11-09-2011, 06:44 PM
Greetings after a long absence, fans of the Consortium!
I would like to mirror Darkseid's end-of-game post. This was a fun game while it lasted, mainly because of the chatter here on this forum.
The game itself is very simple -- perhaps needlessly so. It had a generic feel, and there was nothing to differentiate the players to add flavor. Yes, each player had their own biological profile that would guide them to colonize certain planets over others, but this never came into play in our short game.
There is some level of detail in certain technologies and capabilities, but not nearly enough. There are 6 technology tracks, and each indexes a handful of possible game-altering effects. Why only 6 tracks? And why so few actual impacts on gameplay? For that matter, technological advancement seemed to come very rapidly, leading to a hesitance to commit economic resources until the next turns research results.
And about those economic resources -- each planet/colony can mine a single kind of raw material, transform it into a single kind of generic "finished product", and then assemble that into a bare minimum number of colony fixtures (mines and factories), ships, and bases. Why go to the trouble of setting each race up with their own biological profile when we all end up using the same generic mining and manufacturing techs?
And finally, ships. You can pick from a handful of ship sizes, with a small choice of weapons/shields/cargo to put in the holds. Seems overly simplistic.
But I am a recovering empyrean challenge player. There is something to be said for simplicity if it improves playability. Look at the grandfather of all PBM for instance -- that old boardgame Diplomacy. Could not be simpler, yet always fun to play.
I wasn't overwhelmed with playability here, but it wasn't bad. The GM was very helpful, the rules were reasonably clear, and the process for submitting orders was pretty clean. The turn results needed work, and some flavor could be added. But overall it was a fairly acceptable old-school PBM game, serving as an able platform for some awesome role-playing. In that sense, Far Horizons excelled.
I was immediately entertained by Darkseid's thread and endeavored to join him. I was totally elated when other players dipped their toes in the water! I found myself drafting posts (and riposts) quite enthusiastically, and took great delight in each and every one of Darkseid's machinations. Clearly, he handed me my shirt in this game, but it was great fun all the same!
I ended up with my homeworld, one in-system colony, and one out-system. The colonies sucked up a fair amount of my resources -- not out of necessity, but because I wanted to see how fast I could grow them. Still, that distraction left me unprepared for Darkseid's invasion. I went for the basic builder strategy, hoping to do lots of communicating and outreach and amp-up the role-playing, particularly since this game had no stated "victory conditions".
Darkseid went for the early-rush and ended up with very positive results. He crippled my navy, established space superiority, and was in a good position to put his fleet to the test against my planetary defenses. Moreover, he took in some incredible plunder from that Tilkatian ship -- nice return on his military investment!
Were we to play this game again, I would put a little more focus on systematic scouting, naval development, etc, and a little less on early colonization.
at game-end:
Tech Levels:
Mining = 26
Manufacturing = 24
Military = 14
Gravitics = 7
Life Support = 18
Biology = 9
production capacity on my homeworld was 1689, 298 at the in-system colony, and 34 at the out-system place.
I had an Escort and a Frigate at the homeworld, and a single big freighter. I believe Darkseid and I were evenly matched for our home-system battle, but now that we see his much-more-advanced military tech, perhaps I was toast. And perhaps that explains why my ships didn't put a scratch on him in our earlier battles.
I had thought his tech might be falling behind, since my economy might be bigger, but that was evidently wrong! His production tech and biology were on par with mine, and his military and gravitics were well in advance of me. I was ahead only in life support. But even so, if I had turned all my life-support research over toward military, I doubt I would have outpaced him. Again, it is evident that my investment in colonization sucked resources away from military preparedness.
And in that sense, this was a good game. We make choices with our limited resources and limited knowledge, and suffer the opportunity costs.
To the game-master, I thank you. It was lots of fun. I was disappointed that you dropped off, but that's sadly a fact-of-life in PBM. Were you to show up here again and offer up a new round, I would gladly sign up.
To the players at large, good game. I was really enjoying the emerging sense of role-play. Good space opera stuff, that.
