Man Battlestations Forum
Warcradle Naval Games => Firestorm Armada => Topic started by: Wanjajoral on September 06, 2017, 02:10:24 pm
-
Hi everybody,
Firestorm Taskforce is a solid entry level space navy wargame and actually much better than many gamers think. The ruleset has a few flaws and I had hoped for a revision as a part of the Firestorm Armada 3.0 ruleset, but with Spartan Games closed this won't happen anytime soon.
This promted me to start this little project which will add a bit to the game experience and, in time, might even expand the game.
This post here is meant to let you all know that I am working on this and to invite you to provide feedback and suggestions for any future developments.
***
I have started to create Stat Cards for all the ships available for Firestorm Taskforce (which are most, if not all Firestorm Armada ships).
The reasons for that are the following:
1. Taskforce is meant to be an entry level game and having cards with all the statistics for each ship in a fleet makes it easier for beginners (or young players) to understand what is going on. The official fleet lists in principle serve the same purpose, but I hope to offer some more value by adding a photo of the ship type (for ease of identification) and by adding brief explanations of all the MARs relevant for each ship (both weapon MARS and ship MARs) directly on the card.
2. Having a deck of cards makes list building much easier and quicker - especially for younger or inexperienced players. My seven year old son can just put all his Aquan stat cards in front of him and pick whatever he wants to field in a game - much easier than flicking through the printed PDF.
3. I think that the stat cards will make it easier to direcly compare ships within and across factions. The same is of course possible with the available documents, but just imagine you would like to compare all the different destroyer models in the game based on the 8 PDF files (6 for the core factions and 2 for the minor races). Just placing all the destroyer class cards next to each other will speed this up considerably. This ease of comparability will also help with designing new ships for he game - which is something we migh want to consider now tha the official support has died.
Here is an example of one of the Stat Cards I have already finished:
(https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic3730378_md.png)
The files I create are Poker card sized and I will print my copy of this deck at the Gamecrafter. Obviously I cannot make hem available there publicly, but I will find a way to share the digital files (.png and/or .psd) so that fellow gamers can print their own copies.
The example above is a bi bigger than the final card as the Gamecrafter template also includes a border that will be cut off after the printing. The final cards will look more like this:
(https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic3730379_md.png)
***
Where do I stand with this little project?
I started last week and so far I have created 28 cards (all of the Aquan ships and 8 Dindrenzi), but not all of them have images added to them yet. I plan to create cards for all the factions. This way I will end up with maybe 150 cards (just a guess) which will take me a while.
All the rules are taken directly from the Taskforce rulebook and the published fleet lists, but I have taken the liberty to correct a few mistakes (e.g. that the Aquan Escort Carrier was listed as a Tier 3 ship while the Dindrenzi Light Frigate counts as a Tier 2. I also unified the MAR names (e.g. Laser Battery vs. Laser Batteries) and ironed out a few other small typos.
Each faction will have it's own color template (e.g. light blue for the Aquans) and as I create these carsd primarily for my own use I also have changed some of the color for certain factions. My Kurak ships are primarily blue and green, while my Zenian ships are red and orange - and this will be reflected in the background color on the cards - just that you know.
***
Possible future developments?
Well, once I am done with all those cards I would like to create a second deck of cards (maybe called Phase 2) that offers a few alternatives and modifications.
Currently there are several ships of the same class that have the same statistics in the game (e.g. the Aquan cruiser classes Storm, Chironex, and Isonade). This made sense as long as Spartan Games was still publishing new models for the game and it kepts things simple. But now we might be in need for a greater variety in order to keep the game fresh. What I would like to do is to create separate cards for each of the ships that up to now have shared a list entry. The most recent version of a ship (e.g. the Isonade cruiser) would keep the official statistics, while the older ones would receive a certain downgrade - weaker statistics, but also a reduced points cost - to reflect the advancement in military development. Older versions of a ship class could also have a slightly different focus (e.g. weaker lasers but stronger torpedoes). This will open a nice design space and - based on community input - keep the game fresh.
And finally completely new ships (new factions, merchant ships etc.) could also be introduced.
But first things first. I still have quite some Stat Cards to design before I can think about creating new content.
Well, there you have it - my small contribution to keeping the Firestorm games alive.
What do you think?
-
It's an ambitious undertaking. I like the idea about using the older models as alternative stat lines, but it's something that may be an issue with limited availability. That was one of the reasons we decided to give them all the same stats for 2.0. Maybe consider keeping the all the names on any alternative builds or putting a disclaimer so people can choose between builds for the models they have.
-
Hi Andrew,
thanks for the feedback. That might be a good idea - adding the names of the other scults in a smaller font next to the name of the model depicted. I would prefer the cleaner look of just a single name per card, but I can see your point.
