The Physical Commodities of Food and Gold

[admin]

Upfront, this is not an attempt to change the programming of the game.

Rather, it is just me wondering aloud about something. Food and Gold are both physical commodities, yet players in Alamaze can just trade them, magically. Poof! It is done. This is grand strategy?

Nobody has to cart these items from Point A to Point B. There exists no risk of loss to either, through either hijacking or spoilage (in the case of food). One can just go about supporting their war effort utilizing these two vital commodities, and the enemy can't seek to steal either, not to burn the food carts (or whatever is utilized for transporting).

And even if is assumed that magic is how these commodities are transported as part of these so-called "trades," it doesn't even require the expenditure of a single, solitary spell being cast. One doesn't even have to have a mage at their disposal, in order to transport via trade these either of these commodities (amongst others - i.e. mithril comes immediately to mind).

The trade system in Alamaze is a tool of convenience, and NOT a tool of strategy.

Just for discussion's sake, and not for the sake of advocacy to change the game or its programming, how would it change Alamaze, if players couldn't trade gold, food, mithril, etc. using the current system, but instead, they had to protect their shipments of such commodities to and/or from the receiving kingdom(s)?

Alamaze is billed as:

Alamaze is the foremost game to combine deep strategy and nuance in a robust fantasy setting competing with a handful of human opponents in an absorbing contest that is a memorable adventure that will provide engrossing entertainment where each game lasts two to three months.

Can someone explain to me how this system of "magical" trades, trades totally and utterly immune from interference, constitutes either deep strategy or nuance?

I'm just curious as to what people think.

[Wookie Panz]

Upfront, this is not an attempt to change the programming of the game.

Rather, it is just me wondering aloud about something. Food and Gold are both physical commodities, yet players in Alamaze can just trade them, magically. Poof! It is done. This is grand strategy?

Nobody has to cart these items from Point A to Point B. There exists no risk of loss to either, through either hijacking or spoilage (in the case of food). One can just go about supporting their war effort utilizing these two vital commodities, and the enemy can't seek to steal either, not to burn the food carts (or whatever is utilized for transporting).

And even if is assumed that magic is how these commodities are transported as part of these so-called "trades," it doesn't even require the expenditure of a single, solitary spell being cast. One doesn't even have to have a mage at their disposal, in order to transport via trade these either of these commodities (amongst others - i.e. mithril comes immediately to mind).

The trade system in Alamaze is a tool of convenience, and NOT a tool of strategy.

Just for discussion's sake, and not for the sake of advocacy to change the game or its programming, how would it change Alamaze, if players couldn't trade gold, food, mithril, etc. using the current system, but instead, they had to protect their shipments of such commodities to and/or from the receiving kingdom(s)?

Alamaze is billed as:

Alamaze is the foremost game to combine deep strategy and nuance in a robust fantasy setting competing with a handful of human opponents in an absorbing contest that is a memorable adventure that will provide engrossing entertainment where each game lasts two to three months.

Can someone explain to me how this system of "magical" trades, trades totally and utterly immune from interference, constitutes either deep strategy or nuance?

I'm just curious as to what people think.

Are you really, "immune from interference, "  What if someone takes enough of your resource away before the trade and your trade fails?  You wasted an order, or more if other orders failed because of your failed trade, and your trading partner is not happy that his side of the trade failed too.  There are lots of unseen risk in the game.

[Windstar2]

Upfront, this is not an attempt to change the programming of the game.

Rather, it is just me wondering aloud about something. Food and Gold are both physical commodities, yet players in Alamaze can just trade them, magically. Poof! It is done. This is grand strategy?

Nobody has to cart these items from Point A to Point B. There exists no risk of loss to either, through either hijacking or spoilage (in the case of food). One can just go about supporting their war effort utilizing these two vital commodities, and the enemy can't seek to steal either, not to burn the food carts (or whatever is utilized for transporting).

And even if is assumed that magic is how these commodities are transported as part of these so-called "trades," it doesn't even require the expenditure of a single, solitary spell being cast. One doesn't even have to have a mage at their disposal, in order to transport via trade these either of these commodities (amongst others - i.e. mithril comes immediately to mind).

The trade system in Alamaze is a tool of convenience, and NOT a tool of strategy.

Just for discussion's sake, and not for the sake of advocacy to change the game or its programming, how would it change Alamaze, if players couldn't trade gold, food, mithril, etc. using the current system, but instead, they had to protect their shipments of such commodities to and/or from the receiving kingdom(s)?

Alamaze is billed as:

Alamaze is the foremost game to combine deep strategy and nuance in a robust fantasy setting competing with a handful of human opponents in an absorbing contest that is a memorable adventure that will provide engrossing entertainment where each game lasts two to three months.

Can someone explain to me how this system of "magical" trades, trades totally and utterly immune from interference, constitutes either deep strategy or nuance?

I'm just curious as to what people think.

Are you really, "immune from interference, "  What if someone takes enough of your resource away before the trade and your trade fails?  You wasted an order, or more if other orders failed because of your failed trade, and your trading partner is not happy that his side of the trade failed too.  There are lots of unseen risk in the game.

Maximus, the same thing goes with transferring artifacts from one group/PC/figure. As long as the agent is within the range (usually 7 squares) of the owner of the artifact, they can transport the artifact to any other group/PC/figure anywhere on the map. I know that it isn't realistic, but it is done to simplify the game for players and not overy tax them and make the game "unfun.". If you took away trade in the game, a lot of people's positions might become unfit. For example, if your kingdom is in Winter and you have less production, your groups might starve or run out of gold for maintenance. If you cannot trade, you are screwed. It also allows a player with a low food budget in their income to build improvements for their PCs and protect their lands from conquest.

[admin]

Maximus, the same thing goes with transferring artifacts from one group/PC/figure. As long as the agent is within the range (usually 7 squares) of the owner of the artifact, they can transport the artifact to any other group/PC/figure anywhere on the map. I know that it isn't realistic, but it is done to simplify the game for players and not overy tax them and make the game "unfun.". If you took away trade in the game, a lot of people's positions might become unfit. For example, if your kingdom is in Winter and you have less production, your groups might starve or run out of gold for maintenance. If you cannot trade, you are screwed. It also allows a player with a low food budget in their income to build improvements for their PCs and protect their lands from conquest.

Oh, rest assured, I do grasp that it would alter the game dynamics tremendously, but using your agent example, I don't know that it would unravel everything, if an agent had to physically transport an artifact, and in some instances that act of transporting that artifact might have to transpire over a span of multiple turns, depending upon the distance involved.

I understand that the game is designed around, or at least its integral to the game's design, an economic system predicated upon magically.instantaneously transporting large amounts of food, gold, mithril, whatever. If you undo that, then all kinds of chaos and bad things might potentially happen. Starvation might set in. Bankruptcy might ensue.

Yet, there's no option to disable the gold and food requirements, when creating a new game of Alamaze in the Game Queue, is there?

[Zar@shand]

3 games in and trading is not something that I thought was a priority. It works. You could add the ability for agents to disrupt the trade, the same for mages or just some kind of spoilage.

I don't real this affects game balance too much, so there are other points that would take my priority.