StarCraft Domination (New Forum Strategy Game)

[solidsamurai]

Choose your race.

The goal of the game is to destroy the opponent.

You have 10 points to invest in three stats that will help you on your way.

Those stats are:

- APM (begin with 40 APM - each point invested earns 10 bonus APM). APM covers the number of actions you may make per turn. Divide APM by 5, and that's the number.

- Macro; Macro is a rating. Half macro is a defensive bonus for when your base (main/natural or expos) are under attack. Full macro provides a bonus towards scouting. Scouting is important for locating expansion points with minerals or gas or both. Better scouting provides a terrain advantage to defending expansion points. Begin with 0 macro rating.

- Micro; Micro is a rating regarding defense/offense of an army (group of produced units). Full micro is a bonus that comes into play when your army assaults another army, base or scout (scouts are groups of units or single units that are usually fast but could be any unit; a scout may count as an army sometimes). Some units benefit from micro more than others. Begin with 0 micro rating.
---

The Elements to the Game Are

Actions - Actions are theoretically orders that would take place in the game StarCraft, BW, or StarCraft 2 but really they sort of follow what it might feel like when watching a replay, rather then covering every detail of playing the game. Grouping an army with 'ctrl 1' isn't an action and neither is creating an army. Rather, ordering the 'building' of a unit from a structure would be an action, as would querying up to the normal 6 unit limit to be built from a structure - the same would preclude ordering a worker unit to build said structure.

Note that some orders are specified, but most are encouraged to be custom - after all, the number of tactics that can be employed in SC is limitless! Although this game is probably less flexible.

Map - The game is founded on a simple grid map with colored squares indicating terrain (really just elevation + elevation transition + terrain that only air units can pass through) - each square represents 3 kilometers in any direction; not necessarily the same as SC's isometric system of simple ramps for elevation transition and squares of water/whatever (then again the video game includes low cliffs and disproportionate unit to building/capital ship ratios as well :P).

Players are PM'd the location of their base (main; naturals and expos occupy other squares; the natural is usually adjacent) on the grid. Expo locations must be scouted, as do bases - naturals are the easiest things to scout (if they exist) and are generally automatically located upon the first scout order. There is no 'fog of war' so players generally know the terrain throughout, however they cannot 'see' the army movement of opposing players.

Time - Some things take time. Such includes moving scouts or armies across the map - this relates to the lowest unit's speed rating in the army or scout. The same applies to constructing buildings necessary for expos, 'teching' and production - as does unit production and the gathering of resources. Time is measured in rounds. A round is one cycle of turns (a turn from each player involved in the game).

Offense/Defense - Ordering an offense takes at least one action. Describing the tactics of the offense such as 'hit and run' would require two actions, since one needs to be made to allow the army to hit and the next to run away. Defense typically requires only one action if it involves moving your army to the location. If you put down a series of orders, note that I will not go out of my way to tell you how many actions it consumes. I will merely declare it 'illegal' if it goes over your action limit and then omit any actions I feel like - that's a warning for you to pay attention to the rules!

If I show this kindness to players, it will potentially bog down the game - although I may allow it in the case that the game moves slowly due to inactivity (hence I will allow you to omit actions of your choice rather then omitting for you in order to quickly move onto the next round).

Armies and Scouts - Armies are groups of units. Singular units are scouts, although groups of units can perform the same function.
---

The Down and Dirty Rules

Offense - Offense requires a unit to move into another unit's square. Only particularly long ranged units, such as reavers or siege tanks in siege mode, can bombard from an adjacent square (the same applies to nuclear call downs). Opposing cloaked units can, of course, not be seen without detector units in an army or scout.

Note that offensive maneuvers such as 'attack from both flanks' involves putting units into at least two armies and moving into the square of an opponent from different squares (two actions).

Activating a unit ability for all units (or some) in an army with said ability, such as 'siege mode/tank mode' or 'stim packs' requires one action. Some units automatically perform some abilities, such as 'detect' for detection units or 'heal'. Unit energy is simplified into uses of an ability counterbalanced by available uses of another. Some abilities can be used indefinitely without time cool/down. Abilities that are out of uses for a unit typically take 1 - 4 rounds to recover. Other offenses include prioritized targets such as 'workers' or 'detector structures', which typically have an increased chance of success over 'destruction of opponent's base'.

Defense - The best defense is offense - this means that if one of your bases is getting wrecked, you can move an army into your base to fend off any opposing army that has already moved there. If the opposing army is adjacent and 'bombarding', then you must move your army into that adjacent square. Typically armies that attack any of your assets (base, army, or scout) are revealed to you (I PM you their location); unless they're cloaked or are bombarding from a higher elevation square (or both). A detector unit must occupy the square of a cloaked unit in order to detect said unit.

