SWMGAMERS.com Forums
https://www.swmgamers.com/forums/

Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase
https://www.swmgamers.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10908
Page 2 of 3

Author:  swinefeld [ Thu Mar 17, 2011 8:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

I'll be buying it/them no matter what. :)

Author:  Jedi Christian [ Thu Mar 17, 2011 9:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

I'm in.

Author:  GeneralGrievous [ Thu Mar 17, 2011 11:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

Engineer wrote:
Limit the shooting lanes to 12 ish squares (walls not doors). 20+ squares shooting lanes makes it a tough game for the new Maul from Theed.


Was that a hint for the piece engineer? Nice, is it because he lacks evade and deflect? Excellent now i know slightly more. Haha. But no seriously good points there and i agree with all of them.

Chris the mentioning of the colony outpost and this military center have pretty much made my week. I second what another poster said and it's only a question of when I will buy your maps. I would like to see the lower map opened up for huges with the force field low crates idea as well.

Ne

Author:  Gurneywars [ Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

I really really like it. Can't wait to see the finish product.

Although I can't help to wonder how your planning and to which side your going to make the color lines for the walls that split the squares? hmmm so many possibilities :)

Author:  Mapmaker [ Fri Mar 18, 2011 1:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

Thanks, everyone!

Billiv, I agree, and that's the approach I've had with this from the start. If any of them end up tournament friendly, or can with minor adjustments, I'll consider it a valuable side-effect. The main goal of this one, though, is to provide the sci-fi gaming community with a massive space station map. :)

Gurneywars: A lot of the curves and diagonals fall closely enough to one grid line or another that I don't foresee too much of a problem with that. But in cases where a square is evenly bisected by a wall, I'll probably add conduits or other hard tech along the walls in those spaces to force the wall to thicken appropriately and fill the square.

Author:  billiv15 [ Fri Mar 18, 2011 1:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

Mapmaker wrote:
Billiv, I agree, and that's the approach I've had with this from the start. If any of them end up tournament friendly, or can with minor adjustments, I'll consider it a valuable side-effect. The main goal of this one, though, is to provide the sci-fi gaming community with a massive space station map. :)

Great!

If I can offer any corrective to your work, it would be to focus where possible on specific maps for very specific outcomes. A map set like this is awesome, and I will totally buy it for non-competitive play purposes.

With Restricted list maps, you have to focus on competitive play issues first, and form almost secondarily - something I recognize goes against your own artistic motivations. And i don't fault you for that.

I don't know what time I can offer this spring, but this summer I'd be happy to work with you on a map or two, as I did with Jedicartagrapher on making a Restricted map if you are up for it. I personally hate that we had to keep your maps off of the restricted list, but I still believe it necessary for the protection of that aspect of the game (and I'm not bringing it up to rehash those discussions). But moving forward, I'd love to see a Mapmaker Restricted map or two, as your artwork is second to none, and if I can help in anyway, I'm happy to offer those services.

Author:  Gurneywars [ Sat Mar 19, 2011 2:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

Mapmaker wrote:
Thanks, everyone!

Billiv, I agree, and that's the approach I've had with this from the start. If any of them end up tournament friendly, or can with minor adjustments, I'll consider it a valuable side-effect. The main goal of this one, though, is to provide the sci-fi gaming community with a massive space station map. :)

Gurneywars: A lot of the curves and diagonals fall closely enough to one grid line or another that I don't foresee too much of a problem with that. But in cases where a square is evenly bisected by a wall, I'll probably add conduits or other hard tech along the walls in those spaces to force the wall to thicken appropriately and fill the square.



I love it

Author:  Azman [ Sat Mar 19, 2011 11:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

Love your work Chris ! :saber:

Cant wait for the finished product.

Our deal still stands.... you make it, ill buy it !
:r2line:

Author:  wannabemexican [ Sun Mar 20, 2011 4:27 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

Actually yeah, the mention of an "Aliens"-esque colony on the reverse of this map also has me excited. I love those films. I was in ebay yesterday and at the bottom of the browser it had "most watched" and there were 25mm Alien figures there. I might get some and try out a Star Wars meets Alien scenario.

Author:  Centurion [ Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

This will sound a tad trite, but ... this looks awesome! :)

Author:  dalsiandon [ Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

Well these look really cool. I look forward to watching the development process. Considering the map page book that you just released and it's versatility, Chris you provide very well for us plasticrack junkies.

Author:  Ruhk [ Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

bump, just wanted to see if there were any players interested in analyzing the one map to tweak it a bit to be more balanced from a competitive point of view. I don't really have an eye for it.

Author:  The_Celestial_Warrior [ Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

Ruhk wrote:
bump, just wanted to see if there were any players interested in analyzing the one map to tweak it a bit to be more balanced from a competitive point of view. I don't really have an eye for it.


Sure, if Chris wants the help.

Author:  Engineer [ Tue Apr 19, 2011 7:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

The_Celestial_Warrior wrote:
Ruhk wrote:
bump, just wanted to see if there were any players interested in analyzing the one map to tweak it a bit to be more balanced from a competitive point of view. I don't really have an eye for it.


