Alien Cow Rampage: Orion Needs Your Milk! (MAGS JUNE 2014)

[Ghost]

Orion is home to a peaceful race of blue-skinned aliens who have made it their mission to provide the most delicious, refreshing, enjoyable drink to all of the universe: Milk, from Earthling cows. The Orionese are respected as the biggest providers of this creamy-white essence of all that is tasty in the universe.
As great as this sounds, your job as an Invader is much less glorious. But there's nothing else you'd ever want to do than visiting Earth, meet the benevolent cows on their own turf, and ensure that there is always milk.

Your last mission has just gone bad. After a crash you find yourself stranded- the mothership's far away and you have hardly any gear. But you're an Invader. You can still make this work.

Lost Craft presents:
Alien Cow Rampage: Orion Needs Your Milk!
A single player board game

Get ACRONYM Version 1.0.1!

In an original boardgame that could be described as the jumpsuit-clad cousin of Chainsaw Warrior and Munchkin, you're an alien on the run. Within 12 hours you need to make it through a mazy suburbs, abduct cows from heavily guarded pastures, and brave an Earthling military base in order to catch a ride on your mothership.
There is little time.
There are many dangers.
But you CAN make it, and there are always cows.

Roll dice! Flip through cards! Find the cameo! Play an actual board game, only on your computer!
No choking hazards despite small parts, and no cleaning up the table afterwards!


No, really, we totally come in peace! Want a milkshake?


Be an Invader! Pick your class, roll your stats, and crash-land into adventure!


Abduct cows! Their milk is udderly delicious!


Fight, Stun or simply charm trigger-happy teenagers, gun-crazy ranchers, and the Men In Black!


Avoid devious, nefarious, ingenious Earthling traps!

Please note that this game was made for MAGS (June 2014, theme "Alien Invasion") It was literally invented, designed, and written within 4 weeks. It's a robust and fun little game but it lacks the balance that any solo board game needs in order to really shine- I hope to add much of that based on player feedback, and would love to improve this little romp through a world where the milk must flow.

Lots of thanks to all my brave testers, and a big hooray for JasonB, who provided some kickass music!

Enjoy

[DoorKnobHandle]

Nooooo I wasn't fast enough with my beta testing for this I guess, sorry!!!

This is an AMAZING game, very well done Ghost! I enjoyed my time with it greatly, you have the ability to make up these wonderful settings and universes and combine them with super cute and awesome graphics! This is well worth a try-out!

[arj0n]

Whoo, a lost craft production. A boardgame, interesting downloading

[Tabata]

„Yeah! Let's get ready to rumble!“
... with cows through time and space ...


           

       


Congrats for releasing this ingenious game, Ghost!


Now I am off to dice for cow pushing
… and then „the cow jumped over the moon ...“   

[miguel]

Thanks Ghost! Downloading now!

[selmiak]

my warrior almost died from this mean earthlingish chickenwire but then I survived long enough to be shot by a farmer

[AprilSkies]

Amazing and brilliant game indeed!
Well Done Ghost, Well Done!

[Cassiebsg]

Ahhhhmmmm... cough... cough... cough...
Guess I find bugs everywhere... sorry...

I just run and crashed the game (first try for both even!)

Spoiler

Was trying to run in windowed mode with both sounds off (guess no one thinks of checking for 'no sound' bugs? )

I got the following crash info:
in "room1.asc", line 19
Error: Error running function 'room_AfterFadeIn':
Error: Null pointer referenced

[close]

[Tabata]

Guess I find bugs everywhere... sorry...
... (guess no one thinks of checking for 'no sound' bugs? )

Noooooo!
Bugs didn't receive a visa for that game 
It's a feature!
It ensures that the game is playable only with the cool sound enabled   

[AprilSkies]

Ahhhhmmmm... cough... cough... cough...
Guess I find bugs everywhere... sorry...

I just run and crashed the game (first try for both even!)

