# Gnocatan player's guide

Dave
Cole
Andy
Heroff
Documentation in progress
2000
Andy Heroff
&legal;

## Introduction

### Reporting Bugs

Information on reporting bugs can be found on the Gnocatan project webpage, hosted on SourceForge. The URL is: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnocatan/

### Authors and History

Gnocatan is a GNOME game based upon the board game Settlers of Catan created by Mayfair Games. Gnocatan was originally authored by Dave Cole in the spring and summer of 1999. Dave wanted to be able to play the game without having to travel, so he developed a computer implementation of the game. The Gnocatan project stalled in the late summer of 1999 and saw little development until the early spring of 2000 when the project was taken over by Andy Heroff and moved to SourceForge. Andy recruited several developers (including Dave) and they are now working to improve upon the original game as well as fix the bugs that have been found in older versions.

## The Gnocatan user interface

When you start Gnocatan, the application window is displayed. The user interface is built up from a number of panels.

### The client user interface.

### The identity panel

Before you have connected to a server, this panel will not be displayed. Once you have connected, the panel is painted with your player colour. It also shows how many roads, settlements, and cities are still available to be built.

Once the game play starts, the last dice roll performed by a player is also displayed.

#### The identity panel.

### The actions panel

#### The waiting prompt

When it is not your turn, a message is displayed in the status line at the very bottom for whom the game is waiting.

#### The actions buttons

When it is your turn, one more more of the buttons in the action toolbar are active. Only the actions that you are allowed to perform will be enabled.

##### The actions buttons

##### Action panel buttons

Button | Description
--- | ---
Roll Dice | Press this button to roll the dice during your turn.
Trade | Press this when you wish to perform trade with either the bank (maritime), or with other players (domestic).
Road | Press this when you wish to build a road segment.
Settlement | Press this when you wish to build a settlement.
City | Press this when you wish to build a city.
Develop | Press this when you wish to purchase a development card from the bank.
Undo | Using this button you can undo road, settlement, and city building that has just been performed. As soon as you buy a development card, play a development card, or finish your turn, you will not be able to undo building.
Finish | Press this button to indicate that you have finished performing setup, your turn, or road building.

#### The robber prompt

If you roll 7 on the dice, all players who are holding more than 7 resources will be prompted to discard half of them. While there are still players who have to discard resources, the actions panel will be replaced by a list of those players. Next to each player name is the number of resources that they must discard.

##### The discard list.

#### The place robber prompt

After all excess resources have been discarded, if you were the player who rolled 7 on the dice, you must place the robber on the map. The actions panel is replaced by a prompt to that effect.

When you play a soldier development card, you must place the robber on the map. The actions panel is replaced by a prompt to that effect.

##### The place robber prompt.

#### The steal from prompt

If you ever place the robber on a hex which has buildings owned by more than one other player, and more than one of them is holding resources, you will need to select the player from which you wish to steal resources. The actions panel will be replaced by a prompt which instructs you to chose the victim of the robber by selecting one of the buildings on the hex.

##### The steal from prompt.

### The resources panel

As the game progresses you will accumulate resources. The resources panel displays how many of each resource type you are holding.

#### The resources panel.

### The development cards panel

If you spend the right combination of resources, you can purchase development cards from the bank. All of the development cards that you are currently holding are displayed in this list. Note that any cards in this list are not yet in play. Other players only know how many development cards you are holding, not the types of those cards. Once you play a development card, it will be removed from this list.

#### The development cards panel.

### The player summary panel

This panel contains a summary of public statistics about all players in the game. Some of the rows in the summary have a number displayed on the right. This number represents the number of victory points that have been earned by that statistic.

If the panel grows too large to fit in the available space, it will automatically scroll to display the summary about the current player.

#### The player summary panel.

### The Gnocatan map.

#### The Gnocatan map.

Gnocatan is played on a map which is built up from a grid of terrain hexes. Each hex on the map has a terrain type which defines the resources, if any, that are produced by that hex.

Settlements and cities are built on the corners of land hexes, while roads are built along the edges of land hexes.

In the centre of resource producing hexes, there is a circle containing a number. At the start of each turn, two dice are rolled, all hexes that are labelled with a number equalling the sum of the two dice will produce resources for buildings on that hex. Underneath the number in the circle are some dots. The number of dots is equal to the number of different dice combinations that will generate this number. To highlight the two most commonly rolled numbers, the 6 and 8 are displayed in red (there is no label with the number 7). In addition, the hexes that produced resources this turn are painted with a green background.

The sea hexes which have a circle in them have building sites for ports where maritime trading can be performed. The location of the building sites is indicated by a dashed line drawn from the circle to a hex corner. The color of the circle indicates the resource type which may be traded at the ports. At the blue circles all resource types can be traded.

The black bottle shape is the robber.

