Trade in box

Initialy my idea was to set up separate 'tokens' for each action possible. That in fact would create dozens of wooden rounds. Aditionally - it would be a bit complicated to set this up. Now - as a remedy for that - another idea jumped into my mind. Why not using dices? Those do fit perfectly - one action is to buy or sell - first dice, second stands for planet considered in trade, third one is to show the trade good, while fourth and fifth are representing proposed price. All together in a wooden box.The form of the wooden box could be as shown on the picture... but not necessary. I think that it might be good to set up a big trade boxes per player, that would allow multiple trades. Ideal size of a dice will be 8/10 mm.Having this size will allow relatively simple, clear and - easy to hide from opponents setup. If I'm lucky - I might have this done during the weekend. Fingers crossed.

Some light into the design!

Most recently I do have quite a significant improvements. I did finish off all the cards - those are now ready to print!!! (sample is shown on the left). Following my quite innovative thinking at work - I did follow it up to here. And the simple thing is - since I have quite issues with getting all the wooden parts - let's skip them for the moment and see - how it will work without. For this purpose - as tokens I will use old and new coins. Than I will stick some markers to it, as it was originally predicted. Aditionally - I've purchased metal space ships! It was 2.5GBP per 12 small ships - and that I consider a great price. I hope they'll arrive soon since I plan to redecorate 'ship' board to accomodate those little ships.
What I will now concentrate on is to:

• Finish off design for space ship card template
• Finish off design for planet (note - it is different to ones already posted here)
• Finish off all the 'cut lines' for plotter.

I would really hope, that I will be capable of doing some test print (of cards for example) yet this weekend. That will be the first and ultimately - very important step forward. I will probably print out the stickers to the coins as well. Summarizing - I'm almost done in here!! :)

Almost forgot - the PDF counter is also quite nice. For Today - I did only 'pure' paper version. That already helped me in reconsidering the design, that will most probably be now changed slightly, but only slightly. Still - the idea works pretty well - at least for me. What is bothering - is that whole idea would best fit on some 'thick' wood or plastic of a kind so that holding it is quite simple. Well - this is for future.

Small edit - counter is available through the web. Linked below:
http://sielim.ghost.pl/gk/rotorSTv1.html

Aditionally - I did PDF versions of the counter, so that it can be printed and glued to fit into a paper version of calculator... before posting - I will try out myself on - whether it works fine, or rather not. Will see :) I hope to print it out tomorrow + glue onto some 'solid bases'. And we'll see how it looks / works.

New Stuff!!

This time it has been a looong while. Honestly - my work just eats me up totally. I'm however coming back. For the moment - I already have idea for a next game - strategic play of golf :) with a bit of 'randomness'. Since it is an interesting topic for me - it will be a funny thing to try this out by myself. It will wait a bit, till I'll finish the refubrishment of this Star Trader. Today I'm presenting "Star Trader Counter" - flash version. It is moreless documented at:
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dddnhjg_3kpq23zdh
Idea behind is to have an automated way of calculating... without actually calculating. This time it is 'electronic'. Now - I'm working on a paper version of the same thing, that should not be extremely difficult since the mechanics are already ok with the computer version. Well - but that is the funny part - fresh let's say. In the meantime - I'm preparing all the steps to close this refresh off and play it finally!!! By the way - another request for a printable version has been posted to me. By the way - I just noticed one minor 'mistake' in my refubrished maps!! It was a huge surprise to me to notice, that my remade price modifier is remade wrong!! Holly crap - I'm correcting this ASAP :) Cheers.

Interesting News

The game is nearly refubrished. What is interesting - I did find just nearby a place, where I can make all the board pieces / tokens in the exact way I need them. It was quite funny, since it took me some time to find company... and when I found it is something like 2 km's away from the place where I live. Now I'm negotiating with the producer on - what can he produce and what will be the price. I will anyway take those, but I'm interested in - how much will it cost. Second thing is - on BGG I did put the vector map of Star Trader that I did produce. And I know - already some people did reuse it. But wait until I will prepare the XXI century Star Trader :) In the meantime - I have an idea already on two games of my own. First one - a space adventure but of unknown nature for the moment. Most probably - discovering new space system. And the second is pretty much related to my work... In this game players would become team managers responsible for executing projects. I already have some ideas, some engine idea... but that is still to be written. I should have this soon I hope. Still - for the moment, I'm thrilled with the reedition, especially when I think of additional plantes to be incorporated (two).

Idea - easy game cards translation.

Idea is - how to make the game cards translation without loosing the nice design along with the translation still - keeping it all together without destroying original View. My idea on this one is to:

1. Use Scribus software to recreate all the card descriptions
2. Create printable references, that will fit the original sizes of cards
3. Print what you have on foil
4. Fit this into card sleeves
5. Use freely :)

I will soon post my results into BGG under the Warcraft Board Game Expansion (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10991), where I did translate all the cards. Additionally - I will recreate the heroes.
In the same time - I did play a bit... and I must admit - I like Agricola... but plying it too much leaves your opponents (that do not play that often) bit behind. And ... that kind of depresses them. Additionally - it is a bit complicated one.
While on the other hand - I must honestly admit - with Warcraft Board Game Expansion game becomes a lot more of a strategy than it was before. Still - it stays relatively simple one. And I say this even without using the heroes! In general than - I will rate it higher than previously for the standard edition.
As last maybe... Star Trader. I'm almost ready to deploy the final solution. For the moment - what has already been completed:

• All the reference cards (Agents, Occasions, Events)
• Most of the tokens used in game
• Designed the non-writing way to deal with the trade
• Completing design for 'star-ships' boards
• Think of redesign of the boards to accommodate current game approach
• Prepare 'cut' lines for boards

What it seems now, that instead of plexa boards it will be foil. Well - will see.

Where are we?

Could not skip it - first 'tranche' of tokens arrived. Is it good? More than good! Excellent! The only difficulty may be, that those are bit round, but apart from that - exactly what was needed. For the moment - goods are ready to use. I have some difficulties in getting the 'plexa' board... since the producer does not 100% follow what I need, but that shall not stop the idea. In the meantime - we had a very enjoy full weekend. Just to mention - "Power Grid" for the first time - I kind of liked it, but randomness was bit of a pain. The second game - "Puerto Rico" with a new impressive score of 59 for a five player game! Still - I'm not too sure of how to play this game. Ah.. one more - MISHA. Full stop.