Topic: The Flying Machine (Move zig!) (Read 12983 times)

Sensei · « **on:** November 29, 2009, 02:03:02 am »

Welcome! Welcome you, brave dwarves! You are our pioneers, our new-age explorers, our champions!

Each of you has had a long journey from your fortresses, far and wide! To compete, in the first Dwarven Flying Race! Each of you, captains of your team, shall in the next morning embark from Oceanplanks, in flight upon your great machines, for the capitol of Heldbridge, far to the north!

MAP
Sorry it cropped all retarded, and set the tiles off. At least you can see it.

The objective of this game is to fly from Oceanplanks in the south, to Heldbridge in the north, before anyone. The tiles will be to normal DF scale, and you may use any obscure symbol you wish. The lore is like DF, but it could be 'modded' in ways you don't expect. It's got some space-by-space movement, and some roleplaying elements that each player will face. It's not supposed to be complex, but I suck at explaining things, so the below is broken up into sections: (with a tl:dr version below)

Spoiler: rules (click to show/hide)

THE SHIP: (rules can be bent through clever writing, you might end up with drawbacks though...)
Each player commands a crew of dwarves, and a ship. You will draw your ship in TELETYPE. It's [ tt] [/tt ] (sabotaged of course). Your ship will be drawn, and roleplaying heavy- but each must have some basic components: A thruster of some kind- be it balloons, booze rockets, propellers, wings or whatever. It must also have room for your dwarf or dwarves to stand, and space for food (one section/day/3 dwarves) if you want to stay in the air without stopping to resupply all the time. A thruster produces two thrust, usually, and uses one unit of fuel per turn (or just booze/3 dwarves if it's powered by elbow grease). Each section adds one weight (usually, may be 2 or 0), and it won't fly unless you have more lift+upward thrust than weight. A section of wing or balloon weighs 0 and adds 1 lift. You're probably going to need a rule-bending thruster or a good source of lift. Use logic. Weapons are legal. For reference, if gunpowder is involved, one shot uses 2 units of normal ammo. 25 bolts or 5 ballista bolts can fit in a tile (or 12 bullets or 2 cannon balls). Or a ram wouldn't use any ammo!

Remember, there are some calvinball elements here. Be creative and have fun! And you will want excess lift and thrust!

THE MOVEMENT:
ON THE REGIONAL MAP: (Basically, like the DF regional map, with region tiles)
Thrust moves your ship. Your speed is your thrust, minus the weight of the ship. As long as your ship is flying and your thrust components are in tact, you can move that many region tiles in a day- but beware how often you have to stop. Also, there may be wind: forcing you 1 (gentle) to 3 (storm). Normally, you can also sacrifice one tile of movement to gain one altitude, or drop down for free. THIS IS IMPORTANT: Every turn, you roll your excess lift (which may include some thrusters) +1d6 against your speed (ignoring wind). If you roll less lift than your thrust, you lose the difference in altitude. If you hit the ground (sea level is zero, mountains can be up to 10 in theory) you crash land and have to make repairs. Also, you get a -1 to this roll for every altitude you are above 5. So be careful around those mountains! (note: You can still fly up to avoid this, but rolls are announced after you attempt a movement).
ON THE 'COMBAT' MAP:
When two players come close and decide to trade, fight, or anything, this will be drawn. It will also be drawn when you come in danger of hitting something, and periodically because I like drawing your ship. This is where you see your ship in real scale. Here you can fire weapons, and move at three tiles per speed. Wind still applies.

LANDING:
You will have to land fairly often for food and fuel. If you just need food, congratulations! You can spend a day to completely fill your cargo with plants in any biome. You might land in a town and have to negotiate with the locals. On-the-spot rules abound when this happens! If you crash, you will usually just need a turn to repair- again, on the spot rules abound!

