Be sure to read the Planet Mule forum, New Player section.  That will get you up to speed faster than anything else for new players.  And others will appreciate you not playing badly enuf that they hope you boot so a bot can take over and do predictable play. lol

Fire is a new player and expected to do new stuff.  He will not understand all the nuances and factors in a game that are important.  To deny food or anything to others is a choice. Might not be the best choice for himself, others or the game but we all have had noobs hose a normal game and twist it into a weird event where others wish the new player was replaced with a bot.  Live with it, enjoy the weirdness, take advantage of that to win, whatever.
But Hosting is a special privelege here.  Reputation as a host/player is all important.  Just ask Akire1.
It is so important to be a good and rightous host.  Word will get around and pretty soon players will avoid you, women will shun you and banks will repossess your home!   No, wait, just kidding on last part (i hope).
Reputation is all we have here.  It is the responsibility of regular players to inform new players on how important this is.
How many games have you played where a new player messed up the game, or your game, or helped another win thru ignorance?  We live with this and hopefully politely help them to get better so more games don't get hosed.
The question was asked in a response if the host would have acted differently with a seasoned player.
I feel a new player should get MORE consideration in any matter affecting a game.
In this case, Fire had every right to play as he wishes.  If he feels this is his only chance to come back and win, how can a host justify booting for that?  I understand the frustration.  After reading the game chat and talking to all parties involved and reading this forum post I have concluded that Nanner should not have booted Fire, but Nanner realized later that the situation was not clear cut.  Nanner tried to make amends and seemed to understand and learn from the situation.  Kudo's on keeping your eyes open Nanner.
You were willing to listen to the complaints after the boot and seemed to learn a little too.

Too many good and fun players have left us from all the crap that has to be tolerated from a few bad apples.  We, as Mule fanatics must do all we can to keep who we have now, help the new players get up to speed and go recruit some more new players.

In my 3rd game ever played, I tied for the win, got upset about it until I saw I DID get credit for the win even tho I ended up in 2nd place.  1st place stayed in 1st since he was ahead the round before.

To me, food dying on rd 12 is a bug!  Was NOT like this in original and games could be won with food on rd 12!
I know if the formula price for food on rd 12 was like previous rds, it would make for more variety in the endgame strategy.  LOT's more variety.
As it is now, everyone dumps food on last round since the highest price will be 43.

Atari / Ohio, USA

Mule / Elum  (Elum was my adult version remake)
Joust
Colonial Conquest, (risk)
Lords of Conquest (remade @ http://members.cox.net/rgettman/
Archon I,II
Gladiator (wish someone else has heard of this one)
Boulder Dash series
Fort Apocalypse, Montezuma's Revenge
Jumpman, Jumpman Jr, Loderunner series, Miner 2049'er
Ali Baba, Age of Adventure (also called Return of Heracles)
Gorf, Missile Command, Choplifter
Apple Panic
F15 Strike Eagle
Ballblazer, Rescue on Fractalus
Karateka, Bruce Lee, International Karate, Ninja, Zorro
California Games (joystick breaker)
Seven Cities of Gold
Realm of Impossibility (there was another in the series but I forget the title)
Raid over Moscow, Gorf Digdug, Mouseattack
Zaxxon I,II (II was way too hard)
Zybex, Draconis
One on One
Crossfire (pwned), Arena, Berzerk, Robotron 2041, Gauntlet
Gyruss
Pharoah's Curse
Thrax Lair
Shamus I,II
Flip Flop, Kangaroo, Popeye
Preppie I,II
BlueMax (great 16 bit music)
Kangaroo, Donkey Kong
Spelunker
Kaboom
Satan's Hollow
Master Blaster
Hacker
Jawbreaker (pacman clone)
Getaway (I was a tester)
Serpentine
Ghost Encounters
Eastern Front (by Chris Crawford, genuis), Legionaire (sequel)
Spyhunter, Buried Bucks
Castle Wolfenstein, Beyond Castle Wolfenstein
Crystal Castles, Captain Beeble
Beachhead
Drol
Saracen
Galaxian, Kaboom, Planetary Defense
Floyd of the Jungle
Hardball
BC quest for tires
Xevious, Caverns of Mars
Tempest

Any of these bring back memories?

