SEIV Risk Mod game on PBW

[geoschmo]

Using Risk Mod 2.0, which you can Download here. (http://seiv.pbw.cc/Download/filelib/1111/RiskMod.zip)

Game is open to 8 players and will use the Risk Map included in the mod. Join the game here. (http://seiv.pbw.cc/text/index.jsp?menu=gamemenu.jsp%3fgame=jere9s&body=gam ebody.jsp%3fgame=jere9s)

If you remember the Risk Mod discussion from a few months ago, there have been a few changes to Risk Mod. Make sure you have Version 2.0 if you want to play the game.

Geoschmo

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Not Found (404)
Original request: /Download/filelib/1111/RiskMod.zip

Not found request: /Download/filelib/1111/RiskMod.zip

[geoschmo]

Yep, any links to stuff from the PBW file library you have to be logged over there for them to work. You don't actually have to be on the site, but you have to have visited recently and not logged out.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Ah. Thanks. (Ah, not interested in the game - to much going on already. Just curious about the mod.)

[geoschmo]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
Ah. Thanks. (Ah, not interested in the game - to much going on already. Just curious about the mod.)


Well, the mod can be played agaisnt the AI if you are into that sort of thing. The AI does decently at it actually. They shouldn't win against a skilled player, but they produce enough ships to make it interesting. And you can't use the normal things to take advantage of them, like training or mines. Although I think the mod overall is a little vanilla to hold anyone's attention for too long unless you are facing other people. Maybe even if you are. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Geoschmo

[Ragnarok-X]

How about posting something about this risk mod ?

[geoschmo]

Risk™ Mod for Space Empires IV

Inspired by the popular board game of world domination, Risk™ Mod is set in the Space Empires IV universe, but removes much of the detail from the game. This is to give the mod the feel and play style of the original Risk™.

There is no research, or resource collection in Risk™ Mod. There are no units to build. Only ships, and only one type of ship is available to build. There is also only one facilitiy available, a space yard which also serves as your resupply depot.

Every system in Risk™ Mod has one planet, and each planet can hold one space yard. Each space yard can produce one ship per turn. This models the original risk game where you gained a new army each turn for each country teritory you control.

The ship is a specially designed ship that has only two components that serve as all the vehicle control, engines, weapons.

The ship also can colonize planets. This models the Risk™ rule where the player must keep at least one army in each territory.

Combat for Risk™ Mod attempts to model the dice combat found in the board game. The ship weapons are powerful enough to destroy a ship with a single shot. However, the base chance to hit has been reduced to 40% with no drop off for distance. In effect it's a dice roll and if you roll high enough you remove one of the opponents ships. The key to combat success, as in the board game, is to outnumber the opponent.

Ships have enough supply to travel a couple systems. To expand beyond that you will need to colonize as you go. This simulates the board game rule where you cannot move armies through countries that belong to other players.

If a true board game effect is desired for Risk™ Mod, you can play games with all systems seen, and omnipresent view turns on. In this style of play it is also suggested that score be set to view all. Also it's suggested that a house rule be adopted where players can only attack systems adjacent to a system which they control. The lack of supply will make it difficult, but not impossible to do this.

The system names in Risk™ Mod have been replaced with a list of country names. Randomly generated quadrants will be composed entirely of systems with only one planet located in the center of each system. There will be no systems without planets.

Included with Risk™ Mod is a 42 system RiskMap modeled after the game board. It has 8 common starting positions. It can be used with more then 8 players, but it is not recomended.

Risk™ Mod will be best played against other humans, but the AI will function. To get the AI to colonize planets they had to be given multiple designs, however, as with the human players all ships will have only the two all purpose components. The AI will expand, attack, and defend as in stock SEIV.

Neutral AI will stay in one system, but they will build many over time, so getting them early will be important. There is also some kind of wierd bug that causes Neutral players to not always use the planet in the center of their home system, so many neutral will have two planets in their home system. This will make them a little tougher, but still not as hard to beat as a regular AI player.

[brianeyci]

Hrm. Why can you build at 2400 minerals per turn, and why do you get minerals per turn on your space yard. Wouldn't a more accurate modelling be getting 1 mineral per turn per planet, and ships costing one mineral or something (or a multiple of 20000 since you start out with 20000 resources).

Brian

[geoschmo]

brianeyci said:
Hrm. Why can you build at 2400 minerals per turn,

I didn't change that because it wasn't neccesary. It doesn't matter how much the space yards could build in a turn, only that you can build one ship per turn. And I accomplised that by making the ships really cheap.
and why do you get minerals per turn on your space yard.

You don't get any minerals from the space yards. You incoming resources are the same no matter how many planets you have.
Wouldn't a more accurate modelling be getting 1 mineral per turn per planet, and ships costing one mineral or something (or a multiple of 20000 since you start out with 20000 resources).

Brian

Wouldn't make any difference for the mod. You'd still get one ship per turn per space yard, and that's all I was concerned about.

