[LT] Kaip jau rašiau anksčiau, ši Carcassonne versija manęs nesužavėjo, bet bežaisdamas mintyse mačiau šį vaizdą, kurį ir užfiksavau – meepložmogis ilsisi prie jūros 🙂
[EN] As i have posted before, this version of Carcassonne hasn’t captivated me, but while playing it i was seeing this picture in my mind – meepleman resting by the sea 🙂
Camel Up
A neat little game, which can be fun with the right crowd (non-gamers or casual gamers). It even works fine with 8 players (and more with the expansion). Granted, i haven’t tried it with less players. All my 3 plays of it were with 8 players. It probably can be more strategic with less players and you can probably have more options on your turn and plan ahead a bit more. But it is still very light, very random and swingy. Which is part of its charm and which makes people scream of joy or sadness when a die comes out of the pyramid 🙂 But this is not a game for those liking a bit of thought process, heavier mechanisms. Though heavy gamers can appreciate this as an evening closing game to relax. I’m glad i own it and this is a strong 7/10.
Automobiles
A deck building game with a bag of cubes instead that you pull from to move you car in a race. This sounded like a perfect mix of one of my favorite mechanisms (deck building) with some unique theme like racing. The game is not bad, but after playing it 5-6 times i failed to find much to like in it. First of all it is too much random and “swingy”. You can crawl a few spaces for a few turns and then jump half a track ahead. Yes, you have to manage your pull of cubes and improve the selection, but this just doesn’t work. Hard to explain. There is too much trash in your bag from the start and you get even more of it during the race. There are some cubes that help you cull bad cubes, but those cubes on their own will clutter you selection. Also this is hard to foresee which regular racing cubes you will need the most, because every track twist needs different ones and you can pull completely useless ones from the bag. The game provides a lot of variability with different setups (every cube color has a few cards with different abilities, which can be used in a game). But that creates another problem of constantly checking what a particular cube does in a particular game. Yes, you will probably memorize it after a few turns, but this memory won’t stay with you, because next time you will have to memorize different abilities. This gets especially frustrating when playing online and doing a few moves per day (i know, this is not fair, as this game is not designed to be played this way, but that’s how i play the most). So, i admit this is a unique and clever design with a bag building mechanism and interesting racing theme, but only 7/10 for me.
Yucata implementation: as with many new games it uses 2.0 framework and it works fine. The only problem is the cards that i have mentioned above, they are too small and you have to click on them to zoom and be able to read the ability. I guess nothing can be done about this. 9/10
[LT] Cat Box tai berods antras stalo/kortų žaidimas, kurį pirkau Kickstarter platformoje. Nesu pernelyg didelis kačių mėgėjas, bet pagalvojau, kad toks mielai atrodantis žaidimukas galėtų turėti pasisekimą darbe suformuotoje žaidimo grupėje (moteriškoje jos dalyje), ar ne? 🙂 Gaila, kad siuntos dar teks palaukt iki lapkričio.
[EN] Cat Box is probably my second board/card game bought through the Kickstarter platform. I’m not a huge fan of cats, but i thought such a cute looking game should be a success in a game group i have at work (among its women part), shouldn’t it? 🙂 It’s a pity it won’t arrive until November though.
[LT] Seniai galvojau, kad šį žaidimą būtų gerai turėti linksmam vakarui su didele kompanija. Kadangi kitą savaitę planuojamas žaidimų vakaras, kuriame galbūt dalyvaus 6-8 žaidėjai ir kadangi nesinori dalintis į grupeles, o vien Saboteur žaist neįdomu ir kadangi šiam žaidimui buvo nuolaida parduotuvėj. Žodžiu dabar jau jį turiu. Visi komponentai išlukštenti, piramidė surinkta – laukiama žaidimo vakaro. Tiesa, nespėjau pasinaudoti 28% nuolaida, bet viename iš parduotuvės filialų man visgi suteikė bent 10% nuolaidą 🙂 Štai kas vadinama FLGS (friendly local gaming store). Beje – Hobbyshop. Paskutiniai 3 iš 5 pirkimų buvo būtent šioje parduotuvėje. Camel Up (taip taip, aš iš stovyklos vadinančios jį būtent Up, o ne Cup :P) – tai linksmas kupranugarių lenktynių žaidimas, kurio metu jie gali užlipti vienas kitam ant kupros ir taip važinėtis. Žaidėjai lažinasi kuris kupriukas laimės lenktynes, kuris pralaimės ir pan. Žaidime yra vietos taktikai ir matematiniams apskaičiavimams, bet taip pat jame ir gana didelis sėkmės faktorius. Todėl laimėti jame gali bet kas, o pagrindinis jo pliusas – tiesiog smagus laiko praleidimas sergant už pasirinktą kupriuką ir keikiant piramidę už ne tos spalvos iškritusį kauliuką 🙂
