Planet M.U.L.E.

The strategies in land-grabbing are interesting (if you miss the last plot, you are screwed; you have more choice if other players grab their plots early, etc...); but I feel like the left-to-right-up-to-down cursor scrolling pattern has no logical meaning and is predictable. My proposal is to implement 12 cursor-scrolling methods and use them randomly one for each game. The scrolling methods would be announced briefly before the Land Grant (maybe using a symbol), and the start. Some examples:

1. the original one, with a random (permanently marked) starting square
2. from the store as a starting square, it evolves as a spiral, randomly clockwise or counter-clockwise (all random changes are announced)
3. from a random corner square to the store with a spiral pattern, randomly clockwise or counter-clockwise

etc...

Another option: After a countdown of 5 seconds, the black cursor starts highlighting completely random plots. Plots already highlighted are marked with a grayish cursor, while the plot currently "active" (waiting for player input (button press)) is marked with a bold, black cursor. When someone chooses his/her plot there will be a 5 seconds pause (to let players think about the plot they want), and the phase continues. The cursor will never pass over an already "gray" plot.

How does it sound?

The land grant system is balanced around the current order.

That said, i think one interesting idea is to have every even land grant be a backwards one.

For game balance, it MUST sweep perpendicular to the river.

But there's no reason it can't go the other direction half the time.