M.U.L.E. Post your scores here!

[carlsson]

Oh well... sometimes the game doesn't play the way you expected it. Tonight was a such game. I decided to try again and go for smithore, but was too greedy and wanted the price to increase faster than it did. It meant I was sitting on a small stock of smithore, at the same time I had a total shortage of food, energy, was mostly strapped for cash and had a half dozen (!) undeployed plots halfways into the game. To add insult to injury, a couple of times when I was low on time, I tried to place a mule and lost it when the time ran out.

 

Eventually I began to sell my leftover smithore stock, and somehow managed to not waste the money on booze. In the last few rounds I even climbed into 2nd place, though far from the winning seat. In the end though the other computer players catched up so unusually I ended in last place!

 

Carlsson (Blue Humanoid) - 18824 pts, last place

Colony total - 82164 pts

 

 

 

Rd Land Auction       Event              Smit Crys Food Ener  Order
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1 740VC 680RC        Crazy Mule GC        57   68   15   10  VC GC RC BH
 2 620NS              Crazy Mule VC        50   --   43   17  RC GC BH VC
 3 302NS              Meteorite Strike     58   88   81   49  RC GC BH VC
 4 211RC 151VC        Fire in Store        44   60  156  109  RC VC GC BH
 5 399GC 339NS        Pest Attack RC       50  120  177  100  RC GC VC BH
 6 --                 Meteorite Strike     50   72   65   65  RC GC VC BH
 7 505RC 489RC 525VC  Planetquake          43  108   17   51  RC GC VC BH
 8 1093GC             Planetquake          50   52   15   31  RC GC VC BH
 9 --                 Pest Attack RC      102   88   15   36  RC GC VC BH
10 --                 Acid Rain Storm     110   52   15   67  RC BH VC GC
11 --                 Acid Rain Storm      74   60   15  141  RC BH VC GC
12 --                 Transport Ship       50  116   23  114  RC VC GC BH

Note that not a single pirate ship arrived during the entire game! All in all a very unusual round, but every once in a while one gotta have those as well.

[tompateus]

Yeah, thats true..

The comp. really whent all in on crystite..! Almost every time i play, two comp. goes for smithore only and one can go for crystite.

[carlsson]

Generally I see the opposite, two computers going for crystite and the third going for smithore to keep the mule population going.

 

Hopefully I'll get another chance to play soon, and perhaps run a more traditional strategy that doesn't put me so far behind to begin with.

[Rybags]

I don't get why you have so few "nothing happens" rounds. I've not played in a while but I'm sure the average is at least 1 per game and not uncommon to sometimes get 2 or even 3.

[carlsson]

I thought "nothing happens" is a bug and frankly I get surprised the few times it happens. Supposedly it shouldn't depend on which version one plays. Did you play on Tournament as well? I'm thinking that with Standard 12 months that lacks crystite, perhaps there are more "nothing happens" rounds to compensate for the lack of pirates.

[+therealbountybob]

Yeah, thats true..

The comp. really whent all in on crystite..! Almost every time i play, two comp. goes for smithore only and one can go for crystite.

 

 

Generally I see the opposite, two computers going for crystite and the third going for smithore to keep the mule population going.

 

Hopefully I'll get another chance to play soon, and perhaps run a more traditional strategy that doesn't put me so far behind to begin with.

Always great reading the latest "MULE NEWS" Now this is interesting (both posts above) me and the bluecat usually play 2 player: typically the Mechtrons' go for Smithore but always sell it too easily so the price is low, then 1 Mechtron goes for Crystite, the other gets left behind and usually there is a shortage of energy etc and the struggling Mechtron will noy pay enough to temp the other meaner Mechtron to sell him anything, screwing up the coloiny score. If their logic was adjusted a bit to make more sense the game would be improved

 

now we need somone who has played/plays three players to tell us what happens!

 

hey guys shall we have a mini-mule tournament? Who's in?

[carlsson]

For sure the computer players don't team up, but on the other hand I'm not sure all human players would neither. Unfortunately I don't know two more humans locally who would be "qualified" to play M.U.L.E. and playing it with people who don't know the game would not give the right conclusions about which AI behavior is primary. They seem to observe when land is assayed so perhaps the desire for crystite depends on which plots they end up with, at least in the beginning.

 

Mini tournament as in getting together, or just post scores as we already do?

[carlsson]

I can't get enough of this game!

 

Just like yesterday, I started off with some smithore, but early on secured some food and later on energy production just in case. For a while I was the dominant food producer, though the price ebbed out. Worth noticing is that the pirate ship didn't arrive until the round when I first started to mine for crystite. Coincidence or on purpose?!?

 

I thought I was doing reasonably OK, but in the very last round was bypassed by two computer players and ended in 3rd place at an even lower score than yesterday. Humbug!