In any case this is still a long way off as I first want to finish all the official stats - and those will have all the names on each card (like the Namazu / Tsunami example shown above).
-
Allright, it's time for a
Status Report
I am 100% done with the first faction - the Aquans. All the ship classes are represented as cards, complete with images of the models.
I am also done with creating the stat cards for the next two factions (Dindrenzi and Directorate, I go through them in alphabetical order of the fleet list file names), but those still lack their images (for the most part).
Today I started working on the Kural Alliance support fleets and created all the stat cards for Hawker Industries (again, still without images).
This puts my overall progress at a tiny bit above 25% completion - not a bad start but still a long way to go.
During the next week I will create the cards for the next one or two Kurak fleets and add all the images for the Dindrenzi cards and I will keep you updated about this progress.
***
Feedback needed
While working on the Hawker ships today I noticed something weird. The Hawker battleship has a Gunnery turret with the weapon's MAR "Nuclear" and I have serious problems with making any thematic sense of that. Some of the MARs seem to have been assigned almost randomly, but most of them can be justified. But what in the name of Terra is a nuclear gunnery turret? Something like a huge mass driver gun that shoots not ordinary projectiles but tiny nukes at the opponent? Does that soudn feasible to you? Does that make any sense?
I am seriously tempted to change that, but I am not familiar with Hawker, so I do not know if such a weapon is something they use in FSA proper. The easiest change would be to change the weapon classification from Gunnery to the more generic Nuclear Weapon (something that other Hawker ships use), but honestly I thought that nuclear warheads are something rserved for torpedoes, so maybe it would make more sense to change the weapon MAR instead from "Nuclear" to something like "High Energy". But that, of course, would change the balance of the game slightly.
What do you think?
***
Your ideas wanted
New/custom stat cards are still a thing of the distant future, but I already start to collect ideas in my mind which ships I would like to see in a second batch of cards. And instead of just using my own ideas I would like to know what you, the players, would like to play with. What are the ships that - in your opinion - are in need of a rebalancing as they are too strong or too weak in Taskforce and should/could get a refit version? And what gaps are there in the current fleet lists that could need some filling (e.g. I noticed that the Hawker list has just a single Tier 2 entry)?
If you play Taskforce, or feel like commenting after reading the fleet lists, please post your ideas and suggestions in this thread, so that I can collect them for Phase 2 of this project.
Thanks and happy gaming,
Michael
-
Status Report
Two more weeks have passed and it's time for another status report.
Progress has been somewhat slower than I had hoped for (as is the case so often when real life happens), but the project has still made a few steps in the right direction.
In terms of 100% finished cards (including images of the models) I have completed the Dindrenzi and most of the Directorate.
And in terms of stat cards without images I created the majority of the cards for the Kurak Alliance (Hawker, Ruyshi, Tarakian and Terquai are done, Veydreth are half done and the Xelocians are still missing).
This puts my overall progress at 40%.
***
With the good news of the Wayland/Warcradle aquisition of the Spartan IPs I am sure that we will see some new developments for FSA next year, but maybe Taskforce will not be very high on the priority list or maybe it will be scrapped alltogether. I will continue/finish this project. Anything else (new units, alternate stats) will depend on Warcradle's plans, which we will learn more next year.
-
Send me a PM with your email. I have a bunch of ship images that you could use for your project.
-
Thanks Mike, PM sent.
-
Status Report
Here we go again, it is time for the next status report.
My kids have been sick, I have been sick and now we are on vacation in Poland (visiting Poznan and Krakow - both very beautiful cities btw).
But I still managed to push this little project forward during the last two weeks.
Cards 100% completed: I finished several of the Kurak Alliance factions - Hawker Industries, Ryushi and the Tarakian, bringing the number of cards completely done up to 67.
Cards with statistics but without an image: I finished the remaining Kurak factions and also completed the Relthoza.
This puts the overall project progress at 53.3%, which is sort of a nice milestone for me.
Next up are the images for the remaining Kurak factions and the statistics for the Sorylians.
Oh, and I made another teaser image for y'all:
(https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic3762566_lg.png)
-
Hi everybody,
another two weeks have passed, which means it's time for the next
Status Report:
During the last two weeks I created all the cards for the Sorylians which leaves only the cards for the Terran Alliance and the Zenian League minor factions on my ToDo-list in terms of the game stats.
I also finished adding the ship images to all the remaining Kurak Alliance minor factions, next up will be the Relthoza for the image treatment.
This means that 83 cards are completely done and my overall progress sits currently at 63.3%.
See you again in two weeks - probably with another teaser image.
