Events and their triggers.

[DaNaRkI]

Just a few of the events and when they should not occur

Pirates - if there is not one single piece of crystite, then what are they stealing? If no one has mined any stone, no pirates

Fire - if the store just burned down two turns ago, why is it burnning again? no/low stock (ie less then 10 units of all resources combined) in store, no fire.

Game just starts, everyone just grabbed thier very first plot and development phase starts - person "in 1st" gets their roof eaten by cat-bugs?  This is just wrong, as for the very first turn rank is not an indicator of that persons wealth to the rest of the colony; it's randomly assigned by the computer.  So no rank based events good or bad in turn 1.

(optional) A mule that has just been placed in a new plot (one that has not had a mule on it yet) fresh from the store should not be effected by radiation and go crazy that very turn.  Its brand shiney new even the most cheaply built things last 1 day, but its fine if by the second turn it gets fried and runs off.

[kipley]

If pirates didn't come if there was no crystite produced, it would change gameplay a bit.  Right now in many games oftentimes nobody produces crystite for half the game, or more, instead going the smithore route at the beginning.  Since the pirates wouldn't come early in those games, either players would tend to wait LONGER to switch over to crystite (for fear that the pirates would come as soon as they do a big switch in production), or somebody will start turning one token plot of land into a crystite producer early as a sacrifice to tempt the pirates to come (and thus reduce the worry about pirates for the rest of the game).  Not saying the changes to gameplay would be good or bad, just observing.

I agree that it's odd when the store burns and there's nothing in it.  I wouldn't mind the fire store event being prevented if the store is empty.  But I'd disagree with turning off the event if the store is merely LOW... oftentimes, even if the store only has a couple of units of something, it can still make a big difference to gameplay if there's a fire or not.

There are no player events, good or bad, on turn one.  Feel free to submit a game log correcting me if I'm wrong, but I've never seen an event on turn one, that I can recall.

[Mt-Wampus]

I totally agree about the random events! Would like to see no good or bad events before round 3. First 2 rounds no events to players! To soon.

[DaNaRkI]

If pirates didn't come if there was no crystite produced, it would change gameplay a bit.  Right now in many games oftentimes nobody produces crystite for half the game, or more, instead going the smithore route at the beginning.  Since the pirates wouldn't come early in those games, either players would tend to wait LONGER to switch over to crystite (for fear that the pirates would come as soon as they do a big switch in production), or somebody will start turning one token plot of land into a crystite producer early as a sacrifice to tempt the pirates to come (and thus reduce the worry about pirates for the rest of the game).  Not saying the changes to gameplay would be good or bad, just observing.

I don't see how it would effect any of that.  if someone wanted to use a plot to try and tempt a pirate hit, it would do nothing more then set the game back to the way it operates now.  Also, is there some part of the programing that says the pirates only attack up to some preset number of times?
I also don't see it effecting when people start mining crystite, is there some part of the programing that says pirates will always attack?

Of the games I'ed played the players often would comment of how they are expecting pirates in round 9-11 a point where everyone is already going through the change to crystite, and have stocks of 20 or more.


As for my thing about events 1st round, i'm still looking through the logs of the games from that night, but its very possible it was round 2 or 3 since i was getting sleepy and such.  But like Mt-Wampus said, its the start of round 2 i only have 1 mule, does it really need to lose a bolt?

[kipley]

Pirates visit either 0, 1, or 2 times per game (though 1 time is by far the most common).  As far as I know, it's pretty much random if/when they appear... and that they don't tend to appear more if players are producing more crystite.  Players will often comment that pirates will appear because now there's a lot of crystite being produced, but I think that's more players bemoaning ironic twists than a reflection of actual game odds.  I've seen pirates come many times when nobody is producing anything, and I've seen them completely ignore games where there's collectively 300 crystite being produced in a turn.

My comments on how your proposed change of pirate visitation affecting game play is a reflection of how I would change my gameplay, if pirates were to never come if no crystite is being produced.  As the game works right now, I tend to wait before switching over to crystite until the pirates have already come once, and will dive wholeheartedly into crystite if they've already visited twice.  Right now, one of the reasons to NOT get into crystite early is because pirates might come early.  But if I knew pirates would never come if nobody produced any crystite, I would definitely tend to change my gameplay in the ways my original post described.

