To Prelude or not to Prelude?

[charliec247]

Competitive players: do you prefer to play with prelude or without prelude and why?

[Attica451]

I'd prefer prelude. I think it makes the game more interesting.

[RicardoRix]

Isn't it, with normal game you are hunting for viable starting strategies, trying to weigh up all the possible scenarios.
And in Prelude you just get it handed to you on a plate.
Shorter is more boring and predictable, perhaps less luck based. Longer is open for inventive thinking.

[Yahyra]

I love preludes, and prefer playing with them. I do find T mars games can go a bit long; that initial boost makes the game quicker and, to me, more delightful. I also like the cool combos you can put together. I never got the prelude into kelp farming start... but my opponent did! It was cool to watch (and I still won, I think I shared it as a 'share your story' on this forum).


Best wishes.

[charliec247]

I should probably explain why I asked.

In a casual game I'm all for Prelude. It does exactly what it intends to do - diversify possibilities for the beginning of the game and give players a jump-start so that we can skip the first few gens of lulling about.

But in a competitive setting, I've started to dislike Prelude. Keep in mind I exclusively play 2P. Prelude results in at least one of the following:
1. It puts one player's production far ahead of the other.
2. It patches up corporations' weaknesses and turns them into all-arounders.

Either way, the result is that all cards become playable by every corporation, which in turn becomes a competition of who finds the better set of cards. Without Prelude, sure, all cards are still playable by all corps, but playing some of them early significantly slows you down and can cost you the game, which means you actually have to consider the cost of keeping each card.

That, or maybe there's something that I'm not seeing.

[RoyalRook]

Unless it's at the highest level, prelude is a far less technical affair for me. If I draw Point Luna Credicor or Victor in 2p prelude, it's over for you. And I would be terrified as well against those 3 corps in 2p prelude, especially point luna with many earth tags in hand. It's just a much weaker game in my opinion compared to 2p Corp era until you hit 1900 in the steam community, then it's fun again, 2p prelude 1900+ elo matches are the best TM has to offer, none rebalanced Venus and Colony are pretty trashy with manutech along with those 3 corps. Point Luna easy 150+ points with no counter at times.

[charliec247]

Unless it's at the highest level, prelude is a far less technical affair for me. If I draw Point Luna Credicor or Victor in 2p prelude, it's over for you. And I would be terrified as well against those 3 corps in 2p prelude, especially point luna with many earth tags in hand. It's just a much weaker game in my opinion compared to 2p Corp era until you hit 1900 in the steam community, then it's fun again, 2p prelude 1900+ elo matches are the best TM has to offer, none rebalanced Venus and Colony are pretty trashy with manutech along with those 3 corps. Point Luna easy 150+ points with no counter at times.

Exactly. I felt like games were over too soon (and I still had to play out 30+ minutes of it before I can concede/the game ends) and I could do nothing about it. A lack of counterplay is not what I want in competitive gaming. Sometimes I wondered if I was just missing something in the play skill department or whether it was just a poor draw on my part, but I've played enough games to start noticing a few trends.

[Glados93]

How about high level 3p Prelude? I suspect we will see the next arena season feature 3p Prelude setting. From my knowledge, quite few players have experience in really high level 3p Prelude.

[RoyalRook]

How about high level 3p Prelude? I suspect we will see the next arena season feature 3p Prelude setting. From my knowledge, quite few players have experience in really high level 3p Prelude.

3p is trash, it's for beginners and casuals. No top players want to play 3p. I can't wait to play 2p.

[Yahyra]

I do prefer 2p to 3p; I tend to get bored during other ppls turns.

Point Luna does seem way strong; I wonder if the Fryx brothers would consider suggesting nerfs. If I could implement the Fryx buffs indicated for low corps (Inventrix and UNMI I think?) I would. I prefer balanced games. Maybe point Luna may be ok if it read 'This ability to draw a card when you play an earth tag only triggers once per generation"?

Best wishes.