im the same way im curently trying to make a large multi star map thats balanced but random with each system having the same amout of planets but layed out diffrently but i had to start over from scratch dude to a mother nature involved computer issue so when i get up the ambition to make a map on galaxy forge i can send you a message on here or wherever to see if you would like to help come up with ideas for the map if you would be interested.

(ps sorry for any bad grammer kinda did this in a rus)

I'd be interested if you're still going with this!

I'm interested as well Timezone = GMT 0 only weekends

Hi--fairly new player here but a gamer from way back (I'm 49).

One of the first scifi board games that covered layered strategy was called "Imperium" and its the game that popularized the "Traveller" role playing game.   It was probably the most popular game in its genre for more than en years.It pits the Terran Confderation against an ancient alien empire, the Imperium. Imperium was a campaign game with fast play.  Excellent map and simple combat but it comprised a series of wars--each a game in itself.  I am remaking the Imperium game board as a Sins map (It's mostly done) and after some tweaking amd about to release one of the core systems, Gashidda--capitol of the Imperium (empire).

Gashidda will be what I call a "Vasari Tomb"--its an entrenched and engineered asteroidal system designed for defense by Vasari forces against invaders.  The mini mission will have the Terrans trying to take it.

The Vasari  represent the Imperium (their tech is a key to their strategy in the game) and TEC will represent Earth.  I am toying with a guerilla position to be played by an Advent player but I want to keep balance so that will take some testing.

The overall gamne I am optimizing right now for faster play and it is a 55 system large map.  Each world is a strategic point for movement an the goal is to "control the board" and exterminate the other side.  Sounds like the sort of thing you are looking for but I am still polishing.  Post here if you want to know when its ready.

I can't stand the wham, bam 20 minute rushing maps either.

I don't know if you mean me or Reaper but I'd like to hear from Reaper myself as to how its coming with his (If you meant me, thanks).

I have mine almost done now.  I am adding in planets and arranging them so each key system has its own flavor.  I have a point value for each empire's resources and the strategies for each empire will be different.  I have a couple of websites I manage and am going to create one just for the map I make.  I can consider letting players with large, long play maps advertise theirs there as well if anyone is interested (give me a couple of weeks to get it set up).

It's been thirty years since I played a game of Imperium but in the day it was played all the time by many of us.  It's a blast in the SINS game flying around the old board game and seeing it in 3D.

Sounds like fun.  I'd be interested in playing.

I played a multi-star "Role-playing" game hosted by this guy Code-something, I will have to look at the replay for his name, actually I should post the replay because it's hilarious, but, anyway he states that all he wants to do is have a nice long four player ffa roleplaying game.  After an all-nighter out with my friends it was like 7AM my time and there were no other games, so I decided what the heck, we'll see where this takes us.

The two other players besides him and I were in an eco race right off the bat, and I had already formed an informal alliance with the guy in my system, so I just chilled and did the same because this was a chance to play Sim City in Space Patrol!!!

I don't know exactly what his notion of role playing was but he was out of character with all his chat until I said something like, "I thought you wanted a role playing game".  To which he replied something like, "...ok, *I will use asterisks as background talk*.  And although he did a lot of talking, I don't remember him using asterisks again.

He started saying stuff like, "...Can we all just coexist in galactic harmony?"  Since he was playing Vasari, and me being an Advent player that game, I responded with my own brand of character along the lines of, "...treachery and lies Vasari scum!"  Which he couldn't quite reconcile and proceed to promote that he was really a "Hybrid faction" of Tec/Vasari that were peace loving and had been imprisoned by the Vasari for centuries, and now all they wanted was to avoid conflict.  I will say that he was very creative and imaginative with some of his dialogue which centered on the whole "Vasari outcasts" angle, but of course this just added fuel to my fire and I continued as the protagonist.

One of the other players, (the guy sharing my system) actually started fanning the flames a little bit because he couldn't resist I suppose, and it was quite comical the more upset "Hybrid" got.  He eventually started saying he thought we were fools not to make peace with him, and that we were all conspiring to align against him, and that we would all be banned from ever playing in his games "...ever again!!!"  And then he quit after deadheading his meager armada smack dab into the other guys max upgraded and overwhelmingly superior fleet.

I think my eco was a pathetic 150 per since I had but the other two guys were like 300-400, and after all our max upgraded fleets started populating the map, the lag became atrocious and I bowed out.  From what I understand by talking to them later, one of the players fell asleep afterwards, and the battle royal never took place.

I suppose this is a long round about way of relating that if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen, especially if the kitchen is a multi-star role-playing ffa that you host!

NWN maybe, but most games these days aren't designed for "role playing" at all.  Certainly a game like WoW is anything but a roleplayer game.  It's very much a tactical combat game with a storyline.  You don't roleplay squat.

What you want for roleplaying is actually a blank slate, a template sandbox world with a set of well-defined rules.  Short of having a "game master" to arbitrate the game (both to make it interesting and keep munchkins in line), Sins is actually pretty well ideal for roleplaying. 

The fact that the game lacks any roleplaying elements is precisely what makes it work for roleplaying.  The roleplayer itself is above the technical game and its rules, it is something that the players themselves understand and embrace, and a computer trying to assert inflexible rules into that would actually be a bad thing.  As I said, a human game master in that position would be nice, but it's not strictly necessary.

Now, I could never play one of these games (at least without a GM to keep me in line) because I'd end up doing something evil like forming a truce with a weaker player, starbasing his homeworld and then demanding tribute from him to remain allies.  This tribute would go towards starbasing more of his planets, ensuring that he'd forever be my b!tch, doing nothing but feeding me more money.

SINs would work as a "background creator" for a roleplay world.  Resolve diplomacy, expansion and combat in-game and THEN roleplay--somewhere else--based on the results.  The game flow doesn't really accomodate much more RP than "Die Vasari scum!" and the like.  Kind of like RPing a game of checkers.

"Crown me varet knave and yield your kingdom to me as I have swept over your troops and reached the farthest boundaries of they kingdom and demand the return of my lost men and to be crowned!"

im in on this Roleplay idea if this comes up again.