Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
build a purifier from an ordinary size 1 station (ice mine, ore mine, or way station),
the player must have at least one ice token stored in the station and pay two energy
tokens. Place the ice token used under the station to indicate its new type. A puri-
fier can no longer be used to mine or produce energy and cannot expand. However,
as a single action, the player can purify all the ice stored on the purifier (or as much
as desired) by spending one energy token per ice token purified. To do this, replace
each ice token to be purified in the station with
two
purified ice tokens from the
reserves off the table. Purified ice cannot be purified further. Purified ice is not really
different from, or more valuable than, ordinary ice. It is used in the same way, and
all other stations can use purified ice instead of normal ice in their operations. The
function of a purifier is simply to double the amount of ice available by expending
energy.
NOTE
ideally, the
purified ice and puri-
fied ore tokens should
be similar in color to
their original forms, for
example, white for ice
and gray for purified
ice. in our playtests,
we didn't have more
colors, so we tacked
small Post-it notes to
the original tokens to
indicate their changed
states.
n
Reineries
work on ore exactly as purifiers do on ice; the only difference is that the
refining process costs more. As with purifiers, to build a refinery, take an ore token
from the station, put it underneath the station as identification, and pay two energy
tokens. When converting ore on the station, pay
two
energy tokens per ore token
refined, and replace the ore token with two purified ore tokens.
n
Transporters
increase the number of actions the player can take in a turn and
transport resources rapidly by expending energy. A player can change any ordinary
size 1 station (ice mine, ore mine, or way station) into a transporter. To build a
transporter, the player pays two energy tokens. Place one energy token under the
station to indicate its new type. Like purifiers and refineries, a transporter can no
longer be used to mine or produce energy and cannot expand. For each transporter
the player builds, he gains one action per turn. In addition, the player can transport
any or all resource tokens stored in a transporter to a single destination station
anywhere
on the surface for the price of one energy token.
Why make reFininG more expensiVe?
You might wonder why we made refining ore cost more energy than purifying ice. The
reason is that if a player has the efficient Ore mining technology, he can already produce
two ore resources out of one. Players can potentially mine 40 ore in a two-player game.
The Fast ice mining technology means that ice will be mined faster, but 20 is still the
maximum in a two-player game. This means that for the game resource balance, it is bet-
ter to stimulate the duplication of ice rather than that of ore.
Figure 9.13
illustrates the mechanics of these extra types of stations.
