As long as the players don't need to know another language to know where the cards came from... sounds fine to me

Daryls idea sounds cool. Another idea that could be used together with that one is to color code the (current white) margins of the cards. I´ve get a suggestion for the colors, they are the same used to differentiate the two trade card stack groups on the new map:

West (Rome Red) RGB 235-28-36
East (Nubia Blue) RGB 72-90-160

And a question; even if some of the cards are from a shared commodity, don´t they still belong in one of the stack groups? Otherwise, as the game progresses, the shared commodities will stack up in one of west or east instead of still being equally distributed.

Well, Apollo 18 is using the opposite color scheme (blue west, red east), but at least you have decent reasons for your choice

Yes! good point.. there should be no shared cards...

Ok, I'll try and come up with something tonight... I'll also be changing the format of the cards I've already made, as previously suggested.

I will get to these eventually.... just been a hectic time at work.

Ok, I've updated all the cards, per Jonno's suggestion. I've also added the 6's and 7's. However, I'm not sure I'm happy with them. Tin, Silver, and Lead are all shades of grey, but I'm not really sure what other color scheme I could use.

Happy to entertain suggestions.

While color coding the margins would be a practical idea.... aesthetically, there are some color clashing issues.

I've tried a couple of different symbols so far, but havent been satisfied with the results yet.

Would changing the backs of the cards instead of the face of the card cause any problems?

Ok, finished the cards.

I've also put 2 different backs for the cards up. One has a red logo for western cards and the other a blue logo for eastern cards.

What does everyone think?

The cards is very nice, but the back side of all cards should be the same, the one you are trading with should not be able to see if it's a west or east card you are sending as a third. Put the marking at the front instead, if you must have east and west cards, which I don't recomend (see my post Playtest May 22 2004 - No east-west trade please!).

I like the new commodity card backgrounds. They are a well-balanced solution to the problem of correcting the error of checking if cards are in the wrong stacks, and the problem of hiding which stack the card belong in when trading. Since the color difference is in the middle of the card, it should be sufficiently hidden by the other cards and the players hand. I must admit, I was afraid that you were going to color the whole card, like the old non-tradable calamities.

Then, of course, there is the question if the current trade stacks are a good solution to the distribution of the commodities...

I went back to the version on civproject.net and looked, before commenting

Lead is the darkest - you could darken it further, and put the text/graphics as white instead of black. That would certainly distinguish it.

Tin - could add the impression of a few seams - or just pounded pieces together. That may or may not be historical, but it may convey the distinction.

=> Also get a similiar problem in the 4's - Cotton and Sugar are too close to each other.

From watching all of the CCG's, a good image on the card counts for quite a bit, probably due to the way people think of things.

I do know, that the 13 player game we did Jan 2004, I was notcing more than normal confusion between Tin and Silver.

I have images for Cotton and Tin that will look a little differnce. I'll post them up soon...