KCP - a Kerbal Card Game with the VASSAL Engine

[capi3101]

Greetings, fellow Kerbalnauts.

About a week ago while doing some searching about one damn thing or another on the boards (don't remember what at this point), I stumbled across the thread for Atanar's Kerbal Card Game. His idea for a card game sounded interesting and I posed a question as to how he was going about developing it, and whether he'd considered using the VASSAL Engine or not. I myself have had recent experience working with VASSAL; that was for a board game but it included a heavy card-playing element. Since then I've been thinking about making a VASSAL-based Kerbal Card Game on my own.

So, today I'm announcing the commencement of work on the Kerbal Card Program - A KSP-inspired Card Game. So far it's basically the same as Atanar's game as he described it back in May, and I've credited him in the first draft of the rules (which, incidentally, are not yet complete). I have been spending time gathering up data - some of you may have noted me asking about Knowledge Base information yesterday; this is why I was doing that. So far the game's got a lot of clunk to it - it's hard to take something like the Tsiokolvsky Rocket Equation and turn it into something usable in a card game - but I am making progress. Yesterday, I knocked together a few prototype cards; thought I'd go ahead and share them with y'all. Yes, they look like crap at the moment; cut me a break, I was using MS Paint. The Round-8 prototype was the very first card I tried, which is why it looks worse than the others.

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I guess mainly I'd like to know if anybody out there is still interested in such a project, and if anyone would be interested in helping out with the development. I intend to build it around the VASSAL Engine so this is something that could be actively playtested as development continues. I have no intention of trying to sell anything here - I'd just be doing this for the fun of it.

UPDATE: KCP 0.1.7 RELEASED!!

Edited August 20, 2013 by capi3101
KCP Finished

[Apollo1391]

wow looks great cant wait until you add even more cards Good Job!

[Whirligig Girl]

would you jsut stack these cards around to make a vehicle? how is it played?

[capi3101]

The idea is to stack the cards, yes. You can tell by the color of the edges what kind of card it is (red=fuel, blue=pod, yellow=engine, green=crew/power, grey=structural). Red+Blue+Yellow+Green=one rocket. If your total mass is less than the thrust provided by the Engine, it can take off. How much delta-V it has depends again on mass (the mass of the fuel tank itself is figured into the delta-V) as well as the Isp of the Engine. Your crew/power card will give you a certain number of six-sided dice you roll for the mission. You declare the location of your target (which has a delta-V requirement and a number of points associated with it) and attempt to beat a certain difficulty threshhold - working right now with (points - structure + pilot's stupidity). Meet or exceed that number and the mission succeeds; you collect the points you shot for. Miss, and the mission fails. If your mission includes a landing and you're the first one to do it, you collect an action card; these have various effects. I'm setting the point threshold for victory at 50 points for the moment but that's something that's going to take tinkering; in Atanar's original game idea, the game didn't end until all the locations had been visited - struck me as being potentially a very long game.

I'm still working through the specifics of the rules (in particular the effect of multiple fuel tanks - something absolutely essential in a real game of KSP - is giving me fits). Beautiful thing about VASSAL though is that making changes is relatively easy. Doesn't involve printing anything either (i.e. it's cheaper).

I was able to work on the location cards a bit more today...still just have MS Paint and Publisher with which to work but I think they turned out quite lovely. Planets are a touch fuzzy in spots but that can be addressed. I'll get them up for everyone's perusal when I get an opportunity.

Edited August 6, 2013 by capi3101

[capi3101]

Here we go...

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The delta-v amounts listed are based on the current delta-V map on the wiki. They could be completely wrong, so if anybody would like to check my math on those, I'd sure appreciate it. Like I've said, changing things is going to be relatively easy and I'd rather fix problems with cards now than after they get put into the mod (still easy to fix, just more that will have to be done in that case).

Looks like a few of the cards have some edging...easily fixed but I'll have to make a note to do it.

[Apollo1391]

cool nice job

[capi3101]

Thanks.

I've already thought of a reason to change the atmo effects rating for the Joolian moons (besides Laythe)...if you could aerobrake (available via action card), you'd probably aerobrake at Jool before proceeding to the target moon. So those'll need to be updated. Easy fix.

Spent the morning working on Engine cards. Got those done except for the LV-1R and that's mainly because it's new and the wiki entry is incomplete (as of 8/7/13, anyway). Just means I'll have to dig into the game next opportunity I get. Afternoon's going to see work on Pods. Probably won't post any new card images until I get all of them at least to a point of preliminary completion.

[Tw1]

I saw the Mun, and it looked strange. And it's only been a few weeks since 0.21 came out.

[astropapi1]

I saw the Mun, and it looked strange. And it's only been a few weeks since 0.21 came out.

Same with me.

Now imagine the .13 one!

