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	Archive through November 20, 2015	25		11/20 12:06am

To elaborate a little more, I'm working on playing each monster that uses (S6.0) as an endgame or option (which is just short of a dozen) and playing them up until the point (S6.0) would kick in.
I'm recording a snapshot of the SSD, map, etc. so I can jump back to that point later and try out all the different alternatives without playing out the early phase of the scenario each time. After a handful of runs at the early phase with each monster (getting a feel for the variance) I move on to the next.
Just doing sans-refit Fed CA (125 BPV) for now and trying out other empires later looking at adding earlier access to "Chance" once those options are solidified a little further.

By Russ Simkins (Madcowak) on Saturday, March 11, 2017 - 01:13 am: Edit

Still an ongoing project, though most of my focus has been on a related project until recently. I have been quietly collecting a treasure chest of ideas and the scope of the "monsters" project has grown like it started from magic beans. Ultimately I'm looking for tools to reinvigorate the existing monsters while not changing their respective scenario rules. This S6.0 Alternative concept is one example but I am reaching out to all for opinions/ideas on what works, what sometimes works, and what flat out doesn't concerning monsters.

Rather than hit all the issues at once I'd like to focus on just once aspect at a time or I think much of the details or lesser concerns would be overlooked. Pretty much every one of my other game related question posts ever made has some tie-in to this project.

One issue that constantly pops up for me is...

By Russ Simkins (Madcowak) on Saturday, March 11, 2017 - 01:40 am: Edit

MCIDS.

This rule as it stands really seems to limit monsters to just a duel between a cruiser and the monster. Case in point, the SM1.0 Planet Crusher which has the designed target for the monster being a nice tasty planet full of innocents to be lost or saved and what are decent colonies protected by? Fighters, PFs, and seeking weapons. All the things the monster is hopeless against in the numbers found in planetary defenses.

Of the tricks I've come up with so far for improving monsters, this one probably is the most "rule-changing". I'm working on giving MCIDS some types. The standard or "Type-A" MCIDS is what we have now and is the assumed unless otherwise specified. Other types are more effective against massed, single-hex, threats but may be vulnerable to spreads, one fars well against drones but not as much vs plasmas. I have yet to derive a one-size fits all solution. I guess a monster could be given two different MCIDS types by a player wanting the challenge.

Please, please, please, tell me what you think about MCIDS good/bad and how it fares in your experience against the various empires/wpns/etc.

Much thanks. There is much more to come...

By Russ Simkins (Madcowak) on Saturday, March 11, 2017 - 02:03 am: Edit

My latest (and maybe best) MCIDS idea type -that I have yet to try out- is to give the monster an E13.0 Tholian Snare that only triggers at a certain threshold along with the normal MCIDS. The monster comes to a complete stop for the turn. Would seem to have some interesting tactical implications for slowing a monster from reaching its goal hex in exchange for a lot of ordinance. With monster killing the threats, it shouldn't affect the "friendly monster" results with S6.0 either. With the right threshold, force you to trickle in just enough threats to slip some through but can't overstack. Maybe move the needle away from favoring drones over plasmas. Maybe the snare shoots to all six surrounding hexes so fighters can't surround and bypass the snare with seeking wpns.

Defining the threshold is the problem.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Saturday, March 11, 2017 - 03:01 pm: Edit

Russ Simpkins:

Well, the MCIDs is at least discussed in the various "Monster Articles" that have appeared in Captain's Log. It may be that all that is mentioned is its weakness against massed numbers of seeking weapons, but there is a chance something more was said that might give you food for thought. I cannot recall such off the top of my head (even though I have written all off the Monster Articles), but there is always a chance.

By Russ Simkins (Madcowak) on Monday, March 13, 2017 - 12:44 am: Edit

I have all the CL monster articles in my project binder and am very aware that I can't be undoing all of that excellent work. Just want to have a way to take the training wheels of all our favorite beasties with some options and make them more replayable/challenging/interesting.
There is a ton of interesting ways to do it without changing the existing material but instead adding more options. The ideas for MCIDS is the material that I'm most concerned with how to go about a "fix" since it does modify existing rules to some extent (by adding) but I find it to be the most in need of improvements.
MCIDS forces plasma cruisers to bolt, thereby limiting arcs and effectiveness yet the ISC settled on this as their heavy weapon prior to even discovering other empires at a time when they were more focused than most on monster threats. Plasma always feels like it gets the short end as tech progresses so why not make it a better anti-monster weapon?

By Russ Simkins (Madcowak) on Tuesday, September 26, 2017 - 01:15 am: Edit

Tried to get a comprehensive list of all monsters so it can be debated which are worthy of counters...

Possible Needs:
CL50 Spider
CL16 Mulakee
CL40 Manta
CL20 Artifact Entity/Space Lens (a two-for-one)
CL52 Alunda (space whales) from SPP article

Juggernauts (credit for Juggernaut list goes to Gary Carney from another topic)
*Juggernaut Battleship: CL41
*Juggernaut Missile Dreadnought (cargo bays removed to make room for 16 Shriek missie silos): CL41
*Juggernaut Heavy Cruiser: CL35
*Juggernaut Light Cruiser: CL35
*Juggernaut Destroyer: CL41
*Juggernaut Frigate: CL41

Nice to have but would take many counters to be likely:
CL24 Space Sheep (at least a dozen)
CL14 Sharks (6 ea)
P6 Crabs (Mama + unknown number of babies)

Prob don't need (existing counters work):
CL46 Probe
CL48 Hellbase
CL15 Spinner base
S1 Intruder Alert! S1
CL21 Master's Orb
CL45 Cyndarian Battlewagon (Relic)
P6 Dire-lict

Future monsters to consider:
Kraken

By Patrick H. Dillman (Patrick) on Tuesday, September 26, 2017 - 10:02 am: Edit

Deleted by author.