Short version of rules: You draw your ship in ASCII, and it has an amount of force propelling it and lifting it vs. weight, as well as cargo and weapons. You move on a DF region map, and fight in 'real distance' much like DF adventure mode. Unless you design your ship with a huge cargo, you'll have to land often. Don't lose too much altitude. The effects of weapons and a lot of things is determined by me... some I have hidden numbers for, some I will make up. Be creative, everything that exists in DF is here and so is mostly everything you can BS up.

TO ENTER: I will need the following

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

LIST OF ENTRANTS (only listed once I've figured out all their stats, and they're good to go)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sean Mirrsen · « **Reply #1 on:** November 29, 2009, 05:25:56 am »

% % % _|B |B |B /OOO[][][]=D <OOOF---X \

Distance between lins ruins it.

Legend:< - Ram spike / - Sloped front armor O - Cargo hold [] - Living quarters F - Crankshaft room ---X - Axle with prop \ - Retractable Rear Landing Gear =D - Rudder B - Restrained Giant Bat (hungry). % - Net With Giant Bat Food. | - Pole On Which The Net With Giant Bat Food Hangs.

This basically applies the donkey/carrot trick with bats and in the upward direction. I'm not sure if the design is workable, and I don't know if I'll participate yet.

Halmie · « **Reply #2 on:** November 29, 2009, 07:57:14 am »

^^^^^^| | | + + / |M|M|M|--E E| /LLLLLL|CCCCCCCC|---> \++++EEECCCCCBBB|

E = elf slave (They get to choose between using them or burning wood/coal.)
M = Magma (the heat gives it height.. Magma will cool off after a while at which time it will be jettisoned and replaced by more elf slaves and proppellas (after a quick stop at an elven retreat)
L = Living quarters
C = Cargo hold
^ = Balloon.
B = Backup booze rockets(just in case)
the ---> bit is a rudder.

EagleV · « **Reply #3 on:** November 29, 2009, 08:14:47 am »

Side View __ _ /___ | _____\ | || _ => Propellor. Think/google "Da Vinci Helicopter". /]**====< Water (W) is heated with magma (M) in chamber (X). |OOA°HHH|< Steam goes up via backside (|), left via pipes (=), |OOOWWWX|< where it powers the steam wheel (**). Excess steam -.WWM.- goes back via other pipes (=) to thrusters (<). [ ¨¨¨ ]
Crew sleeps in Barracks (H) and food is stored in (O).

The cockpit ( /] ) contains al necessary levers, eg. cutting of steam to the left side thrusters will let the ship turn left, closing both side pipes will, well, explode the ship unless water supply is shut of first.

Landing gear ([ ]) is retractable via side engines, requiring very little steam.

Magma can, in case of emergency, be dropped via the emergency grates (¨). This wil give the ship a quick lift as the weight lessens, however this is a temporary solution. If the engine cools down, the propellor will become less powerfull, thus negating the advantage of having less magma. Water supply can also be dropped, if a large part of it is dropped this will mostly give the ship enough emergency lift untill the next lake/river.

Note that only water is consumed in the process of propelling the ship, magma levels normally stay equal during the trip.

Defences include ballistae on the side (°), ammo is stored in (A).

Also, nice idea, hope it works out as well as it sounds.

Kashyyk · « **Reply #4 on:** November 29, 2009, 01:32:21 pm »

Why are all the ships so small?

Spoiler: side view (click to show/hide)

Flight-rocks are strange magical compounds that, when heated, rise into the air. The Magma is used to heat the Rock to gain altitide, and the water to cool it down.

Pirate's will win this! ARR!

Editing.

Pillow_Killer · « **Reply #5 on:** November 29, 2009, 01:50:30 pm »

Top-down
ﾛﾛﾛ88F /"""\ F88ﾛﾛﾛ :: |KeKe| :: :: |KeKe| :: \\ |KeKe| // \__|KeKe|__/ / : :||: : \ | : : || : : | | : : || : : | | : : || : : | | : : :: : : |
Ship is still in making making
-edit2-
This is a MAJOR pain in ass to format

Sensei · « **Reply #6 on:** November 29, 2009, 02:46:18 pm »

Holy heck!

