INTRODUCTIONMultiple-Use Labor Element. MULE. That's what they call it. A nightmarish, kludgey amalgam of robotic motivators and manipulators designed to accomplish a variety of tasks, and none of them very well.
And now, he's your only friend out here in the wilderness of Planet Irata. The Federation has sent you and 3 other "planeteers" to this forsaken place to pave the way for mass colonization. It's up to all of you to extract, refine, and process the raw materials necessary to bring the colony up to acceptable standards. Of course, it definitely wouldn't hurt to be the *most* successful colonist, even if it means shorting your fellow planeteers and profiting off their hardships...but get too greedy and the lot of you will spend the rest of your lives sleeping in a tent, surrounded by nothing but desolate wastes and those $%#*#&$ MULEs...
Planet MULE is a game of exploration and economic development for 4 players (human and artificial intelligence alike). The standard game takes place over 12 rounds, each lasting a month in game terms. At the end of the game, if the total net worth of all 4 players is $60,000 or more, the player with the most wealth is declared the "First Founder" and wins the game.
This is a humble attempt to consolidate all of the current questions, complaints, and suggestions offered forth by Planet M.U.L.E. fans, so that the forums are easy to navigate and read, minimize the occurrence of redundant posts, curtail trolling/flaming, and give the developers a clear idea of what the player perception of the game is.
For people who are new to the game, each section contains both instructions on how to play the game in each of its phases. Beneath these, there's also a section at the bottom which goes into detail about strategies, current problems/issues that have been perceived as of the latest publicly-released version, and suggestions for future improvements which have been brought up. That way, you can use your best judgement on whether to start a new post.
A quick guide on my notations:
BUG: An issue with the game that causes it to break/behave inconsistently with the intended gameplay.SPEC: An aspect of the gameplay that (as of the current version) deviates from the original specifications of the game, as seen in the Atari and Commodore 64 versions. (This is important because the developers have set an initial goal of approximating the original gameplay as much as possible, before moving forward with any adjustments or enhancements to the core mechanics - with a few noted exceptions.)FAQ: A question or tip which often gets asked by new players about a quirky aspect of the core gameplay, and is useful information for anyone who plays casually. (See the Technical Descriptions for more in-depth discussion on gameplay mechanics)IMPROVE: A suggestion to further improve or enhance the game, usually taking it beyond original specifications (unless the improvement is to the interface itself).As the game gets updated and modified, so will this guide (and the edit date and game version will reflect that). These posts are being locked and stickied, so discussions on such should be started of their own accord, if you so desire.
Hope these documents help you to further enjoy the wonderful game of M.U.L.E., and I look forward to settling Irata with you in the future, one plot at a time.
Big Head Zach
