Here are the 5 playable characters:
Gracie the Eccentric Archaeologist - the master of treasure hunting! Excels at amassing Loot
Zeke the Parrot Whisperer and his parrot, Shipwreck - The honest, quirky hard worker. Excels at amassing Clout and becoming Captain.
Victor the Pirate Hunter - The short-tempered fellow who whips out his pistol at every opportunity. Excels at attacking opponents' Life and taking advantage of players at low Life.
Scarlet the Adventurous - This one is sly, cunning and manipulative - a great thief. She exploits the Captain at every opportunity.
Norah the Enchanted Mermaid - She's been enchanted into Human form but still retains her mystical healing and natural powers! She excels at keeping the crew alive, resurrecting players who are killed and being rewarded generously for doing so! Don't get on her bad side or she may sacrifice some of her OWN lifeforce to put you out of your misery!
The HAUNTING DECK - This is what all Ghosts use in their gameplay instead of their original Character deck. All sorts of spooky effects lie in here, including the imfamous POSSESSION card, where a Ghost can take a turn FOR a living player (provided the Ghost has enough Clout) MUAHAHAHAHA!
---------------------------
A few examples of the other side of some cards:
Victor the Pirate Hunter:
Norah the Enchanted Mermaid:
Scarlet the Adventurous:
---------
Post back if you're interested!
I will post up the game's FULL rules ahead of time so you can be familiar with the game before we start testing. Of course, I'll be in the game too to guide and answer questions!
Thanks everyone!
20
1988 Theatrical Release / Asking LBT creators for information
« on: July 14, 2017, 05:29:19 PM »Quote
Here's the link to downloading them.
Holy crap, those are uncompressed .wavs straight from the main guy! Dude, that's cool, thanks for sharing!!