The following table shows each terrain type, and the resources produced by that terrain.

#### Gnocatan terrain types

Graphic | Terrain | Resource | Description
--- | --- | --- | ---
| Hill | Brick | Bricks are produced from the clay found in hills.
| Field | Grain | Grain is produced by crops grown in fields.
| Mountain | Ore | Ore is produced by quarries in mountains.
| Pasture | Wool | Wool is produced by sheep in pastures.
| Forest | Lumber | Lumber is produced by trees in forests.
| Desert |  | No resources are produced in the desert.
| Sea |  | No resources are produced in the sea, but maritime trading may be performed at ports.

### The chat panel

Underneath the map is a textfield where you can enter messages that will be broadcast to all other players. When you type a message and press Return, the message will be broadcast to all players.

#### The chat panel.

Normally, text that you type will appear with your player name, for example "`player1 said: foo`". If you start your text with "`:`" the output will omit the "said", like "`player1 needs more lumber`".

The chat also knows some special commands that start with "`/`". The commands currently defined are:

#### Chat Commands

Command | Arguments | Description
--- | --- | ---
`/me` | (anything) | This is the same as the "`:`" described above, but IRC addicts might prefer this variant.
`/beep` | username | Let username's client beep.

### The messages panel

Underneath the chat panel is a message area where all interesting game events are logged.

#### The messages panel.

### The status bar

The status bar is used for providing instructions about the current state of the game.

To the right of the instructional message is an indicator which shows when the client program is waiting for response to a command sent to the server. When packets are dropped between the server and client, the indicator will display the text "Waiting", and the game will be temporarily unresponsive.

Rightmost in the status bar is the turn indicator. This area identifies the player turn sequence. The current player is highlighted with a thick black border.

#### The status bar.

## Playing Gnocatan

### Joining a Gnocatan game.

The Gnocatan client program is "gnocatan". When you run this program, you will be presented with the connect dialog.

#### The connect dialog

Using the connect dialog, you identify the game which you wish to join. This dialog is automatically invoked when you start gnocatan. If the initial connection fails, you can invoke the dialog from the Game/Connect menu, or by using the Ctrl C keyboard shortcut.

##### The connect dialog.

You can manually specify the game that you wish to join by entering the server host and port in the Server Host and Server Port fields in the lower half. The client also remembers server/port/username combinations you used recently. You can recall them quickly with the Recent Servers button at the bottom.

Alternatively, you can enter the name of a meta server and press the Meta Server button, which will invoke the servers dialog where you can locate games over the Internet.

Using the Player Name field you can change the name that will be used to identify you to other players.

Press the OK button to connect to the game.

#### The servers dialog

The servers dialog displays a list of Gnocatan games that are currently running on the Internet. When you select a game from the list, the host and port fields in the connect dialog will changed to point to that game.

##### The servers dialog.

You join a game by selecting it and pressing the OK button in the connect dialog. To obtain an updated list, you must close the dialog and re-open it from the connect dialog.

Recent meta servers also allow you to start new game servers on their host. If this is possible, the Create New Server button will be active and will bring you to the create server dialog.

#### The create server dialog

In this dialog, you can select various parameters for the new game: board name (available types will be retrieved from the meta-server), default or random terrain, which sevens rule to apply, the number of players, victory points to reach, and how many AI players should join the game.

##### The create server dialog.

Once you're satisfied with your choices, press the Start Server button. The create server and servers dialogs will pop down, and server name and port will appear in the respective fields of the connect dialog. The new server will of course register to the meta server it was started from. You can see it in the list if you press Query Meta Server again.

The server started remotely will terminate itself automatically when the game is finished, or if sits around for more than 20 minutes without any connected players. Please also note that adding AI players will silently fail if the gnocatanai program is not installed on the meta server.

### Gnocatan setup phase.

Once you have successfully connected to a Gnocatan game server, the game map will be downloaded from the server and displayed in the map area of the display. You will be assigned a player color, which will be displayed in the identity panel, the player summary, and in the status bar. As soon as all other players have connected to the server, the setup phase will begin.

During the setup phase you must build one settlement and one road segment on the map. The settlement can be built on any land hex, and the road must be built on a land edge connected to the settlement.

Once you have built both your settlement and road, you must press the Finish Setup button. The next player will then enter the setup phase. The last player performs a double setup, that is, they build two settlements, each with a connecting road. Once the last player has completed setup, all other players perform a second setup in reverse sequence.

Once the first player has completed their second setup, the game will begin.

### Gnocatan turn sequence.

When it is your turn, the actions panel will show all of the actions that you can perform. Some care must be exercised, as some actions can only be performed once per turn, and other actions can only be performed in strict sequence.

