Dev Diary - Differences Between Tabletop and Digital

Check Your 6 brings you in the middle of the World War II battles, with a turn-based strategy game that carries the spirit of the dogfights.
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AlbertoC
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Dev Diary - Differences Between Tabletop and Digital

Post by AlbertoC »

The Check Your 6! board game rules translate very well into a digital version.
To sum up some of the strong points of the original game that we also have in the digital version:

THE GAME RULES:
Ease of Play
Check Your 6! was designed to reflect the realities of air combat with the simplest wargame mechanics possible. Instead of endless die modifiers, CY6! utilizes multiple die types and innovative mechanics to enable players to think about the air fight instead of what chart to look at.

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CAMPAIGNS:
The Check Your 6! rulebook was released with over 20 scenarios and was followed by several Campaign Books in a Skirmish Campaigns-like format.

REALISM:

Check Your 6! was designed to closely reflect the realities of WWII air combat while allowing for a playable game. Combat is reflected in 3D and the game is the result of years of research into Air-to-Air weapons, combat maneuvers, aircraft statistics and the influence of pilot skill on combat. Statistical analysis was extensively used to find the most efficient game systems. In addition, former US Air Force and US Marine Corps pilots were a part of the design team from the start, greatly influencing the design and playtesting.

SIMPLICITY:
The key design goal for CY6! was to maximize pilot influence and historical accuracy while keeping the game relatively easy to play. Since players plot moves simultaneously, the game can easily accommodate large numbers of aircraft by increasing the number of players.

TURNS:
Turns are plotted in advance, so large games are possible.

PILOT SKILL:
CY6! has four pilot skills, +0 (Green), +1 (Skilled), +2 (Veteran) and +3 (Ace). Pilot skill is critical to success. In CY6! players will quickly find out that if one is inexperienced, one should avoid enemy aces at all costs! Pilot skill is the most important aspect in the game (a factor lacking in a surprising number of air games). CY6! truly reflects the words of Chuck Yeager, "It is the man, not the machine."

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WEAPONS:
Weapons types are: LMG/MMG, HMG, Low-Velocity Cannon, Modern Cannon, Low-Velocity Heavy Cannon and Heavy Cannon. Heavy Cannon may be modified by Low, Very Low and Extremely Low rate of fire.

AIRCRAFT:
Aircraft have two sets of attributes, one for low-med altitude and one for high (20,000ft +) altitude. Attributes are: Maneuver, Max Speed, Agility, Climb/Dive, Acceleration and Robustness.

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MOVEMENT:
Movement is handled via hex based maps illustrating possible maneuvers for each speed level. The game features 3D maneuvers and has several Operational Altitude Bands (CABs); within each is six Tactical Altitude Levels (TAL).

COVERAGE:
Basic rules will cover aircraft combat from 1925-1947 and will include rules for early jet aircraft. All statistics for key aircraft of the Axis and Allied powers will be included.

SCENARIOS:
Several scenarios will be released with the rules. The first digital version of the game will focus on the Battle of Britain; later additions will focus on the air battles over North Africa and Sicily, Europe and Guadalcanal. Jet Age rules and games would be next.

The upside of having a digital version was for us being able to avoid difficult calculations and having them being calculated and explained in a clear and understandable way, like this the payer can understand and check better the behind the scene impressive parameters and game rules.
Going digital also allowed us creating a fun single-player experience and offering the players to have the multi-player game cross-platform on all kind of digital devices.
Of course, to achieve this we had to make some crucial design choices, changes and adaptations.
Our goal was to make a fun digital game and at the same time trying to do justice to the original by keeping it as close as possible to the original complex and intriguing CY6! board game.
So that is why we tried to keep the differences to a minimum really.

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The real challenge we faced was, that although the game may look a bit simple on the outside, the gameplay and rules are deep and rich, CY6! has a steep learning curve. We wanted to recreate that “one more turn” feeling and give it the same urge to replay scenarios just like the original CY6! game does.
I hope we managed to make the game approachable and intuitive for newcomers and still enough challenging for the die-hard CY6! and any other “strategic air war” fans.
Check Your 6! The digital version has been in the works for the last two years and the game is 99% based on the original.
The most important challenges we had to tackle to bring the original Check Your 6! game rules and gameplay to a digital environment were to create a custom made simple more intuitive GUI (Graphical User Interface) adapted for PC and other digital platforms.
We also had to design a capable and challenging AI that would allow the players to enjoy the game in single-player mode and give the players a run for their money trying to beat it.
We added the hangar as we wanted to show the aircraft in the game and give background info and some historical perspective. We strongly believe historical war games also must have an educational layer, we want to get players exited and more curious about the period, the conflicts and the aircraft they fly with in game.

