Brainstorming other race-specific challenges

[Psillycyber]

So, I've had a lot of fun with the Darlok Hacker and Meklar Matrixlord challenges (research only computer tech until the Guardian is defeated). With how difficult the Meklar one was, I doubt that restricting any other races to just researching computer tech would really be feasible. Even the Meklar couldn't really rely on espionage to bring in the bulk of the research in the game. Maybe the Silicoids could manage it to, with the early expansion opened up by unconventional means.

But perhaps different technology restrictions or other restrictions would be more in the spirit of these other races anyways. Here are my preliminary ideas....

Klackons: can only research construction tech until the Guardian is defeated. (Should be possible to get large long-range colony ships up and running relatively quickly, thus giving some limited ability for early expansion).
Humans: No research restrictions, but until the Guardian is defeated, every ship must serve a pacifistic purpose—every ship must come with a colony base of some sort and must serve a dual purpose as a sort of space habitat. The starting colony ship is fine, of course, but the starting scouts must of course be scrapped on turn 1.
Sakkra: Only planetology research is allowed until the Guardian is defeated. Should be possible to get long-range ships pretty quickly and claim the hostile worlds first, then trade to backfill military techs as needed.
Alkari: Only propulsion research is allowed until the Guardian is defeated. Should be feasible with an aggressive foreign policy...
Bulrathi: Only construction and weapons research allowed until the Guardian is defeated.
Mrrshans: No research restrictions, but every ship design must have a weapon on it. Starting ships must be scrapped. (I believe there was already an imperium along these lines...)
Silicoids: No research restrictions, but no tech trading or trade agreements (xenophobic) until after the Guardian is defeated.
Psilons: No research restrictions, but is limited to having only 1 ship design active at a time until after the Guardian is defeated (pacifists).

[Reformations]

Not really race specific but what about limiting ship construction to large/huge with nuclear engines.

My theory is that the power mechanic is a good idea but poorly balanced. Ship speed is simply too strong compared to supposed extra space provided by the power mechanic in slow ships.

[Reformations]

Refsteel had mentioned a follow up to hull/propulsion limitations challenge. Want him to come back and flesh it out here

[RefSteel]

Refsteel had mentioned a follow up to hull/propulsion limitations challenge. Want him to come back and flesh it out here :)

I don't have anything to add to my spitballing suggestion though; sorry! If there's interest in trying out a succession game along these lines, we can definitely hash out the details among those interested though!

[RefSteel]

Unless the gods conspire again to pull me away like last two times I'd be up for a succession game. But do you think limiting manoeuvrability on the larger ships will have an impact on the game? In many games I end up using only small ships, especially later in the game when it would matter the most. And are you thinking of limiting warp, combat manv. or both?

Another possibility is to upgrade speed every 100 years and apply it to all hull sizes - so in the 2300s only warp/mav 1 is allowed, in the 2400s 2 is ok, in the 2500s we are up to 3 and so on.

I'm honestly okay with any of those; I was just spitballing ideas since Reformations seemed interested in trying something. Since mediums are relatively little-used and many people rely on smalls and huges where possible, my thought was to put the biggest restrictions on those. Maneuver limitations sound like more fun than actual strategic engine limitations to me; slow-moving rocks might be thematic, with all ships restricted to Maneuverability 1 (or 2 in the 2400s and 3 in the 2500s and so on as you suggest).

[Ianus]

I like the idea of unrestricted engines and limit of Maneuver 1 or whatever restrictions we decide on. I've played enough Klackon games to know how tedious Warp 1 can be. And I'd be up for a game whenever we get a group together!

[Reformations]

I'm ok with unrestricted warp speeds. There is a strategic handicap there for sure, but I'm more interested in exploring the tactical handicap of slower combat ships.

What about only huges and only maneuver speeds of best-known - 3? We would also not allow inertia stabilizers.

This means if you know warp 6 you can put on any warp drive you want but maneuver can only go up to 3.

[RefSteel]

Is that a sign-up, Reformations? If so, we can roll as soon as we decide on settings!

So...

Difficulty: Impossible?

Galaxy Size: Standard?

Opponents: Five?

Race: Rocks for flavor? Birds so we'll have ship defense in spite of low combat speed? Cats for extra challenge and so low combat speed and maneuvers won't kill our initiative completely?

Variant: So how severe do we want this to be? I don't like limiting ourselves to Huge ships; that's a pretty hefty variant on its own unless we exempt unarmed ships, and maybe not interesting enough if we don't. Also, huge ships get used as mainline combat ships a lot more often than mediums (although I think I use mediums more than most other players personally). If we want to incentivize ships of a certain size, we could forbid stabilizers and limit max maneuverability allowed by ship class:

Small: 4 less (i.e. 2 fewer combat moves) than our best available
Medium: 1 less than our best available (or 3 less if we want to incentivize Huges instead)
Large: 2 less than our best available
Huge: 3 less than our best available (or 1 less if we're incentivizing them instead of Mediums)

Obviously Maneuver Class 1 is allowed for everything even if it doesn't meet the other restrictions.

What do you think?

[Ianus]

Rocks are slow so I vote for rocks. Also I don't play them very often so that would be fun for me. I don't like limiting ship sizes, plus with restricted maneuverability I imagine that sizes will turn out to be somewhat self-limiting. I also vote medium galaxy as I find large size galaxies to be tedious. So my votes:
Difficulty: Impossible
Races: 5
Galaxy size: medium
Race: Silicoid
Restrictions: maneuverability restricted to IMSTALLED engine class minus 3.
No inertial stabilizer/nullifier or sub space teleporters allowed.

Thoughts?

[Ianus]

I'd say go ahead and get started although I'm not clear what our roster actually is. I'd like to play later in the rotation if possible although it doesn't really matter in the long run. Let's see what Ref has to say.