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• I am new to this site, how can I play and should I register somewhere ? • What is the difference between Ladder and Regular servers (or games) ? • Server down, why ? when will it be back ? and who runs this site ? • I or another player get negative resources !? or a player leaves game because game ended for them ! • Are there bots on this server ? What version of Settlers of Catan is it ? • What are the available modes ? • Gold and Volcano, what's that ? • I am in a game and am waiting for a player, what can I do about it ? • how to be ranked ? is there a difference in gameplay ? • ** how to gain many ranks faster ? ** • ** what is the ALT-F4 trick ? ** • What is the /rall command for ? • Armageddon seems impossible to win ! • I want everyone to see my messages • I want to chat with someone in particular • What is a metropolis ? Why should I select it at game creation ? • During phase setup I have to place a road but I can't • My rank is erroneous, I am not happy with it • Game is slow, why ? • solito.free is down, where can I play ? • There is a bug... • There are other things I don't understand, I'm not sure about... • Special messages |
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| Everyone can play on the servers. There is no registration needed to play on the Regular Server. If you wish to have your victories recorded, you want to play on the Ladder Server. A registration is therefore needed so your victories can be recorded for your character. You need to have the Flash Player installed on your computer. The flash player can be found here. |
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| Ladder and Regular server are identical. The only difference is that Ladder server is linked to a database where player's names are stored. If you connect to Ladder server, you need a name and password where Regular server only requires a name. You can connect to Ladder server and play regular, although if 2 or more players connect from the same network, their rank is turned off if they play in the same game. |
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| A technical problem I am not aware of occured. I am the only person to
run this site and because I only have 2 hands, I am not necessary
in front of my server when/if it crashes. Give me at least a working day
delay before sending me mails about it. When I get to my computers, I will notice the problem and restart the server before I even read my emails. If the server is stopped on purpose, you will be notified whether on the forum or in the game. I pop in the game sometimes under the name of Solito. |
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| This game is made in Flash which means that your browser downloads and plays it as an applet. When the game is upgraded, everyone must play with the same upgraded game. Some players may be playing with a cached version (old version) vs. other players playing with a new version : this is the cause of asynchro resources because most of calculation are executed in the applet (not on the server). Make sure you open the game after your browser cache is emptied (when game is upgraded, I always leave a message in the forum). |
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| No, there are no bots on this server. This server is only designed to play multiplayer games of Settlers of Catan using regular rules and map for 6 players (2 deserts). |
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| The Standard mode allows you to play regular rules for 6 players (for 6 players default is 2 deserts). Other modes are just created for fun in order to experiment other aspects of Settlers of Catan and they run on the same regular rules engine (there are some variants and there is a short text describing them when you create or join a game). |
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| Gold gives 1 random resource (this resource can change from one turn to another). Volcano is similar but more generous and gives 2 random resources but it can erupt and lava may destroy your building though ! A massive eruption gives 3 random resources. If lava destroys your city, it is replaced by a settlement BUT if you have no settlements left in stock, your city disappears as well as your settlement ! (imagine a real board game with real pieces). Robber cannot be placed on a volcano. |
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| Each time a player has to do an action (when it's a player's turn or a player has to discard cards), a timer is triggered and after a few minutes this player is automatically dropped from the game if no response. If the player does an action (like trading, banking, etc...) this timer is reset. When this player's turn is done, the timer is disabled for that player. | ||
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| Anyone can choose to enable or disable rank system at any time. When in chat room, type /ladder to toggle rank system for your character. Rank system records [Games-Win-Loose-Quit]. Game isn't altered in any way nor there are privileges for ranked players, only that your rank status is displayed to other players when you connect. If your rank or another player's rank is disabled, it only displays "rank disabled", just type /ladder to enable it. |
