Soldato
I am currently at the early stages of designing a board game. It is a 2-5 player worker placement/movement game based around Fishing trawlers going to sea, catching fish and selling at a Port trying to make the most money. At the end of the game the player with the most money wins whilst keeping and eye on reputation by way of limiting By-Catch and Discards.
The problem I have is the markets at each players port. All player have a home port with a market and ship yard to buy new boats and upgrade existing ones. The markets consist of 5 prices as there 5 fish species players can fish for. The market prices will have the highest price at the top reducing down to the lowest price. The price is per unit sold.
£6
£5
£4
£3
£2
next to these prices there will be a space for a token with the species of fish on. Each of the 5 markets will work independently as they are from different countries/areas/regions. At the start of the game each player randomly places the 5 species tokens on the markets price list. this is the starting market price for each players Port.
Players take it in turns to play from a set of actions. One is move a boat, so players move a boat or boats if they have more than 1, on the game board. They head for a fishery which once landed on it will reveal what fish species is on there and how big that stock is for that fishery. They will load up their boat (up to the max capacity of the boats storage, boats start with storage for 4 units of fish) with the fish and head to a port to sell. They can chose to sell at their own port if the price is ok or at another players port if the price is better BUT that players gets a bonus of extra money from the sale of fish at their port, selling at your own port is just the selling price and no bonus.
Each species has a maximum total stock level for arguments sake lest say it is 20 units of each fish. These are spread around the board in different fisheries and each fishery will have a different value, some will be 4 units some could be 6 units and some more or less. The total is still 20 for each fish but spread across the board.
Now, how can I design a way to implement the Supply and Demand based on levels of known stock?
When fish is plentiful the price is cheap when stocks are depleting the price rises which is a given.
During the game there will be 4 seasons, the fish spawn during these season increasing stock levels. What fish spawns is based on random roll and the stock is moved back up to 20.
Each market will change during the game based on the S&D. The way I thought about doing it is this:
On a seperate board, there will be a tracker for each fish type. The tracker will be numbered 0-20 (total stock levels for each fish). Under the stock numbers there will be a section to tell players what to do on their markets. Every 3 stock numbers there will be an icon to tell players to move their market prices.
When a player flips over a stock token and fishes that space the stock tracker for the fish is reduced, so for example: Player 1 lands on a space and flips the fish type token and its a Cod, they then flip to stock token and it is revealed to be 7 units. The player fills his boat with 4 units leaving 3 behind on the space. The stock tracker for that fish is reduced to 16 as the player caught 4 fish.
Now the markets are adjusted for each player, remember Cod may be at a different price at other players markets for the start.
Player 1 has cod at the £4 slot. So with the stock level reduced to 16 the price will rise so Player 1 moves the Cod token up one slot to the £5 slot, this is based their initial market setup. Player 2 had cod on £6 so their price doesn't move, Player 3 had Cod on £2 so there Cod move up to £3 a unit. Bare in mind that each market runs independently. When a fish type moves up or down the type of fish it swaps with the one its moving into.
i hope this makes sense and I am sorry for a big essay. Is this a good way of doing a market based on stock levels and starting prices for this game?
if there is anything you can ad or help out with I am all ears.
The problem I have is the markets at each players port. All player have a home port with a market and ship yard to buy new boats and upgrade existing ones. The markets consist of 5 prices as there 5 fish species players can fish for. The market prices will have the highest price at the top reducing down to the lowest price. The price is per unit sold.
£6
£5
£4
£3
£2
next to these prices there will be a space for a token with the species of fish on. Each of the 5 markets will work independently as they are from different countries/areas/regions. At the start of the game each player randomly places the 5 species tokens on the markets price list. this is the starting market price for each players Port.
Players take it in turns to play from a set of actions. One is move a boat, so players move a boat or boats if they have more than 1, on the game board. They head for a fishery which once landed on it will reveal what fish species is on there and how big that stock is for that fishery. They will load up their boat (up to the max capacity of the boats storage, boats start with storage for 4 units of fish) with the fish and head to a port to sell. They can chose to sell at their own port if the price is ok or at another players port if the price is better BUT that players gets a bonus of extra money from the sale of fish at their port, selling at your own port is just the selling price and no bonus.
Each species has a maximum total stock level for arguments sake lest say it is 20 units of each fish. These are spread around the board in different fisheries and each fishery will have a different value, some will be 4 units some could be 6 units and some more or less. The total is still 20 for each fish but spread across the board.
Now, how can I design a way to implement the Supply and Demand based on levels of known stock?
When fish is plentiful the price is cheap when stocks are depleting the price rises which is a given.
During the game there will be 4 seasons, the fish spawn during these season increasing stock levels. What fish spawns is based on random roll and the stock is moved back up to 20.
Each market will change during the game based on the S&D. The way I thought about doing it is this:
On a seperate board, there will be a tracker for each fish type. The tracker will be numbered 0-20 (total stock levels for each fish). Under the stock numbers there will be a section to tell players what to do on their markets. Every 3 stock numbers there will be an icon to tell players to move their market prices.
When a player flips over a stock token and fishes that space the stock tracker for the fish is reduced, so for example: Player 1 lands on a space and flips the fish type token and its a Cod, they then flip to stock token and it is revealed to be 7 units. The player fills his boat with 4 units leaving 3 behind on the space. The stock tracker for that fish is reduced to 16 as the player caught 4 fish.
Now the markets are adjusted for each player, remember Cod may be at a different price at other players markets for the start.
Player 1 has cod at the £4 slot. So with the stock level reduced to 16 the price will rise so Player 1 moves the Cod token up one slot to the £5 slot, this is based their initial market setup. Player 2 had cod on £6 so their price doesn't move, Player 3 had Cod on £2 so there Cod move up to £3 a unit. Bare in mind that each market runs independently. When a fish type moves up or down the type of fish it swaps with the one its moving into.
i hope this makes sense and I am sorry for a big essay. Is this a good way of doing a market based on stock levels and starting prices for this game?
if there is anything you can ad or help out with I am all ears.
At a very initial pass-through the mechanics sound viable. I think I'd want to write it out myself and run some numbers before I committed to saying the approach was good. Ultimately play testing will give you the best idea for game balance of how to handle this.
