@Victor:
I have played the Settlers of Catan, but I haven't played The Starfarers of Catan yet (although as I understand, the basic mechanics are similar).
However, there is still quite a differe3nce between Starfarers and Solar Flare. Starfarers is about resource collection and trading, where as Solar Flare is a combat game.
@Enrique
Although I am going to stay with the design I already have, these ideas you have can be included in your own version as I have released this under a Creative Commons licence.
In early versions I did include activities like ramming and such, but I found that it either was too over powered or because it equally effected the ramming ship it conveyed no real advantage to the rammer (and so was not used).
The other problem I faced is having too many rules (it is already quite rules heavy as is). Including more anomalies in the initial release really wouldn't add all that much to the game, and would make it that much harder for new players to learn. However, as expansion packs and additional rules, these things are good ideas. As it is now under a CC licence these kinds of ideas are easy for anyone to develop and include themselves, but the core gameplay needs to be kept as simple as possible but allow the core gameplay to function.
If you have any experience with game development (as well as most other technical projects), you might be aware of Feature Creep. This is where new and interesting features are added to the core of the project, but at a certain point, although good ideas in and of themselves, don't actually add to the original concept.
I have struggled with Feature Creep even with this game. I originally had nearly twice the number of types of anomalies, had very complex build mechanics, etc.
The problem with the build mechanics for the ships was the most troubling as I could not really find a simple solution to it. However, through play testing, and feedback I kept adjusting the values of the components you add to the ships. The solution I found to this problem was that as I kept readjusting these values they started to settle on similar values, so I just dumped the whole complex build mechanic (I had spent quite a while trying to get the original build system to work so dumping it was difficult) and used a build points system instead which simplified the whole build process significantly (but didn't didn't eliminate the complexity entirely). It also allowed me to develop the Beginner, Standard and Advanced build rules while still allowing ships from each to compete equally with each other.
I have also attached the first anomaly token sheet (the moons) to this post. However due to the need to reduce the file size the quality is a bit low (as well as a few artefacts).
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Solar Flare Moons.pdf
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