The World of The Gunny

All game two yead end reports go here.

Year two!

I have been progressing quite a bit slower than last game, not enough research points to get a comm package, satellite and LEO rocket in the first year, so I think that the balancing job has been fairly good.

This game is going alot slower than the last one(Not helped by the lack of flavor posts), but I like the changes so far. I contemplated on doing a transfer when I ran out of RP to keep researching, but it was way too expensive for me to do it and not cripple myself for the rest of the game. However, in a few years I can see how viable it would be.

MrAnderson, thanks for the report! I am glad you are liking the changes so far! And your hard decision about doing a transfer is exactly what I wanted to hear! I wanted it to be a measure of desperation, in case the player got caught in a do or die situation. So it was made too expensive to just do on a whimsy, but stiil good enough to save your bacon when in dire straights.

Good job bud!



Cheers, Thor

The end of year one

Well.. I seem to have failed on the whole balancing thing. I think I may or may not have screwed myself over BUT on a plus side I have a much better understanding of the rules. Managed to get a satellite into orbit but maybe I threw a few to many resources out the window. Or rather. Just used them too quickly lol I have no complaints thus far. Everything seems well balanced (other then me ) and I'll see what comes with the future years.

Hopefully I'm not doomed XD

Year One of Game Two flowed a lot better than the first game..... all the new additions work well. I think we need to keep pushing ahead to get more stuff in space to test out the other sections of the rules.

Axner, in this game a player is never truly out, unless they wish to stop playing. All it takes is one catastrophic failure, or a goof and you can be right back into the running again. But the key thing is to have fun playing and maybe learn a wee bit about the actual space race and what it took to run it!

In the last test game Gav, the Sovs, was nowhere near the lead, but he was sneaky and actually got the first man into space and jumped right into the lead. So, keep an eye on your goal, and if you see a path nobody else is taking, maybe that will help you garner some serious Presitge Points.

@ Gav, agreed. This test game will not end until someone wins. That means all the way to the first moon colony.



Cheers, Thor

Well, I feel that I have improved slightly since the last report - I didn't run out of RP this time, and my other monies are still doing alright despite spending much, much more WU/IUU than last year. I am looking at my research budget report, and from what i've spent, 79% of it was for rockets. This may be partially caused by one of my rockets careening through the atmosphere and smashing it back down to 50% safety, but I think that in a few years, once research starts turning over to capsules, satellites, etc. we will see a decrease in that.

The research team limit also seems to be working. I've seen myself prioritizing things quite a bit more now(Dammit, I even made a flowchart...) so as to get the best results from this year of research.

Anyway, enough about research, let's talk about the missions. I am fairly sad to see that only 3 nations have managed to fling something into space so far, Russia cut it pretty close there too. As for myself, I feel pretty good at where I am right now. Canada got the first swing, but I'm starting to catch up to them. This far into the game, I think the pacing is right - this will most likely the year everyone else starts flinging rockets into the air, and real competition starts to happen.

To summarize: Good year, balancing and pacing seems to be doing fine, no real complaints. Also, the PRC mandates construction of newspaper factories in all the countries participating in the Space Race.

Outstanding report bud! Your details are exactly what I needed!

And yeah, your spike in Rocket RP usage was caused by your catastrophic failure. Those things are a serious setback, but can be overcome.

As for newspaper factories, I agree! More are needed.



Cheers, Thor

Game Flow: No problems and I think that with a standard mission launch order, it will make Thors job easy !

Missions: Early stages at the moment since I have only thrown a few sats into orbit. The mission steps in the rules make it easy to plan what I need to research.

General: Since this is only the second year, I can not give more comments than I have already but I am looking foward to the next years turn since this is where everyone should be launching rockets left right and centre

The Good : The mission steps in the rules and the option (Which I intend to use next year) to convert IUU/RP/WP into another form to cover shortfalls

The Not So Good: need to do at least 3-4 turns a day ! ... just joking. I have had a look at the RP costs for some of the later equipment (spacestation stuff) and I am worried that due to the high RP costs, the game may slow dramatically.

Things are definitely picking up. Within the next few years we're going to see some pretty major launches. Glad that there is now a defined way to set up launches! I've slowed down on the missions. Haven't advanced much further except in research, which I ran out or RP's near the end of the year again. :P Can't really say much like the other's have said since its only the second year that has passed. But as I said things will speed up dramatically.

And I believe China shall be taking the lead soon. Good luck to everyone in the following year!

Oh and as of now my newspaper factories are sorta on strike cause I have all my exams next week so I have to take time to study. After that there should be quite a few posts.

Good report bud!

And yeah, I am not sure about the RP costs either, and that's why we are playtesting the game! But on the flipside I do not wish to make it so easy to R&D as to make the game a fantasy trip either. I would like to keep historical costs and build times in mind. So it is definitely going to be a fine balancing act.



Cheers, Thor

Good report bud! Thanks much!

As for running out of resources, yep, this game is about planning, and making good use of the limited resources your government gives you. It actually makes the player think about what he wants to do, and plan to accomplish that to win.

And I look forward to the ending of the Canadian newspaper strike!



Cheers, Thor

Mav, yeah, that is the plan for the future of DSA. After it is playtested and ok'ed it we are going to convert it into a free net game.



Cheers, Thor

Lol, good advice bud.



Cheers, Thor

Well, I did a prestige blitz, and somehow get back on track. The game is getting interesting, and I have a goal to be able to send more than monkies into space by the end of the year. I ran out of RP in the last month, yet again, but this isn't so much of a problem.

Roses and thorns time; I like that there is a sense of competition now - all of the nations have got on their feet and now can actually launch quite a few rockets. Thorns for me would be derping and forgetting about the animal sub-orbital and booking the entire year with satellite insertions, but that's not really a game problem.

All in all, another good year of playing, I'm interested to see what will happen.

Good report bud. I also look forward to the upcoming year.



Cheers, Thor

Yeah, them 'little' ommissions can kill ya! Glad to see you still have the spirit! But as I say all of the time, one bad break can hurt ya, but hard work can get you right back into the race, especially if you take some side routes that the other players are not taking.



Cheers, Thor

Like Mav, I learnt that if things don't work then it can cost you a pretty penny. All in all, a quiet year with nothing much to report. Next year things should heat up with everyone looking at putting things other than satellites into orbit. I'm sure there will be more to report as we will be treading into new territory.

This year was like a snake for me. Because I had studying for exams I didn't have very much time to review my sheets. I just kinda did them up, looked at them once and sent them in. Led to me running out of IU's. But all in all a very good year. Things will really pick up from here on out. Competition truly starts right here. Best of luck to all in this coming year.

Yep, this game requires that you keep an eye peeled for any possible shortfalls and such. That is why the data is provided. I can provide the data, but I cannot make you read it.

Thanks for the report bud!



Cheers, Thor

Got to launch lots of Satellites this year as well as a lunar Flyby.
Got to keep an eye out on what and how much you produce in the way of hardware otherwize you end up having to cut back on your missions and ultimatly loose out on PP. I ended up with more of what I did not need and stuff all of what I did need.

A rule for scrapping/selling off excess hardware would be nice but Thor explained his reasons for not including it so I'll leave it at that.

..... onwards to manned missions !