Solid State War Development Thread 1

[Dave]

I'm starting this thread to talk about the upcoming releases for the Solid State War Game. I'm always happy to answer questions and take suggestions. I'm committed to making Solid State War the best game it can be, and I want all the help you can give me.

So! The Air War Starter Set is now available, and contains everything you need to get playing. So far it's sold about 15 copies. (Every time I see that I've made a sale, I say "Thank you." Even if you don't hear me say it, I appreciate your business!)

Cool stuff is coming soon!

Very soon (let's say Friday to be safe) I'll be releasing the first supplement for the game -- a FREE expansion pack containing 3D models of the 8 jets (4 State, 4 Rebel) included in the Starter Pack.

It also features new half-sized 2D versions of those jets to make it easier to play out epic air battles. (The game is really fun at that scale. Use the full-size Range Finder and Movement Key, but use jet pieces that are about 2" long. Super fun.)

This pack will expand your game options with 2 new variants of the Tigress fighter jet (the RG-6D and RG-6E). With heavy armor but light weapons, these are designed to better withstand the immense firepower of the C and F variants included in the Starter Pack.

The D type introduces the Hair Trigger device. I'll be playtesting it throughout the day, but right now what it does is allows experienced crews to expend 1 of their re-roll attempts and 1 action to make an attack before moving (which you normally can't do).

The E type sports upgraded Air Brakes for easier high-speed turns, and a Target Lock system that keeps the enemy in your sights long enough to deliver two successive attacks with a single action. Like almost everything on these planes, they're prone to mechanical failure. If your gun jams, the Target Lock gets stuck, too. That's the intention, anyway.

You'll also find a new scenario -- The Chase.

So that's everything I'm planning to include in the first supplement.

The second supplement will probably be the final Tigress expansion pack. I plan to include multi-layered PDFs so you can customize the look of your 3D models or 2D playing pieces, new variants and some other goodies.

After that, I'll start getting into other types of jets. I have 3 more paper jet models just waiting to be skinned and statted up. That should be plenty to keep me and other Solid State enthusiasts busy for the next little while.

[okumarts]

Just picked it up. It looks really good!
There are some neat mechanics there. I'm going to give it a go with my gaming group at some point.
I like the custom dice! Gets me thinking I should work on my own game.... hmmm...
You are a machine, pumping this stuff out and maintaining such good quality too.

[Dave]

Thanks!

From a design standpoint, being able to determine what's on the faces of the dice is really liberating.

If you get a chance to play, let me know. Also, keep an eye out for the free expansion. I'm finishing up the graphics now and it should be out sometime this evening.

[Dave]

Right now I'm playtesting the new Tigress variants that will be coming out with the free expansion pack. I need to run at least a few games to make sure there aren't any bugs in the way the new devices work. With a 2000 point budget per plane, you have to leave some things off. So it takes at least a couple of games with various configurations to see how things are interacting.

To be on the safe side, I'll play a few games tonight and see if anything needs to be changed. I'll probably sleep on it and do the final buttoning-up tomorrow morning.

[Dave]

Here's a recent in-house playtest report:

We're going to play the Bomb and Bail scenario. In this mission, two State jets are sent to bomb a watch tower the Rebels are using to observe their ground forces. The Rebels have two jets of their own to defend the tower.

The first time we ran this scenario, the State team made some risky equipment selections. They outfitted just one of their jets with bombs, leaving the other to act as a fighter escort. It almost worked, but some lucky shots directly on the bomb bay locked it up for good, and the State team couldn't complete their objective without another bomb-equipped plane. It was a tough lesson for the Staties, and a great win for the Rebels.

Now it's time to finish the job. The watch tower has been repaired and the teams have chosen new equipment options.

Each team gets 4000 points to purchase and outfit two jets. The State team won't make the same mistake twice. They're going in with an RG-6D which carries three bombs, and an RG-6C that has two bombs and a missile control system to deliver them more accurately. They're both choosing Overthrusters, which will give them a temporary speed boost. They're going into this with no air-to-air weapons at all, but five chances to blast the watch tower.

The Rebels focus on firepower, taking every weapon available to them. They have just enough left over to install Smoke Emitters.