Spoiler

Was trying to run in windowed mode with both sounds off (guess no one thinks of checking for 'no sound' bugs? )

I got the following crash info:
in "room1.asc", line 19
Error: Error running function 'room_AfterFadeIn':
Error: Null pointer referenced

[close]

It's the same "bug" you found in my last mags game.
The line with error it's for sure an in-game volume changing or something related to audio file playing.

Did you turn off the music using Winsetup? If yes don't do it. Turno off the music in-game (if there's a GUI for that, on't remember now).
I hope it hepls

[Cassiebsg]

Yup, I realize it's the same 'bug'...
It's just the 1st thing I do when running an AGS game... winsetup -> run in window mode -> off sounds...
No disrespect with sounds, it's just that I'm sharing the screen with my son while he watches cartoons on youtube, and I just need to turn the sound off before the game starts... (hidden rambling to follow.

Spoiler

(otherwise the volume is just incredibly high, and I can't find the volume setting in windows to only turn that one down... must be another of those Win7 "features"; just hide and trow away, everything the user knows, so he feels he need to get a new course in using windows and stuff!)

Spoiler

[close]

[close]

[Ghost]

Ahhhhmmmm... cough... cough... cough...
Guess I find bugs everywhere... sorry...
I just run and crashed the game (first try for both even!)
Was trying to run in windowed mode with both sounds off (guess no one thinks of checking for 'no sound' bugs?
I got the following crash info:
in "room1.asc", line 19
Error: Error running function 'room_AfterFadeIn':
Error: Null pointer referenced

That is correct, you're crashing the game the first time it tries to play a sound file. IIRC this is a very rare thing- not really a bug but an inconsistency in AGS. I got it reported once, from a user running a different game of mine on a non-Windows system. Personally I have no idea how to fix that- AGS states that any sound failing to load is just "quietly ignored" and you are the first one to report that crash.

I'm using default settings for sound and adding an options panel wasn't my first priority for a MAGS game, but I'll make one.

(I admit that I personally use that little volume knob on my speaker more often than the volume sliders in any game )

[Cassiebsg]

In normal situations I would also, if it wasn't for my son (I'm sure he would complain if I turned off the sound LOL).

[CaptainD]

I so want to see the feature-length animated movie of this.

[selmiak]

I'm only in it for the cow tossing!

[Ghost]

I so want to see the feature-length animated movie of this.

I'm only in it for the cow tossing!

Can I quote that on the coverbox?

--

And to answer a couple of chat/pm/mail questions:

Are the decks random?
No. The cards in each deck are always the same; they are just shuffled into a random sequence. You will, for example, always find 3 Teenagers in the Suburbs.
They are just at random positions.

Where does equipment come from?
Weapons, Armour, and Gadgets are drawn from three (invisible) Stockpile Decks. There are 8 unique weapon bits in a Stockpile of 8, 8 unique armour bits in a Stockpile
of 10, and 11 unique gadgets in a Stockpile of 40.

Do the class skills use differently weighted dice?
Again, no. The game uses the same die for every class; it's a custom D6 with 4 "success" and 2 "fail" icons.

[selmiak]

Can I quote that on the coverbox?

Sure, I always wanted to have a quote from me on a coverbox

[AprilSkies]

I'm only in it for the cow tossing!

Awww, so you're using the trooper! Great choice! Great vitality, very good for battles!

[Ghost]

Great vitality, very good for battles!

The Trooper is also the potentially fasted character in the end-game: Since winning a fight moves on instantly a well-equipped Trooper can steamroll the Gauntlet if he doesn't run into
a trap too early. In the Gauntlet, the Trooper can outrun the Scout regardless of AGIlity and, arguably, is faster than a Cadet relying on First Contact, which balances his less-impressive speed during the buildup phase.

[Vincent]

Congrats for this releasing Ghost !
The game is very well done !

[cat]

Played it twice last evening, always dying

I don't quite understand how the calculations are done on how much I have to roll to loot. The trash cans seemed impossible for me.

