I really wanted to raise the topic of hate cards on the forum, but I couldn't get around to it. I don't like hate cards because they create awkward situations in 3p+ games, make the game stall, and, except for those related to plants, don't fit the general vibe of the game. This is just my opinion, of course, but I'll give you a few arguments in his defense anyway.
1) The most obvious thing: in a game with 3 or more players, these cards will be played on the seemingly winning player, which is not so bad if he really wins, or even worse on a random player if they are approximately equal. It is very painful to be hit by amc in 3p where everyone has a titanium production.
However, we can say that this is a problem of 3p+ games in general.
2) Despite the statement about the vibe of the game, I play competitively and, if possible, I play around hate cards, which forces me to do one action in situations where it is otherwise completely unnecessary. For example, I can play a few science cards and AI or a production card, if I knew that sabotage was not in the game, I would calmly choose the AI line, but a good opponent will wait until I play some science and play sabotage after, in the end I will not play either the AI or the production card. We can say that one action does not take extra time, but the uncertainty in my line can create additional time constraints: if, in addition to the previous example, I have a bunch of titanium that I want to play an asteroid on, but I would like to use AI first and see if I find an airbraking. As a result, I'm thinking about whether to play the asteroid earlier in order to stall and possibly kill more plants, or to play the AI at the risk of being sabotaged.
3) Terraforming Mars belongs to my favorite type of games - Euro games. The main interaction in Mars and in many similar games is the race for goals, rewards and other bonuses. I imagine this to be a real race where everyone builds an engine and tries to outrun others, someone invests in speed, someone in reliability. In this example, sabotage lake a shot in the wheel.
It's also unpleasant that you have no way to know if the opponent has these cards. In the turmoil expansion, there is a card that steals 4 plants with the requirement that the greens be in power or you have 2 delegates there. This card seems to me more suitable for the game for two reasons: first, it removes plants, which I will describe in more detail below, and secondly, you can easier play around it due to strong restrictions and you can understand that the opponent has it when he suddenly starts throwing delegates to the Green Party.
I divide the hate cards into three types:
a) cards with only one effect in the game - sabotage raiders, both consortiums and hackers,
b) cards removing plants
c) cards removing plant production
The latter categories have about 15 cards and are very strongly intertwined with the mechanics of plants in general, so they feel like a thoughtful part of the game responsible for the balance of plants. Also, because of the number of cards, they make much more sense to play around and you can be sure that having plants or their production you will one day be hit by one of these cards.
In conclusion, I would like to say that I would be happy with the option to remove hackers, sabotage, raiders, and both consortiums from the game, but this will not happen.
Thank you for reading, I would be interested in your opinions on this topic.
