I would love to see a near exact copy of the original myself. The old land auction system was good IMO. It didn't need changing.

There's an old saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

This is suppose to be as close as possible to classic mule. A radical change to land auction in the new version would be good but the current game should be changed to match the old. Have land auctions end when a plot doesnt sell. Also adjust the rate of speed of bidding to be more in line with the old game

I second this. The ridiculous amount of time given to run up auction prices makes this game way less interesting than the original. It's my least favorite change.

Actually my thoughts on this are more like below.

Since the AI plays poorly, I don't mind that it catches the wampus. If it had a better AI, then it would be advantageous.

Unfortunately, they don't make joysticks with great precision like they did in the old days. I was rather quite good at hunting the wampus in the C64 version with those redball joysticks in the 80's. I haven't found a joystick that is one-tenth as good since.

I'm ok with the changes to wampus hunting.

Edit: Actually the Wampus was easier to spot in the C64 version because the graphics were a lot less busy & the black speck was a stark contrast to the mountain graphic it was on. In this respect, I prefer the original graphics.

The trouble was, sometimes the wampus didn't show up, or moved constantly from mountain to mountain... And you had to catch him while he was on the mountain. (i.e., you had to be standing next to the mountain waiting for him to reappear - assuming you are lucky that he doesn't move to another mountain)

     Why did Planet Mule try so hard to just copy the original game and spruce up the graffics? Sure we all loved the old MULE game but it had many flaws that should have been looked at and fixed not just carried over! The biggest joke to me is during the Auction phase where a guy can bid the price of a plot up as high as posible and just drop off the screen at the last second! I would rather see it where you cant drop off the screen and your required to pay ATLEAST the minimum at the bottom of the screen. A few new events could have also been added along with other original mule problems being improved! Even in last place i still run into the problem of a guy snatching my plot away! Much less of a problem than in the original game but still happens on occasion.

Agreed, the auctions are ridiculous. The original version had just the right amount of time for auctions, thus preventing $1000 per unit of food scenarios. Auction timers should be reverted back to the original version.

There is currently a bug in the game design that allows you to catch the wampus on the mountain he was last at even after the wampus has left the mountain.

So unlike the classic version, you can catch the wampus even though he left the mountain, but before he goes to a new one.

Crystite assays already have the downside of informing everyone where the crystite is. Assays do not need to be nerfed with extra costs, they were perfectly fine exactly the way they were in the original.

A plot defense against pirates is a bad idea. Pirates barely balance out the risk/reward paradigm of choosing crystite over smithore.
Crystite is overpowered, more so with 4 high crystites... but even in the original it was. I'm actually in favor of increasing the amount of turns pirates can show up from 2 turns to 3, and also in making the number of high crystites random from 2-4... That way there is variability in the amount of crystite that would make the game more interesting.

If you do a CVP analysis of smithore vs. crystite you will know this.

In the C64, auctions never went past $400 because the timer ran out quicker. IMO, the C64 version is flat out the better game in this regard. The timer in land auctions is also ridiculously slow, allowing land to go up in price too fast. Of all the changes in the game, this change effects gameplay the most.

One thing that would speed up the game is removing the delay before an event strikes. I get sick of waiting 10 seconds of nothing happening only for the game to announce a fire in store. The delay is actually so long that I end up thinking that nothing is going to happen that turn.

Take 12 rounds, with 1 event per round, and that 10 seconds adds up to 2 minutes of game time. (10 seconds per event.) Mind you, in the C64 version a fire in store was announced instantly after the last bit of production was finished. Same goes for pirates, earthquake, pest, etc. Also, the earthquake occurred before production, instantly after the last player finished his turn.

