Really liking this concept... Hope I can contribute and am not pestering. I did go back and look at all the XML coding info, so have a better understanding of that now.
Was thinking about how to break things up and help to ensure better start to the game play. Here is an idea I had...
If you only have 16 starting locations, you end up with the following breakdowns..
2 Players = 8 Cards Each
3 Players = 5 Cards Each
4 Players = 4 Cards Each
5 Players = 3 Cards Each
6 Players = 2 Cards Each
7 Players = 2 Cards Each
8 Players = 2 Cards Each
This would actually work nicely. Texas Hold'em starts everyone with 2 cards. The only possible player option with more than a poker hand is a 2-player game. Hard to account for that, but you can limit potential hands by having the right neutrals (see below). I also think by varying the number of Neutral armies on certain cards, you can make the difficulty in obtaining the more complex hands more challenging.
The goal is to to minimize the potential of very powerful hands at the start.
By placing Neutrals (suggest maybe 6) on every Ace, J, and 6. (12 cards). This prevents all straights, any Straight flushes and Royal Straights. And also puts 2 cards in the "Royal Flush" range as having a larger number of cards to obtain.
If you made two of the remaining suits of each card neutrals, ensuring at least 2 of each suit have neutrals between the break points.. 2,3,4,5 - 7,8,9,10 (8*2 = 16 Cards) Then do Q and K as all Neutrals 2*4 = 8 Cards. (24 total). Like below. The most you could start with is 2 pairs.
(Note this accounts for the total 52 cards. 36 Neutrals always, and 16 potential player placements.)
2 c, s - 7 s,h
3 c, d - 8 c,d
4 d, h - 9 s,d
5 s, h - 10 c, h
K and Q c, s, h, d
Lets say you put these at a standard 3 neutrals.
To get the following bonus would require a minimum of...
Trips = 3 armies
Straight = 6 Armies
Flush = 3 Armies
Full House = 3 Armies
4 of a Kind = 6 Armies
Straight Flush = (6 + 3 + 3) = 12 Armies
Royal Flush = (6+6+3+3) = 18 Armies
One other thing I want to mention about Hand Values. The reason certain hands are more valuable than others in poker is because it's the probability that you will obtain the card you need out of the remaining cards not in play for you. This is what makes the Royal Flush so valuable. In Conquer Club, you aren't drawing to a random card, you are just trying to hold the right 5 cards. As a result, I think you will may have to further adjust the neutrals deployment, remove certain hand types from having value, or change the values to better reflect the difficulty of obtaining or holding the hand and maybe even re-arrange the cards so that holding certain hands would be even more difficult.
Going to post this for now and see what I can think of for balance on the award values if people like this general concept.
