Super cool game dev work part 2

 

Board Game Analysis and Enhancement:

 

Settlers of Catan –

Catan is a strategy game where the aim is to expand your roads and build settlements and cities to acquire the most victory points. The person who gets 10 victory points first wins the game. You have a board with many different tiles, which all have number tokens on them as well. Each tile will give you different resources, and the number on each tile represents if you will get the resource via dice roll. So, if I rolled a 6 and had a settlement on a forest which has a 6 on it, I would get 1 wood. Each settlement is 1 victory point, and a city is 2; these resources will be used to get you more settlements and cities until you have 10 victory points. A big part of the game as well is trading with the other players, before you build you are allowed to trade resources with any player of your choice. You can also use your resources on Development Cards, which can do a range of different things, but also allow you to get special cards giving you more victory points. If you roll a 7 you will be able to move the Thief, this allows you to block someone’s supply of a resource they are settled on and blocks any income from it until the thief is moved away. Drawing a Knight development card for example allows you to move the Thief freely. I really enjoy a lot of these mechanics, and each can be used in a strategical way to mess over another player if they are doing well. It can be a little complicated to learn when you first start, but once you’ve had a game it’s very easy to continue to pick up.

 

Analysis of Features and Mechanics:

The resource cards – The resources cards are the most essential part of the game; you need resources to be able to build and buy different things which allow you to get victory points. I think having these as cards and not just pieces make it less complicated, as combined with the settlement, road and city pieces, it would look a lot more complicated. These were useful; I don’t really think I would change them.

Road, Settlement and City pieces – There are small wooden pieces which are used to represent having a road, settlement or a city. You place them down on the board and this obviously helps a lot with keeping track of what you have and where you have it. It’s also useful to keep and eye on what your opponents are doing as well. If the game didn’t have this visual representation, it’d be a lot harder to keep up with everything and you would lose track very easily.

Board tiles/Number tokens – The different tiles representing the different resources are usually placed in a different position every time you play the game, and this also goes for the number tokens too. This makes every game of catan different and can make you have tons of the same resource one game, and then next game you’re struggling to even get 1. This is not only more useful but fundamentally better for the game, since having 1 number bound to a certain tile would make the game feel repetitive and allow people to keep using the same strategy.

Trading – The trading system within the game is probably the most important one, especially when it comes to player interactions and decision making. The ability to get a resource you may not have available to you for someone else allow you to make sure you don’t get stuck without that specific resource. Though if the other players know this, you can go to the edge of the board and trade with the ships. This might be for every 2 resources you get one wheat, or for any 3 you can get any 1 that you’d like. This is the most useful mechanic in the game and is something that saves you from the randomness that the game provides.

Victory point system – The victory point system isn’t bad but is one of the weaker elements of the game. You must score 10 victory points to win, and these can be done via: Settlements (1 point), Cities (2 points), Development cards (Varying points) and the special cards which give Victory points for the longest road, or most knights. I think if the game called them something different than “Victory points” and made it more tailored to the theme, it would be better.

Turn System – The turn system for the game is very simple, you all roll both dice and then whoever gets the highest, it goes in a rotation starting to the left of them. It’s like this with a lot of turn based dice games, and it works effectively regardless.

Randomness/Strategy elements – The random elements to the game can be some of the best and worst that the game has to offer. I don’t exactly like games which rely heavily on dice, catan has some strategy elements as well so it balances out. But you could go the entire game and be very unlucky, not getting one of the key resources that you need just because you aren’t getting the right dice roll. The strategy elements make up for it, as you must plan out were you place each road and settlement to get the most resources, whilst also keeping your opponents away from you. The dice roll Rng can feel very cheap though, as you could be doing the best in the game, and then have some very unfortunate luck and lose your lead completely. Though that is more a problem with dice game than catan.

 

Strengths and weaknesses –

 Strengths: The game has a lot of strong aspects to it; it is unlike a lot of other games I’ve ever played. It’s a very original idea and has a decent balance between strategizing and praying that you get some good luck when you play. Trading with other players is a strong suit for the game as well, a lot of the strategy can come from trading and tricking other players into giving you what you need. The game sounds complicated but after one round of the game you quickly learn how it plays, and that’s an incredibly good aspect of the game. It takes a while to set up but can still be learned in about 10-20 minutes. The boats on the edges of the map are a great feature as well, since they allow you to get specific trades and to not have to bargain with players which may be giving worse offers.

Weaknesses:  I’m a little bias to not like games which heavily depend on dice rolls, but it is one of the main reasons I didn’t like the game on my first try. You can get incredibly unlucky with dice rolls one game and get absolutely no resources, forcing you to have to trade anything you have in order to build just 1 road. Another thing is that you can get ganged up on in this game quite easily, as if players “accidently” surround you with their roads and settlements, it can be hard to find a way out and get resources that you don’t have. That combined with the RNG of dice makes it feel unfair and was unfortunately what I had happen to me on my first every play of the game.

 

Suggestions for Improvement/ Implementation ideas –

I think a good improvement for the game instantly could have it, so you must place your settlements and roads out a certain space away from each other. This would stop people from being able to instantly block off other people at the start of the game. I know that could be considered a mechanic of the game (to be able to block the path of your opponents) but it can still be frustrating. I’m not sure how I would tweak it, but I would like to change the aspect of dice dictating what resources you get. It’s not a bad mechanic, it can just feel like a very messy mechanic when you’re doing well and then you suddenly go through a patch of getting no resources at all. This could be turned into a more skill-based mechanic which could work depending on where you started and in what directions your roads lead.

 

 

Conclusion –

Catan is an incredibly solid game, you can pick it up easily after a round or two, and then from there you are able to utilise the games mechanics to prepare different strategies for the next time you play. The trading mechanics via people and the boats are very strong mechanics which are well needed for the game to work as well as it does. The dice and RNG factor of the whole game can be fairly irritating though, as you can be doing well and then get a dry spell of resources causing you to lose. I think adding a more skill-based mechanic for getting resources could work well, though might take away the charm for the game for some people. I understand that people think the dice mechanic is better, I just think it’s a weaker part of the game. Apart from it, I think the board and overall game is structured incredibly well.