CYOE 2 Rules

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Second Edition Rule set

Introduction

Welcome one and all to CYOE! You may be asking what all this is, well simply put it is the next step up from CYOF. In CYOF you controlled a single faction of a much larger whole, here you control an entire Empire, its fleets, its people its corporations you name it. So come on in and get ready for a game of epic fleet battles, political intrigue, and galaxy shaping decisions.


Building Your Empire

To play in CYOE you will of course need an Empire to control, this can be anything from a lost fleet of star ships looking for a home, to an ancient and powerful theocratic empire that believes it is the will of their gods to control the stars belong to them.

Approximately a thousand years ago, there was a great ‘Node Storm’ where thousands of ‘Jump Nodes’, portions of space that act a lot like wormholes, opened in the ancient home system who’s name has long since been lost. And in an event many call ‘The Scattering’ ships of all kinds were flung or choose to be flung right across the galaxy.

This is where you come in; did your ships find a paradise world, or no world at all? Did you have to resort to cloning and genetic modification to survive with a low population? Or did you build robots to do such things for you? Perhaps you enslaved an alien race, or were enslaved by them. Maybe your empire –is- an alien race, expanding into space on their own. Have an idea in mind for what you want your Empire to be and then you can move onto buying the traits and techs that let you fit these ideas.

Traits and Techs

Positive Traits

These are what make your empire unique, the ingrained things that make your people different from all the other empires out there. You may select any 2 of these.

WARNING the two you select are permanent and cannot be changed once your empire has been created, choose well.

(Have an idea for a trait that’s not listed here? Then contact the rule writers with your idea! If it works and is balanced you will be allowed to use it!)




Production Focus





Colonisation Initiative



Negative Traits

Perhaps you want a challenge, or something else to help fit the concept for your empire? That’s where these traits come in; they give your empire a weakness in a certain era, maybe you don’t like fighters? Pick up Forgotten Pilots, and you never need to worry about your strike craft again. You may have up to 2 Negative traits, each negative trait you have unlocks an additional trait slot, so you can have up to four positive traits this way, assuming two negative traits are picked.



Production Reduction Research Reduction



No Colonisation Initiative




Neutral Traits

Not everything is black and white, and not all of your empire straits have to be straight advantages or disadvantages. As a note, these advantages and disadvantages stack with the other traits, so be very careful if you pick any. You may select 1 of these traits, and this trait does -not- take up a positive or negetive trait slot. In addition Neutral Traits do not unlock additional traits like Negative Traits do.









Freighters to Warships


Techs

These represent improvements to your fleet or fleet wide special abilities that you can deploy in your battle strategies. You begin play with 2 free technologies and 3 additional free technology slots, you may replace the technology in any existing slot at any time once you have paid for a new tech, but you cannot have more techs then you have slots for. In addition, each Tech may only be purchased once, no stacking bonuses here. Techs require you to have a free techslot and the full cost of the tech saved up in RP before research can begin. A new techslot can be purchased for 3,000 RP at any time. In addition, techs can be traded to any other empire with a free techslot, traded techs have no RP cost, but still need to run through their research times.

(Have an idea for a tech that’s not listed here? Contact the rule makers for your game and propose your idea to them!)





Enhanced Range














Reverse Engineering

By luck or by skill you’ve captured an enemy ship which has a technology you don’t; if you have a free techslot however you can begin the process of reverse engineering. This sacrifices the ship but allows you to begin research at 60% of the listed cost (Rounding up)!


Combat Ratios

It's generally not a good idea to throw ships into a battle where they will be hopelessly outmatched. To work out how many of your ships it takes to match your enemy's, you need to generate two Combat Ratios; one measuring your defence against his offence, and one for vice-versa.

In both cases, start with a simple value of 1:1.

