Alright, I haven't been involved in this discussion at all, because I haven't really looked at the Ambrosia Web Boards in the past few months. However, if it is ok with all of you, I would still like to play again. The last EW was tons of fun until it blew up.

So, if you'll have me, I'd like to apply for the position of Rebel Admiral.

I have some ideas for ship building and budget planning. Each sides starts with the same amount of income each day. We decide on a number, and then divided it by the number of planets that each system controls to find the average planet income. Then, we take some away from the less important planets, and add some to the more importants ones (like Sol, or Clotho). We do the same thing for the number of ships each side is allowed to build each day.

Then, once we have assigned all the planets their income/ship building quota, it will be easier to figure out what conquering a planet gives you. Say, if the Confederates capture Olympus from the Rebels, they get an extra 1.2mil credits/day, and their ship building quota goes up by 2%, while the Rebels' goes down by 2%.

<looks over the last several posts> Yuck.

Let's copy an older webstory that was awesome. Take the rules. Re-use them. It'll make life simpler.

What webstory would you suggest?
I am reposting the rules that I posted earlier that were taken from Eve of Destruction with some modifications.
Common sense to be used at all times.
I still agree with Captain Skyblade that research should be banned to keep it simpler and to avoid arguments. but I am open to suggestions.
A maximum ship construction per day will be issued for each government. Each subordinate will have a maximum ship construction that will fall under this limit.
No single-post battles. Battles will have their outcome decided by a neutral moderator (not a participant in the story) or a battle calculator program (I don't have the experience to write one). I am leaning towards a neutral moderator or neutral moderating team. Any suggestions or volunteers.
All players are to be treated as if their crews are the same in every way(no "my crews are more experianced than yours so I can kill 8 destroyers at the loss of one ship" nonsense).
Ship and Fleet movement restricted by fuel capacity alone.
Effective Scanning Range is no more than 2 system radius(Unless upgraded).
Players can overrule the moderater(s) provided they all agree.
There will be two main governments (the Rebellion and the Confederation). Each will have one overall leader, with various rank subordinates (from single-ship to singe-fleet to multiple fleets).
You may not kill another member's character without permission.
For defense fleets, Vice Admiral Ipvicus's suggestion will be used and each side will have to defend their territory with the ships they build.

What about leaders? I think that their should be leaders to take control of fleets if their fleet's normal owner doesn't respond to a major threat swiftly or, if they are away on a trip, for some reason has not given control of their fleets to another member until they return.
What about ship designing? How should it be done?

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I am still wondering if, when a certain number of enemy planets falls, the enemy should lose some fleet production ability. As I said earlier, this would simulate the loss of resources. It also occured to me that, if each side keeps full production capability even if they have only a few planets left, they'd have a shipyard turning out a large amount of ships right on the battlefield, although I suppose this would make it challenging and perhaps the attacking government could move their shipyard closer. One idea is to make each ship cost a certain amount of income (all your income for one particular day would automatically be spent after you purchased all the ships that you could afford that day) and each planet produces a certain amount of income, so that as planets fall there is less income and ship production lessens.

Any suggestions? For this to work effectively and get the rules ironed out, I need more than occasional feedback from two or three people. Thanks to all those who have given feedback and suggestions so far!

The main thing that I'm worried about is you guys trying to combine and "income" system with the daily construction thing. The simplicity of an Eve of Destruction style constuction system is that you don't have to worry about "income" your government simply builds whatever the "maximum constuction" number of ships every day. You shouldn't have to bother with ship prices with the extra nonsense of having a limit.

Just think about it, in a real government they don't build stuff all at once whenever they get a paycheck, their industry is constantly turning out weapons and equipment.

By the way, that long ass post I made a while back is all you need (other than players) to immediatly start a webstory. Also, the rules I wrote out reflect the way we actually played EoD. The rules at the begining of the story had some significant flaws that we had to deal with later in the story, flaws which I accounted for in my write-up.

This post has been edited by Vice Admiral Ipvicus : 24 January 2005 - 09:45 PM

I'm all up for just using Ipvicus' Eve of War rules, I reckon once a couplew more people agree a topic can be made, then a sign up.

I prefer the older rules as well. I would prefer if technology could be allowed, but the person who moderates tech would have to be strict enough to cause everyone to hate them by rejecting designs and limiting effects.

More complex rules take the focus away from the writing, most decisions must be made by moderators on the fly.

I'm still not sure if I have time to actually write in this story, but I'd like to see it do well anyway.

Just for fun here are the Battle For Sol Episode II rules. They didn't actually work out as well as they could have, but they are the best example of an EV webboard story rules (original Battle for Sol was not a webstory but a role-play, which is what I prefer).

-Ships cannot move farther than there fuel rating with each post. Generally, your fleet can only go as far as the slowest ship in it. If you really want to, though, slower ships can be left behind.
When two fleets engage in battle, the battle will be left to the thread moderatorss to adjudicate which they will try to do fairly. We can't roll dice or run simulations on the enigine, so this will be a "best guess" type of thing.

-Fleet Commanders must obey orders from their presidents and higher ranked fleet commanders, if your fleet has been attached to another commander as part of a task force.
New ships can be purchased with the governments money every 3 topic pages. (page 1, 4, 7, etc.)

-Money is made every 3 topic pages also, in the amount or 5 million credits per world controlled by that government.

-The Alien's fleets first attacks will be by surprise, until then, their whereabouts are unknown.
There are 66 Alien systems to be discovered, in a galaxy far, far away...*

-Each government may invent one ship and one weapon per topic page. Keep these realistic.

