Saturday, February 06, 2010

Eminent Domain v2.1

I tried my last idea about the technologies, and didn't like it as much. I missed the interesting different abilities. But it is true that the Tech cards have to be better than the basic cards so I revamped them again. This time they look like this:

Each type (Fertile, Advanced, Metallic) still has 1 deck, of 13 cards now. 8 Level 1 cards which all cost 3 research symbols, require 1 planet of the appropriate type, and have 2 icons on them. Each of these has an action that is better than (basically twice) the normal action for one of the symbols. So for example, the Colonize/Survey card in the Fertile deck says "Action: Draw 3 cards" on it. On the other hand, the Survey/Colonize card in the Metallic deck says "Settle a planet, then Settle another planet or add this colony to a planet" on it. I've got a nagging suspicion that I should not have put "...Settle another planet..." on there and left it at Settle and add this colony, but we'll see if that turns out to be a problem.

There are also 4 Level 2 techs in each deck - they're the ones that have both symbols matching the deck type, so for example in the Metallic deck, the 4 level-2 cards are Warfare/Warfare, Warfare/Survey, Survey/Warfare, and Survey/Survey. Each of those cards cost 5 research icons, require 2 of the appropriate planets, and is worth 2vp. They also each have a unique action which I hope will be cool and useful.

Finally, each deck has 1 of the 3 Level 3 cards I'd mentioned before - a card that does not go into your deck, but instead sits on the table giving you a static ability. The Metallic one is "Play an additional card each turn," the Fertile one is "Draw an additional card when not following a role," and the Advanced one is "Remove a card in hand from the game before choosing a role each turn."

I have also been thinking of the Follow cost for the Survey Role - currently "Draw 1 planet card per 2 Survey icons, keep 1." It always seems like you get a maximum of 1 card to look at, which is kind of OK - if you're following the role you don't get choice of planets. However, I don't like it as much, so I'm going to try "Draw X-1 planet cards, keep 1" where X of course is the number of symbols played. So the player choosing the role has +2 symbols on a player following the role (assuming they have the same number of symbols in hand) - 1 from the Role card, and 1 from the Follow penalty. I updated this and the research role on the player aid to keep everything up to date.

I think that should prove better than prior incarnations. i just updated my prototype, now to find someone to play with me!

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