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We've played several games now. Started with the Beginner level but quickly moved up to Tournament. I'm giving her lots of guidance of course but she's loving the game and wants to play all the time. Have had multiple instances where collusion would have been of great benefit...playing with a less-experienced player and wanting to help them out. (Just to put in another plug and add another use case for collusion.)

I couldn't get into the bug reporting facility so I am leaving this here.

I'm on a Mac and running version 1.11.0. I'm using a Trooper joystick.

Changing difficulty level is now done from the player selection screen. When I use the Mac mouse to change difficulty level the game loses track of the fact that I have a joystick and it expect me to click the mouse button to continue instead of using the joystick button to continue.

I can send a video if you tell me where to send it.

Thanks,

Dan

Just a quick personal note to say that I am about to introduce my 10 year-old daughter to M.U.L.E. I am waiting on a second joystick to arrive and then she's in for the treat of a lifetime. :-) 

Dan

Apple ARM. Always happy to help if you need a tester!

Dan

I tried just outfitting a MULE and running around the unoccupied land and found no slow-down on the mountains. I'm running the latest Mac version. (Update: Tried it without a MULE in tow too and no slow-down on mountains that way either.)

Also, I appreciate the thoughtful response regarding last round auctions. It did strike me that this kind of "departure" from the classic game might be a good fit for your concept of switchable on/off new features.

Dan

A couple things:
a) In V 1.11.0 my character isn't slowing down when crossing mountain terrain. It does in the C64 version.
b) Skipping the auction in the last round is okay but sort of a bummer. My friends and I used to like to go to a "cash position" by selling all our goods; just for the fun of running up the cash score. I suppose the faster game is worth it!

Found the "I already paid for this" link and got the update. :-)

I haven't downloaded an enhancement before. Does each release require purchase?

First, I love the idea of speeding up the clock if all human players press their buttons.  "Waiting out the clock" is a pain point in the game.

It will be interesting to see if others have opinions on the collusion question.  Yours is clearly a comprehensive understanding of the role of collusion, including the positive and negative consequences in the player dynamic. I appreciate greatly your response and kind consideration of my request.

As a developer myself what resonates the most with me in your thinking is making it a game option. That strikes me as the perfect solution. 

I'm not sure where you are but perhaps we can talk sometime and I'll share some of my experiences with Dani. Such an amazing person! If you'd like to DM me we can exchange numbers. danielpdarnell@gmail.com

Dan

Hi. I read your post elsewhere about collusion and the reasons it wasn't included in the game. I would like to put in a vote FOR collusion and hope that you are open to it. I've been playing M.U.L.E. on the Commodore 64 since about 1984 and continue to play with my buddy from back in the day every time we get together. We live in different states now so our M.U.L.E. sessions are less frequent than they were when we were playing in high school. Thanks to you we're able to play again now online! Any time! Amazing! Thank you for bringing our favorite game back to us in a new way. 

So, collusion. Collusion was always a part of our gameplay and we really miss it. I get your free-market argument but I think you have to look at collusion as the wildcard in the mix. It's the unregulated wildcard of the game that "breaks" the otherwise carefully curated market economic aspects of the gameplay. Even when we would play with 3 or 4 human players there was always an element of "Hey, I've got energy if you'll meet my price" side-hussles going on. Even with just two of us playing it is essentially the same thing. "I'll help you with ONE food but you've got to get my back on energy." Not to make too much of it though because we end up colluding once or maybe twice maximum per game but almost every game includes at least one collusion.

Happy to discuss further and I think you are amazing. Lastly, I wanted to share that I live in the Little Rock area and I was a friend of Danielle Bunten Berry in the 1990's. I enjoyed many conversations with her about my favorite game (M.U.L.E.) and all of the other great games she was responsible for creating. I think what you've done with online M.U.L.E. would have delighted Dani and you've really done proud the concept of the game and its creators.

Dan