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Input on area dominance/Scoring principles

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Fri, 08/06/2010 - 08:16
Candika
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Joined: 08/05/2008

Currently into designing a game where area control is one of the victory conditions.
Its a 3-5 player game so you could expect up to five different players in each zone.

There are two winning conditions for the game, where one condition is that the game ends if at any time a player is controlling half of the zones that can be controlled.

The other winning condition is more traditional and probably more likely, you play a fixed amount of rounds and then the calculation of victory points decides who will take the win.

There are som many creative solutions to how to calculate VP´s in this kind of situation, i just wanted to get this communitys input on whats their favourite way of doing this, which ways are plain boring ? which are funny ? Which are most cutthroat exiting ?

Any input or comments appreciated.
I should add that theres no hidden information at all, and that players will get VP´s from other sources aswell but the area dominance is the key to winning.

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Fri, 08/06/2010 - 11:42
#1
dnddmdb
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Joined: 01/06/2009
To kill two birds with one stone...

Shogun is an intersting area control game (with 3-5 players, no less) in which players build buildings in regions and produce armies. Now, there is no win condition in which if you control most of the board you win, but it still has what you are talking about.

For VP, there are two scoring rounds in the game (the second being the last thing that happens in the game). Each player gets 1 VP for every province they control. They also get 1 VP for each building in provinces they control. Finally, you look at each of the 5 zones seperately and calculate who has the most of a type of building. The player with the most castles gets 3 VP, the most temples gets 2 VP, and the most theaters gets 1 VP. So, as the game goes on the areas with buildings become more valuable as compared to the ones without. The game can get very interesting on the second round.

I hope this helps.

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Fri, 08/06/2010 - 14:55
#2
hulken
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Joined: 04/18/2009
Me I personaly like the way

Me I personaly like the way Struggle of empire does this. mThe player with most influens in a region scors a fixed number of points for that region, and the second largest player also scor a litle fuer points (and in som regions even a third player scors). Now hers to the funny part is 2 players a tied fore first place no player scor for second place, so this means you can really mess some one up while tieing for first place (same goes for second place if there is a thirs place, also if there is a tie for first place and there is scoring al the way down to three places the second is skipped and the that player scors the third posistion).

This way of scoring enables player to have "big" effect on a scoring while doing a smal change in the given region. Atleast thats my take on this.

Hope the input helps and you can use it to come up with somthing in youre game.

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Fri, 08/06/2010 - 15:47
#3
metzgerism
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Joined: 06/19/2009
Candika wrote:Currently into

Candika wrote:
Currently into designing a game where area control is one of the victory conditions.
Its a 3-5 player game so you could expect up to five different players in each zone.

There are two winning conditions for the game, where one condition is that the game ends if at any time a player is controlling half of the zones that can be controlled.

The other winning condition is more traditional and probably more likely, you play a fixed amount of rounds and then the calculation of victory points decides who will take the win.

There are som many creative solutions to how to calculate VP´s in this kind of situation, i just wanted to get this communitys input on whats their favourite way of doing this, which ways are plain boring ? which are funny ? Which are most cutthroat exiting ?

Any input or comments appreciated.
I should add that theres no hidden information at all, and that players will get VP´s from other sources aswell but the area dominance is the key to winning.

Can you explain your game a little more, by theme and mechanics? I am working on a 3-4 player area control game, and the stuff I found and ideas I had that did not pan out could be used in yours.

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Fri, 08/06/2010 - 18:02
#4
Candika
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Joined: 08/05/2008
I have posted a reply that

I have posted a reply that seems to be missing but i´ll try again.

Im not ready to give away the theme just yet because i think it could ruin the creative process when discussing.

All information is visible.
At the start of the game player are allowed to distribute up to 13 "buildings" during the start up phase.
There is a "construction phase" where one "building" could spawn another "building".
There is just one type of building and all players" buildings" are the same when calculating VP´s.

However the 20 different zones that makes the game map are not equal.
There are 4 different zones, type A,B,C,D
Where the distribution is 5,5,7,3 they are at this point worth an equal amount of VP´s.
However 2 of the four zones are more difficult to produce "buildings" during the "construction phase" due to negative modifiers during a die roll that occurs during "construction phase".

I have found that this difference sparks the long term strategic thinking, my first thought was to diversify the scoring VP´s from zone to zone but playtest show that it seems to be a good idea to keep it same.
It demands more of the risk/reward thinking from players.

There are a phase we can call it "battle phase" or "death phase" where i use a rock-paper-scissor mechanic to see which "buildings" that will survive this game turn.
This makes it more interesting or uninteresting to inhabit places that certain players already inhabit.

More comments or ideas are really appreciated.
How do i make it more interresting, fun ?

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Tue, 08/10/2010 - 10:04
#5
Candika
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Joined: 08/05/2008
I have put the scoring

I have put the scoring principle for area control aside a while and working with balancing the VP system.
The max amount of VP´s are more or less fixed and i still want fun, and creative suggestions of how to score.

You can also gain VP´s from:
Bidding on "Building upgrades".
"Money" left at the end of the game (used for bidding) on "Building Upgrades".
Number of "buildings" on game board.
Certain combinations of "Building upgrades" get you some bonus VP´s.
And last but not least the discussed area dominance.

Why i use "xxxxxx" in my text is because i want to keep the theme hidden for as long as possible so that the theme doesnt come in the way for the design process.
The theme is a stable and solid implementation and really just add to the flavour.

Incorporated features/mechanics are: open bidding, resource management, risk/reward analysis, area control and rock-paper-scissors combat mechanic.
One of the best features in my opinion is that game lenght is variable and that you have to adapt, maybe put your long term empire building strategy aside and go for some quick and easy points when you see the end is drawing near.

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