Tower Defense

By ObiWonka, in X-Wing

Concept: Mission for a Jedi on a map that's skinnier and longer than usual (2x4, or something) with lots of asteroids and debris pre-loaded with Vultures* that detach and chase you as you weave through them and race toward your objectives throughout the map and off the other end.

*Maybe tokens of some kind that flip when you get in range to reveal what kind of ship(s), some "deactivated" that you can sneak past or only activate on certain conditions, others "active" to shoot immediately.

@heychadwick , where you guys at?

Don't forget a few DRK-1 Probe Droids for flavor...

3 hours ago, ObiWonka said:

@heychadwick , where you guys at?

We are here to discuss your idea when you present a draft ready for play testing! :)

Dont wait for us to tell you how to make up a mission. We will give advice and test things out, though.

Way too many ideas for us to do with not enough free time to do it.

13 hours ago, ObiWonka said:

Concept: Mission for a Jedi on a map that's skinnier and longer than usual (2x4, or something) with lots of asteroids and debris pre-loaded with Vultures* that detach and chase you as you weave through them and race toward your objectives throughout the map and off the other end.

*Maybe tokens of some kind that flip when you get in range to reveal what kind of ship(s), some "deactivated" that you can sneak past or only activate on certain conditions, others "active" to shoot immediately.

Got points??

Placing asteroids is one thing; this is completely different.

You ask the impossible. . .

(OTOH, I like the idea. Maybe once wave 3 drops.}

9 hours ago, heychadwick said:

Dont wait for us to tell you how to make up a mission. We will give advice and test things out, though.

Might I suggest the Picutorion Campaign? ;)

Edited by Darth Meanie

Is the idea that is competetive (a bit like Mario Kart) - so you have several players all trying to make the 'run'? Or is one player trying to feed a certain percentage of fighters through a defence net controlled by the other player?

The latter is probably easier as you don't have to cook up 'AI' mechanics for the enemy ships.

For that matter, to match 'proper' Tower Defence games, it should be both players controlling the defender (so split the board along the middle to produce two narrow 3' tracks) with 'mindless' attackers running from one board edge to the other, and the defender shooting down as many as they can, with the first to run out of 'lives' losing.

The ability of the defending player to 'spawn' defenders mid-game is often an iconic part of tower defence. We do have the 'hyperspace reinforcement' token and the quick build mechanics allowing you to quickly pick replacement/additional pilots.

If the attackers are, say, generic TIEs, then you can see classic Tower Defence 'creeps' - a TIE fighter placed in base contact with one board edge and performing a speed 5 Icon maneuver straight every turn takes 4 turns to cross the board. A TIE bomber is a lot harder to kill but takes 5 turns with its maximum speed 4 Icon maneuver straight . A TIE interceptor doing a speed 4 Icon maneuver straight , then Icon action focus Icon action boost red every turn still takes 3 turns, but keeping it in arc two turns in a row will be a lot harder.

Getting kills:

  • stops you losing lives when they reach the other side
  • gets you points you can use to spawn new defenders
  • to take a leaf out of the old multiplayer Tetris - causes a creep to spawn at the start of the opponent's track.
20 hours ago, heychadwick said:

We are here to discuss your idea when you present a draft ready for play testing! :)

Dont wait for us to tell you how to make up a mission. We will give advice and test things out, though.

Way too many ideas for us to do with not enough free time to do it.

I mostly just wanted to put the idea out there for other people to run with. You guys are better at making missions that I am. I'm sure you've got a million of 'em, though.

11 hours ago, Darth Meanie said:

Got points??

Irrelevant. It's just supposed to be a fun mission to play. Balance the sides as needed, not by the usual point total method (since that's designed for head-to-head dogfights on a 3x3).

5 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Is the idea that is competetive (a bit like Mario Kart) - so you have several players all trying to make the 'run'? Or is one player trying to feed a certain percentage of fighters through a defence net controlled by the other player?

The latter is probably easier as you don't have to cook up 'AI' mechanics for the enemy ships.

For that matter, to match 'proper' Tower Defence games, it should be both players controlling the defender (so split the board along the middle to produce two narrow 3' tracks) with 'mindless' attackers running from one board edge to the other, and the defender shooting down as many as they can, with the first to run out of 'lives' losing.

The ability of the defending player to 'spawn' defenders mid-game is often an iconic part of tower defence. We do have the 'hyperspace reinforcement' token and the quick build mechanics allowing you to quickly pick replacement/additional pilots.

If the attackers are, say, generic TIEs, then you can see classic Tower Defence 'creeps' - a TIE fighter placed in base contact with one board edge and performing a speed 5 Icon maneuver straight every turn takes 4 turns to cross the board. A TIE bomber is a lot harder to kill but takes 5 turns with its maximum speed 4 Icon maneuver straight . A TIE interceptor doing a speed 4 Icon maneuver straight , then Icon action focus Icon action boost red every turn still takes 3 turns, but keeping it in arc two turns in a row will be a lot harder.

Getting kills:

  • stops you losing lives when they reach the other side
  • gets you points you can use to spawn new defenders
  • to take a leaf out of the old multiplayer Tetris - causes a creep to spawn at the start of the opponent's track.

You're probably right that player-vs-player is a bit easier than cooking up AI, but I think an AI version could be equally as fun. That type of Tower Defense game also sounds interesting; I used it as the title here because a friend refers to our future Vulture-on-asteroid overlords that way.

43 minutes ago, ObiWonka said:

Irrelevant. It's just supposed to be a fun mission to play. Balance the sides as needed, not by the usual point total method

Balance the sides as needed based on. . .???

Imbalanced missions are not fun. I've created a few.

A good place to begin for balance is understanding the relative strengths of the ships involved, which in this game is expressed as points.

13 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

Balance the sides as needed based on. . .???

How you want the mission to function, and how difficult you want it to be for either side. The fact that some droids will be sitting on rocks, others will be chasing you, one ship is trying to get from point A to point B (and maybe C, D, and E), "kill-em-all" isn't the goal as usual in X-Wing, the board is a different shape, both rocks and droids break normal deployment rules, etc... Yeah, all that means your usual point evaluations pretty much go out the window.