>Olympia has several areas of play imbalance. The most blaring is its
>system of 'noble' points. This is not a game where one can join late
>and expect to do well or enjoy.
>
>I second the look at Odyssey.
All open-ended games that I've ever played had this sort of feature:
players who joined earlier and who haven't suffered combat losses are
generally much stronger than new players.
If you think this is horrible, then open-ended games probably aren't
for you. Olympia is actually much better than most open-ended games,
precisely because of the noble points system. Games such as Atlantis
don't leave late arrivals much to do except maybe offer to be a magic
faction slave to some powerful alliance.
-- greg