[Ghost]

Played it twice last evening, always dying

I don't quite understand how the calculations are done on how much I have to roll to loot. The trash cans seemed impossible for me.

Thanks for playing, cat- the game is intentionally hard but you'll get a feeling for it quickly.

Each card that tests your skills in some way has a description on the card text itself; the manual included in the download also states the formula.

The trash cans allow you to loot 2D6 (2 six-sided dice) of scraps, and the base difficulty is 10 minus your agility. You need to roll equal or higher than base diff. + reward with 2 dice- this is true for all skill tests, and only the skill that is tested changes.

Let's say you rolled a 5 for your reward and have an agility of 6, then you would have:
10 + 5 - 6 = 9
and would get the reward at a roll of 9 or higher on 2D6.

Hope that helps you out

Sometimes a certain Invader class will have a hard time getting anything from a loot card- since almost all classes focus on a certain attribute, there is one type of location almost tailor-made for that class, while the others have it harder. Where the Trooper can easily get scraps from a parked car, which tests strength, the Scout is probably less lucky there, since she has the lowest strength.

[cat]

Let's say you rolled a 5 for your reward and have an agility of 6, then you would have:
10 + 5 - 6 = 9
and would get the reward at a roll of 9 or higher on 2D6.

What I don't understand is where the 5 comes from...

[Ghost]

What I don't understand is where the 5 comes from...

Ah, okay- that is the reward- the amount of scraps that was rolled and that you will get from that card. You don't see that roll, which *is* a bit inconsistent. But it's what you'll get, and the higher the reward the "harder" the test.

[cat]

Ah, ok, got it. In an enhanced version you could probably show the dice roll so the player understands what is happening.

[Ghost]

That is a good idea; the whole interface could use some streamlining. I'll get there for sure

Just keep in mind that you don't need to loot every location you can and there's a "good location" for the specialists:

Spoiler

Cadet = roughly equally, slightly below average chance, everywhere
Scout = Quiet House, tests AGIlity
Trooper = Parked Car, tests STRength
Mechanic = Trashcans, tests INTelligence

[close]

[cat]

Oh no, such a good character and then the time ran out

Is is actually possible to get two dice in the fight?

Also for the start: It might be nicer to choose the class first and then power it up with the dice.

[Ghost]

Is is actually possible to get two dice in the fight?

I had that in for a while* but it made the fights extremely unbalanced- so right now, no, you always use one die and power up by crafting weapon bits.

Also for the start: It might be nicer to choose the class first and then power it up with the dice.

Nice idea, noted down!

__
* And with several attempts too- there was a gadget that gave you two dice for one fight, there was one weapon upgrade that added the extra die, and there was the idea that a "max value" (strength or agility 12) would give the extra die to melee or ranged combat. Since I had very little time to balance things, none of these made it into the "prototype" that is v1.0.1.

[cat]

I did it! I won the game with the cadet! However, it would be nice to get a more positive end screen - now it looks like the lost screen, also with the music. Could you maybe make another cartoon of the alien entering the mothership for example?

(I hope I don't annoy you with all my suggestions. If you prefer I can also PM you instead of spamming this thread)

[Ghost]

Not annoying at all, I need that feedback! And it's nice to see a Cadet win

Individual game overs were another thing I cut because of timing issues- so yes, there will be nicer screens later. I also have some two unused pieces of music from Jason that will then be put to use.

For now I am collecting everything ANYONE reports/suggests. As long as no game crashers are found I'd prefer to get as much feedback as possible before a new version is released, so keep it coming.

[Rocco]

Did a first run now and really enjoyed it very much.
The overall game design is absolutely brilliant, i love it.
I had an bad ass tropper with i guess 12 strength and 9 defense so fighting was very easy.
But then i found my master in a barbed wire get caught and time was running out, cause i wasn't able to roll the required dice for so many tries, what was a bit frustrating, but so it is with dicegames.

