...FreeGamer? No not this time :p It's rather that the Spring RTS engine ran into some trouble with their long overdue 0.83 version and now decided to release 0.84 instead ;)
Along with it comes also a new Zero-K release (0.9), which prompted one of their players to make a nice new trailer in anticipation:
So...that's it for today ;)
P.S.: Check out Zero-K's Planetwars metagame too.
P.P.S.: Also Spring related... someone on their boards is looking for people to take over the development of another quite nice RTS game: Conflict Terra.
Thứ Ba, 29 tháng 11, 2011
OGA challenge: Mobile, Become WTactics a Character, Illes' Game Music Album
First 'mobile devices' contest submission by Mumu
The current OpenGameArt challenge is 'mobile devices' and ends on Monday, December 5, 2011. The contest before that was low on participants and a survey was started to figure out how to get more people involved.
Becoming a WTactics character
Taken from OGA: WTactics is currently offering a chance to have your likeness on a WTactics card in order to raise funds for the continued development of thier project. From their website:
Give our artists a picture of you or your beloved one and become a part of the game! The artist will create a nice portrait with your chosen class, clothing and equipment, making it an everlasting part of our game and the open source communities, turning it into an immortal memory.
This reminds me of the Fantasy Portrait Kickstarter project, which produced some pretty portraits but unfortunately still istn't finished yet.
pzi's album cover
Pal Zoltan Illes of jClassicRPG fame released the game music album A Mantle Of Games under CC-BY-SA. Feel free to use and leave a comment here.
Thứ Bảy, 26 tháng 11, 2011
Open Source RPG News, Freedroid and IrrRPG builder
The wayward Goat strikes again!
Freedroid 0.15 rc 1:
The plucky, 'puter punching penguin hack 'n slash RPG stalwart has had a new release recently, reaching the 0.15 rc milestone (how many years will it take them to get to 1.0, I wonder?)
It adds lots of things, new quests, new guns, new abilities, UI fixes, editor tweaks... Lots of development happening there, so check it out!
EDIT: Thanks to shirish for pointing out that it's still at rc 1 stage, and thus not a final release.
IrrRPG Builder Alpha 2
A project that looked promising, and that I almost forgot about, is the RPG game IDE, IrrRPG Builder. Finally, a basic battle system is implemented, and the scripting system was improved as well, so it's getting pretty close to being feature complete.
Freedroid 0.15 rc 1:
The plucky, 'puter punching penguin hack 'n slash RPG stalwart has had a new release recently, reaching the 0.15 rc milestone (how many years will it take them to get to 1.0, I wonder?)
It adds lots of things, new quests, new guns, new abilities, UI fixes, editor tweaks... Lots of development happening there, so check it out!
EDIT: Thanks to shirish for pointing out that it's still at rc 1 stage, and thus not a final release.
IrrRPG Builder Alpha 2
A project that looked promising, and that I almost forgot about, is the RPG game IDE, IrrRPG Builder. Finally, a basic battle system is implemented, and the scripting system was improved as well, so it's getting pretty close to being feature complete.
Thứ Ba, 22 tháng 11, 2011
BREAKING NEWS: Doom3 source code released!
Ha, you probably read it here first, since it is just an hour ago that it was uploaded!
https://github.com/TTimo/doom3.gpl
Have fun tinkering with it!
P.S.: A good dev forum for it is Doom3world.
https://github.com/TTimo/doom3.gpl
Have fun tinkering with it!
P.S.: A good dev forum for it is Doom3world.
Thứ Hai, 21 tháng 11, 2011
Day 19-20: A Round of Applause
Sunday morning my friends dropped me at the Westin and began their trip back to KC.
Pax
I wandered around the gaming area looking for something short to play and finally joined a game of Pax. Pax is a short card game about contesting Rome. It's a set collection game with one of two objects. If, between all players, at least one player beats the board in at least four of the seven categories, then each player scores the points on their board and the player with the most points wins. Otherwise, players score only the points in one category (intrigue) and the player with the most points wins.
They call it semi-cooperative, but it's not really. I didn't understand all the rules until the end of the short game, so I didn't fare too well. It's not a bad filler, from what I could tell. I need to try it again to see if there's anything to the game.
BGG.con was very enjoyable and, as usual, amazingly well run. I and my friends all had a great time. I end up playing less games than it would seem time would allow, but more than it would seem possible. I meet many other gamers, people who know games and aren't puzzled or confused as to why I play them or how to play them. But mostly, I simply meet nice people, people whose work I admire and/or the occasional fan of my own blog or games.
Flights
I caught the 10:00 am shuttle to DFW. People on the shuttle discussed games they played. At the airport waiting for the flight to Toronto they discussed games they played.
I saw a redhead in line, and asked her if she was Jewish, divorced, around 40, and hoping to live in Israel, just to be sure I didn't miss my last opportunity to find one on my trip, but no such luck. While waiting for the flight, I heard a sustained thunder of applause that continued for ten minutes; it was a group of American soldiers returning on some flight, I assume from Iraq.
I watched Unknown, a thrilled about a man in Germany whose life is suddenly co-opted by someone else (even his wife appears not to know him) and his struggle to figure out what's happening. It was ok, well acted, and January Jones is always a pleasure (though she doesn't have much to do). Similar to The Bourne Identity series, but a little less so; doesn't add anything new, anyway.
Bought some Canadian Club in Toronto, used the free wi-fi, and then flew to Israel. I watched Bad Teacher. No one to root for and not funny enough. She supposedly undergoes a little personal growth by the end of the movie, but it was hard to see when that happened. I watched Hannah. It was quite good, with good attention paid to the cinematography, something they sometimes forget about in American made movies. Well acted, it's at or near the top of the pile for assassin movies.
I also watched some Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory. I didn't sleep much. In all, I was awake from Sunday morning 6:00 am Dallas time until Monday evening 8:00 pm Israeli time, with about an hour of dozing on the plane.
All my kosher food was in place on all my flights, and I experienced no delays.
The Haul
Games I hauled back include Navegador and Inca Empire (secret santa gifts sent to my hotel), Troyes (bought with box damage from Z-Man), Innovation, Amun Re, Detroit Cleveland Grand Prix, El Capitain (these four acquired through the virtual flea market), Highland Clans (aka Mac Robber), Train of Thought (these two from registration), some Magic cards, and one other game which I'm forgetting right now.
I return to massive amounts of cleaning, bill sorting, and all the other mundane tasks of life, jetlagged and still a little sick from my chill in Ireland. The trouble with vacations is that they come to an end.
Nadine blogs
Nadine has blogged the trip as well here.
