Why 3D Catan is unplayable, and how to solve it.

[@JoshuaHaasua]

We use an application (on our phones) for our games so it is perfectly balanced. We usually play with 5-6 players so we play the extended version.

[@kimchi3872]

what app?

[@joseG055]

@@kimchi3872 catan assist

[@TheLaurie87]

Just use the resource cards and shuffle. So much easier man.

[@jakwiebusprojects8634]

Thanks for the suggestion. This was also one of my first ideas, but this does not solve the placement for the desert and the harbours. So that's why it never worked out for me.

[@menowno3122]

Desert= white card

[@sewaprolo]

Or just get a regular copy of the game, shuffle the tiles, and place the 3d ones where the cardboard ones would have.

[@dirtbikeenjoyer1037]

Well now you can even just look up CATAN board generator online 😂

[@prototypesoup1685]

swapping red numbers with the smallest one around it, is such a great rule! Thanks for the idea!

[@jakwiebusprojects8634]

Thanks, glad you liked it.

[@lordravenblade]

I randomize the cardboard tiles onto the table and then put the corresponding 3D tiles on top.

[@The.Mentalist]

The swap of 6 and 2 does not make it better. Now there are 6 and 8 next to each other...

[@jakwiebusprojects8634]

Ah yes, well spotted! I have also spotted this error when editing. By then it was too late to change anything. In this exact case I would further change the 8 with its adjacent 3 solving all further conflicts. Thanks for noticing.

[@noahschwarz2555]

brainlag

[@western_highs]

Just coming across this video. A great option without having to print any extra pieces is just to take a resource card for each tile from the resource deck and one knight card to represent the desert tile, shuffle the newly created deck and draw from the top to see which tiles get placed in the spiral setup.

[@WideMouth]

Or just use resource cards to randomize the tiles, using the blank resource card to represent the desert.

[@jakwiebusprojects8634]

Or that. 👍 Or apps, I just wanted a 3d printed solutions to show off

[@suvilicious25]

hey Jakwiebus - the link you gave for the main tile 3D files actually contains an already workable solution of how to set up a game. Quoting directly Dakanzla RANDOM SETUP OF THE GAME BOARD: If you would like to set up a random arrangement of the game board, this can be a tricky challenge with 3d-printed tiles. Here is an easy solution to this problem that I use: Take from the resource-cards the same amount of resources for each tile you want to place on the board. For the main game (for 4 players), this would be the following cards: • 4 cards of wood • 4 cards of wool • 3 cards of bricks • 3 cards of ore • 4 cards of wheat • 1 knight card that represents the desert Then shuffle the cards and start with the centerpiece. Draw the top card and place the corresponding tile in the middle. Let’s say you draw a card with bricks. Then take a brick-tile and place it in the center. Then define (clock or counter-clock-wise) the next tile you want to place and draw another card to determine which tile it’s going to be. For the harbors, you can use a similar approach. You take some knight-cards for the “pure” water-tiles and some of the corresponding resource-cards for the harbors and shuffle them. Then go around the already built up board and place the corresponding tiles / harbors according to the cards you drew.

[@Patar15]

Why don't you take the resource cards and make a deck among them and shuffle those instead? For the Desert tile you can just roll a d20 right before you draw and if you roll a 2 or less then the desert tile goes in that location instead if you roll above then draw the top card from your deck. Each time you roll less than what you need for a desert tile increase the value for it by 1. Once the Desert tile has been placed then stop rolling and keep using your deck. Then once the tiles have all been placed take the deck you made and put the resources in their appropriate pile of cards.

[@quaternio]

Somehow the algorithm brought this video to me. I’d not yet printed any tiles, but it is in my queue of prints. So this was quite helpful, thanks!

[@Earthlink2000]

There are tents of websites or phone apps that generate random maps. It takes 0.1 sec to generate a random map.

[@Jfbmu]

THIS

[@Ist_Melonen]

@@Jfbmu IS

[@Jfbmu]

@@Ist_Melonen A DEAD MEME!!

