PLEASE Help on screen layout PLEASE

[andylloyd]

Each player has a card in the right hand saise of the screen that shows thier holdings in various goods, glory points, game ranking etc. Most have pop up balloons that tell you what they are and the crown is onbviously the common saymbol for games played etc.

However there is a star in the top left hand corner of the box and a number next to it. There is also a hammer in the bottom left of the players box with a number next to it. Niether of these have pop up balloons and I can't find anywhere in the rules what they could be. I suspect they are specific to the BGA presentation of the game.

PLEASE can anyone tell me what they mean????

Thanks in advance
Andy L

[Jeromie]

Hammer = points bet during the auction.
Star = current score but it's quite useless as it doesn't include the end of game scoring which makes the large majority of points (it's currently accumulated glory minus auction)

[andylloyd]

Thanks. I agree quite useless and easy enough to owrk out. They could have made it current score if the game ended at that point which would make more sense. However logic and game design have not always been good bedfellows.
Andy L

[Jeromie]

Thanks. I agree quite useless and easy enough to owrk out. They could have made it current score if the game ended at that point which would make more sense. However logic and game design have not always been good bedfellows.
Andy L

It's probably not wise to judge so fast. The star is the default way to display scoring and determine the winner on BGA.

As for updating in real time with the potential end game score, usually called "live scoring", there are two issues to consider:
- Players would lose points if imports, settlements and # of contracts evolve, making it potentially even more confusing than the current value.
- Displaying who is currently ahead based on partial information would paint a target on players using an early game strategy, inviting others to block them. This is counter productive as in my experience it's much harder to win with an early game strategy already.