Pax
I wandered around the gaming area looking for something short to play and finally joined a game of Pax. Pax is a short card game about contesting Rome. It's a set collection game with one of two objects. If, between all players, at least one player beats the board in at least four of the seven categories, then each player scores the points on their board and the player with the most points wins. Otherwise, players score only the points in one category (intrigue) and the player with the most points wins.
They call it semi-cooperative, but it's not really. I didn't understand all the rules until the end of the short game, so I didn't fare too well. It's not a bad filler, from what I could tell. I need to try it again to see if there's anything to the game.
BGG.con was very enjoyable and, as usual, amazingly well run. I and my friends all had a great time. I end up playing less games than it would seem time would allow, but more than it would seem possible. I meet many other gamers, people who know games and aren't puzzled or confused as to why I play them or how to play them. But mostly, I simply meet nice people, people whose work I admire and/or the occasional fan of my own blog or games.
Flights
I caught the 10:00 am shuttle to DFW. People on the shuttle discussed games they played. At the airport waiting for the flight to Toronto they discussed games they played.
I saw a redhead in line, and asked her if she was Jewish, divorced, around 40, and hoping to live in Israel, just to be sure I didn't miss my last opportunity to find one on my trip, but no such luck. While waiting for the flight, I heard a sustained thunder of applause that continued for ten minutes; it was a group of American soldiers returning on some flight, I assume from Iraq.
I watched Unknown, a thrilled about a man in Germany whose life is suddenly co-opted by someone else (even his wife appears not to know him) and his struggle to figure out what's happening. It was ok, well acted, and January Jones is always a pleasure (though she doesn't have much to do). Similar to The Bourne Identity series, but a little less so; doesn't add anything new, anyway.
Bought some Canadian Club in Toronto, used the free wi-fi, and then flew to Israel. I watched Bad Teacher. No one to root for and not funny enough. She supposedly undergoes a little personal growth by the end of the movie, but it was hard to see when that happened. I watched Hannah. It was quite good, with good attention paid to the cinematography, something they sometimes forget about in American made movies. Well acted, it's at or near the top of the pile for assassin movies.
I also watched some Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory. I didn't sleep much. In all, I was awake from Sunday morning 6:00 am Dallas time until Monday evening 8:00 pm Israeli time, with about an hour of dozing on the plane.
All my kosher food was in place on all my flights, and I experienced no delays.
The Haul
Games I hauled back include Navegador and Inca Empire (secret santa gifts sent to my hotel), Troyes (bought with box damage from Z-Man), Innovation, Amun Re, Detroit Cleveland Grand Prix, El Capitain (these four acquired through the virtual flea market), Highland Clans (aka Mac Robber), Train of Thought (these two from registration), some Magic cards, and one other game which I'm forgetting right now.
I return to massive amounts of cleaning, bill sorting, and all the other mundane tasks of life, jetlagged and still a little sick from my chill in Ireland. The trouble with vacations is that they come to an end.
Nadine blogs
Nadine has blogged the trip as well here.
Fan made trailer contests and other FPS news
So it seems Red Eclipse is having a "contest" for creating an official trailer for their upcoming 1.2 release. Nothing to win (except fame), but the guys from Sauerbraten (also Cube2 engine based, like Red Eclipse) recently did the same with a quite nice result:
So if you want to participate, have a look at their rules and check out these nice open-source tools for video capturing: GLC (short tutorial by our qudobup) and editing: PiTiVi or KDEnlive (sorry for being Linux centric here :p ).
In other news I can report that the Xonotic team is following up on their promise to report more news and developments on their Blog :) Check out the latest entry for a log read and many nice pictures.
Personally I am currently most excited about the mod "Overkill" with tries to take some features of the well loved instagib mode (sadly so much that it is sometimes hard to find anything but instagib games :( ) like right click laser jump etc. while keeping a variety of weapons that are a bit more appealing to non-instagib players.
Well, check out the more detailed description and pictures at the bottom of the post linked above! Oh and you can already play the mod by joining the test server with a vanilla Xonotic version (all needed files will be auto-downloaded).
P.S.: Here is a small video to show how it currently looks:
New official Sauerbraten trailer
So if you want to participate, have a look at their rules and check out these nice open-source tools for video capturing: GLC (short tutorial by our qudobup) and editing: PiTiVi or KDEnlive (sorry for being Linux centric here :p ).
In other news I can report that the Xonotic team is following up on their promise to report more news and developments on their Blog :) Check out the latest entry for a log read and many nice pictures.
Personally I am currently most excited about the mod "Overkill" with tries to take some features of the well loved instagib mode (sadly so much that it is sometimes hard to find anything but instagib games :( ) like right click laser jump etc. while keeping a variety of weapons that are a bit more appealing to non-instagib players.
Well, check out the more detailed description and pictures at the bottom of the post linked above! Oh and you can already play the mod by joining the test server with a vanilla Xonotic version (all needed files will be auto-downloaded).
P.S.: Here is a small video to show how it currently looks:
Xonotic Overkill mod (early WIP)
Thứ Bảy, 19 tháng 11, 2011
Day 18: Shabbat in Dallas
Shabbat
Shabbat was with my friend David. He made a vegetarian meal for us (pizza, with a tofu one for me). Friday night we also went to a "tish" reception for a visiting rabbi. Many of the other synagogue members were away for another member's wedding (or something), so it was a low-key reception.
At the tish the ewish geography was thick. I think there comes a point in Jewish geography when it's just a way of turning the conversation back to yourself. "I went to Cornell and ..." "(interrupting) Oh! I have a cousin who went to Cornell!"
Lunch and several shiurim at the synagogue, and I still felt sick, so I slept for nearly the rest of shabbat. We packed up and raced back to BGG.con with the expectation that I was supposed to finish up the scoring and present the award for Spare Squares.
Back at the Con
Like my arrival on Tuesday, everything was already done by the time I got back. Participation in the game was good (over 50 submissions). Most of the entries were in track A, which had 12 perfect scores. The rest were in the other tracks, each of which had a single winner. Owing to wanting to get through the awards ceremony as quickly as possible, Aldie simply announced the winners. I didn't get to tell a joke I had prepared for the announcements.
Still, I shook hands with the winners and heard some good things about the game, which appeared (despite the color problem) to have gone fairly well.
After this, I finally got in touch with the remaining people who were selling me used games.
Nadine and I played a game of Agricola with Jim Ginn and Chris Brooks. Jim played some amazing food production cards, but didn't follow through with the rest of the goods (animals, farm spaces, etc). Nadine didn't seem to move anywhere, except for her clay house. Chris did well with animals and house, etc, but I managed to squeak a 2 point victory over him in the end.
It was a good game, especially the company. Chris and Jim are just two of the nicest people I know.
We left early to go back to the hotel room, eat some kosher frozen dinners, repack for tomorrow, and sleep.