First off, I'm still not completely sure if the rules are balanced and workable- I'm pretty sure they are. Not to mention that I'm not quite ready to go yet. But I'd like to make some much-needed clarifications:

...First off, ships need to be in a top-down view, this is how I would draw them in combat mode. A 'z-level' design, if you must give your ship vertical depth, is best (I suppose I was asking for it with balloons). If you want to draw it from the side, that's great, but I'd probably only use that for illustrations.

Also, if you're willing to list your lift, thrust, cargo, fuel, fuel consumption per day, number of dwarves, speed, and list your armaments/ammo, that's be great. If not, I can probably calculate these. But, if there turns out to be a flaw in your design... hey, flying is dangerous!

Anyway, I'll be drawing us up a map...

Edit: Oh, and could each player choose a single-tile logo to use on the region map?

EagleV · « **Reply #7 on:** November 29, 2009, 03:05:13 pm »

Drawing it top-down and calculating stuff might take a while... When do you plan to start?

Also, bigger ships automatically win over smaller ships. (more crew, more thrust, more weapons.) Simply scaling a smaller design to make it twice as large will effectively double the excess lift and thrust, the firepower, etc, while the ship could still fly just as long without refueling/landing. In my opinion, there should be either a maximum and minimum size (either maximum dimensions, or a maximum number of total tiles), or a penalty for larger ships.

Sensei · « **Reply #8 on:** November 29, 2009, 03:09:50 pm »

When there's a lot of people.

Like I said, I'm not even sure if I like the way the rules are balanced as they are. I was sort of surprised to see a big lineup of ships when I returned. If enough people have working ships though, great! We can always revise the rules in a new edition of the game, especially seeing as this is a competition with a clear conclusion.

Armok · « **Reply #9 on:** November 29, 2009, 03:48:46 pm »

I'l join!

^ /+\ /+++\ / +M+ \ +@+ +++++ 0-+ +-0 +===+ 0-+ +-0 +===+ 0-+ +-0 +===+ 0-++ ++-0 ++===++ 0-++ ++-0 ++===++ 0-++ ++-0 ++===++ 0-++ ++-0 ++===++ 0-++ ++-0 ++===++ 0-++ ++-0 ++===++ 0-+++ +++-0 +++===+++ 0-++s s++-0 ++s===s++ 0-+FFF FFF+-0 +ss===ss+ 0-+www www+-0 +ss===ss+ 0-+www www+-0 +ss===+++ 0-+www www+-0 +ss===ss+ 0-+www www+-0 +ss===ss+ 0-+www www+-0 +ss===ss+ 0-+www www+-0 +ss===ss+ 0-+www www+-0 +ss===ss+ 0-+ss ss+-0 +++===+++ 0-++ ++-0 ++===++ 0-++ ++-0 ++===++ 0-++ ++-0 ++===++ ++ ++ / +++++ \ / +++ \ M = wheel & controle pannel @ = pilot FFF = fan, facing backwards www = windmill, facing forwards 0- and -0 = Airoars === = wings s = stockpiles
Completly mecanism powered! The fans blow backwards on the windmills forming an perutum mobile, as well as providing some trust. Each of those air oars can be configured to provide either trust or lift, this thing only needs one person to fly, ir is made from featherwood, cloth, and a few very light stones. For the jurney I will be carying one pilot, one captain/trader/liason/noble, one mechanic/carpenter, and two crosbowdwarves. The ship is to fragile to land withoute breaking in two ((OOC note; this is suposed to ballance not needing fuel)) but roapladders (that due to pathfinding, anything exept wagons can climb as easily as a wide ramp while hauling anything) makes away with that need.

Sensei · « **Reply #10 on:** November 29, 2009, 04:10:15 pm »

Cool.

