Subject: RE: Subject: Moving

From: "Wayper, Paul" <WayperP@p...>
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 09:15:41 +1000

On Saturday, June 03, 2000 2:09 AM, Snow [SMTP:snowl@s...] wrote:
> 1) The Mornomic way: The LV can be changed by a small amount each
> turn. A player can move a distance equivalent to eir LV.

Seems to be similar to the way MC is played online as well.

> 2) Turn at a time: Each player can move at most X stations in one
> turn.

Shunting would be a big problem. Not only because you have much more range
all the time, but also because you're open to countershunting (unless you
put in some silly rule like "the shuntee cannot shunt the shunter next go" -
which I prefer to be a consequence of having both your LVs reduced to zero
rather than explicitly state it.)

> 3) Time limiting: Moving 1 station takes 10mins. The further e moves
> the less time e has available for shunting, blocking...

I tried putting in a proposal for similar to this a while back - basically
moving ten stations would take sixty minutes, but it was tiered (1-3:10m
4-5:20m 6-7:30m 8-9:40m 10:50m). In addition to this there was a
'surcharge' on each line change; so moving on one line took less time than
moving the same distance across multiple lines.

It got shot down in flames. I think the attitude was "we don't want
anything less than the best", which in my opinion is a fairly boneheaded way
to approach a Nomic (if nothing else).

> Other thing to bare in mind are: changing lines, moving for other
> reasons (shunting, straddling...), how many times per turn a player
> can move (possibly more than 1) and whether the route taken need be
> noted.

I don't want to build in any limitations explicitly; I prefer to give people
an arbitrary amount (e.g. LV=10, 60 minutes) and have them choose from
there.

> I think moves should be made actions to standardize the notation.

I disagree. I think it looks fine. It also makes the person's current
location very easy to find in the GSD.

Paul Wayper -- DPI IS&S ITO Computer Systems Officer
SigClean 1.5a prevents all errors in transcription, transmission, and
reception of eMail, destroys sig and email viruses, and stops flames.
Report all bugs to the author. SigClean is FreeWare. (c) 1998-9 PJW

---

From: "Kevan " <kevan@s...>
Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2000 12:48:31 -0000

> rather than explicitly state it.)

MC:CG had a fairly neat approach to the whole business, which I was 
quite pleased with for its elegance - basically, you could move up to 
three Stations per Move. That was it. There were certain ways you 
could increase the maximum (Game States to up everyone's, Possessions 
to raise your own), or decrease it (States for everyone, Clamp 
Possessions for specific victims), and "maximum Move distance" was 
vaguely referred to as "LV". Dead easy to keep track of, and it 
worked perfectly well strategy-wise.

As for Shunting - you're thinking in MN terms, Paul. The easy 
solution is simply to say that Shunts move the victim four Stations 
along a Line. (And eight for a Power Shunt, or whatever.)

I like this, myself, because it makes real-life play very easy - you 
don't need to keep track of LV at all, it's just always three, unless 
certain things are in play (such things giving it enough diversity to 
add strategy). Having to keep tabs on ever-changing variables is 
quite fiddly - anything short of twiddly brass dials would, I think, 
be cumbersome and ugly.

As for the timing thing - I find this just too fearsome, and I'd be 
happy to see this aspect of the game being killed off entirely. The 
"no more than an hour's worth of Actions" is fairly awkward to keep 
track of, particularly in real-time play ("Right - LV increase, Move, 
Drop Token, Straddle, Shunt, Collect Token. Your go. Unless anyone's 
buzzing.") - this would be much, much easier as (again, cribbing 
MC:CG) "one Action before your Turn, one after". Although that does 
limit cunning stratagems a bit, I suppose. Maybe two either side. And 
the "big" Actions having a "This can only be played if it's the only 
Action of your Turn" thing.

> location very easy to find in the GSD.

Me too. It's important to be able to pluck out the crux of someone's 
Turn, and as is clear from listening to games on the radio, the Move 
is always the most important thing.

Kevan

--
kevan@s...
http://www.stormloader.com/kevan
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