We're at our starting positions. We're going to roll initiative once at the start of the game, and use that turn order each round unless something happens to a Hand Radar, or anything that would alter the normal initiative roll. If that happens, we'll roll again and use the new turn order for the rest of the game.

So let's go! All of the jets choose to start at High throttle. The jets begin by charging at one another. The State jets split up. The Rebels come out blazing, and rockets blast through the State leader's cockpit. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he prepares for his bombing run.

The Rebels were too eager, and came in way too fast. Now they're out of position and have to wheel around behind the State jets. They've been pulled away from the watch tower and both of the bombers are angling in toward it. Bombs away... but it's a miss, even with the missile control system. The other State jet can't get its timing right, and flies past the watch tower harmlessly without even dropping a bomb. (Right about now, if I were the Rebel player I think it'd be cool to have a gun emplacement on that watch tower...)

The State will have to set up another bomb run, and that's going to give the Rebels a second chance to stop them.

To be continued!

[Dave]

...and in the end, it comes down to Direct Hits being a little too direct. Looks like we'll need some rules tweaks after all.

The bombing mission came down to too many accurate hits on the bomb bays. It shouldn't be that easy. We love the idea of being able to choose your target, but it's a little out of hand.

So here's what we're adjusting: When you score a Direct Hit, you do 2 damage (no change there). Regardless of the Hit Location result, you can choose to hit any main vehicle component (crew, engine, fuel, control surfaces). If the Hit Location indicates a weapon, you get to choose which weapon. If it indicates a device, you get to choose which device. This should alleviate the sharpshooting problem we're having.

An additional change: When the random hit location indicates a weapon or device, the victim of the attack chooses which weapon or device takes damage. (Previously, the attacker chose which weapon or device took the damage.)

I'll make those changes (and one or two other minor tweaks) and upload the new version shortly.

[Dave]

Yeah, really happy with the rules update.

Right now I'm attempting to build a model at half of the size of the originals. It looks insane, but I've made houses at 6mm scale, and it was still possible to build chimneys out of paper at that size.

This totally makes me think of fiddly Japanese plastic models -- the kind that only come with instructions in Japanese. Miniscule is the word I want to use here. But in a way, super awesome. if it works, it'll be the greatest thing ever.

I'll post some pics if it actually goes together.

[Dave]

Wow. The half-size model worked. It's crazy small but it looks really cool. That's a relief. The game is a lot more fun (for me) using the smaller-scale pieces, and eventually I'll build up a little air force of models at that scale. I'll use 2D game pieces as placeholders until I have enough models built. Cool stuff.

[Dave]

Oh yeah, you can download the Free Expansion Pack now!

[Dave]

So, now what?

I'm just about ready to move on to another jet. I have a few unreleased Tigress skins that I will probably save for something special a little ways down the road. The Tigress is well-covered at this point, and it's time to move beyond the opening phase of the war. Let's move forward a few months and build on the success of the Diaz-Wilcox engine. Before long, both the State and Rebels will reverse-engineer the design and begin producing their own versions -- with mixed results.

One thing is for sure, and that is the Tigress can't rule the skies forever. I've had some ideas for the next jet, but I'm still mulling them over. And of course they'll need playtesting. You can be pretty sure that whatever's coming next will be designed to out-do the Tigress, so expect to see a faster or better-handling aircraft.

At some point I'm sure I'll add new dice. I have some ideas for new types of weapons, which may need new types of damage. It'll probably mean an update to the Range Finder, since it would need a graphic of the new die type to tell you which ranges the new weapon can be fired at. For that reason, I may hold off on adding any new dice for a while. There might be a more elegant solution. Not that it would be a big deal to reprint the Range Finder.

Speaking of reprinting things, one thing I plan to do very soon is release some "special edition" reskins of the current dice. I might drop one of these in with each new vehicle pack, giving you something else to look forward to when opening them up.

I intentionally chose symbols rather than colors when identifying the dice because I knew I'd want to give them some new paint jobs eventually. The numbers and words on the die facings will stay the same, but they'll have a unique look that some players may want to collect. Right now I'm working on the Square die and dressing it up in the State livery of blue and gold. I think it looks spiffy.

I've done plenty for one day! Between the Starter Pack and the Free Expansion, I feel like the game is off to a really solid start (cough) and I can relax a little bit. I'm going to try to take a little break, but I usually wake up with new ideas.

Happy New Year, everybody!

