Carcassonne Central
Carc Central Community => News and Events => Topic started by: Jéré on October 12, 2014, 01:17:24 PM
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Looks like the next expansion for Carcassonne on iPhone/iPad will be the Winter Edition + Gingerbread man!
That's what I understand from the clues they gave on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/carcassonneapp/status/520156482751709184
(http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/10/12/f71d07a54ed7c1f3e5a0c7d55513e5d8.jpg)
What would be really nice is if they go the extra mile and change the style of ALL expansions too and achieve what is (nearly) impossible to do with the physical game.
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Nice, but i'm Still hoping 4 more expansions 4 The normal game
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Agreed. I would have preferred Abbey and Mayor.
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I second the Abbey and Mayor notion.. Hills and Sheep too..
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They said earlier that they are working on a "graphics intensive project" and that "it takes a while for our artists to create the new images". They added: "We have a *lot* of graphics assests".
I suspect some of this stuff will be simply made available as an app update, just as they did for their amazing tally feature.
Sure, another major expansion would be nice but so far they have never dissapointed us and bear in mind that it's their second release this year. First was the Phantom at the end of May and they are very good at keeping the app up to date with every new version of iOS and iDevices. They still support the first iPad (!), which is quite an achievement and shows how much this small app development studio cares considering Apple's agressive planned obsolescence strategy...
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Perhaps they will add the graphics of the new edition too... And then we'll have to choose between 3 modes: Classic, New Edition and Winter Edition.
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iOS CarcassonneApp - at twitter:
Carcassonne Winter Edition with the Gingerbread Man (https://twitter.com/CarcassonneApp/status/540210489847185408)
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Just to show you how powerful the Gingerbread Man can be :)
(http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/12/17/5c24581bef95db8f68396df3a17c161a.jpg)
...together with the double base tile set. Fun expansions! Just a bit dissapointed they didn't apply the winter theme to all other expansions: it seemed realistic. They let you mix winter and "summer" tiles which is a bit strange. :/. Anyway, great fun.
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That's quite an impressive score! And there was me getting annoyed that my wife completed a 17-tile city with 4 meeples and the gingerbread man in it for 68 points before we'd even scored the city!
I'm starting to wish I had an iSomething so I can get in on all the iOS action. People on Twitter talk about the Carcassonne app (for iOS) more than they do the actual game!
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They let you mix winter and "summer" tiles which is a bit strange. :/. Anyway, great fun.
Haven't you heard? You can mix anything now. As long as the backs of the tiles are the same, of course - that's obviously the most important thing, not the front. So the only reason you can't mix the Ark of the Covenant with Carcassonne is that the Ark tiles have an A on the back instead of a C. Otherwise, you could have all kinds of desert-farms and temple-cloisters and it would be great! >:D
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I finally broke out my (cardboard) winter version of the game a week or so ago. Our gaming table in the basement is covered with stuff we had to move around when decorating so we wanted to play in the kitchen.
Having a separate smaller copy of the game is ideal for this. Plus there was a lot of snow outside and we could watch the birds at the feeder while we played which was nice.
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I think maybe I've been playing Carcassonne upside-down all these years... :-[
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They let you mix winter and "summer" tiles which is a bit strange. :/. Anyway, great fun.
Haven't you heard? You can mix anything now. As long as the backs of the tiles are the same, of course - that's obviously the most important thing, not the front. So the only reason you can't mix the Ark of the Covenant with Carcassonne is that the Ark tiles have an A on the back instead of a C. Otherwise, you could have all kinds of desert-farms and temple-cloisters and it would be great! >:D
Too bad I can't mix the German "Baumeister des Königs" with the English "Ark of the covenant" because of the backs, they have B instad of A ...
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Too bad I can't mix the German "Baumeister des Königs" with the English "Ark of the covenant" because of the backs, they have B instad of A ...
Well if you have say 50 tiles of each then you can mix them as it does not really give away any meaningful information. All you know is that is any tile from one of the two sets.
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I think maybe I've been playing Carcassonne upside-down all these years... :-[
Well, you could just switch sides of the table with your wife O0 (<-- This guy is underutilized, but I don't ever find a good use for him.)
