Game #62: Terra Prime by DrMayhem

I looked over the rules, and it reminded me of a game I tried to make a while ago... They aren't terribly similar (basically the term "Flagship" was all that caught my ear), but I thought I'd post a link to an outline I wrote up for you to take a look at... This was meant to be a play-by-email game for a few friends and I, and it never went anyplace, so feel free to take anything you want from it...

http://home.ripway.com/2005-2/259729/Space%20Thing.txt

The biggest question I have about the rules are the part where "nothing that is on the playing board is owned by any player." I like that idea, but I don't know how the mechanic "Cause Production (Spend an action to cause production of resources at all appropriate locations. Appropriate location have space structures which support production of resources)" will work... So if you build a Resource Mining building someplace, anyone with a nearby freighter can take advantage of it?

Other than that, I like the greater risk/greater reward system you have with the outer rings... I guess we'll have to see how the combat works out :)

First let me apologize for the lack of comepleteness on the rulebook. I was looking to have a more comeplete rulebook, but that didn't happen because of coming down with some wicked illness last week, either viral meningitis or pneumonia. I am feeling mostly better now.

To answer the first question that everybody is asking:

Skull/Crossbones Icon-- Pirate Icons:

There are 4 different pirate icons used to determine the strength of the pirates. There is the flag with the skull, skull and crossbones, guy looking out, and giant pirate captain. These are all pirates and would be shown in the instructions in the future.

More clarification on quadrants vs. sectors. ---

First, every building is built in a sector (which is the center of a hex).
Ships will always be in a sector (center of a hex again)
however movement is traced along the edges of a hex, I know this is kinda confusing.

mopre coming soon

What a bunch of whiners

The different planetary icons (comet, moon, planet, etc), only correspond to the values they have. They are only there to make everything more visually stimulating. A comet has a livability of 0, so I suppose somebody could build a colony there, but it would not do them any good.

Number of players 2-4, time: unknown, components: not totally known yet

Stole the idea from Zaiga, I am thinking this might be a Tasty Minstrel staple for start player determination.

Actions
4. Exploration: I assume you explore a 'sector' (tile) adjacent to your flagship, and that you can only move onto explored tiles... but it doesn't say that. Or can you explre across the board from your ship? Also, a "quadrant" is a quarter of a space, a vertex of a hexagon is a sixth of a space... maybe "sextant"?

Yes, exploration can only be done adjacently. Quadrant is just a term being used right now, although sextant wouldn't be good either, we are not talking about an ancient navigational tool

It explicitly states in the rules that buildings are placed in sectors (the center of a hex). Or at least the rules should explicitly state that. You can build anywhere that does not have a pirate king. edit: I see you note I said where buildings go

8. Move: Now this is a big one... what the heck does it mean to trace a path from one sector to the next without crossing asteroids (which are in the quadrants)?

Movement.... I am not really sure. that quote certainly doesn't make sense to me. Changing from the original action at the vertices to the action being in the hex has made movement very poorly defined. This is something that will have to be reworked to deal with both the route-planning and the action happening in the center of the hexes. But overall the action in the center will cause better visual element to the game.

How would removing all notions of 'quadrants' at the hexes, and put asteroids along any leg of a hexagon. Then ships can not travel through legs that have asteroid fields. I think this would help solve this problem.

10. Combat: You didn't really explain what happens when a Pirate is encoutnered. I believe you said before that when you explore a tile and there's a pirate you either have to fight or retreat. This should be stated under Exploration.

11. Instead of Pirate Kings, to be more thematic, how about an aggressive alien race. The game ends when you run into 2 colonies of this race, or when the Terran colonization is enough for the aliens to leave them alone (all the colonists are gone- moved to colonies or whatever) (or just all he VPs are gone.

sure, sure, sure

Also, it might be cool to allow the board to be free form, rather than a set shape. Just go through the Green tiles first, hen the Yellow, then Red... Then again, you can't go exploring deeper space until everything close to home's been explored.

LOL! The freeform shape. this is the way I had the game originally, but I believe you said the difficulty of the sectors should be determined by the distance from home. I agreed as I felt it would make the game more orderly and figured out a way to do it!.... I just think that is very funny.

I do like how anyone can use any building, and how you get the VPs for building them...

- Seth

37 tiles including the starting sector. Not too few, possibly too many as it will help cause less player interaction.

The buildings being used by anybody.... Purely theme driven and yet really interesting.