In the traits and technologies sections are listed the various modifiers that can be applied. Let's say that you have the Titanic, Strike Doctrine and Capital Neglect traits and the Advanced Defences tech, and your opponent has Mass Production and the Advanced Weapons tech. Adding up the modifiers and multiplying everything by 2 gives

The ratio of your offence against his defence for strike craft will be 2:7 The ratio of your offence against his defence for capitals will be 3:6 The ratio of your defence against his offence for strike craft will be 3:8 The ratio of your defence against his offence for capitals will be 4:7

What do these numbers mean? It means that 2-3 of your strike craft are equivalent to 7-8 of his, and 3-4 of you capitals are equivalent to 6-7 of his. This is just a rough guide, of course - other technologies, smart tactics just plain luck of the dice can all play merry hell with the results! But the Combat Ratio gives you a rough idea of who will win in a straight up fight between two ships of identical class.

Note that Unique Ships can be very powerful - or very crippling! Against an opponent with no traits or technologies, the ratios become 2-5:2-5 for everything, for a grand result of 2-5 of your ships being worth 2-5 of his!


Troop Combat Ratio

Look up a coefficient for the attacker's and the defender's Troop traits, and multiply the number of ships (or equivalents) needed to capture a given thing by this number.

Attacker
Defender Marine Focus No Trait Underfunded Troops
Marine Focus 1 1.25 1.5
No Trait 0.75 1 1.25
Underfunded Troops 0.5 0.75 1


Starter Points

Now that you have your Empires Traits, Techs and hopefully an idea of its history, it’s time to move onto buying your initial forces and facilities. Every player begins the game with:

15000 Production Points, to be spent how you want 1 Class 0 Planet (Unless you have the lucky ((Start with 2 Class 0)) or unlucky ((Start with no Class 0)) traits) to be your races Homeworld 0-3 Class U Planets (To act as fluff and description for your empire, as having a system with 1 planet is a little silly)

In addition, things can be placed/upgraded in any system 1 jump from your Homeworld during turn 0.


Costs

Nothing in life is free, not even for an Emperor, there are two kinds of points you can spend to buy things, trade between empires or give as gifts to gain support in CYOE.


Production Points

The bread and butter of the game, these wonderful little points represent your industrial capability; everything in the game has an amount of Production Points (PP) that it takes to build. Built units take 1 turn to come online, so if you built a Fighter on Turn 1 you can only issue it orders on Turn 2, likewise for factories and research centers.


Research Points

These points are used to bring advanced or special abilities into the game, you are actively encouraged to come up with your own ideas on what to spend them on, just contact the Admin for a pricing when you have your idea finalized.


I-Rating

Every system has an I-Rating (I standing for Infrastructure) which shows how developed your building industries and shipyards are in that system. All systems start off with an I-Rating of 0 and can have a maximum I-Rating of 5. To build a station in a system with a rating of 0, you either require a ship or another station already in that system. Certain things require a certain I-Rating to be built, this list follows. (For the cost of upgrading the I-Rating see the Upgrades section)

0 There are next to no building facilities or any infrastructure in the system at all, and production is typically done by brining in modular mobile shipyards from other systems.
  Systems with this I-Rating can deploy only 150pp worth of ships and stations in a turn.
1 Basic factories and shipyards are set up in system and the beginnings of what might eventually be proper shipyards are set up.
  Systems with this I-Rating can deploy only 500pp worth of ships and stations in a turn.
2 Modest factories and the first military grade shipyards are in place in the system, though their output would only be impressive for backwater colonies.
  Systems with this I-Rating can deploy only 700pp worth of ships and stations in a turn.
3 Factories and shipyards have finally reached the size and development that most people think of when you mention them.
  Systems with this I-Rating can deploy only 1500pp worth of ships and stations in a turn.
4 A system with this I-Rating has very large shipyards and many factories and tends to have a reputation around your empire as a centre of shipbuilding.
  Systems with this I-Rating can deploy only 2400pp worth of ships and stations in a turn.
5 At this rating space in orbit of any planets or at certain clusters I systems is almost clogged with sheer number of shipyards and the debris they produce, typically such systems are renowned ship makers across the galaxy.
  Systems with this I-Rating have no limit to the PP worth of ships and stations they can deploy in a turn.