WOW!   The comments section says it all!
Admins!!!!   PLEASE do something now!   Making threats to players and admin, causing new players to leave forever after one bad game, upsetting the entire PM community is intolerable and must be stopped NOW!

You "plan" to do something about it, but this has gone too far!  Breaking laws cannot be tolerated.
WE implore you to find a solution now. Myself and so many others are just fed up with this behavior.

When I thought it was 4 different people doing this, I felt that this was a LOT of screwed up people ruining the game even when we offer to help them.  Now that I see this is all from ONE player means that locking out one person as best as possible would change so much at PM.

I speak for us all when I ask for this knowing without asking that most if not all legit players agree that something must be done!

I have not studied ranking algorithms and don't intend to.
So my ideas may clearly not work, but here they are.

There are players highly ranked and have not played in 6 months (ex. BaronHelix).  Use last 90 days on ranking or have games over 90 days old have less weight in the ranking.  I started with Muleyman, got typical abandons and losses while lerning the game, then started a nic (Wheetfarmer) that is higher ranked than MM even tho I have only played a few games recently with Wheet.  I went back to Muleyman since total games played mattered and wanted to concentrate stats mainly on one character.
Also, Abandons don't seem to matter much in rank (ex. BaronHelix)
I think tho that the main problem is using all stats and not limiting to a 2-3 month timeframe.

Oh yeah, 1 more thing!
If player in last starts running at the bell and gets to the line and gets it, they can run it up to all their cash and HOLD it!  noone else could buy it unless last place chose to let it go.

The land auction worked as follows in original.
Add 732 to start price to calculate selling price if noone stops.
Person in last always gets the plot if on the line when auction ends.

This did 2 things!   Helped last place or lower placed player to catch up.
And it kept the plot price from going stratospheric too quickly.

This critical point is missing from PM.  Currently, we play to get the most cash to get the next plot.
And most of us are willing to spend more than we should just to get out of first place.

In the Atari version, there was a pattern in how bonuses were given!
If I am in last and player 2 gets a bonus, player 3 and last would tend to get a bonus also.
In the latest version, I can be in last and watch 2nd place get a bonus frequently and I will NOT get a bonus also.  I think the original had a "niceness factor".  If 2nd or 3rd place got a bonus, usually last place would get a bonus also.  If 1st place didnt get a negative, that was a clue that the others WOULD get a bonus.
Currently, 2nd place does seem to have too much pos and neg hits happening to him and last not nearly enuf.
So if niceness factor was real low, #1, #2, and #3 may get hit with a negative and last, of course, can't have a neg. so last does not get a positive event.

Also, the pest attack only attacks #1 position.

Lag forces some changes to Mule and I feel most of the differences in PM still have most of the "flavor" of the original.  Latest auction  changes is definitely better.
After reading so many posts about old and new play, I compared the Atari to Pm in my head.
The flow and pricing is fairly similar to original.  Total colony scores average a little higher in PM.
The excitement, competitiveness and randomness is there.

Minor changes to PM enhanced the game somewhat:
having 4 tite plots instead of 3,
dropping max ore price from 250 to 230,
necessary changes due to lag on land auction are pretty good now and have that "original" feel,


What still needs fixed?
price on food in rd 12 is NEVER higher than 43, should reflect supply and demand as other items do.
adjust mule prices down on rd 12 when someone clears out the corral and buys up all stock, then drops development on 3 plots to come back to win.  Price should rise quite a bit but not to max price since its last round and future mule needs are not as important as in middle of game prices.  The original had mule prices jumping but never from 50 to max in 1 round. no matter how much the demand is.
pest attack ONLY attacks person in 1st.
The original game had some rounds where nothing happens to affect the colony during prod such as fire.
Seldom do I see this in PM version.  I believe Data discussed this saying that there is a random event each round.  Add a null event to that random event list would help a bit.

Many kudos to development team for all the efforts and patience shown so far.

lol Mike!   I gave up on the Bomb Brad Button when Peter Turborilla told me no.
And we don't need no stinkin nukes.  The flame thrower idea sounds like my mud flinger where u could run around sprinkling mud to slow others running thru it.  Soaking 1 plot in mud makes it not produce or really slow down development on it.