#### Simplified turn sequence

1. Roll the dice.

2. Optionally trade with the bank, or other players.

3. Optionally build roads, settlements, and cities. Optionally buy development cards.

4. Finish your turn.

You may play one non-victory point development card at any time during your turn, even before you roll the dice. You may play as many victory point cards as you like at any time during your turn.

As soon as you have built a road, settlement, or city, you will not be able to trade for the rest of the turn. Likewise, if you buy a development card, you will not be able to trade for the rest of the turn.

#### Dice roll / resource collection

When the dice are rolled, they are added together, the total determines the resources that each player collects during that turn. In the centre of each land hex (except for the desert) is a number. Whenever the dice roll matches the number in the hex, all buildings on the corners of that hex will collect resources of the type generated by that hex.

Settlements collect one resource, and cities receive two resources. If a player has multiple buildings on a hex, each of those buildings will collect resources.

The hex containing the robber never generates resources.

If you roll 7 on the dice, all players with excess resources must discard them, then you must move the robber.

#### Discarding resources

If you roll 7 on the dice, all players holding more than 7 resources must discard half of them. The discard resources dialog will be displayed for all players who must discard.

##### The discard dialog.

You must choose the resources to be given back to the bank.

Once all players have discarded their excess resources, the player who rolled the 7 will have to move the robber.

#### Moving the robber

The robber begins the game in the desert, but can never be moved back into the desert.

If you roll 7 on the dice, you must move the robber to a new location on the map.

Whenever you play a soldier development card, you must move the robber to a new location on the map.

Once you have moved the robber to a new hex, the robber will steal a random resource from another player who has a building on that hex. If there are multiple potential victims for the robber, you will need to choose the victim by selecting one of the buildings on the hex. When the robber steals the resource, only the players involved in the transaction will be told which resource was stolen.

### Trade

You may trade resources only after you have rolled the dice, but before you build anything, or buy a development card. When you wish to trade resources, press the Trade button in the actions panel and the trade interface will be displayed.

#### The trade interface.

On the left side of the interface are two frames; the top frame is where you specify which resources you wish to receive in a trade, and the bottom frame is where you optionally specify which resources you wish to give to other players during a trade.

Each frame contains a table, and each row of the table describes one resource. From left to right, the columns are;

#### Resource controls

Name | The resource type.
In hand | Shows how many of each resource type you have in hand.
Check | Controls whether or not this resource will be involved in the trade. Trade quotes submitted by either the bank or other players can only include resource types that are checked.
Less | Used later.
More | Used later.
Number to trade | Used later.

The Call For Quotes button underneath the two tables is used to invite other players to trade resources with you.

To the right of the tables is the list where all quotes will be displayed. The bank quotes are listed first, followed by all quotes supplied by other players. The first quote from each player is highlighted with an indicator. Next to each player quote is tick or cross which indicates whether or not you have the resources to perform the trade. As you select quotes from the list, the Accept Quote button sensitivity will also indicate whether or not you have the resources required to perform the trade.

To finish trading, press the Finish Trading button at the bottom right of the trading interface.

#### Trading with the bank

Maritime trade is trade performed with the bank. To perform maritime trading, check one or more resources in the I Want table. If you have sufficient resources to perform maritime trading, the bank will quote for each possible trade.

1. Players who have built on a port with a resource label may trade two identical resources of that type for single resource of their choice.

2. Players who have built on a port with the question mark label may trade three identical resources of any type for single resource of their choice.

3. All players may trade four identical resources of any type for a single resource of their choice.

Select the trade that you wish to perform, then press the Accept Quote button.

#### Trading with other players

Domestic trade is trade performed with other players. To perform domestic trading, check one or more resources in the I Want table, and one or more resources in the Give Them table. Once you have specified the resources that you wish to exchange in the trade, click the Call For Quotes button. All other players will then use the quote interface to submit quotes within the trade parameters you have set.

Select the trade that you wish to perform, then press the Accept Quote button.

#### Submitting trade quotes

When another player presses the Call For Quotes button in the trade interface, the quote interface will be displayed.

##### The quote interface.

The top of the interface has an indicator to show which player initiated the trade. It also describes the trade parameters.

On the left side of the interface are two frames; the top frame is where you specify which resources you wish to receive in a trade, and the bottom frame is where you specify which resources you wish to give to the player who initiated the trade exchange.

Each frame contains a table, and each row of the table describes one resource. The player who initiated the trade controls which rows in each table can be used. If the initiating player calls for a resource that you do not have, the corresponding row in the Give Them table will be disabled. From left to right, the columns are;

##### Resource controls

Name | The resource type.
In hand | Shows how many of each resource type you will have in hand after performing trade.
Less | Press this to decrease the number of the resource you wish to receive / give.
More | Press this to increase the number of the resource you wish to receive / give.
Number to trade | Shows how many of the resource you wish to trade.