Lowering I-Rating

If you’re attacking an enemy and want to lower his I-Rating to deprive him of reinforcements, simply order the equivalent of 1x CL-4 to attack the Infrastructure, this will lower it by one level per turn, to lower it by two levels in one turn, the equivalent of 2x CL-4 and so on.


Building Things

Building things in CYOE is very easy to do! All you have to do is subtract the PP cost of the item you wish to buy and choose a system to build it in, checking to see if your I-Rating will allow it to be built there, and when the next turn rolls around whatever you bought will be there!

To illustrate, on Turn 1 I buy a small production base I subtract 150pp from my PP total, I then check SYS-X, I have an I-Rating of 3 there well within requirements. Come Turn 2 I now have an online small production base in SYS-X which means I can add 50pp to my PP gained total for the start of Turn 3.

If you have more things build then you can deploy, then anything not deployed by the end of the next turn is lost, meaning that if an enemy lowers your total I-ratings so you can’t deploy everything you built last turn, things are going to be lost.


The Cost List

Listed below are the PP costs of everything in the game, for a detailed description of what each thing is, please consult the Forces and Facilities section of the rules


Bases

Production
Small 150 PP Requires I-Rating of 0
Medium 300 PP Requires I-Rating of 3
Large 600 PP Requires I-Rating of 4


Defence
Small 50 PP Requires I-Rating of 1
Medium 100 PP Requires I-Rating of 3
Large 175 PP Requires I-Rating of 5


Research
Small 300 PP Requires I-Rating of 2
Medium 600 PP Requires I-Rating of 4
Large 1200 PP Requires I-Rating of 5


Units

Strike Craft
Interceptor I-Wing 5 PP Requires I-Rating of 0  
Fighter F-Wing 7 PP Requires I-Rating of 0  
Bomber B-Wing 10 PP Requires I-Rating of 0  
Gunship GS 15 PP Requires I-Rating of 1 Gunships


Capital Ships
Class 1 Capital Ship CL1 20 PP Requires I-Rating of 1  
Blockade Runner BR 30 PP Requires I-Rating of 1 Blockade Runners
Class 2 Capital Ship CL2 50 PP Requires I-Rating of 2  
Troop Transport TT 40 PP Requires I-Rating of 2 Troop Transports
Spinal Mount Capital Ship SM 110 PP Requires I-Rating of 3 Spinal-mount
Interdictor Capital Ship INT 125 Requires I-Rating of 3 Interdictors
Class 3 Capital Ship CL3 100 PP Requires I-Rating of 3  
Class 4 Capital Ship CL4 200 PP Requires I-Rating of 4  
Dedicated Carrier DC 220 PP Requires I-Rating of 4 Dedicated Carriers
Mobile Production Base MPB 400 PP Requires I-Rating of 4 Mobile Production Bases
Class 5 Capital Ship CL5 350 PP Requires I-Rating of 5  
Super-Heavy Capital Ship SHCL 2500 PP Requires I-Rating of 5 Ultraheavy Capitals


Upgrades

Sometimes instead of building something entirely new, you want to expand on something already there, in CYOE this is called upgrading, to upgrade something you need a base or planet to start with (So you can’t upgrade a base the turn it’s built), however you can upgrade as far as you have the cost to, for example, if you have a small production base and 300pp you can upgrade it to large in a single turn.

Bases
Production
Small to Medium 100 PP Requires I-Rating of 3
Medium to Large 200 PP Requires I-Rating of 4
Defence
Small to Medium 25 PP Requires I-Rating of 3
Small to Medium 40 PP Requires I-Rating of 5
Research
Small to Medium 200 PP Requires I-Rating of 4
Medium to Large 400 PP Requires I-Rating of 5


Planets
Class 0 to Class 1 300 PP
Class 1 to Class 2 600 PP
Class 2 to Class 3 1200 PP
Class 3 to Class 4 2400 PP
Class 4 to Class 5 4800 PP


I-Rating
Class 0 to Class 1 500 PP
Class 1 to Class 2 1000 PP
Class 2 to Class 3 1700 PP
Class 3 to Class 4 2900 PP
Class 4 to Class 5 6000 PP


Retiring

Sometimes you need to pack up stations to free slots or perhaps reduce your fleet size in accordance with a treaty, in CYOE this is called retiring, when you retire a ship or station you gain 25% of it’s PP. Note: you receive no PP for abandoning/downsizing planets.


