Toomai's Timing Table

[Toomai 0]

Just to see if it could be done, I decided to make a table showing all the possible events of a turn in a CE game. The image, which may stretch your screen (hence the lack of a direct paste), is here: http://i43.tinypic.com/14uqg1.png

As I state on the image, I do not pretend this is the be-all-end-all timing conflict resolver, nor is it in any way official.

So...I guess you guys can discuss this. Who knows, maybe together we can create a timing chart that works in every situation. (We can dream.)

[The Warp 23]

That's hilariously awesome.  It should have a home on the Warp somewhere, if you're cool with that....  

[Lizalfos 7]

 Good first step.  Now add flares.  

[Toomai 0]

Adam said:

 Good first step.  Now add flares.  

Actually, I fully intend to add flares once I come up with an idea that won't clutter it all up as bad as it will if I keep with the "text in ovals" system. And probably Techs as well.

[steve_hill 0]

Wow!  What a lot of work you must have put in.  Thanks.

At the risk of sounding churlish, might I suggest a white background and more pastel colours in any future version -- it would be more printer and eye-friendly (the bright red and blue next to each other make my eyes go crazy)

[webslinger9 64]

Nice work!  Much appreciated.  I'm sure this will help some people resolve some of their timing issues with the game!

[Toomai 0]

Few notes on version 2: It will have all 101 Flares in it. I'm using tiny ovals with a three-letter abbreviation on them to signifity the alien, and a background colour to denote Wild or Super (light yellow and light blue to match the Flare cards, as well as light red for Classic Wild Filch). Who knows when it'll be completed, though.

But once it is completed, I will create a printer-friendly version. It has a 100% chance of not fitting on one page, but I'll change the background to white and fade the ovals a bit.

[referee 0]

I'd also suggest white background and some change in colors. Black on dark blue is awfully hard to read.

Also, you could include a color legend. Though it's obvious that green is artifacts, orange are the phases names, and stuff, it would give the chart a nice touch, without adding much clutter, IMHO. Great work on that.

[Toomai 0]

Toomai's Timing Table version 2! All flares are added. Hopefully the three-letter abbreviations are intuitive enough; if not I'll have to put some sort of legend down the right side or something.

Black: i41.tinypic.com/5kkbuu.png

White: i41.tinypic.com/10s4uns.png

Oh, and Jack: Sure, you can put this up on The Warp. But I won't be adding anything that's not in the FFG series. I'm not crazy enough to work out a million-pixel-long 1,500-alien monster.

[Lizalfos 7]

I would stick to the first three letters of each alien name wherever possible (which should be most, cases) to save some confusion.  Cosmic Online uses a similar abbreviation system and only had to vary twice that I can think of: WAP for Warpish (since Warrior has WAR already taken) and FIH for Filch in case Filth were ever added (though that's a weird decision to me, since both could be FIH and Filth isn't even online right now).

Also, I'm guessing the flares are color-coded according to how they'd be colored on the cards, but it might be useful to note that on the chart for when someone doesn't have the cards handy (took me awhile just now to remember which was which color).

But other than those two minor quibbles, wow... I didn't think you'd really do this!

[Toomai 0]

Well...I did think about using the CEO system. (By the way, there's a third oddball: MAN for Macron.) But I decided instead to use a system that attempts to replicate the pronunciation of the alien's name. (Although the hyphen guys were obvious enough.)

[Lizalfos 7]

Ah, how could I forget Machine and Macron?  Good ole MAN Bot always amuses me.

[Toomai 0]

Version 3 of the Timing Table is out! All Techs and FAQ erratas included!

http://i42.tinypic.com/28ujt5f.png

(Printer-friendly version wil follow once I get the time. The conversion isn't that easy.)

[Toomai 0]

Printer-friendly version 3 here.