Shabbat was with my friend David. He made a vegetarian meal for us (pizza, with a tofu one for me). Friday night we also went to a "tish" reception for a visiting rabbi. Many of the other synagogue members were away for another member's wedding (or something), so it was a low-key reception.
At the tish the ewish geography was thick. I think there comes a point in Jewish geography when it's just a way of turning the conversation back to yourself. "I went to Cornell and ..." "(interrupting) Oh! I have a cousin who went to Cornell!"
Lunch and several shiurim at the synagogue, and I still felt sick, so I slept for nearly the rest of shabbat. We packed up and raced back to BGG.con with the expectation that I was supposed to finish up the scoring and present the award for Spare Squares.
Back at the Con
Like my arrival on Tuesday, everything was already done by the time I got back. Participation in the game was good (over 50 submissions). Most of the entries were in track A, which had 12 perfect scores. The rest were in the other tracks, each of which had a single winner. Owing to wanting to get through the awards ceremony as quickly as possible, Aldie simply announced the winners. I didn't get to tell a joke I had prepared for the announcements.
Still, I shook hands with the winners and heard some good things about the game, which appeared (despite the color problem) to have gone fairly well.
After this, I finally got in touch with the remaining people who were selling me used games.
Nadine and I played a game of Agricola with Jim Ginn and Chris Brooks. Jim played some amazing food production cards, but didn't follow through with the rest of the goods (animals, farm spaces, etc). Nadine didn't seem to move anywhere, except for her clay house. Chris did well with animals and house, etc, but I managed to squeak a 2 point victory over him in the end.
It was a good game, especially the company. Chris and Jim are just two of the nicest people I know.
We left early to go back to the hotel room, eat some kosher frozen dinners, repack for tomorrow, and sleep.
Thứ Sáu, 18 tháng 11, 2011
Day 17: Half-Day, Actually
We are leaving in a moment from the Westin hotel to go to my friend David for shabbat.
This morning I played:
- A game called "Goblin Market" using a special deck of cards called Decktet. The cards each have two or three suits out of six them, and the numbers go from 1 to 10. The game was a simple auction game, where your score is the number of suits symbols you have in three suits minus the number you have in the other three. You gain money in a couple of ways during the bidding. I enjoyed it, though I realized mid-game that it was going to be hard for anyone to get more than 5 or 6 points, and that the maximum score was 14.
- Inca Empire: On my wish list, and I've always wanted to try it. It took a lot longer than I expected it would, or maybe it only felt that way, but it was still a very good solid game of route connection and resource management (with a punish the leader catch up system that works well). I thought that one of the rounds could have been eliminated.
I'm having a tough time finding the people I am selling games to/buying games from, but I'm down to only two left. They don't answer their phones. Hopefully I will find them on Sat night.
Ok. Shabbat shalom.
Yehuda
This morning I played:
- A game called "Goblin Market" using a special deck of cards called Decktet. The cards each have two or three suits out of six them, and the numbers go from 1 to 10. The game was a simple auction game, where your score is the number of suits symbols you have in three suits minus the number you have in the other three. You gain money in a couple of ways during the bidding. I enjoyed it, though I realized mid-game that it was going to be hard for anyone to get more than 5 or 6 points, and that the maximum score was 14.
- Inca Empire: On my wish list, and I've always wanted to try it. It took a lot longer than I expected it would, or maybe it only felt that way, but it was still a very good solid game of route connection and resource management (with a punish the leader catch up system that works well). I thought that one of the rounds could have been eliminated.
I'm having a tough time finding the people I am selling games to/buying games from, but I'm down to only two left. They don't answer their phones. Hopefully I will find them on Sat night.
Ok. Shabbat shalom.
Yehuda
Day 16: Many New Games
Games Played
Belfort: A worker placement, area control game by Tasty Minstrel Games. with a fantasy city building game. Actually, the only fantasy element is that you have elves, dwarfs, and gnomes as workers, instead of humans with specialties. The artwork is pretty but very busy, making the game appear to be FFG level complex when it's really straightforward worker placement.
Place guys to earn money, resources, more guys, or bonuses, including private worker placement locations. use resources to buy buildings in the five areas. Reward control in the areas after rounds 3, 5, and 7. Works fine, but nothing new.
Nefarious: Another game by Donald Vaccarino, designer of Dominion. Yesterday's other new game by him (Kingdom Builders) was pleasant enough spacial manipulation, but not really special imho. This one is better.
It's a bare distilled Race For the Galaxy/7 Wonders with a very light invention theme. The game is nothing but cards. Each round, all players select one of four roles to play and reveal. Each player ears money for the roles selected by his neighbors if he has assigned meeples to that role on his board. Then the players do the roles in number order. 1) assign meeples to roles. 2) pay money to play invention cards. These give points and usually a benefit like earn or lose cards or money. 3) take 2 coins and an invention card. 4) take four coins.
Repeat until someone has 20 points. One more thing: each game, two random special rules (out of 30 or so) that modify the game are revealed at the beginning of the game. That's it.
It was quick (20-30 minutes normally), challenging, and essentially perfect. However, in our game we drew the absolute worst two special rule combination possible (I checked afterwards, and I'm not exaggerating). After every invention was played, everyone other than the one who played the invention lost all of his or her money. It made for some frustration, but some humor as well. Plays for up to five, I think. Unfortunately, FunAgain was charging $60 for this card game, which was way too much.
Tanto Cuore: Nearly an exact clone of Dominion, except it's from Japan, so the game is themed about hiring maids with various skimpy outfits (nothing too salacious). It was being demoed by a girl wearing a skimpy outfit, too; she must have been freezing in the hall. The cards were unique to the game, at least, and there were a few minor rule twists, but nothing that changed it from being Dominion.
Meltdown 2020: A "rescue all your guys from the board" game, usually seen in a fire or volcano themed game. This one had hexes with scattered nuclear plants, which melted down. The more they melted, the more damage they did to neighboring citizens. Each citizen could take three cumulative points until dead. You had three vehicles of various sizes and capacity to rescue them. And the entire game ended if the plants hit a certain level.
It's a light filler route planning game, although I expect it's marketed and priced as a full meaty game. It was good. Didn't inspire me to buy it, but I'd happily play it.
7 Wonders: I joined yet another game, and played straight blue again. This time I was entirely straight blue, earning 15 points from my wonders, 37 points from blue, and -5 from military. That was it. I came in third with 47. The two winners each has 53.
Walnut Grove: By Lookout Games. This is a meaty western themed town and farm game. It was late, so I don't feel I gave it my all. There are eight rounds (years) to the game. Each year has four seasons: pick farm tiles and add to your farm, allocate workers to produce goods on the farm (one good for every contiguous tile in an area), move your guy in the large town rondel to buy stuff with your goods or buy more goods (worker placement, pay money every once in a while), pay your farm hands in food and heat.
