8BIT 1337 Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 (edited) This is a good opportunity to (a) play this game more often and (b) ask if anyone knows the answers to any of the questions I've had all these years. I played twice yesterday, and once that is 'cheating' since I played it in Sep of 2012, but my score is so good I had to share it anyway (I had posted it to Facebook which is why I still have it). You might notice I love being the Bonzoid. There's no reason, I just have always been the Bonzoid and will always continue to be the Bonzoid So does anyone know the algorithm that's used to determine prices? Like when the store has no units and players are pushing the price up until someone finally sells? Or when there are no sellers? I'd love to know that so I can plan accordingly In one of my two games I sold a unit of food for 407, which is the highest I've ever gotten (or paid) for anything. I was the only one who produced food that round, and I had produced exactly what I needed, but decided to sell to see what they'd go to. The price of food the next turn was 245 I think - which might be the maximum floor? Anyway, you know you're a Mule addict when selling a unit of food for 407 causes extreme excitement and you just *have* to tell someone about it Recent scores: 28153 26971 (can't figure out why this is attaching upside down?) Sep 2012: 38826 Edited September 2, 2014 by Nature Boy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CapitanClassic Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 (edited) I haven't taken the time to view the disassembly to figure out if these are actually true, but my observations from hundreds of games tells me these are probably true. The minimum price for any good is 10 I think (have never seen energy dip below this), and the maximum is 255 (I think) Smithore price is determined by the ability of the store to build mules. - at the end of all four players turns, the mule corral will be probably be missing some mules. The game increases the price of Smithore if it is unable to build more mules (2 Smithore for each). I believe the price is directly controlled by the number of mules left in the corral. Food/Energy price is determined partially by the shortages of all player, and the last price it sold as - I haven't seen the price increase at all if no shortage exists, so I believe that is a necessary condition. If the store has some stock, I believe that helps keep the price down, especially if it is sufficient to satisfy the shortage. The last selling price (especially if some stock is sold to the store) helps determine the new price. I don't believe I have ever seen the store sell stock for less than it bought it for. Crystalis is randomly determined. It seems to fluctuate between 75-300, but I don't remember the exact range. Edited September 2, 2014 by CapitanClassic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted September 2, 2014 Author Share Posted September 2, 2014 Glad to see a few new faces on here, MULE is great fun especially when playing against a friend or better still a partner it can get pretty intense! Nice winter evening game I tend to like the Packer probably some psycho analyst can tell us what this tells us about each of us There used to be a great MULE site called Planet IRATA not sure if it's still out there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted September 16, 2014 Share Posted September 16, 2014 Crystite ranges from 48 - 144 if I recall correctly. The game has been reverse engineered here, partly in English and partly in French so you might need to put on your bilingual glasses: http://bringerp.free.fr/RE/Mule/reverseEngineering.php5 However not all your questions are answered even in the reverse engineering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jodebo Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 (edited) Hi Atari Age I only registered to post my all-time M.U.L.E. high score. Just did it on the Atari 8-bit emulator on my PC - It works fine. Me (Leggite) 51,935 Colony 126,206 - First time I've ever seen that message about LUXURIOU RETIREMENT! Tournament mode, of course. Cheers. P.S. Carlsson... I'm sure I've seen Crystite go to 148? Edited October 15, 2014 by Jodebo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted October 16, 2014 Author Share Posted October 16, 2014 Hi Atari Age I only registered to post my all-time M.U.L.E. high score. ... Welcome Jodebo - I'll get this updated over the next day or two UPDATED - I've added an all time best goes table at the bottom of Post #2 hope I have everything correct Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jodebo Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 Only detail is... I registered virtually as soon as I got the score. So it's very recent! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted October 18, 2014 Author Share Posted October 18, 2014 (edited) Only detail is... I registered virtually as soon as I got the score. So it's very recent! OK I wasn't sure - that's a hell of a score and will put you in the #1 slot - will update things again tomorrow [uPDATED] Do you (or anyone) ever manage to make a living/killing from the Smithore? I try and fail, usually as the Mechtrons always sell out Edited December 31, 2014 by therealbountybob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Just an average game tonight. I had the lead by a couple thousand points in mid-game, but eventually both red and later on green mechtron came closer. The fact that the only pirate ship arrived already in the third round when I was the only crystite producer of course made a difference. Carlsson (blue human) - 26140 pts Colony