Michael Pennisi
United States
Carpentersville
Illinois
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Well I downloaded Settlers of Catan from MSN and the graphics/interface are very nice... that's good. The music gets really repetitive... that's bad. The AI players are pretty cutthroat... that's good. They take forever to make trades... that's bad.
I haven't tried the online version as I am still deciding if it's worth $30 to play a game that is really much better face to face. I suppose that eventually I'll crack when I haven't played games with real people for a couple of weeks but with the holidays here I'm playing 2-3 times a week right now.
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Jim Cote
United States
Maine
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Why not just play on BSW?
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Michael Pennisi
United States
Carpentersville
Illinois
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The first time I went to BSW I couldn't understand what anybody was saying in the chat window and I couldn't find my way to any games. I felt so ashamed of being a America-centric mono-lingual I haven't been back since
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Joshua Lobkowicz
United States
High Ridge
Missouri
You could be playing.
Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?
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a great settlers game
www.s3dconnector.net is a great place to download a completely free client and play settlers. It is the nicest one I have ever found. Always has players. if you are not behind a firewall you may host your own games and people will always join within a few minutes. worth checking out before spending your $30
Josh
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Penny
United States
Connecticut
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bsw
bsw version of settlers is ok, i play it all the time. people complain about the interface but i think once you get used to it it's not so bad. also with bsw, now most interface are in english so it's much easier to get on it and play. go through www.brettspielwelt.info which can launch bsw java versiojn in english. Also most people on there speak english, even the germans speak some english, sometimes even better than some americans. =) don't be afraid to ask questions. =) I always encourage people to join bsw and not to be discouraged if they have language problems. I don't speak a word of german when i joined when the interface is mostly german and I found my way. If you really want to do something, language problem like that is easily solved with a little persisitance.
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(Mr.) Kim Beattie
United States
Rocklin
CA
Embrace your inner geek!
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
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Actually, I believe the online portion of the game is not yet available. It is possible to download a off-line computer version of the game that plays against computer AI only.
I haven't spent a lot of time with the off-line game, so I could be wrong, but that is my initial impression.
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Bernd Wechner
Australia
Hobart
Tasmania
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Quote: Why not just play on BSW?
What's BSW?
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Rob "Bodhi" Wolff
United States
Vancouver
Washington
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BSW Defined
BSW is Brettspielwelt - the home of the online, multiplayer versions of many of the favourite games here on the Geek.
Go through
http://www.brettspielwelt.info/
and you'll find all the stuff you need to find games, find players, and get playing.
Great for testing out a game before you buy it.
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Ben Harris
United States
Beaverton
Oregon
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Me too
I also play on www.s3dconnector.net. Nice graphics and the games seem to go pretty fast with experienced players. My one gripe is that it is sometimes hard to get into games if you are a newbie because certain people will put caps on who can play the game they are hosting...but it is understood. Give it a try.
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Tom Key
England
Guildford
Surrey
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No one's mentioned...
the Settlers site at Michigan uni (i think)
http://settlers.cs.northwestern.edu/server2/index.html
This runs very well (from my own experience) tho can be crowded, has no music and an easy interface. Oh, and its free.
tom
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Gil Hova
United States
Jersey City
New Jersey
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Quote: Well I downloaded Settlers of Catan from MSN and the graphics/interface are very nice... that's good. The music gets really repetitive... that's bad. The AI players are pretty cutthroat... that's good. They take forever to make trades... that's bad.
I just tried it myself. It was okay. I assume they're going to use the same model for the online version, which will probably be very nice... but I'm not sure if it will be worth paying for.
The AI players are pretty good in MSN Catan. You can adjust their speed in the Settings menu (you can also quiet the repetitive music there), which is probably why they were taking forever to make trades. Of course, if you move the slider too far in the other direction, then you'll never get a chance to match a trade offer. I played with the slider at about 3/4, and it felt like an RTS computer game; I think I had about 2 seconds to figure out what my opponents were offering and whether I wanted it. It felt very "twitch"-y to me.
Overall, I can't really see the single-player Catan selling very much at $30, along with a pay online version. It probably would have been more shrewd for them to have offered the solo Catan for free, and then charged for the online version (the fee for which I'd assume lets you play other MSN online games).
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Gil Hova
United States
Jersey City
New Jersey
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Quote:
Fantastic free interface. The same code is implemented at http://www.jsettlers.com, and it's much less crowded there.
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