As I explained in the previous post, I had to divide the
resources in 2 groups to control the amount of randomness “Industrial Revolution!” had, but I was not done with my
anti-randomness crusade.
I had a single deck of cards
at that point, and that also created some problems of their own, making the
game feel unfair in some cases.
I Had Bad Cards
Cards are the most important
aspect of the game, and I spent a lot of time making sure all of them were
really useful and powerful. When people said, “that’s overpowered”, the card
was working well. And yet, many players had the feeling they had bad luck with
them.
It wasn’t uncommon to see
somebody win the game while you had cards in your hand that you couldn’t use. This
is a big problem in a “Take that” game, as you can still have fun even if you
lose, if you had the option to annoy the other players during the game.
“Industrial Revolution!” has many different cards, but they can
roughly be categorized into offensive cards (harming your opponents in many
ways) and beneficial cards (usually defensive, or movement cards… though in
many cases they can also be used to harm opponents, if you are cunning enough).
The problem was, as usual with
random, that I couldn’t control how many of each type would be drawn, and it
was common to get too many of a certain card type during a certain period.
Too many of the offensive
cards in play, and it was impossible to win, as everybody was destroying all
the other players, making games last too long. Too many of the beneficial cards
in play, and it was impossible to stop somebody about to win, making games last
too little.
Solomonic Solution
As players have to draw 2
cards at the start of their turn, the solution was obvious. I divided the cards
in 2 decks, and one of each deck had
to be drawn.
Other elements of the game
allow players to draw extra cards, and those can be drawn from any deck the
players want, allowing them to choose their strategy, but with the new main
drawing mechanic, I can be sure there will always be a mix of both types of
cards in all player’s hands.
After the change, people
stopped complaining about their cards (well, most of them… there’s always THAT
guy…), and games were much more balanced, both in duration and in opportunities
to use the cards for all players.
Post a Comment