Hey there bgdf,
It's been a while since my GDW entry, Ultra-Violets, (see
http://bgdf.com/nuke/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1047
for my timeslot discussion) so I thought I'd give an update on my recent progress. Time has been tight around here, but there's always time for playtesting games. I put links to the most recent files in my journal entry
http://bgdf.com/nuke/modules.php?name=Journal&file=display&jid=195
(so they can't be spidered by search engines)
It's been through about 7 more rule versions since being posted here, and being tested out at Protospiel, and a number of your suggestions really made the game much smoother and more strategic. The major changes have been to remove radiation, cut down the leaves and (all total number of cards down to the magic number 110), and rework the pests and maladies. In general, I've tightened up how players get their leaves, removed the show tieing mechanic, and limiting trading to only leaves. What I like best is the need to deduce what everyone else is collecting so your collections don't overlap. The game is now for 3-5 players and takes between 60-90 minutes.
Every store product now has an associated malady, and products either improve your situation and are destroyed by a malady, like the Grow Lights and Power Surge, or give you protection from an otherwise hurtful malady, such as the Mini-Heater and Cold Snap.
Trading is a larger part of the game, as you can never rearrange your plants, combined with only receiving leaves from your first few plants. To make a good collection, as well as cheaply buy store products, you'll have to remain distributed among a few leaf types, that or trade.
With the initial leaf limit reduced to 9, your choices are limited to buy one large product and one plant, one small product and two plants, or three plants, and you always wish you could do more. Grow lights are more powerful, but it takes a couple of turns buying a new shelving unit before they really start to pay off. And by then, there might be a power surge Malady.
And the Malady is the choice of the club president, which creates a tense competition in the show to determine the next club president, as they will decide which store product expires next. It also sets up the nice dynamic of Pests. There's two ways to avoid pests, first by having the Club Presidency move to a new player, or second by buying the Insecticidal Soap, but the President buys soap first, and therefore would telegraph to the rest of the players their intentions to spread Pests.
The changes over the last few games have been minimal tweaks, and I'd like to have some blind playtesting soon. I'm trying to paste on some other themes (harder than it looked initally..) such as archeology professors looking for artifacts, or dragon breeders trading eggs and hatching dragons, so it would be more marketable. If you're interested in being a playtester, PM me and I'll let you know when I have a second prototype ready.
Thanks for reading, all suggestions are welcome,
Mark
