Titanomachina on Tabletop Simulator: Rules Booklet update

I've been updating the rules booklet to better reflect the state of the game, and to add and/or organize all those little details that keep coming up in play. In particular I added a table detailing what systems are required on a Titan for that Titan to activate a Personality card, and engage in the action on that card. I've condensed collisions between Titans and buildings (and Titans) down to the two basic cases (pushed or pulled into an occupied adjacent tile, pushed or pulled into an occupied diagonal tile), tried to make my use of terms like tiles, board, stack, and square consistent. The pages have been laid out to be two-page spreads, so best read on Two Page Scrolling via Adobe Acrobat, or printed out. 

In particular I think I've clarified the relationship between figurines and system diagrams, particularly between arcs, but also Titan targets, and where collision damage happens on Titans as well as buildings. 

Here's a link to Titanomachina's rules booklet on Tabletop Simulator on the Steam Workshop.

Titanomachina on Tabletop Simulator: Meatspace Intersection Alarm!

Being able to put Titanomachina up on Tabletop Simulator means that more people can find it and play it. A Kickstarter would allow me to reach hundreds of people, but this allows thousands. Notably though it is more fun to play in person, and I want it to be a board game in its interface. I want to implement changes so that it's a better physical product as well as a Tabletop Simulator implementation of the game. I also can't script, but there's very little of the game I want to automate. It's about making decisions, not just watching a bunch of RNG events happen. 

So I've been working to draw up how much it would cost me to produce the game through collaboration with Boardgamesmaker.com who have made a bunch of prototypes before. They deliver as ordered, and make sure to check with me when the order doesn't look ready to print. Sometimes it's me figuring out how to correct flaws, or conduct quality assurance. Other times it's me thinking about what I'd want in this product, as a consumer. 

Part of that is dealing with Eos' 4th configuration, the lone raptor in the Eos lineup. I mean, it does some fun stuff, but I can put two Titans in a deck, four if the dashboards are double-sided, and the Titans are pairs of weapon-swaps. So reaper vs reaper is two sets, regent vs raptor is one, regent vs regent is one. That's four decks, two for Rhea & Tethys, two for Eos & Styxx. 

So here's what I want to replace Eos' raptor configuration: Two Gun Batteries, one Hand, and one Laser Battery. Decent, mid-range, and very lightweight weaponry. Two sponson systems enabled a flexible concentration of fire, while all the Charge 0 and 1 systems free up charge for the double capacitors. The lack of Extra Armour on the sides may sting, but with six limbs it should be agile. Four actions in the first round should be possible, like activate Sponson 1, activate Master Crew to operate (+3), active Gun Battery 1 to attack at four points of damage, then activate Capacitor 1 to re-activate it at full power for one point of damage. 

Or, perhaps the capacitor isn't needed but the Laser Battery operated by an Initiate Crew 3 is. That one or two points of damage on top of the Gun Battery 1's four points of damage is one system heavily damaged at the least, two systems destroyed at best. 

It also nails a sweet-spot of making sure players of the Green vs Blue, regent vs raptor set get gun batteries, a hand, and a laser battery into the mix. I think it'll be up to the task of chasing the Green raptors too, because you can't give those bastards an inch of breathing room.

I'd want that in a Titan that would introduce players to the game, and perhaps something of an intriguing challenge trying to min-max the heck out of Eos. Those double-pushes are going to be nuts.

Titanomachina: The April 2022 Configuration Change

People who play Titanomachina online on Tabletop Simulator may have noticed a change on Saturday. Now there are only four configurations available per colour/Titan, and the amount of variation in bodies has been minimized. Hopefully the character of each Titan has been maximized, despite that they all share a common pool of cards. They each have a particular strength. 

I have introduced Extra Armour 4 & 5, Thrusters 1 & 2, Jump Jets 1 & 2, Capacitors 1 & 2, and removed Sensors 1 & 2 from Rhea (yellow), Tethys (pink), and Eos (blue). Rhea adds Extra Armour 4 & 5 in all configurations. Tethys adds Extra Armour 4 and Jump Jets 2 and/or 1. Eos adds Capacitors 1 & 2, and Jump Jets 1 & 2. Styxx moves entirely to Thrusters for Jump actions.

Rhea & Tethys have two reaper configurations, which is to say two with 3 weapons each, and two regent configurations, which are 4 weapons each. Styxx has two reaper configurations and two raptor configurations, which are 2 weapons each. Eos has two reapers, one regent, and one raptor. 

I'm hoping this mix sees players develop preferences for 'play-styles,' including combos, tempos, and all the other stuff we've come to expect from card and card-adjacent games. 

Titanomachina Development: Next Steps

I've considered some ways to open up the game a bit and also to help people learn the game when they try it for the first time. One way would be adding things like different proportions of systems, and in particular shaking up the nomenclature slightly. In no particular order I want to:

1. Turn the Plasma Capacitor and Plasma Cell into the Capacitor 1 and Capacitor 2. They're the same thing, and sometimes it helps to remind people they're really just iterations of the same thing by being consistent. 

2. Multiple the Plasma Jets and Thrusters into Jump Jets 1, Jump Jets 2, Thrusters 1, and Thrusters 2. 

3. Add Extra Armour 4 and Extra Armour 5. 

4. Perhaps make a change to the capacitor, making Full power a 0 cost card to return a played or discarded card to the top of one's deck for the next round. 

5. Enable Titans to move into objects like they were pushed into them. So a 2x2 cube of buildings from a flat face would cause 4 damage to the closest middle target on a Titan moving into that square. Maybe Titans would need to do something fancy to unlock this.

6. Re-jig some configurations. Like these of Rhea, trading in Sensors 2 & 3 for Extra Armour 4 & 5, and placing the Laser Battery 1 in the same position in the reaper configuration (3 weapons) as the regent (4 weapons). And remembering to keep the Capacitor on the reaper... And maybe putting the crew more centrally, and replacing the plasma jets with Thrusters 1 and Thrusters 2. Also evens out the damage potential in each corner arc.

Titanomachina on Tabletop Simulator: New Table!

It occurred to me last night that I should be able to decorate the custom-table with art so it didn't look quite so bare. It turns out that it was both easy, and an opportunity to use the flashy synth-wave artwork I'd commissioned for an earlier version of the board (and that was using for the background). I really like how it looks.