Underneath the tables are two buttons. Press the Quote button to submit a new quote, or press the Delete button to retract a quote. Note that the Quote button will be disabled if you have already submitted a matching quote.

To the right of the tables is the list where all quotes will be displayed. Quotes from all players are listed. The first quote from each player is highlighted with an indicator.

To decline the offer to perform trading, press the Reject Domestic Trade button at the bottom right of the interface.

### Development cards.

There are 25 development cards in the game, they are shuffled at the start of the game. When you buy a development card from the bank, it is held secret in your hand. Other players only learn how many development cards you have, not the types of those cards.

When you play a development card, all other players will see the card. There are victory point, and non victory point development cards. Victory point development cards earn you one victory point as soon as you play them. Non-victory point development cards have special effects as described below.

#### Development cards

VP | Card | Number | Description
--- | --- | --- | ---
| Road Building | 2 | When you play this card, you can build two road segments for free. The normal limits on road building apply.
| Monopoly | 2 | When you play this card, you choose a resource type that you want to monopolise. All resources of that type that are held by other players will transferred to your hand.
| Year of Plenty | 2 | When you play this card you can take any two resource cards from the bank.
| Soldier | 14 | When you play this card, you must move the robber to a new hex. The first player to play three soldiers will earn the largest army award.
1 | Chapel | 1 | No special effects.
1 | University of Gnocatan | 1 | No special effects.
1 | Governors House | 1 | No special effects.
1 | Library | 1 | No special effects.
1 | Market | 1 | No special effects.

#### The monopoly dialog

When you play the monopoly development card, the monopoly dialog will be displayed.

##### The monopoly dialog.

You must choose the resource type that you wish to monopolise. When you press OK, all resources of the selected type held by other players will be transferred to your hand.

#### The year of plenty dialog

When you play the year of plenty development card, the year of plenty dialog will be displayed.

##### The year of plenty dialog.

You must select any two resource cards that you wish to take from the bank.

#### Largest army

The first player to play three soldier cards will earn the largest army award. This award is worth 2 victory points.

Only one player can have the largest army award at a time.

Ownership of the largest army award will change only when another player builds a larger army.

### Building

By spending the right combination of resources, you can build roads, settlements, and cities. At any time during the game you can check the resource cost of each type of building by consulting the legend dialog.

#### The legend dialog.

At the start of the game, you have 15 road segments, five settlements, and four cities available. You will not be able to build more of any item than you have available. The identity panel tells you how many of each item you currently have available.

A city is built by upgrading a settlement. When you upgrade an existing settlement, that settlement is again available for building somewhere else on the map. If you have sufficient resources, you can build a settlement and upgrade it to a city in a single action, even when you do not have settlements available.

Buildings must not be placed next to each other. This means that a hex can have at most, three buildings on it. During game play, you can only place a building adjacent to one of your road segments.

Roads must be placed adjacent to one of your buildings, or one of your roads. You cannot extend your road through a building owned by another player.

#### Longest road

The first player to build a continuous path of five or more road segments will earn the longest road award. The length of your road is measured by determining the greatest distance that can be travelled from one point on your road to another without travelling over the same segment more than once, and without backtracking.

This award is worth 2 victory points. Only one player can have the longest road award at a time.

If another player builds a longer road, the longest road award will be transferred to that player.

If the longest road is cut by a player placing a building which divides the road, the ownership of the longest road award is re-evaluated. If after the longest road has been cut, and more than one player has the longest road, the award is temporarily removed from play. If no player has a road of five or more segments, the award is temporarily removed from play.

### Game objective

The objective of the game is to achieve a certain number of victory points before all other players. There are several ways to earn victory points.

- For each settlement you have on the map, you earn 1 victory point.

- For each city you have on the map, you earn 2 victory points.

- The player with the longest road of five or more segments earns 2 victory points.

- The player with the largest number of soldiers in play (minimum of three) earns 2 victory points.

- There are a number of special development cards which when played are each worth 1 victory point.

#### The game over dialog

Once you have won the game, all players will to notified of your glorious victory.

##### The game over dialog.

## The AI Player

Starting with version 0.7.0, Gnocatan comes with gnocatanai, a computer player implementation. This AI player isn't too bad at the moment, but not finished yet. Most notably, it cannot take part in domenstic trade yet.

gnocatanai is a terminal application without GUI. Its command line options are:

### gnocatanai options

Option | Arguments | Description
--- | --- | ---
-s | servername | Connect to servername
-p | port | Connect to port port
-n | name | Set the player name. If this option is absent, a random name will be choosen.
-a | playertype | Choose the type of AI player. Currently, there is only one type `greedy`, which is obviously also the default.
-t | milliseconds | Set time to wait between turns.
-c |  | Stop the computer player from giving comments.

However, most of the time you won't start gnocatanai manually. Both game servers offer ways to start a number of AI players.