Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

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orion1836
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by orion1836 »

What if you took away strength entirely? Chess doesn't rely on it - I don't see a reason why this game couldn't be engaging without it. A pawn can capture a queen if your opponent is dumb enough.

What if the game board was extended to 13 hexes to encourage maneuver (and deception via maneuver) as the primary gameplay element? This would allow the city and tower rings to be larger and accommodate more pieces, and also allow army-to-army combat on them. A skilled player could develop her forces in a feint while building towards her actual strategy (such as pushing towards the enemy line when actually setting up for a push on the castle), all the while doing her level best to hide her intentions in sanzai.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

I can see that I shouldn't have posted the unfinished Crossfire information. I didn't really provide enough for meaningful feedback, and I seem to have left people with the incorrect impression that I was inviting them to design the game for me. Sometimes when I'm enthusiastic about an idea, it's hard to avoid saying more than I should about it. I will try to avoid repeating this mistake in the future.

However, since it's already out there, I suppose I might as well run with it.
dragoongfa wrote:1) 11 hexes across with the same layout and number of pawns seem to be best in regards to versatility.
I had a similar thought. The 9 hex version is clean but a bit cramped.

The piece names are somewhat abstract; it's an ancient game and traditionally the board and pieces are shaped to represent armies fighting around a hill, but modern versions of the game (and, it is suspected, the original version) represent the board and pieces as fleets fighting around the gravity well of a planet. I haven't figured out all of the piece names, but they are not "Teidar", "Mizol" etc., as the game predates these terms.
orion1836 wrote:What if you took away strength entirely? Chess doesn't rely on it - I don't see a reason why this game couldn't be engaging without it. A pawn can capture a queen if your opponent is dumb enough.
Agree that the rules should be as simple as possible, but I am trying to achieve gameplay that is significantly different from chess. The two qualities that I'd like to have are 1) fleet movement instead of individual piece movement, and 2) to accommodate the central capture mechanism. If any piece can take any other piece, then capturing the city/planet in the center is either trivially easy (or impossible, depending on how the towers' rules work).

Avalon Hill had an interesting chesslike game called Feudal in which each player could move all of his pieces every turn. The existence of blocking terrain prevented this from being completely broken, but it did cause problems of turn order advantage, especially for more than two players (there could be as many as six). My idea was that limiting the number of pieces moved, combined with a surround system (in which pieces are captured at the end of the turn rather than piece-takes piece) could make it more tactical. Being required to surround pieces and only removing captures after your turn means that you might take casualties as well as the enemy (and allows the neutral towers to inflict damage without having to "move").
Zorg56 wrote:Any chances for human cloaking devices after technological exchange?
As i can see most of loroi weapons and tools is based on artifacts they obtained during space travels, not their own research.
They can just do not notice the possibility of creating thing like this.
Nobody has a functional cloaking device, so it seems unlikely to me that the humans could invent one with technologies that they had just learned.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by icekatze »

hi hi

Not trying to say how the game must be constructed, but I'd like to share some observations and thoughts.

With the idea that the game originates from fighting around a gravity well, it makes sense for the board to be cramped. In terms of the scale of space, going into a pitched battle around a planet is like jumping into a knife fight. Unlike chess, where people who play at high levels tend to make a lot of very cautious moves, I imagine Crossfire's opening moves would involve a lot more bloodletting, just on account of the board size.

Although, if anyone else here has played Banner Saga, there's a lesson you learn early on that depending on how the actions to unit count ratio is set up, a larger force can be sluggish and have difficulties responding to smaller, faster groups. In its own way, having a negative feedback loop like that is the kind of game design that I like. It makes it so that the winner isn't always decided in the opening moves, and makes it easier to put up a meaningful challenge throughout the entirety of play.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by SVlad »

