Playtesting

A few words about the playtesting approach are in order so they are not necessary in every posting.

Approach

Most of the changes made are playtested one at a time to avoid ambiguous cause and effect unless two or more changes can be made either to complement one another (intentionally as a unit) or it is quite certain that they have unrelated effects.

Player Types

See my other post about using Player Types in Playtesting . A high level description of their strategies and how they are exhibited in this game follows. Due to the multiplayer solitaire history of this game, the player types that focus on their own collection will be the most common among players who know the game. In rough order of expected occurrence:

• Perfectionists: In this game, a Perfectionist will try to get every Set and Collection possible to score 0 or less and won’t worry too much about the progress of other players.
• Soloists: In this game, a Soloist completely ignores opportunities to impact others and does not try to hold cards that the next player can use.
• Rushers: In this game, a Rusher hopes to catch others with an incomplete collection started with higher cards or with high cards yet Unrevealed.
• Pushers/Pressers: In this game, a Pusher is willing to start Collections with higher cards, hoping they will be discarded by others and therefore abundant.
• Opportunists: In this game, an Opportunist will ditch a Collection that has cards that are in decreasing number and take advantage of Action Cards.
• Long-Gamers: Though the “long game” here is not very long, in this game, a Long-Gamer is more likely to hold onto their original Collections, waiting for the right cards to come.
• Fiddlers: In this game, a Fiddler will most likely take advantage of Action Cards unless there is an obvious play to the Collection. They will focus on Action Cards that effect their own Collection.
• Meddlers: In this game, a Meddler will most likely take advantage of Action Cards unless there is an obvious play to the Collection. They will focus on Action Cards that effect the Collections of other players.
• SOBs: In this game, an SOB will most likely take advantage of the “Take That” Action Cards unless there is an absolutely perfect play to the their Collection. They will retaliate when possible.
• Snipers: In this game there are not a lot of opportunities to be so selective with sniping, but a Sniper will try to attack the leader.

Note: The specific strategies of each of these player types varies based on the elements of the game at the time of testing.