Renaming birds?

[lepome]

This could change the game...https://wapo.st/3Mr8fDw

[enbycass]

Eventually. No birds have been renamed yet, but once they are, Elizabeth Hargrave and Stonemaier Games will surely issue an update, which may or may not ever come to BGA as we don't even have the swift start cards yet. I'd count on more and more birds slowly being banned here first.

[paramesis]

If Stonemaier games issued an update, the most time consuming part would certainly be on the publisher's end on the design side with rebalancing of bonus cards (possibly retiring Historian entirely) and updating card graphics, not to mention everything that goes into physical printing. Changing the database names of the birds and images and updating bonus cards on BGA could easily be handled in an afternoon.

Swift Start cards are currently implemented in the working build I have going in BGA studio, which will be released soon in a major update. The last remaining steps before this can be deployed include finishing Automa and intensive testing. This update has been in the works on the back burner for quite a while, but I see my life circumstances affording me more time to see it through starting this month.

When the implementation first went live on BGA, I asked the publisher about an evolving list of excluded cards, and they were strongly against it. There are no plans to "ban" any cards beyond the existing game option to exclude the "power 4"

[enbycass]

That's great news about the swift start cards! Thanks!

[bananasplay]

Swift Start cards are currently implemented in the working build I have going in BGA studio, which will be released soon in a major update.

Thanks for your continued work on this implementation. Please let me express here my hope that these cards will be a table option only and not something added to the deck unilaterally. I do have some concerns about how these cards will affect the balance of existing bonus cards (a concern that you rightly point out with the potential renaming of birds), so I'd like the option to avoid tables that include these, should the bonus cards be thrown out of whack.

[Adasaur]

Although they haven't publicly discussed anything beyond the idea of creating a card pack for the renamed birds once the changes are made, I suspect that Stonemaier Games will be keen on balancing the game accordingly.

Also, exciting news re: the Swift-Start! I assumed it was in the same realm as the expansions (it would still be great to have just one of them available on here; I own Asia plus the base game but haven't gotten a chance to play it more than a handful of times) so it's good to hear that there'll be a few more cards to add to the virtual deck.

[pjt33]

If Stonemaier games issued an update, the most time consuming part would certainly be on the publisher's end on the design side with rebalancing of bonus cards (possibly retiring Historian entirely)

I wonder whether they'd also take the opportunity to be a bit more consistent about what counts for Cartographer.

[Deadly_Rose]

We're discussing how to proceed. We prefer to use the official names for birds, so given that these names are officially changing, it's likely that we'll make a pack of the renamed birds. I wouldn't call this (or anything like this) a matter of erasing the past--the past isn't changing. Rather, it's using the information we have in the present to not celebrate or honor those who committed atrocious acts in the past and to simply not be derogatory to certain cultures. (Note that this is a general commentary that does not apply to all birds named after people--per the article, there are a variety of reasons that the names of people are being separated from the names of the birds.)

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/318239 ... 8#43213158

Also

I can confirm that if/when we release such a pack, absolutely nothing about them will change other than the names. We're not trying to entice customers to buy something they already have; we'll simply try to serve those who want the new names.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/318239 ... 0#43241510

[Adasaur]

Also

I can confirm that if/when we release such a pack, absolutely nothing about them will change other than the names. We're not trying to entice customers to buy something they already have; we'll simply try to serve those who want the new names.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/318239 ... 0#43241510

To be clear, this is responding to a question about whether the renamed birds will have new art or some other feature to entice people to buy them. This doesn't mean they won't make any necessary alterations to the game as a whole, at least future editions that haven't been produced yet. I don't think it would make sense to be producing dual versions of the cards with old vs new names as opposed to just phasing out the eponymous cards entirely once production on the renamed cards starts. And that would accordingly result in some tinkering to rebalance the game, depending on what the new names are.

[bananasplay]

If Stonemaier games issued an update, the most time consuming part would certainly be on the publisher's end on the design side with rebalancing of bonus cards (possibly retiring Historian entirely)

I wonder whether they'd also take the opportunity to be a bit more consistent about what counts for Cartographer.

Hmm, in what way is the game currently not consistent with respect to Cartographer?