Catan Universe News

Dear Catanians,

Catan Universe 2.1.0 focusses on your feedback regarding the in-game UI we introduced with update 2.0. You will find a lot of customization options as well as improvements in trade as well as the multiplayer. See below what we have been working on:




[h2]New Tradeboard [/h2]

Trading is now handled in real-time → players can start a trade then continue to play, and accept the trade later on
Resource selection handling → click on the card on the opposite site to decrease your offer

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



[h2]Multiplayer overhaul[/h2]

New methods to verify the correct sequence of played actions in multiplayer games; If the actions aren’t verified the game will reload automatically to a verified state

Auto-A.I. of other players kicks in if the active player is offline and turntimer runs out

Removed kick timer; players get kicked if their turn timer runs out 3 times; no more kicks in custom matches


Rebuilt complete rejoin/reconnect/reload process

Turn timer doesn’t wait for any UI changes in between actions anymore

Sync active players’ turn timer with trade offer

Sync turntimer on every players’ turn start

Trading is now a simultaneous active/passive timer situation

Robber stops the active players’ turn timer if/until all other players have selected their resources

Auto-A.I. handles C&K better

Stability in UI/client in general

Host is set by servers (before, the clients decided who will be host)

Stabilized synchronization of offline/reconnect state



[h2]UI / Layout:[/h2]


more tooltips

player frame: incoming trade indicator -> click to open Tradeboard

new UI option: simple player frames: can be enabled in in-game options → new tab “Visuals”

[User Feedback] enable/disable “A.I. sends emojis” can be enabled in in-game options → new tab “Visuals”

[User Feedback] enable/disable “Resource Highlight on Hexagons” can be enabled in in-game options → new tab “Visuals”

[User Feedback] enable/disable “Place build effect” can be enabled in in-game options → new tab “Visuals”

[User Feedback] show text when development/progress card is being clicked/dragged → "drag to board to play card"

(Mobile) when 3d board tooltips toggle is enabled → "click on game piece to get more info"

[User Feedback] disable "Players Turn" ticker can be enabled in in-game options → new tab

New “Visuals” during multiplayer-related network communication, a ‘loader animation’ is shown in the right-bottom corner of the screen (next to the Player Turn Button)

[User Feedback] resource animations + highlight spawn multiple resource cards from tile; new option “fast resource distribution” → in-game options tab “Visuals”:

when enabled, resource highlight + animation start at the same time
when enabled, resource highlight + animation do not wait for cameras
when enabled, all resources are distributed at once
when enabled, resource animations more fluid / less “alarming”
do not pop up that much anymore → when disabled, the resource card pops up and then starts moving


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]Changes: [/h2]

[User Feedback] smoother game piece animation from opponents’ build menu to board

[User Feedback] no more highlight on dev/prog cards that cannot be played

[User Feedback] bigger arrow on player frame → active player indicator

[User Feedback] bigger resource icons and labels



Lower quality settings on some lower spec iOS devices: prevents crashes due to memory limits on newer iOS versions reduced texture size (especially UI elements)

Custom match player selection shows all friends / guild members


[h2]Fixed Issues: [/h2]

- Game elements become invisible, especially ships

- (Mobile) statistic screens are cut off

- AI hangs at Deserter card if no knight of the player is on the start island in the Enchanted Land scenario

- (Mobile) Camera cannot be moved after the end of a game

- Basegame only playable with 2 KIs if activated with Suns

- Calculation of Longest Road can be wrong

- Empty Gamelog entries in Seafarer expansion

- AI hangs in Rise of the Inkas after resource allocation

- Various localization errors

- (Mobile) UI overlaps on iPhone 11 Pro max

- (Mobile) dice animation under iOS

- Incorrectly finished multiplayer games can cause the game board (even in singleplayer) to not load correctly

- Game end screen is not displayed on all clients

- AI trade does not continue if a client reconnects before replying to AI

- UI element for participation in Season missing / caught in Season Screen

- Crash to home screen after a player did not click the "you took too long" pop-up

- Treasure with road building leads to subsequent errors when player is disconnected and replacement AI sets the roads

- Replacement AI cannot give away resources if it rolled a 7 itself; game cannot be continued

- Trade monopoly can lead to blockers if no commodities are available

- CATAN Suns cannot start a scenario in the BaseGame

- Inventor card leads to graphic errors/additional selection markers

- (Desktop) Custom Match Lobby not scrollable when mouse pointer is at certain positions

- In Cities and Knights, the resource count on mobile, if it is two digits, is not fully displayed

- Too many victory point cards in the deck

- Victory point display only update after the turn was finished

- After playing the bishop card, stolen resources are displayed in the gamelog

- (Mobile) Phones iOS: dice statistics cut off

- (mobile) Report window mobile (Phone only) too large, no reports possible; App must
- closed manually

- Control error in CaK if no cities on the board and no knights active

- Quitting the game via menu in startup phase can lead to blocker

- KNF error in the ticker when you have to give FSK


And many more...

Dear Catanians,
Server will go into maintenance mode at 11 am [CET]. The maintenance will take a few hours. During this time you won´t be able to play the game or log in.

We will try to keep the maintenance as short as possible.

Hi Catanians,

Tomorrow July 22nd at 2pm servers will go in maintenance mode. We will use the maintenance to roll out update 2.0.1.

