Planet M.U.L.E.

Hello everyone,

these are the main features we will include in the next release 1.2:

- smithore and crystite spoilage to 50
- shop can hold more than 99 units
- assay is free again
- no more deserts
- make first round ranking random

We also have many minor things like Lobby improvement and fixing bugs,
which we will try to included either in this one or a 1.2.1 shortly after.

Great :)
Is there any ETA for the new release, or the classic one "when it will be ready"?

Let's say January (this year).

Why are you removing deserts?

How much stock can the store hold now?

My personal opinion is YAY to the Smithore spoilage, but I liked the deserts and the $50 assay.
The deserts filled out the optimized plots of land of Mountains for Smithore, River for food, Meteorite for Crystite.

However, I can imagine the number of opinions being thrown at the programmers, and you can't make everyone happy.  That said, I am very happy and have been since December 6, and the 50 Smithore limit is so important I'm willing to overlook the other unpleasantries!  ;)

If its our aim to be closer to the original, we would have to deactivate the deserts, too.
Same goes for the $50 assay... This is not set in stone, as its merely changing variables,
so we are open for discussion here.



Does anybody know for sure how much the original shop could hold of each good (we are guessing it from the computers being 8bit it was 256), and if that limit applies, if its artifically only or with a good reason to use?

Hope these changes make for a better balance :-)

first round random is awesome.

W00t! Looking forward to 1.2!

I agree with a few  - I like the $50 assay, and I think the deserts were a clever addition too.

However... I can also understand the desire to first create a "Clone Of The Original" ... at least as closely as reasonable.

But I do look forward to the new features returning in a 'plus' edition, or something. :)

To try and see about the store limit and the other original details, I played a few rounds of the C64 version.

A few notes about making this more like the original (in order of importance):
1. The wampus should be much harder to catch (he should move faster and you should not catch him as long after he leaves a mountain, you never used to be able to count on catching him easily nearly every turn)
2. The store should have some ore during the first auction turn (it has 8 in the C64 version).  The ore at the start is important, because then by auction turn 3, even when no ore is allowed to  be sold to the store, the price is only 65 or so, unless MULES are wasted.
3. The movement in the land auctions should be much slower, like half as fast
4. The number of plots auctioned per turn can sometimes be 3
5. The time clock should move just a LITTLE faster during your turn.  In the old version it was very difficult to place 3 MULEs.  Now it is quite possible to place 3 (even outer plots), get the wampus and get to the pub. Maybe 2-3% less time during turns.  Just enough to make it possible to do 3 plots that are relatively easy to get to, but not much else.

Also, the store can hold at least 157 units (the one game I played to the late stages was more crystite heavy, so i didn't see really high ore numbers). As far as a limit is concerned, I think some sort of limit is good, but something higher than 99 for sure.  Ideally, there would be some kind of store spoilage.  Following a first in first out model, any ore that has sat around follow a sort of exponential decay.  Say no spoilage the first turn it sits, 1 for 10 the next, 1 for 4 the next, etc.  But that is more for the "enhanced" MULE.  To help the balance now, I think a 256 limit would be nice.

Obviously some of those things are less important than others, and all are based on C64 version.

I played a some full games of the C64 version and FULLY agree, also to catch the wampus no need to use the press button, thi allowes to catch him inside the owner plots, also the wampus is to catch until the 11 turn



Yes!!! Ore is 8 pieces and his value is near the 65, good value


I think it is linked to the worst ping value of the players, some times is faster or slower. Can be it adjust  with the worst ping value?
Also the Host (due to the ping value) always win either the land auction and the auction to buy goods, I think a dedicated server will fix this "bug"
Anyway I agree "The movement in the land auctions should be much slower"



Yes ....some time it appens.....


Agree , but it is due also to the movement speed

I think now it is the time to split the game into two games in one with a choise to have at the start : "C.l.a.s.s.i.c." or "P.l.a.n.e.t." version

A PRIZE to the player who found the better acronym for both the versions :-)

Prez

Awww :(

I'm also disappointed to see the desert plots go, I think it's def a nice addition that was lacking in the original version.

Me too, I like the Deserts and the $50 Assay I can live with, Please keep both, Also how about a bigger map(more squares and maybe some extra time for the extra distance) and either 2 or 4 more players(Super Tournament game)?

Let deserts go. Plains are going to be much more important, and you will be able to adapt some flexible strategies - convert plains production from food to energy and vice versa. It will add more fun, you will see.

Assays: Applause here. The current system is illogical - you pay $50 and everyone knows the result, so in next land grant, they have a chance to grab your plot. Maybe it would be nice to have an option - public assays for free, private assays for $50.

