CB Expansions

[admiralgrafspee]

Harry,

You and warchariot have eluded to fleet books and/or other expansions coming out? Can you give us an outline of what's in the pipeline and when they might be ready (or a conservative estimate if you don't know)?

I know I'd be interested in any or all of these, not just to get stats for new ships but also to get some more rules - like weapons, different fighters or ship roles etc.

One more question - have you considered bringing in new weapons that use d8's to hit/penetrate?

[TheDreadnought]

The release of Colonial Battlefleet: Man vs. Machine is imminent. Leslie finished up a project this weekend that will hopefully free some of her time to work on the layout and art and such, so I hoping soon.

After that will be a Naval Thunder supplement (RotB II) that shoulld see print before the end of the year.

There is another CB supplement in the pipeline based around an original universe and miniatures set. I would anticipate that in the first half of 2011. Other CB supplements I would like to get out next year include a ST-style one. . . and an SW style one. Then there is also the campaign system. Realistically, other than the original setting, I would be happy to get out one one CB supplement next year as CB is not the only system we're working on.

Would like to get out a WWI Naval Thunder fleet expansion book, as well as the WWII Ghost Ships supplement. Then there is the Stratofleets game which has been sitting on my hard drive about 65% done with development for the better part of a year or longer. I really want to get that out.

It could be that real life which has been nothing short of insanely busy lately will quiet down some next year, but I'm not optimistic. So even all these projects that I'm actively thinking about may not make it into the schedule. As you can see from the upcoming projects board, I've got a lot of other ideas floating around too. Its simply a question of having the time to do them without a lot of real life issues cropping up.

As far as dice usage. . . during design Colonial Battlefleet actually was based on d6, d8, d10, and d12. But we felt that was a lot. Two different types of dice are actually kinda a lot to ask of anybody but the hardest of the hard core. Still that doesn't mean that I might not introduce at least a d8 into a supplement. Probably not a bad idea actually.

[admiralgrafspee]

Thanks for the very quick response Harry. Looking forward to all of those!

I can see why you would have cut down on the different dice for the main book - but I also think the type of people that pick up your expansions are going to be a bit more hardcore and can handle another die (as long as its not a d4 - I hate em!)

[warchariot]

The other option would be to introduce more weapons with a + to the dice for range. I realize that the FCs were also a way to aviod more dice types. One thing people say they don't like about D10 is the wild range that can happen from roll to roll, so a D6/D10+1,2 or 3 gives more options without the new dice types.

[TheDreadnought]

I used to have modifiers to the dice for range when I first collapsed it from the 4 die system, but it quickly turned into a mess without adding much from a gameplay perspective - so it got simplified.

In Colonial Battlefleet though, gradations of the range roll don't matter. You either have enough range to hit, or you don't. Whether or not you miss by 1 hex, or 3 hexes is immaterial, just as hitting dead on, or by 2 hexes more than you need. In every case, rolling 1d10 for range is always going to be better than rolling 1d6 for range. So I'm not sure why people would have a concern with the broader range of results on a d10??

[warchariot]

True enough, however the augment is a 10 on D10 is 10% chance where a 6 on a D6 is a 16.6%. This seems correct so I have heard this as the one reason people give for not liking a D10. Guess that's why average dice were invented. In CB as most games, a miss is still a miss.

[admiralgrafspee]

I tend to prefer using the larger dice in games as it lowers the chances of getting extreme results (eg. 1's as auto failure). This is one of the many reasons I prefer naval thunder over victory at sea.

Having different dice in the same system is very interesting indeed. I am very glad the critical hit mechanic is not based on rolling the max result on a penetration die (although in the case of d10's it's almost that).

My preference would be to have a d8 rather than d6+1. I can see going with bonuses for the high end d10 weapons because you don't want to go to the d12, but the d8 just fits in perfectly. Keep in mind d8 could also be used for comparative rolling too (dog fights and boarding) where I think adding bonuses would be confusing.

-Tim

[TheDreadnought]

Well the percentages you give are of course accurate I fail to see the logic w respect to cb. If you need to roll a 5 or better to hit, rolling a d10 gives you about double the chance of a d6. The specific number you roll is irrelevant so shy does the possible range results matter?

[TheDreadnought]

Oh Leslie pointed out that it might be an issue more in fighter combat. I could see that to an extent.

[admiralgrafspee]

I think the complaint is probably based on the wide variation in results, and not what the "average roll" is.

d6+2 gives the same average result as a d10, but the variation in results is less.

But hey, it is what it is. You've gone with d10 and d6 for now. Anything else you add in the future is just going to give people more options. I'd say a d6+2 is probably more valuable than the d10, but that's just because you can almost "count on it" at short ranges - despite not having the long range potential (that's to hit of course). A d10 to penetrate is probably better than a d6+2 to penetrate - cause you can always get closer, but you can't always get through AV8!

[sertorius]

Perhaps you ought to do a poll to find out if people want ST or SW as the second expansion? I vote SW

[admiralgrafspee]

Oct 22, 2010 16:24:50 GMT -5 sertorius said:

Perhaps you ought to do a poll to find out if people want ST or SW as the second expansion? I vote SW

I agree. With Star Fleet Battles and all related games there is already a huge outlet to play Feds vs. Klingons. Not so many options for Imp. vs. Rebels (and the WotC game is so very lacking...).

[pixelgeek]

Oct 22, 2010 16:31:48 GMT -5 admiralgrafspee said:

(and the WotC game is so very lacking...).

So very, very, very lacking. Makes me sad

[warchariot]

Okay, forget the dice, which expansion, well based on number of games out there, SW is lacking, but ST may be more popular so there are more games? So, I don't really care which is first as long as we get both!

[pixelgeek]

Why not expansions for some of the existing ranges of spacecraft miniatures? Like a book for Brigade or GZG figs?

[toaster]

My vote is for the campaign book first, the system as it stands allows you to play ST and SW very easily, its not hard to build suitable ships and the tech levels allows the necessary improvement from clone wars to the Empire vs Rebellion (I'm going to do the Battle of Coruscant from Ep3 as soon as I finish my trade fed battleships). What we need are the rules for stations and campaigns.

Robert

[jchen101]

I agree - the campaign book first! We can design our own ships (fun fun fun) with whatever models we have, and then have at it conquering the galaxy! Or at least the local star cluster...

[admiralgrafspee]

I actually mostly want the fleet books for the new rules (e.g. super heavy turbo lasers) that will be added to suit the genre, so that I can use them on my own designs!

Zac, I don't want rules for GZG stuff, because I want to keep them as my "custom" ships.

-Tim

[admiralgrafspee]

Harry,

Just some more "thoughts" (and believe me, I've got a bag of them):

1) Fighter bombers (e.g. X-wing) d8 dogfight and d8 roll for penetration - 2 damage - available at tech level 5 for fighters in lieu of recon fighters.
2) Weapons that take up more than one "space" in a hardpoint. This could either be new weapons or just a way of combining existing direct fire weapons together. Probably better for them to be new weapons as to avoid any complex pricing and to balance out damage and tonnage. There are a lot of genres that have some BIG guns (e.g. nova cannons from BFG), and it would be cool to emulate them. I'm not suggesting anything as big as the death star cannon though !

-Tim