[capi3101]

There is a new Mun image on the wiki, but it's got a starfield background instead of a transparent background like the old image, hence the reason why I used the old Mun. Had a couple of parts today with the same problem; going to be digging into the game to fix those.

Plus, I wasn't sure which one folks liked better (nostalgia factor). Personally, I prefer the old Mun (easier to land), but once again this is something that would be a snap to change.

[Tw1]

There is a new Mun image on the wiki, but it's got a starfield background instead of a transparent background like the old image, hence the reason why I used the old Mun. Had a couple of parts today with the same problem; going to be digging into the game to fix those.

Plus, I wasn't sure which one folks liked better (nostalgia factor). Personally, I prefer the old Mun (easier to land), but once again this is something that would be a snap to change.

I reckon it would be better to make them the up to date versions, it wouldn't be too hard to cut out backgrounds in Photoshop or Gimp. But of course, it's up to you.

[capi3101]

I'll probably wind up doing some extensive GIMP work before everything's said and done (already did some to prep up the revised card prototypes...not much, just a gradient fill on the background). I've got something special planned for the Kerbalnaut cards that's almost definitely going to demand it.

Engines and Pods are essentially complete at this point, and I got all the electrical parts done. Today's probably going to see work on Structural cards.

[capi3101]

Anybody got any suggestions for what I can do with the action cards? The prototype looks ugly...

[capi3101]

Well, maybe I will get to Crew cards today after all...

BG was done completely in MS Paint (no lies). Getting the pictures in wasn't as tricky as I originally thought it was going to be.

Flavor text is from the wiki, BTW; took it and ran with it. Only thing keeping me from doing the other Kerbals at the moment is their flavor text, and I have a pretty good idea what I'm going to say.

(I'm aware of the typo in Jeb's flavor text...also, is it Kerbalnaut or Kerbonaut?)

EDIT: Never mind...it's Kerbonaut. I'll have to find where all I have that wrong and get it fixed...

Edited August 8, 2013 by capi3101

[Sesni]

The infamous red lines under Laythe...

[capi3101]

The infamous red lines under Laythe...

Do what now?

Crew cards are done; turns out it's the ruddy Structure cards that are giving me fits. I have a solution though and I hope to get an opportunity to implement it today.

Had a thought for what I might try with the Action cards...it's going to require me to search through the forums for pics from people's games.

Going to try to get to Fuel cards today. Those are going to be tricky.

[capi3101]

Finished Fuel cards on Friday; structure cards still giving me some fits. Starting work in on Action cards today; my plan there is to dredge up some pictures from around the forum and wiki appropriate to the cards and use them for backgrounds. I've got a few of my own screenshots I can use before resorting to outright image theft...

[Tw1]

I recognise those descriptions. Looks like the link to the fanwork they came from has disappeared.. I didn't think it was particularly good anyway.

I don't think there is any official thing on Kerbalnaut Vs Kerbonaut.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Tw1

[capi3101]

I recognise those descriptions. Looks like the link to the fanwork they came from has disappeared.. I didn't think it was particularly good anyway.

You mean for the three musketeers? It's here. I agree they aren't particularly good ones, but they're something.

[Sesni]

Do what now?

The red lines for spelling error.

[capi3101]

The red lines for spelling error.

Ah, okay. That's been corrected since I posted those pics, but thanks for letting me know about it. The text part's being done in MS Publisher and I don't know how to shut that off, so that's definitely among the things I'm watching out for with the final mod.

[capi3101]

Action cards are finished. Here's my personal favorite...

It's even from one of my missions...an Apollo-replica, no less.

Got the data on the LV-1R from the configuration file for the part, so that one's done now. I have to finish up the Structure cards and then work on the card backs. Then it'll be time to extract all the images from Publisher and begin work on the mod proper.

[Tw1]

You mean for the three musketeers?.

Nar, I meant where the wiki got them from.

[capi3101]

Nar, I meant where the wiki got them from.

Ah. I see.

I'll use it even if it really isn't canon...I mean, Jeb, Bob and Bill are the heroes of KSP, so they deserve better than the generic text I gave every other Kerbonaut in the game.

I finished up the design of the last of the cards this morning, so the name of the game now is extraction from MS Publisher. Figured out how to shut off the autocorrect so the red squiggly lines shouldn't be an issue. I have found that Publisher can save out images as PNGs, but my options for sizes and resolutions are fairly limited and no matter what I pick the text gets blurred quite a bit. I may have to resort to the Alt-PrintScreen method. It'll take longer but I think the images will look sharper as a result.

[capi3101]

Well, let it never be said that learning the Python programming language has never paid off for me; this afternoon I've finished all the graphical work the project's going to need. Now begins the tricky bit - building the mod itself. I can't do that on my work breaks; I'm going to have to be somewhere where I can work with the VASSAL Engine. Good news is that it shouldn't take too long. Bad news is that finding the time to do it might be problematic.