So last night while laying in bed, I had this idea and grabbed a piece of paper to write down what was floating around in my head. Basically, every player will be the owners of their own gold mine. They will have four kinds of equipment that will:
A) Affect how much gold is mined in a turn; and
B) What quality the gold is, which in turn slightly affects the price at which players can sell the gold to the market.
Players will be able to buy better equipment throughout the game, increasing the values of points A and B above. There are lots of other things going on but the main issues I'm seeing at the moment and need some help with, are these:
1. The market price of gold will chance periodically, say every turn or so, but I have no idea how I will implement this. I really would like to avoid the idea of getting a random bunch of numbers and a player having to get out the calculator and work out the market gold price every turn. There has to be a far easier method of getting this number
2. As I've also said, the equipment players have has an effect on how much gold is collected every turn. This value could be changed by basically all the equipment. Whenever new equipment is bought, the gold collected counter for that player will need to changed as well. Now obviously, some people cheat so I'd like to make this simpler as well. One that adds the 'Gold Collected' numbers up shown on the equipment info and gives the player a hard number which other players can see (keeping cheating at bay, or hopefully so).
I hope that all makes sense. I'm looking quite forward to seeing the end result.
If this takes place in the Yukon, perhaps players are some of the first people to arrive in the Yukon, so the rush has just started. But as more people Rush to the Gold Fields, the price starts going down, and then, perhaps at the end, the gold starts to dry up, and the price begins to go up again. (If it's by season, then really bad winters might kill of the population present, and the population attempting to arrive.)
Perhaps there is the Claim each player works on, and then an "in town " board. Players can buy equipment from the General Store to increase their output from their claim, but in town, (which maybe only starts with a couple buildings) on blank plots, players can build buildings that help them too.
Maybe one player buys a Saloon/Inn, which gives a set amount of extra cash, which waxes and wanes along with the boom of the city. But if more players build inns, then the value of all of them go down.
Another player might build Refinery that, as you mentions, purifies the gold, thus increasing the price. Other players can come use your Refinery, but have to pay you.
Anyway, all that to say, sounds like a great game.
Thanks for the Input :)
I like the Town idea, it adds a lot extra to the game, but I'm not sure if it could be implemented that well. If one player say, buys a Saloon, and then another player does too, and after a while another player also joins in. Then the player that first bought a Saloon will feel he is getting less and less money and he can't do anything about it. Let's say Player 1 buys a building, he is making lots of money, is it in the other players' interest to also buy buildings, not getting loads of cash and potentially putting Player 1 off? I'm not sure if I'm being overly paranoid about this problem. But if you'd like to assure me that will not happen or maybe have another idea about this, then by all means, please share.
Oh and just to add, I initially had the idea in mind of a modern day Gold Rush, set in Alaska and Northern Canada. But I'm sure an older setting will attract more attention.