What was your inspiration for this game design?
I can imagine, a film noir private investigation game could also fit very well with this approach.

[Ghost]

Thanks for playing, Rocco!

My main inspiration came from an old Games Workshop board game called "Chainsaw Warrior"- often called "the first non PC first person shooter". It also uses cards to simulate a randomized location (a wrecked town) and it has player stats based on dice rolls. It's almost entirely combat-based though. I also borrowed a bit from the Munchkin games with the classes and the weapon/armour upgrades. Both games are well worth owning, btw- Chainsaw Warrior has aged nicely and is a lot of fun even today (there is a PC version and also an App), and Munchkin is the ultimate party game. If your party has at least two people who know a bit about either role playing, kung fu, space marines, eldritch abominations, vampires, or robin hood

Using the ruleset for a PI game sounds interesting- even more if there were several detectives hunting for clues and tricking each other on the way! MAKE THAT HAPPEN PLEASE!

[Rocco]

Thanks for your detailed explanation, I will look into it.

Using the ruleset for a PI game sounds interesting- even more if there were several detectives hunting for clues and tricking each other on the way! MAKE THAT HAPPEN PLEASE!

You mean Multiplayer ???
Sounds a bit like Spy vs. Spy, lets see....

[cat]

Hm, I cannot win with the Trooper. I alway die in fights although I have additional weapons and armour and set the highest dice to strength and life

[Ghost]

Hm, I cannot win with the Trooper. I alway die in fights although I have additional weapons and armour and set the highest dice to strength and life

While I can't stress enough that due to the system you WILL always have games where you lose I agree that there is something off. That was to be expected, since this is a first "prototype" but I think there's a need for more than just balance.

It's becoming obvious that there are several issues with the classes- not just the Trooper. I have won the game with him and I've learned that he's most player's first choice but he does not exactly play as you would expect from his description. He is not broken (otherwise there would be no wins) and he is not exactly underpowered, it's just that the rules and mechanics as they are now don't really support a "fighting style".

One factor is that each class is pretty much only as effective as the items they get. The Trooper merely has the most slots for weapon/armour bits, but if you are unlucky and draw bad stuff from the stockpile, you won't get much out of them.

Another thing is that the attributes don't factor very high. Strength doesn't give you that much of a boost in melee. Vitality is much more useful because Life allows you to last longer, but that's about it.

In the end the Trooper becomes a one-trick pony with a trick that doesn't help much. His true strength is, ironically, that he can be very fast. In the second deck he has a much better chance at skipping cow cards and in the last deck he is potentially faster than any other class, but that's not the point of playing a "fighter"- with a fighter you want to be good at fighting, not at running.

I'm very much in two minds how to resolve this issue. I see two solutions:
a) rebalancing all classes and game variables until the Trooper "feels right" and has a better chance at winning a game.
b) rewriting the rules to make for a simpler but more transparent and "gut feeling" game

I'll see what I can come up with

Again, thanks for all feedback!

[Mandle]

Grrrr...Finally got my all 5's and 6's character...Went Mechanic...No disguise or flashbomb...Met the neighborhood watch guy on first card...Died in 3 rounds...

Apart from that: Brilliant game Ghost!!! Has had me entertained all day!!!

With the tweaks mentioned above this could seriously go world-wide viral...

Oh, and here's my quote for the box cover if you deem fit:

More addictive than "Flappy Angry Birds With Friends"!!!

EDIT: Finally beat the game on about my 30th try...Cadet, and made it through with 5 mins to spare

Record scraps carried at one time (to date): 50
Record number of rolls needed to abduct a single cow: 20

Ghost, please add some achievements:

UnMOOvable Object: It took you 20 or more tries to abduct a single cow.
Just Leftover Scraps: 50 or more scraps carried at a single time.

(or somesuch)

[Ghost]

Met the neighborhood watch guy on first card...Died in 3 rounds...

