Singularity Monster
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Star Fleet Battles: SFB Proposals Board:
The "X" Files:
Singularity Monster
Watching the trailer for Starcraft 2 I became really inspired by the Protoss "black hole" weapon, and its ability to suck in Terran battlecruisers. Honestly I thought that'd be a cool thing for SFB, but I didn't want to just rip-off Blizzard's creative staff, and port the concept here.
So I thought what if there was a living creature that was, in essence, a series of interconnected singularities. A creature that travelled from system to system sucking up matter and energy from planets and stars alike as it travelled the cosmos.
I'm thinking it has something 6 or 8 mini "blackhole" nodes that pulsate in strength, and are interconnected by a gossamer-like gravity net that acts as its actual body.
I have no idea what the rules for this beasty would be, but it sounded really cool to me 
Thoughts?
Maybe it could generate a power field and a cloud over 82 AUs in diameter?
Found this while surfing randomly around, going to have to use it sometime if I can think something up. The idea is too good to pass up.
You could always adapt the black hole asteroid gun (BH1.0) from SSJ#1
Guys, think game mechanics for a minute, just not "whats cool!"
BHs are a terrain feature in SFBs, not a monster.
its possible that this "thing" is too powerful compared to the game as it is currently constituted (you'd have to get the steves to express how they feel about that subject.)
Simplify the concept, and if you really want it to be a monster, either write a scenario for it (and include specia scenario rules to allow players a way to "win" as well as a way to "lose".)
In general, monsters normally take damage, cause damage, and have some form of manuvering ability.
If it were me (and I'm not a game designer and have zero luck in getting any scenario published) I'd want some method that would allow me to attack the creature - not just a way for the creature to attack opposing starships or planets.
but letting it just lob random black holes around (even if they are "just temporary") might be too over the top.
just my $0.02 worth. YMMV.
That's half of what I was thinking, actually. Direct fire would be useless, so you have to do something unique. I hesitate to put it up just yet, though. Working on it and want to make sure it's balanced
Jacob,
if the "body" of the creature was the vulnerable part, you could use direct fire against it... let the beast use its tenacle black hole appendages as shields to protect it from seeking weapons and direct fire...
that way manuver becomes the key to victory...
if you made the tenacles the determining factor movement somehow, it might make it progressively easier to kill as you inflict damage.
lets say (just for arguments sake) that each tenacle allows the beastie to move up to 4 hexes per turn. say the beasts body had 200 damage points capacity... every 25 points of damage cripples a tenacle and slows the beast by 4 hexes per turn.
The other issue is gaining information on the beast (say 200 points using labs probes and admin shuttles on science missions) means that you have to get close enough for you sensors and other science equipment to function.
tough to do with the beastie flailing at you with 8 black hole tenacles!
what fun!
Id suggest that it has, say, 15 movement points per turn per tentacle, to be divided up between all its components (the body and the black hole tentacle ends). No individual part can move more than once per impulse, and no BH can be more than 8 hexes from the body.
The body has a 50-point 360 shield that regenerates 10/turn. After you get through that, each 25 points of damage to the body kills one random tentacle, and the BH on it is disconnected and stops dead in space, still being attractive to everything except the monster. Including other dead tentacles.
Offensively, the monster can generate a gravity wave from each of its black holes once per turn, but this requires that a) that hole hasn't moved for a bit and b) it needs to be charged up with movement points. Not sure of the conversion rate. Something like 2 damage per point? Falls off at 1/hex.
If two disconnected black holes fall into each other, as they probably will, there's a big gravity wave and the resulting hole is bigger.
The original holes are rather lighter than a standard hole, with shorter and weaker attraction.
This will need some testing.
Jim,
Sounds interesting... the problem (among several that I and others have pointed out) is the interaction of all these ideas would be a heck of a mess to game properly.
Far better to refer to existing rules/effects than to try to "tailor" unique exceptions for every possible variation (I mean variable gravity waves, tentacls, movemnt rates for different body pards (body, tentacles, possible interactions for a main body "unishield" etc...)
Not saying it can't be done... just pointing out that it might be easier to use the existing rules (and game balanced factors) than trying to redesign such things.
Just another $0.02 worth.
...what existing rules?
Actually a number of them,
Gravity Waves.
Black Holes.
Shields (in this case a uni-shield 50-points strong that regenerates (major change right there incase you hadnt realized.)
Movement.
Each of the items listed above are already published rules, you have suggested modifications (perhaps best handled as a Scenario, rather than as a modification to the published rules) that are distinctly different from the published game.
Not saying that your ideas are unworkable or bad, just noting that they are different from the existing rules as published.
To try to make the point somewhat clearer, you could handle the beasts body as if it were a ship (ie with movment cost, size class, turn mode etc...) and the tenacles (while appearing to be connected to the body), might be handled as direct fire weapons verses objects, ships or even planets along with the possiblity that it might miss.
Or you might do something entirely different.
But just offering to modify how such things as black holes and gravity waves interact differently when part of a singularity monster might be confusing.
And I should remind you, I have no say in how this is recieved, the steves might just think your ideas are the best thing since sliced bread.
for what its worth, I wish you luck in getting this approved.
If you try using the rules above unmodified, you'll end up with something pretty unplayable. The ranges from a standard black hole are too great; the range and damage from a standard BH gravity wave are much too great. They'll wipe out everything on the map by the end of turn 2.
A 50-point regenerating shield is nothing particularly radical and can be described in one line.
A ship-like monster with movement cost, size class, turn mode and DF weapons is...a ship. Been there, done that. I thought this was supposed to be a black hole tentacle monster, not a ship. Silly me. Maybe I misunderstood.
No, you understood it just fine.
the problem is some things will have to change for such a thing to be playable... but such changes would almost have to be special scenario rules.
I suspect that the steves would not allow you to rewrite the rules for exceptions for monsters.