Idea: Realistic Space Travel Board Game

[Clavius0712]

Hi all,

I have been dreaming for a while now about designing a board game to portray the future exploration of space from about the year 2020 to 2100. It would have a map of the solar system - or more likely several separate individual maps (inner planets, outer planets, Earth-Moon system, Jupiter system, Saturn system) - and the planetary tracks would be printed on it.

The maps would be overlaid with a hexagonal grid and the orbital paths of the planets/moons marked on the grid as true circles/ellipses just as they would be in real life. I would also like to get the orbital plane just right for each planet by putting a number in each hex to show its "zulu" coordinate, i.e. how far above or below the plane of the map the orbital path is at each point in the orbit. Marked on each orbital path would be the starting position of the planet/moon for the year 2020.

I would then need to have rules to tell the player how far each planet/moon moves each each turn. I haven't decided on how long a turn is yet but it could depend on the map being used. For instance, say all the players start off only able to use the Earth-Moon system map. A turn on that map might only be a day or so. However, once players move onto the outer planets map each turn might represent weeks or months. Obviously it would require some thought as to how the situation is dealt with when multiple maps are in play.

The final icing on the cake of this game system would be rules to allow the player to construct realistic spacecraft and send them on realistic trips to various destinations.

The construction part would require scientific facts on Specific Impulse, Fuel Efficiency and God knows what else so that the players' ships behave in a realistic fashion in terms of acceleration, duration etc.

The flight part would need rules to work out the vector a ship was moving in based on burns it had made and other forces acting on it like a nearby planet or satellite's sphere of influence.

Each player in the game would be some sort of space-fairing organisation. Some might be commercial ventures whilst others might be government agencies. Each would have unique advantages and disadvantages in terms of R&D, financing etc.

The goal would be to be the player to achieve the greatest space-fairing prestige during the period 2020 to 2100. Prestige would be acquired by doing interesting things like landing on planets/moons, setting up permanent bases on them, developing space tourism, etc.

There would be no fighting in the game. Players would outdo each other by setting landmarks in the history of space flight, not by use of force. Maybe on rare occasions some sort of aggressive action could be allowed, but it would not be the norm and would be discouraged by the game rules.

So, having seen my dream, what do you think? Could it be done? Bear in mind that I do have some programming skill so if it was out of the question that this could be done on a physical board with physical pieces, it might be possible as a computer game representation of a board game.

At its heart, such a game would be about the physics of orbital mechanics, so I would need to be able to make game rules that controlled the way planets move, how spaceships create transfer orbits between planets etc.

I would be interested in anyone's thoughts on this idea, and how I might make a start turning it into reality.

P.S. - I did search for similar games and I think one called "High Frontier" is coming out next year. However I can't find any information on it. If anyone has any information then I'd be interested to know as if my dream game is already coming out I won't have to make it!

 

[Hielor]

In terms of board games that use somewhat-realistic physics, I recall Mayday for the Traveller universe...for movement you had three ship markers: where you were last turn, where you are this turn, and where you will be next turn. When the turn ends, you move the "was" to the "is" and the "is" to the "will be," and then apply thrust/gravity to the "will be" marker.

Might be an interesting system to look into, but it may be copyrighted or something.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

Your idea sounds like it would have the complexity of a tabletop game like Battletech (or perhaps more complex than that). I think maybe prototyping it as a computer program would be a good way to figure things out.

As an aside, I used to play this board game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarquest

Don't know at the moment whatever happened to my copy of it. Thanks for reminding me of it though! Brings back good memories.

 

[sputnik]

Sounds like you should also take a look at the classic Triplanetary: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3637

...and also the much less-well-known (and, sadly, out of print) Rocket Flight / Lords of the High Frontier: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5525

 

[Clavius0712]

...and also the much less-well-known (and, sadly, out of print) Rocket Flight / Lords of the High Frontier: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5525

I have heard of that game. I think the "High Frontier" game I mentioned in my original post is a sequel to it but there is very little information on boardgamegeek:

High Frontier

 

[Clavius0712]

Well folks, FYI I contacted the developer of the upcoming High Frontier for more information and I think my dream game has arrived! Keep your eyes and ears open for this game (currently scheduled for 2010 release) as it looks amazing! You can prospect for minerals on asteroids, use solar sails, develop new propulsion technologies and heaps more. Fantastic!

 

[clive bradbury]

This thread raises a related point that interests me - does anyone play board games anymore?

I used to a lot, including tabletop waragming, amongst other things, but computers just made the complicated mechanics of the rules easier, and the timne spent setting up and clearing up disappeared. More fun face-to-face with a human opponent, but computer games are just so much more convenient.

I still play chess, but even that tends to be on-line nowadays.

 

[Andy44]

This thread raises a related point that interests me - does anyone play board games anymore?

I used to a lot, including tabletop waragming, amongst other things, but computers just made the complicated mechanics of the rules easier, and the timne spent setting up and clearing up disappeared. More fun face-to-face with a human opponent, but computer games are just so much more convenient.

