I want to start off by saying I am a huge fan of the board game and any digital version as well. Personally I enjoy games more on my Xbox so this was a dream come true for me. Oven been playing for only a year now both on the actual board game, PC and mobile so I’m still getting my reps for sure. I wanted to see what everyone else thinks of the game so far and open this forum to chat about the console edition. I’ll start with with I liked then my recommendations for things that may work better in the future and finally what I didn’t like so much. Disclaimer I’ve played all of the single player, completed the tutorials/interactive guides and have only played 3 multiplayer matches. What I liked: 1) Visually looks incredible in game with great 3D portions of the board 2) Different camera angles 3) Trading feels fluid and simple 4) Building feels just as fluid and simple 5) Dice color options and number values which is cool 6) Variety of avatars to start 7) Music and sounds are just right 8) The tutorials and interactive guides for new players 9) Easy to use menu and settings 10) I’m playing it finally on Xbox, very cool! 11) It asks you to substitute a player for a bit if they take too long which helps the flow of the game. Things that could be better in the future: 1) Multiplayer search options for 3 or 4 players 2) Multiplayer search options without bots 3) Settings for a varied board seem a bit off. Should be a searchable option as well(also not sure who controls that or it’s the host of the lobby) 4) Having a chat option, both quick chat and full chat options 5) The dice rolls on the board and at times is blocked (which isn’t the biggest deal because it shows the value by your name shortly after) However it could be a good feature to have the dice roll off to the side based on player preference (maybe in the water hex where nothing is?…) 6) Ability to add and invite PlayStation players in the menu options 7) Adding to search filters for the game I would like to see a timer filter. Not everyone wants to wait for minutes each time a players goes AFK. What I didn’t like so much: 1) The Ports are glitched appearing 2 pots in the same exact spot which is not right of course (very confusing for new players and veterans alike) 2) I might be missing it but I didn’t see a timer for players turns. If that’s not in the game that’s a huge issue for quicker games 3) This is a personal issue I want to start with that. I do not like bots at all & I think they are most times from my Catan experiences to include the console version they don’t steal or block the person in the lead. I’ve seen a bit steal from someone with 3 VPs and another player had 9VPs. I do not like players trading with them either I think it creates an unfair gameplay. If the bots matched the experience level of the players and adjust difficulty I would not mind them. I would like to hear other peoples opinions as well as any feedback on my input. Hope you all enjoy the game as much as I do!
Adding to what I don’t like so much above.. 4) Cities are too close to the look of settlements (big issue! Especially for new players)
I am so disappointed by this version. It is slow and poorly made in my opinion as a long time Catan player. I have played for over twenty years on live boards, on Xbox 360 and on Steam. This is by far the worst version I have had the pleasure of playing! There is only auto settlement placement in online ranked matches which takes a huge part of the strategy of the game away straight away. This is available in single player but who plays the single player instead of online? The look of the game is far too busy catan is a simple game and does not need singing and dancing tiles which obstruct the view of the dice rolls and also affect the rolls. Half the time the dice fell crooked when I played today. The AI is extremely poor, constantly attacking the weakest player and itself as well! I have seen it block its own square five or six times today! Also the AI is slower than most human players! Lack of turn timer is a major mistake as you mentioned it just creates slow games and you will always get the idiot who just doesnt want to press continue. So what will happen in that case the game just stops until he decides to continue again? Also as you said should have an option for 3 or 4 players online, and needs a chatbox the Catan community was amazing on 360. Please update this version ASAP needs patching on day one! Oh and I have played around about 15 games today and picked up half of the achivements (only reason I will play this version, once I have the easy 1000g It is deleted until it is patched)
Adding the the above mentions: 5)yellow blends in with “wheat” too much, and all the player colors blend slightly less with the hex tiles. Maybe add vibrant coloring to the player colors to offset?