It's a tough system, and you're (at least I was) constantly struggling for food and heat, making progress very difficult. There are many avenues for victory points, most of which I never had time to explore.
If you enjoy the Alea games, this will fit in nicely; if you don't, you'll probably be tired of games with pastoral themes and pushing cubes about. I'm happy to play again until I can get a handle on the game, at least.
Indian Food
For lunch, my friends and I went to Dallas to the one of three kosher eateries in Dallas, the Madras Pavilion. It's veggie Indian, authentic enough that most of the people eating there were Indian rather than visibly Jewish. It was also pretty spicy but good (better than my constant stream of cold cuts and peanut butter, anyway).
Belfort: A worker placement, area control game by Tasty Minstrel Games. with a fantasy city building game. Actually, the only fantasy element is that you have elves, dwarfs, and gnomes as workers, instead of humans with specialties. The artwork is pretty but very busy, making the game appear to be FFG level complex when it's really straightforward worker placement.
Place guys to earn money, resources, more guys, or bonuses, including private worker placement locations. use resources to buy buildings in the five areas. Reward control in the areas after rounds 3, 5, and 7. Works fine, but nothing new.
Nefarious: Another game by Donald Vaccarino, designer of Dominion. Yesterday's other new game by him (Kingdom Builders) was pleasant enough spacial manipulation, but not really special imho. This one is better.
It's a bare distilled Race For the Galaxy/7 Wonders with a very light invention theme. The game is nothing but cards. Each round, all players select one of four roles to play and reveal. Each player ears money for the roles selected by his neighbors if he has assigned meeples to that role on his board. Then the players do the roles in number order. 1) assign meeples to roles. 2) pay money to play invention cards. These give points and usually a benefit like earn or lose cards or money. 3) take 2 coins and an invention card. 4) take four coins.
Repeat until someone has 20 points. One more thing: each game, two random special rules (out of 30 or so) that modify the game are revealed at the beginning of the game. That's it.
It was quick (20-30 minutes normally), challenging, and essentially perfect. However, in our game we drew the absolute worst two special rule combination possible (I checked afterwards, and I'm not exaggerating). After every invention was played, everyone other than the one who played the invention lost all of his or her money. It made for some frustration, but some humor as well. Plays for up to five, I think. Unfortunately, FunAgain was charging $60 for this card game, which was way too much.
Tanto Cuore: Nearly an exact clone of Dominion, except it's from Japan, so the game is themed about hiring maids with various skimpy outfits (nothing too salacious). It was being demoed by a girl wearing a skimpy outfit, too; she must have been freezing in the hall. The cards were unique to the game, at least, and there were a few minor rule twists, but nothing that changed it from being Dominion.
Meltdown 2020: A "rescue all your guys from the board" game, usually seen in a fire or volcano themed game. This one had hexes with scattered nuclear plants, which melted down. The more they melted, the more damage they did to neighboring citizens. Each citizen could take three cumulative points until dead. You had three vehicles of various sizes and capacity to rescue them. And the entire game ended if the plants hit a certain level.
It's a light filler route planning game, although I expect it's marketed and priced as a full meaty game. It was good. Didn't inspire me to buy it, but I'd happily play it.
7 Wonders: I joined yet another game, and played straight blue again. This time I was entirely straight blue, earning 15 points from my wonders, 37 points from blue, and -5 from military. That was it. I came in third with 47. The two winners each has 53.
Walnut Grove: By Lookout Games. This is a meaty western themed town and farm game. It was late, so I don't feel I gave it my all. There are eight rounds (years) to the game. Each year has four seasons: pick farm tiles and add to your farm, allocate workers to produce goods on the farm (one good for every contiguous tile in an area), move your guy in the large town rondel to buy stuff with your goods or buy more goods (worker placement, pay money every once in a while), pay your farm hands in food and heat.
It's a tough system, and you're (at least I was) constantly struggling for food and heat, making progress very difficult. There are many avenues for victory points, most of which I never had time to explore.
If you enjoy the Alea games, this will fit in nicely; if you don't, you'll probably be tired of games with pastoral themes and pushing cubes about. I'm happy to play again until I can get a handle on the game, at least.
Indian Food
For lunch, my friends and I went to Dallas to the one of three kosher eateries in Dallas, the Madras Pavilion. It's veggie Indian, authentic enough that most of the people eating there were Indian rather than visibly Jewish. It was also pretty spicy but good (better than my constant stream of cold cuts and peanut butter, anyway).
Thứ Tư, 16 tháng 11, 2011
Day 15: Games and People
I woke up early and slipped out to BGG.con at 7:00. The lines were just starting for registration that officially opened at . I parked my games and lunch on line and promptly left the line to go volunteer. For the next two hours I unpacked boxes, shelved games, and broke down boxes.
A number of others also volunteered, and all of us received our registration and goodies early. I left my stuff on the registration line anyway, so that Bill and Shirley could take it when they arrived (which they did at around 9:50). I didn't have a place held for Nadine, so she took a longer time to get through registration.
Nicer than all the games was seeing so many people again and having so many people come up to me to say that they know me from wherever.
What I Played
Agricola: I started with a game I already knew. The other three also knew the game already. Everyone was convinced that my RHO was going to trounce the rest of us, and he definitely had a huge improvements advantage. However, he also had no fields and 7 empty farm spaces. He came in third with 43 points. I won 47 to 46 over second place, also with a hefty improvement bonus.
Kingdom Builder: A new game from Queen by the designer of Dominion, this is a simple settlement/route creation abstract on a multi-terrained map. Think Through the Desert meets Taluva, perhaps. You place three guys on the selected terrain every round, but you always have to place your guys near your already existing guys if you can. You can earn special actions that let you split your settlement areas into multiple areas.
The trick is to find ways to split your territories and leave yourself with the flexibility of where to put your pieces each round to score best. Scoring is similar to TtD, but three special scoring optiona are available each round.
I thought it was good, but nothing special. The people I played with liked it more than I did. We had misinterpreted one of the special scoring cards, and so some of us were going for one type of area control while others were going for a different type; as a result, we weren't really playing the same game. I definitely won using one interpretation, but probably would have one with the other type as well.
The Manhattan Project: A new game from Minion Games (we played on a game that was half actual and half prototype components. It's a worker placement game of building atomic and plutonium bomb. The story was the same as it was for Kingdom Builder: I thought it was ok, the other players liked it more. There was an odd mechanic of getting your workers back and then spending them all in one turn on your buildings.
And once again it ended partially unresolved. I saved up and won the game with two bombs, only to discover that I only had 48 points, not the 50 needed. I easily had those other two points by taking an action on my previous turn, bit I didn't bother to take the action because I thought I had counted to 51. The others decided to give me the game, even though I was willing to continue, without rewarding my stupidity.
