Reply: Terra Mystica:: News:: Re: TM Expansion

by Shampoo4you

jmathias wrote:

Terra Mystica is a great game as is. The factions aren't precision balanced, but I don't think they should be.

The factions are asymmetrical, they should have strengths and weaknesses relative to the game state and other factions. Perfect balance is neither possible, or desired.

I've never played Terra Mystica for money, and I doubt I would, so having a slight imbalance between races that technically speaking aren't supposed to be balanced at all, doesn't bother me. I'd rather use skill and experience to puzzle out how to overcome a perceived strong faction with a perceived weak faction. It's a game, and a game should cause you to think, and an exciting game should be tense and difficult to master.

For me, Terra Mystica hits on all cylinders, and I'm excited for the upcoming expansion.

The asymmetry is what makes the game fun and I'm all for it. But a game with this many factions simply CAN'T be 100% balanced, just look at a game like StarCraft which was patched 30 times over the course of 3 years or so before it was balanced and that only has THREE factions.

So since we acknowledge that it can't be 100% balanced, it needs another mechanic to offset this, such an auction mechanic. We've been using an auction house rule lately and it has improved the game immensely. I hope the expansion includes some system of correction like an auction, at least as a variant.