0.27.1 feedback

[Keybounce]

First things I noticed:
1. You'll see a list of all games in the lobby, including those that are already started. No indication of how far (Which round) they are.
2. There is an "add AI" button, but no "remove AI" or kick button. /Kick b.i.l.l. did not work.

[Keybounce]

Feature request: If I'm starting up a room, I'd like to set an /afk message to be sent to anyone that joins the room. Example: /afk it is now 7:15; game will start at 7:35

[Keybounce]

Fire does not destroy the smithore in the store

[Keybounce]

Planet quake destroys smithore, but not crysite.
Having no food, and no food mules, and no food in the store, does not starve the colony.

(Don't get both a fire, and a food mule running away, on adjacent turns. :-)

[Keybounce]

Game over conditions need to scale by number of people. Fewer people will produce less money in the colony, but that should not mean automatic fail for just 2 or 3 players

[Keybounce]

In general: An earlier version actually had food consumption go up significantly over the course of the game. This made food valuable. Now, we're back to food being just like mule 1. It's an afterthought unless you're out.

I'd like to see food go back to having value. Give people a choice: Dedicate a noticeable number of plots to food to be self sufficient, or buy it from dedicated producers on the market. Make food production a viable way to make money from other players, or from the store as need goes up.

[Keybounce]

Wanted: A change to "target amount of goods" for the store.

Right now, the store considers the ideal situation to be "Total units in the colony is one more than the number that the colony needs, with no units in the store".

I'd like to see that change to "Target is the colony having 150% of the need, with some in the store". In other words, if the total amount in the colony is barely more than needed, the store raises prices.

The primary target of this is food and energy. Right now, in order for either food or energy to have value from the store, you need to have shortages. Even if the players consider buying from another player to be smart, you've still got the store starting the price run way down at 10/15, and most players don't want to run up past the store's level. You also cannot sell extra to the store at the actual market value.

Whether or not it makes sense to put down an extra mining plot, adding 1/3rd production to each plot, or another food/energy plot and avoid buying food/energy, is a question I'll let others ponder. I personally feel that adding more people makes the food/energy provider strategy more profitable, but not if the game encourages people to think of them as "dirt cheap".

[data2008]

Thanks Keybounce for the detailed feedback!

Some of your questions:

We are testing right now how to balance the smithore gamble strategy,
hence two ideas are
- fire does not destroy the ore as it also does not destroy the mules, so no shortage for ore and
- quake does only hurt smithore production, while pirates hit the crystite

As for your idea to make food more valuable, one way is to increase need of food faster during rounds:
e.g. 333444555666

Note that its still early beta, so there is lots of opportunity to improve things here and there, so keep the ideas coming!

[cerealbusiness]

Or the store could actually consume a small amount of food....

A.I. did not participate in land auctions.

[Keybounce]

Simply increasing the need for food isn't enough. As long as the store is going to have a "base price" of 10 for energy and 15 for food, and those will only go up when there is a major shortage, then they will seem "unvaluable".

Right now, you can have one or two players suffering shortages, with people unwilling to sell, and the store won't offer a decent price.

I do like the idea of reducing the smithore gamble strategy; anything that increases crystite is good in my book. However, the idea of "plus 1 to every crystite" by running over them may be a little too excessive -- someone that can get an adjacent block on the left and can control worker pick has a major, major advantage. I will want to test that.

I am looking forward to testing my strategy of being a food and energy provider to the miners as a way to make money. In some sense, I like the idea of reducing smithore -- it makes crystite viable. It potentially makes "provider" viable.

But only if it's clear to the miners that it makes sense for them to put effort into mining (for the scale benefit) and that the provider is not overcharging, and if there are enough miners that a little bit from everyone is more than any one miner's mining.

[cerealbusiness]

i agree, the valuation of food and energy is always too low for anyone to sell to the market

but i think that the smithy bubbles get a lot of negative attention when in fact they can be countered, considering they're artificial in the first place. crystite in my opinion has a well balanced role in the current Planet Mule.

[Keybounce]

Please demonstrate a strategy that counters smithore bubbles without also putting you into second or third place (giving up any chance of being in first place)

I have yet to see it; anything that counters smithore drops your income such that you lose to the person that did not get involved in mining it or clobbering it.

[cerealbusiness]

Please demonstrate a strategy that counters smithore bubbles without also putting you into second or third place (giving up any chance of being in first place)

I have yet to see it; anything that counters smithore drops your income such that you lose to the person that did not get involved in mining it or clobbering it.

All you have to do is produce enough smithy to influence the market and then actually sell it every turn instead of hoarding it. if everyone else just buys your smithy before the market can then you're forced into. obviously when people have enough money to do that it can't be countered, this will stay the same no matter what you do.

In the end someone usually gets the raw end of the deal. Market manipulation/speculation is where a lot of the fun, nuance, and interest is in with mule. if anything i think it should be expanded on.

[cerealbusiness]

what rly upsets me more than this though, about the current versions of mule 2, is that collusion has gone to the back burner of being a worker ability that no one is going to go out of their way to use. in the original mule you could collude anytime. its rly a shame

[Keybounce]

Actually, I never figured out how to collude. Clues?