I still play chess, but even that tends to be on-line nowadays.

I prefer board games over computers in many cases. You never have to worry about your stupid video card or system not being able to handle that expensive software you just bought, for starters.

Problem is that the friends I used to play with are no longer available for gaming anymore. I have lots of BattleTech models that sit idle.

 

[mjessick]

This thread raises a related point that interests me - does anyone play board games anymore?

I used to a lot

Same. Now I just throw them away ;(

It turns out I missed a box that had been on my garage floor for 16 months... in Houston, TX, humidity capitol of the world.

So I just tossed 3 very nice copies of formerly expensive air games that had the bottom inch corroded away. ick. Battle of Britain, Knights of the Air, and London is Burning.

 

[Andy44]

Avalon Hill RIP.

 

[IthyStPete]

This thread raises a related point that interests me - does anyone play board games anymore?

I used to a lot, including tabletop waragming, amongst other things, but computers just made the complicated mechanics of the rules easier, and the timne spent setting up and clearing up disappeared. More fun face-to-face with a human opponent, but computer games are just so much more convenient.

I still play chess, but even that tends to be on-line nowadays.

I've actually started playing them more; I've got a friend who has a ton of interesting games. We've played this game called Through the Ages, which is basically Civilization in board game form, and the Order of the Stick Adventure/board game.

 

[ijuin]

Wait, there's an Order of the Stick board game?

 

[IthyStPete]

Wait, there's an Order of the Stick board game?

Yup.

http://apegames.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=APE0600&Category_Code=

 

[Linguofreak]

I prefer board games over computers in many cases. You never have to worry about your stupid video card or system not being able to handle that expensive software you just bought, for starters.

Problem is that the friends I used to play with are no longer available for gaming anymore. I have lots of BattleTech models that sit idle.

Yeah, finding other players is a problem, as is the fact that play can be a lot slower, and rulesets alot more limited, because of the fact that humans can't process math as quickly as computers.

 

[Urwumpe]

Problem is that the friends I used to play with are no longer available for gaming anymore. I have lots of BattleTech models that sit idle.

I also have a lot of models, that are still unpainted... I don't have the time now for doing a painting session.

 

[Andy44]

Yeah, finding other players is a problem, as is the fact that play can be a lot slower, and rulesets alot more limited, because of the fact that humans can't process math as quickly as computers.

The rulesets are a strength of boradgames or tabletop wargames, because if you don't like them you can alter them, or even write your own.

Me and some friends once bought a bunch of 15mm American War of Independence miniatures and decided we didn't like any of the commercially available rulesets, so we just wrote our own, then proceeded to fix bayonettes and have at it.

You don't even need minis, though, all you need are index cards to represent troop units, a table with maybe some books to represent raised terrain, a pair of dice and a tape measure.

Never need to worry about lag, hard drive failures, DRM, obsolescent hardware, none of that. Something to be said for the old ways.

I attempted for a long time to build a realistic space combat game, but there are some problems I never overcame:

1. Space is 3D. Your tabletop is 2D. simulating 3D is not impossible, but it is hard.

2. Movement is based on Kepler and Newton and is ballistic in nature. To accurately simulate space combat in the presence of gravitational bodies all objects move on curved paths with constantly changing velocities. This is much harder to track on a tabeltop than in a computer, since you need a propagator, or at least a table to fake it well.

The rest is simple gamer stuff. Weapons effects, damage, effects of crew health and morale on spacecraft performance, etc., standard stuff.

I still want to do this some day.The propagation can be handled by a programmable calculator like my TI-85; it's just a matter of taking the time to write it.

The 3D movement can also be handled by various means, such as telescoping radio antennas used as minature stands or stacked stands. The former idea was used in a WWI biplane wargame I once played, the latter in Attack Vector, which was out of print last time I tried to buy a copy.

Then comes the problem of writing rules that people can actually understand. I don't think there's any way to get around the fact that you need to understand a little orbit dynamics before tackling a game like that.

 

[HopDavid]

So, having seen my dream, what do you think? Could it be done? Bear in mind that I do have some programming skill so if it was out of the question that this could be done on a physical board with physical pieces, it might be possible as a computer game representation of a board game.

At its heart, such a game would be about the physics of orbital mechanics, so I would need to be able to make game rules that controlled the way planets move, how spaceships create transfer orbits between planets etc.

I would be interested in anyone's thoughts on this idea, and how I might make a start turning it into reality.

I believe the best way to learn is through experience. A space sim game could acquaint players with things like delta V, launch windows, Hohmann transfers, etc. And it could probably do so in a more enjoyable, natural way than digging these things out of a text book.

I started a thread in Nasa Spaceflight forum: Space Sim Multi-User Game.

Some of Orbiter's code might work well as the guts in a space sim game. The various add ons could be different settings within the game.

 

[JamesG]

The FASA BattleTech game AeroTech probably had the simplest rules that tried to at least play lipservice to astrophysics.

I think today, any board game has to be simplier than Monopoly to get any popularity beyond the small group of masacistic die-hard boardgamers.