Constellation art
Updated: Sep 18, 2021
More playtesting has brought major changes to Jarrah Walker's and Yuri newton's hidden agenda's. The latter had an overpowered ability with 'Science and Superstition' once triggered in the end game, so it had to be nerfed, while our Koala lacked the enjoyment of star navigation with an underpowered 'Hokule'a', so that one got a totally new ability, more concentrated on observing.
Playtesting with physical components has also called out the ergonomics of the components. The mainboard fell short in making the world and star map visible for everyone due to its small size, orientation and position on the mainboard. We decided to divide the mainboard into separate components, taking the advantage to get rid of empty space, and to make the world and star map bigger. The separate parts give players with different table sizes more flexibility to organize the overall board layout. The lunar phases section gets a separate board as well, about the same size as the orrery board. This way, those card stacks don't get in the line of sight of the maps.
New rules have been put on the table. A minor one called 'stealing travel info': your vehicle die can be rolled as an option when ending a movement on the same spot as an opponent's. If the symbol matches the current one of the opponent, you can chain that vehicle movement for free.
A major rule change would be that of the win condition. In order to keep the game interesting until the end, after the first player return from the Moon, there will be a victory point (fame) system, while still keeping the importance of a race, but making quests and super inventions more relevant by awarding fame points. We haven't tested this feature yet, but it would be like this: fame for space race ranking (3-2-1), most rest points (2-1), most quests (2-1) and special inventions (3).
We are making preparations for the campaign, concerning production costs, proofreading rulebook, precampaigning quotes, shipment costs, etc. In the meantime Ana is printing the last masters of the Super Inventions and the planets, a.o.