Alright, I think I've figured out exactly what we need to get this game on the road:

1: Stats for every competing ship. I will outline this in the first post. Don't forget a single-tile unicode symbol to represent you on the world map!
2: The world map, which I will draw
3: A good ASCII art program. It will be slow updating if I have to do everything in notepad. Suggestions? Ideally something that supports 'layers'.

Wimdit · « **Reply #11 on:** November 29, 2009, 05:23:39 pm »

So hang on. Let me make sure I understand the rules.

This roll every turn: you say you roll your excess lift and upward thrust plus 1d6 against your speed, and if you roll less lift than your thrust, you lose the difference in altitude. So which is it, thrust or speed? And if you roll more lift than your thrust, do you go up? Seems odd for your altitude to be dependent on your speed or horizontal thrust anyway. Shouldn't it make more sense for you to gain or lose the difference between weight and lift+upward thrust each turn?

qwertyuiopas · « **Reply #12 on:** November 29, 2009, 06:45:22 pm »

Having a program for DF-art is useful. If you want, I could try to translate that to unicode.

You can see my weight/lift calculations right in the image.

24 of the lift comes from the propeller banks(3 per shaft times four shafts times two thrust), not counting the maneuvering props(on either side).

It has up to four dwarves cranking the engine, and one at the front(glass) steering console.
The total crew is 7 dwarves, and with only 5 beds, two MUST be up at any time, so that someone can steer, and someone can provide thrust, even while everyone else is sleeping. There are two fortifications for use during war.
The + are empty floor, the # are a landing ramp, usually acting as empty floor. There are many stools. There are 30 units of storage space, 10 for food, 10 for booze, and 10 for ammo(bolts).

If you need a singe symbol, use the one for the steering controls. If you need it as plain text, I'll convert it for you. If you want to see it in full colour, I do too, and will post it eventually.

Sensei · « **Reply #13 on:** November 29, 2009, 07:06:52 pm »

Quote from: Wimdit on November 29, 2009, 05:23:39 pm

So hang on. Let me make sure I understand the rules.

This roll every turn: you say you roll your excess lift and upward thrust plus 1d6 against your speed, and if you roll less lift than your thrust, you lose the difference in altitude. So which is it, thrust or speed? And if you roll more lift than your thrust, do you go up? Seems odd for your altitude to be dependent on your speed or horizontal thrust anyway. Shouldn't it make more sense for you to gain or lose the difference between weight and lift+upward thrust each turn?

No, I'm keeping it like it is- basically, it means that if you travel at a great speed with horizontal thrusters, you risk losing altitude. For a helicopter this would never be a problem save at high altitude. For a rocket with wings on it, it means you may need big wings even if you're lightweight.

Boksi · « **Reply #14 on:** November 29, 2009, 07:25:35 pm »

I would like to announce that I will join this and my symbol shall be ø.

I have not completed my air-sailing ship's design yet, and it is late, but you shall most likely have it tomorrow.

Bay 12 Games Forum

News:

Author Topic: The Flying Machine (Move zig!) (Read 12983 times)

Sensei

The Flying Machine (Move zig!)

Sean Mirrsen

Re: The Flying Machine (Discussion)

Halmie

Re: The Flying Machine (Discussion)

EagleV

Re: The Flying Machine (Discussion)

Kashyyk

Re: The Flying Machine (Discussion)

Pillow_Killer

Re: The Flying Machine (Discussion)

Sensei

Re: The Flying Machine (Discussion)

EagleV

Re: The Flying Machine (Discussion)

Sensei

Re: The Flying Machine (Discussion)

Armok

Re: The Flying Machine (Discussion)

Sensei

Re: The Flying Machine (Discussion)

Wimdit

Re: The Flying Machine (Entry Requirements Posted)

qwertyuiopas

Re: The Flying Machine (Entry Requirements Posted)

Sensei

Re: The Flying Machine (Entry Requirements Posted)

Boksi

Re: The Flying Machine (Entry Requirements Posted)