Colt Express - price for being gunslinger too hight ?

[bidulpik]

Hi,

I wonder if we could discuss about the $1000 reward for being gunslinger.

I saw in game that it is almost required to be gunslinger to win or to have a nice score.
I think it's a pity, goal is to be rich, not to shot at all cost other players.
I think this reward is too hight, or the reward process could be changed.

It's a difficult change to calculate, because if the price is too low, noone, except Django, will shot.

I wonder if the gunslinger price might be $500 or $750
or we could earn $100 (max $600) or $150 (max $900) for each successfull shot.

For the moment my favourite solution is $100 (or $150, it has to be tested) for each shot.

What do you think ?

[Quinarbre]

It's here for a very good reason: if you keep drawing Fire cards and almost no Punch/Robbery, you can't do anything, and the game is just boring.

Now, is the gunslinger bonus really required for winning? Well, so far there have been more than 11000 Colt Express games played here, so we have the basis for some statistics.

So far, a third of all players (winners and losers) did get the gunslinger bonus. On average there are 3.8 players per table, so that makes 1.3 player who's awarded the bonus.

On the other hand, only half of the winners did get it, and it's safe to assume that most of the time there's only one winner per table, so that's .5 player per table who wins both the bonus and the game. And .8 who wins the bonus but not the game...

This has to be mitigated by the fact that in 2 player games (20% of the games) there is no gunslinger bonus awarded, so the actual ratio of gunslingers among winners is higher than 50%, but it still gives a good picture:

• Getting the gunslinger bonus is important and you should pursue it when you can
• But you may well win without it, and in a fair proportion of games
• It does not guarantee you to win at all!

While I'm here, another fun statistic : winners take 50% more time to think out their moves! Who said this was a game to be played light-hearted?

[Jest Phulin]

The gunslinger award is $1000.
Getting to the engine, and grabbing the strongbox from the marshal is $1000.

Spending all your time shooting will get you $1000.
Getting the strongbox and just 1 other valuable will get you more (and the victory).

[bidulpik]

Hi, and thanks for your answers.

I think it is easier to get the gunslinger bonus than the strongbox.
You really need more cards to get the suitcase, and it is more random.
I think getting the strongbox is more the goal of the game than shooting (but it's just my point of view)

You need less cards to be gunslingers and even less if there are a lot of players (go to top, and shot )
It is even easier to be gunslinger in expert games.
Moreover, if you dont wanna be gunslinger and you're not Django, it is a waste of card to shot another player.

Stats'll help us to find the metagame.

Anyway, answer belongs to IRL game designer

I <3 this game and the job you did to put it online, really nice...

[bidulpik]

And it will be the behave of other players, to care not too be shootable...
I'll try it, if it doesnt use too many cards...
good game !