Pre-CNES: Flowers on the Working Title

Pre-thread and beta testing for CNES: Flowers on the Working Title

Introduction

The original ZPNESV: Flowers on the Razor Wire was launched in 2009 for the Never Ending Stories console, to much critical acclaim and consumer appeal. A semi-conventional boardgame NES, ZPNESV married excellent graphical design with a solid gameplay foundation to create a truly satisfying NES experience that lasted from August 28th to December 15th 2009. Featuring 19 high-quality updates, it was truly underappreciated in its time.

I seek to launch a clone of Daftpanzer’s truly stellar ZPNESV, and I even intend to improve on it where I can. It will feature an updated battle system (built on the tried and tested Daftpanzer model), a brand new world map (provided by resident mapmaker extraordinaire, Iggy), custom sprites (cobbled together by yours truly), and a bold, new world that you (yes, you!) will help create.

Overview

ZPNESV was a game of conquest and strategy, wherein multiple nations battled across a war-torn world for economic, militaristic, and technological supremacy. To reduce it to brass tacks, it is like a mixture of Axis & Allies and Risk: a true board-game NES. CNES seeks to be ZPNESV's spiritual successor.

The general purpose of this thread is to construct the rule-set for CNES as well as to present progress on the NES as it occurs. I will be asking for feedback on the rules, and at some points even inputs for content.

These first three posts will be divided into five parts, and the progress of each of these parts will be numerically represented as they approach completion (some proportion of 100%). The five parts will be: the Game Rules, the Combat Mechanics, the Map, the Cultures, and the Sprites. As each of these are developed further, I will edit these posts and make update posts further along in the thread.

So, without further ado, let’s get started.

OVERALL PROGRESS

{----------} : 47.4%

Game Rules

These are rules directly related to the game in the sense that the players experience it. Combat rules are not discussed here; those are reserved for the Combat Mechanics section.

The rules from the original ZPNESV can be found here.

I plan to co-opt many of these rules for my purposes, however I will be changing, adding, and subtracting significantly so do not take Daftpanzer’s rules as the definitive for CNES. At this current juncture progress is very tentative due to a lack of a completed map. As the map is developed, the rules for Movement, Diplomacy, Economy, and other miscellany will be posted here.

PROGRESS:
{----------} 57% (Current: Starting-off rules)

To Do:
Economy Rules - contingent on nothing
Tech Tree - contingent on nothing
Diplomacy Rules - contingent on nothing
Movement Rules - contingent on Map development
Joining the Game - contingent on Map, Cultures, and Sprites development
Sending Orders - contingent on Game Rules, and Combat Mechanics development
Miscellaneous Rules - contingent on Game Rules development

Combat Mechanics

These are rules having to do with combat, the bread and butter of this game. The mechanics of multiple fighting armies will be discussed here: how do the armies fight, what stats do they have, etc.

The entire combat is being automated by a program for the sake of easily simulating large battles (faster updates) and introducing a sense of consistency to the ruleset to minimize instances of moderator bias. This represents the most significant shift from Daft's ruleset; however, the essential spirit of the combat system in ZPNESV is being preserved.

The very basic description of how combat in CNES will work is that two armies will, across various movement phases, come to occupy the same territory. Upon doing so, they will engage in combat. This combat is affected by multiple factors:

The attacking team/the defending team; the terrain; the condition or quality of the offending and defending troops; the level of fortifications in the defending team’s region; appropriate technological modifiers, and; supporting fire from neighboring territories (where applicable).

Armies consist of air and ground units, which are produced out of territories you own or capture. Ground units and helicopters have movement that is individual to them, whereas air units each have a certain “range” that they are capable of joining combat within. A battle occurs whenever two armies of opposing factions occupy the same territory - either because one army attacked into the territory of another, or because two armies attacked each into the opposite’s territory, or because two armies attacked into the same territory. In the first of these cases, there is an attacking team and a defending team; in the latter two cases, there are only attacking teams. Two armies that are allied and in the same territory, or move in the same way, fight together when entering combat. Armies may also be supported by certain units in adjacent territories - currently, the only unit capable of offering supporting fire from an adjacent territory is the Battleship.

Once combat is joined and the factors are applied, the two armies fight a battle across a maximum of three “Heats.” Each Heat features each unit in both armies attacking one unit in the opposing army. After applying modifiers involving the strength of each units (which determines whether the attacker can score a hit), the armor of the defender (which determines how well the defender can resist “soft” attacks), the armor-piercing of the attacker (which determines how well the attacker can hurt units with armor), and other factors (such as flying units being hard to hit by non-anti-air ground units). There is a base 5% chance for a unit to score a critical hit on another unit - in such a circumstance, no matter what, the defending unit is destroyed. At the end of each heat, support units also attack as if they were regular units; however, they cannot be targeted by other units nor other support units.

The way the attacking unit selects a defending unit to attack was, traditionally, based on Daftpanzer’s good judgement for what would make a “balanced fight.” So the fundamentally anti-armored Siege Tank unit would often be paired up against armored opponents, as that made more sense than rounding up a Militia with no armor-piercing capabilities for the same task. Since part of the goal of this system is to automate, a different tack is required: each unit type will have a catalogue of “favored opponents” that it will select from, with the most favored opponents being more likely candidates to receive fire than less favored opponents. In the event that no favored opponents are available, it will choose a random target to attack.

A full list of all units - naval, land, and air - will be available soon, as well as their stats and rules for what the stats mean and how they work.

