Pluck N' Plunder

[MaggieNoodle]

.....isn't very fun? You have entirely 0 agency over how the match unfolds, it's pure luck and yet it still doesn't feel fair?

I've played 4 matches and have been ruthlessly crushed each time, with an enemy ship a good half the board ahead of my own thanks to constant double rolls of whatever number set I don't have.

Maybe make the board half the size, and you can only move your ships on your turn?

But the core gameplay isn't that fun. Click roll dice, wonder why the enemy player gets to roll 3 times in a row, realize it doesn't actually matter, get absolutely eviscerated. None of the actions feel effective except for the crazy OP disable bonus movement for the entire match, and the matches are pretty long anyway.

Overall the game gives me 0 reason to continue to play it.

[lifetapstudios]

Best strategies:
- Picking 'Gust' card when your ship is less than 50% way through the board, as it moves one extra tile than normal.
- Picking 'Fire Slick' if your leading enemy is one tile away from their action tile (the red tiles) If they land in it, the Fire slick not only disables them one turn, but also takes away their card choice for that turn.
- Picking 'Cripple Sails' has a low chance of success, but can be worth attempting if you have a good lead to better seal your win.
- Picking 'Heavy Shot' is more luck based as it has a higher chance to succeed but the enemy target is chosen at random.

[Ztiwllas]

I actually think its a pretty neatly balanced board game between dice-luck and light strategy. The issue i'd have with it is more a rhythmical or interactive question. I think it would be good to confirm (click) the little dice-outcome dialogues, to control the speed of the interaction. The way it plays itself atm is too fast i think (at leats for my taste). It doesnt feel reactive. And the illustrations for the dice-combo situations are to nice to acknowledge and experience, because they are the narrative flesh of the board game and better not be underestimated (even though the results only play out in losing or winning back money from the pot). Only to click on 'Roll Dice' seems to me to little of an interactive option. Or maybe its just too fast for me, what's happening. I imagine it being a real board game how long it would take to actually find the corresponding Dice-Combo-penalty or reward. But that could be quite charming, to have this part of the game more slowed down.

[Enorats]

I was moderately impressed that they had managed to fit an entire fleshed out minigame into a game at this price point.. but yeah, after playing half the match I decided I wasn't really interested in coming back to it. It's just that the player has almost no actual interaction with the game. You're almost not even playing it, as you're just rolling the dice and.. that's it. The only thing you can actually do to influence anything is pick between two options a couple of times, if you happen to land on that square. That's it.

[Pan]

yea to me this is absolutely horrid, I love board games and all. And this just feels ♥♥♥♥♥. I got barely any influence on the board, Its slow and already tedious. Almost feels as watching paint dry but I bet a large amount of how much money I want to lose :D

[boris.glevrk]

IIRC you don't even need to win to proceed with the character mission?

[Ztiwllas]

Originally posted by boris.glevrk:

IIRC you don't even need to win to proceed with the character mission?

No. you don't need to win. But if you're in the Franci&Ena Mission it could happen, that youre locked in the bar after the boardgame. its bugged atm.

[[KRK] Spawnferkel]

I like the idea of a neat pirate based board game, and the setup looks indeed very promising. But what makes a board game a good one is the possibility to make impacctful choices. With Pluck 'n Plunder you only get to roll the dice and once in a while pick between two cards, that are also dependent on a dice roll. My first and only match i got about 6 -8 cards, and only one really had any kind of effect on the game, as all other cards were not played out because i rolled to bad.

It just feels like you click on "Roll the dice" a couple of time and hope that you magically win. There is very little way of intervention and pursuing tactics and strategies, which is really a shame, since the board itself looks very nice and the concept of the game could be very fun.

[lifetapstudios]

The board game takes inspiration from a real life/ancient Italian dice rolling game called "Pluck the Owl". http://www.giochidelloca.it/scheda.php?id=448. Which has a similar board design, though the boats and cards were additions.

[MaggieNoodle]

That's very interesting, thanks for sharing!

It's probably much more entertaining in person to roll the dice and search for the outcome but yeah as others have said it's not very engaging currently to click a button and wait.

It's not a dealbreaker but probably worth revisiting the board game mechanics at a later date.

The rest of the game itself I'm enjoying!

[Pan]

Really enjoying the game, its got some flaws nothing they cant work on.

The board game however, for me personally I absolutely thought it was such a waste of my time. And I dont have a job, got all the free time in the world.

But it was just not to great, Would be very hyped if they did a bit more work on it so the player has atleast a bit influence on the board and its not like pressing a button on a slots machine. I mean I personally wont touch that board game again. (Unless they change it).

[EzraTircolas]

Enjoying the flight and ingredient gathering portions of the game so far, hope to see more upgrades for the brewery and plane in later patches, but first....yeah, Pluck n' Plunder needs more interactivity. The absolute minimum should be to pick up cards and use them at your discretion so that it's not just a slog of clicking through everything.

[HoneyHamm420GlazeIt]

I absolutely crush at Pluck N' Plunder! Definitely aim to use the 'disable bonuses for a ship' early, i was able to get two successful roles early on and disable two opponent ships, gust for the first half, and if the opponent ship is near a boost or red tile, try to use a card that disables that tile to counter them attacking you.

[bernhard.matthieu]

I don't get why those bad mini-games still get implemented. I have the same feeling of lack of agency and lack of gameplay... Those ressources might have been invested in some other part of game development ...

[Pip]

It's not really a "game." more of an activity

As you correctly pointed out, you're only agency is the action cards on the red squares (so technically a game thanks to that agency, but that's a negligible affect at best.

That being said, I could see it being a type of game that actually exists in the world, (lots of early board-games are just roll dice, move pieces, decisions optional). I just don't think there's much reason for us to spend our time in it apart from the mandatory playthrough

[TheSquirrelofHuscurl]

I hated Pluck & Plunder, with a passion. But I only played it twice, and both of those runs I missed literally all but 2 of the RNG dicerolls on abilities (fire slick, heavy shot, etc.) and then proceeded to roll the 2 of the same enemy dice (1s on the first run, 4s on the second run) 3 times in a row when the enemy was already over halfway over the board. I get RNG, but it made me seriously miss the weighted dice mechanic from Kingdom Come: Deliverance. It put actual strategy and thinking (or dumb, overpowered fun) into the dice game there in order to play well.

I'm inclined to agree with the card selection idea, you pick a card on red squares that you can hold in your hand to use at an advantageous moment (maybe still involve RNG once activated), and maybe let you pick which ship to use said card on. Now, even when the enemy gets half a dozen consecutive dice rolls on the same ship, I no longer feel like rage-quitting the game.