Todo: Reformat this section'

Forces and Facilities

An Empire is a vast collection of ships planets and stations, and as we saw in the costs section, there are a lot of different types, in this section we’ll go into detail on what those things are

Ships Ships are the various craft your empire sends out into the void to explore, colonize and conquer the galaxy, there are two main types of ship, further subdivided into classes of these types

Strike Craft: Small craft that are typically crewed usually by no more then 1-3 people and are built and deployed in wings of 3-9 craft.

Interceptor: Strike Craft that are faster and less armored than other classes. These excel in taking down other strike craft but are picked off easily by capital ships.

Fighter: Strike craft with an equal balance in Armor and Speed. They are able to fight other craft and capital ships relatively well.

Bombers: Strike craft that are heavily armored but slower than most strike craft. Able to deal heavy damage to capital ships but are vulnerable to other strike craft.

Capital Ships: From small patrol ships to massive empire leading flagships, these ships are the backbone of any Empire, they enforce your will and crush your enemies, each class comes in a size range detailed in their description.

Class 1 Capital Ship (CL1) - Between 15-50m, these are the lightest class of capital ship. Generally Gunboats and Frigates these ships are light, but faster than other capital ships.

Class 2 Capital Ship (CL2) - Between 50-200m A medium class of capital ship, these ships are powerful, but not quite the best. Mounting very powerful weapons and shields, these ships are a force to be reckoned with. Examples of these are Cruisers and Destroyers.

Class 3 Capital Ship (CL3) - Between 200-850m A heavy class of capital ship, these are the backbone of most navies. Generally reserved for the most skilled captains, these are the ships that provide the muscle for fleets. Examples of these would be Battleships.

Class 4 Capital Ship (CL4 )- Between 850m-2000m , These are the super ships that lead entire Battle Fleets. Enormous and incredibly powerful, these ships can easily crush the competition. Examples of these ships would be Heavy Battleships and Dreadnoughts.

Class 5 Capital Ship (CL5) - Over 2000m These behemoths are the enormous ships that strike fear in the hearts of enemies. Able to match firepower with an entire battle fleet, these are the most powerful warships that an empire can have. Examples of these are Super Dreadnoughts and Flagships.

Equivalency: For things like orbital bombardment to lower a planets class, or a systems I-rating or for conquering a planet you need a certain number of ships, typically each section shows the smallest number of ships needed, however sometimes you won’t have the larger ships it’s using, to work out how many smaller ships you need to achieve the same effect, please consult this table. Note: For troop combat your traits and the enemy traits may alter the exact numbers required, query an Admin if you’re unsure. In addition the special tech ships state in their description what each one is he equivalent of for these things.

1x CL-5 = 2x CL-4 1x CL-4 = 2x CL-3 1x CL-3 = 2x CL-2 1x CL-2 = 2x CL-1 1x CL-1 = 10x B Wings (Bombardment Only) 1x B Wing = 5x F Wings (Bombardment Only)

So using this chart, we can work out we would need 4x CL-3 to have the troop numbers or bombardment power of 1x CL-5

Tech Ships: Each of the special-tech ships is equal to a certian standard ship when it comes to bombardment power/troop capaciity, this next lsit illustrates that.

GS = 3x F Wings (Bombardment Only) BR = 1x CL-1 (Bombardment and Troop Capacity) TT = 1x CL-4 (Troop Capacity) 1/2x CL-1 (Bombardment) SM = 1x CL-4 (Bombardment Only) INT = 1x CL-1 (Bombardment Only) DC = 1x CL-2 (Bombardment Only, Strikecraft count seperatly) 1x CL-5 (Troop Capacity) SHCL = 10x CL-5 (Bombardment) 15x CL-5 (Troop Capcity)

MPBs are most clearly missing from this list, as due to their nature they lack weapons of sufficiant power to bombard and also have no troop capcitity.

