Fun Mod Concept

[Combat Wombat]

Where's Waldo?

This mod would be for PBW only. 1 Player would be Waldo and all other players are attempting to find/kill Waldo before another player does and within X amount of turns. The Waldo player would only control 1 "super dreadnought" and be unable to colonize planets. Their home world would have to be abandoned after they build their "super dreadnought" which would be set up to be built in one turn by their home world. The Waldo player's objective is to avoid destruction for X amount of turns to win. They would have a limited tech tree, they would be unable to colonize planets, make more ships, and their intelligence would be limited to counter-intelligence projects only. They would start out with the ability to construct fighters, mines, drones, they will have improved remote mining techs and they would have components on their ship that create research and intelligence points. All other players(those trying to find Waldo) will have a normal stock tech tree.

Also to ensure that the Waldo player abandons their home world after their "super dreadnought" is built either the game admin will have to play one of their turns or scores must be seen by all players to ensure that Waldo isn't breaking the rules.

All the comments or suggestions you can come up with are always welcome.

I will be working on this over Christmas, so expect some more detailed description or even a playable mod early next year. Also if someone has a large dreadnought type ship that could be used for Waldo it would be most appreciated.

[Suicide Junkie]

Intel points are useless without a planet.
If the Waldo player dosen't have his planet, then he can't be hit by intel, so you don't need to worry about it.

Keeping the planet could actually be a disadvantage, given a lack of point generation on it, since it leaves you vulnerable to intel.

[boran_blok]

Intel can also be used to track ship loaction isnt it ? (which would make finding waldo easy)

[Combat Wombat]

Suicide Junkie said:
Intel points are useless without a planet.
If the Waldo player dosen't have his planet, then he can't be hit by intel, so you don't need to worry about it.

Keeping the planet could actually be a disadvantage, given a lack of point generation on it, since it leaves you vulnerable to intel.

I didn't realize that, thanks

[PvK]

With the new mod abilities, you might be able to make Waldo's ship have annoyingly high Intel generation, which might give players a natural, rather than artificial, reason to hunt down Waldo...

PvK

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Add another 'imperial ego' to the wiki page: 'Winning a PBW game as Waldo.'

[Kamog]

How can we stop Waldo from building more ships? The dreadnought will need a space yard on it so that it could construct fighters, mines and drones. The race will have to possess the technology they needed to build their super dreadnought, so wouldn't they be able to build another one just like it?

...oh, maybe their only dreadnought will use up exactly the amount of resources the race will get each turn to maintain it, so they couldn't pay maintenance on the second one. But then they won't be able to build units, either because they'll never have any resources left.

Is there some way to mod a space yard component that only constructs units?

[Suicide Junkie]

Have a super-race gift the ship before the game starts?

Let waldo's race have all the tech knowledge required to repair the components, but not have any available ship hulls to put them in.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

The construction bay can't use all three resources, Waldo units don't need all three.

[Hugh Manatee]

*commences brainstorming*

I'd just let them keep their planet but make the thing hard to kill. Ever see Lexx?(cheesy cult sci fi/fanasy show that had a few cool ideas and concepts, but terrible acting and story planning, Lexx=Waldo Mantrid=everyone else.). Lexx could blow planets up and eat the asteroids. I'd say let "Waldo" be a super ship the player could design, it's parts would be super cheap so you could only build it with the opening turn bonus. The player has little resourse storage, enough to build a few drone type units(do mines need maintinence, I don't think drones do).

Player's planet is like the "Cluster" from Lexx, lots of storage, and can produce units but no resource storage and low production each turn, only production(so it can build weapon's platforms and defense drones). You'll have to crunch some numbers to get the "balance" right.

And just so I'm not playing fox the whole game my dreadnaught has a planet killer weapon, shields, regenerating armor, lesser point defense and ship to ship beams, a space yard and repair bay and storage for all the 790 drones, undead assassins and "moth" fighters I need. This way it becomes can they kill me before I kill them. Their units should be cheap, and quickly produced so theyhave a chance to attack my behemoth. Maybe I can't sweep mines so it's possible to trap me and damage me to an extent. And what if I getsealed in a system by warp point closure, do I get an opener or is that part of the strategy?