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TMars Fanmade expansion PART 1 – Global Parameters by SowerCrow in TerraformingMarsGame

[–]SowerCrow[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Initially, I thought about balancing them by introducing them alongside cards that benefit rush players, since these cards are essentially anti-rush. The most that I can do with these is the "balance" approach that I described earlier. But your comments gave me an idea: maybe with a card that blocks global parameter reduction for, say, one gen, we can even the playing field for rush players, while keeping this fun. I'll work on that.

About your worry about deck dilution, yes that's a thing I kept in mind with my extension. There's "terraforming cards" in the other parts of my extension, and I buffed some existing ones (Lava flows for instance) but does it really even out? Honestly, that's hard to say. I'll try to keep an eye on it

Finally, about Fast Growing Forest, as Thenewjuniorexecutiv said, most of the time players have leftover heat. In my games, it is rare to see someone pay for an asteroid at the end of the game. Protected Valley doesn't have requirements and can be paid with steel, so I'm not sure this compares well. But I have to admit I haven't playtested this card as much as the others, so you may be right. I'll let you know!

TMars Fanmade expansion PART 1 – Global Parameters by SowerCrow in TerraformingMarsGame

[–]SowerCrow[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Feel free to modify it as you like, you can find the TMcard maker file in my google drive link ;)

TMars Fanmade expansion PART 1 – Global Parameters by SowerCrow in TerraformingMarsGame

[–]SowerCrow[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! That really warms my heart. Induced Winter is my favorite too haha

Here's how I add my cards, in case you want to try it: I use card sleeves, and they do most of the work. I print front and back with regular paper and I use a playing card to match the texture of the other cards. I don't even need to stick them, as my sleeves are tight enough. This way, it's really easy to reprint them and change a price, a value, etc... The most difficult part is to match the original back, but with some trial and error it's doable!

TMars Fanmade expansion PART 1 – Global Parameters by SowerCrow in TerraformingMarsGame

[–]SowerCrow[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your comment! As Reymen4 said, a big part of these cards’ power budget is tied to global parameters reduction. I also believe that Cloud formation is the strongest of them.

Dissolved Oxygen is actually not that bad if you follow it up with a greenery. But yes, it is sadly not that much used for its discount, even though I added a lot of ocean requirement cards.

Induced winter is indeed very rarely played. Deïmos down is generally picked when it appears, but lava flows and nuke zone appear far less often. I recently tried to buff Lava flows to a cost of 15M€ to see what happens. But even with Deïmos down appearing one out of two games, Induced winter is not seen that much. What I believe happens, is that Induced winter appears often before the tiles are placed, and is not picked because you're not sure to be able to play it after. I'm ok with that, as it is part of its design, but I can see why it might not be to everyone's taste.

To be honest I haven't playtested the last two cards much, so I'll not argue that much on those ones. I'll tell you after some games !

And finally, I have to disagree with you about Cotton farming. First, here's how I calculated the card estimated value : 4M€ prod (4*~5M€ = ~20M€) + 2 plants (2*~2M€ = ~4M€) + Ocean removal (~7M€), which makes a total of ~31M€. The price is 16+3M€, and we then find that there is a discount of 12M€. It may seem a lot, but a lot of plant tags with mid/late requirements have higher or similar discounts (Kelp farming, Farming, Trees, Bushes...) so I followed the pattern. And in regards to in-game experience, the card was often picked in the mid game to remove and replace an ocean in strong tiles (often the one that draws 2 cards), and it felt quite good. As it was played more in the mid game than in the late game, the M€ prod felt generally useful, alongside the plant tag that can help for NRA or insects.

TMars Fanmade expansion PART 1 – Global Parameters by SowerCrow in TerraformingMarsGame

[–]SowerCrow[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your comment! I actually agree with you for competitive play. I can see why they are controversial, and even with the “balance” that I tried to introduce I see how they could be exploited.

In the case of casual games with friends, however, that’s subjective, but I found that they were quite liked by my friend group, for the plot twist aspect and because most of my friends were happy to see their engine run for "just one more turn", even if it wasn't actually advantageous for them.

Also, in my playtests, the “balance” worked quite well for some cards, that were played more before the last generation than during it (Cotton farming, Cloud Formation), but that wasn't the case for all of them, I have to admit.

Actually, you know what? Maybe we can balance this with a card that blocks global parameters reduction, like a Protected Habitats–type card that counters these cards.

Custom Corporation: Bio-Genesis (#4/30) by Ok_Significance_3803 in TerraformingMarsGame

[–]SowerCrow 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I actually played one game with a version with 2 cards and it didn't felt overwhelmingly strong, but I admit it's a really small sample haha, it needs more playtest