Settlers of Catan!

[Asher]

Comes out Wednesday on Xbox Live Arcade! Woot!

[Harry Tuttle]

Wow! That IS awesome!






What is it?

[ZargonX]

It looks like a pretty good conversion; you'll have to let us know how it is.

[Asher]

Screenshot: http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resou...creenshot2.jpg

It's published by Big Huge Games.

The creator of Settlers of Catan comments:

"I had no doubts that Brian Reynolds would do a great job, and the first version of the game exceeded my highest expectations. The AI is so clever that I even lost several games in a row! Hands down, this game for the Xbox LIVE Arcade is an amazing achievement."

Catan
Cost: 800
Features:
• Learn As You Play tutorial, making the game instantly accessible even to players who have never played "Settlers of Catan" before
• All New 3D "Living World" Board
• Play against any combination of 13 historical personalities such as Alexander, Cleopatra and Tokugawa, which provide a range of play styles and difficulty levels that will test players' wits and strategy
• Fans of the board game will enjoy the inclusion of popular house rules like Friendly Robber and Friendly Resources
• Multiplayer gameplay over Xbox LIVE for up to 4 players
• The ability to taunt opponents with engaging animations and use emotes to compliment (or belittle!) the opposition over Xbox LIVE
• Voice Chat enabled
• Earn up to 12 Achievements and 200 Gamerscore points

[Kloreep]

That's awesome.

[Asher]

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/784/784819p1.html

Big Huge Games Talks Catan
Learn all about the XBLA board game straight from the horse's mouth.

May 1, 2007 - The hit board game Catan arrives on the Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday, bringing the first board game to the service. Although the game has sold over 11 million copies, many still aren't familiar with how the game plays or even what it is. That would include many of us here at IGN. That's why we went to the folks at Big Huge Games to answer our questions. Dwight Smith, Producer on Catan, and Brian Reynolds, CEO and creative director of Big Huge Games, were kind enough to team up and clue us in.

IGN: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions and give our readers a better understanding of what they're in for. To kick things off, can you give our readers a basic overview of how Catan plays?

Big Huge Games: The island of Catan consists of 19 colorful land tiles, representing mountains, pastures, forests, and other regions. The players build settlements in places they think will be productive, and each time the dice are rolled some of the settlements produce resources. The most exciting part of the game begins when the players wheel and deal to trade the resources with each other to get the ones they need, and then build new roads and cities to settle the land. The winner is the player most successful at planning, trading, and expanding!

IGN: How long does a typical Xbox Live Arcade game of Catan take to play now that dice rolling and card selection has presumably been sped up?

Big Huge Games: We find that Catan games take around 20-30 minutes on Xbox LIVE Arcade - that's a considerable speed improvement from the average 90 minutes for the board game. The rules are exactly the same as for the board game, but the pacing is naturally faster when the Xbox 360 is taking care of all the rules and recordkeeping for you.

IGN: Will the game only have Settlers of Catan or are any of the expansions coming?

Big Huge Games: The initial release is an electronic version of the original Settlers of Catan board game, although players will be able to download add-ons such as the "Generals" expansion which adds more AI personalities for computer opponents. As for expansions such as Cities & Knights, we'll just have to see how the first game does!

IGN: Has anything been changed from the board game that fans will notice?

Big Huge Games: The rules of the game are entirely true to the original board game, with a single exception suggested by the board game designer, Klaus Teuber: the number of resources which can be collected is not limited by the number of resource cards available in the deck. This was his preferred rule anyway, but in the board game there was the limit of the number of cards which could be printed.

Fans of the board game will also surely notice the beautiful new artwork we have provided, including not only a standard "board game style" set but also a 3D "living world" interpretation.

IGN: Have the rules been made flexible so people can adjust the game to the nonstandard way some people play Catan at home?

Big Huge Games: Yes! I'm a big fan of "house rules" for Catan, and we've supported several in our upcoming release. For example players can choose to use an "event deck" instead of dice rolls, and they can choose a "friendly robber" or "friendly resources".

IGN: How many players will Catan support?

Big Huge Games 3 or 4, just like the board game.

IGN: A lot of Catan's gameplay involves negotiating trades. How is that being handled in the game?

Big Huge Games: We put a lot of work into our trading screen to make it very intuitive and easy to use, as trading and negotiation are clearly the heart of Catan. It's a bit easier to visualize if you're looking at the screen shot, but basically players use the thumbstick to plop resources into "want" and "give" piles. When two players have matching offers one can hit the green (A) button to suggest the trade and the other can accept by hitting (A) as well.

