About this Project
This project implements Carcassonne as an open-source platform-independent computer game that supports up to five players at the same time with shared-screen multiplayer mode. It stays true to Carcassonne's original look and gameplay while making some changes, such as new tiles and minor tweaks to the emblems. It currently contains the complete main game, some tiles from extensions, as well as some completely new functionalities.
These are the differences when comparing this project's gameplay to the original board game:
- When two players share a castle, street, or field, the points are halved and not shared.
- Points are counted per castle or street element, not tile.
- Emblems appear on slightly different tiles to give some incentive for larger castles.
- New tiles were added not do not exist in the original board game.
- "Cathedral" tiles are monasteries in castles, not some special tiles from an extension.
- Customization options allow gameplay that even further astray from the original
- Main UI: The main UI shows both the tabletop as well as the placed tiles and meeples in a scrollable and zoomable view. Players can interact with the main UI to place tiles and meeples. The menu bar of the main UI contains three menus and some game stats. The Game menu allows starting and aborting a new round, the Options menu offers options for customizing the gameplay, and the View menu allows zooming in and out. The game stats show for every player the number of unplaced meeples as well as the current score. Additionally, the game stats show the current size of the tile stack.
- Tile Placement UI: This UI shows the tile that the active player drew from the stack. The UI also allows rotating the tile and skipping the placement of the tile. The tile is placed by clicking on the desired spot in the main UI.
- Meeple Placement UI: This UI shows the options for placing a meeple on a placed tile. Placement options that are not possible due to other placed meeples are grayed out. The UI also allows skipping the meeple placement, whenever a player does not want to place a meeple. Meeples can also be placed by clicking the meeple preview in the main UI.
- Post-Game Statistics: This UI shows the final scores of the players after the game. It also shows how many points stem from castles, roads, fields, and monasteries.
These options can be accessed in the Options menu of the menu bar.
- Amount of players: Determines how many players participate in the next new round (2-5 players).
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Meeple Placement Rules: Players can customize the rules regarding placing meeples.
- Disable specific meeple types to prevent placing meeples on fields, roads, castles, or monasteries.
- Allow direct placement on own patters, meaning placing a meeple directly on castles/fields/roads on which the player already placed a meeple.
- Players settings: Enables changing the names and colors of the players.
- Grid Size: Players can change the size of the grid. The grid can be seen as the tabletop and constraints the placement of tiles. Large grids do not restrict the gameplay at all, while small grids allow for special gameplay scenarios. How about a quick game on a 5x5 grid?
- Hand of Tiles: Players can hold up to 5 tiles on their hands and choose which tile they want to place each turn. A new tile is still drawn after each turn. Skipping will skip the selected tile. This mechanic reduces the effect of luck in the gameplay and offers more room for strategy.
- Tile Distribution Customization: Players can change the tile distribution and therefore specify exactly how often each tile will be in the stack. Do you want to play without monasteries? Or with more castle tiles? Choose whatever distribution you like. Players can also customize the tile stack size by choosing between a 1x, 2x, 3x, and 4x multiplier. This allows for really long rounds that properly utilize the large grid sizes.
The following key bindings are available to make playing the game more convenient:
- Zooming: Zooming functionality can be found in the view menu (stepless and large steps), but Zooming is also possible with the plus + and minus - keys (large steps) and through scrolling the mouse wheel while holding the cmd/ctrl key (small steps).
- Centering the View: The view can be centered by pressing the cmd/ctrl key.
- Rotating Tiles: Tiles can be rotated with the ← and → arrow keys.
- Selecting Tiles: When playing with a hand of tiles, players can select tiles with the ↑ and ↓ arrow keys.
- Skipping: Placing a tile or meeple can be skipped with the esc key.
