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Old 04-10-2019, 04:56 PM   #41
TheAmishStig
 
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Default Re: FnordCon Update

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Originally Posted by Andrew Hackard View Post
The design/dev team are paying attention to these reports. Quietly. Behind the scenes. (Meaning they aren't going to jump in and start replying -- they're too busy writing more stuff for the game.)
Just like Secret Masters to be watching from the shadows. ;)

So that it doesn't have to wait forever and a half for me to get my wits about me and write...one thing that I ended up confused by initially was the 'Blast' icon. Once Jimmie pointed out what it was it made perfect sense, but until I'd asked I was looking at it in the negative space and saw a 3D wireframed shape, rather than seeing the positive space and a blast radiating outwards.

It might be a total non-issue because I know I'm weird, but if it is a wider issue maybe a small explosion rocking a car would communicate the same thing with less ambiguity? (I'm picturing a silhouette of a car with only 2 wheels on the ground, in the middle of being flipped by a land mine or mortar going off...like a combination of whatever this is and the "Road Slippery" sign)
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Old 04-10-2019, 05:43 PM   #42
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Default Re: FnordCon Update

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I like item 3. It should be hard with cars zipping around to line up a shot. Very good sign.
Yes and no.

It is good that I struggled to easily maneuver my damaged vehicle (while I was trying to point my front weapons.)

However, the problem is that side weapons became significant. This seems less realistic to me.

I would propose a mechanic to reinforce the utility of forward firing weapons, say to reroll one of your attack dice when firing forward weapons (rerolling dice is a mechanic). (Or alternatively, penalize side weapon accuracy.)

The technological state of 2100 aside, targeting and attacking in the direction your vehicle moves conforms better to the reality of dogfights.

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Item 2 - "Persisting with a vehicle that degrades in ability" I don't know what that means but I laughed. My vehicle definitely meets this criteria. Are you saying making a maneuver permanently degrades your vehicle?
Here is an overview of how and why the integrated state of your vehicle diminishes.
  • Tire damage is linked to loss of control and speed
  • Fire (burning) impacts control or damage
  • Explosive weapon damage impacts control
  • Control improves defense and maneuverability
  • Speed improves defense and decreases maneuverability
  • (Vicious cycle: control impacts skids which impact tire damage, ergo see first point.)
So as your car accumulates damage, most of your abilities become impaired. This also provides entertaining (if not stressful) resource management.

By the way, the game system manages all this without a lot of effort (great work).
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Old 04-10-2019, 05:52 PM   #43
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Default Re: FnordCon Update

Another elegant mechanic, that contrasts with "Classic," is that damage can get spread among internal components rather than fully eliminating one component at a time.

A shot can hit your engine, then wound your driver, then hit your back armor, all for partial damage (with simple mechanics).

This creates more drama as you hope your crew can keep hanging in there.
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Old 04-10-2019, 06:13 PM   #44
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Default Re: FnordCon Update

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One place that sucked on defense was that if you lost control you also didn't get to roll any of your dice for speed.
This was really tough, and I keep wondering if we learned the rule correctly.

FYI: you "lose control" when you expend all your control markers for a turn.

It's hard to predict how many control markers you need to save for maneuvers and contingencies. With a damaged vehicle, this really reduced my risk taking; hence, it was hard to point my vehicle's weapons enough.

It can be deadly when you forgo your speed based defense dice. The skidding consequences of losing control pale in comparison to this one.

I am unaware; can you get defense dice to roll from other factors than speed? (I just checked a picture where the steel plate component will give you one extra defense die.)

I can't wait until they implement active protection systems where you get to roll red defense dice! ;-)
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Old 04-10-2019, 06:22 PM   #45
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Default Re: FnordCon Update

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This was really tough, and I keep wondering if we learned the rule correctly.

FYI: you "lose control" when you expend all your control markers for a turn.

It's hard to predict how many control markers you need to save for maneuvers and contingencies. With a damaged vehicle, this really reduced my risk taking; hence, it was hard to point my vehicle's weapons enough.

It can be deadly when you forgo your speed based defense dice. The skidding consequences of losing control pale in comparison to this one.

I am unaware; can you get defense dice to roll from other factors than speed? (I just checked a picture where the steel plate component will give you one extra defense die.)

I can't wait until they implement active protection systems where you get to roll red defense dice! ;-)
You got it right. No dice for speed when you lose control. The steel plate does work still when you're out of control. Obviously you can't use your ace tokens to reroll dice you don't have, but strangely enough you can reroll the steel plate die using ace tokens when out of control.
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Old 04-10-2019, 06:27 PM   #46
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. . . but strangely enough you can reroll the steel plate die using ace tokens.
Yeah that's right, my steel plate is sloped, and I just increased the angle of deflection with my maneuver . . .
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Old 04-11-2019, 01:57 PM   #47
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Default Re: FnordCon Update

Also as an fyi, I've started sharing some pictures from Fnordcon in the images section for Car Wars on boardgamegeek.com.

A question for the powers that be who graciously shared a preview at Fnordcon: I took pictures of all of the cards... Would it be okay for me to post a list with the prototype card stats/info here?
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Old 04-11-2019, 02:01 PM   #48
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Default Re: FnordCon Update

Also, from the list I built, some number crunching, and also observing them in play, I think the heavy rockets might be overpriced by about a point.
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Old 04-11-2019, 03:31 PM   #49
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I'm not sure how you managed 7 control markers at speed 5 - when you got up to a speed of 5, two of the control markers (the ones on the speed section of the dashboard) got covered up,[...]
[eyebrow raised] The board I was using didn't have anything like what you describe.
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Old 04-11-2019, 03:51 PM   #50
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Default Re: FnordCon Update

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I'm not sure how you managed 7 control markers at speed 5 - when you got up to a speed of 5, two of the control markers (the ones on the speed section of the dashboard) got covered up, which only left a possible 6: 4 for the tires section, plus the 1 for the improved suspension, and another one if you took the amateur driver (which if you took it meant you didn't get the two green reroll dice for the veteran driver).
In the sets that we were using at FnordCon, there was a total possible maximum of 8 Control. If you had both equipment upgrades, all 4 from tires, and were going Speed 2 or less.

If you were going Speed 5, then the maximum you could have had (with the right undamaged build) would have been 6 Control.
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