Erfworld System (Ideas?)

[Altaria87]

Yesterday, when I was playing Civ IV, a thought came to me, is there enough information that can be gleaned from the comic to make a functioning Turn-Based Strategy system that replicates the world of the webcomic.
What I can think of so far:
-The world is made up of an incredibly large amount of 'hexes' each of which has a different sort of terrain on it, each terrain has certain restrictions and benefits
-Cities take up about 30 hexes, they range from level 1 to 5, which determines the strength of units they can 'pop', depending on the type of city and which country rules it, different units can be popped
-Units get bonuses for fighting in stacks, however, stack bonuses max. at 8
-Combat is determined by some sort of equation which determines the possibility of victory for each side based on which units they have, rounded to the nearest 1 and expressed as a percentage, a D100 or something is then rolled (or an RNG is used) to determine which side wins
-However if a Warlord (an expensive type of soldier) is in the stack during the battle, he can command which troops attack what, when to retreat, and things like that.
-Occasionally, a caster instead of a Warlord is popped, a caster specialises in one of the 21 (I think) schools of magic, each of which has their own abilities, they cast using something called 'juice' which decreases as they cast, and is replenished at the turn's start, higher level casters can cast more powerful spells.
-Seige works as explained in the comic

So, anything I've missed, do you think it's a good or bad idea, do you think it's possible to do or not?

[Edwin]

Yesterday, when I was playing Civ IV, a thought came to me, is there enough information that can be gleaned from the comic to make a functioning Turn-Based Strategy system that replicates the world of the webcomic.

Possible, probably, to some extent.

Question is, though, how much time and energy will you devote to it? 'Cause it will require tons and tons of workload to fully do every mechanic and stat everything in Erf.

Things like units, natural tribes probability, random spawn rate, 20-30 different terrain types, hundreds of special abilities, are all very time consuming. The real problem, however, would be making a combat system that works. In Erf, as shown in the comic, logistics and armies work turn-based, but the act of battle itself seems real-time.

That's pretty tough to do, and you would most likely be better off not doing it that way either way.

[Lysander]

Plenty of systems like erfworld exist. Civilization is an example. You just have to figure out how to make a non-automated version of civilization, which is a lot of different bits of data to keep track of on pen and paper.

[DragoonWraith]

The other thing is... the comic's authors have already done this. They determined the rules of the system before writing the comic. They don't out and say the rules because it would suck, narratively, and ruin our "learn along with Parson" bit. But they've stated that they've already written out all the rules.

I mean, sure, maybe they missed a few things, but as it stands, the system is pretty fleshed out.

[Edwin]

The other thing is... the comic's authors have already done this. They determined the rules of the system before writing the comic. They don't out and say the rules because it would suck, narratively, and ruin our "learn along with Parson" bit. But they've stated that they've already written out all the rules.

I mean, sure, maybe they missed a few things, but as it stands, the system is pretty fleshed out.

Indeed, but was the OP's point not if we could create a duplicate system, using what we know so far, or did I miss the crux of the issue completely? :smallsmile:

[Vadin]

What's the scale and style you're looking at creating? Individual characters? Small contained units? Whole armies? Player vs. Player? Players vs. GM? Players vs. Environment? Players. vs. GM scenario and dictates?

[Altaria87]

Indeed, but was the OP's point not if we could create a duplicate system, using what we know so far, or did I miss the crux of the issue completely? :smallsmile:
Yeah, basically, I think it's been answered that it is theoretically possible, so now I'm seeing if anyone has any suggestions about particular parts etc.
And to the other guy, I'm generally looking at a Player vs. Player (vs. Player vs. NPC Sides etc.) thing that plays out as a turn-based strategy, which becomes something like freeform battle commanding if there's a warlord in a stack (or both).
For the normal battles I think a general equation format with all the respective modifiers is doable, but for the Warlord-included battles, it could be tricky to work out.

[centuriancode]

What the comics seem to show, especially when Parson orders the strikes on Jetstone's siege equipment, is that there is an order of attack. For normal battles that just means that whoever gets hit first can't hit back as hard, but with a warlord/caster in the stack then stack can do something different immediately before or after it would attack. So, with the attacks on Jetstone's siege units, the Dwagons attack, but then the warlord withdraws the stack from the fight before the otherside gets to attack.

As to how effective each attack is, yeah, just roll a d100.