Here’s an example of what the inputs and outputs will look like, using everyone’s two favorite European belligerents as examples (taken from build alpha v0.2; Wed,May 30,2012):



Curious about the way this program works? An experienced mathematician, programmer, or computer modeler? Feel free to PM me questions, comments, advice, and criticism.

PROGRESS:
{----------} 80% (Current: naval combat)

To Do: (numbers are indicated for keeping track, they do not indicate any semblance of sequence)
Main Program Files for Army and Navy Combat
Hit/Kill/Pierce algorithms for non-flying units
1. Hit/Kill/Pierce algorithms for flying units - technically existent, but broken; needs to be looked at; may be fixed by item 4
2. Rework naval combat system - aim for emergent behaviors s.t. battleships > destroyers > subs > battleships etc...
3. Rework “support” units substructure - contingent on item 2 to a large degree, also: should artillery, bombers, etc be considered “support” units? If so, under what circumstances?
4. Favored opponents and defender’s bias algorithm - important
5. Quality effects, such as: terrain, army quality, fortification status, technological customization effects, special cultural bonuses/maluses, other special unit effects - potentially a lot of content
6. Integrate program support for allied armies.
7. Importer subroutine to collate entries.
8. Units List - contingent on nothing
9. Balance Units - contingent on Combat Mechanics development

Map

Iggy has been conscripted lovingly volunteered to make an original world map for CNES. Once the map is completed, more extensive discussion will go here, as well as updates on how the progress is going for customizing the map for use with this NES’ province system. Much of this process will also hinge on developments in the Culture section.

PROGRESS:
{----------} 80% (Current: Convert map)

To Do:
Make the map
Convert map for easy polity-indication
Polish map with icons

Cultures

A large part of this pre-thread will be in establishing shared cultural heritages for the various regions of the map. This process will allow any and all applicants to write in submissions for how they feel the culture of a particular region or regions might look in an alternate universe of our devising. As realism is not the prime objective of this NES, scrutiny of applications will be limited to a much broader sense of what constitutes as “plausible” or not.

So what am I looking for with cultural submissions then? Well, for starters, a broadly original industrial (or even pre-industrial) society concept that may or may not be sprinkled liberally with real-world references. A good approach would be to envision what you want - a mostly agrarian society, say, with a large, deeply religious population - and then to look at the map, and other people’s submissions, and attempt to fit your concept into the context of The World (such as it is).

For this purpose, submissions will be split into two phases, each its own separate category: the first phase will be the Broad Cultural Spheres phase, where players submit a very general overview of the cultural mores and the history of one of a number of large regions. This will be focused more on style, feel, and good writing from a historical perspective to help establish a working context that others can engage with more easily. An example would be a region that has been home to a particularly large number of steppe nomads through its history. The second phase will be the Specific Culture phase, where players submit a more specific history of the culture, people, and history of one (or more) provinces. These should attempt to fit the spirit and themes established in the first phase. There will be more details on exactly what I’m looking for in the future, but this is a broad overview of what to expect.

What effect these submissions will have on the game will impact the way units from certain regions look, what kind of cultural bonuses/maluses that nations in those regions have access to, and the kinds of resources, the type of terrain, and the level of industrialization specific to each province in a region.

The map will serve a tabula rasa for this purpose; and you, my dear reader, are the master painter. Or, well, at least a child with a crayon. At least.

Until such a time as the map is completed, cultural submissions will likely not be accepted off-hand. This section will be intended for documenting cultural submissions and their proposed bonuses/maluses.

PROGRESS:
{----------} 0% (Current: Macro culture)

To Do:
Macro culture
Micro culture
Polities

Sprites

The hallmark of ZPNESV was Daftpanzer’s stellar sprite work. Having access to many of his masterworks from the original ZPNESV, as well as a significant body of altered, custom, and vanilla sprites from the Advance Wars series for the Game Boy Advance, I will be quite able to make and manipulate custom sprites of my own, as well as deploy them to the map for every update.

This section is more important than merely being aesthetic, however, as the sprites themselves are a part of the stats. The stats will defer to the map when it comes to what-is-deployed-where, and all the features of each individual provinces will be available only via the map. In a sense, the map is the update. And the sprites are its lifeblood. Or something.

I will post cool sprite stuff directly related to CNES here, as well as stuff I cook up to represent the soldiers of various cultural submissions etc.

Here is a little something I cooked up in a few minutes playing with some of Daft’s sprites and the unused map from the map thread. It’s just a (very rough) example of the role sprites will serve on the world map (essentially a concept drawing):



More/better examples can be found in the original ZPNESV thread, and I will attempt to mimic many of Daft's stylistic elements as demonstrated in that thread.

NOTE: I will be giving credit where it is due in this section. Off the top of my head, right now I can think of Daftpanzer and Pillbox Phil (of internet sprite-community fame) to give credit to for their work on some of the graphical material I have collected for this NES.

An experienced graphical design artist? A seasoned spriter? An incorrigible complainant? Feel free to drop me a PM with everything you have to say, including and especially castigations for bad spritery.

PROGRESS:
{----------} 20% (Current: N/A)

To Do:
Collect sprites
Collate sprites
Adapt sprites for unit lists and ID cards
Adapt sprites for specific cultures
Adapt sprites for miscellaneous game functions
Adapt map to function with the sprites aesthetically
Secret sprites for secret weapons :o


So what can we talk about in this thread?

Questions, comments, ideas, light extemporanea - this thread is about circulating ideas and discussing the NES as a whole. Further along in development, there will be plenty of opportunities to contribute content.

What about Diplomacy?

That's still running, but it's thankfully such a low-maintenance project that I can maintain it alongside everything else.

