SEIV Risk Mod game on PBW

[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