looking for a partner

Note re simple version - the digital version has similar combat outcomes in terms of damage carried by ships and damage carried beyond scrap and repair phases, especially with addition of "pause to scrap as needed".

A version with chits being created as needed (and paperclips as fleet stands) could be done - the fleet groupings do not actually require a tray if table space is available and battle cards can be left out.

About the rest:

The trays (shrank them with using written move orders but now are 7 fleets with room for 12 ships each) are just a sorting and storage mechanism to eliminate tracking paperwork and allow ordering a group of ships to move together.

A large number of unit chits are needed to allow for potential tracking of damages. I have been able to reduce those somewhat now but only playtesting could indicate further reduction.

It would be a completely different game if number of ships that could be involved in a combat or number of combats was limited by any factors other than affording the ships and getting there.

(I do not expect much damage to be carried beyond next Economic phase.)

Have been able to reduce from inch to 1-1/2 inch board hexes.

Still an awful lot of chits needed in this game to have enough in the available pool.

see http://thesingularitytrap.com/concepts.php for most recent details, but the component list follows.

COMPONENTS

Box, Board 28x32 (1-1/2 inch hexes), 1 pair percentage dice (different colors), rules
- Spare space on the game board margins would list the ship types with costs and units and the six planetary value charts

money??

Combat/Hyperspace wheel

15 player fleet trays - will nest - designed to stack when slightly offset

6 tray covers

Battle Cards: 60 (mini, double sided) - really would like to keep these but not absolutely vital to game play
- 5 Scout/Terraformer
- 10 Scout/Explorer
- 5 Scout/Basestar
- 5 Cruiser/Terraformer
- 10 Cruiser/Explorer
- 5 Cruiser/Basestar
- 20 Cruiser/Scout

Stance Cards: 66 (micro, single sided) - could be chits instead
- (6 phantom, 5 each player "friend", 5 each player "foe")

Fleet stands: 240 (40 each color) hold 2 shards upright back to back (one facing each way - fleet id & altitude)

CHITS/SHARDS/MARKERS:

Fleet_id: 200 (100 pairs)(thin shards)

Altitude: 200 (thin shards)(double sided +/- except for 0 which is same on both sides)
- (40) for level 0, 10 each for levels 1,2,4,5,7,8 (=60), (50) for level 3, 25 each for levels 6,9 (=50)

Ships: 200 (double sided) - the * indicates blue ink instead of black for ship outline
- 25 terraformer*/basestar, 25 explorer*/scout, 25 explorer*/cruiser, 50 scout/basestar*, 50 cruiser/basestar*, 25 scout*/cruiser*

Planet owner: 90 (double sided)(6 of each combination)
- red/yellow, red/green, red/cyan, red/blue, red/purple, yellow/green, yellow/cyan, yellow/blue, yellow/purple, green/cyan, green/blue, green/purple, cyan/blue, cyan/purple, blue/purple

Planet color: 108 (shard)(double sided) 3 of each gray/color combo plus 6 of each 2 color combo

Units: 300 (single sided)
- 50 system
- 50 armor
- 50 weapons
- 50 drive
- 30 multifire
- 20 sensors
- 10 terraforming
- 40 hyperdrive (used for both slipstream and jump)

The shape of the chit is unimportant. If a triangle shape was cheaper per chit would certainly go with that.
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The ships do not have a generic health attribute - instead they have functional units and damage disables specific functions (some of which do not affect combat capability).

Specific type of damage is a consideration during repairs also. If I have a Dark ship (damaged system) that want to use as a sacrifice to pin an overwhelming force in place for that turn I would only repair the system at a 1 point repair cost.

In combat it is a simplified miniatures battle (think naval miniatures where a hit could affect sails or cannon, each of which limits the damaged ship in different ways). The idea of using average effect to reduce die rolls was lifted from napoleonic era miniatures (land based with troop formations where effect is average of current troop strength in the formation).

The battle cards are an attempt to bring the look of miniature battles to combats (and if the game was produced and took off having actual miniatures as upgrades is a thought, along with offering chits and battle card packs and fleet trays as parts).

In movement and economics it is a hexmap area control game with multiple vertical levels.
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Using blue vs black ink for ship chit outlines is only a device to aid in mentally sorting ship chits (gives clue to what is on other side) and has no meaning in game mechanics. The idea came up because I see no cost benefit to not doing it that way.

The scattered match ups between front and back sides would allow swapping an in use chit with the pool for one with a different back so the backside of the currently in use chit becomes available for use.
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It is amazing how far out of the loop I am on current manufacturing and costs. (I remember the old Avalon Hill die punched sheets of counters with sometimes all chit except for outer rim of the sheet, when the printing cost for both sides made a 2 sided chit as expensive as 2 single sided chits, and printing cost was much cheaper for monochrome single color and went up as more color was added.)

But I am beginning to catch up in that area as far as general info is concerned - moving beyond 1978 in the physical arena (as long as they don't expect me to look and act my age.
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Looking at the timeline on this game, it has actually tightened up considerably in the 9 days since the "chits and trays VS paperwork tracking" idea first presented itself.

I was a bit surprised when players going in sequence snuck back in as an actual specified mechanic - I thought only the hyperspace jumps twisting with offset idea - with dead spots added - was going to make it all the way from the 1978 game to the present.

I lucked out on the digital board already having the home base hexes colored so the 6 flat movement directions got names.