I was reading through some succession games on the Dwarf Fortress boards. They can be really fun. I wonder if we could do some similar things to promote co-operative play - all our skills need honing, anyway, before the Steam griefers arrive.
Does anyone have any good ideas? Now we have so many avatar slots there's really no reason not to have some throwaway fun. I thought perhaps:
-Ringworld deathmatch. Two teams start building cities on neighbouring ringworld segments, separated by the small unbuildable area. It's a fight to the death, but no leaving the system so spacecraft can't be that advanced. Grace period. Teams should be online at the same agreed time(s). Each team limited to a certain number of man-hours per day not counting designer time. All building and spacecraft designs must be original. No outside help.
-Pain train. An ancient colony ship is being towed from the edge of a star system, very slowly, into the sun by a tugboat with a tractor beam. Shields system is damaged to 0%. The colonists awake from stasis: they have weapons, food, vehicles and small craft on the ship. If they can gather enough resources to repair systems and raise the shields, the tractor lock will break. Problem is, automated scrapper drones occupy all the critical systems and command areas of their ship, including the shield room, have small craft of their own and will hinder them as they try to visit planets. Probably a one-session game with a few hours on the clock. When the ship hits the sun, it's game over. Limited respawns per team.
- A game set up in a system with only one non-hostile world. That world has a massive enemy fortress. The team will start on an icy moon, in a finished biodome with a crate of food. They'll have a shield and some physical barriers for protection - anything inside the barrier is safe, but they'll have to pull down the barrier to start expanding beyond the dome limits. The dome is positioned not to contain all needed resources, so enemy raids can destroy vulnerable outposts. Ultimate goal is to take down the fortress. After a grace period, the enemy team can start to make moves against them. Same restrictions: each team limited to a certain number of man-hours per day, not counting designer time. No leaving the system. All designs original. No outside help. Battles by appointment.
-Sublight adventure. Like the old Journey to the Centre of the Galaxy. We build a fancy co-op spacecraft with a big player crew, take shifts to pilot it. We have a defined mission and route, such as fill the brig with creatures with extraordinarily high attributes, or cross the entire galaxy without FTL. During away team missions or battles as many people come online as possible. An opposing team with numerous, less powerful ships harries the team, forcing them to stop and build facilities for repair etc. Supplementary objectives could be added along the way for an episode-of-the-week feel.
More ideas? Sign-ups? :)
Does anyone have any good ideas? Now we have so many avatar slots there's really no reason not to have some throwaway fun. I thought perhaps:
-Ringworld deathmatch. Two teams start building cities on neighbouring ringworld segments, separated by the small unbuildable area. It's a fight to the death, but no leaving the system so spacecraft can't be that advanced. Grace period. Teams should be online at the same agreed time(s). Each team limited to a certain number of man-hours per day not counting designer time. All building and spacecraft designs must be original. No outside help.
-Pain train. An ancient colony ship is being towed from the edge of a star system, very slowly, into the sun by a tugboat with a tractor beam. Shields system is damaged to 0%. The colonists awake from stasis: they have weapons, food, vehicles and small craft on the ship. If they can gather enough resources to repair systems and raise the shields, the tractor lock will break. Problem is, automated scrapper drones occupy all the critical systems and command areas of their ship, including the shield room, have small craft of their own and will hinder them as they try to visit planets. Probably a one-session game with a few hours on the clock. When the ship hits the sun, it's game over. Limited respawns per team.
- A game set up in a system with only one non-hostile world. That world has a massive enemy fortress. The team will start on an icy moon, in a finished biodome with a crate of food. They'll have a shield and some physical barriers for protection - anything inside the barrier is safe, but they'll have to pull down the barrier to start expanding beyond the dome limits. The dome is positioned not to contain all needed resources, so enemy raids can destroy vulnerable outposts. Ultimate goal is to take down the fortress. After a grace period, the enemy team can start to make moves against them. Same restrictions: each team limited to a certain number of man-hours per day, not counting designer time. No leaving the system. All designs original. No outside help. Battles by appointment.
-Sublight adventure. Like the old Journey to the Centre of the Galaxy. We build a fancy co-op spacecraft with a big player crew, take shifts to pilot it. We have a defined mission and route, such as fill the brig with creatures with extraordinarily high attributes, or cross the entire galaxy without FTL. During away team missions or battles as many people come online as possible. An opposing team with numerous, less powerful ships harries the team, forcing them to stop and build facilities for repair etc. Supplementary objectives could be added along the way for an episode-of-the-week feel.
More ideas? Sign-ups? :)