Sure, if Chris wants the help.

Good luck.

Author:  NickName [ Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

Don't be lame. :)

Chris solicited and recieved advice from a number of highly ranked players and acted on that advice. The fact that the metagame changed (mainly due to the switch to 200) after that is not Chris's fault. It's just an unfortunate occurance that really hurt his map(s) most likely to make the cut and designed with the restricted list in mind.

Author:  Mapmaker [ Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

Thank you, NickName. That's the most fair and concise explanation I've seen here for that turn of events. It's easier, though, for certain people to make snarky comments if they assume I don't listen to feedback.

Ruhk, and Celestial: If you guys can pinpoint ways for these maps to be more tournament friendly, I'm all ears. There's still plenty of time to make adjustments, as I haven't gone into full production mode on them yet. (And even after I do, I'll keep tweaking the maps right up until they're ready to send to the printer.) One tweak I'm considering involves widening the corridor around the station core (shrinking the central pits a little) to allow huges to set up in there.

Even with that adjustment, though, only one of the quadrants is even close to what I would consider optimized for competitive play. I think they'd collectively be spectacular for a 4-player team tournament set up (and indeed, that was part of the intent), but I feel there aren't enough strategic options in the individual maps to be considered for high-level tournament play, especially where huges are concerned.

Author:  Chargers [ Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

wannabemexican wrote:
Actually yeah, the mention of an "Aliens"-esque colony on the reverse of this map also has me excited. I love those films.


Heard that on the recent Mayham podcast. I'm excited to buy and play on these. Good thing no one will be able to hear me scream.

Author:  Ruhk [ Wed Apr 20, 2011 7:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

Well, I looked at it for a time, but need some more information:

Image

I filled in the walls and terrain lines as I think they are (otherwise I'm assuming all shaded areas are pits), but I can't see enough detail to finish off the docking bay where the two smaller ships are.

So far:

Right side has quicker access to gambit (14 square move + 3 doors)
Left side has a I believe slower, since it needs to get around the circular thing near the angled rectangle pit, but only has 1 door to go through

Right side has a ton of hiding spots for scrubs(swappers/activation fodder), commanders, etc
Left does not. {in this regard you could add a 2x2 room to the room above 'docking quadrant'}

The double doors on the RHS means that it would be very hard for the right hand player to play shoot and scoot. which is good :)

I would think that a lot of the engagement would happen in the docking bay or in the wide corridor above.

right now any long LOS shots require more than one door to be open (again, great)

I can't comment any further without seeing how the layout (terrain lines) of the two little ships would work. Maybe you can help clear that up Chris (download the edited map I posted and add the correct coloured lines)?

Author:  Mapmaker [ Wed Apr 20, 2011 9:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

Your interpretation is quite accurate.

My intention with the larger of the two ships in the hangar bay was to make part of it hard cover (wall) terrain, with some low object squares around the edges. I might instead show the inside of the ship, complete with airlock hatches and interior compartments, controls, etc. This would have the effect of partially dividing gambit.

The other (smaller) ship will likely be a patch of low object squares.

The circular shape next to the larger ship will be an irising floor hatch; this is included so that the station quadrants can stack as four separate levels connected by matching turbolifts. In this map, the hatch opens to allow a turbolift pod to rise from the floor to disembark passengers from below, and then get out of the way of the starships.

The grey rotated rectangle is currently shown as an open lift pit revealing a starfighter below. I might make the doors to that pit closed (ie: not a pit) to allow more advancement options for huges. The bonus terrain card included with this poster would then show the same pit, in the open position with the fighter revealed.

Author:  Ruhk [ Thu Apr 21, 2011 9:16 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Orbital Docking Station - Sketch phase

Image

I like the idea of the interior of the small ship, so I doodled some potential doors/walls.

Added some walls/low cover for the little one. I made the walls too big, so I'm going by the smaller L-shape for the walls (since it lets Huges by) and the two spots where the ships nearly touch the wall would be beveled corners to let movement through (but not LOS).

A thought: for the rising starship on an elevator: maybe it could be made skinnier by one row, and have something like speeder bikes, or cargo sleds, and offset, so a huge can stop on the other side of door (J,K 6,7).

In terms of long LOS.. on the only long ones are a V-shape around the small ship, which means you have to be pretty exposed to take advantage of them, so not a big deal. a good amount of doors makes other long LOS very hard to pull off without multiple overrides.

In such case, the RHS has faster an easier approach to gambit..

Current Suggestions:
-maybe move the door at (28-29, OP) down 2 squares the corner of the wall {to get to gambit is now a slightly longer trek for RHS, more balanced}

-ensure that huges can travel from the possible start locations to gambit (start locations marked by red Xs) {all huges can squeeze into a 2-wide space, but need somewhere to stop that is 3x3}

-have a similar hiding spot on the LHS for commanders in the setup zone (like a storage closet)
-----------------

That's about all I can think about,I'd love to hear what Brad has to say about it.

Page 2 of 3 All times are UTC - 6 hours
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/