And to Darkseid, beware. We will meet again, in some other universe, some alternate dimension. And I will not so easily be caught with my pants down. Next time, I will keep my pants up high enough TO RULE THE GALAXY! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I would like to mirror Darkseid's end-of-game post. This was a fun game while it lasted, mainly because of the chatter here on this forum.
The game itself is very simple -- perhaps needlessly so. It had a generic feel, and there was nothing to differentiate the players to add flavor. Yes, each player had their own biological profile that would guide them to colonize certain planets over others, but this never came into play in our short game.
There is some level of detail in certain technologies and capabilities, but not nearly enough. There are 6 technology tracks, and each indexes a handful of possible game-altering effects. Why only 6 tracks? And why so few actual impacts on gameplay? For that matter, technological advancement seemed to come very rapidly, leading to a hesitance to commit economic resources until the next turns research results.
And about those economic resources -- each planet/colony can mine a single kind of raw material, transform it into a single kind of generic "finished product", and then assemble that into a bare minimum number of colony fixtures (mines and factories), ships, and bases. Why go to the trouble of setting each race up with their own biological profile when we all end up using the same generic mining and manufacturing techs?
And finally, ships. You can pick from a handful of ship sizes, with a small choice of weapons/shields/cargo to put in the holds. Seems overly simplistic.
But I am a recovering empyrean challenge player. There is something to be said for simplicity if it improves playability. Look at the grandfather of all PBM for instance -- that old boardgame Diplomacy. Could not be simpler, yet always fun to play.
I wasn't overwhelmed with playability here, but it wasn't bad. The GM was very helpful, the rules were reasonably clear, and the process for submitting orders was pretty clean. The turn results needed work, and some flavor could be added. But overall it was a fairly acceptable old-school PBM game, serving as an able platform for some awesome role-playing. In that sense, Far Horizons excelled.
I was immediately entertained by Darkseid's thread and endeavored to join him. I was totally elated when other players dipped their toes in the water! I found myself drafting posts (and riposts) quite enthusiastically, and took great delight in each and every one of Darkseid's machinations. Clearly, he handed me my shirt in this game, but it was great fun all the same!
I ended up with my homeworld, one in-system colony, and one out-system. The colonies sucked up a fair amount of my resources -- not out of necessity, but because I wanted to see how fast I could grow them. Still, that distraction left me unprepared for Darkseid's invasion. I went for the basic builder strategy, hoping to do lots of communicating and outreach and amp-up the role-playing, particularly since this game had no stated "victory conditions".
Darkseid went for the early-rush and ended up with very positive results. He crippled my navy, established space superiority, and was in a good position to put his fleet to the test against my planetary defenses. Moreover, he took in some incredible plunder from that Tilkatian ship -- nice return on his military investment!
Were we to play this game again, I would put a little more focus on systematic scouting, naval development, etc, and a little less on early colonization.
at game-end:
Tech Levels:
Mining = 26
Manufacturing = 24
Military = 14
Gravitics = 7
Life Support = 18
Biology = 9
production capacity on my homeworld was 1689, 298 at the in-system colony, and 34 at the out-system place.
I had an Escort and a Frigate at the homeworld, and a single big freighter. I believe Darkseid and I were evenly matched for our home-system battle, but now that we see his much-more-advanced military tech, perhaps I was toast. And perhaps that explains why my ships didn't put a scratch on him in our earlier battles.
I had thought his tech might be falling behind, since my economy might be bigger, but that was evidently wrong! His production tech and biology were on par with mine, and his military and gravitics were well in advance of me. I was ahead only in life support. But even so, if I had turned all my life-support research over toward military, I doubt I would have outpaced him. Again, it is evident that my investment in colonization sucked resources away from military preparedness.
And in that sense, this was a good game. We make choices with our limited resources and limited knowledge, and suffer the opportunity costs.
To the game-master, I thank you. It was lots of fun. I was disappointed that you dropped off, but that's sadly a fact-of-life in PBM. Were you to show up here again and offer up a new round, I would gladly sign up.
To the players at large, good game. I was really enjoying the emerging sense of role-play. Good space opera stuff, that.
And to Darkseid, beware. We will meet again, in some other universe, some alternate dimension. And I will not so easily be caught with my pants down. Next time, I will keep my pants up high enough TO RULE THE GALAXY! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!