Playtest/Revisions Nov 3rd, 2009

[othercourt]

Things are operating much more smoothly. Got through 3 Matches fast enough, with each one taking about 35 minutes or so. If anything, it seemed like the rounds were going a little *too* quickly, so I think I will increase Match VP base by 20-25%, if only so that the Match isn't determined quite so early.

New roll-off rules for Cloak/Scan seemed fine. 'Gonna keep that.
The smaller play area worked all right. Keep.
Everyone seemed to dig the simplified Captain Specials, although we agreed that the Special that gives extra Thrust should be increased from +1 to +2.

Changes to Implement for next Iteration:

Simplification/Reduction of Obstacles.
Dropping Asteroid Belt, Dark Nebula, Charged Nebula, and Dark Space. Changing Hyperstorm to old Asteroid rules, and keeping Plasma Field, Slow Space, Fast Space, Null Space, and Wormhole.

I noticed during play that the order of stats on the Ship Listings does not exactly match the listings on the Character/Ship sheet.

Going to add 2 more Mission Types:
Capture (the Flag), and Goldrush. These are a 2 Flag game of capture the flag, and an Ore running mission, respectively. This adds to the existing Conquer mission, for a total of 3. Each mission will have 6 maps associated with it, with pre-set Obstacles.

Reducing the Game Levels from 9 to 5, by taking out the even numbered ones. Also, going to modify the value of Red and Gold planets in Conquer game. Yeah, it was kinda nice to have these values remain constant, but I don't want higher Game Level Matches to drag too long.

Game Level: Ship VP Per Player: Mission VP
1: 2: 12 + Player VP (Red Planet worth 1/Round, Gold Planet worth 2/Round, Flag Capture earns 12, Ore return earns 6)
2: 4: 25 + Player VP (Red Planet worth 2/Round, Gold Planet worth 4/Round, Flag Capture earns 25, Ore return earns 12)
3: 6: 35 + Player VP (Red Planet worth 3/Round, Gold Planet worth 6/Round, Flag Capture earns 35, Ore return earns 18)
4: 10: 55 + Player VP (Red Planet worth 5/Round, Gold Planet worth 10/Round, Flag Capture earns 55, Ore return earns 28)
5: 15: 85 + Player VP (Red Planet worth 7/Round, Gold Planet worth 15/Round, Flag Capture earns 85, Ore return earns 42)

Ship stats and Ship combat rules seemed solid. Never got a chance to test out the new Block rules, though, as we didn't get up to powerful enough Ships.

Also, folks seemed interested in having the size of the Ship tokens reduced slightly in size, and having the Battle Maps reduced to reflect this size. Also, having the Star Map "main board" reduced in size, which becomes more possible with the reduction of Obstacle tokens (and the need to have so many explained in the short-hand rules on the board).

All went well. Things are shaping up.