[brianeyci]

geoschmo said:Wouldn't make any difference for the mod. You'd still get one ship per turn per space yard, and that's all I was concerned about.



Yeah but... okay. Its been a long time since I played Risk but here it goes. In Risk, I remember you getting one soldier per country. Then you could put those soldiers wherever you wanted. For example one country gives you one min, and if you have five mins you could build five soldiers. You might choose to build them all in one country, or two countries. It seems that in your mod, you are forced to distribute your soldiers (er ships) evenly, for example five soldiers in five countries (planets) across the galaxy. Why so?

Brian

[Fyron]

You can only have one space yard per planet in SE4, and each SY can only build 1 ship per turn. There is no way around it. A comprimise had to be made.

In Risk, you get 1 army per turn per 3 countries, not per country. You also get bonus armies based on control of entire continents. North America gives you 5 extra armies per turn, for example. Neither of these are really representable in SE4 if each system is treated as a country. Geo's system of one planet per system and one SY per planet, building 1 ship per turn at every planet, is good enough and maintains the basic spirit of the game.

[geoschmo]

Yes, that's correct. This was as close as I could easily get with the SE4 mechanics.

[brianeyci]

Make all planets be size one. The shipyard/resupply depot also produces one mineral. Your ship costs three minerals. Set the amount the empire gets even with 0 plants to 0 mins.

I can't see bonus armies working in any way though.

Brian

[Alneyan]

Wouldn't drones work to simulate what Brianeyci described? (It has been a long, long while since I Last played Risk, so I do not recall the actual rules of the game) You could build several drones at a single planet, they can warp unlike all other units, and would work almost like ships (once you remove their supply usage).

The two problems are that drones have few movement orders (attack is the only one), and you would need one extra turn to deploy them. The first limitation might be in the spirit of the game though; you would only need to attack one single sector (where the planet is), and not to travel anywhere else in the system. Hmm...

If there is a game master, it may be possible to give extra resources when certain conditions are met, allowing a particular player to build more soldiers where and when she wishes. That requires a game master to be present however; otherwise, I believe you would need some sort of scenario editor to achieve a similar effect.

[geoschmo]

Drones would work, if drones worked. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Unfortunatly they can't be fleeted, and won't warp together. So it would be next to impossible to make any attacks.

Unless I made the Risk map a single system with 42 planets, and placed damaging storms to keep you from moving except between planets that I wanted you to move between. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif THen you could use drones and I could tweak the resource numbers so you could build a certain number per turn but put them where you wanted. Except that you could only build them in multiples that the build queue allows. 1, 5, 10, etc.

[Alneyan]

Well, I think there is no such thing as fleets either in Risk. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif The problem is, of course, not being able to warp together, which I had completely forgotten (too much time spent using Drone Carriers I guess).

You could have other numbers than 1, 5 and the like by using Emergency Building and One Turn Worth, but that would probably be too much of a hassle.

[brianeyci]

geoschmo said:
Drones would work, if drones worked. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Unfortunatly they can't be fleeted, and won't warp together. So it would be next to impossible to make any attacks.

Unless I made the Risk map a single system with 42 planets, and placed damaging storms to keep you from moving except between planets that I wanted you to move between. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif THen you could use drones and I could tweak the resource numbers so you could build a certain number per turn but put them where you wanted. Except that you could only build them in multiples that the build queue allows. 1, 5, 10, etc.



Damn, ur right, your implementation was the correct one... doing the one system thingy and lots of storms would be such a hassle, along with only being able to build in multiples of five.

Brian

[geoschmo]

This is NOT a bump. I'm merely pointing out that there are two spots left if you want to join this game.

TWO SPOTS LEFT!!!

That is all.

[Fyron]

Sure looks like a bump to me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

[NarfsCompIsBack]

*Tries to remember some silly poem about a frog on a bump on a log in the middle of the sea, but can't*

[geoschmo]

I sent an email out to the players about maybe starting with 6. With the Risk map this could be problematic. I might be able to move the staritng positions around some to not give anyone a big advantage. But with the choke points built into the map it might be difficult to balance.

Too bad I can't get a couple more people to join. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

It should be an easy game to keep up with. No research, not much for designing new ships all teh time. Almost no micro-managment at all. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[atari_eric]

There might be a problem with this mod - there is no way to move colonists, there is no way to add cargo space to the ships...

[geoschmo]

You don't need to move population. Risk mod uses Automatic Colonization Population. You give your ship the colonize order and the new colony will have 1B people as soon as it's planted.

Geoschmo

[Gandalph]

I could not find this game on PBW. Is it too late to join in the fun?

EDIT: Nevrmind, I found the link in your first post and followed it to see the game has already started. Have Fun! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[geoschmo]

Gandalph, if you are interested I might be needing a replacment player. One of the players has missed turn 2 and 3 with no notice. I was getting ready to send him an email and see what's up.

