Thanks Clash, like I say I chickened out.

Still there are several things that I ran into with Galactic Adventures in playtest that were too deeply rooted to easily remove.

The Game System Index table did a fair job of turning out numbers on the scale I wanted them but it felt very clunky when you had to figure out things like surface areas and then plug them into the table to get a result.  It also had some weird effects on Armour Ratings that wouldn't be apparent if you hadn't spent a lot of time designing armour and vehicles.  The current vehicle design system fixes all of this but getting the numbers right and where I wanted them was not an easy process.

Reflexes was more important than weapon skill when rolling to hit.  It didn't come up every time, but if you were sniping Reflexes was really where it was at.

In character creation the limit on annual development was messy, in the current version there are different limits but you can throw your whole year into one skill to crank it up in a hurry.  This means that when you're making a concept character you can avoid a lot of book keeping by purchasing your skills in bulk instead of a dribble each year.

Also, the old skill system made every skill equal, now some skills are easier or harder to learn than normal, though this is reflected in their base value not their cost because one of my core concepts has always been directly additive skill costs.

The world generator had some recursion in it that made gas giant moons very slow and painful work.

The alien generator now has more traits gives a better look at the creature's biology and handles plants and bacterial plaques.

I'm just starting on the economics system.  The Galactic Adventures economics system was very binary and I want it to reflect a broader range of situations while allowing a broad median field instead of just making everything over supplied or under supplied.

On the down side there's still a lot of blurbing to do.  I hate blurbing with a passion but it has to be done.

Quote from: HinterWeltBTW- I am working on Nebuleon 2. The edition wars will soon follow!

Seriously though, you will pay for your arrogance!

No, o.k. right. In your copious free time I would love for you to look over the A.I. build system and the Ship Combat. I think neither of them will be remotely like systems you would enjoy but you have an eye for detail and much more of a knack for systems than I do. Your input would be much welcomed.

Thanks (and you will feel my wrath mortal!),
Bill

Why wouldn't I enjoy something you designed, Bill? I love your games! I'd be happy to look over what you have!

-clash

Quote from: David JohansenThanks Clash, like I say I chickened out.

Still there are several things that I ran into with Galactic Adventures in playtest that were too deeply rooted to easily remove.

The Game System Index table did a fair job of turning out numbers on the scale I wanted them but it felt very clunky when you had to figure out things like surface areas and then plug them into the table to get a result.  It also had some weird effects on Armour Ratings that wouldn't be apparent if you hadn't spent a lot of time designing armour and vehicles.  The current vehicle design system fixes all of this but getting the numbers right and where I wanted them was not an easy process.

Reflexes was more important than weapon skill when rolling to hit.  It didn't come up every time, but if you were sniping Reflexes was really where it was at.

In character creation the limit on annual development was messy, in the current version there are different limits but you can throw your whole year into one skill to crank it up in a hurry.  This means that when you're making a concept character you can avoid a lot of book keeping by purchasing your skills in bulk instead of a dribble each year.

Also, the old skill system made every skill equal, now some skills are easier or harder to learn than normal, though this is reflected in their base value not their cost because one of my core concepts has always been directly additive skill costs.

The world generator had some recursion in it that made gas giant moons very slow and painful work.

The alien generator now has more traits gives a better look at the creature's biology and handles plants and bacterial plaques.

I'm just starting on the economics system.  The Galactic Adventures economics system was very binary and I want it to reflect a broader range of situations while allowing a broad median field instead of just making everything over supplied or under supplied.

On the down side there's still a lot of blurbing to do.  I hate blurbing with a passion but it has to be done.

Nit picks. You could have just worked on GA 2 or whatever and left the original available until it was ready! The game was sound, and fun, and didn't deserve live burial! :O

Rich did the same thing with Terran Story, and I am still mad at him! Even the release of Shebang! didn't heal my pain!

-clash

Story time!

Once upon a time there were four computer companies.  One was big and mean but the others had great ideas for a new generation of machines.  They all shared a hot new processor but their egos wouldn't let them work together so the big company let them squabble until two of them starved and then their brutish competitor dragged the remaining fair haired innocent youth of a computer company off to its lair and had its way with it.