Arioch wrote: I seem to have left people with the incorrect impression that I was inviting them to design the game for me.
Didn't even think that way. It's just a funny thing to play with while waiting for the next page.
dragoongfa wrote:Nice SVlad, I knew that a Russian would have a better grasp of Chess stuff :)
It's not about chess (or country), but about playing many different tabletop games. Actually, crossfire is far from chess because it has completely different mechanics for movement and taking.
Werra wrote:Just one thing about unit strengths. As your numbers now stand, to take out a command unit, you'd need literally three pawns. How about giving pawns strength 2 and special units strength 3, command units strength 2 and the King Piece 3 again? This way specials would be dangerous to pawns and command units but pawns remain a threat to everything on the field. They'd be further differentiated by movement.
My idea was to make 1♔ = 2♟, so ♔ can't be taken that easy. It should be compensated by slow movement.
Also at the taking phase each figure can be used to take only one enemy figure, otherwise 1♘ could take 3♟ in one turn just by standing adjacent to all three.
Last edited by SVlad on Fri Aug 31, 2018 8:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by dragoongfa »

Arioch wrote:I can see that I shouldn't have posted the unfinished Crossfire information. I didn't really provide enough for meaningful feedback, and I seem to have left people with the incorrect impression that I was inviting them to design the game for me. Sometimes when I'm enthusiastic about an idea, it's hard to avoid saying more than I should about it. I will try to avoid repeating this mistake in the future.

However, since it's already out there, I suppose I might as well run with it.
dragoongfa wrote:1) 11 hexes across with the same layout and number of pawns seem to be best in regards to versatility.
I had a similar thought. The 9 hex version is clean but a bit cramped.

The piece names are somewhat abstract; it's an ancient game and traditionally the board and pieces are shaped to represent armies fighting around a hill, but modern versions of the game (and, it is suspected, the original version) represent the board and pieces as fleets fighting around the gravity well of a planet. I haven't figured out all of the piece names, but they are not "Teidar", "Mizol" etc., as the game predates these terms.
orion1836 wrote:What if you took away strength entirely? Chess doesn't rely on it - I don't see a reason why this game couldn't be engaging without it. A pawn can capture a queen if your opponent is dumb enough.
Agree that the rules should be as simple as possible, but I am trying to achieve gameplay that is significantly different from chess. The two qualities that I'd like to have are 1) fleet movement instead of individual piece movement, and 2) to accommodate the central capture mechanism. If any piece can take any other piece, then capturing the city/planet in the center is either trivially easy (or impossible, depending on how the towers' rules work).

Avalon Hill had an interesting chesslike game called Feudal in which each player could move all of his pieces every turn. The existence of blocking terrain prevented this from being completely broken, but it did cause problems of turn order advantage, especially for more than two players (there could be as many as six). My idea was that limiting the number of pieces moved, combined with a surround system (in which pieces are captured at the end of the turn rather than piece-takes piece) could make it more tactical. Being required to surround pieces and only removing captures after your turn means that you might take casualties as well as the enemy (and allows the neutral towers to inflict damage without having to "move").
Zorg56 wrote:Any chances for human cloaking devices after technological exchange?
As i can see most of loroi weapons and tools is based on artifacts they obtained during space travels, not their own research.
They can just do not notice the possibility of creating thing like this.
Nobody has a functional cloaking device, so it seems unlikely to me that the humans could invent one with technologies that they had just learned.
I didn't take it as an invitation to design the game for you and I apologize if it came out like that from my end. I just took it as an interesting thought exercise and I wanted to offer some feedback that may have come out wrong. Also I understand the enthusiastic part, I fell into that trap more than one time on various projects I worked for.

In any case:

The names of the pawns being abstract makes sense, on chess the names are also abstract when one thinks about it. For example the Rook is meant to represent the raw straightforward hard power of the state, all reaching but always confined into a straight line. The bishop represents diplomacy and treachery, not straightforward and only confined to one avenue of accomplishing things. The horse represents human unpredictability and flexibility. The King represent the head of a state, the one who is obeyed, all powerful and moving but always visible to all and thus limited in actions. The Queen represents the best of all, the elite that a nation calls upon when they are needed. The pawns are interesting in their own ways, the average person, weak as an individual but can harm anyone who fails to take them seriously especially if they earn the experience necessary to be counted as an elite.

