At this point in the development cycle for Captains of Industry, we are focused on the tech tree and the game timer. I ran another playtest on Saturday.
My variant of the game timer (where each Real Estate built counts towards the timer, however only one per round can become active in counting towards it) had an impact in preventing the second age from lasting 10+ rounds when all four player built real estate in a single round, and then none bought any more for the rest of the age. This tweak definitely only matters in edge cases, but as it prevents a game from going too long, I think that's an important edge case to guard against. Someone whose first game is too long likely won't play a second.
The tech tree activity wasn't very instructive, but it generated some ideas for techs that are more interesting and fit the overall design goals.
I will try to get another test this month, otherwise the next try will be at DexCon in July.
For those following along with the Captains of Industry development, I have a potentially interesting thing to share. It's puzzling to me, and so anyone who's played please feel free to comment on this...
ReplyDeleteIt appears that Michael's playtest games of Captains of Industry play out very differently than my playtests do. He seems to consistently have ages which last 10+ rounds (unacceptably long). My goal is to have ages which last 5-9 rounds, more often 6-8.
In my tests, Age 1 is consistently a little bit longer than that (8-11 rounds) which I find acceptable as players are building a foundation for their game. However, in my experience ages 2 and 3 have been going way too fast - the complete opposite of Michael's games! The latest configuration is finally working for me, providing age length of 6ish rounds... but that same configuration seems to lead to the game dragging out in all of Michael's tests.
Why do you suppose that is? I'm at a loss, because I have not seen a single game in which that happens, no matter who plays (experienced players, new players, 3 players, 5 players, etc).
As I mentioned, I'm interested in any thoughts you may have on this - especially if you've played the game recently.
Thanks!