Sometimes I think that true story might have some bearing on the state of the small press in the gaming industry.  I guess that's why I always end up going back to Rolemaster instead of focussing on my own projects.

The problem with leaving a game in the public view is that it can get permanently dismissed by people who nitpicked it.  That being said, I keep meaning to put Galactic Adventures up on my web site, it's fully edited and indexed though I can't recall if its got the artwork in the file.  For some versions I just glued the art to the pages before photocopying.

Quote from: David JohansenStory time!

Once upon a time there were four computer companies.  One was big and mean but the others had great ideas for a new generation of machines.  They all shared a hot new processor but their egos wouldn't let them work together so the big company let them squabble until two of them starved and then their brutish competitor dragged the remaining fair haired innocent youth of a computer company off to its lair and had its way with it.

Sometimes I think that true story might have some bearing on the state of the small press in the gaming industry.  I guess that's why I always end up going back to Rolemaster instead of focussing on my own projects.

You're trying to tell me this story? An unrepentant Amiga fanatic? I fell in love with a computer once, and the end was tragic. Now a computer is just a boring tool.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmiceWhile other people with utterly pedestrian ideas have the unmitigated gall to actually produce reams of crap! I see it all the time! Look at that levitating rodent crap!

Quote from: HinterWeltAnd some of us have neither... :deflated:

Hey, flagellate yourselves all you want, you guys got your products finished and out there.  No mean feat.  You kept your sights within reach and followed through with your plans.  That's worth more than the prettiest vapoware ever.

!i!

Quote from: Ian AbsentiaHey, flagellate yourselves all you want, you guys got your products finished and out there.  No mean feat.  You kept your sights within reach and followed through with your plans.  That's worth more than the prettiest vapoware ever.

!i!

Bah! 10 kilos of crap is worth the same as zero kilos, unless you're looking for fertilizer.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmiceYou're trying to tell me this story? An unrepentant Amiga fanatic? I fell in love with a computer once, and the end was tragic. Now a computer is just a boring tool.

-clash

There's some interesting reading on The Tower Ravens forums about his efforts to get into the distribution system.  He went to the Gama trade show and distributors told him he had to be in a fixed price range and that the core game had to have a setting so he went back to work and trimmed the fat and published an incomplete game that the distributors wouldn't touch.

He's a little bitter.

I don't think his $60 600 page book would have sold any better though.

He does have the neatest universal table I've ever seen.

I often ask myself, "why not just use GURPS, Savage Worlds, or Spacemaster?"  The answer took me a while to arrive at, Steve Jackson thinks I'm a creepy stalkerish web guy and has no desire whatsoever to work with me (and I'm good with that), I don't really like Savage Worlds (too metagamey) and ICE is bound and determined to fragment their fan base, scatter them to the four winds and commit ritual suicide in order to summon the greater table of fiscal misfortune...

Quote from: David JohansenThere's some interesting reading on The Tower Ravens forums about his efforts to get into the distribution system.  He went to the Gama trade show and distributors told him he had to be in a fixed price range and that the core game had to have a setting so he went back to work and trimmed the fat and published an incomplete game that the distributors wouldn't touch.

He's a little bitter.

I don't think his $60 600 page book would have sold any better though.

Distribution could care less what the format of your book is. If he is a small publisher then they would most likely tell him to go to a fulfillment house. That has been the standard responce for the last 10 or so years. Seldom will a distributor tell someone to alter their book in order to gain entrance. Now, if he was calling fulfillment distribution, some of those guys are quite particular. The honest truth there, though, has more to do with having you BP in order as opposed to anything to do with content.

Bill

Anyhow, here's a link to a .pdf of the final version of Galactic Adventures:

http://www3.telus.net/public/uncouths/FinalDraft.pdf

What happened is that when the computer I wrote it on died, I canceled my internet and went computerless for a while.  When I finally got my website up again last spring I intended to put it up there, but I was very busy drawing Atomosaurs until 3 in the morning trying to do a weekly web comic.  Then we sold our house in two days and suddenly needed very badly to find another in an extremely tight housing market and everything else fell apart.

http://www3.telus.net/public/uncouths