Submissions & Stats

Nation submissions can occur at any point throughout the NES. To begin, you identify one province to serve as the Capital (it generally cannot be a province already belonging to another player, see the section on “Insurrection” for more details), and then you dole out 20 Nation Points however you like to “buy” from a variety of qualities for your nation (see the “Nation Shop” for more details). Take a look!

Beginning of the NES

At the beginning of the NES, the opportunities are limitless. You have 20 Nation Points (NP) to spend when first creating your nation; these can be spent on things in the “Nation Shop” which you may then indicate in your stats. Here is the basic deliverable:

[font=”Courier New”]Nation Name:
Flag:
Color:
Unit Type:
Provinces:
Units:
Improvements:
Extras:
History:[/font]

And again, annotated:

[font=”Courier New”]Nation Name: {such as: The Iron Fascists of the Greater South}
Flag: {See the “Graphics” section below}
Color: {Give a primary color, which will be the color of your provinces, and a secondary color, which will be the color of your borders; these colors will also be used for your units.}
Unit Type: {See the “Graphics” section below}
Provinces: {One “Capital” province, that is free, and as many additional provinces as you can afford with NP}
Units: {You start with 3 Infantry for free, all in your capital, but you may purchase additional units with NP}
Improvements: {Your provinces will all be unadorned to begin with, but you may add improvements to them for NP}
Extras: {Anything else you get from the Nation Shop which doesn’t fit into the above 3 categories}
History: {A description of your nation and its history, with consideration given to the Thlayli chronicles}[/font]

I will be doublechecking stats to see nobody runs over 20 NP. If you go over, I will cut costs (Units, Extras, Improvements, Provinces) until you are under budget. NP unspent at the time of nation creation will be turned into $ (1 per NP) and then put into your treasury for the start of the game.

For easy reference, here are links to Thlayli’s histories:

Thlayli’s History pt. 1
Thlayli’s History pt. 2
Thayli's History pt. 3

During the NES

If you want to make a nation after the launch - that is, during the NES - you are a bit more limited. To begin with, you can only have one province to start with, and you may not choose player-controlled provinces (generally) or capital provinces (ever) when doing so. You may not add Improvements when creating a nation during the NES.

[font=”Courier New”]Nation Name:
Flag:
Color:
Unit Type:
Province:
Units:
Extras:
History:[/font]

Insurrection

Any nation with more than 8 provinces can experience an insurrection whereby a new player joins the game as a rebelling province in the aforementioned nation. To do so, pick any province in that nation that was not one of the provinces that player started with (indicated on the map as a “core” province of that faction) without a unit garrison and PM me your nation submission rather than post it in the thread.

Note that competing nations can offer funds to alleviate pressure on an insurrection. If you have the support of a player, as well as a $10 stipend to go with it, you may rise up in any non-core province in the target region that is garrisoned with as many as 3 ground units. To do so, PM as above and refer me to the player who is allegedly supporting your rebellion. Once they confirm support, I will earmark $10 out of their income for your rebellion.

Nation Shop

Here are the things you can buy with your NP when making your nation (note you can only take each “Extra” item once per, and tech prerequisites still apply for techs obtained in the Nation Shop):

ONE EXTRA PROVINCE: 5 NP. Beginning nations only.
ONE PROVINCE INDUSTRIALIZED: 10 NP. Beginning nations only.
ONE PROVINCE URBANIZED: 5 NP. Beginning nations only.
ONE PROVINCE W/ PORT: 2 NP. Beginning nations only.
ONE PROVINCE W/ AIRBASE: 2 NP. Beginning nations only.
ONE PROVINCE W/ RESEARCH LAB: 7 NP. Beginning nations only.
INFANTRY UNIT: 1 NP.
ARMORED CAR: 2 NP.
LANDSHIP: 4 NP.
ARTILLERY: 3 NP.
OFFICER: 5 NP.
BIPLANE: 2 NP.
SUB: 3 NP. Only if you have a port.
DESTROYER: 2 NP. Only if you have a port.
BATTLESHIP: 4 NP. Only if you have a port.
MANDATORY SERVICE: 5 NP. Extra. Start with 10 Militia.
BUSINESS SCHOOLS & TYCOON CAPITALISM: 5 NP. Extra. Start with Business & Individualism.
NEW DAWN: 5 NP. Extra. Start with Third Way.
FIVE-YEAR PLANS: 5 NP. Extra. Start with State Socialism.
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC: 5 NP. Extra. Start with Syndicalism.

Graphics

Flags

You can choose one of any of the following flags.

Flags 1
Flags 2
Flags 3
Flags 4
Flags 5
Flags 6

“But Crezth!” I hear you cry indignantly, “I wanted a custom flag!” No problem. Simply make a flag graphic with the same dimensions as any of those above and send it to me, and I’ll try to cook it up like the other flags.

Unit Type

You can choose a helmet type (complete with a “general feel&#8221 from any of these:



Names should be fairly self-explanatory. There will be plenty of extra customization as the game goes on.


Economy Rules

The economy of your nation is its life-blood: it supplies, grows, feeds, and fuels the army that you better be building. Allegedly, economies have been used for other things throughout history, but that has yet to be borne out by evidence. Economics has traditionally been an incredibly complicated subject, often requiring years of study before even the most ambiguous of rules can be established and understood. Still partially outside of the realm of human knowledge, simulating an economy is a task of incredible difficulty. In CNES, your economy is represented by $.