7 Wonders: Joined a game with 2 other experienced players and 2 newbies. I produced almost no goods and came second: Scores 55, 50 (me), 48, 43, 40.
Tichu: I wanted something short, so Rick Thornquist agreed to partner with me and we found two other players (Aaron and Sean). This was the shortest and most insane Tichu game I ever player. In half an hour - five hand - we lost 1000+ to less than zero. Our opponents bid and made three grand tichus. On on hand, opp opened a ten card straight that included a five card straight bomb. I bombed it with four jacks, opener bombed with four aces, and my partner bombed the aces with a straight flush. And they still succeeded with the grand tichu.
Crokinole: Jim Ginn and I played a game. We traded scores back and forth for a while, and then it took me four or five rounds, 5 points at a time, to finally win.
It's Alive: I taught this to some people. I lost; LHO won with the five point bonus.
Tobago: I stopped to teach this to three others, including the rep from Mayfair. I won, entirely due to my experience with amulets. We played with the curses, but said never again (with the original curse rules, anyway.
Nadine's Plays
Nadine played K2, Power Grid Sparks, Coney Island, Flashpoint, and Niagara. Bill and Shirley spent the entire day playing a single war game with each other.
A number of others also volunteered, and all of us received our registration and goodies early. I left my stuff on the registration line anyway, so that Bill and Shirley could take it when they arrived (which they did at around 9:50). I didn't have a place held for Nadine, so she took a longer time to get through registration.
Nicer than all the games was seeing so many people again and having so many people come up to me to say that they know me from wherever.
What I Played
Agricola: I started with a game I already knew. The other three also knew the game already. Everyone was convinced that my RHO was going to trounce the rest of us, and he definitely had a huge improvements advantage. However, he also had no fields and 7 empty farm spaces. He came in third with 43 points. I won 47 to 46 over second place, also with a hefty improvement bonus.
Kingdom Builder: A new game from Queen by the designer of Dominion, this is a simple settlement/route creation abstract on a multi-terrained map. Think Through the Desert meets Taluva, perhaps. You place three guys on the selected terrain every round, but you always have to place your guys near your already existing guys if you can. You can earn special actions that let you split your settlement areas into multiple areas.
The trick is to find ways to split your territories and leave yourself with the flexibility of where to put your pieces each round to score best. Scoring is similar to TtD, but three special scoring optiona are available each round.
I thought it was good, but nothing special. The people I played with liked it more than I did. We had misinterpreted one of the special scoring cards, and so some of us were going for one type of area control while others were going for a different type; as a result, we weren't really playing the same game. I definitely won using one interpretation, but probably would have one with the other type as well.
The Manhattan Project: A new game from Minion Games (we played on a game that was half actual and half prototype components. It's a worker placement game of building atomic and plutonium bomb. The story was the same as it was for Kingdom Builder: I thought it was ok, the other players liked it more. There was an odd mechanic of getting your workers back and then spending them all in one turn on your buildings.
And once again it ended partially unresolved. I saved up and won the game with two bombs, only to discover that I only had 48 points, not the 50 needed. I easily had those other two points by taking an action on my previous turn, bit I didn't bother to take the action because I thought I had counted to 51. The others decided to give me the game, even though I was willing to continue, without rewarding my stupidity.
7 Wonders: Joined a game with 2 other experienced players and 2 newbies. I produced almost no goods and came second: Scores 55, 50 (me), 48, 43, 40.
Tichu: I wanted something short, so Rick Thornquist agreed to partner with me and we found two other players (Aaron and Sean). This was the shortest and most insane Tichu game I ever player. In half an hour - five hand - we lost 1000+ to less than zero. Our opponents bid and made three grand tichus. On on hand, opp opened a ten card straight that included a five card straight bomb. I bombed it with four jacks, opener bombed with four aces, and my partner bombed the aces with a straight flush. And they still succeeded with the grand tichu.
Crokinole: Jim Ginn and I played a game. We traded scores back and forth for a while, and then it took me four or five rounds, 5 points at a time, to finally win.
It's Alive: I taught this to some people. I lost; LHO won with the five point bonus.
Tobago: I stopped to teach this to three others, including the rep from Mayfair. I won, entirely due to my experience with amulets. We played with the curses, but said never again (with the original curse rules, anyway.
Nadine's Plays
Nadine played K2, Power Grid Sparks, Coney Island, Flashpoint, and Niagara. Bill and Shirley spent the entire day playing a single war game with each other.
Thứ Ba, 15 tháng 11, 2011
Day 14: A Long Drive, A Welcome Return
We woke early for our nine and a half hour drive from Kansas City to Dallas (actually, Irving). We miraculously fit everything in the car (including all of our food and snacks until Sunday). We drove south the entire way on I-35.
Kansas was flat and dull.
Oklahoma turned into some pretty territory after we passed Oklahoma City.
We didn't see much of Texas between the state line and Irving, but it was all steakhouses and other urban sprawl.
BGG.con
We arrived, unpacked, and walked over to the Westin. It was a heady, joyful feeling to be walking into a conference where I know I will have a great time, where a few people know me, and where I have a new game ready for people to enjoy.
I went straight to the administrative area, said hi to some good friends and the BGG admins and took a peek at the game cards for Spare Squares. As I had been told, the green and blue colors did not come out quite as I had expected (or as the graphic files look) and are closer in appearance than they should be. However, they are distinguishable when placed next to each other, so I think the game is still playable. Everything had already been packed up and placed in the kitty bags for registration, so I had nothing to do but play some games.
I showed Nadine how to play Crokinole. Then the four of us ate some dinner. Bill, Nadine and I sat down with someone who looked a little lonely to play a game of Roll Through the Ages. It's a dice-based game, so not one that's usually on my list. However, like many modern dice-based games, they try to make it so that nearly all the dice results are useful in some way or another, so that the choices you make are of primary importance.
You roll dice on your turn, adding results to complete bonuses: bonus points, bonus dice, bonus special abilities, etc, until the game is over, typically within 45 minutes. It was nice. However, there is barely any interaction in the game; a few attack results wouldn't have hurt the game (if the attacks could be handled in a manner that didn't end up in one player getting picked on).
I ended up winning, to my surprise.
Nadine and I then wandered around and found someone willing to teach us Troyes. A fourth person joined us as we learned the rules. It's another game of assigning dice for results, though quite different than the way Alien Frontiers handles it. It's actually quite complex, and the available options for gaining points is also complex, which makes it hard to wrap your head around. I thought I kind of figured out where it was going by mid game, but I ended up in last place. Nadine asked the most questions, and she ended up winning (I think, to her surprise; definitely to mine). I quite liked it, and hope to pick up a copy.
