Database fields - Country/Continent and Rarity

I'd like to suggest that the card database store the following 2 fields:

1. Country
2. Rarity

Field: Country

Purpose: If an animal is unique to a country, or perhaps continent, then have this noted in the database. If it is not unique, i.e. is present across more than 1 contintent then have the entry for this field read "many" or "span" or something.

Reason: When generating a selection of cards (or, I am hoping in the future, an entire play deck with "X" number of cards), it will be attractive to have Country/Continent as a selectable criteria constraint. I imagine this would be especially useful to teachers. This is also in line with the principle of "being able to identify what is in my backyard".

I don't see this as information being printed on the card.

Example:
Pigeon - Continent: many
Kangaroo - Continent: Australia
Hippopotamus - Africa
Pink River Dolphin - South America


Field: Rarity

Purpose: To identify what the current endangered status of a species. Apply a category as per (I don't know how authoritative this is):
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_various_levels_of_endangered_or_conservation_status

Reason: When generating a selection of cards (or, I am hoping in the future, an entire play deck with "X" number of cards), it will be attractive to have Rarity as a selectable criteria constraint. I expect species in this category will by definition have restricted attributes on their cards. It would be a good test of the game rules to build a web of Endangered animals and see if the web is as fragile in the game as it is in the real world.

I don't see this as information being printed on the card.

Example:
Giant Pada - Rarity: Endangered


Cheers,
-T.

This was something discussed a while back (the distribution element) as well as conservation status. At the time, folks thought it best to leave out because those attributes were too fluid, and would require a higher level of moderation to "get right."

One suggestion that has surfaced over time, is that champions get backend permission to the site with a goal of doing two things for a locale near and dear to them.

1. Tag pertinent cards with a hashtag+defining word (like "#vancouver" for instance). This way, all cards can be immediately sorted by that definining tag.

2. Create a starter deck pdf for that identifier.

In other words, the champion is responsible only for their particular interests, you can slowly embed location (hence distribution) information.

Rarity is a little trickier - let's see if we can get some more comments on that topic!

In regards to rarity, I think that regardless of its gameplay mechanic, it's of great interest to people looking at the cards and can be represented by a simple icon so it wouldn't take up much space.

I don't know that there's any "natural" way the rarity would fit into the game mechanics. It would seem natural to make endangered species more vulnerable to events, and worth more points.

In regards to rarity, I think that regardless of its gameplay mechanic, it's of great interest to people looking at the cards and can be represented by a simple icon so it wouldn't take up much space.

I agree this would be cool to add, the only problem I see is if the animals endangerment status changes than the card would have to be updated too. I think a small circle somewhere(maby even color coated according to how endangered it is) would work okay. EN= Endangerd LC=Least Concern

It would seem natural to make endangered species more vulnerable to events, and worth more points.

Not all endangerd animals are more seceptible to things. Like the tiger are endanngerd because of things humans do. It is so endangerd mostly because of the demand for its bones and organs.

Forbidding wrote:Like the tiger are endanngerd because of things humans do. It is so endangerd mostly because of the demand for its bones and organs.

What would humans want from tiger bone? I thought they aim for tiger fur instead.