 

Carlsson (Green Humanoid, 3rd place) - 17391 pts

Colony Total - 67861 pts

 

Rd Land Auction       Event              Smit Crys Food Ener  Order
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1 --                 Crazy Mule VC        50   --   15   10  RC BC VC GH
 2 496RC 436VC        Sunspot Activity     50   --   19   12  VC BC GH RC
 3 384BC              Acid Rain Storm      43  112   15   73  VC BC GH RC
 4 364GH              Fire in Store        50   92  168   31  VC BC GH RC
 5 440VC 380GH 320NS  Sunspot Activity     36   84  235   10  GH VC BC RC
 6 668VC              Planetquake          50  144  235   10  GH BC VC RC
 7 956VC 896NS        Pirate Ship (*)      43   --  162   10  GH BC VC RC
 8 576BC              Sunspot Activity     36  112   71   10  GH BC RC VC
 9 --                 Acid Rain Storm      50  120   15   10  GH BC RC VC
10 --                 Planetquake          50  128   15   10  GH BC RC VC
11 --                 Acid Rain Storm      50   84   15   10  GH BC VC RC
12 --                 Transport Ship       57  120   15   10  VC BC GH RC

[+therealbountybob]

...

hey guys shall we have a mini-mule tournament? Who's in?

 

...

Mini tournament as in getting together, or just post scores as we already do?

Well you'd all be welcome to my house to play, but I was thinking we'd have a tournament here with a limited number of games: My ideas were one go as each of the characters on Tornament mode and the table could be either 1pt per place (so 5 players, top gets 5pts) for each round, OR, total score for all the games - not colony scores. bluecat and I will play separately... or it could get crafty and I'll add some stipulations etc we need 4-5 players at least to make it fun

[tompateus]

I'm in☺

[carlsson]

Ok, I see. I could join as well, and given that a round takes about 1 - 1.5 hours, I suppose players wouldn't play each race multiple times to only report the best score.

 

How long would a such tournament need to run, about a month to allow people to play 8 times each? That is twice per week, give or take.

[+therealbountybob]

OK everyone The Month of M*U*L*E tournament is upon us

[carlsson]

On 5/24/2019 at 11:48 AM, Rybags said:

I don't get why you have so few "nothing happens" rounds. I've not played in a while but I'm sure the average is at least 1 per game and not uncommon to sometimes get 2 or even 3.

I have now recorded the event count in the last 22 games I've played. Out of a total of 242 rounds (plus 22 rounds of transport ship which is unevitable), my event count is as follows:

 

Acid Rain Storm: 39/242 = 16.1%
Crazy Mule: 26/242 = 10.7%
Fire in Store: 28/242 = 11.6%
Meteorite Strike: 20/242 = 8.3%
Nothing: 1/242 = 0.4%
Pest Attack: 33/242 = 13.6%
Pirate Ship: 24/242 = 9.9%
Planetquake: 35/242 = 14.4%
Sunspot Activity: 36/242 = 14.9%

 

I'd even chalk down "Nothing" as a sunspot activity or similar that I didn't pay attention to, but quite possibly absolutely nothing happened in one round. Yet 0.4% is far less than your 1-3 times per game. Again I wonder if you played on Tournament, or perhaps on Standard which may have fewer events (though I tend to remember that pirates come to steal smithore instead of the crystite not available in that mode).

Edited June 23, 2019 by carlsson

[CapitanClassic]

According to the Reverse Engineering page, Kroah, an event always occurs. My guess is the only way for No Event to occur is if the event would have no effect.(I.e. a Pest Attack happens, but no one in 1st/2nd place has any Food Plots)

http://bringerp.free.fr/RE/Mule/reverseEngineering.php5

 

A random event always occurs after the production phase (even if visually, the event appears before the production like the Acid Rain Storm, Sunspot Activity and Earthquake).

1. Round event probability

   At the last game round, the event is the return of the colonial ship. Otherwise, a random event is chosen.

   Each event can occur only a limited number of time per game:

   Event	Max per game
   Pest Attack	3
   Pirate Ship	2
   Acid Rain Storm	3
   Planetquake	3
   Sunspot Activity	3
   Meteorite Strike	2
   Radiation	2
   Fire in Store	2

    

Edited July 5, 2019 by CapitanClassic

[carlsson]

Interesting note that pest attacks can only happen to the top 2 players, so if neither have any food plots, it might look like a nothing event. Does that relate to crystite too, that as long as nobody is mining for it, we'll never see pirates though there may be uneventful rounds?

[alpental]

I have seen pirates come when nobody had any crystite, and they left empty handed, so that is possible. I can't remember if there were unproductive crystite plots, or if there were no crystite plots at all on the board.

[tompateus]

Close call today..? 

[tompateus]

Best yeld so far..? First time for me to get over hundred crystite in one month! (113)

[carlsson]

Jesus H. Christ! You completely smashed that round!

[tompateus]

Yeah! Lots of luck this time! Pirates only once and lots of plots for sale that i could grab. And a decent price for crystite last month..!! ?

[+therealbountybob]

Woah 52K Is that 18 plots ?

I'll try and get the tables updated next week, it's been a long while since I did them

[tompateus]

Yes i managed to get 18 plots. And in the 11th months the purple lost a plot, but not me.. strange..!! I was 2 lightyears ahead of him, but he lost a plot..?

[+therealbountybob]

In 2 player game I usually try and get all of the plots, if only to stop bluecat getting them, but in 1 player I was sometimes thinking they were too much tand left them -some went for around $1600-1800 ?  But your go might mean this is the optimal way of playing, though you have to have money early on... interesting as usual in the MULE world !

[tompateus]

I played with 2 Spheroids today and almost managed to get 100 000 points☺

2 pirateships in the beginnings and good crystite prices after that.

[Unca Jim]

I always play Humanoid, and had a great run.