Thursday, October 7, 2021

Major Changes - Scope Creep

Scope Creep - why did I add more Scope? 
because my Assumptions were violated - that I thought I can play a TL8 game with CESRD and nope I cant. This added about 40+ hours to my predicted work even if I've about had 40+ hours in it already (writing after work and family time).  

Major Changes 

  1. I wanted to just make a TL8 Ship Book with the layout and 3d (Blender files) and of course well-rendered Pictures (which can always follow even after the Book is out) I can always upload more and more FREE renders. BUT THEN too many problems with existing CE ship building - particularly - Running a TL8 game - (or TL9 in GURPS )is not playable in CE. There are ESSENTIAL TL9+ assumptions I cannot avoid or workaround. 
    1. So I'm going to add a Ship Building system FOCUSED on TL6-TL8. Enough Rules to make the Saturn V, Soyuz, the Buran, the Shuttle, Sea Dragon, Falcon 9, SpaceX Starship, etc... Enough Tech for you to Run "For All Mankind" or Alternate History or Near Future (like Daniel Suareze's Delta-V, Andy Weir's The Martian, Artemis, i haven't listen to Proj hail mary yet, etc..., or Neal Stephensons Seveneves) 




  2. I'm still going to provide Blender Files of the Ship, 2d Floor plans in Illustrator and Inkscape sgv files. 
  3. I'm still going to provide a Cost and Expense Analysis and their Ops because I realize that maybe someone may approach it and find it less intimidating when I explain it. I'm not an Engineer - I graduated an Arts degree but I work in IT , Construction, and Manufacturing. I'm not that guy in class who had A's I'm your consistent C-level student who enjoys something people think Grade-A people enjoy.  
  4. A Change you will notice is that I've Consolidated CE, MGT2 and GURPS rules as note as to their Pros and Cons. I came from GURPS, I've studied the other systems and as an OLD GUY who wants to easily juggle this - I keep notes of how I can reconstruct a skills I've forgotten, to where I left off in my javascript studies, how to remember to do quadratic equations, etc... - I will create a map and guide for the reader to help them remember to perform "maths" concepts I learned to do in a way a High Schooler (in the Philippines and probably in the US) can follow this and build worlds. 
    1. Building Worlds - to Know the Infra, Costs, Risks, and Opportunities of Rockets, and all the Infra that goes into this - this hopefully will help. Basically the Role of Rockets in everyday life - for those capable to leave a powerful gravity well and travel a system. 
  5. This Took A while. a CE and MGT2 Sheet to compare the two systems. I WILL MAKE SHIPBUILDING EASIER in both a spreadsheet level and conceptual level. and Allow people to choose the level of complexity. 

Notes: 
This is the Sample Sheets. I noticed that ships need to be analyzed SIDE-BY-SIDE in order to understand the system mechanics the game Designer sets out. 

So you can see here that the Olders ship takes more work to keep Running, but the Newer ship only needs half the crew. But the older Ship, took a SMALLER loan and has a lower Mortgage. heck PCs can start out easily FULLY OWNING the ship quite easily. 

I've simplified the maintenance and penalties of a problematic ship. 



What to look Forward To.

  1. TL8 is the time and technology before we have Gravitics, Impossible Drives, and Statis Pods. Everything before Faster the Light tech is huge. Thas 100 or 500 years depending on how much I learned from how consistently misplaced the optimistic is about the Tech and the challenges, but failing to appreciate the near term horizon tech. 
    1. TL6-TL8 Rockets and Space Ships
    2. Fleets of these much Older Ships that can be used to Populate the Setting, much scrappier Tech from 6-8 vs 9+  
    3. The Commerce and the Operations that may make it easier and more interesting. Like reaching orbit and Benchmarks, Knowing basic contents of what Keeps something in Orbit and Benchmarks, and sample operations and benchmarks for comparisons. 
  2. Complexity like this really just happens in the FIRST part of the game as the Players and GM immerse, after these are set the GM pretty much runs the game based on the Players preferences and boundaries. The Hardish Scifi is a parameter the GM can relax depending on the gaming group but the GM knows which way is harder or what would be more believable. 

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