I also agree on the need for simplicity in the rules, I mentally approached it as a modern board game instead of a cultural defining classic (and my respect to anyone who tries to do this). Modern board games are a mess in regards with rules which is why none of them can reach the status of classics like chess.

My advice would be to not try to either avoid or imitate chess in regards to the rules of the game, there should be some similarity in regards to the games being strategic in nature but I think it is best not to unessecarily restrict the planning to avoid being seen as a chess adaptation.

The chief issue I had while thinking about it is the multiple movements of the pieces and how that would relate to capturing pieces but if the movement phases are different than the capturing phase then things can be different. I can picture that the players positioning their pawns in the respective movement turns while declaring at the end of the combined movement turn who the target(s) of the ensuing capturing engagement is.

If the engagement phase is different that the movement phase then there is no need to take measures on who gets to move first because for all intents and purposes the movement phase is simultaneous for both players and the 'engagement' happens after the fact. This would ensure that there are bound to be casualties on both sides while still ensuring a 'fleet movement' feeling.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by SVlad »

dragoongfa wrote:The names of the pawns being abstract makes sense, on chess the names are also abstract when one thinks about it. For example the Rook is meant to represent the raw straightforward hard power of the state, all reaching but always confined into a straight line. The bishop represents diplomacy and treachery, not straightforward and only confined to one avenue of accomplishing things. The horse represents human unpredictability and flexibility. The King represent the head of a state, the one who is obeyed, all powerful and moving but always visible to all and thus limited in actions. The Queen represents the best of all, the elite that a nation calls upon when they are needed. The pawns are interested, the average person, weak as an individual but can harm anyone who fails to take them seriously especially if the earn the experience necessary to be counted as an elite.
Very interesting. And what do you think about Russian names, where "bishop" named "elephant", rook - "longship" and "queen" - "vizier"?
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by dragoongfa »

Depends on the cultural weight the words had when chess took hold of Russian society.

Early Russians were Sea Raiders like the Vikings, the assaults on Byzantium and Constantinople being well known so I can see how the Rook can be seen as a Longship since the longship was a force 'projector' of Russian force.

The queen being seen as a Vizier, this probably comes from the Mongol influence on Russians. The Mongols used Viziers to describe the local ministers and overall lords.

Elephant for Bishop, that would probably be a cultural parallel to the Rook. Large animals that Russians knew very little about. Like ships of the land in terms of strength but tamperamental so they always move diagonally.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Werra »

Since chess came from India and Persia, the names of the pieces might simply be taken from those cultures. Makes sense for chess to have elephants and viziers this way.

Perhabs the discussion about crossfire and chess should be moved into its own thread?

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Hālian »

GabrielGABFonseca wrote:What is that I hear? Did someone say forum-wide Crossfire play-testing...? :P
I'm totally down. *fires up Tabletop Simulator*
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by folti »

SVlad wrote:
dragoongfa wrote:The names of the pawns being abstract makes sense, on chess the names are also abstract when one thinks about it. For example the Rook is meant to represent the raw straightforward hard power of the state, all reaching but always confined into a straight line. The bishop represents diplomacy and treachery, not straightforward and only confined to one avenue of accomplishing things. The horse represents human unpredictability and flexibility. The King represent the head of a state, the one who is obeyed, all powerful and moving but always visible to all and thus limited in actions. The Queen represents the best of all, the elite that a nation calls upon when they are needed. The pawns are interested, the average person, weak as an individual but can harm anyone who fails to take them seriously especially if the earn the experience necessary to be counted as an elite.
Very interesting. And what do you think about Russian names, where "bishop" named "elephant", rook - "longship" and "queen" - "vizier"?
Keep in mind, that the names and the capabilities of the units changed over time, and due to cultural influences. Like queen and bishop were weak units until the late 15th century when they have been promoted by rule changes, some coming from a line of ruling queens and other female rulers in the Iberian and Italian peninsulas.

Names are also a mixture of local tradition and/or influences.
Like in Hungarian:
pawn - either gyalog (shortened version of gyalogos, literally footsoldier) or paraszt (peasant)
rook - bástya (bastion)
bishop - futó (runner)
knight - ló (horse) or csikó (colt)
queen - vezér (leader or prince)

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Zorg56 »

Is there any mine fields near important systems?