[Dagger]

Loving the smaller scale... but do you use the same game templates or smaller ones?

[Dave]

You should use the full-sized Range Finder and Movement Key even with the half-sized playing pieces. Other game pieces (such as the bombing targets and smoke clouds) are scaled down to match the jets.

Playing the game with the full-sized jet pieces tends to be a brutal slugfest. It's fun, but you run out of room pretty quickly. It's probably best for new players or for a quick game. It's really all about rolling the dice and trying to do damage, and so I've tried to make it easy to get in situations where you can do that. The drawback is that it's virtually impossible to get out of it once it starts.

For a more serious game where you can really try to execute an attack plan (especially with multiple jets per team), I recommend using the half-sized pieces. Now that I know the models can be assembled at that size, I'm a lot more confident in suggesting it. The jets do move and shoot further relative to their size, and they can act less frequently compared to the larger-scale models, but it makes for a more tactical game that (to me) feels more realistic.

[Tommygun]

I can see the half size ones allowing for easier bombers (size wise) later on if you still plan on doing them.
Was the canopy hard to fold?

Have you thought about doing any printable aerial terrain maps?
Like this, but without the hexes, but similar to how you did your ground tiles.

Attachments:

[Dave]

Nothing about the half-sized model was easy. The canopy wasn't the toughest part -- it was the light cannon under the wings. I had to use the tip of my X-Acto to push back the tabs, they're so small.



I don't have any plans to create ground tiles for this game, but it might happen.

[Dave]

Today was mostly a rest and recovery day. I did some graphic work on the dice, originally with the intention of making purely cosmetic changes. I figured I'd release these gradually with upcoming products, as little sweeteners.

But I have another idea. I may still do "special edition" dice that are only cosmetically different from the originals. But I think it'd be a lot cooler to actually alter the numbers/words distribution on the dice -- while keeping it a 'Square', 'Diamond' or 'Circle' die for the purposes of attack range. This means I won't have to alter the Range Finder in order to add new types of dice that can be used for new weapons and devices, and new aircraft turning rates.

This really opens up a lot of possibilities. I'll think on it. I may not need new dice right away, but it's nice to have an idea like this one in my pocket. I'll definitely want to use it at some point.

[Dave]

Last night I did some statistical analysis on the dice. To be honest, I set up their distributions of numbers and attack results on a hunch, not a careful breakdown of the probabilities. (I did modify them in playtesting, but I always followed my instincts rather than mathematics.)

Here's what I found:

SQUARE DIE:
Turning/Initiative average roll: 2.66
Range: Short/Medium
Odds of hitting: 66.6%
Average damage per hit: 1.5
Attack results: Damage, Damage, Direct Hit, Direct Hit, Jammed, Miss

DIAMOND DIE:
Turning/Initiative average roll: 3.83
Range: Short/Medium/Long
Odds of hitting: 50%
Average damage per hit: 2
Attack results: Critical Damage, Damage, Direct Hit, Jammed, Miss, Miss

CIRCLE DIE:
Turning/Initiative average roll: 3.5 (but highly unpredictable)
Range: Medium/Long
Odds of hitting: 50%
Average damage per hit: 2.3
Attack results: Critical Damage, Critical Damage, Damage, Miss, Miss, Miss

I really couldn't have balanced them any better if I'd done this analysis earlier. I'm perfectly happy with these numbers and probabilities. Big time yay on that.

The really great part of doing this is seeing the gaps that are left. Now I have benchmarks. I modified the Square die (downward) to be suitable for machine guns (less powerful than Light Cannon, but with the same range) and for slow-turning aircraft such as bombers (slower-turning than the Tigress, even).

CHECKERED DIE (A SQUARE DIE WITH A MODIFIED BORDER):
Turning/Initiative average roll: 2.33
Range: Short/Medium (same as Square)
Odds of hitting: 66.6%
Average damage per hit: 1.25
Attack results: Damage, Damage, Damage, Direct Hit, Jammed, Miss

When used for attacking, two or three of these bad boys linked together would be nasty. On their own, not too scary.