[EN] I was thinking that having this game would be great for a long time. And as next week a game night is planned which can be with 6-8 players and as i don’t like to split into groups and as it is boring to only play Saboteur and as there was a discount for this game in a shop. Well, now i have it. All components punched out, the pyramid constructed – awaits the gaming night. Although, i didn’t managed to use the 28% discount, but one of the shop’s stores gave me at least a 10% off 🙂 That’s what is called FLGS (friendly local gaming store). By the way – Hobbyshop store. Last 3 out of 5 purchases were in that store. Camel Up (yes, yes, i’m in the camp calling it Up, not Cup :P) – it’s a fun camel racing game, in which they can ride on the backs of each other. Players bet on which camel will win or lose. There is a place for some tactics and mathematic calculations in this game, but luck is a huge factor in it. So, anyone can win here and the main advantage of this game is just the fun time spent with that game cheering for a camel of your choice and cursing the pyramid for rolling a wrong die 🙂
Kaip tęsinys sąrašo pateikto Family Showdown kanale, sudariau savo Top 10 sąrašą stalo žaidimų mechanizmų. Kiekvieną mechanizmą papildysiu keliais žaidimais, kurie mano manymu geriausiai atitinka kategoriją (aišku iš tų kuriuos žaidžiau). Beje, aš nesirėmiau jokių oficialių sąrašu mechanizmų. Kai kuriuos sugalvojau pats 🙂
10. Set Collection (Rinkinys)
Viena pirmųjų mechanikų kurias sutinki pradedant žaist modernius stalo žaidimus (ir dažnai tradicinius kortų žaidimus). Tai taip pat dažnai yra papildoma mechanika stalo žaidime. Kaip Ticket to Ride, kur turi rinkti vienos spalvos kortų rinkinius, kad galėtum pastatyti kelius. Tokaido žaidime renki paveikslų kortas, kad sukurtum nuostabią panoramą (ir gautum krūvą taškų). Yra ir maži žaidimai, kur kortų rinkinio mechanika yra kertinė, kaip Jaipur ar Coloretto.
9. Dice Allocation (Kauliukų paskirstymas)
Ne tik kauliukų ridenimas, bet ir gautų rezultatų paskirstymas įvairiems veiksmams. Tai šiek tiek primena darbininkų paskirstymo mechaniką, bet šiuo atveju skaičius ant kauliuko irgi svarbus ir įtakoja rezultatą. Mano mėgstamiausias šiame žanre taipogi mano žaidžiamiausias – Zooloretto: The Dice Game. Iš esmės tai “aš paskirstau – tu renkiesi” tipo žaidimas. Kai tu meti kauliukus ir renkiesi kaip juos paskirstyt tarp sunkvežimių. Ir tada tavo oponentas renkasi ar imti kauliukus ar rident papildomus. The Voyages of Marco Polo žaidime dedami kauliukai su jų skaičiais įvairiose vietose ir gaunami resursai atsižvelgiant į skaičius. Dice Town irgi leidžia pasirinkti kaip panaudoti savo kauliukų “ranką”. O Nations: The Dice žaidimas leidžia sujungti kelių kauliukų reikšmes kartu perkant kortas.
As a follow up to Family Showdown channel’s list i have created my own Top 10 list of favourite board games mechanisms. I have listed a few games for every mechanism that i think represent it the best (of course, of those i have actually played). Btw, i have not consulted any official list of mechanisms when doing this Top 10. So i have came up with some on my own 🙂
10. Set Collection
One of the first mechanisms you learn when starting playing modern board games (and even some traditional card games). This is also often an additional mechanism in a board game. Like in Ticket to Ride where you have to collect sets of cards of a same color to be able to build tracks. In Tokaido you collect painting cards to create a beautiful panorama (and get lots of points by doing that). There are also small games, which are all about set collection, like Jaipur or Coloretto.
9. Dice Allocation
Not just rolling of dice, but allocation their results to various actions. This feels a bit like worker placement, but in this case results on the dice matter and changes the outcome. My favorite in this genre is my most played game – Zooloretto: The Dice Game. This is essentially “i divide – you choose” type of game. When you roll the dice and select how to spread them among the trucks. And then your opponent chooses whether to take some dice or roll more. In The Voyages of Marco Polo you place dice with their values on the spots to get the according number of resources. Dice Town also allows you to select how to use your “hand” of dice. And Nations: The Dice game lets you combine a few dice into a single value to purchase a card.
