I found this hex grid (24x24) and will split it in half:
Looks good. How big are you going to make the hexes?
Track and intercept tornado mechanic
Fri, 09/14/2012 - 17:20
#31
Hexes
Sat, 09/15/2012 - 00:06
#34
Ballpark
I think you're probably in the ball park considering your fastest movement is 3 hexes.
If that file you found doesn't work for you, try this: http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/hexagonal/
Sun, 09/16/2012 - 19:12
#36
Neat!
I got a new account and will no longer be associated with Impudent Mortal.
The tornadoes look awesome! They look substantial and ready to take a beating. Those will be fun to paint too, unlike the 1:285 scale hovercrafts I've been working on today. I can barely see them.
I was thinking last night that if you have any clear flight stands they might work well for clouds.
Sun, 09/16/2012 - 21:48
#38
Off topic
I have no input to your idea, but thought that if you like games of this genre, you might try to play Bermuda Triangle some time in your life. It is not modern, but can be easily house ruled and works ok as is in a light filler capacity:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2296/bermuda-triangle
Sun, 09/16/2012 - 23:28
#39
ah ha
they aren't cheap at $5.50 a pop
That could get expensive rapidly.
To create a disincentive for players clumping together... Basically I want to try to reward players for taking bigger risks and encourage independent travel.
I understand what you mean. Along with your "exclusive footage" idea, un-weighting the tornado location roll might help, especially if players are starting the game on different edges of the map. Meaning, have the tornadoes spawn in totally random areas now instead of predominantly in the SW. Players won't rush to the SW corner of the map to wait for tornadoes if the tornadoes are popping up all over the place.
If players all start in different areas, they might be inclined to stay in their own area if they know one could happen and thus give them unique footage.
I like your idea about the exclusive footage. The thematic rationale for this could be that unique footage is worth more to the buyers (news outlets, etc). You could have your scoring be money, player with the most money at the end wins.
Mon, 09/17/2012 - 21:25
#43
Sure
Picking your brain some more, do you think the grid should be squares instead of hexes?
They could, and it might make some things easier but make other things harder.
Also to the un-weighting, how many times do you think an area should be "hit" before one forms?
That's a good question and it might come down to game play; something you might have to change if the game is too hard or too easy.
One thing to consider is the start of the game. If it takes four or five turns to generate the first tornado, players will be driving around doing nothing, or players might all move to one area waiting for one causing the 'clumping' you were trying to avoid.
Conversely, it may be that once the game is in progress there are tornadoes popping up everywhere and some of these will get off the board without any chasing.
This is something to playtest. Start generating tornadoes and count how many turns it takes to do so.
What if there were twelve 4x4 tiles that got shuffled and layed out in a 4x3 playing area?
Ah, the old "modular board". This is doable and makes for a flexible map. The problem you've realized is the layout of the roads. The trick here is to make sure that all the roads drawn start and end in the same places on any edge of a tile so that they'll all line up. This would be relatively easy if all your roads were the same, but since you have 3 different kinds of roads, the tiling is a little trickier. It can be done, it's just going to take more time. Don't reject this idea completely yet.
Mon, 10/15/2012 - 00:22
#45
Cards
Cards would work; they're just another way to generate random events.
Tornado cards could have info on them like size, speed, and direction. The drawing of a single card would take the place of 3 or more dice rolls.
The print area will be 17x22 and the hex grid is 25x25 so I'm guessing a little over an inch if I use all the hexes but I'm not sure I will. I think I will have to test the movement of the cars see what feels right; don't want it to take forever to get somewhere nor too fast.