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In the beginning

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Anonymous

When I was test playing my game is realised that it started very slow. So i though of some changes such as extra cards or more farms but none of these things would really work. So I was curious wich method's you use to speed up a game in the beginning.

Gamebot
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Joined: 07/30/2008
In the beginning

Could you describe how your game is slow when it starts off? I would assume then that it gets faster as the game progresses. Maybe you can look at the state of the game during the mid-game and try to somehow start there.

Johan
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Joined: 10/05/2008
In the beginning

Hi

I can find a slow start as reveling. Players that are not so familiar with the rules can get learn by playing.
If the game has a slow start and you have to do everything according to a plan to make it work, then you have a problem. This can be solved by adding an initial setup (or random setup) where you start somewhere in the game (remove the start).
The slow start can also depend on that the players have to many options and to many start pieces. This can be limited or use the initial setup also for this problem.

I think that we need to know more of your specific problem to help you.

// Johan

Anonymous
In the beginning

The problem is that how more you built how more you get and too soon you have to much, but in the beginning its very hard to built anything.

Essence
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Joined: 12/31/1969
In the beginning

We could be more helpful if you gave us more details about the game's mechanics and the specific nature of the problem.

Anonymous
In the beginning

In the game there are 4 main buildings: farms wich produces materials such like wood, grain and stone; cities wich makes commodities from the materials; army buildings, and harbors. In the beginning I tried to differse the sections so that each player concetrate on one of the three sections: army, farms or cities. The player with the most farms may decide every turn wich material is collected, the player with the most cities may decide every round where may be build, and the player with the most armies gets 1/4 from all commodieties that are maked. The bord exist out of squares and some squares are colored. On the colored squares there may be build farms, on the blank squares you may cities or an fortress. Special marked squares ar for the harbors. Materials much be handcrafted to be used for building. for Each city you have you may handcraft 2 materials to 4 commodities. In the beginning the farmers gets the most materials and he doesn't need other players to help him so he becomes to strong. Also to support the colonisation I have maid the products on the island extra worth so that when the island is reach the game losses his balance

Hedge-o-Matic
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Joined: 07/30/2008
In the beginning

One problem seems to be that the three types of development are not parallel, but serial. That is, the farmers are the bottom of the pyramid, and thus powerful in the early game, while the cities gain power after this, and, seemingly, the armies gain power as the other two develop. to balance this, you seem to have made the payout to the farmers less, and so forth.

Development that is recursive may be closer to what you are looking for. So farmer make raw materiels, cities take raw materiels and turn it into finished goods, and the army uses finished goods to protect the farmers. Excess goods may be sold, traded, whatever you want.

This sort of system would make a player develop aspects of all three, but concentrate on one or two as they see fit. This will make the opening of the game an important and interesting time.

Anonymous
In the beginning

introduce tax round.

the farmer has to pay taxes of what he harvest to the city. The city has to pay taxes to the military or support them with equipment...

Essence
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Joined: 12/31/1969
In the beginning

How does adding a tax improve early-game development?

My suggestion is to start the game mid-cycle. Assume that the farms have been running, the cities producing, and the armies defending for several turns. Write down what, on average, each group would have after, say, 10 turns of play. Then make that the starting point, so that those early turns are effectively skipped.

That also seems to go a ways towards balancing out the serial-parallel problem that Hedge-o-Matic mentioned.

CardboardAddict
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Joined: 12/31/1969
In the beginning

You could try to introduce a few starting buildings which produce more than the regular amount of (whatever they produce) for a couple of turns.
That way, players gather resources faster.

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