Our Overall Development Goals

V. Puzirkov. Black Sea Marines.

Ok, so let's talk about what our overall goals should be during the development of this game. Basically, how will be measure the success of the design compared to 40K?

Here's my initial list (in no particular order):

1. Write Clear, Unambiguous Rules
2. Eliminate As Much Subjectivity As Possible From The Rules
3. Update Rules When Problems Are Found Instead Of Ignoring Them
4. Balance Overall Complexity, While Generally Reducing It Compared To 5th Edition 40K
5. Reduce Overall Play Time By 25-33% Through Streamlined Mechanics
6. Reduce Overall Randomness To Make The Game More Deterministic
7. All Randomness Should Serve A Purpose
8. Reduce The Time Spent Waiting On Your Opponent
9. Design The Rules In Such A Way As To Discourage Slow Playing At Competitive Events
10. Introduce More Interesting Weapon Mechanics To The Game
11. Introduce More Interesting Weapon Defenses To The Game

Let's go through some of these in detail...


Write Clear, Unambiguous Rules

Hundreds of examples of GW's poor rules writing are available. But I'll pick on their terrain standards. In short, there are none. While suggestions are given for various pretty things and the cover values they give, it's so general in nature and so argument prone that the competitive community has simply standardized on 4+ cover for everything that's not the table itself.

We need specific terrain rules for all of the various discrete pieces that show up on a typical competitive game table. This is a forest, it gives X cover and does Y to vehicles that cross it. This is a linear wall, it gives X cover and does Y to infantry/vehicles that cross it. Etc. There's a relatively small set of terrain types. Let's just list them all and be very clear about their effects.


Eliminate As Much Subjectivity As Possible From The Rules

Basically, we're going to remove all of the big argument starters from the game. Both to speed things up and to reduce stress.

The immediate candidate for a re-think is True Line Of Sight'. It works fine for deciding if you can see the target, but beyond that it just doesn't work. Especially for determining cover for troops or tanks. We're going to have to come up with more abstract rules for what gets cover and when. Even if that doesn't feel as 'cinematic'. I'm tired of arguing about how much of a tank facing is obscured behind a hill.

Second on my list is blast weapons. Scattering produces arguments and slows the game down. Simply place your template, and roll as many to-hit dice as there are troops underneath it.


Reduce Overall Randomness To Make The Game More Deterministic

and...


All Randomness Should Serve A Purpose

I think that ideally, we should only have dice rolls for shooting, close combat attacks, psychic powers, leadership, and perhaps falling back from the enemy. Movement should be set amounts. No rolling for distance in difficult terrain or number of shots from a gun. No ramshackle tables. No random damage charts for vehicles that allow them to soak up 10+ penetrating hits without dying.

All of this is "fun" in the Candyland sense, but not very competitive.

Introduce More Interesting Weapon Mechanics To The Game

and...

Introduce More Interesting Weapon Defenses To The Game

This will be a whole set of posts of it's own, but I want to re-catagorize all of the weapons in the game into 4-5 general classes, with various sub-classes and munitions. The 'Autocannon' class, for instance, would comprise any kinetic projectile weapon with multiple shots, which could have different ammo options. While weapons in the 'Lascannon' class would shoot and wound differently because you can sweep their beams around at multiple targets or focus them on one particularly tough target to try and burn through it.

This would also allow for the advanced races/factions to purchase shields/armor that defend against one class of weapon, but do nothing to stop another.

All of which would be subject to testing, of course. But I'm always annoyed by how 'Autocannon' only ever means 2 S7 shots. While GW has to dream up 'Exterminator Autocannon', 'Hydra Autocannon', or 'Psybolt Ammo' to get some variety in the mix.

Anyhow, that's my list. What am I missing? What am I off-base on?

-SandWyrm