As I type this the game is getting a "house rule" screen that allows to "tweak" the rules a bit. I remain adamant that a boardgame that you just play for the sake of it should have some challenge, but that's MY opinion and why should I scare away someone who wants a more casual approach? I'll include a "safe ride" option that makes sure that no deck ever starts with a fight; that should already declaw the game a little

Ghost, please add some achievements:
UnMOOvable Object: It took you 20 or more tries to abduct a single cow.
Just Leftover Scraps: 50 or more scraps carried at a single time.
(or somesuch)

That is a very cool idea, thank you, Mandle! I would have gone for a "score system" (leftover time etc) but achievements sound much more entertaining! I'll see to get them in, great suggestion

[Mandle]

Cheers mate! I've downloaded ACRONYM onto the classroom computer at my school and have been playing it in game-time with some of my more advanced English-speaking kids.

They all seem to choose the Cadet. I guess he is the most kid-friendly-looking character?

It's been a big hit with Japanese kids! They all laugh when they see the "First Contact" Cadet in his "smarmy/charming" pose.

Without exception, when I ask them "Do you want to play it again next time?" they have all said "Yes! Yes!"...

(Next time I'll make them play the Trooper. They're gonna love the expression on the cow's face...)

[Ghost]

That's just plain awesome, Mandle! Thanks a lot for sharing this, and say hi to your class from me!

For me the Cadet is the face of the game. I drew the Scout first (she's also the only Invader who has a canonical name) but as soon as I realized that there would be classes with differently balanced stats, the Cadet became my "Mario" character- I used him as the "default" for the overall game balance and all other classes are based on him in that respect.
I imagined him as a fun-loving guy who just is really good with people, so making him able to "charm out" of a fight was sort of a given. I think the very simple design of the characters just makes him easy on the eyes so that might count as "kid friendly*"

It's great to hear kids like the game. That's quite probably the greatest compliment a game-maker can get.

__
edit
I don't know if you're familiar with "Happy Days", but there's a bit of the Fonz on that Cadet

[Mandle]

I don't know if you're familiar with "Happy Days", but there's a bit of the Fonz on that Cadet

Then I guess that makes the mechanic Pinky Tuscadero?

[Radiant]

Well, that was fun

Spoiler

I would like it if the cool title music kept playing when viewing the credits.
In terms of balance, it may be nice if the initial character generation is less random; it makes me want to quit and restart several times until I get a decent character. For example, instead of four dice, roll two dice and take the complement of both.
I would like to see stat mods on the character selection screen.
It took me a while to figure out why the 'build' button disappears on most areas, or why I can't rest in the cul-de-sac. I was also confused that 'loot' sometimes is automatic (success or failure) without getting to roll for it.
Final idea: please add hot keys! Let the player trigger any button by pressing its first letter; this would make gameplay much easier.

[close]

[Ghost]

Quite a few people have played Alien Cow Rampage by now, and were kind enough to give some feedback- I am glad that the original release is almost bug-free and can be considered a stable base. But in terms of balance it is clearly not even close to "perfect". What's more, some of the stuff I put into the game makes relatively little sense when I look at it now. So a rather large update is in order and I am working my way towards it. Here's a few of the things that will be adressed.

Better Combat
Combat makes a large portion of the game, yet it is rather simplistic. Also, while there are four classes, none of them feel really different in combat- they all need to rely on the same tricks and can hardly develop a unique strategy. I feel that much of this comes from the fact that any fight is nothing but D6 rolls. My plan is to replace this with custom combat dice: D6 with different symbols for attacking, blocking and a class-specific special move. This should make combat more interesting, give the classes some more justification, and it also opens up the game for those who like to tweak rules and develop finer strategies.

Interface Polish
Hotkeys, soft screen transitions, and an options panel have been requested.  ACRONYM was made or a monthly competition and I left these "small touches" for later intentionally, but they'll all be included in the next update.