[Kana]

So far I like the mod/game...I haven't had any combat...but I expect to see that in the next few turns. One thought/suggestion. Currently we move 7...which gets us into the system/territory...In Risk, we would own that territory the moment we enter/take it. So to simulate that we should be able to move completely to the middle of the system, and take the planet...This is just a thought. Move 13 unstead of 7 someting to consider. Unless this is an attempt to allow defenders to see an attack comming, or to allow WP defense, which would give the defender and advantage. Defender always won ties in Risk right? Thoughts....?

Kana

[bearclaw]

You suggested that a single system would help with the mechanics. What about a single system for each Continent?

[Suicide Junkie]

That would allow you to use the system-wide abilities to simulate the entire-continent bonus.

[geoschmo]

Suicide Junkie said:
That would allow you to use the system-wide abilities to simulate the entire-continent bonus.

Not really. System wide abilities work whether you have every planet in the system or not. Plus I'd have to rework the entire mod. Curently you get to build one ship per planet. There is no sysetm wide ability that will make this work faster. I'd have to make it some sort of resource bonus thing, but the current version of the mod totally ignores economics.

[Suicide Junkie]

Under that system-continent, you'd naturally have multiple planets per system, so build rate wouldn't be a problem.
Keeping players from bypassing countries would be...
And you'd have to give some leeway in the continent bonus. Perhaps a ringworld "capital" with a zillion planetary shields, that has to be captured by troops, which only a solidly-held system-continent could pull off easily.

----

On a totally different track, that should be more in line with what you have now;

Why don't you move the warppoints in the current mod, so that they go directly from planet to planet?
That way, combat will start the instant you warp, and ships can be given speed 1. No skipping through countries and bypassing the combat.
Defender gets the warppoint defense advantage too.

If you haven't already, you could have the planet facilities build at three times the rate at which they produce. Ships would take the full turn worth of resources.
You're supposed to get one army guy for each 3 territories, right?
The continent bonus could be spread among the planets via resource value %

EG: The austrailian places would be 1/3(base) + 2/4(continent bonus of 2 divvied up over 4 places) = 5/6 of a ship per territory. 2500 income with 3000 build rate/ship cost.

[geoschmo]

Currently economics are irrelevant. Ships cost one to build and base empire resource production is 50K. The only facility in the game is a space yard which also acts as a resupply depot. It also takes one turn to build on a new colony, so there is a two one turn lag before you can start prodicing more ships.

According to my memory you got one army per country, and that was the easiest thing to setup with an SE4 mod anyway, so that's what I went with. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I considered the warp points over the planets. The main reason I went with what I did was that I wanted the mod to be useable with randomly generated maps as well as the pre-made risk map, and I knew of no way to make the warp points do that in a randomly generated map.

[spoon]

This game has been a blast, thanks for making this mod, Geo.

A couple comments (in the spirit of making the mod "more risk like") --
1) Omnipresent View. I think you were considering this for the next game anyway.
2) Eliminate Supplies. One thing I remember about Risk is building up a giant army and traipsing half-way across the map in one turn. Currently, you have to stop every few systems to colonize and resupply.

[geoschmo]

spoon said:
2) Eliminate Supplies. One thing I remember about Risk is building up a giant army and traipsing half-way across the map in one turn. Currently, you have to stop every few systems to colonize and resupply.

I considered this. I decided on supplies because with no supplies you could bypass a planet entirely if it has ships and go off attacking the other players interior. In Risk you can't skip over countries. You have to attack a country to get through it.

[Gandalph]

It would take some work but, if the planet and all warp points were in the same sector, you could still go on a rampage but not bypass defenses?

[geoschmo]

Yes, I considered that as well. It would work for the Risk map, but I wanted the mod to work with randomly generated maps as well.

Besides, I always found that part of Risk to be my least favorite. I prefer playing the game where you could only move one country at a time. It's a fairly popular house rule.

[spoon]

geoschmo said:
I prefer playing the game where you could only move one country at a time. It's a fairly popular house rule.


Funny, I've never heard of that house rule... sounds like a good idea though.

Another popular house rule that you can kind of duplicate is the one that puts a limit on the number of armies you can have in one country. For SE4 risk, you could just play with a low ship limit, like 100 or something. (I was actually afraid our game was going to be a stalemate for a while there. Fortunately, that seems to have worked itself out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif ).


Besides, I always found that part of Risk to be my least favorite.

My least favorite was the sheer amount of armies you got later in the game for turning in a set of cards. Though using your house rule certainly would mitigate the problem. (though extend the length of the game, which isn't necessarily a bad thing).

[geoschmo]

spoon said:

geoschmo said:
I prefer playing the game where you could only move one country at a time. It's a fairly popular house rule.


Funny, I've never heard of that house rule... sounds like a good idea though.

It's been a while, but the specifics were something like, you could attack from a country to any number of neighboring countries, but whatever armies you moved into that counrty when you destroyed the enemy were fixed for that turn. So if you had 20 countries in Great Britain, you could take Iceland and move 10 armies, but then those armies couldn't do anything else that turn. The 10 you left in Great Britain could attack again into Northern Europe on that turn. It definetly slowed the game down. Of course that's not always a good thing for a board game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif