Science Fiction Series?

[Raiderheel9304]

I discovered WES games late last year, and I am really enjoying them. The perfect balance between board game aesthetic augmented by all the things my computer can add. Great job! Having played for a while, I am wondering if a sci-fi treatment of each series could be really cool. Imagine like a Star Fleet Battles universe but for WDS games: Ship combat that echoes Star Fleet Battles. Strategic combat echoing Federation and Empire. Lastly, something at the Squad Battles scale that incorporates away missions and boarding actions. Campaigns could stretch over all 3 modules allowing people who own all three games to break out battles from the strategic game that are abstracted into ship to ship combat with the tactical game. Tactical game missions that involve away missions or boarding could break out into detailed scenarios with the squad level game. The integration of the three games might be a too heavy lift, but the shared sci fi universe that evolves over time would be amazing. Thoughts?

[Dion]

My feeling is a game set in the future would be unrealistic, as it would have to be based on theory not history. The way the games are now, being historical in nature, if you can do something or not is based on what people realistically could do in that particular time period. If the game was set in the future, players would have to get used to the unbelievable becoming believable, so as soon as you were told you couldn't do something, it would seem "extra" unbelievable, which would conflict with making the unbelievable becoming believable.

System requirements would have to be sky high too, to deal with the fact that you would have to have exceptional graphics to balance all the unbelievable things. With a game based on history, you need only a finite amount of data to cover everything that could happen in a given time period, but a game based on the future would require an infinite amount of data to cover all the things that could happen.

Sounds like your talking about a computerized D&D game set in the future. The crowd around here probably would lose interest if it wasn't historical, but it would be interesting though.

[Raiderheel9304]

I think you misunderstood me. I think you could use the current WDS game style, just repurpose it for the future. I think the WDS game platform has a great deal of flexibility for game topics that are outside the historical.

[Raiderheel9304]

Come to think of it, apart from a Star Fleet Battles/Space Empires 4X type WDS game, the platform could also work well for near future conflicts such as Taiwan vs. China, etc.

[KAreil]

That's funny.
A few weeks ago I was reading through the old Battletech books (Blood of Kerensky series, start of the clan invasion). Reading about all this big scale engagements where whole regiments fought made me think.

I spent a few hours to mod the PanzerBattles demo for this. With hard/soft/assault values already in place and scale of 1 platoon (lance or star of Battlemechs) units this actually worked fine. I used the "transport" unit class for my mockup, but with a bit of programming work another unit class "Walker" or similar would be possible.

[Ashcloud]

The WDS engines would work very well in any setting. Sci-Fi, Fantasy all possible. Maybe unlikely but definitely possible.

[Dion]

I agree. With computers pretty much anything is possible. Computerized hex and counter games are really good at suspending disbelief. 4x sci-fi games are really interesting too. Computers made it extra easy to delve deep into them because the depth was already there and computers made it extra easy to access. It'll really be interesting to see what's in store for the future of computerized gaming in general.

[_Martin_]

I guess s-f stuff is possible but it probably isn't what I'd associate WDS games with. I'd rather they focused on real historical conflicts and battles. Most notably Ancients battles are welcome. HPS's ancient battles are real-time and I'd love to have turn-based ancient battles akin to e.g. Musket & Pike titles. As for s-f, something like VR Designs' Shadow Empire would probably be doable, but I guess it would require extension of the present game engine.

[Steve_R.]

As a quick observation, a challenge with sci-fi gaming (spaceships) is that it would be truly 3 dimensional. Gaming also involves a degree of the suspension of reality, such as the availability of endless fuel and other consumable resources. It would be fun to have such games. The Down Below (Alliance–Union universe) series by Cherryh would be excellent.

[Bill-Peters]

I think that the Squad Battles series would be fun to be used for a futuristic "Mech Warrior" type game. The squads would be the heavy infantry armed with weapons while the armored units could be converted to Mech Warriors. Use futuristic buildings for the building artwork. "Otherworld" type artwork for the ground tiles and terrain.

Would be fun to play a planetary campaign using that kind of MOD game.