Perhaps this should've been in the "Variants Lab" but oh well.
As you might imagine, I need a break. But I will very likely host again someday, and these are some things I'm thinking about doing in my next game. Bear in mind these are my own thoughts, and players may talk me out of these or introduce other concepts into the next game I host.
No more starting unlimited range for Russia and the USA.
I would have it so that the A power can hit any province in the world, but the player must decide which colony to build the nuke to reach the target.
No More Arbitrary Voting Delay:
As soon as the world's player pool has taken over enough votes for the ABB coalition (aka, any coalition) to win, the voting begins! This will add a lot of unseen dynamics, and force the split of the votes and the orders. I wish I had done it with HoV, but it is important to see how the votes went before you respond with your spring orders.
Colonies
Especially at the start of the game, I find it very interesting seeing who is going to build what where. Particularly so with the USA, UK, France and even though he did not get the opportunity, China. Are they going to super solidify their homeland? Place armies or fleets in the colonies? Build a wing as a symbol of trust to the other allies in the area? I think it would be interesting for that to happen more often. I was planning to have all players have at least 2 SCs. One capital and one SC at least several game years away. The main problem with this is the weakest nations by this ruleset would have a fleet/army and a wing. This would force recalibration of the entire power scheme. This would also alleviate some strain of drawing the short straw of an E nation with a geographical disadvantage. Instead of the game at stake, it's "just" your colony. Getting all playable nations to have a colony works well with...
Alternate Timeline:
Have fun changing the details of history a little bit (and a lot) to get the world how we need it. Things like the continental United States being split into Confederate States of America, and perhaps even the Republic of California and/or Texas. Have world war two end in a stalemate. Germany starts larger with the famous acquisitions of France and Poland. Things like that.
Direct Sequel:
Use the History of Victory map and set it in the future. Some nuked cities have been rebuilt. Some nations have acquired independence again. Make a lot of the supply centers for the larger nations be dormant like how Russia/USA starts NWO traditionally.
No more forgiving deadlines:
I started HoV as a relaxed game, and I kept that true with forgiving deadlines as often as I could. But to be strictly fair to all players, a super strict deadline is fair for people of all time zones.
No more validating:
The biggest problem that I have with validating is the vigilance required. It's not that I don't want to spend the time, but that sometimes I don't have the time. I had more time during the week when I started HoV. I was able to validate orders more. As time went on I couldn't really do that anymore. So the people that happened to have invalid orders the second half of the game didn't have that safety net of the first half of the game. Yes there were oodles of fine print to not rely on it, but I feel the consistency throughout is more fair.
Less Fancy Maps Presentation:
I can do the support lines, the convoy and nuke arcs in my sleep. Which is good because if you do it for 44 players, you get sleepy. By removing them, the workload is reduced and I should be done computing the outcome of battle before I'm so tired I can't count anymore when it comes time to update that table upright.
More Clear Base Map:
I'd like to make the starting map larger to the point where no unit will ever cover up the label of what's province it is in again.
As you might imagine, I need a break. But I will very likely host again someday, and these are some things I'm thinking about doing in my next game. Bear in mind these are my own thoughts, and players may talk me out of these or introduce other concepts into the next game I host.
No more starting unlimited range for Russia and the USA.
I would have it so that the A power can hit any province in the world, but the player must decide which colony to build the nuke to reach the target.
No More Arbitrary Voting Delay:
As soon as the world's player pool has taken over enough votes for the ABB coalition (aka, any coalition) to win, the voting begins! This will add a lot of unseen dynamics, and force the split of the votes and the orders. I wish I had done it with HoV, but it is important to see how the votes went before you respond with your spring orders.
Colonies
Especially at the start of the game, I find it very interesting seeing who is going to build what where. Particularly so with the USA, UK, France and even though he did not get the opportunity, China. Are they going to super solidify their homeland? Place armies or fleets in the colonies? Build a wing as a symbol of trust to the other allies in the area? I think it would be interesting for that to happen more often. I was planning to have all players have at least 2 SCs. One capital and one SC at least several game years away. The main problem with this is the weakest nations by this ruleset would have a fleet/army and a wing. This would force recalibration of the entire power scheme. This would also alleviate some strain of drawing the short straw of an E nation with a geographical disadvantage. Instead of the game at stake, it's "just" your colony. Getting all playable nations to have a colony works well with...
Alternate Timeline:
Have fun changing the details of history a little bit (and a lot) to get the world how we need it. Things like the continental United States being split into Confederate States of America, and perhaps even the Republic of California and/or Texas. Have world war two end in a stalemate. Germany starts larger with the famous acquisitions of France and Poland. Things like that.
Direct Sequel:
Use the History of Victory map and set it in the future. Some nuked cities have been rebuilt. Some nations have acquired independence again. Make a lot of the supply centers for the larger nations be dormant like how Russia/USA starts NWO traditionally.
No more forgiving deadlines:
I started HoV as a relaxed game, and I kept that true with forgiving deadlines as often as I could. But to be strictly fair to all players, a super strict deadline is fair for people of all time zones.
No more validating:
The biggest problem that I have with validating is the vigilance required. It's not that I don't want to spend the time, but that sometimes I don't have the time. I had more time during the week when I started HoV. I was able to validate orders more. As time went on I couldn't really do that anymore. So the people that happened to have invalid orders the second half of the game didn't have that safety net of the first half of the game. Yes there were oodles of fine print to not rely on it, but I feel the consistency throughout is more fair.
Less Fancy Maps Presentation:
I can do the support lines, the convoy and nuke arcs in my sleep. Which is good because if you do it for 44 players, you get sleepy. By removing them, the workload is reduced and I should be done computing the outcome of battle before I'm so tired I can't count anymore when it comes time to update that table upright.
More Clear Base Map:
I'd like to make the starting map larger to the point where no unit will ever cover up the label of what's province it is in again.