Arena Season 26: Sea, Sun, and Arena. Welcome to a New Season!

[Satori Sanada]

NO ONE APPRECIATES WHAT CATAN IS. U have been asked for 2 SEASONS to turn off friendly robber for multiple reasons. 1 NO ONE TRADES, 2 people will delay getting to 4+ points for as long as possible, 3- IT ENCOURAGES TEAMING, 4 It punishes people who actually position good & can do things like longest road with 1/2 extra settlements make total of 6/7 points. 4- 3 player rank isn't the same as for tournaments. Also, people have been asking for the expansion because it fixes some issues like u can use a knight to STOP a player from expanding where u want to go or denying the longest road. I've had MANY 3-player games I feel as I was teamed on for putting a settlement early &/or a city. Also, were a player or both did placement to deny an area to me or to rush settlement, so I am perma stuck in that 1 area. If u WON'T add the expansion, at least turn OFF friendly robber & easy start. Also, do a swap between 3/4 players so BOTH sides are happy. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!

The so-called Catan "gurus" don't have a clue how the game works on a competitive level. It's been stuck at 3p for EVERY season since the game went live 4 years ago. Every official IRL tournament uses 4p games because it is better balanced and requires more skill to win. Also Friendly Robber is not used because, well, that's for new players and family games. Easy Start is sometimes used, but very rarely. Number chits are either "curated" with pre-balanced boards, or the spiral setup is used ("variable" on BGA, NOT "variable with random numbers"). I have complained every season in the forum threads for improvements but as I've never been a guru, I can't vote for change. Yes, Cities and Knights would be a dream, but it would be nice just to have 4p, even for one season. As it stands, for 4 years straight, the Arena setup has been a joke. I've boycotted it, along with many serious players.

Where do u play online?

[Meeplelowda]

Where do u play online?

Promoting (even merely naming) other online board game platforms is prohibited on BGA, even platforms that are not meaningfully a competitor to BGA, like the two large chess platforms out there.

[Waikirikiri]

Memoir 44 is broken.

Arena games will not start

Please fix it

[Jeronimon]

Memoir 44 is broken.

Arena games will not start

Please fix it

Indeed

Did you see this

Vote for the bug here: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=232182

[flammifera]

Haha, thanks! I knew there were a few following my journey. Always like when others update for anyone following along, or even in the future for reference. At least someone finally reached out instead of just ignoring it for the last 7 seasons.

Yes, exactly why I replied in a comment, I wanted you to know that some of us out here appreciated the update!

As you say, at least there was something…

[Herkyjerky]

The change from 3 to 5 columns required to win a game makes me want to stop playing and stop paying. It's awful.

[Jeronimon]

Memoir 44 is broken.

Arena games will not start

Please fix it

Indeed

Did you see this

Vote for the bug here: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=232182

This was fixed thank you

[DVC]

Where do u play online?

Promoting (even merely naming) other online board game platforms is prohibited on BGA, even platforms that are not meaningfully a competitor to BGA, like the two large chess platforms out there.

Well, the answer anyway is that I play primarily on BGA. I just boycott the Arena while it persists with the 3p setup.

[SuanGood]

The competitive mode of Barrage has fundamental flaws. I have no idea how the game mentors are selected, but the auction mechanic is non-negotiable if Barrage wants to retain its competitive integrity. Shockingly, this season removed both the LWP gameplay expansion pack and the auction system altogether. To make matters worse, the most competitive 4-player setup isn’t even included in ranked competitive mode.
As a result, many veteran and high-skill Barrage players have no choice but to compete in tournaments for recognition. The current competitive mode has strayed far from its original competitive design intent. I hope the existing game mentors can be stripped of their voting privileges, and the voting rights be reassigned exclusively to players with an Elo rating above 300 or 500. Only in this way can we build a truly competitive ranked mode for Barrage.

[miklomike]

No Arena rules are changing this season.

But you did change the arena season pages to have a new look during last season, but there is no mention of this.

Arena pages are still missing how many players there are total, which was listed in the previous view.

The amount of games played is squashed in with how many people are in each ranking. It's visually messy, maybe space them out more?