Difficulty Settings
I made the game rather "hard to beat" and this did not sit well with everyone. While I think that a solo game needs to be hard in order to provide a challenge that makes a win "feel earned", who am I to deny a more casual player their fun? Easier (and harder) difficulty settings are currently being tested, and I wish to implement a table of "custom challenges" too (like beating the game in a certain time or without ever building any equipment)... there may be in-game achievements

Better Betterness
As a turn based game ACRONM doesn't always do the best job at telling you how turns work. At least one player never figured out how to build stuff but kept playing because he thought ACRONYM sounded cool and should be played regardless. And a very funny email suggests that the Scout colour scheme makes her look like a Teletubby. All in all there's clearly room for more and better betterness.
I rewrote quite a bit of the core mechanics to make things easier for players who struggle with making it "in time". Indicators (as mentioned by Radiant) to make bonuses more obvious, and a general overhaul of the combat data display should make everything be a bit more "transparent".

Cow Tools
The "abduction" part seemed unfair to some, and in hindsight it *is* nothing but a time-stealer (and the best way to justify the COW that I needed to complete "Acronym" as the... acronym). It has been suggested to make the cows a "score" element. Or to tie a minumum amount of cows to abduct to a difficulty setting, with any extra cows just adding score or providing a small bonus. I'm looking into that, or at least to find a way to make the cow thing more fun.
Everyone loved Ponch, though. You hear that, Texan luxury bovine?

Halloween Hijinx- AddOn
Since ACRYNOM is made to resemble a physical boardgame, an "add on" has been on my personal wishlist from the very start. Or... several of those. You know, a couple of extra "game things" to add to the base game. A first test with a "Halloween theme" looks really promising, adding a couple of new cards, two new enemies (Cosplayer* and Nosy Kid), two new Invaders  (The Riftjumper Twins)- and JasonB once more provided a fresh music track. I am really very exited about it.

If nothing goes wrong, the game will update middle/end of next month. Let me know if you got some additional feedback or suggestions- and and once again thanks to everyone who commented, rated, played and gave those Invaders a little love

__
* He cosplays as random characters, even as Batman**.

** Yes, the Cadet CAN put the man-charms on BATMAN, and BE SUCCESSFUL. Let that sink in.

[Mandle]

Yay! As a major fan of the original let me unequivically state that I have just wet my pants after reading about the updated version!

[Jim Reed]

Mechanic using a gadget and not using it up bonus should be noted in some way, so the player knows if it was a success...maybe a die roll?
When you use a gadget, the current card flips to the next one, then you get the animation of the gadget you used...shouldn't it be the other way around?
Keyboard shortcuts, the gadget buttons should be bigger...way bigger. Add more of everything!
Nice game! \o/

[Mandle]

Mechanic using a gadget and not using it up bonus should be noted in some way, so the player knows if it was a success...maybe a die roll?
When you use a gadget, the current card flips to the next one, then you get the animation of the gadget you used...shouldn't it be the other way around?

There is a dice roll. If you get the thumbs-up then it shows the mechanic putting a new battery into a gadget. This means you kept the gadget for re-use. This is the animation you are seeing...

Granted, in the original this was all kinda figure-it-out-for-yourself stuff. Understandable given the time restraints. Hopefully the deluxe version gives Ghost the chance to add a tutorial for each character perhaps?

(I just love making more work for other people )

[Ponch]

Everyone loved Ponch, though. You hear that, Texan luxury bovine?

It's the rhythm of my hips. It's quite mesmerizing.

[BrightBulb]

I really, really like this game! It's a bit like an RPG. Rolling stats, rolling checks, different classes, getting better weapons and armor. I also love the design of the aliens.

But unfortunately I couldn't finish the game, I'v tried like 10-15 times with different classes. Even failed with a character that had almost maximum stats (22 of 24). Best effort was card 17 of the gauntlet. I think the game is way to difficult. The reason for this is that it is too random. And the odds are against you.

It beginns with character creation. Two bad rolls and you are finished before the game even starts. I would prefer unlimited rerolls.