But you have just given me a notion for a Carcassonne Memory Game. If you can find two matching face down tiles from the pool you get to play them. We'd have to define what "matching" is. :(y)
Speaking of new expansions for Christmas...I am fearful that any number of my family members (who all know my love of Carcassonne) may go out and get me Carc .02 for Christmas. What do I do? Pre-empt their notions and say thanks, no thanks? That would be a horrible gesture. And far too late to be polite at this late date. :-\
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Just tell them that you feel the cover art has gone too far with the exploitation of the female character and it is no longer family friendly
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Speaking of new expansions for Christmas...I am fearful that any number of my family members (who all know my love of Carcassonne) may go out and get me Carc .02 for Christmas. What do I do? Pre-empt their notions and say thanks, no thanks? That would be a horrible gesture. And far too late to be polite at this late date. :-\
I'm guessing you'll just have to get that "Down with the new version of Carcassonne" t-shirt that you've always wanted printed, and then make sure you just happen to be wearing it when you visit your entire family over the next few days...
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I'm guessing you'll just have to get that "Down with the new version of Carcassonne" t-shirt that you've always wanted printed, and then make sure you just happen to be wearing it when you visit your entire family over the next few days...
This is not a bad idea Dan. It could be the launch of the "Save the Meeple!" campaign! :(y)
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Wow, I never paid that much attention to the Gingerbread Man since I don't have the winter edition. I had no idea it could make that much difference.
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Has anyone else noticed a bug in the iOS winter edition? Often the last tile (and occasionally the second last tile) is dismissed as unplayable when it is not unplayable.
Also, not a bug but an issue with the AI. Often (but not always) when a strong AI player has to move the gingerbread man and he doesn't have any of his own followers in a city, he will move it back into a city containing my followers, even though there are empty incomplete cities that are far better choices.
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Wow, I never paid that much attention to the Gingerbread Man since I don't have the winter edition. I had no idea it could make that much difference.
I didn't know either but after I saw what Jéré did I started playing around with it and got similar results (see screenshot below). But basically, if you truly want to maximise your points with the Gingerbread Man, you have to forget about all other aspects of the game, so while it's fun for a little while to pile up the points, I don't really think it's 'in the spirit of the game'.
But here's how to do it anyway:
On iOS you can now play with two base games and two copies of the Gingerbread Man, so the way to score 1000+ points is to create the largest city you can with all seven of your followers in it. Don't complete it, but just keep expanding it. With 179 tiles, you should be able to make a city of 40 tiles or so. The key is to make sure it's contiguous (i.e. that all of your followers are actually in the same city, not just potentially in the same city) and to leave it unfinished. So if you have all seven followers in a 40-tile city with the Gingerbread Man and any player draws a Gingerbread Man tile, voila, you have 280 points. Then you just need to get the Gingerbread Man back into your city again (either by drawing another Gingerbread Man tile or by completing the city that the Gingerbread Man has been moved to), and then you can score 280 more points the next time a Gingerbread Man tile is played.
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Has anyone else noticed a bug in the iOS winter edition? Often the last tile (and occasionally the second last tile) is dismissed as unplayable when it is not unplayable.
Also, not a bug but an issue with the AI. Often (but not always) when a strong AI player has to move the gingerbread man and he doesn't have any of his own followers in a city, he will move it back into a city containing my followers, even though there are empty incomplete cities that are far better choices.
I pointed this post out to the developers of the iOS app via Twitter. They said they were aware of it and are now working to fix it.
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I've been enjoying the new expansion. Definitely made for some nice mega games with 1500+ scores. Is it just me though or does it seem like the AI isn't as strong any more. I know the gingerbread man is powerful but before this expansion the count and countess would make for fair opponents and now they don't seem so much the fair competition. I wouldn't call the games runaways by any means but I haven't lost a game yet either.
