The cards in barbs games do not seem to follow the typical pattern. In some games the cards increase as people trade in but more often than not each individual player seems to stuck with 5,5,5,5,6,6,6, etc. I believe the intent is for the value to increase each time a set is turned and not increase for each individual. This has been brought to Ozyman's attention amongst others.

Thanks Great Red Hype for starting this discussion.  Can you please provide a link to a game where you saw this.

I believe this is an issue with fractional card increases.  I don't know how long it has gone on (or even if it ever worked).  I've also seen it on other maps (Iwo Jima).

I've had a few people bring this to my attention.  For example,  sirdakka PM'd me about this game: 

http://www.wargear.net/games/view/757336

Several cards sets have been traded in, but I traded in 2 sets last turn for a total of 10 extra units despite the stage of the game. Additionally, more than 4 sets have been traded in in total but we've only just reaced the 6,6,6,6 level. I am most confused!

http://www.wargear.net/games/player/757336

http://www.wargear.net/games/player/756181

http://www.wargear.net/games/player/731898

I tracked the first 6 or 7 trade ins and they are all for 5 units. After the 4th turn in I would expect the 5th to be for 6 units. 

Game where it worked correctly

http://www.wargear.net/games/player/764231

Also, these two games of Io Jima showing the same problem:

http://www.wargear.net/games/view/728537

http://www.wargear.net/games/view/721734

What is the status of this issue?

Happening in another default Invention, where on round 13 values are still 6 despite multiple trades: http://www.wargear.net/games/view/772151

Thanks Bex for posting that.  It seems to be happening very often, although the actual behavior seems oddly inconsistent.  

This is something that only Tom can investigate, but I wonder if he is ignoring this thread, because he thinks it's a map designer issue.

Ozyman wrote:

Thanks Bex for posting that.  It seems to be happening very often, although the actual behavior seems oddly inconsistent.  

This is something that only Tom can investigate, but I wonder if he is ignoring this thread, because he thinks it's a map designer issue.

It's really unlikely it's a designer issue, I've seen it happen on every board with immediately recurring card values (apart from those with infinite recurrence like 5-5-5-5 on CC where you wouldn't notice) and I've never seen it happen on boards without. Kjeld's Arena is another example so it's not just one designer.

If we don't hear from Tom by the weekend, I'll send him a PM and ask if he has seen this thread.