iPhone Eclipse 4X space strategy (by Big Daddy's Creations)

I posted that I tried to accept and the game crashed. I don't have an invite from you.

 

Currently you can't. The devs are working on a game log of some kind so until that's implemented you'll just need to look at the board or ask them in chat.

 

I posted this in the bug/features list on BDC's blog in regards to some people wanting new elements added to the game but it's been sitting in moderation for about a week:

Please, please, please consider making the actual score view and bankruptcy preview optional.

As a member of a serious Eclipse play group we all have paper scraps where we keep track of VP ranges and tile/VP probabilities. The fact that these are are really appreciated because they bring an advanced Eclipse tactic and seemlessly integrate it in a way that even new players can start using them. These are things that are NOT in the Eclipse board game that strengthen the overall package.

I realize some new players need help but these new indicators actually detract from the game.
Want to know how many actions you can take before going bankrupt? Then look at the large bar in the top left labeled "money". If the action requires more money then you receive at the end of your turn... you're going bankrupt.
Want to know your actual score? Look at your minimum score, that's your score assuming all your VP shields are 1's. So you open the Diplomacy bar and look at what the shield's actual value are and total it up and minus the number of tokens (got 4 tokens? -4, three tokens? -3, etc.). That new number plus your min score is your actual score.

Eclipse is a game about coping with lots of things at once. Resources, sector influence, colonizing, enemy position, enemy VP, potential/critcal upgrades for yourself AND enemies, your perceived VP range (shows how big of a threat you are), Ancient discoveries yet to be found, and so much more. The player that can mange all those things most effectively is the winner. You will make mistakes because you weren't paying attention and that's the nature of the game.

There is already a great indicator showing that the action you are taking is either payed for with money in storage (yellow) or exceeds the amount of money you can pay by the end of the turn (red), why do we need more than that? If a red bankrupt indicator sneaks up on you it's not because the game needs to do more, it's because you don't understand that the upkeep of the actions is directly tied with your income.

The only variable to your score are the shield tiles you draw after battle. So why do I need to have three scores given to me? The minimum score - maximum score range is FAR more important as it is far more useful to know. If a player's min score is over the middle of your score you need to start taking high VP sectors away from them.

By adding these new indicators you're not helping players but rather dumbing down the core game because some players want less to think about... which is the antitheses of the spirit of the game.

If anything you could switch the position of the resource bars. Science at the top left above the Research tray, Money in the top right above the action counter, and Materials in the middle. You could even give a glow to the Science bar when researching, Materials when building, Money when the "Your Turn" prompt appears. This will give a subtle reminder that these things are correlated but you aren't shouting out the answer either.

 

I had to google it but that review was awful and the reviewer put little effort to understanding the game by reading the manual if he felt the tutorial wasn't enough.

Eclipse isn't anywhere near as hard as it's made out to be. The mechanics are simple and elegant... But because this is a digital version you're not getting the benefit of physically moving the pieces and seeing how those mechanics tie into each other. I recommend looking at the videos of the boardgame online if only to see the resource boards in action.

The hardest part of Eclipse is information overload. You'll see all these resources, techs, enemy ships, etc and you'll try to understand them all when you should just make it through a game.

 

Alien Frontiers is a great game but it's a very simple worker placement game. It's like saying you should play checkers as a stepping stone to playing chess.

 

My neck vein is bulging in geek rage from the amounts of wrong in your post.

Alien Frontiers is a starter level game. I've watched 8 year olds play AF with little instruction. You roll dice and place them in any/all aplicable spaces based on the numbers rolled and tech cards used, then activate the abilities tied to those spaces. To compare that to a game like Eclipse is absolutely like comparing Checkers to Chess. Checkers will teach you to move pieces around a checkered board but the strategy used isn't even a drop in the bucket compared to Chess.

The fact that you could lump Arkham Horror, one of the top 5 most complicated and fincky games ever made, with Eclipse, a game lauded for it's elegant game design and streamlined rules, tells me you have a loose understanding of the word "Byzantine."

At no point did I say to skip a single thing. I said to view videos of the board game in action to see the pieces in action which will help players understand how they interact. I also said to play the game to the end. The tutorial teaches you all the basics on how to finish a game which is a far cry from beating your head up against anything.

All information in Eclipse (minus a 20VP range) is public information for good reason. The entire purpose is to overload the player with information. It's up to you to figure out what information is useful to you and change your strategy accordingly.

Having read back to see the issue with Le Havre I'd have to regrettably advise against Eclipse. Le Havre and Eclipse are two of the rare games that get misslabeled as complex as opposed to deep. This is another good example of the similarities with Chess. In each of these games it's easy to understand the end goal, what is done in a turn, and how pieces work. The "complexity" is really the depth of strategy that comes from varied play. I know a lot of people that can play Chess, but few that can play at a high level.

Many people make the mistake of trying to understand every facet of a game's strategy before they start playing and that will never work with games as deep as these. The tutorial gives you all the tools to finish a game of Eclipse (assuming you scroll down which some people don't do) and the manual gives you more of the intricacies. If the game gives you all the tools to finish a game then that's what you should do! There is no better way to understand the strategies of a game this deep then to watch the AI adapt to your actions so take advantage of that.