Kansas was flat and dull.
Oklahoma turned into some pretty territory after we passed Oklahoma City.
We didn't see much of Texas between the state line and Irving, but it was all steakhouses and other urban sprawl.
BGG.con
We arrived, unpacked, and walked over to the Westin. It was a heady, joyful feeling to be walking into a conference where I know I will have a great time, where a few people know me, and where I have a new game ready for people to enjoy.
I went straight to the administrative area, said hi to some good friends and the BGG admins and took a peek at the game cards for Spare Squares. As I had been told, the green and blue colors did not come out quite as I had expected (or as the graphic files look) and are closer in appearance than they should be. However, they are distinguishable when placed next to each other, so I think the game is still playable. Everything had already been packed up and placed in the kitty bags for registration, so I had nothing to do but play some games.
I showed Nadine how to play Crokinole. Then the four of us ate some dinner. Bill, Nadine and I sat down with someone who looked a little lonely to play a game of Roll Through the Ages. It's a dice-based game, so not one that's usually on my list. However, like many modern dice-based games, they try to make it so that nearly all the dice results are useful in some way or another, so that the choices you make are of primary importance.
You roll dice on your turn, adding results to complete bonuses: bonus points, bonus dice, bonus special abilities, etc, until the game is over, typically within 45 minutes. It was nice. However, there is barely any interaction in the game; a few attack results wouldn't have hurt the game (if the attacks could be handled in a manner that didn't end up in one player getting picked on).
I ended up winning, to my surprise.
Nadine and I then wandered around and found someone willing to teach us Troyes. A fourth person joined us as we learned the rules. It's another game of assigning dice for results, though quite different than the way Alien Frontiers handles it. It's actually quite complex, and the available options for gaining points is also complex, which makes it hard to wrap your head around. I thought I kind of figured out where it was going by mid game, but I ended up in last place. Nadine asked the most questions, and she ended up winning (I think, to her surprise; definitely to mine). I quite liked it, and hope to pick up a copy.
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| The Mayfair rep |
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| Part of the library, not including Essen releases |
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| The main room |
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| Troyes |
jMonkeyEngine Official Beta Contest Announced
We're a week into what has been an absolutely thrilling experience so far. What was more of an experiment to see what some developers might pull off with the new Beta release has far exceeded our expectations.
Prizes include a free copy of the upcoming "jMonkeyEngine 3 Beginner's Guide" and a free theme from the WooThemes shop. Additional prizes might be added.
If you want to get caught up you should read the following articles:
Brief Announcement
Exhaustive Contest Rules
Contest Prizes
Even if you've never used jMonkeyEngine before, 1 and 1/2 months could be enough time to put a game together if you have some experience in Java programming and game development already. We highly encourage developers to download the jMonkeyEngine 3 SDK as the recommended route to a quick start. From there the wiki and community forum are mere clicks away.
We hope this contest will bring some new blood into our lively community, and we trust you'll find it worth your while.
Thứ Hai, 14 tháng 11, 2011
It's Alive iOS v1.1 Available
An updated version of the iOS version of It's Alive is now available for download. Improvements include local leader boards, random start player, bug fixes, and additional features. Still at a fantastic price.
Go download it and leave a rating.
Go download it and leave a rating.
Day 13: Kosher, Spanish, and Chinese Style
I feel like I slept through much of the day, a result of my jet lag and continuing sickness (slowly getting better, I think). As a result, most of what I recall are some images or driving around and food.
Kosher in Kansas City
The Hen House supermarket in Leawood has the most extensive kosher bakery I've ever seen in America, larger and more diverse even than several kosher bakeries I know in Brooklyn. It encompasses the entire supermarket bakery, and includes breads, cakes, donuts, pies, and everything else I expect to not be able to eat at a regular supermarket; all kosher. Very impressive.
The super also sports a kosher meat and deli counter with some prepared foods (similar to the one in Tom Thumb in Dallas), and the more ubiquitous three columns of frozen kosher products; there may have been shelves of non-frozen items as well, but I didn't look for it.
Spanish Architecture
We took a drive down Ward Parkway, a very wide and prestigious KC street that sports more elaborate mansions as you get closer to the plaza at the end of it.
The plaza is Country Club Plaza, a clean midtown shopping district dating back almost a century, but still looking pretty modern. The architecture contains Spanish influences with colored squares and diamonds. I didn't photograph the whole place or the most interesting places, just around the area where we sat down to eat.
Kansas City also apparently has a lot of fountains.
Everything on interest in KC is closed on Mondays, so the only other thing we could do was stop outside the WWI memorial and look out over downtown. We also checked out the science gift shop in Union Station (I almost bought a Star Wars Mad Libs for its high geek factor).
I went home to rest, and woke up to some more of Shirley's incredible cooking, a fusion of American and Chinese styles (but mostly Chinese). Yum.
 |
| Me in Bill and Shirley's backyard |
Kosher in Kansas City
The Hen House supermarket in Leawood has the most extensive kosher bakery I've ever seen in America, larger and more diverse even than several kosher bakeries I know in Brooklyn. It encompasses the entire supermarket bakery, and includes breads, cakes, donuts, pies, and everything else I expect to not be able to eat at a regular supermarket; all kosher. Very impressive.
The super also sports a kosher meat and deli counter with some prepared foods (similar to the one in Tom Thumb in Dallas), and the more ubiquitous three columns of frozen kosher products; there may have been shelves of non-frozen items as well, but I didn't look for it.
Spanish Architecture
We took a drive down Ward Parkway, a very wide and prestigious KC street that sports more elaborate mansions as you get closer to the plaza at the end of it.
The plaza is Country Club Plaza, a clean midtown shopping district dating back almost a century, but still looking pretty modern. The architecture contains Spanish influences with colored squares and diamonds. I didn't photograph the whole place or the most interesting places, just around the area where we sat down to eat.
Kansas City also apparently has a lot of fountains.
Everything on interest in KC is closed on Mondays, so the only other thing we could do was stop outside the WWI memorial and look out over downtown. We also checked out the science gift shop in Union Station (I almost bought a Star Wars Mad Libs for its high geek factor).
 |
| Looking up at the WWI memorial column |
 |
| Looking over downtown KC; Union Station is in front |
I went home to rest, and woke up to some more of Shirley's incredible cooking, a fusion of American and Chinese styles (but mostly Chinese). Yum.
Day 12: A Long Road and Good Friends
After ten days of walking the lonely, beautiful country of Ireland, it is so wonderful to be back among good friends.
Traveling
The Sunday morning flight from Dublin to Newark was uneventful. The 757 had personal screens. I ended up watching three movies, all of which I had seen before.
The first was A Fish Called Wanda. The second was Music and Lyrics (I don't know why; I think I just wanted to hear the song). The third was My Sister's Keeper, over which I cried again. I just can't watch the beach scene (with that amazing song) and not leak like a faucet.