The other form of defense is passive - defense is augmented, not just by macro, but by terrain (usually just higher elevation or differing elevation with no transition squares) and defensive structures (such as bunkers, photon cannons, missile turrets, etc.) and units that you choose to leave inside any of your bases. Detecting structures typically detect cloaked units inside a base, unless listed otherwise. The 'comsat scan' ability, ie., detects cloaked units in any square of the player's choice and also reveals expos/naturals/opposing base or army/scout location as well (effectively removing the need for a scout).

General defense requires no actions - armies/bases will fight for themselves. But moving an army into another square, in response to an offense, is an action.

Terrain - Terrain is limited to elevation and terrain that only air units can pass through (note that air units can pass through any terrain as well). Some terrain elevation is merged however - ie. a square might be of both higher/lower elevation and be transitioned as well. Such terrain has a defense advantage against bombardment from adjacent terrain but nonetheless provides no bonus for armies that assault inside its square.

Turns - Turns are actually simultaneous - in the spirit of online diplomacy, players PM me their actions (orders) and then I will tell them what happens afterwards. The thread will involve me declaring the beginning of a new round, as well as general declarations of things that occurred - Ie. I might say that one player's main was assaulted by another player, but I won't give out their exact locations on the grid.
----

Units

Units are the staple to winning the game. They factor into two versions of this game.

Unit Stats

Note that groups of units that function as scouts are 'scouting armies' or simply 'scouts' and are otherwise considered armies.

Move: Move is listed in the number of squares the unit can transition per round. If a unit is in an army, the army (if ordered to move) moves at the rate of the lowest movement rating of any unit within that army.

Ie. If an army contains 8 marines with 3 move and 10 vultures with 18 move - then the army's movement rating is 3.

When ordered to move somewhere that exceed's the unit/army's movement, the unit/army will move to the chosen space on the next round - or the round after, if it exceeds the unit/army's movement by more than double, etc.

A scout/army cannot move beyond it's movement rating per round.

Attack: A unit's attack rating is adjusted against units they are made to counter, units they are evenly scaled with, and units that counter them + micro bonus. I won't list all of the unit counters in the game - I expect players to have a knowledge of this in accordance with the game. An army uses the sum of every unit's attack rating within it.

Attack rating is tested whenever a unit/army is required to defend or ordered to offend. This determines whether or not they succeed or fail. All units in an army are destroyed if they aren't ordered to retreat if they fail (providing a retreat contingency costs one action per scout/army; see contingencies below).

Contingencies

Contingencies are actions that are carried provided certain circumstances are met.

Contingencies typically cost only one action per scout/army/structure (rally points), no matter how many actual contingencies they may involve.

Ie. Ordering a barracks to send every marine it trains to expo a21 would be a contingency that costs one action. Ordering the barracks to lift off when the base it is in is under attack would be a separate contingency.

Ordering the marine constructed to defend instead of travel to expo a21 if the base in which the barracks occupies comes under attack is part of the same contingency as the first one - so it doesn't cost any more actions than one.

Layering a contingency such as ordering the marine to travel to expo a21 and then group with an army if it is stationed their, or in an adjacent square, would be a contingency that costs another action (it is layered/chained on top of the first contingency that requires the marine to travel to a21). Another way of looking at it is that the marine is performing two actions - traveling to a21 and then grouping with an army. Even if the rendesvous does not occur, two actions are still used.

The action cost is only for creating the contingency - it does not reassert itself on every round thereafter unless changed. To help players, I will list all active contingencies that they've created in PMs, for each new turn.

Scouting: Scouting typically is limited up to the scout's movement rating. A player can specify each square that they wish the scout to move to in it's movement (preferably a path of squares, one adjacent to the next). Note that whether or not you order a 'movement path' or order the scout to move to just one square, it still counts as just one action.

Scouts will defend themselves from armies/scouts that they encounter in their movement unless given the contingency to 'retreat upon sight' or 'retreat if attack fails'.

StarCraft 1

Some Common Abilities:

Transport: When some unit's are transported, their movement rating is no longer counted towards the army's movement rating.

Hence, 1 dropship carrying 8 marines (max) that moves at a rate of 5 in an army with 10 vultures with a movement rating of 18 - will allow the army to move at a rate of 5. Note that delivering any/all units carried by one or more transporting units is one action. Delivering in-combat is a tactic.

Agile: Some unit's benefit from micro rating more than others. Most units will only use half a player's micro rating - faster units (those with movement rating > 5) typically benefit from the full micro rating, while other units can benefit when certain abilities such as 'stim packs' are utilized.