Provincial Income

Provinces are classified according to three categories: terrain type, industrialization, and urbanization. Each province in your domain will contribute $ to your yearly income based on the amalgamation of the effects of the province’s inherent profitability (its terrain type) and its level of improvement. As a general rule of thumb, improvement is costly at first, and it takes a while to fully reap its benefits. At the start of the game, some provinces may be industrialized or urbanized, depending on the history of those regions.

Terrain Type

There are four general terrain types: jungle, desert, tundra, and temperate. Each province will be defined as being one of these categories. Different terrain types offer a different level of “base” economic profitability, and can offer different combat bonuses to the defender. The “base” economic profitability is essentially how much money the province produces from simple resource gathering operations, or when it is neither urbanized nor industrialized. All the terrain types and their qualities are classified below:

Jungle: $1, defense level 1, urbanization +100% cost, industrialization +50% cost
Desert: $1, defense level 1, urbanization +100% cost
Tundra: $1, defense level 1, urbanization +100% cost
Temperate: $1, defense level 0

Sometimes, these provinces can also have other features, like hills, mountains, and forests:

Hill: Defense level +1
Mountain: Defense level +2, cannot urbanize, industrialization +50% cost, units entering mountain provinces must end their movement in that province
Forest: Defense level +1

Each defense level counts as a fortification level (see Movement Rules below), but does not count against the max fortification level permitted by technology.

|Tropical|Desert|Temperate|Cold
Default|N/A| Yellow | Orange | White
Forest| Dark Green |N/A| Light Green | Turquoise

Improvement

Urbanization refers to the level of settlement in a province. An urbanized province is heavily and densely populated, and generates more income from the commerce generated in the urban area. Generally, urbanized provinces have access to more improvements than industrialized provinces, even though they produce less wealth. It costs $10 to immediately urbanize a temperate province. It costs $20 to immediately urbanize a desert or tundra province.

[No icon] Rural: +$0
Urbanized: +$3. Allows province to build unlimited infantry-type units.

Industrialization requires a one-time investment of $20 to immediately industrialize a province. An urbanized province cannot also be industrialized.

Industrialized: +$5. Allows province to build unlimited units of any type that province would normally otherwise be able to build.

You may also construct ports and airbases, which mostly provide military benefits but can also provide trade benefits. Ports and airbases both cost $5 to build.

Port: Province must be industrialized or urbanized and coastal. If in urbanized province, gives +$1. Allows province to build naval units (1/turn normally).
Airbase: Province must be industrialized or urbanized. If in urbanized province, gives +$1. Allows province to build air units (1/turn normally).

You may also build research labs, but only in urbanized provinces. Research labs cost $8 to build.

Research Lab: Gives +1 research points.

Finally, you may build forts for $5, which improve defense.

Fort: Defense level +1 in this province.


Occupied Provinces

Occupied provinces are those that you don’t normally own, but which you have control of due to successfully having taken it during war. In most cases, it takes 1 turn for an occupied province to normalize. Occupying a province has a few effects:

• Disables income from that province for 1 turn.
• Transfers ownership of province to the occupier.

Razing

In any province you control, you can elect to raze some of its assets or qualities. Razing is free but takes 1 turn to complete. Once started, it can only be reversed with an investment of $5 (in the interim period while the razing is occurring; once the razing is complete, it cannot be undone).

You can raze:

Urbanization
Industrialization
Forest
Port
Airbase
Research Lab
Fort

Spending

There are three things you can spend $ on: improvements, units, and greasing the palms of aggressive neighbors. In order to buy anything, however, you must be able to afford it. Ordering to buy something that you can’t afford will make me a sad panda, and you an even sadder panda.

Buying Units

To buy a unit, indicate in your orders the province that the unit is to be built in. Keep in mind that provinces cannot build more than one unit per turn, except where otherwise specified here:

Infantry-type units: 1/turn unless urbanized or industrialized (unlimited/turn).
Non-infantry ground-units: 1/turn unless industrialized (unlimited/turn).
Air units: 0/turn unless airbase (1/turn) or airbase and industrialized (unlimited/turn).
Navy units: 0/turn unless port (1/turn) or port and industrialized (unlimited/turn).

Mod Points

Mod Points are a special type of point that is earned from being a “good NESer.” Typically, at least one mod point will be doled out per turn based on an agglomeration of the following criteria:

1.) Who had the best orders. From an objective standpoint, whose orders were most well-organized, clear, and concise. You won’t get a mod point if your orders contain errors - spelling or otherwise - or are incomplete or unclear.
2.) Who was the most helpful. Let’s say I ask for a piece of media, or something else, to help move the NES along. Delivering on such a request can cinch you the mod point.
3.) Submitting good content. Let’s say you write a great story that moves me to tears. Probably go’n earn you a mod point.

For a frame of reference, both Thlayli and Iggy are starting with some mod points due to their invaluable service to this NESterprise. It’s my little way of saying thanks.

So what can you do with these mod points? Well first of all, they give you mad swag. Every kid on the block is going to be wanting some of these pimpin’ mod points. Secondly, you can buy stuff with them. Stuff like double strength units, infinite resources and nuclear we-hahaha no that’d be ******ed. You can buy cosmetic stuff though. Lookie:

5 Mod Points: Name Change! - Change the name of any of your unit types.
Ex.: You rename your Infantry unit to Red Guard. So now in the battle feedouts, instead of “Infantry” you will be reported as having “Red Guard (Infantry).”
10 Mod Points: Landmark! - Add a sprite-lookin’ thing to any territory that you control on the map as a permanent doodad adorning the landscape!
Ex.: You think to yourself, “Man I wish I could have one of these cool sprites in my faction.” Well, if you have 10 Mod Points, now you can!
15 Mod Points: Sprite Change! - Change the sprite for any of your unit types to... anything.
Ex.: “If only my infantry could all be blue hedgehogs!” Well, no, I’d actually veto that one pretty hard, and probably dock you 5 mod points for good measure. But you get the idea.