CHEVRON DIE (A MODIFIED DIAMOND, WITH CHEVRONS POINTING TOWARD TOP AND BOTTOM):
Turning/Initiative average roll: 3.66
Range: Short/Medium/Long (same as Diamond)
Odds of hitting: 66.6%
Average damage per hit: 1.75
Attack results: Damage, Direct Hit, Direct Hit, Direct Hit, Jammed, Miss

A railgun, homing missile or other highly accurate weapon would roll the Chevron die when attacking. The turning/initiative rates are a little less than the Diamond. In that aspect of the dice, there's a pretty big gap between the Square and the Diamond, so I'm sure I'll be exploring that some more.

Promising stuff, I think. I don't need them yet, since there's still plenty I can do with just the three dice I have (not counting the Hexagon, because it doesn't count here). Just planning ahead.

[ciabs]

got the game, but I'd love to be able to build half-size 3D planes from the start; should I just set printing at 50% size or is there some other way more optimized, paper-wise (ie: since it's at 50% scale, why not have 2 templates on a single page?)?

thanks in advance for your attention, I look forward to put together the time to assemble some jets and get a game going...

EDIT: forget it, I was still downloading the expansion pack and couldn't see that the smaller scale models were already in there...

[Dave]

The last page of the Starter Set includes half-sized 2D playing pieces.

Pages 13 and 14 of the Free Expansion Pack contain the half-sized 3D models, 4 on a page.

I have to warn you that they are tricky to build at that size! I recommend building one of the full-size models first, just so you can see how it's supposed to go together.

I'm working on assembling my second half-sized model, and I'm constantly amazed that I can even make cuts that small.

[Dave]

We played the Bomb and Bail scenario again last night. It's a two on two battle using the half-sized pieces. In this mission, the State jets are sent to bomb a watch tower defended by the Rebels.

We had a blast! The Rebel jets gave it everything they had. They dropped smoke and foiled the first bombing attempt, forcing a second run. They chased and fired after the State jets as they swung around in formation to bomb again. The Rebels' rockets critically injured the State flight leader, leaving the State team with just one crew capable of bombing the tower.

The State wingman made his second attack run and dropped his bomb at the first opportunity. Cheers went up when they saw the "Critical Damage" result -- the tower was ruined. It really felt like a triumph for the State team, after having failed this mission twice before.

The disappointed Rebels continued to fire at the State bombers as they fled to safety, but all of the combatants made it back to base in one piece. The game lasted 17 rounds and it took about an hour to play. 13 shots were fired, and about 9 points of damage were delivered.

We saw a little bit of everything in this battle. We saw how a jammed gun could change a jet's attack plan, and how quickly the mood can change when that jam gets cleared. We saw the value of armor plating -- the State wouldn't have won without it. We saw how the Tigress' poor turning rate could be exploited by more nimble jets -- something that the army engineers on both sides will be thinking about. We saw how hard it was for a moving object (a jet) to attack a fixed object (the watch tower), especially when there are enemy jets flying around it. We saw the Rebels say, "To hell with chivalry, this is war!" while they attacked a defenseless opponent.

We did run into a question about how to resolve damage with linked weapons, so I'll clean up the description of that item and add an example. (EDIT: Actually, there's no problem at all. We just didn't run to the rulebook to see if we were handling it correctly. But we had, so no worries there. Still, it wouldn't hurt to provide an example.)

This morning I think I'll add another Quick Reference sheet to the Starter Set.

I hope nobody minds that I'm using the rulebook as a "living" document, and making changes and updates as soon as they're needed. I've already released one rules update and one minor update to the background text.

Over time I'll be making other little additions and improvements, adding artwork and things if I think I can get away with it. One of my self-imposed rules about PDF games is that the PDFs themselves should be lean so as to be easy to open and flick through, even on a crummy old computer. But I would like to add some evocative imagery here and there.

[Dave]

And while I'm being such a chatterbox, I've printed up and assembled a fresh set of dice. I now have 2 of each kind. I filled them up about 3/4 of the way with dry lentils, and they're rolling good (and sounding better).

I also put together a couple of my new (experimental) Checkered and Chevron dice. I'm still not sure where I'll use these, since there's a lot of mileage left with the Square, Diamond and Circle dice. But if they're sitting on the table during our playtests, someone is likely to suggest that we try them.

Today I'll be developing and testing the next addition to the air war -- the J-21 Interceptor. The Rebels may have the will to fight, and some excellent Tigress pilots, but they're outnumbered by the State. They need to come up with something to even the score, and they've got the resources to come up with something quickly.