[@K1LL4Cam]

I just use the cards as a blueprint. Shuffle the base set cards as usual, and then match the arrangement with the 3D tiles.

[@memor5514]

how about a quick setup without much thought that is just as random

[@TreyPenman]

Yea this is very unessesary and definetly not unplayable as he stated.

[@oscarbautista4156]

The only problem I have with 3D Catan mods is that you lose the ability to flip over the tile to use it as a "water" tile.. there are some 2-player fan-made variants that involve flipping over some of the tiles to make less available land (because it is for 2-players) and this sometimes creates "lakes" in the map that are kinda interesting to play around....if you go all in with the 3D investment you are kind of stuck with playing traditional Catan only...and forced to have 3-4 players all the time

[@datrandomdugggy5537]

how do you do setup for seafarers?

[@dougwhiddon8227]

Shuffle the cardboard tiles and then lay out the random isle. Then replace them with 3d tiles. Or, what I usually do is put all the 3d tiles in a cardboard box and hold it up so no one can see in. Each player reaches in a takes the first tile they touch and put it on the board touching another tile (after the first) Random board achieved.

[@killerkeksie3465]

What about the official 3D Version of Catan?How does that one work?

[@darkzul220]

Solo usa las cartas de recursos mientras armas el tablero con un orden, primero la linea central, luego la de arriba, abajo, más arriba, más abajo usa una carta boca abajo para el desierto y para los puertos haces algo similar, agarras una carta de cada recurso y una más por cada signo de pregunta, pero a estás las pones boca abajo, mezclas y listo

[@alkaline3mc]

I mean.... just shuffle the cardboard tiles, lay them out, then once the board is complete replace them with the 3d printed tiles. Seems like a pretty easy fix

[@danuria2]

why do you need those numbers? You can't change the chances of getting a 6 or 8

[@MrTalbot-h4y]

Use a website or app to autogenerate a board and recreate in real life (e.g. colonist). Write numbers or letters on the back of the tiles, generate a randomised list to decide the placement of the tiles. Lots of ways to do this :)

[@allanc369]

There are free generator online that you can use that does both the numbers and tiles simultaneously.

[@jakwiebusprojects8634]

I've heard, it seemed to be my intention to make it as complicated as possible. :-)

[@rodrigoochoa2868]

There are plenty of catan randomizer apps.

[@alexhaag599]

To make it random we just grab them randomly out of the box, then we rearrange the tiles until the entire group agrees on a layout! Once everyone agrees then there is no reason for anyone to complain!

[@reevesjustin]

How do you store the game pieces?

[@tobiaserdelt7582]

Hey there! Where can i find this number tokens? 1-12?

[@jakwiebusprojects8634]

Here: www.thingiverse.com/thing:2884108 I've also added them to the video description, thanks for pointing it out

[@DjuulDjuliano]

Hoe heb je in hemelsnaam zn goede uitspraak?

[@jakwiebusprojects8634]

Dankjewel! Veel oefenen. Ik werk in een zeer multiculturele werkomgeving waar 8u per dag de voertaal Engels is. Dat zal zeker helpen.

[@Sebby_Nineteen]

Assigning a 3D hex to a specific # token is a bad idea, in my opinion. You just cut down on the board possibilities by a whole lot. There are 2 ways to do this: A) Just get your regular Catan hexes, arrange them randomly, and then copy the layout with your 3D hexes. Because if you have 3D Catan, you SHOULD also have the basic game as well B) Or even simpler, just go to the many board generators you can find online.

[@ufomorga]

I was curious about how you would store your 3D Catan set. Did you also 3D print it?

[@jakwiebusprojects8634]

Sadly I momentarily just have everything in a box with a lot of bubble wrap. But I am thinking of making a design myself that would be printed or cut out by CNC or laser. There are some storage designs on thingiverse if you're interested.

