Fly Casual X-Wing Simulator

[Archangelspiv 2,108]

7 minutes ago, Estarriol said:

I kinda like some games with wacky dice, because these games happen in real life too. That said, it would be nice to have an option where you can manually enter dice results so you can throw them in real life, or just enter average results.

I completely agree, when it's every game 10+ in a row, kinda loses its shine. I have played a lot of Fly Casual and I will note that I never said it was bad. I said I am finding it frustrating. Sandrem has put a lot of their own time into this sim, they are to be commended on their work so far.

The lowest evade variance I think was around +20%, the highest was the last with +50% of average. That's over 10-15 games.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Archangelspiv

[Cuz05 3,568]

5 minutes ago, Estarriol said:

I kinda like some games with wacky dice, because these games happen in real life too. That said, it would be nice to have an option where you can manually enter dice results so you can throw them in real life, or just enter average results.

I actually quite like the idea of an "average results only" option.

Basically, extreme variance doesn't help me test the effectiveness of a particular build, unless I play numerous games to balance it out. Would  be quite comforting to fire up an average dice game as a quick test.

Just don't get sucked in

[Sandrem 1,834]

I have a stupid idea: X-Wing without dice at all!

We multiply all values like attack/HP by 8, and always set average results.

For example, X-Wing has 32 hull, 16 shield.
3 attack dice - so from 24 dice it will get 3 crits, 9 hits, 6 eyes, 6 blanks.
2 defense dice - so it will get 6 evades, 4 eyes, 6 blanks.

As result, when X-Wing attacks X-Wing, unmodified attack is always 6 hits.
If both attack and defense are modified by focus tokens, then attack is always 8 hits.
If only attack is modified in this way - 3 hits, 3 crits (when overall crit damage is reached 8 - then faceup critical damage card is dealt)

Edited October 8, 2019 by Sandrem

[Force Majeure 4,110]

1 hour ago, Sandrem said:

I have a stupid idea: X-Wing without dice at all!

I think that in a way, that's what some of the recent posts are asking for. Depending on the number of dice that are supposed to be rolled, the average results could be pulled from a list and applied. Maybe it's not to everyone's taste but there may be some value in that for some people.

[Sandrem 1,834]

It is possible to add such "low variance of randomization" option to the game.

But you need to describe what exactly do you want, and ask this in the correct place.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Sandrem

[theBitterFig 11,640]

I keep thinking about one of the ways some folks play Settlers of Catan (at least, its an option in tablet version of the game I have).  It's possible to, instead of rolling 2d6 every turn, use a deck of cards.  I don't recall if it was a deck of 36 (one of each pair of results), or a deck of 72 (two pairs of results).  The deck gets shuffled, 5 cards are discarded, so that it's not going to flip up every result and there will be some variance, but it prevents really bad streaks.  Can't get 8 like 12 times in a row, can't avoid getting the 4 forever, etc.

I imagine something like this for X-Wing.  One die represents a deck of 8 cards--one of each face.  A two-deck shoe (16 cards, two of each die face)  Something like a  4-deck shoe (32 card) would probably be the minimum for physical play, and 64 might be ideal, but perhaps that's cumbersome.  A computer could easily handle a 8-deck shoe, 128 virtual "cards" which would still allow good randomness, but also prevent crazy lucky or unlucky streaks.  At some point, you'd run out of Evades or Blanks or Crits in a deck before you reshuffle.  Roll too many blanks, and literally you'd be due to natty out sometime.

Now, I'm not making this as a suggestion to Fly Casual, but it's just an interesting thought experiment to me.

[Sandrem 1,834]

Imagine that you have a "deck" of all possible dice results for ship with firepower 3. There are a lot of "hit - eye - blank" results, and only few "crit - crit - hit" and "eye - blank - blank". It is perfrectly shuffled... This creates perfect array of dice results in a long game, but imagine that during the first round of shots AI took from deck few best cards, and you took few worst cards. You can loose your ship - and you already don't care about next balanced results, you are loosing now.

In Catan-deck you can get few cards in a row with the same number on a card, or can get situation, where almost all cards with needed numbers are in the bottom part of the deck after shuffling, and during first half of the game you sit almost without resources, while another players get them a lot.

So such "deck" idea doesn't fix regular complaints like:

8 hours ago, Archangelspiv said:

the last 10 games I have tried, the AI's opening die are crazy. In every game. Was just giving it a try now, out of the 8 green die the AI rolled 7 natural evades and a focus which it turned into an evade

This is rule of randomization, it is "fair" only in a long series of results. If you don't like such situations - play chess, not dice or order-of-cards-in-the-deck dependent game.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Sandrem

[Archangelspiv 2,108]

28 minutes ago, Sandrem said:

Imagine that you have a "deck" of all possible dice results for ship with firepower 3. There are a lot of "hit - eye - blank" results, and only few "crit - crit - hit" and "eye - blank - blank". It is perfrectly shuffled... This creates perfect array of dice results in a long game, but imagine that during the first round of shots AI took from deck few best cards, and you took few worst cards. You can loose your ship - and you already don't care about next balanced results, you are loosing now.

