MERGED: Overall Speed of Play (poll)

[BallsInMyMouth]

What do you think, I know that I'd like it to move faster, or even better have options you could speed up the gameplay or eliminate some animations.

Thanks a lot and great game

[mikman]

I voted yes, but I think the game could be sped up differently then by eliminating the animations etc. adn it would be nice if we could get a full tournament game to under an hour (currently any game I have played is at least 1¼ hours long and closer to 1¾ hours long.

- One suggestion would be to make the auctions quicker buy ending them once sellers have run dry, buyers are out of money (or all players agree to skip auction by pressing buttons).

[Intergalactic Mole]

If you do the math, it's not possible to complete a game in under an hour, no matter what you do unless you remove actual elements from the game and change the way it is played from the original game.  Let's assume it's a game with 4 human players.  If each player takes approximately 60 seconds just to develop (not including any time from land grand, production, auctions, summary) that is 48 minutes right there over the course of a 12 month game. ...  And so the bottom line is that it takes a long arse time to play this game and it always will !!!  Trying to shave seconds off here and there isn't going to really make much of a difference overall.  I am not saying it shouldn't be done, just don't think that you're going to finish a game in less than an hour.   

[Karawane]

There are a few ideas to speed up the game a little. One of them is cutting off all unrelevant delays (see other threads). A more significant one would be to let the players do their development simultaneously. If I see it correctly, the providing of MULEs is the only mechanism that would require a new form balancing then. So, how about that?

[Intergalactic Mole]

It is a valid suggestion for MULE 2010, but not for the current version, since it would change the rules.  The current versions goal is to be as true to the original game as possible.

[Karawane]

The simultaneous development phase would, of course, not be an idea for the authentic M.U.L.E. but for an advanced version (what I thought this thread is for). However, I do not think it would alter the gameplay too much: Right now, the players' development phases do not interfere with each other except for the snapping up of somebody else's M.U.L.E.s. If you gave each player access to the number of M.U.L.E.s she or he would get in a regular turn (e.g. 2 MULEs for each player if there were 8 MULEs in the store) the game would pretty much progress the way it usually does. The only thing missing is the possibility to buy up additional MULEs and let them go free so that subsequent players couldn't buy them. I wouldn't miss that too much, and the gain in game speed would be considerable.

[Intergalactic Mole]

Right now, the players' development phases do not interfere with each other except for the snapping up of somebody else's M.U.L.E.s.

Not true.  For one, players frequently make decisions about what to develop based on previous developments. For example, if I see you stocking up on Smithore, I may decide to do the same to prevent you from monopolizing Smithore.  In addition, players would not be able to see the result of other players assays.

[Big Head Zach]

Moving this to the Feedback & Suggestions forum since it's not about altering mechanics, but improving the interface.

[ltbeeb]

i agree with zack i want to see what the other person in the lead is doing before i take my turn.  1.5hrs with 4 players is acceptable

[Intergalactic Mole]

Zach didn't suggest that, I did ! 

[MrBrown]

It is a valid suggestion for MULE 2010, but not for the current version, since it would change the rules.  The current versions goal is to be as true to the original game as possible.

I absolutely agree concerning "simultaneous development", although that would be a nice option/gamemode for an extended MULE version.

Movement speed on the map as well as in auctions and the development timer should also be tweaked to be as close as possible to the original. For the "extended Version" all that stuff can/should be tweaked differently of course.

[Jaradakar]

i agree with zack i want to see what the other person in the lead is doing before i take my turn.  1.5hrs with 4 players is acceptable

Hum... same form avatar.... booo 

[Bertoid]

I agree that the speed of the game can be slow sometimes, but I think making big changes will only rush the experience.  I mean you could forgo all animations and just click on what you want (click MULE corral and click Energy and you've outfitted your MULE in 2 seconds) and speed the game up by 50%, but then you lose the feel of immersion. 

Making characters walk faster will only make it more difficult to be accurate in your MULE placement and whatnot.  The parade is a wonderful chance to see who's in first place, etc in a slightly suspenseful, whimsical way that adds what, 4 seconds to each round?  I say keep it.  Skipping auction 12 is silly.  True, most people wouldn't do anything during those auctions, but they should have the option to.

All that said, I do think that if the pirates stole all the Crystite, just skip the Crystite auction altogether.  Don't bother setting it up and then saying you're going to skip it. 

It's great that we no longer have to watch the Mechtrons take their turns in real time.

And any opportunity to have all the players press the button skip ahead is an opportunity that should be taken.  If the acid rain cloud comes and everyone wants to skip it, let us skip it.  God, remember how long it took for the old Atari spider to eat all those food units??!!? 

I think the game could be sped up slightly, but I don't like the idea of not letting the game play out.  It's like when you're playing multiplayer and one of the players says, in round 9, "Good game, Joe.  Congratulations on winning.  Too bad Sam will come in second."  That irritates the crap out of me.  I understand that great chess players can see the whole game play out from one single move and the rest is just tedious for them, but I, for one, enjoy playing the game and seeing it through to its conclusion.

[MrBrown]

Skipping auction 12 is silly.  True, most people wouldn't do anything during those auctions, but they should have the option to.

They should have the option IF these option could actually change the outcome - otherwise it's just confusing because players think they can do something useful, but actually they cannot.

[Enlightenment]

In training mode, when playing against ONLY robot players, please add a key to let the game know that I'm finshed and if all the robots are finished to immmediately move on to the next screen ASAP!

I want to play the game faster in training mode!!!!!!!!!!!!