Stations While Ships are the mobile bulk of your Empire’s armed forces, stations are the stationary structures that produce ships, research or defend fixed locations like Jump Nodes, other stations and planets. A system my have no more then 20 stations total in it at any one time. They come in three varieties;

Production: Small – Minor factories or tiny shipyards, these small bases typically supply others or deployed on small frontier colonies. Small Production Bases produce 50 PP a turn

Medium – Moderately sized factories and standard sized shipyards, thee bases are typically the mainstay of an Empires ship building capacity deployed in almost every system an empire controls. Medium Production Bases produce 100 PP a turn

Large – Huge factories or the enormous shipyards capable of churning out fleets on their own, these massive industrial facilities are typically only deployed in secure areas. Large Production Bases produce 200 PP a turn

Research: Small – Typically small singe science team orbital labs. Small Research Bases produce 50 RP a turn

Medium – Usually well funded multiple team endeavors, these labs are common sights and home to most new discoveries. Medium Research Bases produce 100 RP a turn

Large – Huge orbital universities and research centers home to the best and brightest in any given empire, these facilities probe the very fabric of reality. Large Research Bases produce 200 RP a turn


Defense: Small – Small satellite defense networks or border stations, these small military outposts deter small scale scouting runs, pirates and generally support fleets in the area. A Small Defense Base is equivalent to a CL4 Warship that cannot move.

Medium – Moderately sized and armed, these bases typically defend mid ranged colonies or fortify borders between rivals; they typically act as fleet command centers for surrounding systems. A Medium Defense Base is equivalent to a CL5 Warship that cannot move.

Large – Enormous battle stations, capable of making even the largest fleets pause and rethink their strategies, sometimes military academies and often fleet commands for an entire Empire, these stations are not to be underestimated. A Large Defense Base is equivalent to two CL5 Warships that cannot move.

Capturing a Station: Once you have defeated an enemies fleet and defences, you have a choice, you could destroy everything he owns, reduce his planets to glass and salt his fields and so on. But wouldn't it be better if you could take his things and so expand for free? This is capturing a station, to see the number of ships full of troops it would take to capture one station a turn, check teh chart below.

Small Station = 1x CL-2

Medium Station = 1x CL-3

Large Station = 1x CL-4

As always, check the equvalncy charts to see how this pans out for other ships. And again as always, certin traits may increase/decrease your odds of success.

Planets Class 0 – Uninhabited and uninteresting balls of rock, these are unclaimed or undeveloped worlds. Class 0 planets output 0 RP and 0 PP a turn

Class 1 – While not always the most habitable, these worlds do have small rugged settlements and settlers who are there to spread the glory of their empire. Class 1 planets output 25 RP and 25 PP a turn and improve a systems I-Rating by 1

Class 2 – These planets are small but thriving, typically with one major city space port and at least a town on every major continent. Class 2 planets output 50 RP and 50 PP a turn, Improve a systems I-Rating by 2.

Class 3 – Thriving with multiple major cities and starting to encroach on the environment, these worlds are similar to present day Earth. Class 3 planets output 100 RP and 100 PP a turn, Improve a systems I-Rating by 3 and come complete with defenses equivalent of 3 Small Defense Platforms and 1x I Wing.

Class 4 – Bustling with cities, factories and just plain housing, Class 4 worlds are fully tamed and sometimes beginning to have population problems of their own. Class 4 planets output 150 RP and 150 PP a turn, Improve a systems I-Rating by 4 and come complete with defenses equivalent of 5 Medium Defense Platforms, 5x I Wings and 3x F Wings.

Class 5 – Massively developed worlds, either coated entirely in cities and factories or with its population in huge arcologies, these worlds have no more space to expand into and as a result have huge spaceflight industries. Class 5 planets output 200 RP and 200 PP a turn, Improve a systems I-Rating by 5 and come complete with defenses equivalent of 7 Large Defense Platforms, 7x I Wings and 5x F Wings.

