Dramatic SFB: the new late war campaign

[Matthew]

> Some thoughts on WoA.. Traditional borders matter, big time, much 
> prefer that, seems almost necessary.

While I generally set that up (if possible), there is a certain amount 
of motion away from that as the game progresses, through NewBorder 
rewards. But, that's a feature (it gets people to think outside their box.)

> Attrition units need to be paid for in EP.  (maybe they already where, 
> idk).

Already there. (Try playing a Hydran: You'll know those costs are in 
there...)

> It really is up to the players as to the playstyle they prefer, more 
> of a diplomacy/ strategic level style, or a more tactical put it on 
> the map... style of play.

I agree. Both styles have their places and times. It's a balance of 
those that make it fun.

> Starting distances for the scenarios, while exciting are too close

That is something of a knee-jerk response from the last campaign I was 
running, where the complaint was that long start ranges meant the 
defenders always drove the tempo of the battles.

However, I'd like to note that these start ranges do not always lend 
themselves to an auto-disengage. It's become the norm that when someone 
wants to disengage that sportsmanship requires that they be let alone. I 
think that several of the scenarios would allow either or both sides one 
or more volleys (albeit at moderately-long ranges) before one force can 
disengage (by acceleration, usually.)

The flip side that I had attempted to push people towards on earlier 
iterations, was that everyone start at WS-II and moderately-long ranges. 
The concept is that by the time they meet for battle, they've had a turn 
to complete all of the arming cycles. Big Plasma formed a lobby group 
and began to threaten to redesign the scenarios.

> Lastly, it seems to me that some ships I wanted to build were simply 
> not in the drop down though the YiS was good. I wonder if ALL ships 
> are in the drop down that are avail for all races in any given year or 
> if it is just what Matt has been able to get in his database.

Naturally enough, the software can only present to you what it has in 
it's database. When that database was formed, I was working off of the 
ships from the modules I have (since I didn't have G3 and besides, there 
is information present that G3 doesn't track). So It's missing R11, R7, 
X, X1R, Y2 and Y3. It's got the other 22 modules.

Another aspect to it, is that that ships have an obsolete year. This was 
introduced to keep the late-years ship lists from being huge. Otherwise 
it would start to include every ship that was ever built, with each kind 
of refit being another distinct entry. For example, the Gorn (to pick a 
modest empire) would have build-a-ship drop-down-menus of over *530 
entries*. Feds, Klinks, and Roms would have the largest menus.

So generally, if the section-R note said a ship stopped being built in a 
certain year, I set it to obsolete in that year. If it was refit, then 
the "old" version would go away in a year or two. If it was a fighter 
upgrade, the old version would go away at the time of the new 
introduction. If an obvious conversion overtook the ship (such as the 
Y-era stuff being made into "local defense" versions) then the old one 
went away in a year or two.

--Matt
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