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Galaxy Map @galaxy_map@mastodon.social · 3 days ago

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Game design nostalgia.

Ever since the first Gaia Mission data release in September 2016 I have been working on prototypes to use the data in a star-themed board game.

There have been three major versions:

Achernar, which includes relativistic velocity and time dilation

Guniibuu, which focuses on stars within 10 parsecs of the Sun, and

Acrux, which focuses on stars within or near the Local Bubble (about 400 parsecs from the Sun) and adds research stations and trading posts.

#boardgames

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Galaxy Map @galaxy_map@mastodon.social · 3 days ago

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All three games were inspired by Franz-Benno Delonge's classic train game TransAmerica / TransEuropa with the cities in those games replaced by stars.

Over time the graphic design and rules have changed a lot from the simple train game that inspired them but Franz-Benno Delonge is one of my favourite game designers and I want to credit him for key ideas like five sectors and shared transportation that remain in the game.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16267/trans-europa

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Galaxy Map @galaxy_map@mastodon.social · 3 days ago

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Of the three game designs, I think Acrux is the most like successful games in board game shops so I am focusing on that right now but I haven't completely given up on the other designs and might revisit them if Acrux finally gets published.

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Galaxy Map @galaxy_map@mastodon.social · 3 days ago

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Guniibuu in particular could be adapted as a couple of additional maps for Acrux.

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Galaxy Map @galaxy_map@mastodon.social · 3 days ago

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Achernar I am less sure about. Some astronomers liked the relativity part (starlight accelerated starship sails to some fraction of the speed of light depending on the star luminosity and at maximum speed you could zip around the board in almost no time but then needed to use starlight again to brake) but the velocity track was a bit fiddly. Might work better as a video game.

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Galaxy Map @galaxy_map@mastodon.social · 3 days ago

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Having said that, if the Acrux stars included a luminosity icon, it should be easy to add the velocity track as an expert expansion for people who wanted a little bit more realism.

Galaxy Map @galaxy_map@mastodon.social · 2 days ago

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I've always liked the sheer drama of starship sailing. The idea is that you would use the gravity of a hot massive star to pull you close and then would unfurl enormous kilometre wide sails made of graphene or some other thin superstrong material to get a boost that would accelerate you to some sizable fraction of the speed of light towards the next star system.

A 𑐴𑐶𑐟𑐶 (hiti) is an ancient Newah urban water feature: a stepped, sunken courtyard with waterspouts and a central pool. These are fed through a remarkable network of pipes, reservoirs, and irrigation systems drawing water from mountain springs dozens of kilometres away. Every day, hundreds of people from the neighbourhood come to draw water, bathe, and exchange news. They are a unique and precious feature of Newa urban architecture through which neighbourhoods are created.

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