In Catan-deck you can get few cards in a row with the same number on a card, or can get situation, where almost all cards with needed numbers are in the bottom part of the deck after shuffling, and during first half of the game you sit almost without resources, while another players get them a lot.

So such "deck" idea doesn't fix regular complaints like:

This is rule of randomization, it is "fair" only in a long series of results. If you don't like such situations - play chess, not dice or order-of-cards-in-the-deck dependent game.

The long series of results matters squat when you were wrekt at the start and couldn’t do anything back, and why is it always one way? Why don’t both parties have that seemingly same open? 

but thanks for your personable response, I think I would prefer to play chess. 

[LUZ_TAK 692]

Imho, dice are fun, dice is life. Roll on!

[FTS Gecko 24,199]

On 10/8/2019 at 6:21 PM, Sandrem said:

...But you need to describe what exactly do you want, and ask this in the correct place.

Not sure the mouse would share Heath's sentiment though!  😂

Seriously Sandrem, your app is legendary.  You and your team deserve huge thanks!

[chrisrivers 122]

Agility is dropped on medium and large ships with just 1 tractor token. <Nevermind this, guess I was looking at an old copy of the rules reference>

Also, it does not roll damage every time a ship is tractored onto an obstacle, just sometimes

Edited October 11, 2019 by chrisrivers

[Goseki1 637]

5 hours ago, chrisrivers said:

Agility is dropped on medium and large ships with just 1 tractor token.

Also, it does not roll damage every time a ship is tractored onto an obstacle, just sometimes

This is incorrect now my dude. Latest rules update notes that "While a tractored ship defends, it rolls one fewer defense die." 

Medium ships aren't tractored unless they have 2 tokens,and 3 for large bases. This has been done so that the Nantex isn't quite as effective against all ship types 

Edited October 10, 2019 by Goseki1

[Chrisburnett 1]

Has anyone else noticed that Y wings with veteran turret gunner and turret, never have their turret arc facing forwards on set up so never trigger? 

Also Jendons ability never triggers. 

[Itchy2 8]

On 10/9/2019 at 6:42 PM, chrisrivers said:

Agility is dropped on medium and large ships with just 1 tractor token. <Nevermind this, guess I was looking at an old copy of the rules reference>

Also, it does not roll damage every time a ship is tractored onto an obstacle, just sometimes

Specifically the roll for damage does not happen when you use the tractor effect to boost the  ship forward onto an obstacle.  Barrel roll tractor effect still works correctly and causes damage roll.

[Faerie1979 300]

Now that I've gotten it working (had to enable Win 8 compatibility mode) it looks pretty good. Did a quick Vs AI match using my planned Rebel and Imperial lists. Then got my butt handed to me due to being unfamiliar with how the YT-1300 flies and the program's UI. That second bit of unfamiliarity caused me to accidentally skip a critical engagement phase. Thus the Falcon got shut up something fierce.

[Force Majeure 4,110]

Question for everyone, just as a matter of curiosity:

Do you actually place the obstacles or choose random placement and let the computer do it for you?

99% of the time i choose random.

[Estarriol 1,649]

Same. I do it like that to practice non-optimal obstacle placement.

[Faerie1979 300]

The few matches I've done, I picked. Makes for... interesting layouts as both sides try to hamper the other. Actually, i hadn't known that random placement was an option.

[Tervlon 779]

5 hours ago, Force Majeure said:

Question for everyone, just as a matter of curiosity:

Do you actually place the obstacles or choose random placement and let the computer do it for you?

99% of the time i choose random.

I will do both, but if I am just trying to get a quick game in I hit random. I am grateful it is an option.

[Cuz05 3,568]

90% random. But recently, with a Lancer and YV on the mat, I need some guaranteed spaces!

[dotswarlock 2,424]

I almost always place my asteroids, since they are a very important part of playing medium based ships.  That being said, maybe I should play random more often to find out what placements are toxic for my build.

[PartridgeKing 63]

I usually go for random for speed, and because my regular group play a 4 way format so I have less control over placement than normal.

Sometimes I'll place specifics so I can test stuff though. Really appreciate that option!

[SteveSpikes 79]

On 10/14/2019 at 1:24 PM, Force Majeure said:

Question for everyone, just as a matter of curiosity:

Do you actually place the obstacles or choose random placement and let the computer do it for you?

99% of the time i choose random.

I do both.  If I just want to sling (virtual) dice, I'll choose random.  If I want to hone my asteroid placement with a particular list I'm running, I'll place my own obstacles. 
Since Sandrem, and the other devs gave use the ability to rotate the obstacles using the [Q] and [E] keys, it gives this app something new.

[Faerie1979 300]

I was placing them. But now that I know about it, I randomly place them.

[Cerebrawl 753]

BUG: Failing a decloak stops the game from progressing further.