-
...and here we go again. It's time for the biweekly
Status Report:
I spent my time ploughing through the images for the Relthoza ships and those were quite a pain in the ... due to their vertical shape which did not play nice with the landscape picture box on the cards. I had three options for solving this - breaking up the uniform card layout and going for a portrait mode picture box on the Relthoza cards, reducing the size of the ship images so that they fit into the landscape box, or rotating the ships so that they can fit into the landscape picture box and still are large enough to see some details. I went with the third option as in the end the physical orientation is pretty meaningless in space so I hope the spiders won't mind ...
I finished that faction, which brings the number of cards completely finished to 100.
I also created all the stat cards for the Terran Alliance.
This puts teh overall progress of the project at 73.3%.
Next up are the pictures for the Sorylian Collective and the stat cards for the minor Zenian League factions.
I didn't manage to create a new teaser image, but maybe I will have a bit of time today. As soon as it is uploaded to BGG I will link in this thread.
-
...and here is the newest teaser - freshly approved by the BGG admins:
(https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic3828273_md.png)
-
Hi everybody,
the last two weeks were pretty full of real life so that this project had to be kept on a short leash.
Nevertheless I made some progress.
I created the stat cards for the Ba'kash as the first Zenian League minor faction and I also added the ship images to most of the Sorylian ships.
This results in an overall progress of the project of 78.9%.
More in two weeks.
Until then, Happy Thanksgiving ;)
-
Is it already that time again? Have truly two more weeks passed? :( >:(
*Phew* well, it can't be helped, so let's better get over with right away.
Real life has been really busy (as it tends to be before the Christmas break - everybody wants to have as much stuff done in the old year as possible - leading to impossible deadlines and an unholy workload), which means that the hobby life had to be really slow.
I did not manage much, but at least now all the Sorylian cards have their proper ship pictures on them and I also started with the images for the Terran Alliance.
In terms of the stats I created all the cards for the Kedorians.
This all might sound more impressive than it actually was and the overall progress stands now at 82.5%.
But don't worry, this project will not grind to a halt. I hope to be more productive during the next two weeks as I might have a few free evenings.
Expect my next report right before Christmas, maybe even with another sweet teaser.
-
Hi everybody,
I could start by saying that progress had been slower than anticipated (kids got a cold), but I might start sounding like a broken record at this point, so I instead focus on the positive things:
90%
Woot!!
Just 10% left to go - the end is in sight and my next report might already be the final one for this first stage of this project.
I added all the pictures to the Terran ships (and noticed one more small mistake Spartan did - not only did they forget the stats for the Terran defence platform, hey also used the older Guardian escort model instead of the newer Squire. Well, that is just one more thing to tackle in the second phase of this project, I guess.
I also continued with creating the cards for the Zenian League minor factions. Now the RSN are done completely, leaving just Works Raptor as the very last faction without stat cards.
***
I will take a break from this project (and most other things) for the next three weeks, but will be back in full swing in the middle of January.
Until then - have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
-
Merry Christmas! I continue to be impressed by the level of effort you are putting into this project. Keep up the good work!
-
Thank you.
Honestly, I am impressed a bit as well. I didn't expect that there are sooo many models for all the factions out there. And what I thought would be a fun litle side project has turned into a rather large commitment. And I strongly believe in finishing what I have started - so there is no turning back now.
It also showed me some of the holes in the Taskforce fleet statistics (incosistent use of the "0" and "-" for zero shields, missing models (like the Terran Defence Platform) and weird design choices (nuclear non-Torpedo weapons on the Hawker ships - hos are those supposed to work fluff wise?).
All that convinced me that Taskforce needs some more love. There are still several ships missing (the System Wars models) and who would say to entirely new stat cards (weaker/cheaper optional profiles for the older MK1 models and upgraded/more expensive refits for the newest models of each class). There is still a lot of room in the Taskforce design space and THAT will be a fun project (at least for me as a game designer).
It is a shame that Taskforce has been (and will be) largely ignored by the gaming community. Yes, it is not FSA proper, but it is a fun game and it plays so much faster. I think much of the negative perception hinges on that awful damage table. Something needs to be done with that and I already have a few ideas. But that is something for another time, somewhen next year.
I wish you all a great start into the new year, may it bring a lot of naval gaming for all of us :).
Michael
-
Hello everybody and a happy new year.
I am back from my vacation and have been working a bit more on the project.
During this last week I finished creating the last missing stat cards (Works Raptor), which brings the final card count to a whooping 156.
I also added the images to the Ba'Kash and Kedorians. This means that the only things still missing are the ship images for the RSN and Works Raptor cards, which equals just 5% until total completion of the project.
