Intel?

[unclejoe]

I didnt see anything in the rules, so I'm wondering if there is an 'official' stance or if it varies by group. But how much info do you give your opponent about your ships in advance?

What information is 'known'?

I would imagine hull size is easily known. What about role?

Weapons?

Shield status?

Damage status?

At the moment we've been pretty open about it (mostly with everyone learning, to make sure we are following the rules correctly). But I would imagine it could be a lot of fun finding out 'the hard way' what a ship can do. On the other hand, if you're using the same faction list for multiple battles, as time goes on people should be able to identify ships by class/size.

How do you play it? Full disclosure or 'need to know basis'?

[Jester]

So far, weve played it open book (as you described).

However, weve discussed playing it where all you know is hull size and as you say, "learning" the hard way. Could be interesting espcially in a campagin where players can opt to build a new class with Resource Points and then "spring" it on the enemy.

[TheDreadnought]

I didn't specify because some people like it one way, some like it the other. Has no effect on game balance either way.

[unclejoe]

Yeah, Starfire went through all kinds of hoops for what info is given out. That was cool in some ways though to have that level of 'recon' going on.

Might be something to touch on for the campaign rules since it would have the most recurring effect there?

[TheDreadnought]

Strategic intel and tactical intel are two different beasts.

[unclejoe]

Indeed. What I was thinking was more along the lines of whether you know if a ship is 'x' class or not in battle and when/if the shields are down.

We'll prolly just evolve our own conventions for it.

[warchariot]

Yep, were open, but have a don't ask, don't tell policy. So if you ask, yea I have 5 hull boxes left, but if you don't...Okay, so you're shooting everything you have at this ship? Fine.

[TheDreadnought]

Jul 6, 2010 15:27:21 GMT -5 unclejoe said:

Indeed. What I was thinking was more along the lines of whether you know if a ship is 'x' class or not in battle and when/if the shields are down.

We'll prolly just evolve our own conventions for it.

That was my intention.

In a campaign game, especially if there is no umpire, I'd tend more towards the open disclosure of class specs and such. Assume it's coming from your spies, but it's needed to that any errors can be caught - because nobody is going to scrutinize your designs as closely as your opponent.

Now. . . if in an individual battle you didn't want to provide specific info on which classes were present and let your opponent's knowledge of your designs try to fill in the details . . that wouldn't hurt anything.

[warchariot]

"In a campaign game, especially if there is no umpire, I'd tend more toward the open disclosure of class specs and such. Assume it's coming from your spies, but it's needed to that any errors can be caught - because nobody is going to scrutinize your designs as closely as your opponent."

We have done this as a holdover from historical gaming where all troops look more a less a like. So in ACW games we would tell who is elite, what weapons-rifles, muskets, shotguns, ect and the strength. Some of this you can see if you look carefully or could tell from unit flags ect.

In space gaming, how do you tell the difference between heavy rail guns and rail guns and mag cannons? So as we place ships, we describe each one, again a holdover from placing units on the table.

[fastgit]

Jul 6, 2010 11:43:12 GMT -5 unclejoe said:

Yeah, Starfire went through all kinds of hoops for what info is given out. That was cool in some ways though to have that level of 'recon' going on.

Might be something to touch on for the campaign rules since it would have the most recurring effect there?

I liked the flavor. Starfire went so far as to allow ships fitted with a certain tech of ECM to mask its ID... within a couple of hull sizes if I remember correctly. That cruiser batron you're about to tangle with suddenly becomes a gaggle of BCs... and your day just got a whole lot worse...

The highest levels of ECM allowed for invisibility to sensors... cloaking.