As far as having no bad events in round 2, you kind of run into a slippery slope there.  Why not have no bad events in round 3, either?  Right now the rule is no bad events in round 1, which you can argue is a good cutoff point for two reasons:  1.)  In round 1, you only have one plot of land, so certain bad events can be unusually devastating (lose a plot of land, for instance).  2.)  In round 1, you haven't done anything yet to earn 1st place (which always gets bad events) or 3-4 place (which always gets good events), so to punish/reward you for the place that you're randomly assigned to would be arbitrary.

But once you hit round 2, you've had a chance to jockey yourself into 3rd place, if you want to be safe from bad events, so I say let the events fly starting in round 2!

[piete]

This discussion has been going on earlier already, but now that I bumped here I may as well reiterate my opinion:

All player events back to round 1, just like in the original!
And negative (global) events like pest and radiation also possible to 2nd player, just like in the original.

Nobody said Mule is fair. Is life?

I remember reading that the original Mule received hundreds of hours of playtesting BEFORE it was released, and in my opinion it still is the most balanced version. In some (of the original version's) games I have had really bad luck, but it should even out (we tend to remember only bad luck). And if you keep staying 1st/2nd since the beginning, there may be something wrong with your strategy, after all, now that original source code is available (and the Planetmule version is also well documented) we all know exactly how the game plays.

[Mt-Wampus]

No reason to simply COPY the original M.U.L.E. game! Take the good and keep it but take the bad and change it! Dont just update the graphics and give us online play. The original MULE wasnt perfect! Now is the time to perfect it not just simply copy it!

[piete]

The original MULE wasnt perfect!

Heretic!

[Makelith]

The original MULE wasnt perfect!

Whatchu talking bout Willis?

[Rogue Cat]

Just a few of the events and when they should not occur
Pirates - if there is not one single piece of crystite, then what are they stealing? If no one has mined any stone, no pirates

Pirates don't keep an eye on what the target is producing. They happen to pass by, they plunder the planet. Tuna Fishermen can tell you that they don't carry treasures, but hostages and ransoms are a profitable business if you are a pirate.

Fire - if the store just burned down two turns ago, why is it burnning again? no/low stock (ie less then 10 units of all resources combined) in store, no fire.

In theory, food would be the only combustion source. Energy, metal and crystal can't burn like that. Let's supposse that is was caused by a sunlight accident or lit cigar, nothing to do with the gasoline can that player with so much Smithore was carrying into the shop.

Game just starts, everyone just grabbed thier very first plot and development phase starts - person "in 1st" gets their roof eaten by cat-bugs?  This is just wrong, as for the very first turn rank is not an indicator of that persons wealth to the rest of the colony; it's randomly assigned by the computer.  So no rank based events good or bad in turn 1.

Why is it wrong? Do you have something against the cat-bugs? They just like the taste of your tiles. Prepare for spending your whole MULE season without a ceiling on your head... =^¬_¬^= Don't worry, things like that happen a lot. In fact, in my first game in Planet MULE I lost a plot of land in the second turn.

(optional) A mule that has just been placed in a new plot (one that has not had a mule on it yet) fresh from the store should not be effected by radiation and go crazy that very turn.  Its brand shiney new even the most cheaply built things last 1 day, but its fine if by the second turn it gets fried and runs off.

I don't think that MULEs can be immune to radiation. There is a meltdown, you happen to be in the area, tough luck. Not something that happens everyday, but it can happen.

To sum up, the funny side of MULE is the random event stuff. It's like gambling, running the risk of something happening. If you don't have that little chance of suffering the punishment, it wouldn't be that entertaining after all. (Even when starting.) It's like when you get 2 pirate visits before round 5, or a fire in first round when only one player is producing food... things like that totally change the course of the game.

[BennyBladez]

if you have just bought a piece of land at auction there should be NO way to lose it that turn because it was unregistered, otherwise it starts to look like the local BLM is getting sloppy or corrupt