Remember that the game flows like this...
1. Land Grab
2. Land Auction (random)
3. Players take turns (with each having a chance at good luck/bad luck)
4. Pre-Production Events (earthquake, sunspot activity, acid rain storm, mule radiation, meteor strike)
5. Production
6. Post-Production Events (Pest attack, pirates, fire in store, nothing happens)

(About Events)
Also note that only pest attack, and mule radiation are events that effect a specific player. Other events should be allowed in the 1st round as they are non-player specific. 1st turn fire in store makes for a very interesting game. 1st turn pirates also eliminate one of the two possibilities of the pirate event. There are lots of subtle reasons why first turn events should be acivated.

7. Smithore Auction
8. Crystite Auction
9. Food Auction
10. Energy Auction
11. Colony Summary
12. Repeat steps 1 through 11 for the next turn. 

If you really want to make the game interesting, randomize the players starting gold from 900-1100 and activate 1st turn good & bad luck. Just make should that players with only 1 plot of land can not receive the lose a plot of land event. (as per original rules) But if you buy a land on the 1st turn, it is at your own risk.

One thing in auction functionality is annoying me... For example:

I own 15 food. And want to sell 11. For the best price i can get. Store buys at 15.
One other player need 4 food. He walk as buyer above, raises the price very high to 110.
Now i sell 4 items for a price of 110 to him.

I am not able to sell the rest of 7 items to the store.

Because if i walk down, the price never lowers to the price of 15 the store bought before. And i cannot sell the other items to the store anymore.
So i have to keep the 7 items and get a spoilage next turn.

I think if time is enough and after selling goods for high prices, a player should have the chance to sell the rest of the goods to the store at the buy price of the store.

Not being able to sell 7 units to the store is the opportunity cost you pay for demanding more for your goods elsewhere. This was one of the most important gameplay features. Good gameplay forces you to make choices betwee the opportunity cost of driving a hard bargain with another player and selling the rest to the store.

It amy not be completely realistic but it made for some damn good gameplay.

The goal has never been to emulate a traditional auction. It's more like an abstract form of negotiation, and it was a central part of the original game.

That said, while these features did exist in the original game, the pace of the auction phase was slower and the prices weren't quite so fluid. You couldn't drive up the price thousands of dollars on a whim, because time would simply run out before you got that high. Also, while you still had the option of backing down, the slower movement meant that it took a good chunk of time to get back down from a high bid, so if you cut it too close it was very easy to end up getting stuck with a high bid that you didn't intend to pay.

I'm not sure the added pressure you can exert on the price in this version is altogether a bad thing though, simply because land is so. damn. valuable. In the first third of the game, those price tags of a couple thousand dollars may very well be cheap compared to what the land is actually worth.

Exactly. The original game was great with regards to land auctions. Being able to backdown at anytime makes the gameplay that much better.

This is a case of where attempting to make things more realistic would make the gameplay worse IMO. The way land auctions worked in classic MULE was central to the gameplay. I've played many games where people would back down at the last minute, leaving you stuck with a land that you didn't have money to develop at the time.


However, now that the wampus is easier to catch, the strategy of leaving people with a land they can't afford to develop is less effective. In the classic Commodore/Atari version you really were lucky to catch the wampus, and having that money to develop the land was crucial. Heck, you couldn't catch the wampus after he left the mountain in the classic version. Now you can catch him even after he leaves the mountain. Basically the black speck that is the wampus had to be on the mountain at the time you went over the mountain, this is not the case in the current version of the game.

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.

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

The classic game started with 2 energy.

Well you just have to live with it.

I'm more conserned about the timing. If you turn off "show computer development", the AI will move significally faster than it does when showing ai development. Why is that?
The best/worst I've seen it do is build on 4 plots, hunt the wampus while building, and finish the turn with a few pints in the pub.

Im not complaining or demanding anything, just curious

I'm more concerned with the long pause before global events. Why does it take almost 10 seconds after production is completed to announce a fire in store, pirates, or a pest attack. All events occurred immediately, either before the production phase or after the production phase-depending on the event. Planetquake is also out of order-it is supposed to occur before the production phase.

Oh, and let people play as the mechtron too. I always played as the mechtron in the Commodore version.