I wish this game had a mulligan system

[FrankJones]

There is a variant rule in Prelude 2 where you get dealt 3 corps and 6 preludes (but still only pick 1 corp and 2 preludes), which I think is something that could be a real addition to this implementation of TfM, not only when playing with expansions, but also with Base + Preludes.

Applying an official variant of Prelude 2 is something the Fryx family might be agreeable to.

[emgizy]

Would it help getting it on the radar if feature request for this was created? Unsure of what the usual proceeding for new features is.

[landus]

Dealing 3 corps and 6 preludes would cause the opposite of the intended effect. A bigger sample reduces variance — the very thing that makes this game skillful. Personally I find dizi’s proposal way better. The game is fine the way it is anyway — chasing ideal balance in a card game is doomed.

[xspuipuke]

Would it help getting it on the radar if feature request for this was created? Unsure of what the usual proceeding for new features is.

Ask yourself this: Would they be willing to pay money for this? Would the dev be willing to do it for free? Why would anyone spend resources on this?

[moods-]

Drafting the starting hand of project cards was actually implented in Terraforming Mars during the World Series of Board Games, if i am not mistaken. And it surely did not remove the luck aspect of the game. It just helped to reduce the chance of finding yourself in one of those spots BEANS mentioned.

But I think the mulligan-at-a-cost option is quiet appealing as well. It works pretty well in Magic: The Gathering (re-drawing your starting hand costs u a card everytime you do it) and helps to reduce the variance a little. So redrawing your 10 project cards at a cost of one card could be nice option.

[Bogeyun]

Hahaha, you guys hate Point Luna now? Wait till every game sees 6 corps instead of 4 and see how you really feel about it

[Josiah Taylor]

I would support the 3 corps, 6 prelude option. Especially if it is official, it is how my friends and I play and it is more enjoyable to have more options.
Mulligan could work but I feel like it would have to be your entire hand (corp, preludes, cards) to not create players making purposefully insane combos. In competitive Unmatched you can mulligan once, obviously I understand it is a different game.

[Yahyra]

I would be all for adding the variant Prelude 2 rule as an option here on BGA. If there's a suggestion / bug report to upvote for that let me know. As has been brought up before (perhaps it is worth considering a sticky post on these forums); there's no hope of implementing anything here on BGA that isn't 'official Fryx'.

I have played plenty of Magic the gathering (MTG); which is just as popular, if not more so, than T Mars. In that game the mulligans have evolved plenty from 'you can mulligan any hand with zero lands or all lands, but have to keep anything else', to the 'mulligan any hand you want but draw 1 less card when you do' to the now current 'mulligan any hand you want, but draw the same amount (7) but put one (times the amount of mulligans you took) card back after you mulligan (and keep)).

Now, if an MTG like rule were implemented in T Mars; how long before people would start mulligan_ing for Point Luna is to be determined; certainly if you drew Thorgate, UNMI, Inventrix as your choices, mulligan would be great. Of course corps and cards in hands are not equal etc.

I've never played on the heroku app; how customizable / flexible with setup is it? If it allows for corp and initial hand draft, that may be enough to get me to play over there.

Thanks for the thread everyone.

[__Sky__]

We have implemented exactly that with a group of friends here in Argentina. We have already played around 100 games with this rule, and the level of competition and the balance between skill and luck have been much better.

We decided to allow a mulligan for projects, preludes, or corporations. We also limited the use of some cards, such as Earth Catapult, Advanced Alloys, Central AI, Mass Converter, and Mars University. Additionally, we limited the number of card-draw effects to two per player.

It has been incredible how positive this has been for our game. We have also added some corporations from other expansions, and it has given the game much more versatility (specifically those that do not alter the game or include components that could create complications with the classic version).

I know that all of this may not be feasible to implement, but perhaps we could start with some simpler changes, such as the mulligan rule and adding a few more corporations.

[Yahyra]

I am aware that here on BGA it is a non starter to get anything that isn't official with Fryx implemented. That said, I love love love the fix for Point Luna, Mars U, Olympus conference to nerf by simplying saying "This ability only triggers twice every generation".

Still incredibly strong, but way less high roll potential imo.