Movement Rules

Every unit has a certain amount of movement, indicated by the blue arrow on their unit card. For land and naval units, this is the maximum amount of provinces that that unit can move in one turn. For an air unit, this is the maximum range that an air unit can operate within (to perform combat missions, bombing missions, and interception missions within).

Ground Units

Ground units have access to a certain number of special orders regarding movement and how they can operate on the game board. The orders that every ground unit can access are: move, fortify, and blitz.

Move

Every ground unit can move a number of provinces equal to the value of their movement score, as shown on their unit card. Every naval unit can move a number of naval spaces equal to the value of their movement score in the same way. Movement consists of multiple phases: there is the initial phase, and the subsequent phases.

The initial phase details all movements made by all ground, air, and naval units made to the fullest extent possible permitted by their movement score before being forced to stop for whatever reason, be it that they have been forced to engage an enemy army or are stopped due to other mitigating factors.

Once all movement has been resolved in this manner, the initial phase is concluded by the battle phase, where all battles that need to be resolved are resolved. Following this is the retreat phase, where units that have survived and lost a battle retreat into adjacent friendly provinces. After the retreat phase is the secondary movement phase, where units with movement points remaining and an unpingable path forward OR under a blitz order finish their movement as ordered.

Fortify

Any ground unit that chooses not to take a movement order can take a fortify order, where they dig into the territory they are in to obtain a Fortification bonus. Subsequent fortification orders can increase this bonus by increasing the fortification level by 1, so long as tech level permits. Taking a movement or blitz order eliminates all acquired fortification bonuses. By default, the maximum fortification level is 1.

Fortification bonus: +1 Def and +1 Eva per level.

This bonus can also be improved by certain qualities of terrain (and terrain bonuses do not count towards the max level permitted by technology), however the total fortification bonus can never exceed 5.

Blitz

A blitz is a special movement order that allows an army to attack multiple times in one turn. Any unit with a movement score above 1 can take a blitz order. The only difference between a blitz order and a movement order is that the secondary movement phase is now no longer limited by requiring a clear path forward: even if units occupy the target province, units with a blitz order can keep moving ahead, and will keep fighting. The total number of provinces that a unit can move under a blitz order cannot exceed its total movement. Blitz orders can only be given once the appropriate tech has been researched.

Air Units

Air units are always qualified as being “based” in a province, and it is from that province that they can operate. Aircraft can perform any orders within range of their based province, or “base,” their range being defined as their movement score. If an air unit loses its base, or for any other reason must rebase, then it moves its base to another baseable province.

Aircraft can undertake six types of orders:

Ground Support

Aircraft ordered to do ground support will participate in any battles occurring in the targeted territory. The targeted territory must be within range of the supporting aircraft. Note that aircraft ordered to do ground support can and will also fight enemy aircraft in any battle that they are ostensibly participating in for ground support purposes.

Ground Attack

All aircraft can engage in ground attack missions. Unlike ground support, in this kind of mission an aircraft actively engages hostile units in the target territory. Use this to make bombing passes on territories you can’t quite reach yet, or if you want to use aircraft to engage an opponent without bringing ground troops to the fight.

Interception

Aircraft ordered to do interception will participate in any battles in range where at least one enemy aircraft is performing ground support. They will opt to participate in the battle with the most enemy aircraft present. Aircraft ordered to intercept will also force enemy aircraft engaging in strategic bombing within their range to fight.

Rebase

You can manually rebase your aircraft in lieu of another order for a turn. Doing so consists of moving the aircraft and its base to another baseable province. Baseable provinces are friendly provinces with an airbase within the range defined by the range score of the rebasing aircraft in question. If there is no baseable province in range, the aircraft cannot rebase. Aircraft that cannot rebase, but which are forced to, are destroyed.

Air Sweep

Biplane, Fighter, and Jet units can engage in air sweep missions. To do so, simply order the mission on any territory within range of the biplane, fighter, or jet you are giving the mission order to. When air sweeping, aircraft will escort strategic bombing missions sent to the target territory, meaning they will join those aircraft in combat should they be intercepted.

Strategic Bombing

Bomber and Heavy Bomber units can engage in strategic bombing missions. To do so, simply order the mission on any territory within range of the bomber or heavy bomber you are giving the mission order to. Aircraft ordered to engage in this way will not participate in battles with other units except when intercepted. Strategic bombing missions roll 1d6+Atk (per bomber) against 1d6+Def (per defending AA). A victory for the attacker means that one installation at random in the defending territory starts razing, and razing rules continue as normal from there. A victory for the defender means a 50% chance that the attacker is destroyed and no damage is done to any installations in the defending territory.


Diplomacy Rules

Diplomacy is when you talk to other nations and stuff, and make agreements and disagreements and write pieces of paper about how much you hate or love each other. In CNES, diplomacy is a mostly unregulated process in terms of who you can talk to and when, but where it affects gameplay there are a few specific rules. You may also trade $ to other players.

The relationship between your nation and another nation can be expressed as one of three different statuses:

At Peace: Default. No special rules.
Allied: Must be explicitly referred to by both players in orders; units now fight together as allies and can enter allied territory without starting war.
At War: Triggered when one nation’s armies enters the territory of another nation not in an alliance. Units now fight one another when occupying the same territory and can occupy another’s territory.