I don't recommend these rules, but they have some good ideas. I don't much care for the money system at all, but the tech per pages is preferable to a real-time system in my mind.

This post has been edited by Paranoid : 25 January 2005 - 04:11 PM

I think each subordinate should get a set number of ships (8-10?) per day.
I still agree with Captain Skyblade concerning research, but if most people want it, then it will be allowed. I like the idea of tech/new ship design being based on pages; however, if each subordinate proposes an idea for these then their entire government's fleet could change suddenly.
We still need neutral moderators who can get on often enough to decide battle outcome, unless people want the outcome to be decided by the participating members.

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What about leaders? I think that their should be leaders to take control of fleets if their fleet's normal owner doesn't respond to a major threat swiftly or, if they are away on a trip, for some reason has not given control of their fleets to another member until they return.

Thoughts?

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Naval Forces

Confederation
40 Cruisers
-160PS (carried)
160 Frigates
120 Patrol Ships
100 Gunships
Confederation Ships

Rebellion
50 Cruisers
-200 Matas (carried)
130 Destroyers
300 Mantas
Rebellion Ships

Vice Admiral Ipvicus came up with these possible numbers for starting fleets. Are these acceptable or should they be modified? I personally think some changes should be made. Subordinates will get to a fleet at the start—how the size of this fleet will be detemined is unknown.

Ok, it seems that the only real problem is research and whether or not it should be done and, if so, how? Ship designing also needs work.
Once, all the disagreements are smoothed out, I'll post the rules and we can settle any final disagreements or uncertainties.

A NEUTRAL MODERATING TEAM IS STILL NEEDED. Each side also needs at least one more subordinate (as I understand the current number is 2 to 2).

All distribution of a government's fleets should be the responibility of the government's leader. In other words, the leader will post daily production, then post where the new ships are to be deployed. They can be deployed either under his command, or under the command of subordinate commanders. The leader should also have the ability to make posts for his subordinate fleets if their commanders aren't around.

The government leader should be in charge of everything but movement and battle posts by his subordinates.

Maybe we should spread the power so not all the pressure is on one person/leader. It would make it easier. Alot easier.

In most webstories players control entire societies, their research and development, their industrial capacity, military deployment and battle strategy, even culture and internal plotlines. Just having subordinates is a big difference from doing everything by yourself. Besides, just because the leader is the one in chage of posting all that stuff I mentioned, dosn't mean he won't be getting any input from the people under him. Subordinats are expected to advise in the running of the rest of the government, keeping in mind that final decisions are up to leaders.

OK. Can someone start making this game plz. I'm not good at doing that kind of thing. I have never done it before. I think we're ready.

I'd say we are nearly ready. I still need more members willing to participate, neutral moderators, and more opinions on research.
As for ship designs, I think that each side should get two new ship designs every two weeks and the leader decides what these designs are from ideas proposed by subordinates.
How many ships should each side start out with? How many ships should each side get per day?
Perhaps, the leader could give each subordinate charge over part of the construction (for example, say that one government gets twenty ships a day, the leader could give one subordinate charge over four of these and that subordinate would get to decide what these ships will be when they are built and they will be assigned to his control).

I've already posted a balanced set of starting fleet numbers and construction rates. As I've said, that post I made earlier is something you guys can copy and paste into a topic and run a webstory. Just add players. I'll even answer mod related questions, but won't be able to do everything in that direction.

Should we ask people in the EVN forum if they want to join? If yes, I guess I better go and do it. Unless you want to.

I've basically faded away from the construction efforts here, since a lot of these suggestions are clumsy and annoying to implement (many of them have to do with undue subordinate power), and taking research out, at best, would result in a game where the Rebellion more or less wins, given enough time. At worst, the galaxy would be theirs in two days, and that wouldn't be a very good thing to happen.

However...

I would like to warn the people here about the Nova forum. Although the EVO forum has a proud heritage of webstories, and a lot of the people here on the EV forum are eager, Nova has never been a good webstory forum. The best story there that I know of, Event Horizons, died. It all has to do with the spirit there...personally, I think webstories are heavily restricted there (basically, killed off as soon as they are posted) because they have no need of webstories. Webstories and similar tales of valiance and lore were all fine and great...when the engine was simple. Now they have a billion trillion tricks they can use to get stuff to happen, and it's generally more fun to play a game with graphics than one with no graphics whatsoever. You get to do it personally...EVN is like a cancer, spreading around killing off as many webstories as it can. It's a good game, but it alters perceptions a bit. For your own good, I would keep the stories here and on EVO to keep that spirit from spreading over, or to at least minimize it, as any response at the Nova forum would be discouraging.

Consul Bob

Designing new ships would still be allowed which should be able to compensate for the superior speed and maneuverability of the Rebel ships. Do the Rebel's have any unique weapons that would give them an advantage? The only unique weapons I know of are the particle beam and the tractor beam.

Yeah, I just posted a topc for a new Override story, check it out if you want.

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Do the Rebel's have any unique weapons that would give them an advantage?

Certainly. The main unique weapon the Rebellion has is that everyone thinks for some reason that the Confederation is evil, therefore turning many webstories into "The Confederation dies and the Rebellion and their allies rule the galaxy", only with different players.

Research restrictions aren't necessary, anyhow, if you have moderators that are actually willing to moderate. The problem is players who have no sense of balance, not research itself.

-Consul Bob

So are we ready to start this? It looks like a diamond almost out of the rough.