Just for reference purposes, here's a comparison to original MULE's assays, 1.1 assays, and the projected 1.2 assays:

ORIGINAL

• Assays cost nothing
• Everyone sees results, but no lasting marker for assaying player
• Go to assay office, walk out to plot, mark with button press, walk back to office to get result

1.1

• Assays cost $50
• Everyone sees results, but lasting marker is visible to assaying player
• Go to assay office, walk out to plot, mark with button press, result happens after 3 seconds

1.2

• Assays cost nothing
• Everyone sees results, but lasting marker is visible to assaying player
• Go to assay office, walk out to plot, mark with button press, result happens after 3 seconds

I guess what we might ask ourselves is whether the removal of the return trip to the assay office is properly compensated by the 3-second delay while the assay drone spins around...and that we don't have to go back to town for the result means we might save time (or spend extra time).

I think these improvements rock!

The one other improvement I hoped for -- and maybe it won't matter without smithore abuse-- was overdriving land auctions such that no other player could affordably buy them; since you could now pull the price down once the overdriving player withdrew.

The crystite spoilage may be a bit harsh in combination with pirates, but we'll see.   Without the smithore abuse, colony scores will be much more realistic...

The deserts I might have left in but whatever.

Thanks for the awesome recreation.

Public assays for free, private for $50.  I love that idea.

Same I do as well, but if the goal is to reproduce the original game, it should work exactly the same.

In the original game the store starts with 8 units of all goods except crystite, and 14 mules.  The maximum # of mules in the store at any time is 25.

The store can hold 255 units.  However, it is rare to happen in the original game.  I might have only ever seen it that much one or two times in my entire life (out of hundreds of games).

The goal is not necessarily to copy the original in every exact way.  If that were the case, there would be no new additions whatsoever.  This is a chance to stay in the world of MULE, but make some changes that are improvements, not simply changes for the sake of changes.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: The new assay and deserts are great additions.

Bertoid, the developers have already established that the goal is to have 2 games: 1 that is as close to the original as possible (the one we are playing now), and to create a separate game which is updated with enhancements and modifications.

Yes, I know there will be two games.  But obviously the new version has differences from the Atari version, like internet play, chat capability, new music, new graphics, new way of doing assay.  So I'm simply saying the "same" version will still not be EXACTLY the same as the original.

Yay!  very excited about these changes!  Keep up the great work!

It's true, but doing an assay already costs *Time* and everyone knows the results.  Why should it also cost money?

(Granted, for the internet version, I'd love for it to tell all players a yes/no for crystite found and only tell the player who did the assaying the exact value (low, medium or high)).

Deserts really did not add much to the game, especially with games having only 1 location being as such.  Of course if you added more locations you risk changing the game even more which does not seem to be in the vision/purpose of this build.  So it makes totally sense to me, just remove it.

That's an interesting point, you no longer have to bring the result back so does the saved time warrant the additional cost.  The new improved assaying I suspect is more user friendly as it's not very intuitive that you need to bring it back.  Then again for older players having the up front cost of $50 was not intuitive to why I was now having to pay for something that was previously free.

Overall it'll be interesting to try this hybrid version.

I would gladly take no graphic updates and exactly the "original" c64 game over any other version first and foremost, beyond that anyone who makes a sequel I will be glad to play that too, but I know I will play a clone of the first a thousand times I cannot say the same for the other.  And I can't quite toss my C64's out yet...

I think Collusion should be able to be turned off by host, and apparently some c64 bug allowing fixing Crystite price on the last turn, also the bug where you hold up on auctions to get land even though you don't have the max money, all dirty rotten tricks IMHO. Oh yea and uncatchable wampus at the top of the screen...

Sorry to revive an old post.

PS They talk of a dedicated host, which is required for "fairer" play by the sounds of things... fair play is huge within the bounds of the games rules anything goes but hosts shouldn't have any potential advantage for competitive play obviously.  Rejoinable games might go a long way to fixing that problem without such complex measures IDK...

Nice! I like this idea. Someone should compile a list of changes from the original gameplay to the current version.

One thing they managed to copy that is not really needed.  On round 12 it does not matter if you sell or keep yet it still makes you wait for the auction.  Could put an option in to skip the timer on round 12 and just show the prices since selling makes no difference.

I like the new graphics but something needs to be changed with the icons for smithore and crystite.  It seemed easier to glance at the screen and see who has what in the original.  I don't know if its the color or shape.

Anyone notice a bug with random low crystites with no med or high near them?

Sometime I'll have to run the original Atari 8 bit (best version)  and get..

1.  Exact timings for a turn
2.  How high you can crank the money in a auction before time runs out
3.  How much lower the next plot auctioned is vs the previous selling pt.
4.  Price of wampus in each round

The AI right now needs some tweaking.  Even if the computer has 10,000 he will not pay more the 45.00 for energy even if he is down 10 units.   

Food and energy are non factors with the computers.  In the original the computer would pay big if he was down just as real humans will.