Edit: Here are the rules https://downloads.corvusbelli.com/codeone/rules/codeone-rules-en.pdf Thought this needed it's own thread really. Bostria is in the BoW/OTT Weekender. Mostly Defiance related (they've been recording for the launch week) but a little tidbit or two about N4. First: Still D20 based, no Aristeia!/Defiance dice Second: N4 will first launch as Infinity: Code One, this is a simplified version of the game (think Operation: Thingthing levels of complexity) launched as a full fledged system with organised play support and a dedicated mode in Army Builder, this will be supplemented with "Full" N4 much in the way Icestorm was released as a lead in to N3. Not all units will be available in C1 but all factions will be playable at launch, and new packaging for models will indicate if they are C1 compliant. The idea is to have a more accessible, and fully supported, level of Infinity that can be played as a full tournament game, to complement the advanced game. It is very much aimed at people that don't have the time or capacity to learn a large complex game like N3 but still using that identifiable core of Orders, AROs, and F2F rolls.
It could be a good thing, when I do demos there are always 2 major things everyone mentions they dislike : 1) metal miniatures 2) too many rules Code One could be some sort of solution to number 2, since they intend to fully support it with army builder and stuff. Problem I see is that they won't increase their team size and this Code One thing will require separate testing and balance in addition to N4 and everything else. So this has very worried.
Apparently N4 has been built from the ground up with the C1/N4 combo in mind, I would also imagine it's an easier game to test/balance due to the simplicity. I do wonder if it'll use the same points scale as N3/4 or if it'll use a less granular scale, e.g. Fusiliers are 2 points, an ORC is 4, a standard game is 40 points (numbers pulled from arse for illustrative purposes).
Easier to balance still means they need to put some man hours into it. And they are strained as is, with very little or no testing put into things like ITS missions for like 2 years now. Not to mention some other stuff. Since they plan on having tournament scene for Code One, that means they still have to do good amount of testing and balance. Especially if they plan on using different missions from standard ITS.
Conceptually interesting. I can see the sense of the decision from the perspective of a company trying to grow the game. Success will be in the execution of it, i.e. making sure one or the other doesn't whither on the vine.
Mmm I'm not sure if C1 / N4 is a good idea. Is infinity community enough big to sustain two tournaments scenes?
We've already seen people using cut down versions of the rules in various forms, but the entire point is that C1 will be pulling in newbies, so it doesn't need to be, since it should grow to accommodate... C1 having its own army section is a good thing, but I can't help but think of the stuff army is missing now vs a whole new mode for C1 in terms of the drake meme... Basically anything with a changeing profile mid game isn't covered in army, eg transmutation, battle ravaged, even something as ubiquitous as symbiont armour, or panoplys/booty/metachemistry just isn't taken into account.
Agreed with a lot of you that the worry here is its impact on resources. Having a standardized streamlined 'simple' game mode will be excellent to introduce new players, to have a common 'rules booklet' for two-army boxes, and might also be useful for veterans who want to squeeze in a really quick casual game. But having a separate C1 branch of ITS means C1 cant just simplify the core N4 rules for introductory purposes, it means that simplification itself needs to be internally balanced. That takes time and effort from Corvus Belli, time and effort that barring an expansion of staff must be taken away from other projects, including N4 itself and the design of new units. I'd also personally worry that a 'C1 ITS' counters the role of a simplified ruleset as an introductory path... I'm sure plenty of players will still move on to N4 proper once they have a grasp of the basic rules, but the more people who stop at C1 and go no further the more divided CBs efforts will need to be, not to mention division of the playerbase within what is ostensibly the single game of Infinity.
This isn't a good thing. Not unless they're going to start doing like 40k and having individual wargear items priced/pointed out in Full N4.
The two game modes could do some good in order to bring a more affordable Infinity for new players, but as others have said before me, it could provoke a split in the comunity. Now they are a lot of "breaks" between players who loves or don't the Spec Ops, but they are minors things in what the game experience really is, but a really simplified game mode with his own tournament system is another completely different matter. But we will see what happens. 2020 is close but they have still plenty of time.
This would provide them with an interesting challenge. There's a few units where the individual profiles are sufficiently close in utility to each other that having high granularity hurts internal balance more than promotes it, I think. Take Sirius, I'd call all of the Sirius' profiles to be worth sufficiently the same on the table that the 5 points variance isn't all that necessary. Zhencha where the granularity only hurts the unit variety because of the price difference between SMG and BSG or the infinite repeats that are Domaru profiles. And really... why should there be a price difference between a Zhanshi, Moderator, Fusilier, and Line Kazak anyway? Their roles are similar, their performance are similar and while they all have minor differences, those differences so rarely make a difference.
Sounds like a great idea to me. Even as a veteran player I would be interested into playing a simplified version of the rule. I'm sure they can throw away a lot of the complexity of the rule but still keep the game as strategical and interesting. We talked about the rules in our drive back home from our satellite this WE. We are all experienced players and each of us had at least one rule wrong when we checked on the wiki ... doesn't stop us from playing the game but it will surely prevent others to. If they want the game to grow, or even just survive, they have to break that over complexity wall that prevent a lot of player from starting the game. And since I want the game to survive, I really hope it will work. Will do my part on my Youtube Channel and in my local gaming store and club to support it.
good for CB sales, easy sistem not only for rules phd bad for old players, because full game will be trashcan with small team for design and balansing it (and with no future, just another horus heresy)
The development team has, in fact, increased since N3... And Code One will be an "introductory" version of the game, N4 will retain a lot of what we can see now. Current bets among the spanish forumites are for a scale designed for the gaming mats in the CB scenery packs/Operations/army boxes, with few, if any, weapons with bigger than 60cm (24'') +3 range bands (so precision rifles => great).
That's what I worry about too, but it mostly boils down to how simplified the rules for Code One will be. Because honestly, the rules in the operation boxes (not including beyond add-ons) are EXTREMELY simplified. Like, the father-knight introduced in the last mission of Icestorm lacks religious troops, assault, and both his breaker pistol and his DA CCW. It's just a big guy in power armor with a knife, a combi rifle and kinematika. So If this is the level of simplification they aim for with Code One (and this is what bostria seems to imply) I'm not worried in the slightest, it'll just be a way for new player to experiment a bit with units outside the ones included in the operation boxes, and for players who don't start with those boxes (which might be more and more common now that they include sectorial starters and not vanilla ones) to not have to make the big jump right away. So yeah, wait and see.
Don't worry friend, I truly believe that neither Code One will be tested worse than Infinity, nor will it affect testing of the main game in any aspect at all ;-)
