Planet M.U.L.E.

Production Phase

Once all players have had their Development turn, you get to see how the MULEs do at collecting resources. You can watch the process slowly as the units appear one by one in each plot, or you can skip to the end by having all players press the action button.

WHAT AFFECTS PRODUCTION?

• Right Land for the Right Resource: As mentioned above, certain resources are more easily collected from certain terrain types (Smithore in the mountains, Food in the valley, Energy in the plains, etc.) The average number of units you can expect to get from a plot is called its Base Production Value (BPV), and is represented as a number of resource icons when you install a MULE on that plot. NOTE: If you see no icons for a given plot, that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't collect that resource on that plot - it means that on average, you will collect 0 units per production phase.
  
  
• Having Enough Energy: As long as you have 1 Energy for each non-Energy MULE you have installed, you won't be at risk of underpowering; if that happens, a random MULE will not produce for each Energy unit you are short.
  
  
• Economies of Scale (EOS): The bigger your factories are, the cheaper they are to run, due to things like mass production and bulk discounts on materials and machine tools. In MULE, you receive this benefit by having MULEs collecting the same resource on adjacent plots. Each MULE that meets this requirement provides an extra unit of production to that plot.
  
  FAQ: Does the EOS bonus apply if an opponent is collecting the same resource adjacent to me? What counts as adjacent?
  You must own all plots involved in order to receive the EOS bonus. A plot is adjacent if it is bordering another plot on on or more sides (north, south, east, and west).
  
  FAQ: If I have two adjacent plots producing the same resource as the one in question, do I get two extra?
  Each plot only gets one unit of EOS bonus, and only if it has at least one adjacent plot producing the same resource.
  
  
• Learning Curve Theory (LCT): In the long-run, the more you produce of a resource, the more efficient you are at doing so (which is why computer components get faster and cost less every year). In MULE, you get an extra unit *on each plot* for every 3 plots you have producing the same resource (so 6 plots = 2 extra units, and so on). This bonus stacks with the EOS bonus, as well.
  
  As an example, if you have a total of 3 plots mining Smithore and two of them are adjacent to each other (the other one by itself), each mine would produce one extra unit for the LCT bonus, and the two adjacent plots would each produce a second extra unit for the EOS effect, for a total of 5 extra units.
  
  
• Random Variation: Even after all of the above have been factored in, there still is a randomness that applies to a plot's production each round. About 1/3 of the time you can expect the average production; 1/2 of the time you will see one extra or one fewer unit being produced. 10% of the time, the variation is 2 units. This variation can even result in a difference of 3 units, but very rarely.
  

• Global Events: Irata isn't a pleasant planet (yet). Its climate is unpredictable, its wildlife have yet to be domesticated, and its place in space isn't well-monitored. With the exception of the last round, each Production Phase is guaranteed to have a random event which can drastically affect the map, the Store, or one of the players. Some events occur prior to production, and some occur afterwards. No event can happen more than three times, and those that do happen are less likely to happen with each occurrence. Also beware the "1st Place Curse"; if a bad global event targets a single player, it will affect either the 1st or 2nd place player.
  
  The events that can happen twice are: Space Pirates, Meteor Strike, Radiation, and Fire In Store.
  The events that can happen three times are: Pest Attack, Acid Rain Storm, Planetquake, and Sunspot Activity.
  
  Events in red target a single player.
  
  FAQ: Why isn't the Meteor Strike considered a "single target" event?
  That's because the game randomly determines a plot on the map to strike with the meteor. It doesn't consider who owns the plot or what they have installed on it - the only consideration the game gives towards selecting where the meteor will hit is - it will not strike a plot with a High Crystite density.
  
  BUG: If a second Meteor Strike occurs in a game, the animation does not appear; you just see the new crater and hear the sound, which doesn't seem synced to the visual effect.
  

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SPEC: In the original game, after a Meteor Strike, the "crater" left by the strike disappears, and it is up to the players to remember where they hit. In Planet MULE, the crater remains.

SPEC: Original game has the Planetquake event occuring before production rather than after. Currently this doesn't affect the outcome, and is just a cosmetic difference.

SPEC: The original game has the colony ship arriving prior to production in round 12. Says one fan: "I always liked how the arrival of the ship before productions appeared to spur the workers to put in a little more effort than in previous turns. Was it an illusion? Perhaps, but it was an effective one."

IMPROVE: Even with the ability to skip to the end of production by pressing the action button, as the amount of total units increases, speed up the presentation of production so it takes less time to show; it keeps things moving and also could be more exciting to watch.