Carcassonne: South Seas
Carcassonne is one of the first board games i’ve tried. And one of the most favourite. I also own a few expansions, though i probably like it the most without them. Because it is so simple and in the same time so charming. South Seas tries to shake it up by adding contracts, when you have to collect resources by completing objects and then spend those resources to fulfil orders and get points. It’s an interesting twist, but i like classic Carcassonne more, when i get points after completing objects and some points for incomplete objects at the end of the game. Also it seemed that in this variant there are a lot of tiles with roads, therefor it was harder to complete islands. And just in general it was a pain to find a spot for a tile when there were so many tiles with incomplete roads around. Of course, there is a simplified fishing (fields) counting, when you don’t have to complete them. But again, i liked how you could swing the score with the farms in the end. In general, while playing this variant, i tend to think that i should be playing the original. But this is not a bad game. A solid 7/10.
Yucata implementation: it is using framework 2, so it looks like many other games, though it could have brighter colors as it is hard to see your meeples sometimes, especially when the map grows. 8/10.
[LT] Vakar man parodė įdomų projektą-aplikaciją, kuri leidžia bet kuriam Žemės lopinėliui (3 x 3 m) priskirti adresą iš trijų (angliškų) žodžių. Taip išvengiama sudėtingų koordinačių skaičių naudojimo. Buvo įdomu koks visgi principas naudojamas šio projekto įgyvendinimui. Pirmas variantas – tai kažkoks unikalus algoritmas pagal koordinačių skaičius (ilguma ir platuma) priskiriantis atsitiktinius, bet visada tuos pačius, žodžius iš anglų kalbos žodyno. Antras variantas, kuris man į galvą atėjo tik šiandien, tai vardo suteikimas, kai dėl jo kreipiasi vartotojas ir išsaugojimas duomenų bazėje. Tokiu atveju nereikėtų labai įmantraus algoritmo ir tikriausiai niekada neprireiktų jo pritaikyti bet kokiai pasaulio vietai. Aišku, reikės didelės duomenų bazės tokio kiekio užklausų ir priskirtų žodžių saugojimui. Visgi, paskaičius projekto DUK, panašu, kad what3words pasirinko ir įgyvendino pirmą variantą. Pasak jų, visa aplikacija tesveria 12 MB (vis tiek nuostabu, kad pavyko į tokį dydį įkišti nemažą žodynėlį). Nors tame pačiame DUK kūrėjai mini, kad parduoda prieigą prie aplikacijos (API) didelėms bendrovėms, visgi praktinė nauda neatrodo tokia didelė, kai visos žemėlapių programėlės turi paprastas galimybes pasidalint vietove (share). Bet reikia pripažint, kad pasiūlymas draugams susitikti candy.magnum.fact taške (viena iš Katedros aikštės vietų) skamba kietai 🙂
[EN] Yesterday an interesting project-application has been shown to me, which allows to assign a 3 (english) words combination to any (3 x3 m) patch of the Earth. This is a way to avoid usage of complex coordinates numbers. I was curious how exactly this was implemented. First variant – some unique algorithm assigning random, but always same, words from an English dictionary to a set of coordinates numbers (longitude, latitude). Another approach, which cam to my mind today, would be to only apply a three words name when someone requests it for a particular location and save it into database. This way you won’t need a very sophisticated algorithm and there won’t be a need to apply it to any place in the world. Of course, this would require a huge database to store all the saved locations and assigned names. However, after reading project’s FAQ it seem that what3words have implemented the first variant. In their words, whole application only takes 12 MB (still impressive, that they managed to fit pretty big dictionary into such size). Although in the same FAQ developers mention that they sell API access to big companies, this is still doubtful that there is a sufficient practical usage of it, when every map application has an easy way to share the location. But i have to admit, that a proposition to your friends to meat in candy.magnum.fact point (one of the Katedros square spots) sounds cool 🙂
[LT] Šiandien perskaičiau, kad Microsoft padarys Feedback Hub prieinama visiems Windows 10 naudotojams (ne tik Insiders programos dalyviams). Nesu tikras dėl šio žingsnio. Iš vienos pusės, tokiu būdu galima gauti atgalinį ryšį apie dabartinėje stabilioje versijoje esančius sprendimus ir funkcijas ir pamatyti ar nueita teisingu keliu dabartinėse testiniuose build’uose. Iš kitos gi pusės, kokia prasmė gauti atsiliepimus apie pasenusius sprendimus ir sumaišyti atgalinio ryšio programoje naudojančius paskutinį kodą ir senesnį? Nejau, gavus visai kitokius atsiliepimus iš plačiosios publikos jie nurašys pokyčius, kuriuos gerai įvertino Insiders testuotojai? Tai va, toks dvejopas jausmas dėl šio sprendimo.
[EN] I’ve read today that Microsoft will make Feedback Hub available for all Windows 10 users (not just members of Insiders program). I’m not sure about this decision. On the one hand, this way it is possible to receive feedback about design choices and functions of the current stable version and see if they are on the right path with the current test builds. On the other though, what’s the point to receive feedback about so old design and mix feedback on the older and current code. Will they drop the changes praised by the Insiders if they receive bad feedback from a wider audience? Mixed feelings on this decision.