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1. General Concepts
ICE is based on the following general concepts.
Imperial Commander maps consists of Tiles spread over multiple Sections. A tile is the actual, physical tile from the game which is designated a number and a side, for example tile {CORE}18B. A section is any number of tiles grouped together and given a unique name. You can use sections to divide the map into several larger pieces that are revealed during the course of the mission.
Example: At the beginning of a mission where the Rebels need to infiltrate an Imperial outpost, you only place the exterior tiles and the door to the outpost. This is “Section 1 – Exterior”. Only when the Rebels open the door are the outpost tiles placed; this is “Section 2 – Outpost”.
Events, Triggers and Map Entities can be assigned to specific sections.
Map Entities are everything that belongs to a mission map that is neither a tile nor a figure. Most map entities are represented by physical tokens, for example terminals, crates, doors or mission markers. Other map entities are just virtual to tell the app which map coordinates to use for specific purposes, such as deployment points or space highlights.
You can find a full list of map entities in the respective chapter.
Map Entities can be grouped together in a Random Map Entity Group. This can be done to randomize token placement so there is more variation between playthroughs.
Example: Depending on what terminal a Rebel interacts with, different attribute tests are needed: Strength, Tech or Insight. The three terminals are grouped together in the Random Map Entity Group “Terminals”. When the map places a terminal, it randomly determines which terminal goes where.
Events are the basic narrative elements of Imperial Commander. The most basic event is simply a text window giving the players some information, but most events alter the game state in some way. For example, they might deploy figures, remove tokens, change the objective or reveal new map sections. Any “Event” from a mission description is usually an event in the editor, but there are more events in a mission than just those from the description. For example, every time the players interact with a token (such as opening a crate), the app displays an event.
When an event is "fired" (activated), Event Actions are carried out. Event actions are what actually manipulates the game state. Usually, an event features multiple event actions that are carried out one after the other. Event actions are used for things like deploying groups, placing or discarding tokens, increasing threat or anything else.
Example: Once the Rebels open the door to the Outpost, they fire the event “Perimeter breached”. This event contains four event actions: “Discard the door”, “Reveal Section 2 – Outpost”, “Increase threat by threat level” and “Deploy Stormtrooper group to red deployment point”.
Events can be "fired" (activated) in three different ways.
- Defeat a specific group: Defeating a specific group can be set to fire an event.
- Interactions: Interacting with a map entity, for example opening a door or a crate, can be set to fired an event.
- Triggers/Variables: Events can be fired by certain triggers, see below.
Some events are "fired" by Triggers, also called Variables. A trigger starts with a value of 0, meaning it’s inactive. When a trigger is “fired”, the value increases by 1. The trigger becomes active and might fire one or more events.
Example: The mission started with a closed door to the outpost, two terminals and the trigger “Door Open” with a value of 0. Interacting with each terminal increases the value of the trigger "Door Open" by 1. The event “Perimeter Breached” listens to the trigger “Door Open”. As soon as that trigger is changed to value 2 (both terminals have been interacted with), the event is fired.
There are multiple types of triggers.
General Triggers are the most common triggers, such as “At the end of a Round” or “All heroes are wounded”. Therefore, there are default options for them available.
Custom Triggers are user-created triggers that can be tied to almost any mission interaction, such as opening a crate, defeating a certain enemy or entering a certain space.
Triggers are not limited to values 0 and 1. Events can be set to listen to a specific value instead of value 1, and other events can influence that value.
Example: The Rebels need to deactivate three terminals in the outpost. The trigger “Terminals deactivated” starts at 0. Every time the Rebels deactivate a terminal, this is increased by 1. Once “Terminals deactivated” reaches a value of 3, this fires the event “Victory”.
Events can be grouped together in an Event Group. This can be done to randomize events so there is more variation between playthroughs.
Example: At the end of each round, one out of three events is fired: “Security Systems”, “Explosion”, “Additional Guards”. Those three events are grouped together in the event group “End Round Events”. Every time a round ends, the app randomly chooses one of the three events to be activated.
Triggers and events can belong to specific sections or be "Global". This can be used to sort the lists of triggers and events into multiple smaller lists that are easier to handle, by grouping all triggers and events into the section they belong to. Map entities are always assigned to a specific section.