Project Distant Darkness

[horizon]

Hello,

since I never got the chance to announce this on the old SG forum I present you:

Project Distant Darkness - Revival -

http://www.epic40k.co.uk/rules/gothic/ddarkness.html

A special addition to the Tau fleet. Background driven. New rules. New scenarios.

At the end of 2009 we hope to bring you:

Project Distant Darkness: The Art of Command

shortly followed by:

Project Distant Darkness: Distant Sun

best regards,
Horizon

[Habilis]

The file itself is beautifully designed, and texts are finely written.
It seems to me, that most of the ships are actually weaker there than they are in forge world rules, but I'm still very new in BFG, and I most definitely can be wrong in this.

The stealth system however, while offering many tactical possibilities, strikes me as being too risky to use - basically, 1/2 chances of not even being able to use the ship in battle at all! Perhaps, if instead of shutting ship in warp or in realspace until the end of combat at 4+, it could be reactivated next turn?

[Volandum]

The Advanced Missile System is very very dangerous, but no ship seems to have it as an option. The list is very constricting, and has too many unique or nearly unique ships.

Is the Custodian limit 1 per every full 1500 or full or partial? If the latter the fleet is running short of options at 2K.

You love your 45cm batteries don't you? Eldar don't like them, but the other Tau fleets will beat them quite easily - the FBs are nasty, but can be stopped in their tracks by Mantas.

[Habilis]

The Advanced Missile System is very very dangerous, but no ship seems to have it as an option.

Actually, it is installed on Marauder missile cruiser.

[horizon]

Heya,

thanks for the replies.

Are they weaker? I think the better manoeuvrability (90* turns on Protector and Emissary. Custodian as Grand Cruiser) makes up for loss of firepower.

We also didn't intend to design a strong fleet list but a unique embedded in a story.

Problems with stealth system is that they are either too strong or too weak (eg daemonships). Since it is a one-off ship and experimental we felt the drawbacks would be needed.

Custodian is partial.

45cm batteries
Yeah. But the FW list has that as well. Plus 45cm ion cannon! The Castellan is a choice of gimmick. All other variants are a but redundant imo.

And in a full engagement I indeed agree that they'll be beaten by a lot of  fleets. In small engagements they are better suited.

[Habilis]

I'm not so sure about manoeuvrability vs firepower, especially in case of Protector, and considering that tau ships speed is still average at best, even with added AAF speed, but then, as I've said before, I have no real experience to judge.

About stealth system, well, I personally would prefer something maybe not so powerful, but more reliable (and, I suppose, it's kind of typical for tau themselves). Also, I consider stealth as one of the main themes of tau army, so I would really like to see stealth elements (both in WH40k and in BFG) more often.

[horizon]

Volandum,
forget. The Missile system is indeed on one expensive ship. Pretty strong indeed given the nature of Tau missiles. You still need to reload though.

Stealth: well maybe the Tau should have more but since there has been no tau stealth ship before we did not want to give them too much at once.

Turn rate of 90* on a ship with cruiser level firepower is pretty good. The FW Protector is toast once the lines engage.

[Xisor]

Hey Roy,

Been meaning to get around to a response for ages, but you'll have to wait a few weeks more for an indepth response. At the moment: a beautiful document and a sterling effort. I'd be inclined to agree with Habilis that it is difficult to gauge the level of the fleet. That said, I 'agree' in principle with most of your design decisions. A fine comb will be needed to pinpoint any bits I could provide constructive feedback on, but give it a week or two and I'll have something.

Very cool so far, at least!

[Zhai_Morenn]

It's really nice getting all of the feedback, and it's been a long time since I've seen you online Xisor!  (then again I've not been on so much so... yeah)

Well in truth, when Roy and I were developing the cloak, there were only really two options that appealed to me that would not be game breaking.  The first is the incarnation that was published and the second was actually using the mechanics of a cloak designed by Ned Smotherman and Dan Hussey in creating Ned Smotherman's "Enigma" fleet.  Essentially, the player may cloak at the beginning of their turn, and decloak at any point during the movement phase of a successive turn.  The catch was that the owning player had to plot out the cloaked ships course on a piece of paper and lay it face down (so no squabbles of altered routes would arise) because the cloak blocked all outgoing and incoming sensor signals.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get a response from Ned until after we had completed and posted part 1 of our project.

[horizon]

Hi,

currently Zhai Morenn and I are finising the first supplement to Project Distant Darkness called
The Art of Command.

Basically an expanded scenario pdf. The scenarios are embedded in a flowing storyline continuing
the small story pieces from PDD. It will have some updated rules on the characters. In length it
will be around 50 pages.

Now my question:
Are you in the know with the Epic: Raiders supplement by Moscovian? For this supplement
he set up a printing service. A full colour print. People can order this print at him for a small amount
of money. The income he generates goes to a cancer charity fund so their is no profit for him.
Legal issues have been cleared with Games Workshop. Jervis got the first copy I believe.

Back to AoC: are people interested in having AoC available as a full colour print, knowing the money
they pay goes to a good cause?

best regards,
Horizon

[RayB HA]

Depends, what good causes?

Cheers,

RayB

[horizon]

American Cancer Society.

Expect a poll at TacCom soon.

[horizon]

http://www.tacticalwargames.net/forums/index.cgi?act=ST;f=32;t=15772;hl=

polling + more explanations!

[Xisor]

Hello from the world of exceedingly long 'week or twos'.

I'm very keen to see the two new projects, and to hear news of their development. My summer...got away from me a bit. Things went a bit...differently from how I'd planned, expected or hoped, but it was great fun, so not to worry about that too much!

With regards to Distant Darkness, I still view with some hope the prospect of writing a 'combined' fleet list, somewhat like the Armageddon fleet for the Imperial Navy.

With mind to the characters: Names. There's a good opportunity to detail how they earn their name segments, or perhaps some of the more noteable name segments. Tau names for 'high ups' do tend to be a bit longer, so it's at least a wee thing to consider.

With the ships, I still retain 'principle' objections to the Kir'la and Kir'shasvre loadouts, but I can't deny that they seem 'on the ball'.

I hope to sit down tonight or tomorrow and run through the fluff front to back and pick out anything odd, but it does look very nice, nicely rounded. Unfortunately it also makes me want to nip off and actually finish sorting out the Demiurg and the CPF. Bah!

More soon (hopefully sooner than before)!

[horizon]

Hi Xisor,

great to see you took time to read. 
Also: do not forget to find the secret & hidden links....

Art of Command will have cool art.

Names won't change in the supplements, but your comment is noted for other stories.add-ons I/we might do.
The supplements focus on the five characters in very detail. It'll be a great journey to read & experience through scenarios. At least that is what we hope.