Hi there, first of all thank you for the feedback and for playing the game. The 1st and 2nd points you dont like are issues we are already aware of and working on solutions for. For some of your other points: 1) Multiplayer search options for 3 or 4 players - You can set up a custom multiplayer game and invite friends using the rooms name designated by you - if you have 3 players, you do not need a AI player as a 4th as you need 3 players. 3) Settings for a varied board seem a bit off. Should be a searchable option as well(also not sure who controls that or it’s the host of the lobby) - we have noted this down, essentially the player who is setting up the game chooses if the board is default or varaible (random) 6) Ability to add and invite PlayStation players in the menu options - crossplatform inviting isnt possible without developing an internal friend system, you need to invite friends using the room name you designate in Join/Create multiplateyer Hope that answers some of your questions :d
Hi there, thank you for the feedback. There is only auto settlement placement in online ranked matches which takes a huge part of the strategy of the game away straight away. - this isnt the case. When you join a multiplayer lobby the host of the game desides if the game is going to be on the default board / settlements and roads placed for you OR on the Variable Setup - random board & player decides intisal settlements and roads. We are looking into changing it so Variable is the default option We will monitor AI difficulty the aim is for it to be not too easy and not too hard and that needs to apply to players of all skill levels so we will keep an eye on that. Turn Timers is something we've seen a lot and we have passed on to the team. Overall, this game will receive plenty of updates and patches to come and feedback from players will play a key role in that, so thank you for sharing.
First of all, I would like to say that Catan was designed with great care and that it is a lot of fun. We like to play it with multiple people on a PS5. What we really miss is when it's a player's turn, the controller vibrates. It would really be nice if you used the haptic possibilities of the Dualsense controller. for example vibrating when you get resource cards or using the controller's built-in speaker. That would give you much better feedback. The second is that the second screen view is not available in German. This is a small thing and could be implemented quickly. What we hope for are of course the expansions such as the seafarers, etc. We hope that something like this will still be available. Otherwise a really nice game. Thanks a lot for this.
Hey, thank you for your feedback and its lovely to hear you are having a great time. I have taken a note of your suggestions and will make sure these are passed onto the team
It is nice to hear that it will receive updates and patches just very disappointing that you have released a game which is worse than the one from 10 years ago! Some people have been waiting for this to return for consoles for such a long time and this is what we get! Whilst it is nice for you to answer some of the points made, why have you chosen to ignore any mention of chatbox and graphics? And AI difficulty is not the problem it is the intellegence that is the problem.
I got my first game in last night, playing against the AI's, and it was good. There was one thing I did not notice, how can you see how many cards are left in the resource and development card decks? In a face to face game, this is open information and can influence some game decisions as these decks are finite. There are even rules for production when there are not enough resource cards in the decks to give each player the resources that are rolled. If you are approaching endgame, it can also be useful to know approximately how many cards are left in the development card deck so that you can gauge your odds of drawing a Knight/VP/Special card. Voice chat would also be good. The multi-platform VR Catan enables this and it makes the game feel much more "real".
Edit: So I managed to host an online game with the correct setup (NO AUTO PLACEMENT!) and guess what, I was one move from winning and the other guy decided not to continue and just waited for me to leave so they could claim the win ( It was a 4 player game with 2 bots) [Removed - Alex - Excessive Vulgar Language] DO NOT BUY UNTIL IT IS SORTED OUT WASTE OF MONEY!
Feedback from somebody who has played two sessions so far in Couch MP with my spouse against 2 AIs on PS5. In general we are fans of Catan and were excited to see it coming to PS5. So far we enjoy it and would like to see a few quality of live improvements. 1. Visually highlight the actions the AI is taking. For example when the build a road or settlement. Plenty of times we overlooked what the AI did and we had to search for what actually happened on their turn (in contrast trades are being highlighted very well). 2. The second screen app often needs manual refresh of the site to show updates. 3. The dice are often obscured by the tiles, e.g. behind the trees of the Forest. Also it seemed to us that the initial roll on the board didn't match with was later displayed beside the players avatar. 4. It would good to retain the info on my latest trade offer, in case it got rejected by all players. So I can adjust accordingly and don't have to input everything again. 5. I would much appreciate a color blind option to be able to better differentiate the players and different tiles. Thank you and looking forward to see how the game further develops.
My mistake I assumed It was playable through phone, me and my family don’t really want to pass around a controller I didn’t realise phone was only for seeing resources. the game also looks pretty pixelated and poor on Xbox one x, very laggy multiple freezes where the games just unresponsive
Unlike the board game, cards arent limited. As for voice chat, i cant make any promises but we have passed it on
This is why every other game like this incorporates a turn timer. It's one of the most frustrating sore loser table flip approaches to do this.