It will take me another week or two to get these images done and then I will print a first proof copy via the Gamecrafter to see how the cards turn out when properly printed on solid cardstock.
I also started looking at the faction statistic - analyzing which factions use which (weapon) MARs how often. This kind of reverse engineering will help me getting the first batch of new stats (for the System Wars ships) right and flavourful.
Allright, that's it for this week.
Cheers,
Michael
-
Hello everybody,
this has been coming a long time but now I finally want to tell you all that the project is done.
Actually I could have told you already at teh start of February, but I wanted to ask for Warcradle's permission for making these cards available for download here on thsi site.
Unfortunately I haven't received an answer from Rich or Stuart. I tried reaching them again a week later, again without a response.
After that Real Life took over for a while as I had to work on a project proposal but today I finally managed to send an email to the only contact address available on the Warcradle homepage. Honestly I do not have high hopes for a quick answer and I am not sure what that says about Warcradle and their community engagement... but we will see about that, I guess.
I will keep you informed, but currently all I can do is tease you with the finished product and tell you that I hope to make the cards available for download eventually.
Here is the last digital sample I created for the Boardgamegeek site:
(https://cf.geekdo-images.com/RBu88Uakf4PGuG8x-0JIlWW6xfA=/fit-in/1024x768/filters:no_upscale()/pic3959095.png)
There are 156 stat cards in total that I printed through the Gamecrafter and that is one big deck of cards ;)
They turned out beautifully and the font is not too small to read (though some with impaired eyesight might say differently...). The one thing I will change for a future printing is the card back as the Taskforce logo is a bit to close to the upper edge of the card, but that is something that is easy to fix.
And here are a few photos of the printed cards:
(https://cf.geekdo-images.com/h5MZWk43qKlzviDILVuKjQPcOiQ=/0x0/pic3981406.jpg)
(https://cf.geekdo-images.com/JgVENqaTCKFdh-WLQ7QyGdsh5ms=/0x0/pic3981407.jpg)
(https://cf.geekdo-images.com/MC5xrIKchgQOUA5XmDcO-rbT1hU=/0x0/pic3981408.jpg)
If you have any questions about these cards, feel free to reply below or send me a message.
As I mentioned in an earlier post I have plans for expanding this little project, but before I start with any of that I want to hear from Warcradle Studios as I don't want to step on their toes and maybe, hopefully, even get them onboard.
Things that are in the pipeline are:
- System Wars ships;
- separate Stat Cards for older models;
- upgraded Stat Cards for improved ships (aka MK2, Refits etc.);
- Admiral cards (sort of player powers as seen in the System Wars supplement);
- System Wars scenarios;
- a way to play a quick card game with these cards (like the new version of the Citadel Combat Cards from Games Workshop);
- Stat Cards for models from other game systems (e.g. the Fleet Commander ships);
- ...
And of course, the big elephant in the room being - How to fix Taskforce? - which relates to how many players think that the damage table is unfun. I have a few ideas for addressing that issue, but again, developing the game is something I would only consider if Warcradle gave a green light for that.
Beyond that I think these stat cards would make a great online resource - e.g. for wiki entries for all the different ships in the game. Such a system could easily be used for FSA or Dystopian Wars as well, but that is quite a different topic and something that would be too ambitious for a one-man-show.
Well, there you have it, the Taskforce Stat Cards are live, let's hope that they will see a wider distribution eventually.
Cheers and all the best,
Michael
-
Those came out great! How much did it cost to get them printed up?
Regarding the fixing of Task Force, have you looked at the revised version of DW Fleet Action? It uses a different damage procedure, and since its practically the same game as TF it would be easy to port over.
-
They look awesome, nice work.
-
Thanks.
I paid 16 USD for the whole deck (plus shipping), which is a very good price if you consider that this is print on demand and not from a proper printer with an ecomony of scale.
And no, I haven't taken a look at the revised Fleet Action rules yet. I briefly looked the over a couple of months ago and they looked (at a glance) very similar to the older version. I guess I will have to take a proper look.
-
Hi everybody,
another two weeks have passed since I contacted Warcradle Studios via their homepage / official email.
Once again I haven't gotten any response from them.
I think that this sends out a terrible signal to all the Spartan Games fans - either the company is not well organized and can't even handle to stay in touch with it's fans/gamers/future customers; or they just don't care about what their fans think - and I don't know what would be worse.
My hopes for a faithful revival of Firestorm Armada are getting less and less and based on the strife surrounding the Dystopian Wars/Age fluff I think Warcradle is running the risk of losing the exisiting fan base.
Oh well... the models still exist and so do the Spartan rules .
Anybody up for a game?