The Telegram Update
Days Without Strife has been a relatively small passion project for me for quite some time. Anyone who knows me will tell you that it’s my favorite project and the one I’ve put the most elbow grease into, both into development and into the work required to schedule a game of 22 players. Thanks to a recent video by DiploStrats, this project has recently got quite a bit of attention, so I am ready to take it to the next level.
This “Telegram Update” marks the beginning of what I am intended to be a two-week update cycle, with each Sunday alternating between update notes and playtest launches. The playtests will alternate between US and European time zones, and if I get enough interest I might try to run multiple games as once (but no promises for now, we’ll take it one step at a time)
I am happy to announce that the upcoming March 1st Euro playtest will be a full 22 player game! I’d like to thank my long time playtesters for helping me get this game off the ground, and the many new faces for taking a chance on such an unusual experience. I promise you won’t regret it!
Below, you’ll find a list of the changes for the Telegram Update and a link to the Full Rules for this playtest.
Major Changes
Telegrams no longer cost Electrum, they instead use a special currency called Dashes
The Electrum cost of Telegrams was meant to instill hesitancy in
Factions to encourage a thoughtful decision between Telegrams and Forum
chat. However, in practice, most Factions were either too hesitant and
rarely spoke, or so liberal they had notably reduced money to hire
Wildcards. Though I am hesitant to introduce another currency to a game
that has so many already, it does seem warranted in this case. Note that
with this change, Wildcards no longer get free Telegrams!
(For more information, see page 24 of the playtest rules)
Telegrams have a new look, and a 300 character limit
I’ve wanted to distinguish Telegram and Forum chat for a while now, and I
think this major visual change really helps get the point across.
Trade is now conducted by sending Trade Offers through Telegrams directly
When constructing a new Telegram, you will now have the option of adding
a Trade Offer to that Telegram. You will fill both sides of the Trade
Offer and send it to the other party, where they can choose to Accept to
Reject the Trade Offer. The Offer can also be Cancelled early if you
change your mind.
This system should play better with the asynchronous nature of the game
allowing fire-and-forget Trade to be concluded as schedules allow.
Express Rail can no longer be paid for with Capital
The ability to instantly transport any Agent anywhere at any time makes
the board feel sort of volatile, so for this playtest I am vastly
restricting the amount of teleporting that can happen by removing the
possibility to pay for Express Rail with Capital. Certain Agent
Abilities still grant access to Express Rail, but hopefully the reduced
presence of instant speed travel will result in a more stable board and
less intense menuing.
Military Governors now Recruit new Soldiers equal to their Renown plus their City’s Renown
This is actual a reversion of a previous change. Much has changed about
the rest of the game since the Military Governors could recruit this
many Soldiers, so I am interested to see how it affects the game now.
This should also give City Upgrades and Monuments a bit of a boost.
Increased the number of Reserves gained by Augmenting to 4
Brass has been the weakest of the metallic triangle of Resources in
basically every playtest, so this change should give you more bang for
your Brass. As a bonus, it should help ailing Factions the end up with a
lot of Wounded.
A more significant overhaul to Augmenting is planned for a future playtest.
Try to to think about the Soldiers being split into 4 Augmented though. They’ll be fine.
Appointing an Agent as Governor is no longer required to have the City perform an Action (Collect, Renovate, or Upgrade)
The requirement for Cities to have Governors to Collect was meant to be a
tax on larger empires, as more territory required more bureaucracy to
manage it. However, I’ve found that larger empires simply have more
Agents available anyway, so this limitation rarely manifested. As a side
effect, coordination Collection between different players on a Faction
team was difficult, as most Agents were controlled by the Speaker or
Commander, but the Planner controls Collection. While I am still looking
to put more checks on larger Factions, I am interested in seeing what
happens with this change alone.
Note that Agents can still be appointed as Governors for other effects, such as opening Forums.
Agent Bidding now uses a blind bidding system where each Faction can win up to 1 Agent each Turn
My attempt to make Agent Bidding flexible in the past lead to a system
where sniping was required, so it needed an overhaul. The new system is
blind, allowing for truly asynchronous bidding. Previous versions of
Bidding let winning Factions reliably get 2 new Agents each turn,
leading to a large power spike and a board choked with Agents. This new
system all but guarantees each Faction gets exactly 1 new Agent, leading
to a more even playing field and few Agents in the board overall.
(For more information, see page 43 of the playtest rules)
Foundries now only generate Resources in their Vats when Collected from that Turn
Right now, the Faction Resource Collection strategy orbits around
Foundries. This is mostly intended, but its a bit too significant at the
moment. This lets Foundries keep much of their incredible Resource
output, but now as a trade off when compared to Upgrading. This is also a
balancing measure to counteract the fact they no longer need Governors
to Collect.
Monuments now get +2 Renown per Collection
Monuments have been so weak in recent playtests that some Factions have
Renovated a City into a Monument as a way to spite their opponents.
Hopefully this buff and the buff to Military Governors will give them a
more significant niche.
Minor Patch Notes
Snips have been temporarily removed
The new overhaul to the Telegram system leaves Snips in a weird place,
so they are out for this playtest. They will return in another form in
the future.
Checkpoints only occur during the Day
Previously, Checkpoints would also happen every even hour at night, but
the Train wouldn’t run. This was confusing to many players. So for
clarity, Checkpoints only occur during the day, and Cooldowns for many
Agent Abilities have been adjusted accordingly.
Non-Leader Agents are now also referred to as Followers
This is just a terminology change for clarity.
Faction Diplomat Agents are now called Envoys
It was pointed out to me that having a Diplomatic Agent called the
Diplomat when hypothetically all the Diplomatic Agents are diplomats was
confusing. Even that sentence was confusing. So the Diplomats are now
called Envoys. Hope that clears things up.
SpyTech Changes: Thieves Tools now only Steal 0.50 Electrum, and Cloaks have a reduced Brass Cost
A pair of a simple nerf and buff to tweak the SpyTech game. SpyTech will
be getting a more significant overhaul in a future playtest.
Wildcard Merits have been removed. Commending a Wildcard now gives them a free 1.00 Electrum instead.
Merits were intended to be a medium for Wildcards to trade favors, but
in practice they just traded the Merits. I would like to find that
Wildcard trade medium someday, but for now Merits are more trouble than
they are worth. So they are out!
The Infrastructure no longer grants 1 Renown
This Upgrade was cheap before and is now even cheaper since it does not
require a Governor. This Upgrade is not intended to be chosen often, so
it has been weakened to compensate.
The Renegade now creates 4 + 4/Base Soldiers when Ambushing (down from 5 + 5/Base)
The Renegade can be an oppressive force on the board, especially early
game. Now, this is mostly intended, but I think it needs some tuning
down. This might not sound like a noticeable nerf, but it is made in the
context of the Factions having generally more access to Soldiers as
well.
The Spymaster has a reduced Electrum penalty on Denouncement
This is a placeholder Denouncement Penalty, but it seems too harsh, so it’s getting tweaked down.
The Spymaster Bases have a new effect that reduces Telegram Dash cost passively
I’ve not been happy with the Spymaster’s Base ability as it makes them
play in a sort of boring way. This Telegram updates offers an
opportunity for a new effect, one that keeps the Spymaster as a tempting
option for cheaper messaging… as long as you don’t mind the Spymaster
having al your secrets.
(For more information, see page 55 of the playtest rules)
Playtest Rules
Here is the link to Full Rules for this upcoming playtest, starting March 1st!
Feel free to leave comments on the document or ask questions in the Days Without Strife Discord Server.
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