Combat Rules

Combat is pretty important to this NES, so there are some rules for it. Combat is joined whenever units from unallied factions occupy the same province. An attacker and defender is selected between the sides, and then a battle occurs between both of the armies. The victor of the battle’s units remain in the province and occupy it if their faction did not previously control it, and the loser of the battle’s remaining units retreat to neighboring friendly provinces randomly. The nuts and bolts of combat are discussed summarily.

From this point forward, “army” refers to any consistent collection of units, either all from one faction or from multiple different allied factions.

Stats

All units have some combination of these stats, and depending on if they are attacking or defending, can apply them differently:

Atk (Attack): Determines the To Hit bonus for any unit in an attacking army.
Def (Defense): Determines the To Hit bonus for any unit in a defending army.
Eva (Evasion): Determines the To Hit penalty against this unit.
Arm (Armor): Determines the Pierce penalty against this unit. A Pierce penalty of 0 means that all Pierce rolls automatically succeed.
AP (Armor-Piercing): Determines the Pierce bonus for this unit against enemy armored units.
AA (Anti-Air): Determines the To Hit bonus for this unit against enemy flying units.
Alt (Climb): Determines the altitude of this unit, used to calculate the To Hit penalty against this unit. An Alt that is higher than 0 indicates that the unit is a flier.

There are additionally four icons on the unit card’s portrait that indicate other qualities:

$: The price of the unit, or how much it costs to build this unit in a turn.
Blue arrow: The movement of the unit, or how far in provinces the unit can move in one turn.
Wing: Whether or not the unit is a flier for To Hit purposes.
Explosion: The unit deals splash damage (see Splash Damage seciton).

Before Battle

There are a number of ways opposed armies can occupy the same province. In general there are three scenarios:

Invasion: One army invades a defended province

In this scenario, the invading army is the attacker and any army in the defended province is the defender.

Clash: Two opposed armies both invade an empty province OR one another’s province

In this scenario, the army with the higher average Mov is considered to have the initiative and is considered the attacker; the other army is considered the defender (without fortification bonuses). A tie is decided by coin-flip.

Battle Royale: Two or more unallied armies enter the same province OR invade an unallied province

In this scenario, invading armies from provinces that border one another will fight each other first (as in Clash) and the victor there goes on to fight those in the defending province. If the invading armies are from provinces that do not border one another, the defenders will split their forces in half equally to deal with both of the attackers, before the attackers then deal with whoever remains (with both attackers winning becoming a clash, and the defender winning one remaining as the defender for a second engagement).

FAQs

Q: If province A attacks province B, but province C attacks province A, does A’s attack still go through?
A: Yes; units that the attacker from A left behind stay and defend.

Q: After three heats, what happens to the loser’s army?
A: They retreat, either to the province they came from (if attacking) or a nearby friendly province (if defending).

Q: What happens if a retreating attacking army cannot return to the province it came from?
A: If there are no other friendly provinces to retreat to bordering the province that the attacking army was attacking, the army is routed.

Resolving Battles

Battles typically occur across three “heats.” Each heat sees all the units in both armies rolling dice to “hit” units in the opposing armies. For each unit, the process is as follows:

1. Decide target. A unit is chosen in the opposing army to be the “target,” against which To Hit and Pierce rolls will be compared to see if a kill is scored. Generally, attacking units are biased and are more likely to choose enemy units that they will have a better time killing. You won’t typically see an infantry unit shooting at a bomber, for example, when there are militia about.

2. Roll to hit. The shooting unit rolls one six-sided die and adds its Atk or Def to the roll. It compares this value, its To Hit score, to the target’s Evasion score, which is one six-sided die plus Eva. If the To Hit score exceeds the Evasion score, then the To Hit check succeeds.

2a. If the target is aerial, the shooting unit instead adds its AA to its To Hit roll. Additionally, the To Hit roll is penalized by: -2 if the shooting unit’s AA is 0, -2 if the shooting unit’s altitude is 2 less than the target’s, and -4 if the shooting unit’s altitude is 4 less than the target’s.

2b. There is, by default, a 5% chance that the shooting unit’s attack will hit and kill no matter what. This is the critical hit chance, and a hit made in this way is called a critical hit.

3. Roll to pierce. If the shooting unit hit the target, and the target is armored, a pierce roll is necessary (if the target is not armored, the pierce roll automatically succeeds). The shooting unit rolls one three-sided die and adds its AP to the roll. It compares this value, its Pierce score, to the target’s Armor score, which is one three-sided die plus Arm. If the Pierce score exceeds the Armor score, then the Pierce check succeeds.

4. If both the To Hit and Pierce checks succeed OR a critical hit is made, the defending unit is killed. However, all shots are assumed to be simultaneous, so a unit that is killed before its shots are rolled can still kill something.

Once every unit in both armies has taken its shots, the killed units are removed from combat. Once all heats are finished, units that were removed from combat are removed from the game. The victor of a battle is the army with more than twice as many surviving units as the other army, OR secondarily the army with a greater proportion of its starting army surviving.

Naval Units

Naval units engage in combat very similarly to ground units. The rules are generally the same for engagements, except of course that all engagements only occur in sea squares. There are a few additional considerations to make for naval units, however. The default critical hit chance in naval combat is 10% instead of the 5% it is for ground combat.

Splash Damage

Despite Battleships having the splash damage ability, naval units are unaffected by splash damage. This means bombers, heavy bombers, and battleships only do damage as directed by their normal attack when fighting against naval units.

