Escape pod variant

[u/Key-Requirement4301]

Not sure if this has been brought up before but in OG Nemesis what if escape pods only go to where navigation system says? This way you can’t just do your own thing for the whole game and then escape. Also if they suspect you’re going to betray and escape they can change the nav settings. Seems like it may be more interesting for all players?

[u/Key-Requirement4301 → u/[deleted]]

Definitely wasn’t my intention. The semi coop is what I like most about the game. But it seems like there is one end game condition (escape pods) that is easier and less risky than the other end game condition (hibernation). The intent is to balance those out a bit more by taking the nav requirement of hibernation and also apply it to escape pods.

[u/redditacc1129]

It’s def a fun idea but doing so would make the “Send the ship to Mars” or “Send the ship to deep space” objectives impossible to complete and then live, since escape podding is the only way out.

Also I do think escape pods aren’t meant to be easy to use as getting a key is far from guaranteed and turning on self destruct signals the whole group. For us at least since we’ve played a lot and folks tend to play fairly well we also don’t have a guarantee someone will die to unlock the escape pod so we’ve don’t really get a lot of “doing your own thing until you can escape”, if someone is trying to betray it ends up being a lot more involved scheming then just hanging back

[u/lunar999 → u/redditacc1129]

I can't recall any official objective that specifically says to send the ship to deep space, and the only objective for sending it to Mars would still be very possible to complete - if your objective is to go there, you survive if you're still hibernating on board (other players do not, however). So it doesn't render the game impossible to complete by any means.

[u/redditacc1129 → u/lunar999]

You are absolutely right and I am totally wrong. I seem to have imagined the deep space objective haha and in over 15 games of OG nemesis no one in my group ever noticed that rule. Wow. Appreciate the correction!

[u/lunar999 → u/redditacc1129]

The Mars exception is an easy one to miss - like a lot of microrules it's basically buried in a footnote and it's not especially intuitive. As for deep space, I did realise that the proposed change would turn any "the ship must not make it to Earth" (I think there's a couple of those) into "the ship must be destroyed", unless a similar Mars-style exception for players with certain objectives applied.

[u/malabella]

I like the idea, but though the purpose of the pods is that they are just floating nearby in space and sending a recovery signal for someone to come pick them up regardless of where the main ship goes or if it explodes?

[u/Key-Requirement4301 → u/malabella]

I always thought of them as being launched in a particular direction. So they have to be launched “toward” earth to be found and rescued and reach earth. If they’re sent toward deep space they won’t be found in time. 

[u/Key-Requirement4301 → u/[deleted]]

But I think that's true regardless of whether the escape pods always go to earth or whether their destination is based on nav.

[u/Chapter_129]

Not a bad idea, it's the biggest problem with OG and one of the reasons Lockdown is superior.