Note however, that unit's that are 'agile' benefit from double a micro rating. This is usually unattainable until some abilities are 'teched' for some units - such as a vulture's 'ion thrusters'.

Workers

Every race begins with workers. But workers behave differently for each race.

Terran

SCV

Move: 4
Attack: 1

Harvest - SCVs can harvest from mineral patches and refineries that they construct. One SCV, provided they have a command center within the square that the mineral patch and/or refinery occupies, can be ordered to gather either 30 minerals or 30 gas/round. Resources that are gathered are gained at the beginning of the player's next turn. Ordering any number of idle SCVs (SCVs with no assigned contingencies or are 'busy') to harvest (minerals or gas; provided they are within the right square) costs one action.

Build - An SCV can build a terran structure. See a list of terran structures for more information. The time it takes to build a terran structure is listed in rounds. This is also the amount of time that the assigned SCV is 'busy' and cannot be given any other orders. Canceling the assignment to build a structure puts the structure at either partial completion (knock off the rounds that have passed wherein the SCV has remained busy on one structure from the 'time needed' for that structure) or destroys any work and returns half resources (player's choice). Doing either costs one action.

Repair - An SCV that is ordered to repair is 'busy'. They can also be given the repair contingency. If assigned the repair contingency to a unit in an army that can be repaired, the SCV will become a part of that army and will repair any of the units in the army that can repaired whenever they are damaged. Mechanically, repair lowers unit/structure 'deaths' for any that can be repaired and costs 10 minerals and 5 gas per round. Repair is usually a contingency.

Repair can be used on protoss or terran structures, or any mechanical units. \

Marine

Move: 3
Attack: 2

Tactical Advantage: The marine's 'unit counter' applies only when marines are grouped in at least a 3:1 ratio (or more) against said unit.

Stim Pack (requires tech): Ordering anyone in an army that can use stim packs to use them, requires one action. Stim packs double movement and attack rating of a unit, but lower chance of survival (especially on a retreat contingency - other types of orders/tactics can vary though). The bonus from a stim pack use applies to units in an army until the beginning of the player's next turn.

U-238 Shells (requires tech): Increases marine's chance of survival in offense. Also increases attack rating by 1 when defending a base (occupies a base square during enemy attack). Note that the defense bonus applies before the stim pack bonus - hence a stimmed marine's attack rating can be 6 instead of 4 in a defense scenario. This is usually achieved via a contingency (since the player cannot see an opponent's actions until next turn when the GM tells him what happened, if it was determined that the opponent could be seen).

Firebat


StarCraft 2

---
EDIT: This will be continued once it gets attention. Until then, you ain't seen nothin'.

[DemolitionSquid]

If I roll a natural 20 can I nuke?

[Blazur]

I think I'd rather just play SC2.

[KDraconis]

If I roll a natural 20 can I nuke?

You forgot to roll to see if Cloak was successful or not.

[DemolitionSquid]

You forgot to roll to see if Cloak was successful or not.

This game is too hard

I put on my robe and wizard hat...

[solidsamurai]

S'pose no one wants to play?

You forgot to roll to see if Cloak was successful or not.

Cloak is always successful. -_-

If I roll a natural 20 can I nuke?

You nuke if you happen to have nukes built.

You don't roll, the GM does. Currently, the only one who knows how to GM (regarding this game) is me.

[Arkalis]

Ill SCV Rush at beginning. THen I can micro them and win

I would liek to play but this is too hard for me D:

[Gradius]

I think I'd rather just play SC2.

This.

[solidsamurai]

I would liek to play but this is too hard for me D:

I'll try to make the rules easier to understand as I work on this. Right now, it's sort of a brainstorm. Really all the players need to know is what options are available - basically, they can do anything that can be done in the game of StarCraft except that the map is on a grid created by the GM (me) and the resource influx is a bit more sporadic or narrow (or whatever the word is when involving increments of '30' rather then potential odd numbers, etc.).

It may happen in the near future if (in the near future), I have the chance to work on this.

Currently, it may take over 9 rounds just to get a small army up and moving - I'm not quite so sure that's an acceptable level; there's plenty of ways to fix this; up the amount of 'minerals/gas gathered' per round per worker 'busy' with harvesting seems the most easy and obvious currently; another one would be to allow cheaper units to produce 'immediately' in the current round that the order is given depending on how many are qued in the building (but trying to explain the mechanic would be confusing). I still think it requires tactic and intelligence though (that was the intention; play the game via RPing rather then clicking a mouse constantly and looking at pretty animations, potentially smoother gameplay and hearing awesome dialogue, etc.... heh. Note that the videogame can always get repetitive though.).