Submarines

Subs are a special kind of naval unit that have the ‘Dive’ passive ability, which lets them avoid hostile fire from any unit which does not have anti-sub capability (at the start of the game, only destroyers and other subs have this capability). If an engagement were to occur between only subs and only, say, battleships, the subs would remain unharmed by the battleships and yet still fire off three heats’ worth of attacks. Keep this in mind when sending those behemoths of the sea around unescorted.

Bombardment

Destroyers and Battleships can engage in bombardment of any coastal region. This allows them to carry on one of two missions: port destruction or shore bombardment (the latter of these is elaborated on in the Special Rules section). Port destruction allows each attacking destroyer and battleship to roll 1d6. On a roll of ‘6’ for a destroyer, ‘5’ or ‘6’ for a battleship, any ports in the targeted region start razing. Bombard orders can only be carried out in a coastal region that is bordering the naval province where the bombarding unit is located.

Carriers

Carriers can act as a location to rebase aircraft to. Carriers can base 3 biplanes, fighters, or jets in this way, OR 1 bomber or heavy bomber. If a carrier is destroyed and it was a base for any flying units, those flying units are forced to rebase as normal. A carrier that is involved in a sea-to-sea battle will always benefit from air support from the air units that it is basing, even if those air units are involved in another battle at another time.

Lander

Landers are naval craft with no combat capabilities, but they can each transport ground units across ocean spaces. One Lander can carry three Infantry-type ground units OR one non-Infantry-type ground unit. To load units onto a navy craft, simply order the ground units in a territory adjacent to an ocean space with Landers to board the Lander - the ground units will need at least one unused movement point to do so. They will do so, and then the Lander may carry along the rest of its movement as it desires. To unload requires there to be an adjacent ground territory to the loaded Lander that is doing the unloading - in addition, the Lander cannot have been loaded in the same term that it unloaded (though it may load in a turn that it had already unloaded). If unloading ground units find themselves in hostile territory, they will fight as if they had moved into that territory, but with a -2 penalty to Atk and Eva. Loading/unloading orders take place in the same “breath” as movement orders upon which those loading/unloading orders are contingent, that is to say that during the movement phase the Lander can move, pick up units (that may already also have moved that turn in order to reach that territory), and go on moving. In this way, a Lander can pick up units up and down an entire coastline in just one turn. Neato! Landers cannot defend themselves, and if they are unescorted in a naval territory with hostile enemy forces, they will automatically be destroyed. Air units ordered to do ground attack or ground support within range of a naval territory that unescorted hostile Landers occupy will have a 50% chance to destroy those Landers.

Special Rules

Medic

Medics do not take shots like ordinary units, but instead have a 25% chance to heal a fallen allied infantry-type unit at the end of a heat, and return it to combat. Medics may heal units that were killed during previous heats.

Doctrine

Your units also benefit from doctrinal choices. For the most part, the effects of doctrines are as described in the doctrine tree graphic.

Fortification & Terrain

Defending armies receive a +1 bonus to Def and Eva for every level of Fortification, to a maximum of 5 levels of Fortification. Certain terrain types, such as hills, mountains, and forests, offer a native fortification bonus to units defending in provinces with those terrain types.

Officers

Officers are special units that do not participate in combat, but follow an army and provide a +1 bonus to Atk, Def, and Eva to every unit in that army for every level of veterancy that Officer has accrued, and these bonuses do not stack for multiple Officers (nor can multiple Officers be promoted as a result of one army’s victory). Any Officer in the same province as an Army that is victorious (to a maximum of one Officer) receives one level of veterancy (is “promoted&#8221 IF certain conditions are fulfilled during battle (indicated below). Taking someone’s Capital province always gives a level of veterancy. The level of veterancy is indicated by a small gold star above the Officer’s head on the map. Any Officer in the same province as an Army that is defeated has a chance to be destroyed: for every surviving unit in the victorious army, a 20-sided die is rolled. On a roll of ‘20,’ the Officer is destroyed.

Effects of veterancy:

No Veterancy: +0 bonus (default)
Veterancy I: +1 Atk, Def, and Eva; Must defeat at least 3 units
Veterancy II: +2 Atk, Def, and Eva; Must defeat at least 5 units
Veterancy III: +3 Atk, Def, and Eva; Must defeat at least 7 units
Veterancy IV: +3 Atk, Def, and Eva; +1 AP; Must defeat at least 9 units
Veterancy V: +3 Atk, Def, and Eva; +1 AP and Arm; Must defeat at least 11 units

Splash Damage

Some units deal splash damage. Splash damage can be thought of adding a number of half-power attacks that follow in the wake of the initial strike with no AP and with target priority on softer targets. As such, they often can not kill armored targets, but they can wreak havoc on large numbers of soft targets. The number of additional targets harmed by splash damage is equal to the Atk or Def stat of the unit in question.

Shore Bombardment

Destroyers and Battleships can use their guns to facilitate amphibious attacks. If ground units being transported by landers are attacking a coastal province, naval units can be ordered to support them via bombardment. When they do so, they reduce the penalty associated with amphibious attacks by 1 for all units taking part in the amphibious attack. You will need 3 destroyers or 1 battleship supporting in this way in order to successfully reduce the penalty.

Militia

Whenever you lose a core province, 1d3 Militia will appear in your capital province. Whenever you lose a non-core province, there is a 10% chance that 1d3 Militia will appear in your capital province. If you lose your capital, you will obtain 2d6 Militia in the nearest friendly territory, chosen at random. If you lose an urbanized province, the amount of Militia you obtain is doubled.

