What's On The Cards?
almost 3 years ago – Mon, May 08, 2023 at 01:50:47 PM

Hello Everyone!

Just thought I'd provide a last card showcase before the end of the Kickstarter campaign.

Research

We've looked at the key Relics and Locations, so let's have a focus on another the key supporting card - Research

Whether and when to buy Research Cards to upgrade your trading ship is a serious strategic choice in Starlight. All base-game cards feature a coloured symbol, and owning a Research Card boosts all transactions involving that coloured symbol in your favour. Artifacts with that symbol are cheaper to buy and more valuable to sell; Power stations will provide more power. Getting the right Research early in the game can pay off handsomely, if you can specialise in the card's colour symbol.   

VIP Research Cards are rare and exotic, focusing on improving mobility over raw profit. The Research Card in the bottom left boosts your supply from any power station, regardless of colour symbol. The card on the bottom right increases the maximum of each power resource your ship can carry. These give you more strategic movement options, putting more markets within easy reach.

Research cards stack to get some truly impressive bonuses, although while you are spending time and money on Research your rivals may be trading their way to victory.

Investors

There's one more major card type we should look at - Investors.  If you find yourself short of money, fuel, energy or time, then Investors can provide them - for a price. Take on an investor and you will immediately get the resource shown on their card. Unfortunately they will need to be payed back with interest before the end of the game, so use them wisely! 

There is however a loophole. If another trader needs to use an Investor that you are holding, the Investor transfers to them and you no longer have to pay them back! You both get the benefit, but only they get the cost. The truly canny trader can grab an Investor early on, safe in the knowledge that they won't still be holding them by the time the bill comes due. Well, probably.

Reshaping the Galaxy For Fun and Profit
almost 3 years ago – Thu, May 04, 2023 at 03:55:39 PM

Hi Everyone!

Today's update is going to focus on the board itself, our trading galaxy. This starts as an unexplored 4x4 grid of Location cards which are gradually revealed as our traders move about. However, our powerful galactic traders don't have to just put up with the way fate has arranged the planets, they have the power to reshape the board by shuffling whole star systems into more profitable arrangements.

In game terms, each player has a a hand of Location cards and when you end your move on an unoccupied Location you can swap the card on the board with one from your hand. Each swap changes the shape of the galaxy, pushing up prices in one area while bringing them down elsewhere.

From locations you lay down you gain a lot of influence over which colour symbols appear on the board (and hence prices), and where to position markets and power stations to your best advantage. From the location you pick up you gain future options. It's always worth holding a powerful Restriction Zone you can later use to block your rival's most promising market, or cut off their power supply options when they run low.

Expert traders will watch the coloured symbols that their rivals are favouring, and try to best profit from their opponents moves. Traders will try to swing the galaxy from the bargain prices of a buyers market when they are looking to collect stock, to a rich boom market to then sell into. Of course once all the Relics are sold and the hold is empty the wise trader will try to crash the galactic economy to get the prices back down and re-stock with bargains.

Mastering the shifting, changing board and moving it in your favour is the route to the biggest profits in Starlight.

Let's Have An Example

This is the start of our blue trader's turn. How to get the best price for that nice blue & gold relic?

It would be great if we could sell at the double-blue market in the bottom-left quadrant we're starting on as the price here is 6* but unfortunately we have to move before we can take our action.  

The market to our left would be better, selling at 7**, however that card only has red/green symbols so we can't sell our blue/gold relic there. They just aren't interested. 

Hmmm. Perhaps this galaxy needs a little tweak? 

If we use our move to go where the red/green market currently is, then swap that Location for the double-gold market from our hand, then sell our relic there we can bump the price up to 9***. Nice moves, blue trader. We now also have the red/green market in our hand so we can use that later to sell any red or green relics we pick up.

With every trader subtly changing the board in their favour you can see how the galaxy can end up shifting a fair bit from turn to turn. 

* 2 for the double-blue we're on, +1 for the single gold in our row to the right, and another +2 for the gold and blue to the right of that. The final +1 comes from the blue at the top of the column. Total: 6. Not bad.

** 5 for the blue and gold in the card's row (the same as above) and in the column +1 for the gold above and +1 for the blue below. Total: 7. Better, if it was legal to sell here.

*** 2 for the double-gold, +5 for the golds and blues in the rest of the row and +2 for the gold/blue in the column as above, Total: 9. Kerching!

How Starlight Works - A Detailed Walkthrough Video
almost 3 years ago – Mon, May 01, 2023 at 12:05:16 PM

Happy bank holiday everyone!

Today we're releasing our latest Starlight video, an animated walkthrough of the first few turns of a three-player game. 