[@DClairRobinson]

I didn't even know preset layouts was a legit thing

[@dryant]

Hi Jakwiebus from Spain! :) Great work for your 3d Catan! I'm also making the mine! :) For random island, I use an android application, called "Catan Assist". It generates a random landscapes whit a game rules! I have a question for you... I don't have a original game, and it's very hard (or very expensive) buy the replacement cards in Spain, so, I have made a resources pieces. The resources pieces are sheeps, wood, and the rest... But, I am now thinking about the possibilities for playing with them, when some player must to thieve some resource to another player.... How can you would do for this case to avoid seeing the resource the player thieves? Thanks for your videos about Catan! ( and sorry for my bad english! )

[@jakwiebusprojects8634]

Thanks for the kind words, and my apologies for the late reply. I wish you good luck and lots of fun making your version of the game. I must admit that I have never heard of the "Catan Assist" app, thanks for mentioning this here, that is also a very good approach. I have thought long and hard about your question, I have proposed the problem to some of my colleagues, and even tried to design some things to solve this. So let's break it down: the cards are there to have a hidden way of storing your valuable resources and advancement cards in hand. The tokens you made kinda solve this problem, however it is not hidden. This is no problem that a 3D printed treasure chest can not solve. This is my first suggestion: print a treasure chest to store the resources in. But then, as you mentioned, the thieving... This is harder, since all tokens or cards should look the same to the thieve. At first I thought of simply designing a dice to determine which resource is stolen. But in the hypothetical situation where one player has a large number of sheep and only one card ore, the dice will give you the same chance of stealing the ore as stealing the sheep and this is not fair. Blindly pulling the resource from a drawstring bag could be a possibility if all tokens feel the same, if not, then the thieve can easily feel which token is is stealing and thus also having an unfair advantage. Solution: print or buy just regular cubes in different colours, one colour for each of the resources, and have those in the treasure chest or drawstring bag. Stealing will be done blindly. But I honestly think this is a boring solution. ;-) Also, this does not really work for the advancement cards/tokens. So, back to square one. But why re-invent the 'wheel'. Playing cards are not easily made, but most probably you have some ordinary playing cards lying around the house. Just print out the resource faces and advancement cards faces and glue them to the faces of the cards of your ordinary deck. This will give you the best result I think. It is not an exciting solution but I think it is the one with no compromises. But, just to mention: I bought the replacement cards on the catan website (catanshop.com/catan-replacement-game-cards). They cost $11.00 and it costed me additionally $13.00 to get them shipped to Belgium. So for $24.00 you have the official cards. At the current exchange rate this is €21,65 roughly the price of 1kg of filament and you support the original creator of this beautiful game. :-) I hope my in-depth answer has made up for the late reply and kind-of solved your question. Have fun!

[@danielcooke9974]

Well after 5 seconds thought, You have resource cards, prahaps use them.

[@setname5502]

there are endless options to make things random. its solution for a non-existent problem.

[@FrontlineArsenal]

My guy, use the cardboard pieces, shuffle them up, then use the 3-D printed pieces and the layout. Just use the cardboard pieces as a layout.

[@cleftturnip7774]

or you could just arrange them in a random order

[@Wylie288]

This. How is it hard?

[@Fbacurau]

I just use an app for randomizing

[@nyathi777]

It is playable, just use an online set-up generator.

[@alexy9124]

We got something call apps now. we can just use phone to do this shit nowadays

[@briswolf]

Total clickbait title, "unplayable", hardly!

[@bernardodallacosta8684]

Or... you can just... you know... close your eyes and start placing them blind? i'm from brazil, and in our sets the harbors are fixed to each other... and there is no defalt for the tiles... so thats how we do ksksksk

[@bienmesabecanario117]

Wtf bro, i use a more easy option, i built the same board of the app of catan or other similar game.

[@lexibyday9504]

uh... there are so many other easier ways of randomising 3D tiles.

[@MrXsharp]

Butt... 😂

[@albuandrei2005]

"but" ... lol

[@jswklj]

first!