Total - 99493 pts 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 (edited) Elegant Estates! Carlsson (Blue Humanoid) = 30602 pts Colony Total = 104259 pts And some stats on how the game evolved. Despite a rather high crystite price in the last round, I managed to steer clear of the red computer. By the way, my previously posted score seems to have been entered as Bonzoid instead of Humanoid, but it is a small typo to fix. Rnd | Land | Event | Smi | Cry | Foo | Ene | Order ----+----------------------+-------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+------------ 0 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | GC VC RC BH 1 | W748VC | Acid Rain | 36 | -- | 15 | 10 | RC GC VC BH 2 | -- | Fire | 50 | 68 | 31 | 17 | RC GC BH VC 3 | P688NS | Sunspot | 57 | 92 | 89 | 10 | BH VC RC GC 4 | P384BC | Acid Rain | 50 | 116 | 62 | 10 | BH RC VC GC 5 | P964RC P904NS | Planetquake | 43 | 96 | 58 | 29 | BH VC RC GC 6 | -- (Wumpus 200K) | Planetquake | 57 | 92 | 115 | 115 | BH VC RC GC 7 | M604VC M636GC P576BH | Pirate Ship | 49 | -- | 77 | 101 | BH VC GC RC 8 | -- | Sunspot | 57 | 96 | 59 | 77 | BH VC RC GC 9 | P516BH | Pest VC | 57 | 116 | 57 | 42 | BH RC VC GC 10 | -- | Meteorite | 50 | 136 | 93 | 68 | RC BH VC GC 11 | -- | Sunspot | 57 | 60 | 153 | 68 | BH RC VC GC 12 | -- | Mother Ship | 36 | 120 | 235 | 47 | BH RC VC GC Edited November 22, 2014 by carlsson 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpental Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Tonight's high score, 4 player tournament game, all flappers (beginner character) 522,840 colony score! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted December 31, 2014 Author Share Posted December 31, 2014 (edited) Tonight's high score, 4 player tournament game, all flappers (beginner character) 522,840 colony score! Welcome alpental if you supply some names for the players I'll add them to the M.U.L.E. tables How did you get such a high score for goods??? & was this the Atari version you were playing Edited January 25, 2015 by therealbountybob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunsen Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 On 28th of December we held the last reno meeting ("RENO Abdaddeln") of 2014 and had a nice little round of mule :-) I think this was the first time I played MULE with 6 people freetz and Küstenturm (the guys of 90ies Atari magazine and User Mag fame; freetz build also the MIDIJoy) played the two leggite until round 9. Then they had to go and Yellow_Man and thorsten_guenther joined in. The other two players were 8BitJunkie (Dimo's Quest) and me (Leveldesigner of Dimo's Quest ). The Scores: Bunsen (Spheroid): 20343 8BitJunkie (Gollumer): 15540 Küstenturm/thorsten_guenther (Leggite): 13486 freetz/Yellow_Man (Leggite): 11054 Colony Score: 60423 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecat Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 First MULE tournament of 2015 between myself & TRBB (plus 2 mechtrons)I was a gollumer(purple) & he was a bonzoid(red) & I won!!! bluecat 33,008 mechtron 27,258 trbb 24,139 mechtron 8,770 colony 93,175 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 First MULE tournament of 2015 between myself & TRBB (plus 2 mechtrons) I was a gollumer(purple) & he was a bonzoid(red) & I won!!! booo third?! the indiginty!!! though for the first time ever I did manage to get the price of Smithore up - it was a few mountain colony so I went for it but made a lot of mistakes. Interestingly the Mechtrons wen't for Cystite and there were no fires or pirates (!) and typically I was hit hard on two of the (3x) "3" mountain plots at a crucial time - I had if that makes sense - so I didn't maximise my production until too late. This must be about the only go where I didn't have a single Crystite plot. The price maxxed out at $250 and mules were $500! I should have sold one turn earlier so there were no mules at all for one go! I was sort of helped by a Mechtron being permanently out of food and energy (green) so when he muscled in on my Smithore plans he had no production. Fun go and after all these goes it's still got something new up it's sleeve. Are there any seasoned Smithore players out there who have managed to make a living from it? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delmoko Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Played my first IBM/pcjr game. You can play 24 months in this. After having played 100's of games for Commodore/Atari... this is a whole new ball of wax. Sometimes a SUPPLY SHIP comes back and doubles the price of Crystite. Has anybody else played this? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delmoko Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Current living room entertainment center set up - Commodore 64 on the left for two player M.U.L.E. - Atari 800 on the right for 3 or 4 player M.U.L.E. and my PC with the Stella 2600 joystick adapter for when I play the IBM/pcjr version of M.U.L.E. on Dosbox. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delmoko Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Two Atari 800 games from last night - first time we've played Atari in the a long while. We're breaking in a newbie 3rd player - she didn't do too well. She understands the game and really likes it... but needs to work on her timing and get a lot more games under her belt. I'm always Orange Gollumer and my cousin (The Zonz) is always the Green Spheroid. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delmoko Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 What is the most games of M.U.L.E. you have ever played in a day? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 What is the most games of M.U.L.E. you have ever played in a day? I suspect you will hold the record with 2 or more?! Usually our 2 player goes are about an hour and a half (both players using fire to skip over some of the auction pauses and computer outfitting). Interesting seeing the PC/Jnr screenshots Did you notice any difference in the gameplay/logic on the C64 version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delmoko Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Yes, many differences... I wrote a piece about it... just looking for it now! The most we've played is 3... and that was probably a solid 5 hours. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 M.U.L.E. tables updated (on the first page) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpental Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 (edited) Welcome alpental if you supply some names for the players I'll add them to the M.U.L.E. tables How did you get such a high score for goods??? & was this the Atari version you were playing So sorry for the long delay in answering. Three of us played on an actual Atari 800 (no emulation) with four human controlled characters, sharing 4 joysticks, playing cooperatively. Danny (me), Jill and Chris. We did (obviously) trade in the twelfth month to get such a high a score for goods and total score (522,840). The game was played before I learned of this forum and the rule of no trading in month 12, but I thought it would still be of interest. Although it is certainly unfair to compare scores with and without such trading, we sometimes still find it fun to see how high a score we can get when trading is allowed. As a testament to how timeless and great a game M.U.L.E. is, my girlfriend Jill is a more modern gamer who only found out about it from me last year, and it quickly became her favourite game of all time and we spent many months playing almost every night.` - Danny Edited July 23, 2016 by alpental 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 So sorry for the long delay in answering. Three of us played on an actual Atari 800 (no emulation) with four human controlled characters, sharing 4 joysticks, playing cooperatively. Danny Miller (me), Jill Tubbesing and Chris Foy. We did (obviously) trade in the twelfth month to get such a high a score for goods and total score (522,840). The game was played before I learned of this forum and the rule of no trading in month 12, but I thought it would still be of interest. Although it is certainly unfair to compare scores with and without such trading, we sometimes still find it fun to see how high a score we can get when trading is allowed. As a testament to how timeless and great a game M.U.L.E. is, my girlfriend Jill is a more modern gamer who only found out about it from me last year, and it quickly became her favourite game of all time and we spent many months playing almost every night.` - Danny Thanks for the reply luckily time stands still in the 8-bit zone I'm sure there are a few more of us [yes you out there] who have spent a lot of time on MULE. At least this confirms that the 12th month trading thing is real - seems very hard to think they overlooked this as the game is so precise (perhaps delmoko can see if the C64 is the same). Out of interest did you trade on the 12th go as you would do on any other go, or did you figure out something to get such high scores? Perhaps we could have a separate table for this if there is still some skill to it? Look forward to seeing some new scores from you all for the charts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpental Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Thanks for the reply luckily time stands still in the 8-bit zone I'm sure there are a few more of us [yes you out there] who have spent a lot of time on MULE. At least this confirms that the 12th month trading thing is real - seems very hard to think they overlooked this as the game is so precise (perhaps delmoko can see if the C64 is the same). Out of interest did you trade on the 12th go as you would do on any other go, or did you figure out something to get such high scores? Perhaps we could have a separate table for this if there is still some skill to it? Look forward to seeing some new scores from you all for the charts We definitely did everything, including the 12th month trading, specifically to get as high a score as possible. I think it does involve a fair amount of skill and is worth its own category of high score. I have never seen another score even close to 200,000 so we theorized how high it could go, and calculated it might be possible to get close to 600,000 in theory, if pirates stay away and the value of crystite happens to be high. This game represents years of learning the details of how the price of goods is set and how to maximize production. Month 12's crystite store buying price was only $96, and pirates came once, so luckier players could still beat our score. To show how important the 12th month of trading was, here is our colony score at various points during the game: Summary #6: 72,101 Summary #7: 95,374 Summary #8: 119,010 Summary #9: 154,952 Summar #10: 181,840 Summary #11: 185,013 Summary #12: 522,840 (A huge jump!) As this is on an original Atari 800, there was no cheating or code alterations, or save/restore happening to inflate the score. We just played a 4 human player tournament game. I'd be happy to disclose the strategy that got us this score at some point, but first it would be fun to see what other people get when they allow 12th month trading! - Danny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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