It's fully narrated (in English) and subtitled and shows all the important mechanics - movement, buying, selling, consuming and replenishing power resources, and shaping the board to improve your position. 

We've used animation here rather than live action because it's much clearer what's going on, and this should give everyone a good overview of the detailed turn-by-turn gameplay.  

If you have any questions please feel free to post them as project comments or send us a message. Enjoy the video!

Locations! Locations! Locations!
almost 3 years ago – Thu, Apr 27, 2023 at 02:39:08 PM

Hello again! Today I'm looking at the various types of Location card we encounter in Starlight.

What are Locations?

Locations are the most important cards in the game. They make up both the board, and your hand. 

Each turn you get the opportunity to move across the board and swap a Location from the board with one in your hand, so you are literally reshaping the galaxy as you play. 

There are several different types of Location as shown in the example above. 

In the top left we see a Trading Outpost. These contain the markets where we can buy relics from the available selection or sell relics we have in our cargo hold. The symbols on the card show which kinds of relics we can trade here, in this case those marked with the Green Leaf and/or the Blue Butterfly symbols. In this particular location we'd also be wise to bring some kind of sealed container to keep things dry, but all experienced traders are well prepared for such situations. Prices are calculated depending on which other Locations are in the same board row and column as this Location, so some types of Relic may be expensive (so this is good place to sell) or surprisingly cheap (a good place to buy).

In the top right we see a Power Station, where we can top up our trading ship's Power Resources. There are two different Power Resources, Fuel and Energy, that allow us to move around the board. The type and amount consumed depends on which direction we move and how far. This particular example is a Red Gem Dynamic Fuel Station and the amount of Fuel we get from it will depend on the number of Red Gem symbols in the same row and column as this Location. We should get at least one however from the symbol on the card itself but ideally you'd hope for rather more, as lack of Power Resources can be quite constraining.

In the bottom left we see a Research Centre, where we can buy Research cards from the available selection. Research cards have a coloured symbol and improve calculations that involve that symbol, so the price of relics can be made cheaper when buying and more expensive to sell and we get a bonus at matching Power Stations too. The Location also features a symbol which is used to influence calculations on the other cards but has no effect here. Looks to me like the Research here is coming from the excavating the remains of a previous civilization, possibly the parts they threw away, so I'd be careful about relying on it too heavily.

Finally in the bottom right we see a Restriction Zone. These are galactic decrees that ban certain actions in the Location's row and column. In this case the purchase of Energy is forbidden, which may cause some distress to traders who find themselves caught short when the decree comes into effect. 

How do we use Locations?

As the game goes on you should try to shape the galaxy to help you out and hinder your rivals. Placing locations with symbols that match Relics in your hold will get you a better price when you sell, but scooping up promising Trading Outposts and Power Stations now might give you the edge later on. 

If you're fully topped up with Power Resources why not drop in a Restriction Zone to slow your opponents down, or block that promising Trading Outpost they were about to sell their Relic to for a massive profit? 

Knowing where to go, when to reshape the galaxy and how it's likely to change over the next few turns is a key strategic skill for the master Starlight trader.

Introducing Relics
almost 3 years ago – Sun, Apr 23, 2023 at 01:40:58 PM

Hello Everyone!  

As part of our updates we're going to be taking a closer look at some of our card types, and explaining how they fit into the game. Today it's the largest category of cards: Relics.

What are they? The royal regalia of a peripheral noble fallen on hard times? A crystal automaton encoding the location of a distant mineral deposit? The last remnant of a once proud species? The first seed of a new one? A pleasant, peppermint-flavoured souvenir? All these and more. But to you Relics are your route to profit and victory.  Buy them them cheap from your contacts in the less reputable starport bars, then sell them on to the discerning, but carefully anonymous, collectors.  

In game terms, the important element is the coloured shape or shapes in the top left of the card. This shows the Relic's type or types: Red Gem, Green Leaf, Blue Butterfly and Gold Planet.  There are always four Relics available to buy from the Markets, and the types give the price.  You calculate the price at a Market by looking at the Market's row and column on the board. Count up each time a symbol from the Relic card appears, and that's the price.  

For a given Market it's the same calculation whether buying or selling, so to make a profit you'll want to visit a Market with low prices for buying, and one with high prices for selling.  Relics with two symbols on the card will cost more to buy, but the selling price may be correspondingly higher.  I'll give some worked examples when I cover Markets. 

This would all be pleasantly straightforward if the Locations on the board were fixed, but your fellow traders are constantly swapping Locations between board and hand in an attempt to alter the layout of the galaxy in their favour. The winner will be the trader who best predicts and shapes the galaxy to get the best prices.