I was pre-cleared for US customs in Dublin airport. Dublin airport has a US only section of the airport (I remember when certain airports had an Israel-only section). So, in theory, I could just waltz over to my other flight at Newark.
However, I had tentatively discussed with my friend Yitzchak who lives in Teaneck about meeting him in the Newark airport. We didn't arrange a time or place, and I didn't have a mobile phone, and he hadn't exactly confirmed that he would come.
But I dutifully exited the secure section and wandered around the international terminal (C) and then the domestic terminal (A) to see if he was there, but he wasn't. Boingo gives 20 minutes of free internet, which was just enough for me to send him an email asking if he was around. He didn't respond by the time my free time ran out. So I checked in again through the ridiculously long security theater (1/2 hour) to my gate.
At the gate I found, for some odd reason, a free internet connection that existed for a brief time (around five minutes). Just enough time to see that my friend had responded and was, indeed, at the airport and headed over from terminal A to terminal C looking for me. I wrote back No! and dashed out of security. We finally found each other.
We talked until Nadine arrived; Nadine was in NJ and is joining my on my trip to KC and BGG.con before heading off to see her family. And so I went back through security for the third time. At least one of the guards was puzzled as why he had seen me before an hour earlier.
Our plane is small enough for me to wrap my arms around. Nadine and I played musical chairs with two other singles and a family of four in order to end up in contiguous seats.
Kansas City
Our friends Bill and Shirley picked us up and took us home and gave us an incredible meal at their lovely (ridiculously large and beautiful) house.
Monday will be shopping for kosher food and otherwise preparing for Tuesday's drive down to Dallas (actually, Irving).
Traveling
The Sunday morning flight from Dublin to Newark was uneventful. The 757 had personal screens. I ended up watching three movies, all of which I had seen before.
The first was A Fish Called Wanda. The second was Music and Lyrics (I don't know why; I think I just wanted to hear the song). The third was My Sister's Keeper, over which I cried again. I just can't watch the beach scene (with that amazing song) and not leak like a faucet.
I was pre-cleared for US customs in Dublin airport. Dublin airport has a US only section of the airport (I remember when certain airports had an Israel-only section). So, in theory, I could just waltz over to my other flight at Newark.
However, I had tentatively discussed with my friend Yitzchak who lives in Teaneck about meeting him in the Newark airport. We didn't arrange a time or place, and I didn't have a mobile phone, and he hadn't exactly confirmed that he would come.
But I dutifully exited the secure section and wandered around the international terminal (C) and then the domestic terminal (A) to see if he was there, but he wasn't. Boingo gives 20 minutes of free internet, which was just enough for me to send him an email asking if he was around. He didn't respond by the time my free time ran out. So I checked in again through the ridiculously long security theater (1/2 hour) to my gate.
At the gate I found, for some odd reason, a free internet connection that existed for a brief time (around five minutes). Just enough time to see that my friend had responded and was, indeed, at the airport and headed over from terminal A to terminal C looking for me. I wrote back No! and dashed out of security. We finally found each other.
We talked until Nadine arrived; Nadine was in NJ and is joining my on my trip to KC and BGG.con before heading off to see her family. And so I went back through security for the third time. At least one of the guards was puzzled as why he had seen me before an hour earlier.
Our plane is small enough for me to wrap my arms around. Nadine and I played musical chairs with two other singles and a family of four in order to end up in contiguous seats.
 |
| Me |
Kansas City
Our friends Bill and Shirley picked us up and took us home and gave us an incredible meal at their lovely (ridiculously large and beautiful) house.
 |
| Shirley preparing dinner |
 |
| Bill, Shirley, and Nadine |
Monday will be shopping for kosher food and otherwise preparing for Tuesday's drive down to Dallas (actually, Irving).
Unknown Horizons 2011.3 Changes and Videolog
Unknown Horizons 2011.3 is out! Features are:
Development is active and they are on the lookout for people to help out or even join:
- Complete settlement AI (details here)
- Combat and diplomacy system
- Increase in performance (partially thanks to FIFE)
- Support for internationalized voices (right now available: de, en, fr)
- Nine new buildings, one new ship (here are some)
- New statistic widgets
- Usability and interface improvements (for example the in-game menu)
- New maps and a parameters-based map generator
Development is active and they are on the lookout for people to help out or even join:
- 2D/3D/Animation artists can find some tasks here
- Naval public domain painting lovers can help by finding some background art
- Interested in mechanics/story? Share your ideas for catastrophes!
- Interesting screenshots and videos should be posted here
- Feedback is needed for this release. It can be shared on the forums or IRC room.
Translators, sound artists, programmers, game designers, writers and voice artists can also help. The get involved page will let you know how to get started.
Pioneer and settler buildings
Shooting pirates
Translucent environment
Thứ Bảy, 12 tháng 11, 2011
Day 11: It's a Small Jewish World
Coincidental meetings are common enough in Jewish circles that experiencing one, while it may get a surprised look and a laugh, is to be expected now and again.
So I was surprised, but not stunned, that Friday night dinner at the rabbi included two members of my synagogue from Jerusalem, friends from only a block away from where I lived. I wrote it off as coincidence. It's to be expected that a religious Jew passing through Ireland will have dinner at the rabbi's house, and it's merely coincidental that, if they are Israeli, I happened to know them.
But I was stunned when the same things happened the next day, with a different person at a different host's house. This time a very good friend of my (ex)step-daughter, and someone who had been in my house in Jerusalem on several occasions.
Like last shabbat, both meals by the warm and welcoming Jewish community members of Dublin were delicious.
Game Night
I headed out to central Dublin to meet some BGGers for a game night. It wasn't the brightest idea, as it meant a long trek in the cold while I'm sick. However, the people I met were lovely, and so was the evening.
 |
 |
| Eoin on the right |
They had never heard of my game, so we played that first. I'm not a fan of playing it five players, but the basic game worked out pretty well. The advantage of the basic game for five players is that both the high and low cards are worth something; since it's a while between each of your turns, this matters more. They played fairly slowly, but we still finished in 45 minutes. I think they all enjoyed it.
We then played Carcassonne, or one of its many variants. All I really need to know is what scores when, and how much, and if it scores incomplete at the end. I got some of this information - I didn't catch the half score for incomplete cities and roads, for instance - but it didn't matter because I couldn't draw the tiles I needed. Ever. I had three cities waiting to be capped, two from near the beginning of the game, and they never got capped because I couldn't draw a capping tile.
While frustrating, the game is still fun to play as you can mess up other players or just make pretty pictures.
Tomorrow: the airport.