Atari bugs:
crystite price should be 50-150 as in documentation - lack of memory, rounding error.
bots - basic idiots - limited memory.
final results - some players considered jacking up tite price for a great colony total on rd 12 a legitimate move but is illegal and defaults the game - do totals at beginning of rd 12 after production.
Collusion - never worked except to cheat
first port preference - if 2 people hit button same time for a plot, person plugged into port 0 could win even when other player was behind in the current rankings.

Auctions:
Lag issues changes everything so a good compromise is needed that keeps the original game flavor.
Plot comes up for auction, cowbell, and 4 people run up to line, person in last has it and flashes to show it.
Add 732 to price and you know WHILE running what top price will be and that helps you decide if you can afford paying top price.  If all 4 have enough cash, person in last will STOP when start price +732 is reached.  As long as that player keeps pushing up, they can hold and keep the plot till end of auction and get that plot.  If no one buys a plot, land auction ends.

So strategy is very different in Atari version compared to PM.  If you had a lot of cash and were in last, getting 2 plots was pretty easy to a point.  The price of auction plots went up at a relatively steady pace.

My 2 cents:
We don't want PM to copy the original game exactly but to make it close as possible, fix bugs, and perhaps add a little for a more fun game.
Having 4 tite plots avail. instead of 3 is a good example of this.  Multiple land auctions with no fixed limit is a major difference. Running up the price 4 times faster with no limit is majorly different than original game.

I like how the auctions work now. Works better than the way it was when a person could run the price up out of reach to take advantage of a bug.  It isn't perfect but with the extra cash that flows in this game, it makes sense.  On Atari, reaching 100k was not always easy. Making a 130k colony was almost impossible.

So it gets down to the question once again of Do we want the original as close as possible?
I want better bot ai, more fun added, with plenty of variety.  So fix the bots, lower the increment on auctions to 2 or 1 at a time.

Oh yeah, and find us or make us a good group audio chat so I can hear you scream when I take your precious plot.

I used my Nyko and 360 controllers before with some success.
Was able to do better with keyboard.  I looked for a usb interface for atari joysticks with no success.
I did find modded atari sticks with built in usb for $16 and up online.
If anyone finds a usb interface for atari joysticks, please let me know.

New Mule!

Ok! A new version with some of the original ideas of Mule and new additions and changes for a simpler but wilder game.

Simultaneous development - great idea, only lose advantage of last place getting to see what others DIDNT put out and where shortages are. First 2 then the rest good idea also.

10 rounds - cool!  5 player  - great!  6 player won't work?

Special abilities - gotta think this one thru long and hard!
Critical change with balance of abilities and benefits. No 1 perfect strategy!

city and map both showing - I have enough trouble finding wampus now, wont even try on new version.  My vision is not so good these days so I use sound as much as sight to find him. Consider using 1 screen unless absolutely necessary for 2.

Removing the HUD - I loved the way you made it but can understand making it more like original. Having stats always there saves a LOT of remembering. Helped new players most.
Take it out.
Land Grants - have last player start first, wait 2 seconds, then release next to last player and so on. As a plot gets picked, it shows up for rest to see so they can take alternate pick. Save 30 seconds or so each round.

Ideas - wild, crazy, not thought out but perhaps a seed of something good to come:

Pub - all develop almost at same time so if you goto pub early, you could gamble or spend a dime on karma improvement (which helps on preventing bad stuff from happening.

Add a new item like food and smithore.  You can only put it on 1 plot. each plot touching that plot makes 1 more. After dropping it off, you must run to any plot of yours and mark it for extra prodction status and would also make 50%  more per round for rest of game. So if you tell it to make more on your river food plot, it can replace a second food plot thats usually needed for mid game and beyond. Can only do it once so waiting till the right plot later on could be interesting strategy.

Swords:  ok, i give up on the Bomb Brad button (lol) but could you give us swords to fight the pirates please?  We could defend like 1 property and save a couple.
Pirates come and dont get my stuff without a fight! Or you could fatten your food a little with that parrot in a nice cream soup!

have all players make a secret bid in cash for last place!

More to come!

Reminder that October is recruitment month! goto chatroom, WOW,email, wherever you contact people and spread the word!
New Players get treated special in October so get them in early!