Rating a Scenario

[Cralis]

So I think we should come up with a common rating system for scenarios, so players can rate them and the best can be identified.

I'm thinking either a 1-5 or a 1-10 rating system, but I'm not sure what categories we should rate. What do ya'll think?

[Whitecold]

To start if off what comes to my mind:

Story: How interesting is the backstory?
Balance: How well are the sides balanced?

Not necessarily a rating, but more categorization
Difficulty: How difficult is the scenario with regards to special rules, ship designs. (Beginner, Advanced, Expert)
Size: How big is the engagement? (Skirmish, Squadron, Fleet)
Length: How long does the scenario take to play?

[Cralis]

Story: How interesting is the backstory?

I thought of this one, but I wonder if every scenario needs a back story? The QSR scenarios don’t have a backstory, but they were designed to teach concepts only. Maybe an optional score only for scenarios that include a story element?

Balance: How well are the sides balanced?

Absolutely spot on. Balance will need to be more than force composition... victory conditions are a huge part of balance. One side may have vastly superior numbers and technology, and is balanced by realistic victory conditions
like “x shipsmust escape through the warp point.

Not necessarily a rating, but more categorization
Difficulty: How difficult is the scenario with regards to special rules, ship designs. (Beginner, Advanced, Expert)

We can average the scores for each report to come up with a difficuly rating average for each scenario.

Size: How big is the engagement? (Skirmish, Squadron, Fleet)

This should be a constant. Something like:
Squadron is 10 or less units per side
Task Force is 50 or less units per side
Fleet is 100+ units per side

etc.

Length: How long does the scenario take to play?

Another great question that averages between reported values would let us know time probably required.

[Whitecold]

If a scenario does not have story, so be it.
I'd add a 'fun' score, purely subjective overall impression of the scenario, to capture everything that is not caught elsewhere.

Another category could be fleet composition: Fixed (Ships are given), Pick (Player can select from designs), Free (Players can design their ships)

[Cralis]

What word could we use to call the “fun” factor?

Enjoyability? Pleasurability? Entertainment? Enjoyment?

And good call on Fleet Design or Composition type. Each will have very different rules that we should put a suggested outline for handling in the scenario outline section

[Cralis]

No additional comments? With all of the people asking for a scenario section, I would have thought we'd have a little more interest in discussing the implementation...

[voidstalker[woe]]

I wasn't around here last summer (2018), and so didn't see this until today. I'm not going to attempt to write any scenarios for the later game version, as I failed to learn SSF back in 2014 and haven't been back since, and just got the PDF again this week. I am willing to attempt to provide 'training' scenarios, using the simplest of the game versions, and if that is ok, then let me know.

That said...

I'd setup a format something like this, for designing the things;

Game version scenario is for (or if it is good for more than one version).
Tactical, or Strategic scenario?
What is the point, if any, of the scenario? Teaching, having fun, setup for a series, getting the best score???
Fiction based.


Here is the story of what happened, and who can tell the best story based upon the bare bones provided in the scenario. IE, play the scenario out, then write up what you did and how things worked out, and the output of the effort is an enjoyable story for everyone to read, in addition to a fun situation to play out.

Then proceed from there with specifics of the actual Scenario.

[Cralis]

I wasn't around here last summer (2018), and so didn't see this until today. I'm not going to attempt to write any scenarios for the later game version, as I failed to learn SSF back in 2014 and haven't been back since, and just got the PDF again this week. I am willing to attempt to provide 'training' scenarios, using the simplest of the game versions, and if that is ok, then let me know.

You can write scenarios for any version of Starfire.

That said...

I'd setup a format something like this, for designing the things;

Game version scenario is for (or if it is good for more than one version).
Tactical, or Strategic scenario?
What is the point, if any, of the scenario? Teaching, having fun, setup for a series, getting the best score???
Fiction based.


Here is the story of what happened, and who can tell the best story based upon the bare bones provided in the scenario. IE, play the scenario out, then write up what you did and how things worked out, and the output of the effort is an enjoyable story for everyone to read, in addition to a fun situation to play out.

Then proceed from there with specifics of the actual Scenario.

What do you mean by "Strategic Scenario" ? Are you talking about a campaign design?

[voidstalker[woe]]

What do you mean by "Strategic Scenario" ? Are you talking about a campaign design?

More like a mini campaign. Mainly focused upon a single system campaign, so the incomes and bookkeeping don't get to out of hand.

[Cralis]

What do you mean by "Strategic Scenario" ? Are you talking about a campaign design?

More like a mini campaign. Mainly focused upon a single system campaign, so the incomes and bookkeeping don't get to out of hand.

Ah, we don't have official rules for that. I was thinking that maybe you were trying to describe the difference between a game purely on a tactical map and one that was played through-out a whole star system (like how Stars At War has whole-system scenarios).