Longer games; value food and energy at end

[Keybounce]

I'd like to see the option for a longer game. 12 months is often not enough to develop the whole colony if things go badly early. At 18 or 24, the quality of land (crysite value) becomes important, as does keeping the food/energy supply at actual need instead of very high or very low.

The last turn of the game right now values energy (demand for calculating final price), but not food; devs have stated that this is a bug, and the current version will not value either. I'd like to see both valued as demand, so that the food/energy producers are not harmed in the last round.

[kipley]

I'd like to see the option for a longer game.

As an option, "never-as-the-default" type of thing, I philosophically have no objection.  However...

12 months is often not enough to develop the whole colony if things go badly early.

Whaaa?  Really?  I've played a lot of games of Mule, and I've yet to ever see even one of my games end without the entire colony being developed.  Usually they're pretty close to being completely developed around round 10.

At 18 or 24, the quality of land (crysite value) becomes important, as does keeping the food/energy supply at actual need instead of very high or very low.

I agree that lengthening the game would increase the importance of having land with good crystite.  I would say that it would make it TOO important.  Right now, the game is interesting because different things become valuable at different times.  But by the 12th month, crystite is (generally) the best resource to be mass-producing.  Smithore is usually not worth much by round 12 because all the plots are developed, so no more mules need to be made.  Food and energy are only worth anything later on if there's some sort of disaster or player misstep, and even then they're only worth more for a round or two before the players adjust and recover.  Not much about the above situation would change for any months past round 12... crystite would still be the way to go for every subsequent month.

So lengthening the game would, in my opinion, change the strategy to emphasize crystite plots way too much.  You could safely ignore all the early month happenings with strategically getting into the other resources and at the right times and maximizing profits, because you'd know that none of that jockeying for position would matter in the long run... it'd be all about who could produce the most crystite at the end month after month.

Plus, the gameplay for the extra months would be quite boring.  I envision players pretty much always running straight to the pub each turn, as they'd already have their plots all set up for maximum crystite production and adequate energy production, and there would be little reason to rearrange anything.

[donkyhotay]

Often on my 11th & 12th turn I usually run right to the pub as it is. Once the plots are all developed and everything is as balanced as you can get there is no reason to change things. I often eliminate all my food production during those rounds just because I'd go straight to the pub anyways and the time I get from food doesn't earn me enough in the pub to be worth not using it for something else.

[Big Head Zach]

Often on my 11th & 12th turn I usually run right to the pub as it is. Once the plots are all developed and everything is as balanced as you can get there is no reason to change things. I often eliminate all my food production during those rounds just because I'd go straight to the pub anyways and the time I get from food doesn't earn me enough in the pub to be worth not using it for something else.

You'll make more off that food being in the Pub than trying to produce Energy in the river valley. If Food is expensive in the later rounds, then I understand, but then, Food is expensive, so you should be making it and selling it.

[Pescado]

I wouldn't say 12 turns not being enough to develop the entire colony if things go badly early is COMMON, but it can happen, particularly with a combination of bad events and incompetent players. But this isn't COMMON.

[veridia]

I'd like to see the option for a longer game. 12 months is often not enough to develop the whole colony if things go badly early. At 18 or 24, the quality of land (crysite value) becomes important, as does keeping the food/energy supply at actual need instead of very high or very low.

The last turn of the game right now values energy (demand for calculating final price), but not food; devs have stated that this is a bug, and the current version will not value either. I'd like to see both valued as demand, so that the food/energy producers are not harmed in the last round.

I'm in favor of restoring the original rules on this. I played my first game of this version of M.U.L.E. and noticed at least 3-5 major changes in gameplay. (Major) meaning it has a significant effect on strategic implications.

At the end of the game of classic M.U.L.E., food in the last round was needed at a rate of 1 per plot of land owned by player. (If memory serves me correctly) In the game of this client, the entire need for food was mysteriously eliminated. The same happened to energy, which was always tied to the number of non-energy producing plots. The need for food was always 1,1,1,2,2,2,2,3,3,3,3,# of plots. (in order of rounds)

[veridia]

I'd like to see the option for a longer game.

As an option, "never-as-the-default" type of thing, I philosophically have no objection.  However...

12 months is often not enough to develop the whole colony if things go badly early.

Whaaa?  Really?  I've played a lot of games of Mule, and I've yet to ever see even one of my games end without the entire colony being developed.  Usually they're pretty close to being completely developed around round 10.

At 18 or 24, the quality of land (crysite value) becomes important, as does keeping the food/energy supply at actual need instead of very high or very low.

I agree that lengthening the game would increase the importance of having land with good crystite.  I would say that it would make it TOO important.  Right now, the game is interesting because different things become valuable at different times.  But by the 12th month, crystite is (generally) the best resource to be mass-producing.  Smithore is usually not worth much by round 12 because all the plots are developed, so no more mules need to be made.  Food and energy are only worth anything later on if there's some sort of disaster or player misstep, and even then they're only worth more for a round or two before the players adjust and recover.  Not much about the above situation would change for any months past round 12... crystite would still be the way to go for every subsequent month.

So lengthening the game would, in my opinion, change the strategy to emphasize crystite plots way too much.  You could safely ignore all the early month happenings with strategically getting into the other resources and at the right times and maximizing profits, because you'd know that none of that jockeying for position would matter in the long run... it'd be all about who could produce the most crystite at the end month after month.

Plus, the gameplay for the extra months would be quite boring.  I envision players pretty much always running straight to the pub each turn, as they'd already have their plots all set up for maximum crystite production and adequate energy production, and there would be little reason to rearrange anything.

The only way to do this is to increase the board size from 44 plots of land. That way development would last longer to compensate for an increased number of rounds. To be fair though, the number of rounds is enough to develop the entire board with ease.

[meric]

About games always ending in crystite production... What about creating a new outfit - "Factory". each turn takes 2 iron ore and produce a "product". The price of a "product" will be 2x smith ore price + X, where X is a random number between 20 and 75 and has 2x bonus from EOS but uses 2x the energy. Any that are sold are moved off-world, just like crystite.

I think it'll definitely change the end game a bit... since ore is cheap at the end, you might just buy ore and make factories.

But then, smithore won't be cheap at the end any more.

I'm a new player so maybe I shouldn't be suggesting new things just yet... but I couldn't resist.

[Rogue Cat]

I'd like to see the option for a longer game. 12 months is often not enough to develop the whole colony if things go badly early. At 18 or 24, the quality of land (crysite value) becomes important, as does keeping the food/energy supply at actual need instead of very high or very low.

The last turn of the game right now values energy (demand for calculating final price), but not food; devs have stated that this is a bug, and the current version will not value either. I'd like to see both valued as demand, so that the food/energy producers are not harmed in the last round.

If you carefully plan your development from the start, the only thing that can make it go that bad is a rival player making you unable to get food and/or energy. Other than that, you just need time (AKA enough food), money (in case of expensive MULEs) and energy. Once you have all of them, it's easy to advance.

The tournament mode should not be altered this way. Having so much time to play, it would be quite easy to buy all the smithore, release all MULEs, leave a few empty plots, re-sell it for its max price, place new MULEs in those emptied plots and repeat the process once the smithore cost had gone below $100 again. However, longer games can give a new meaning to training games with less than 4 players. That way, 2 players can play 1-on-1 until the whole map has all its plots claimed. It would be quite an interesting experiment.

No special comments about the energy and food topic.