Obviously on Xbox LIVE players will have the option of using the voice chat headsets to verbally negotiate trades, which is a big help. But we've also included sixteen avatar animations we call "ticklers" which players can activate using the Right Bumper button: these can help communicate common emotions such as "You're too far ahead!" or "Sweeten the deal!" or "I hate the dice!" with animations such as a target over someone's head, a hand making the money-money-money sign, or a TNT detonator being pushed down and exploding the dice. These ticklers (and their associated sound effects) not only help players communicate they also make the game lively and fun. The AI players use the ticklers too!

IGN: How has trading and negotiating AI been worked out for when players aren't up against live opponents?

Big Huge Games: There are 3 levels of AI difficulty and one of the biggest differences between them is how canny the AI personalities are when trading resources. At the Easy level the AI players will trade you pretty much anything they have in their hand. At the Medium level they won't trade away resources they need to complete their next projects, and at the Hard level they very carefully think through the benefits of each trade.

The AI players are able to use all parts of the trading interface just as well as the human players, including the emotion ticklers - they will get upset when you steal their most important resource card. They will negotiate with you and mold their deal to fit the one you are offering.

IGN: What sorts of Achievements are in the game?

Big Huge Games:


Settler of Catan: Build a settlement in any game of Catan. (10)





Scholar of Catan: Win a Single-Player game against Moderate AI's. (10)





Professor of Catan: Win the Single-Player game against Hard AI's. (20)





Builder of Catan: End any game of Catan in possession of the Longest Road card 10 times. (20)




Knight of Catan: End any game of Catan in possession of the Largest Army card 10 times. (20)




Merchant of Catan: Acquire 100 resource cards in trade in any game of Catan. (20)




Villager of Catan: Collect 25 Victory Points. (10)





Citizen of Catan: Collect 100 Victory Points. (20)





Elder of Catan: Collect 250 Victory Points. (20)





Statesman of Catan: Collect 500 Victory Points in ranked match play.(20)





Chancellor of Catan: Collect 1000 Victory Points in ranked match play.(20)





Ambassador of Catan: Invite a friend to play Settlers of Catan (10)



IGN: How does the online ranking system work?

Big Huge Games: Catan supports ranked multiplayer games for those who wish to play competitively, and there are leaderboards to track your progress. When you play a ranked match the game will attempt to match you against other players of a similar skill level.

If this guy in the mask is going to play Catan, we're in.
IGN: What are your plans for downloadable content after the game is released?

Big Huge Games: There will be a free picture pack released with the game this Wednesday, as well as a theme pack. Later on, we'll have a Generals picture pack and Mayfair skin pack. In the future, there will be a Generals expansion which will add new AI personalities to the game. Beyond that, all I can say is that we hope Catan does well and we see a lot of demand for even more content in the future!

IGN: Thanks guys! We look forward to getting our hands on Catan.

[Jeje2]

Anyone actually played BHG Catan yet on Xbox360?

[Asher]

I have. I think it's awesome.

[Nostromo]

nm

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Asher
I have. I think it's awesome.

Asher, what do you enjoy most about it?

I purchased 360 Live, but my heart is for PC Gaming, mostly sports on XBox

Thanks for assisting, heard a few good things, just wanted more opinions, and yours is valued

Gramps

[Asher]

Originally posted by Grandpa Troll
Asher, what do you enjoy most about it?

I purchased 360 Live, but my heart is for PC Gaming, mostly sports on XBox

Thanks for assisting, heard a few good things, just wanted more opinions, and yours is valued

Gramps

The social aspect of it -- it pretty much nails the essence of the board game (trading!). It is very loyal to the original game, it feels just like it, but without the annoying bookkeeping that drags on those games longer than necessary.

If you like the board game, you'll love the XBL version I think. It's the same game, but without the hassles of keeping track of things. Not to mention, the customizable rules are nice too.

[DrSpike]

Lots of posts on the Xbox forums saying there are significant connection issues with this game.

[Jeje2]

Any way to pursuade BHG (&MS) to make a PC release?
(Pretty expensive game - as don't have any console)

[Asher]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Lots of posts on the Xbox forums saying there are significant connection issues with this game.

I don't seem to have any.

[Jeje2]

Originally posted by Asher
I don't seem to have any.

Is single play AI as good as praised?

Have you tried online games already?
People available for games already?

Damm MS - I want this game (and Carcassone) to PC.
(Our Catan team broke a couple of years ago when we all had graduated... and played only once since )