The Interceptor is going to be the Rebels' attempt to deal with overwhelming State forces. It must be fast to stay clear of the Tigress's impressive firepower, and should be able to out-turn her. This will require a lighter airframe, which won't be able to take much punishment. Its weapon load will have to be light, too.

So! What I'm thinking is that this jet will use the Diamond die for turning, instead of the Tigress' slow Square die. We'll test this out today and see how the two jets compare.

We'll probably use the same crew stats as the Tigress.

For weapons, we may go with a choice of two. I'm thinking about introducing Machine Guns, which will be lighter cousins to the Light Cannon. These might use the Checkered die with attacking.

For weaponry, I'm thinking of starting with this:

Machine Gun (100 pts.)
--Linkage (100 pts.)
Machine Gun (100 pts.)

For devices, I'm going to drop in the Overthruster and Air Brakes, and possibly Stress Bracing -- all the speed and maneuver stuff. The Hand Radar makes sense for finding targets. (This is a hunter, after all.) Auto Aim, Target Lock and Hair Trigger are possibilities.

[ciabs]

Jan 3, 2011 7:08:41 GMT -9 Dave said:

The last page of the Starter Set includes half-sized 2D playing pieces.

Pages 13 and 14 of the Free Expansion Pack contain the half-sized 3D models, 4 on a page.

I have to warn you that they are tricky to build at that size! I recommend building one of the full-size models first, just so you can see how it's supposed to go together.

I'm working on assembling my second half-sized model, and I'm constantly amazed that I can even make cuts that small.

being a 15mm player it doesn't strike too strange to me; it's tricky, and one has to be really really patient, but it's not the first time I got around small models;

heck, I managed to get Slick's Power Armor done @15mm scale! ;D



...yes, that's a 25mm base it keeps under its feet...

still, I'm daunted by the light cannons, gonna have to use tweezers or something to do those...

[Dave]

Okay, that's a pretty tiny model. I'd seen small paper models like that before, but I didn't think I'd ever actually build one.

You'll need tweezers to make the weapons, definitely. I use the tip of my X-acto knife, which isn't exactly the safest way to do it.

The jet outlet is tricky, too. You might be better off snipping those ridiculously small tabs and just putting a trace of glue along the edges of the pieces to hold them together.

[ciabs]

even better, I could just think about paying a little more attention to the models and just build them out of 100g laser paper instead of 180g matte photographic paper...

gotta make some tries, but the lighter paper would really help building those tiny pieces (it helped A LOT when I built some of those flipit paper combat tube soldiers at 50% scale ;D )...

[Dave]

I used 199gsm matte paper for my model. It worked okay. Thinner stuff might be easier, though.

Gang, I don't know what the problem is, but I tried to send a little update of the Air War Starter Pack to the Wargame Vault, and it befuzzled their download file. I've sent an email off to tech support, so hopefully we'll solve it soon.

The latest update doesn't include any rules changes. I've tried to clarify how jams work with linked weapons of the same type, and also the description of weapon links.

The main improvements are at the back of the book, with better-organized quick reference sheets and game components. Now it's much easier to print off only the components you need, and the three quick reference sheets should keep you from needing to refer to the rulebook during play.

[ciabs]

when the update is finally uploaded it is sufficient to go to wargamevault's page for the game and re-download it, am I right?

ain't there a download limit for such files? I'm asking because if there is (as for wwg's site for example) one can access only a limited numer of rules updates, and that'd be too bad...

[kiladecus]

I am too old and get too nervous at building little tiny things... I think I will just stick to the smaller half-scale 2D stuff!

Seems like it would work just fine for me (Once I get my reader "fixed").

Looking forward to buying this set!

[Dave]

Jan 4, 2011 2:57:23 GMT -9 ciabs said:

when the update is finally uploaded it is sufficient to go to wargamevault's page for the game and re-download it, am I right?

ain't there a download limit for such files? I'm asking because if there is (as for wwg's site for example) one can access only a limited numer of rules updates, and that'd be too bad...

Wargame Vault doesn't have a 5-download limit. I just re-downloaded 8 copies of a game I purchased last year. So there shouldn't be any problem about getting updates. And I don't expect to make lots of updates from here on (but I can't promise that).

