Subject: MN-L: Re: Game 11...

From: "Wayper, Paul" <WayperP@p...>
Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 13:23:14 +1000

On Friday, May 14, 1999 10:08 PM, kevan@d...
[SMTP:kevan@d...] wrote:
> It would if you could only add one Token to a Stack at a time;
> theoretically, you can cough out dozens of Tokens during your Turn, so it
> becomes ludicrously easy to complete Stacks. If you've got a Blue, Red,
> Black and a couple of Greens, all you have to do is Hoard them at your
> Home Station and you've got yourself a Gold.

Which makes me more than surprised that no-one's really tried this. I did a
[Hoarding] in a similar wise to gain a Gold a while back, and I was thinking
the cat would be out of the bag after that.

*shrugs* Personally, Token Stacking is my preferred 'IMCS-approved' method
of gaining Golds. Manoeuvres will always remain possible, but I've been
thinking that we need to upgrade the add-a-manoeuvre procedure in order to
actually get people manoeuvring (if you'll forgive my sophistry). No cost
adds are relatively meaningless, and proposed manoeuvres always have the
danger of being out of proportion and possible immediate use by the
proposer. But for my part I haven't done anything I wanted (yet) to put a
name to...

Have fun, anyway,

Paul Wayper -- DPI ITS Computer Systems Officer
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From: kevan@d...
Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 11:32:00 -0000

> the cat would be out of the bag after that.

Oh, did you? Well done, then. My gaze must have been elsewhere.

> of gaining Golds.

It has a very traditional feel to it, certainly, but I don't think it's too compatible with the way that the game's working at the moment; Token Stacking is a fairly random affair, and quite hard (or at least uninteresting) to plan in advance ("Aha, if I do these pointless Actions this Turn, and these superfluous ones next Turn, I can complete a Stack"). And dropping Tokens along your route needs you to travel back and forth through the same Stations a few times for it to be of any use, which is less than exciting.

Cashing in Hats is perhaps the most "proper" of Gold-gettings, at least in its general style - you have to travel to a fairly wide range of different Stations to get everything you need, and this lends itself to a pleasing list of Moves.

I think the other methods are all fair enough, though, and we really need such things to keep the game diverse and interesting; better to have numerous attacks and defences than a simple set of strategies, I think. It wouldn't be Mornington Crescent, otherwise.

> Manoeuvres will always remain possible, [...]
> But for my part I haven't done anything I wanted (yet) to put a
> name to...

Me neither, and I do wonder if it's worth reinventing the concept of Manoeuvres, solving the flaw of their murkiness - perhaps a compulsory "I'm about to complete a Manoeuvre next Turn" Action, along the lines of Dunx's old "Atari" suggestion, would solve some of its troubles.

Kevan

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