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| The number of points you can gain depends on several factors : • The number of oponents you play against (by default you gain as many points as there are oponents in your game • The difference beetween your rank (title) and your oponents's rank (title) : you gain +1 point by difference • Your quota of "quit games" - If you never quit, you gain 200% of points - If you have quit less than 5%, you gain 150% of points - If you have quit more than 15%, you only gain -xx% of points (depending on your quit ratio) As a result, try to never quit and play against several high ranked players : you can gain a LOT of points In reverse, if you quit too much and play against 6 players you might only gain 1 point ! |
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| DONT'T FALL FOR THE ALT-F4 TRICK ! Some players may tell you to press ALT-F4 so you can gain extra points : THAT'S WRONG ! In fact, when you press ALT-F4, you will actually close your running program (the game). If you do that during a game, you will then leave that game and disconnect from the server (you will get a quit) and the other player will win that game! In short : DON'T PRESS ALT-F4 during a game. |
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| When in chat room, this command displays rank status of all connected players to quickly know who is ranked and who's not. When in game, this command only displays ranked players you are playing with (or against actually). |
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| Few tips about this mode : Armageddon strikes every set of turns. if you
have more VP than computer OR you get closer to victory, Armageddon strikes
more often then : • Save your longest road / strongest knight for the end. • When you are about to build and Armageddon will strike in 2 turns, save your building for next turn, you may gain resources and build more when you reach "next turn" (each new VP brings Armageddon closer to "next turn"). • Use Robber on a good number if Armageddon is about to strike. • Buy dev. cards to get a protector. • Build 3 cities on a hexe, this will make this tile indestructible (3 cities = 1 fortress). |
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| Use the /a command : /a message_to_send You can use this command to ask everyone when their game finishes for ex. |
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| Use the /s command : /s player : message_to_send (you need to separate "player name" and "message" with the : char.) |
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| A Metropolis is an upgraded city and is not part of the original rules, that's why I let you choose whether you want to use it or not. It is expensive to buy and you don't get any VP with it but the way a Metropolis gathers resources is rather interesting... Robber cannot fully stops production from a Metropolis... I let you discover its features in games... ;-) |
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| ...still a mysterious bug... only happened a couple of times to me since server is running. Quit and restart a new game. Sorry about that. | ||
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| Gameplay and rank system are 2 very different things: Rank system needs to access a database on requests from the server. Basically, synchronizing several players in real time (sending back and forth data) is extremely fast while accessing a database takes much longer therefore there is a timer delay (which might expire if too long) to record a player's rank in order to prevent lags on the server, hence a possible unaccurate rank record. | ||
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| I heard some players saying "server is slow". I am not saying my bandwith is 100% linear but this is never due to server for sure. What causes the game to run slowly (which looks like lags : rolling dice is slow, building is slow, etc...) is when playing with many players and/or players have built several buildings : Each building is animated and requires a lot of CPU resource from the Flash applet. More buildings on the map will slow down the game a bit more each time (players with fast computers shouldn't suffer much from that). This is a Flash issue and therefore I cannot do anything about it (except the "video is dying" should help because it reduces graphics quality or even better, the light version should greatly improve game speed.). If you've been connected and playing many games for a long time, a good thing maybe is to close the window game and re-open it, although I never noticed any game speed improvment doing that, technically this removes the applet from memory. |
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| solito.free.fr is the web site where you should go as you will find different servers available for you. There is also a forum that you may find useful if you have any questions regarding the game. Sometimes solito.free.fr can be down and I set up an alternate web site where you can play directly on Solito [Quebec]. No other servers are available there but Solito [Quebec]. |
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| I did my best to double check packet transmission between server and game (that's why you can see sometimes for ex. : "Data transfert error, set your road again" : This is due to a packet loss through internet), but it is hard to garanti a 100% bug free game especially with the tricky aspect of multiplayer feature. | ||
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| The mechanics of this game is so clear for me, I surely forget to mention obvious things to new players. If you think something relevant to gameplay should be mentioned here, let me know. |
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| You might see special messages when you connect. These messages are sent from the server when I need to let you know if there are technical problems for example. |
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