Friday, June 23, 2023

Progress in Ship Combat Rules. June 23 Friday 2023

Progress in the Ship Combat Rules. June and May was a busy month as Nicco's other job and all the social occasions and holidays cut into the production time. I just got the final yesterday and Nicco is proceeding to work on some Company Stuff (a presentation for people who are getting our IT services). 


I on the other hand will be polishing some missing areas and doing the last editing before this is published. As well as creating the AI and Blender made art. And AI and Blender Art (using Blender as the image to image references). 

I discovered a lot of stuff that will take 2-3 more weeks. But any delay would be because of me and probably burnout from Work

(IT implementation with scheduling problems - I have to schedule AI training so that people suffer less Decision Fatigue in Planning - people avoid planning because it gives them decision fatigue but because they avoid planning, they have a lot of Unplanned work and cannot give Timeline Commitments, USING Ai to organize Tasks with Bard and GPT3.5 is going to be critical. Decision burnout happens when Sequencing Tasks and priorities, creating prompts for Critical Chain and Path for the AI to help supervisors will be crucial. We are looking at a future where market forces are dehumanizing people to rely on AI to perform executive mental functions. If AI can be used to reduce decision fatigue and manage it, particularly by making people have thoughtful yet engaged work). 

List of Fixe Preliminarily

  • Review the Whole Document. 
  • Clarify the Point Defense.  - Particularly design goals. Current CE space combat system missle Saturation is the dominant strategy, everything serves the support of the missile barrage. Defense in Depth is uneconomical when I try to model the ships I would need vs the cost. (Just target the destroyers/Screening elements first). MNEME changes this putting more emphasis in Point defense and Defense in Depth, and skirmishes are not as decisive but the economic burdens of material replacement can make for strategic wins - This Allows PCs to win by Guile and allow Underdogs to Win. Which is what it was designed for - the GM may not know what they are getting into when using the "Stock" Ship combat rules and the implications - Mneme helps by showing its numbers and helping the GM craft a suitable set of goals for how they think Space Combat would run or take our recommendation. 
  • Clarify the Differences Between other Space Combat Systems. Used to shape expectations so people dont go expecting something they shouldnt.  
  • Example: Ship Combat Ends when the Scale of the Battle changes. Example - Ends when Boarding happens, example Dog fighting changes time scale. 
  • Copy Paste the Ship Stats from 230501-04 RAW CE SHIPS as the spreadsheet will be shared for people to be able to quickly make detailed ship stats that can be easily copy and paste - a strange bug makes it you have to copy paste first in Docs and Copy Paste in Docs to Roll20. Don't worry all buyers will have a the GDOC copy of the Book for their own Edits and Changes so that when they use it in their game they can Remove and edit portions they didnt agree with. 
  • Kit Bash some Ships and research if I can afford the time to create MAPS of these all these ships. 


"Does this sound reasonable: In a Less Decisive Space Combat System - where overwhelming force is not as Decisive (just because they have more Missile Cruisers) then PCs shine? This is because if its less decisive, then Strategic Positions matter more and this is Where PCs do missions, gather intel, scout, network, etc... But in a Decisive Space Combat system - it focuses more on having the firepower? (Something for the AI and I to analyze; the Game Mechanics should make the GM's Job easier - and doesn't get in the way of Narrative Consistency - allowing the GM to fudge and improvise more).

If the space combat is not Strategically Sensitive - supply chains, logistics, politics, etc... PCs can tip the scales. and thus PCs matter."

Experimenting with Blenders's FreeStyle - the feature that draws Lines. Is it easier to make ship maps with Blender or Draw them by hand? Nicco already made modular Ship parts for me. And I made Kitbashes of ships using Mark Kingsnorth for this and just aligning them would just be all what I need. 

This is an additional Cost I cannot afford, I went 3x my budget in making the 2 Parsecs from Sol - Making the FreeBees. I'm bleeding as a loss in every project. Because Its not really sustainable at this level of quality and my requirements. I want a GM out there to say " Hey I want easier to run Combat, I want a Hardish Scifi Traveller - enough for my Entry level science abilities, I want an easier to run Space Combat. I want ships that I can easily copy paste into Roll20. I want the people to design it thinking I will have to do less preparation." (Seeing Seth Skarkowski's videos give so much helpful prep material). Right now I'm in a hole for 5x what I spent. I just tell myself I'm spending on making books instead of buying books 😅 - I feel more fulfilled. The dream is to do this full time while work is stressing me out.

But knowing enough of the economics that for this - I gotta be like a Louis Rossman -audience - a  lot of DIYers who like the tools and the philosophy. He's not mainstream. and that's the problem: How can you make a niche hobby break even when there really is a only a minority who is interested. Hopefully my IT services will help support my hobby as it will help us Buy the Graphic Cards I need to set up the AI lab in our data center. And considering how much marketing LR does, its going to be a costly hobby with no break even. I should just think of what I'm willing to spend on the hobby and accept that. In this day and era with rocket inflation and lowering quality of life as Cost of living increases - if I invest in a game that makes a few people happy - its not a bad life. 


ADJUSTED the rotation of the Camera to make it straighter. 


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