Capturing a Planet: As you can see, planets are great prizes, and if you can take control of a planet that’s already upgraded you save on so much PP! The process of taking a planet is a simple one, as all ships carry troops, just consult the list below to see how many ships full of troops (Or the equivalent too) you’ll need to secure a planet. Note: The appropriate troop traits can halve or double the numbers needed.

Class 1 1x CL-4

Class 2 1x CL-5

Class 3 5x CL-5

Class 4 12x CL-5

Class 5 21x CL-5

Lowering a Planets Class: If you’re attacking an enemy planet and wish to lower the rating, either to deprive your enemy of it’s bonuses or to wipe them out utterly. It requires 1x CL-5 or equivalent (i.e. 2x CL-4 4x CL-3 and so on) to lower a planet by 1 class in 1 turn, to lower it more quickly, apply more ships.

A player can abandon a planet at a rate of 1 class per turn, at no PP cost but gains no PP benefit from doing so.

I-Rating lowering and planets: If a planet is left untouched but the I-Rating is specifically targeted, then the I-Rating will restore itself for free after one turn of no combat in the system.

Environment

Space is far from empty, there are many things in it, some of them dangerous, a good leader would be wise to carefully read through this section, so he knows what he may encounter in space

Class U Planets: These worlds are uninhabitable and as such are little more then scenery, gas giants, pressure cooker worlds, and ice planets are the most common verities of these.

Asteroid Fields: Huge expanses of floating rocks that orbit a star. Traversing an Asteroid Field has its inherent dangers; the sheer number of projectiles could prove dangerous and may cause serious damage to ships. There are benefits to setting up production bases, each production base built near an Asteroid Field grants a 10PP bonus to said base.

Nebula: Gasses that are forming together to create a new star, these naturally occurring birthing processes are a beautiful sight to behold. Traveling through a Nebula is often discouraged; the gasses are proven to disable sensors. Rumors state that ‘Nebula Storms’ are said to occur in a few Nebula, there are no documented cases of this occurrence.

Black Hole: A black hole is a region of space from which nothing, including light, can escape. Theories state that a black hole is some sort of wormhole, no known probes are to have reported back their location.

Jump Nodes: The only known way to travel between the stars, Jump Nodes are natural phenomena that fold two sections of space together allowing instantaneous transit to two parts of the galaxy that are usually very far apart. Most Nodes are stable, but some are known to change position, destination or even vanish, so never become too reliant on existing paths.

Unexplored Systems: What’s beyond the Jump Node? Who knows, every time a ship arrives in an unexplored system it can spend 1 turn to survey it meaning the Admin will send you a detailed description of what’s in the system you are surveying.


Combat and Movement

Discounting natural threats, there are even greater ones from your fellow players; they too seek to spread their empires to all corners of the galaxy.

Movement: Is very simple, you notify everyone on your turn that you will be moving ship grouping x to position y, bear in mind that ships can only travel up to 2 jumps a turn on standard engines.

Combat: Once you’ve moved your ships into position, the next phase is combat, declare your combat on your turn and PM your battle strategy to the Admin, who once the other player has been notified and sent their strategy will give you both the results. Combat results are worked out and posted only at the end of each turn, so if you see a battle in range of one of your fleets/systems you too can join in.

Blockades: When you don’t want anyone to move past a certain node, it calls for a blockade. Ships assigned to guard a node are considered to be Blockading it, they will automatically engage and try to stop anyone specified from moving past them, with success dependant on how many ships assigned.

If your forces come across a blockade there are two options:

Fight: Your fleet halts it’s movement and engages the blockade in combat.

Run The Blockade: Your fleet ignores the enemy and moves right on through. Depending on the composition of your fleet and the enemy fleet the casualties will vary but if the fleet survives it will continue on to its objective.

Captured Ships: Sometimes through the course of battle, enemy ships will surrender to you, or you may capture ships or perhaps they’re even traded to you by an ally. However you acquire them captured ships handle the same, they always retain the techs and traits they had at the time of capture, but do not gain your traits or techs, even ones you develop after capturing them. Note: The only traits which don’t carry over are ones that influence loyalty; in this case ships either gain your loyalty/disploytaly trait or loose the one they had if you have neither.