Combat is very tough. Get a lot of enemies early before you can build armor or weapons and you're done. Upgrades are essential, which makes scraps essential. Starting with 1d6 scrap could mean one upgrade for free or not. If you fail too loot several times you will die later on. I think it's fair to say that you can reload when you didn't manage to upgrade armor and weapons twice each in the first deck. Also you can reload when you lost to much time with dead ends.

Brings me to the looting system. It's again too random. Either you get few scraps with an easy check or you could get a lot of scraps, but the check is then nearly impossible to beat. I would prefer a dynamic roll like: scraps = 2d6 + attribute - 10

Building Gadgets is also too random. I.e. I got an auto-nav while playing deck 3. Avoid-combat-gadget are much stronger than avoid-minefield or avoid-smokescreen. Those avoid-trap gadgets are too specific while combat happens all the time. Furthermore traps are far easier to beat than enemies. I think gadgets are too expensive compared to weapon/armor upgrades. I would prefer to be able to select the gadget I want to build.

Another thing: Abducting cow is a bit boring. If it is really there only to steal time I would prefer it would work like a dead end card. Then I wouldn't have to reroll (including) clicking of the failure message again and again and again...

That being said, I will try to finish the game later on:grin:

It's somehow addictive.

[Ghost]

I would prefer unlimited rerolls.

This is pretty much the only thing I disagree with. Endless rerolls means you get the result you want, and if we go that route we might as well remove any roll, and always let the player chose the outcome, leading to a "do you want to win y/n" situation.
I'd rather assign fixed bonuses depending on a difficculty setting- that way a player can opt for an easy game or chose a challenge. A game with a random element as a core design feature (or fla ) needs to stay true to at least some randomness.
Alternatively, a "point pool" would sound interesting- after the inital rolls you get a couple of points to purchase either attribute bonuses OR equipment. That's a strong RPG mechanic and I think it could work out nicely.

Apart from that, I'm glad to hear you like the game despite its flaws, and I really like your idea to beef up the scraps mechanic. It makes perfect sense to add a bonus based on a tested attribute! If you're okay with it I'll gladly "steal" your input

As mentioned, the "cow abduction" will get a revamp. My current approach is like this: A cow card can be skipped for a slight time penalty, but abducting grants you an additional resource called "Favour". Since your superiors really want cows, each successful abduction grants you Favour points that can be traded for "small cheats" (skill reroll, or even skipping a card completely). You won't be able to get much Favour on a single run but about enough for two, three "tight escapes" from a bad situation.

@Jim: Thanks for the feedback, sir, and nice to see someone playing Mechanic! I'll do my best to make the build/item interface more user-friendly. Note to self: Never, ever, make a card game for MAGS.

Granted, in the original this was all kinda figure-it-out-for-yourself stuff. [...]Hopefully the deluxe version gives Ghost the chance to add a tutorial for each character perhaps?

There was a frikking MANUAL! I wrote that thing at 2 in the morning! I downloaded EXTRA SOFTWARE just to make a PDF! Why does no-one EVER READ THE MANUAL???
Ahem.
A tutorial is a fun idea and shouldn't be too hard. Not necessarily for each character, but for a basic run it would make perfect sense.

Might need a beeeeeeeeeeeeeeet moar time to polish this all up

[cat]

What about having one more die for the intial stats roll? Then you could skip the worst die.

[Ghost]

What about having one more die for the intial stats roll? Then you could skip the worst die.

I LIKE that; probably the simplest solution so far! Thanks I'll try that out first thing tomorrow.

[BrightBulb]

@Ghost: Feel free to implement any suggestion I made. Glad if I can help to polish the game into something even better.

On the topic of character creation: I think a point-buy system or distributing fixed values are fine as well. With the current mechanics you could at least allow rerolls with under-average stats.

With the mechanics as is, you force the player to alt-x. Or am I really supposed to take on that challenging game with stats like 2,1,3,2?

[Mandle]

Why does no-one EVER READ THE MANUAL???

Because we're always too pumped to just play the game!;)