Make changing mule outfits expensive (like in the original)

[C64 nostalgia]

Land development in Planet MULE gives many advantages that were not in Atari/C-64 M.U.L.E.

1. A player can do much more in a turn.
2. Catching the wampus is much more easy.
3. Assaying land on plots farthest from the store is quicker.
4. Only receiving the cost of the mule when selling one back to the store (no refund for outfitting)
5. Selling a mule back to the store takes extra time

And...
Players never lose money changing the outfit of a mule.

This would be a great change because... wait for it... that's the way it was done in the original. But, more importantly, it adds an element of skill and evens out left side/right side development. Players would have to plan more carefully for plot turnover. Additionally, a monetary penalty would be created for the ease of plot turnover for left-side plots.


edit: After testing with an emulator, I realized I missed 4 and 5 on my list.

[piete]

+1 

[dynadan]

Sure, I would get on board with the losing your money to refit a mule ( I don't remember if this was in the original but if you say so, i believe you.)

Were you suggesting some method to make it harder to catch the wumpus?

We've had this debate with being able to do more in a turn before, and i still think most of the change stems from only having to have your player in a plot to equip a mule. (Original made you have to have the mule in the plot also). Also moving diagonally made the timer run twice as fast.  I think they would have to redo the mechanics of how the mule moves to change this.  I have seen almost all new players struggle with trying to get the mule in the plot to let him go. 

I personally think the timer is just about right, it enables a player to barely refit 3 mules on the far right side of map, and makes it nearly impossible to refit 6 plots on the left side.  (talking about stite)

The right side has its own advantages when switching to energy and food.  And as a player who mostly plays on the right side, I think that shortening the timer would actually increase the advantage the left side has over the right side.

[C64 nostalgia]

Sorry, I see I wasn't totally clear. I'm primarily requesting you never get money back for a previous mule outfitting. For example: if you have an ore outfitted mule and change it to energy, you will get no money back and pay $50.

1. A player can do much more in a turn.
2. Catching the wampus is much more easy.
3. Assaying land on plots farthest from the store is quicker.
4. Only receiving the cost of the mule when selling one back to the store (no refund for outfitting)
5. Selling a mule back to the store takes extra time

I think trying to change 1, 2, and/or 3 of the above would be difficult, for both philosophical and technical reasons.

Changing Planet MULE to include 4 and 5, I would like to see, as well. But, they are secondary in importance to me than the outfitting change. (4 and 5 were added with an edit to my original post.)

[Mt-Wampus]

I agree on not getting refunded the outfitting costs. I know many who make a living packing plots close to the store and converting back and forth with each change to the market. I would like to see some penalty for making such changes like in the original. Make some players think twice about converting over 6 properties in a round. They must weigh the pro's and con's then. As it stands now there is no penalty besides using a full turn to change over plots.

[Bumbes]

No refund 

Also we should think about making the game more fast/difficult or select 3 different levels.
Atm we play Flapper mode and even the Wampus is easier to catch.

[Chuckie Chuck]

I think the timer speeding on the C64 during diagonal movement was more of a bug in that version (The c64 had some quirks with counting time accurately, having two switches on the joystick press at the same time at anytime made the clock double count time, didn't matter the program.)  It didn't have a real time clock, so you could only approximate time counting, and it wasn't entirely stable.  I don't think we should duplicate a bug caused by a limitation in the machine itself.  Just my opinion.

[C64 nostalgia]

I think the timer speeding on the C64 during diagonal movement was more of a bug in that version (The c64 had some quirks with counting time accurately, having two switches on the joystick press at the same time at anytime made the clock double count time, didn't matter the program.)  It didn't have a real time clock, so you could only approximate time counting, and it wasn't entirely stable.  I don't think we should duplicate a bug caused by a limitation in the machine itself.  Just my opinion.

I have no desire to mess with the timer, or making it speed up during diagonals et all. All the drama from messing with the land auction would be so much worse if the development timer changed... Nope, my request:

First and foremost (if I could change only one)
1. Never get money back for a previous mule outfitting

Second and less important
2. Only receiving the cost of the mule when selling one back to the store (no refund for outfitting)
3. Selling a mule back to the store takes extra time

[Oort]

Couple of differences I've noticed with planet mule and original (atari) mule.

In atari, you had to have your mule over your "house" before you could lay/swap him on the plot. Just being in the plot wasn't enough. I actually like the planet mule method better, but if you are looking to trim the time people have down and forcing them to use tactics a bit more this would help.

As I remembered it, not only did you have to be right on top of the wumpus, but you could only catch him if he was "active" or lit up, and if you placed your mule too close to the mountain waiting on him he wouldn't come out and probably appear elsewhere.

I enjoy the free rebate on a mule swap, but would be totally on board with a no rebate.

Someone elsewhere mentioned making the various stores located randomly so that crystite wouldn't nesisarily benefit the left side all the time. I really like that idea.

One other suggestion, buying crystite in the store. As players dump crystite into the store, have it build up a reserve like any other resource. Say that 3/4 or 20 unites (whichever is higher) of what is in the store is sold each turn to the galactic market. In any event might make for an intersting option in MULE II

[Blitzen]

You guys sure about moving on a diagonal causing the timer to speed up?  I don't remember it that way at all, if it was the case, they made the player move faster to compensate for it.  Going to the pub/deploying mules in anything other than a straight line was a mistake, diagonal or not, of that I am certain.

Also are you talking about c64 or Atari?

In the Manual for the c64 it explicitly stated moving in a diagonal was faster, maybe that was a sort of half truth after all since we never noticed it buying us any time to zigzag across the map.  I always thought of it like a statement about the shortest distance between two points is a straight line and never thought about it much again...

Awesome post c64nostalgia, but you knew that!

_____________________________________
Death to all Smurfs! Even he pretty one. 

[Intergalactic Mole]

I just want to clarify something here about the Atari version of MULE (I am not positive about the C64 version, but I believe it is the same). Only your characters position within the borders of the plot is relevant when installing a MULE.  The location of the MULE itself does not matter. 

Reference;

http://bringerp.free.fr/RE/Mule/mule_document.html#InstallingAmule

[Chuckie Chuck]

Yes, only the character has to be in the house on the c64.