I don't know if anyone has thought about this but this whole app and its expansions make for a very interesting clash when compared to the physical version and I think this is really where this website could become of great use. The physical game originates from Germany and is published in German. The game is also available/published in English. Z-Man Games is the current publisher and is essentially in charge of the translations. Some times these translations are wrong. If this digital app didn't exist then these incorrect translations wouldn't be such an issue. This app does exist however and the developers do not use the English translations as a basis for their rules. They consult directly with the German publisher / creator of the game. This all means that if someone plays the digital app in English then goes to play the physical game in English (or vica versa) then at some point they may run into a conflict with the rules. To sort out who is right that might lead those people to end up here. This is nice but really, if Z-Man games put more effort/thought into their translations then none of this would be an issue. Honestly, assuming it wouldn't interfere with the developers and their work it be nice if Z-Man games supported the app like HiG does.
With the recent release of Carcassonne II there is a very small chance things could start to turn around but that is unlikely unfortunately.
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Yay!! They finally did it! In an update this morning they painted the grass on the remaining tiles (from I&C, T&B, P&D expansions) in white to that we finally get a nice and uniform wintry landscape! For me this was a minimum requirement that they did not fulfilled in the original release so I was really dissapointed. Now it's fixed!! :)
(http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/01/30/f24a57cb8220efff74b5bcfd392715d2.jpg)
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Does this mean you now have to ask yourself whether the dragon can eat the gingerbread man or can you not play these together despite the matching artwork?
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Does this mean you now have to ask yourself whether the dragon can eat the gingerbread man or can you not play these together despite the matching artwork?
It was already possible to play with all available expansions before this update but the contrast between snow and green grass was ruining the experience (in my opinion). Dragon apparently really likes to eat gingerbread as well, as indicated in the rules.
(http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/01/30/6ea463725a6d10dffe5c51fa4b794714.jpg)
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Another screenshot showing the river:
(http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/01/30/ec47a8541817bb4d87357a279dee4e83.jpg)
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This looks cool; I look forward to playing it when (if?) I end my Carcassonne iOS exile :)
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I'm with everyone else here. I love the fact that they finally winterized all the expansion tiles. Along with today's update I got the impression that they sorted out most (if not all) the major bugs from their most recent major release (Winter edition / double base set) so I asked them what expansion they'll tackle next (I'd assume the Tower, if they're going in order) and they said they're still collecting feedback on that but in the meantime they are working on a BIG project for Carcassonne apparently. Not sure what that could entail though.
https://twitter.com/CarcassonneApp/status/561260882760851458
I was thinking about what they might be working on (Mac version maybe?) then I started thinking about the expansions they have to do yet then I thought about two particular expansions, the Messengers and the Robbers and I realized that it would be very difficult to implement these two expansions given how scoring is done as is. Note that I said very difficult but not impossible. Either way in order for these two expansions to eventually be included they'd have to really redo how scoring is visualized in the game.
At any rate I love Carcassonne on iOS and I CANNOT wait to see what they will do next.
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I was thinking about what they might be working on (Mac version maybe?) then I started thinking about the expansions they have to do yet then I thought about two particular expansions, the Messengers and the Robbers and I realized that it would be very difficult to implement these two expansions given how scoring is done as is. Note that I said very difficult but not impossible. Either way in order for these two expansions to eventually be included they'd have to really redo how scoring is visualized in the game.
At any rate I love Carcassonne on iOS and I CANNOT wait to see what they will do next.
But the way the tweet is worded suggests that the big thing they're working on is not an expansion. Maybe it's version 2.0 instead.
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But the way the tweet is worded suggests that the big thing they're working on is not an expansion. Maybe it's version 2.0 instead.
But that isn't big either. All version 2.0 is is a retheme just like the winter edition. With that in mind the developers proved that a retheme isn't THAT much work. I mean shortly before Christmas they released their next big update which included the winter edition with the Gingergerbread Man and the option to double the base set. When that was released only the base tiles were winterized. Well after a little more than a month they managed to winterize ALL the expansion tiles.
I'm not saying that retheme work is easy by any means I'm sure they have hard working and dedicated graphics artists on their dev team but they've proven that retheme work isn't THAT difficult and thus I don't think that's the big thing they're working on.
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Carcassonne for Mac seems plausible, although I'd prefer something else... simply because I don't own a mac
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Maybe one of the spinoff games is the next big thing. It seems like the Star Wars version would be pretty marketable, especially if they can release it around the time Episode VII comes out.