I still haven't resolved the technical issue with them, so the Starter Pack isn't available right now. I'll give them another day to work on it and send another email tomorrow if it's still down.

[Dave]

I'm now working on the game stats and playtesting of the J-21 Interceptor, the Rebels' answer to the State's overwhelming number of Tigress jets.

This morning I wrote up some rules for Airbursters -- a kind of rocket that blows up in midair and has a nasty area effect. I don't think the Interceptor will be armed with those... but I definitely want to test them out.

The Interceptor is starting off with a couple of machine guns mounted in the nose as standard equipment. It looks like I'll be introducing a new die type -- the Checkered die. We're going to see if it should use the same ranges (short/medium) as the Square die, or if it works better as a short-range-only weapon.

The Interceptor might include a new Range Finder. The ranges will be the same, but I want to add the new die type and some travel dots. Why travel dots? I knew I'd want the Interceptor to be faster than the Tigress, so for straight-line movement the Interceptor might use the Range Finder's distance markers rather than the Movement Key. We'll test that out.

Because this jet is produced only by the Rebels, I'm thinking about scenarios in which the State team's objective is to capture one, using only Tigresses. You can do this by forcing a jet to crash-land behind enemy lines. This might be the only way the State player can acquire their own Interceptor.

I'm also thinking about a scenario that reverses the Bomb and Bail scenario -- this time, the Rebels are on the attack with bomb-equipped Tigresses and Interceptors providing fighter escort. The State team will have to defend their turf using only Tigresses, but may get some ground-to-air gun emplacements to help. (Sometimes, the Bombing Target playing pieces shoot back!)

I might combine the two scenarios into one, with the condition that any Rebel planes that are forced down during the raid are automatically captured by the other team (instead of the usual 33% chance of capture).

Lots of fun ideas. Need to get back to work on them. But basically what I'm aiming to do with the Interceptor is make it about as high-performance as the most decked-out Tigress.

But you won't want to be on the receiving end of an attack if you're in an Interceptor. To be so fast, armor has to go.

[Dave]

I've statted up two versions of the J-21 Interceptor -- the pricey J-21X experimental version, and the slightly less pricey J-21 production model.

I've got my playing pieces printed out and I'm ready to test these on the table. I'll start with a 1-on-1 battle against a Tigress, then 1 Interceptor against 2 Tigresses, and then a 2-on-2.

Then I'll start all over again, mixing up different combinations of equipment. My hunch is that the Interceptor is going to be impressive with stock equipment only, and may be unbeatable with all of the optional stuff installed.

I'm interested to see how a fully decked-out Tigress with an Ace crew stands up to a minimally-equipped Interceptor -- and fully-equipped one. When it was just Tigresses against Tigresses, it was comparing apples to apples. Now we have orange, so to speak.

I might end up playtesting all day tomorrow. Not that that would be a bad thing!

[Dave]

Two playtests tonight.

In the first match, we did a 2-on-2, Interceptors versus Tigresses. Each team had one jet with 2100 points worth of equipment, and another with 3000 points. In this fight, the Interceptors had a complete speed and maneuverability advantage. They disabled one Tigress and the other soon gave up. It wasn't a complete wash -- in fact it was pretty close.

In the second match, we ran a 2-on-2 with maxed-out planes. We had Aces in command of each jet, and every piece of equipment installed. This fight was much more interesting. I don't know if it's because the Tigresses employed a better strategy, but the Interceptors just couldn't get their act together. They kept attacking the Tigresses head-on instead of getting behind them (which is how they won the first match), and the Tigresses just had too much firepower -- especially in the hands of Aces. One of the Interceptors exploded with a ruined fuel tank, and the other Interceptor bugged out right after that.

So far it looks really good. I like the fact that the Tigress and Interceptor are imbalanced at typical point levels (2000-3000 points), but become much more balanced with experienced crews and all of their equipment in place (3700-4000 points).

Using the Range Finder for straight-line movement works great. Using the Checkered die for Machine Gun attacks is also working out fine, and I'm pretty sure I'll keep them as short-range-only weapons. That means I'll include a new Range Finder with the Interceptor, and you can use the original one with the Tigress.

Tomorrow we'll try some imbalanced teams (2-on-1, 3-on-2) and some other equipment loads, and see what happens.