## Description
_M.U.L.E._ is about four hopeful explorers trying to make a fortune on a
virgin planet. This is done by producing various goods (Food, Energy,
Smithore, Crystite). Each of these goods have their uses: if you don’t have
enough food, you will have less time during your turn. If you don’t have
enough energy, your output will be lower. If enough smithore isn’t produced,
there will be a shortage of M.U.L.E.s. Crystite is the big earner that can
make or break your game.
You start the game by selecting your race. Some are easier to play, some
harder. There are three levels of difficulty, in the easiest the game only
lasts 6 turns, but the real game is 12 turns. Crystite is not available at the
easiest level.
Each turn starts with land claim. Each player gets to choose a spot of land
for themselves from the map. If two players choose the same spot, the player
with less money wins. The map consists of different landscape. River is best
for producing food, plains for energy, mountains for smithore. Crystite is
hidden and must be first found by taking a land sample to the town.
After the land claim each player takes turns in cultivating their land and do
other tasks. They can buy M.U.L.E.s to start production on their land,
sabotage other players by buying M.U.L.E.s and letting them loose, try to
catch the Wumpus for cash and try to find crystite veins. The time to do these
things depends on if the player has enough food. Finally the player goes to
the casino and wins a small amount of money, depending on how much time was
left.
After the cultivation phase is the production phase where each land produces
an amount of goods depending on a number of factors such as if the player has
enough energy in storage, what type of land is used, and some random events
such as sunspots that increase energy output. Also, if the same player has
plots producing the same goods next to each other, they gain a bonus. Three
plots of same production type anywhere on the map by the same player also
gives a bonus.
Third phase is the auction. Here the players buy and sell their goods on open
market. Players negotiate the price by moving up and down on the screen. The
shop also has prices that depend on how abundant or scarce the goods is. So if
there is a shortage of food, the price goes up and vice versa. This allows for
various tactics, especially if one player manages to monopolize food, energy
or smithore production. If there is no food, others don’t have time to change
their production types, if there is a shortage of energy, their land won’t
produce and if there are no M.U.L.E.s they can’t change production type on
their plot. Hoarding goods also has a drawback in the form of surplus where
each turn a percentage of goods is wasted.
There are a number of random events in the game. Some affect one player,
usually the one winning gets small penalties and the losing player(s) get
small rewards. The big events that happen randomly are:
\- M.U.L.E. goes crazy – the M.U.L.E. on one of the plots runs away losing
production for that round plus the money to replace it.
\- Planetquake – production of smithore and crystite is much lower.
\- Fire in store – all stock in the shops are destroyed (which means prices
will skyrocket, but if you needed to buy something, you are at the mercy of
other players).
\- Pirate attack – pirates steal all crystite from stores and players (in the
easiest level they steal smithore). Nasty if you happened to have a lot of
them waiting for better prices.
\- Acid rain storm – affects the plot under the storm and below it by boosting
food production and decreasing energy production.
\- Sunspot activity – increases energy production.
\- Pest attack – eats all food on one plot.
\- Meteor strike – destroys the M.U.L.E on the plot it strikes but creates a
very rich crystite plot.
The game always has four players, with 1-4 human players possible and the rest
played by the AI. Because the players only need two buttons at most (up/down
in auction) in auction, it’s easy to play with four people around the
computer.
M.U.L.E.