New websites, releases and competitions etc
Couldn't really think of a fitting headline, but here is the bunch of randomly collected news from the FOSS gaming realm:
First of all, OpenDungeons finally got a nice website and a blog (as mentioned previously). And in collaboration with OpenGameArt, the kicked off their art competitions again.
SummoningWars also got a new website recently, and they have also released version 0.55 a few days ago.
Last but not least, the pledgie donation drive for 0 A.D. seemed to have payed off to some extend, so one of the main developers is now working full time on the game for one month. See here for his first report on things newly implemented (most notable a save-game feature). But... you can still donate to keep him motivated longer ;)
First of all, OpenDungeons finally got a nice website and a blog (as mentioned previously). And in collaboration with OpenGameArt, the kicked off their art competitions again.
SummoningWars also got a new website recently, and they have also released version 0.55 a few days ago.
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| New Summoning Wars GUI |
Thứ Sáu, 11 tháng 11, 2011
Settlers of Catan Rules in Open Source Games (aka Clones, Remakes, Implementations)
Settlers of Catan is a popular board game. In today's terms it can be described as very 'social' thanks to its trade mechanic, which can lead to exploitation, corruption, deception... all that fun stuff.
There are a few open source implementations of the game rules, some of which I mentioned years ago and with two of them being updated recently, I decided to revisit them.
First, a few fun facts in comparable table form, further below you'll find screenshots, impressions and feature lists. Enjoy! If you're looking for somebody to play against, why not try the #freegamer IRC channel? :)
Thanks for hiponboy's (of SumWars fame) help at testing games and collecting data!
In the table I pointed out copyright and trademark infringement, which according to this article created problems for SoC clones in the past.
I encourage project maintainers to check whether all assets are openly licensed, credited and legal and distance themselves from the Settlers of Catan trademark to avoid confusion.
Pioneers
Pioneers is feature-loaded and is configurable in content (maps), look (theme) and gameplay (rules).
Features: Various boards, Seafarers mode available, network multiplayer or single-player, one AI level, map editor, complex trade (not sure if it's possible to trade multiple vs multiple resources though), few custom rules, themes
Java Settlers of Catan (JSettlers2)
JSettlers2 nice to play with complex trade, although offers can be confusing and widgets can't be resized individually.
Another drawback is the apparently forced slowness of the AI. On the other hand the AI sometimes offers trade, which makes it stand out from the trade-passive AI of the other games.
Features: Board for 4/6 players, network multiplayer or single-player, one AI level, complex trade, few custom rules
My suggestion for a hopefully non-infringing name change: "Builders of Javatan"
By the way, I was inspired to create a little tile set for JSettlers2.
Cities3D
Cities3D looks great and feels great but needs a developer/maintainer.
Unfortunately FMOD is used for sound, which renders the game non-free.
Features: Various boards, Seafarers mode available, network multiplayer only, complex trade, polished UI, sounds
Solitaire Settlers of Catan
Solitaire Settlers of Catan has a nice look and a clear trade interface (although unfortunately only simple trade is possible).
Features: Board for 4/6 players, single-player only, different AI levels, simple trade, additional Volcano scenario
jCatano
jCatano has a non-intuitive interface and is a bit of a pain to play with for example no resource icons and impossible action buttons not being grayed out.
Features: Board for 4 players only, network multiplayer only, no harbors, no trade between players, unpolished UI
GL Catan
As long as source code is missing, GL Catan can be considered proprietary software.
Features: Custom board size, single-player only, different AI levels, savegames, map editor, no trade with AI, points to win can be set
Java Settlers of Catan (javasettlers)
Javasettlers is not playable.
Features: Javasettlers is a techdemo of board rendering and building placement.
Nettlers of Catan (nettlers)
Nettlers' advantage is its shortcut-driven interface and minimal UI.
Features: Custom board size, Seafarers mode only, multi-player only, complex trade, shortcut-driven interface
Note about features: "complex trade" means that "I will trade 2 wool and 1 wood against 1 iron" is possible with other players, "simple trade" means only "1 resource for 1" resource trade is possible.
There are a few open source implementations of the game rules, some of which I mentioned years ago and with two of them being updated recently, I decided to revisit them.
First, a few fun facts in comparable table form, further below you'll find screenshots, impressions and feature lists. Enjoy! If you're looking for somebody to play against, why not try the #freegamer IRC channel? :)
Thanks for hiponboy's (of SumWars fame) help at testing games and collecting data!
In the table I pointed out copyright and trademark infringement, which according to this article created problems for SoC clones in the past.
I encourage project maintainers to check whether all assets are openly licensed, credited and legal and distance themselves from the Settlers of Catan trademark to avoid confusion.
Pioneers
Pioneers is feature-loaded and is configurable in content (maps), look (theme) and gameplay (rules).
Features: Various boards, Seafarers mode available, network multiplayer or single-player, one AI level, map editor, complex trade (not sure if it's possible to trade multiple vs multiple resources though), few custom rules, themes
Java Settlers of Catan (JSettlers2)
JSettlers2 nice to play with complex trade, although offers can be confusing and widgets can't be resized individually.
Another drawback is the apparently forced slowness of the AI. On the other hand the AI sometimes offers trade, which makes it stand out from the trade-passive AI of the other games.
Features: Board for 4/6 players, network multiplayer or single-player, one AI level, complex trade, few custom rules
My suggestion for a hopefully non-infringing name change: "Builders of Javatan"
By the way, I was inspired to create a little tile set for JSettlers2.
Cities3D
Unfortunately FMOD is used for sound, which renders the game non-free.
Features: Various boards, Seafarers mode available, network multiplayer only, complex trade, polished UI, sounds
Solitaire Settlers of Catan
Solitaire Settlers of Catan has a nice look and a clear trade interface (although unfortunately only simple trade is possible).
Features: Board for 4/6 players, single-player only, different AI levels, simple trade, additional Volcano scenario
jCatano
jCatano has a non-intuitive interface and is a bit of a pain to play with for example no resource icons and impossible action buttons not being grayed out.
Features: Board for 4 players only, network multiplayer only, no harbors, no trade between players, unpolished UI
GL Catan
As long as source code is missing, GL Catan can be considered proprietary software.
Features: Custom board size, single-player only, different AI levels, savegames, map editor, no trade with AI, points to win can be set
Java Settlers of Catan (javasettlers)
Javasettlers is not playable.
Features: Javasettlers is a techdemo of board rendering and building placement.
Nettlers of Catan (nettlers)
Nettlers' advantage is its shortcut-driven interface and minimal UI.
Features: Custom board size, Seafarers mode only, multi-player only, complex trade, shortcut-driven interface
Note about features: "complex trade" means that "I will trade 2 wool and 1 wood against 1 iron" is possible with other players, "simple trade" means only "1 resource for 1" resource trade is possible.
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