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For the more hardcore fans and for the ones who play and know the original CY6! board game rules, we will have to go a bit more technical.
Let us talk about some specific rules we had to change or adapt, to make sure the digital game would be fun to play with.
Basically, to sum up the most important differences in game rules between the original game and the digital game:

- We changed the surface attacks so that player chooses if he wants to attack before moving, therefore applying the hit check and damage before regular firing.
- Some special CAB (Operational Altitude Bands) rules were not implemented as they were rare and optional anyway.
- The optional bomber plotting rule has not been implemented.
- We moved some of the decisions, like deciding whether to move additional hex after -1 altitude drop (the simplest Dive).
- We changed how to adjust speed and some of the plotting rules to earlier sections, this to smoothen the jumping and approving moves and targets for a lot of aircraft simultaneously. This was necessary, so we can have at least a bearable multiplayer experience.
- We adjusted some of the scenario rules and have variable rules show up before the start of any scenario.
- Lastly, we integrated some of the firing/hit checks into joint functions instead of showing result for every step of the action (but the mechanics of moving, firing and plotting stayed the same at its core).

As you can see we were able to keep these changes to a minimum and they were all necessary to make the digital game enjoyable.
We may have less aircraft and scenarios in the digital base game compared to the original, but we have plans to add them over time, through DLC and expansions. We really would love to bring the whole Check Your 6! and Check Your 6! Jet Age rule and scenario books as a complete game series to the digital arena.
More is coming!

Happy gaming and Check Your 6!
Scutarii
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Re: Dev Diary - Differences Between Tabletop and Digital

Post by Scutarii »

Thanks for the info.

I dont understand well this

"The Check Your 6! rulebook was released with over 20 scenarios and was followed by several Campaign Books in a Skirmish Campaigns-like format."

I understand that every DLC is going to be based in a Campaign (or period of war) and inside them you are going to have new scens but looks like scens are going to be part of a linear campaign.

I dont find info about a skirmish mode something that sounds me very strange because games like this are all about skirmish (i think in "Over the Reich" or "Achtung Spitfire") apart the campaigns you can play to control a specific unit in a tour of duty... i like skirmish in this type of games because you can create the type of combat you want like germans VS germans, USA VS soviets, japanese VS germans... apart what you can do with a decent scen editor.

You talk about 1925-1947 period... how about WWI period??? at least the last part of war (1917-18).

The North Africa and Sicily is going to be one DLC or you are going to axe in Tunis to have pure deset war VS Tunis-Sicily??? Europe the same, all in one or divide it in at least 2 DLCs to separate early and late part of campaign (pre Normandy post Normandy or more around 42/43 VS 44/45), for Guadalcanal is only the island campaing or the full campaign in New Guinea???

And a little UI question, is possible in the planes have a base in map like the one you can see in tabletop versions of aircombat games??? to know better in what specific hex is the plane.

Is an interesting game in a more than empty area in PC wargaming (i still expect see someday a WWI title ala "Rule The Waves" even without tactical combat area).

Good luck and waiting more info.

EDIT: i dont remember that in Europe could enter battle of France with all that interesting french planes.
lordzimoa
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Re: Dev Diary - Differences Between Tabletop and Digital

Post by lordzimoa »

how about WWI period??? at least the last part of war (1917-18).
We cannot use these rules 1 on 1 for a WW1 environment, they would have to be adapted, just like we have updated rules for the Jet Age, maybe Scott (Scott Fisher, the original game designer) will ever adapt them and create WW1 rules.

We for sure would love it!

We have not made any definite decisions yet how we are going to attack all the DLC in detail, so a bit too early to answer Q`s on that.
Scutarii
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Re: Dev Diary - Differences Between Tabletop and Digital

Post by Scutarii »

Thanks for the reply.

Well, i know that WWI needs some new rules (i imagine in CY6 is not covered the lose of wings for excesive dive speed) but as future expansion for serie is attractive... like move more into Jet age.

In DLC for me the point is offer balanced content to made attractive them and thinking in exploit the value of skirmish mode like FOG II is doing, nothing like mix some Bf-109G with P-47 to deal with Yaks and Zeros :mrgreen:

Lets see how game moves, i imagine we are going to have soon a Twich date 8)
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Re: Dev Diary - Differences Between Tabletop and Digital

Post by Michael T »

What is a rough ETA for this game?

Don't worry I see its March 15th. Cool. I buy
Scutarii
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Re: Dev Diary - Differences Between Tabletop and Digital

Post by Scutarii »

I am curious about how game can deal with player customization... like have diferent plane skins to select as you want or need to create scens, for example with numbers-symbols from diferent squadrons/geschwader, you have 1 plane but multiple choices to place it.

Another good feature could be a tool to compare planes.

I notice that plances have a letter to diference them in the unit list but you cant see the letter in the 3D combat map... maybe add it to the plane name???.

Curious to about how game deal with ammo and the weapons use (i think in FW-190 selection in what weapon you want use or not) but this is only interesting if game deal with the option to run out of ammo... i am not into tabletop games and even find the plane atributes a little strange atleast until read manual :oops:

Lets see if we have more info soon, i am really interested in what can offer game for skirmish and what if area.
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Re: Dev Diary - Differences Between Tabletop and Digital

Post by doc99 »

In re-watching the Twitter, can a more realistic representation of aircraft maneuvering be rendered such as banking ,diving, rolling etc so as to give a greater sense of immersion in game play[such as in the Sid Meier's games of this genre]--thanks
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