by sigmazero13
Kirenx wrote:
Luck: Runewars is far more luck based, the core scoring mechanic able to swing massively due to uncontrollable luck. Never really saw too much luck in Eclipse, players have a fair amount of control over what they do and how it influences the game.
I'm not sure I agree with this. Both have some significant "luck" factors, and I think both come down to mitigating that luck and how to make it less of an impact.
In Runewars, the primary luck factors are on the Fate card draws - mostly during battles and quests, but occasionally for diplomacy. Season cards can also have some of it, but once you know what to potentially expect, you can plan for it better. With the fate cards, in battle it usually tends to balance itself out just like dice would. For quests and diplomacy, it largely comes around knowing what's left in the deck and choosing the best times to act. (For instance, if you need a Gold result to win a quest, and all 4 golds are in the discard pile, don't do the quest).
With Eclipse, the main luck factors are in which techs come out each round, which map tiles are drawn, and the die rolling in combat. The techs can be hit or miss - it depends on what you need, but there's often more than one way to accomplish what you might want. The map tiles are more of a factor in the early game - it's easy for a player to get really poor pulls while other players get rich systems. The combat system is just as luck-based as Runewars, but you can mitigate it via certain upgrades to improve your chances, but there's no guarantee.
I think both have luck, and I don't think either have "uncontrollable" luck (although you can, in both, have situations where you just get a bad string of cards/rolls and you lose a battle you should have easily won). It all comes down to how to mitigate the luck with your builds and timing.