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Move mechanics

5 replies [Last post]
Tue, 10/27/2009 - 04:31
GreenRock
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Joined: 10/26/2009

Hey everyone! I have recently gotten into this fine hobby of game design. I am working on my second game after my first game fell through faster than an overweight polar bear on thin ice. Anyway, I think it didn't work because I had no real input from other designers.

My question is in regards to a moving mechanic. My game is about paying to pick some up, put it in a vehicle, then take it to a storehouse. First one to fill up the storehouse wins. Right now different objects cost different amounts. Its kind of like Ticket to Ride, where a 7 point object cost 4 cards of a color, and a ten point object cost 5 cards of a different color. You can take different actions on your turn and one of them is collecting cards. I can't figure out a good way to make the vehicles move. I tried to use the same card collection system but that didn't work, like to travel so far you need x amount of y cards. That was boring, so I tried just having moving take up a whole turn. That didn't work either. What can I do to make moving, or even picking up objects, more interesting and strategic.

Thanks!

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Tue, 10/27/2009 - 10:48
#1
auvillebw
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Joined: 10/12/2008
May or may not work for you but...

I came up with a move mechanic for a game where players are trying to target locations to move to. It involves rolling more dice than the player is allowed to use. The player has a choice of which dice out of all the ones rolled are used for movement (i.e. roll four dice and pick out the two wanted to tally for movement, or roll five dice and pick the three wanted, etc...).

In your case, a mechanic like this could be adapted to your card system by selling x dice to players for y amount of cards. The more dice a player has to roll with, the better the chances that they will hit a desired number combination for movement. This provides for a somewhat controlled random element.

-Ben

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Tue, 10/27/2009 - 11:30
#2
Kirioni
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Joined: 09/20/2009
Fuel?

Perhaps they have to decide on a route to take and spend cards for fuel (movements). If you have a surplus of green cards you try to get to the green gas station and fuel up.

Maybe hauling a larger object costs more fuel per (road) segment to make it a cost/benefit choice. Can I both buy, and move a large object?, or should I move small objects more quickly but for less points.

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Tue, 10/27/2009 - 19:25
#3
GreenRock
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Joined: 10/26/2009
Both of these are good ideas.

Both of these are good ideas. There are no real road segments because you are using a spaceship to pick things up, so I don't know if all fuel costs the same to get there, but the cost to pick things up can vary.

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Mon, 11/02/2009 - 20:55
#4
Nix_
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Joined: 09/23/2009
Hmm spaceships. Maybe fuel

Hmm spaceships. Maybe fuel cards with movement values or destinations can be purchased or drawn from a pile. You might make them accessable only at fueling locations, and create a penalty for running out of fuel/movement cards. You could even make cards for teleporting or jumping to light speed.

Is there a capacity to the spaceships? Once a ship was full, you could have it automatically start to head back with its speed depending on the amount of cargo it is carrying.

Collect movement cards along with color cards? You could allow the players to use their movement cards whenever they wished.

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Tue, 11/03/2009 - 00:29
#5
Brykovian
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Joined: 07/21/2008
I always find multi-use cards

I always find multi-use cards an interesting thing in games.

Perhaps your cards have 1 thing for the pay-to-pickup piece (you've mentioned a color), and another thing for movement (maybe a movement value, or a navigation instruction like "move forward", "turn left", etc.) ... this would cause the players to have to make a decision about which way they want to use their cards.

Since it's spaceships, you might want to let the ships automatically continue to move their current speed in a straight line (as was suggested earlier), but then have something on the cards to speed up, slow down, and rotate.

-Bryk

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