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Units:




Doctrine Rules

As you progress in technology, your military will seek new ways to innovate and perpetuate the art of war upon your foes. When you advance to a tech level, it will be indicated in your stats, and you may then select any one of the three doctrines available for the new tech level. Simply choose a doctrine and order to adopt it in your orders. But be careful! Once a doctrine has been chosen, it cannot be unchosen, and other doctrines from the same tech level cannot also be chosen. As you progress in tech, you will add new doctrines, and ultimately customize your military however you want.

Doctrines (latest draft) (this will undergo extensive remodeling in the future):


Technology Rules

Technology is obtained through use of another resource called research points. Like $, they are obtained through income, but unlike $, they cannot be banked. Research points must be spent the turn they are earned or they are lost. They also cannot be traded to other nations. Research points are only used to research new technologies, which can provide many benefits to your nation.

Every Capital, by default, earns 5 research points for your nation per turn. If you lose your Capital, any research that you would have done that turn is cancelled, so be careful to guard your Capital. You can increase the number of research points you earn in a turn through two methods primarily.

You may build the research lab improvement in any urbanized, mountain, or jungle province. These labs provide +1 research points per turn and cost $8 to build. If a research lab is captured, the capturer gets half as many research points as the lab has produced since it was built or since it was last captured as plunder, rounded down.

You may also adopt certain policies that can improve research point generation.

Researching a technology is as simple as spending research points with the intent of obtaining a technology. To do so, merely order the allotment of research points and the target technology. Make sure you have the proper prerequisites! By default, all nations start with no technologies. Every technology costs 5 research points. Once you have invested 5 research points into the research of a technology, you are considered to have researched that technology.

There are 6 categories of technology. These categories are mainly for classification purposes, although certain abilities may affect them. They, and their representative colors (but don’t worry about those right now), are:

1. Infantry (Green)
2. Armor/Artillery (Red)
3. Aerospace (Blue)
4. Industry (Gray)
5. Science (Orange)
6. Policy (Yellow)

Category 6 Technologies (or Policy technologies) cannot be researched if another Policy technology of the same tech level has already been researched.

There will be (at least) 5 tech levels in this NES. You may only research technologies whose prerequisites you’ve unlocked. Tech levels are mostly a classification but can be affected by other rules (such as with Policy technology).

To unlock the next tech level, you must research at least ten technologies in the previous tech level. Note that prerequisites may carry over between tech levels.

Not all techs in a tech level may be visible from the start. You may need to research prerequisites before subsequent techs can be visible.

You may “trade” technologies, but only to a certain extent. This act of “trading” is actually granting a limited number of research points towards the completion of the tech in question to a rival faction. Spillover will be considered wasted research points. Different category technologies may be traded with different efficiency. Refer to this chart:

1. Infantry: May grant up to 3 research points.
2. Armor/Artillery: May grant up to 2 research points.
3. Aerospace: May grant up to 1 research points.
4. Industry: May grant up to 3 research points.
5. Science: May grant up to 2 research points.
6. Policy: Can not be traded.

Cartographer Iggy checking in, and saying the map's at 10%.

I am in! WOOT!

I don't have any special skills, but I am doing some sprite works right now for my friends, so I might try my hands on something.

I'll help with whatever I can.

Quick question. Will you still use the standard d6, or will you move to the d10 or d20 (most likely, seeing the 5% crit chance.)

Man, did you have to use such garish colors in the example pic? D:

Can I be Denmark?

Map preview! I started off with 3 continents, but split the northern one in half on a whim.

Needs more inland seas and straits. :3 Also the two continents on the left and the right look like vague clones of one another. I know it's just a rough draft but design input can be helpful.

Super excited about this, bros. Will have pertinent things to say later.

Thlayli said:

Needs more inland seas and straits. :3 Also the two continents on the left and the right look like vague clones of one another. I know it's just a rough draft but design input can be helpful.

Super excited about this, bros. Will have pertinent things to say later.

Click to expand...

All of this. Needs more major islands & island chains Iggy!

On the left side, make the straits between the north and south continent more jagged, and maybe dot it with islands.

Yeah, for the purposes of good battling, I think a largeish Eurasia-esque continent and a big island region for naval-oriented players would be good.

Here is an idea: Join the ones in the West together. Then, make an island chain between the Northern ones. This will allow people to spawn civilizations on other continents other than the starting one as migrations occur.

I think that's a basic misinterpretation of how the cultural development's going to work, but anyhow.

Following the somewhat confused discussion in #nes on economy, I'm going to codify my thoughts regarding that here.

I propose a relatively simple system that also gives some leeway for player investment. Every province has a base income level which is determined by its terrain type. Something like the following:

Jungle: 1$
Desert: 2$
Cold: 2$
Mountain: 3$
Temperate: 4$

Island provinces would also belong to one of those basic terrain options. These dollar figures are just examples, to be adjusted by playtesting. You could also add more terrain types.

Following that, a province can either be industrialized or non-industrialized. Industrializing a province would give it the ability to produce more types of units and also provide an $ bonus. Use a little factory symbol to indicate this. It'd probably be best for game purposes if every player starts with at least one of these provinces, or that non-industrialized players get larger starting incomes. Factories (and their attendant bonuses) could be destroyed/disabled by strategic bombing or intentional pillaging.

I'd be glad to help debug whatever code may need debugging.

If the system is going to get more simplified, you can always simply have productive ($3) v.s. unproductive ($1) provinces. Productive provinces can be anything from a fertile river valley to a desert with oil. Unproductive provinces are anything from bare, useless peaks to tundras with no resources. For the purpose of warfare, the pros and cons of terrain type in production cancels each other out eventually, with the final question merely: how much production, be it resources, people, ect.

Then you can industrialize the way Thalyli said.