Subject: MN: Wild Thing

From: "Dunx (Duncan Ellis)" <DELLIS@u...>
Date: 09 Mar 99 12:53:01 +0000

Shifting the forum for this one, since it has wider application... 

For those not party to Game 13, Kevan had played a Wild and claimed the 
bonus for passing through five Interchanges. 

>>> +1 Silver for passing five Interchanges 
>> 
>>I don't think that's on, claiming a route bonus for a Wild - bluntly, it's
>>too easy. 

>I did go for a mere five, there, rather than exploiting it to the full 
>whenever I could. 
Your self-restraint does you credit. 

>And this issue has come up before, with no proposed 
>solutions to the problem; I just thought I'd rattle things up a little.
I'll 
>maybe propose a fix for this evening. 
Yes, it has. Should have thought about it more definitely before. 

>>Route bonuses should only apply to a normal Piece Move (which was the 
>>wording at one stage, IIRC), and no matter how you look at it Wilding is 
>>not normal. 

>"Normal" needs defining, really. If "[Wild]" renders your Move abnormal, 
>does [Home] (by the "loads of Interchanges" thing, it probably does)? But 
>does [Striling]? Does [LV+1], even? 

You're right, "normal" should perhaps be more explicitly defined. The
closest 
we have at the moment is the following from Rule 1.5.8: 

* A Piece's Move is its normal motion along LU lines, excluding all 
Action-related changes to position. This may be referred to simply 
as 'a Move' 

Again that troubling use of the word 'normal'... In those terms, the only 
normal Move is one which is modified only by acceleration. 

>Maybe it's worth having a look at the "passing through Interchanges" aspect
>of the Game; boiled down to its essence, it allows greater Token collection
>once the Game's been progressing for a while, and encourages Players to
take 
>circuitous paths to their destinations. At high velocities (quite aside
from 
>Wilding), it becomes fairly easy to get the tokens you need, and the 
>multiple-Token rewards border on the absurd. 

I know - I've been abusing them mercilessly. 

Personally, I think the passing through bit is worth keeping but that the 
rewards should be simplified again - those bonuses used to have exactly the 
same schedule as those for the number of lines per interchange. This has the 
added benefit of reducing the impact of very high velocities. 

>But I fear that just cutting it down to the "prizes for finishing at an 
>Interchange" will, although clearing a lot of things up, slow the game down
>too much. Any thoughts? 

Indeed. 

-- 
Dunx 
IRL: Duncan Ellis, Senior Software Engineer, Business Modelers, Oracle 
<I work for Oracle, I don't speak for them>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/l-nomic-d
Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com