Since we have been able to address quite some issues you have been reporting to us in the past weeks, we decided to release 2.0.1. See below the list of issues we addressed:

• (C&K) Warlord-Progress Card could been played without any effect

• (C&K) Fixed an issue, where the Crane could be used, without having any city on play

• (Special Scenarios – EnchantedLand) fixed Dragons strength value

• Improved Gamelog for Monopol-Card actions, when no player has the requested resource

• Fixed various issues, where players could/couldn’t see resource/commodity transactions between other players or discards to bank (Gamelog, flying cards, etc)

• City improvements could not be played, even though the player had the required commodity

• Fixed display of incorrect Elo values in the tool tip in the statistics end screen

• Fixed an issue where the players could not end the turn since the button wasn’t working

• Fixed an issue where a placed metropole was misplaced at the center of the tile

• Auto-zoom now disabled per default and can be activated in the in game menus

• Fixed issues with achievement progress

• (STEAM/Browser only) Added Developer/Progress Card overlay, when cards have been played

• (Mobile) Fixed an issue with layering cards and the resource bar

• (Mobile) Fixed various mobile UI issues (scaling/intersections...)

• (Mobile) Fixed an issue within leaderboards screen, where the expansion rankings could not be changed

• (Mobile) Fixed an issue, where the Prestige ranks haven´t been displayed correctly in the statistics screen

Catan Universe 2.0.0 Release

Unity 2019.3.x update

New Features

• new main menu UI (full reskin)
  

new flow → select single/multiplayer → expansion → game mode

• new “level progress screen”: shows rewards for players’ level progress
Raised experience level with new rewards from 20 to 25

• lvl 21: Asia-Pieces
• lvl 22: Orient-Tiles
• lvl 23: Set-Tinting 2
• lvl 24: Asia-Tiles
• lvl 25: Orient-Pieces

• New pet: Al Pacacino
  

• new sun system: suns can be used to play a singleplayer game of your choice
  

• emoji system
• matchmaking panel (in the top center, when matchmaking is started): show ‘player dots’
indicating how many players are found, e.g. 3 of 4 players → 3 filled, 1 empty dot
• Custom Match / Singleplayer Options: toggle for “Random start player” (incl. tooltips); crown indicates 1st player is the start player (incl. tooltip)


New account system

• registered users can play Catan First Island Custommatch for free in locked options, only 3 players
• Android and iOS users can purchase IAP (gold) without registration
• once they register with their all IAP and progress is transferred to their new “registered user account”

• Steam users have to register before buying in the shop. But they can play and level up before registering and all their progress will get transferred
  

• unregistered users can’t use the in game chat anymore

New in-game UI


Desktop:

• button click for normal build menu behavior → new in both
• desktop/mobile
• players can also drag&drop → already existing feature in the mobile
• version
• if candidates are shown: headline indicates “Select position for x”
• in-game options screen
• panels get translucent when trade board is opened → panels are sent to
• foreground on hover
• panels can be opened via keyboard keys ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’, … (plus ‘enter’ for
• chat)
• panels can be pinned → in default ‘unpinned’ state, if the user clicks outside of the panel, it will be closed
• drag&drop cards, like in mobile version
• show cards on hover
• resource bar
• tooltips, like on mobile version
• new designed screens like ‘select player’, ‘select dice’, etc.
• new hide/show buttons, like in mobile version
• quick trade, like in mobile version
• game action ticker (on left bottom of the screen)
• shows actions of all players, like building, buying or playing cards, etc
• holding ‘alt’ key shows tooltips immediately (even if deactivated)
• almanac quick links: ‘shift’ + left mouse click on UI / board items shows almanac entry


Mobile and Desktop Version:

• better UI animation / badge / game overall flow
• dice animation before badges
• better “+/-x” animations & card animations
• opponents’ gamepieces are animated from their buildmenus to the board
• gamelog/chat: automatic scrolling to newest entry is deactivated as soon as scroll rect is
• not scrolled to bottom
• hints to UI → highlight on elements like playerframe, victory points, trade block,
• etc.
• show ingame menu → options, dice statistics
• new emjoii chat system
• board pieces animation on start / exit in-game: pieces fall onto table / fly away from it
• expansion screen → after a sun was used for a SP game, a hint to the shop is
shown in the loading screen (back to the main menu)
• hexagon animation when loading in-game
• new “it’s your turn” ticker
• drag&drop / build buttons show amount of game pieces left
• game log: added ‘players turn’ separator
• players own game pieces support physics


In-game camera Mobile and Desktop:

• automatic camera movement
• camera zooms/moves to new/destroyed buildings, and when ships,
knights, or the barbarians are moving
• enable/disable 2d camera
• enable/disable automatic camera movement
• move camera per screen edge - slider
• tooltip delay – slider



Desktop:

• movement per keyboard (arrow keys + WASD)
• movement when touching screen edge
• zoom towards mouse cursor position (before: centered zoom)

New in game shop system

• new purchase flow when not enough gold
→ ‘buy via gold’
→ shop opens, shows ‘gold’ category with overlay indicating how much gold is
needed
→ then, when purchased, opens ‘expansion’ category and selects the initial
expansion for purchase

New Tutorial steps

• new tutorial steps for camera movement, zoom & tilt

Dear Catanians,

today we are happy to announce that CATAN Universe 2.0 will release Monday June 29th!




As this is a bigger update we will put our servers into maintenance mode at 11 AM [CEST] on Monday for a couple of hours.

Additionally we'd like to share with you the new account and matchmaking structure in CATAN Universe 2.0.
It will now be possible to play single player games in CATAN Universe without registering an account as well as playing free-matches without chat functionality against other players.

Since the Scrolls will be replaced by Suns in the future the Auto Match will be reserved for players that registered an account and unlocked their desired game mode with Gold.
We hope that this will improve the quality of the ranked Auto Match play while still allowing our free users to play the game online as well as offline.

Thanks so much for your feedback in advance and we'll see you on the island.