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Oh wow that was faster than I had expected! And so much detail, thank you so much! (I had no idea how exciting reading feedback on a game we created would be 🤩)
I think those rulebook notes make a lot of sense:
– Removed from the board is certainly superior to dug or claimed.
– The cost/income thing makes sense, I’d considered making a sort of table somewhere in the rules or on a reference card that show the cost, income value and analysis cost all separately but when we tried to make them all the same this felt a little redundant.
– You’re right, that is unclear. It SHOULD be that you can only claim 1 artefact per turn. We hadn’t considered that slim chance that 2 could be revealed and a player could have enough to purchase both.
– The grass layer is free to dig, and once one is in your discard pile you start collecting income on turn 2 so this shouldn’t be an issue. I am curious as to where this miscommunication has come from in the rulebooks however, if you can help me out with that it would be a huge help.
We were a little concerned about the potential for an optimal strategy, especially a boring optimal strategy in which you just pass multiple turns. I’m wondering as well if that doesn’t play into it thematically either, your dig wouldn’t continue to be funded if you stopped working on it. I’m considering the income dropping 1 gold each turn you consecutively pass or something like that. The problem would also be somewhat address by increasing the findable gold as you stated, since then digging when you cannot afford an artefact might still be viable if it is more likely that you will increase your gold vs passing again.
The analysis as well was something we found ourselves rarely using, and even when we did it didn’t have the intended secret information feel that we’d like. something we’ve considered before is having another “currency” of research points that you spend on analysis so that it’s independent from your financial economy. Either that or having analysis being an ‘event’ you reveal when you dig that allows you to see the next 2 cards immediately, that way people can’t just check them after you and it isn’t a trade off with your money.
This has given us a lot to consider. Thanks again for providing such detailed feedback and we’re glad you enjoyed the game!