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Zorg56 wrote:Is there any mine fields near important systems?
No. Mines don't really work well in space. Space is too big compared to the small area of effect of an explosion, mines don't stay put (they must orbit or will fall toward the nearest mass), and they are too easy to detect and avoid.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Zorg56 »

Well i dont meant stationary mines like in WW2, i meant somthing more like mines from Dead Space 3, when they detect target they move.
If you have 1000 of this things in jump space you will be able to cripple even Battleship.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Zorg56 wrote:Well i dont meant stationary mines like in WW2, i meant somthing more like mines from Dead Space 3, when they detect target they move.
If you have 1000 of this things in jump space you will be able to cripple even Battleship.
Even if they were essentially torpedoes, I don't think they would work very well. 1000 torpedoes in a jump zone would be spread across millions of cubic kilometers; only a few would be close enough to attack any given ship, and they'd be very easy to shoot down. And 1000 torpedoes are pretty expensive; I think you could find better uses for them.

The advantage of naval mines is that they're inexpensive, concealed, and they mostly stay where you put them. None of these things would be true of mines in space.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by boldilocks »

Zorg56 wrote:Well i dont meant stationary mines like in WW2, i meant somthing more like mines from Dead Space 3, when they detect target they move.
If you have 1000 of this things in jump space you will be able to cripple even Battleship.
If the mines detect something 10 thousand miles away and start moving towards it at the necessary speed to ever reach it, then you're dealing more with missiles than with mines.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by SVlad »

Due to orbital rotation any passive object like torpedo would leave a 1 000 000 km zone after a week or two depending on orbital height.
So torpedo platforms should have it's own maneuver engines.
Also the platform should have some detecting and monitoring equipment. The torpedo itself have some tracking equipment, but target search and recognition require more complex equipment.

And some numbers: if you want to create a flat wall of torpedoes (not even a sphere) a 1 000 000 km in diameter with platform every 10 000 km, you need approximately 1800 such launch platforms.and every platform is more like gunboat with own engines and radars.
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Werra »

Do Torrai ranks differentiate between Torrai from Soroin and Tenoin and Torrai from other castes?

For example, if a Gallen gets promoted to Torrai for the internal hierarchy of the Gallen caste, does her rank show her former caste? And if so, what would that look like?

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Werra wrote:Do Torrai ranks differentiate between Torrai from Soroin and Tenoin and Torrai from other castes?

For example, if a Gallen gets promoted to Torrai for the internal hierarchy of the Gallen caste, does her rank show her former caste? And if so, what would that look like?
Sort of. Most of the Torrai titles are fairly specific, and often require a specific background. For example, a Torret would be the commander of a ship (and therefore a former Soroin or Tenoin), whereas a Gallen who reached an equivalent Torrai rank would have a different administrative title.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Werra »

Say Teidar A telekinetically pushes Teidar B, can Teidar B then defend herself? If so is that automatic or does she have to spent conscious effort on her defense?

If it's automatic, does that mean that the weaker Teidar can't ever push the stronger Teidar? (barring other forms of attack, for simplicities sake)

If it's not automatic, doesn't that mean that all Teidar battles are decided by speed and surprise?

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Werra wrote:Say Teidar A telekinetically pushes Teidar B, can Teidar B then defend herself? If so is that automatic or does she have to spent conscious effort on her defense?

If it's automatic, does that mean that the weaker Teidar can't ever push the stronger Teidar? (barring other forms of attack, for simplicities sake)

If it's not automatic, doesn't that mean that all Teidar battles are decided by speed and surprise?
Two psychokinetics can apply different forces to the same object, and one can try to counter the other, but it's not automatic, and the second PK needs to have some way of observing what the force to be countered is. Reaction time is a factor, and if one PK is trying to "break" the object rather than just move it and is powerful enough to do it quickly, this will be very difficult to counter. So PK vs. PK Teidar battles are a little bit like a quick-draw contest.

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