i am trying to balance out a mechanic of the game i am working on. as it stands, my game is sorta like axis and allies but set in space. in the game there is a common deck that all players can draw from to get cards that will help them do various effects. the problem i am seeing is that if drawing the cards is mandatory, then it will be some time before the players are able to use them (as the players do not start with enough resources to pay the casting cost).
i can either leave it as is and just assume that these players will hoard up several cards before they are able to start using them, or else change it to where the players dont start the game drawing cards, but that they gain the ability to draw them as the game progresses. i have considered two different ways to implement the drawing of cards.
1. have the drawing of cards be one of the many "tech upgrades" that are already part of the game. this would allow the the player to choose between being able to start using cards and some other upgrade that pumps up their units or something. this choice would be made once and would effect the rest of the game perhaps (delaying other techs).
2. have the players pay for a card. using this option would mean that if a player wanted to draw a card, they would have to pay "the bank" to get one. this would mean that the player might have to choose between drawing a card or building more units, etc. this choice may only effect that turn (until their resources were renewed) and then the player could make a different choice the next time. this might also allow for two different types of players to emerge, those that favored cards, and those that didnt. perhaps if i wanted to keep a player from buying a lot of cards i could make them each expensive, or only able to draw one per turn, or perhaps i might want to allow a player to draw several and keep a large hand.
are there any other games that have a similar setup for their cards?
thanks for all the replies,
if the cards are drawn every turn then i will want to have a activation cost that will vary depending on the strength of the card. some cards might have the option to sacrifice other cards to replace the activation cost, but in that case it would likely be on a per card basis (specified on that particular card if it has that option). if i stick with this method, i will probably not allow players to buy more cards per turn because there are some other abilities and also some cards that allow the player to draw more under certain circumstances. one of the questions of this method is do the players start with any cards, or do they draw the first one on their first turn, etc. if they started with no cards and only built up their hand slowly, then the problem of not being able to play them earlier may be reduced quite a bit.
if the drawing of cards was a buying option, then perhaps the cards do not have an activation cost (similar to catan development cards) and this makes them potentially more powerful because you essentually paid the cost earlier when you bought it. this means that all the cards (unless the card specified otherwise) could be used even when the player was out of resources. i am not sure yet if i like this or not, because i think i want the player to have to mind how they spend their resources every turn. there is also the question of does the player start with say 3 cards, and have to buy the rest. or do they start with none?
perhaps they do have to buy the cards, but the cost of playing is split between the activation cost and the buying cost, as in the players pay a smaller amount to buy it (flat rate for all cards) but still have an activation cost (also smaller but varied based on the strength of that card).
after typing out my thoughts, i think i want the player to have some activation cost associated with the cards, particularly having to spend specific resources for specific cards (resource type management is a large part of the game).