Will we ever get a change in arena settings?

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Ceaseless
Posts: 1395
Joined: 12 November 2022, 17:06

Re: Will we ever get a change in arena settings?

Post by Ceaseless »

cosdogg wrote: 21 February 2026, 17:40 it's a competition game with a score, so how would competing for routes be a bad thing? to me that is what makes it great. 2 player original almost always comes down to who had the best initial draw; 4 player expansion usually comes down to who can be the most efficient.
Except they're not all having to compete for routes. Multiple players can be playing at a handicap while someone else just breezes over their routes, not because of any real decisions on anyone's part, but the way the cards lined up. If there's two players, an overlap in routes means they both have to fight for them, and there won't be any surprise shots outline of the standard 1 turn for each player, so you don't have to worry about both of your intended locations getting taken out at once.

Having the best initial draw isn't going to guarantee you anything. Skill can overcome having a weaker start plenty of times. If I get paired against a 300, even if they have a better hand than me, they'll still probably lose, because a 300 only has a relatively basic understanding of what to do with their cards, and will leave plenty of room for me to outplay them. That's why players can reach ratings several hundred points higher than 300, because there is such room for skill to factor into the game, at least in 2-player. A game determined just by the initial draw wouldn't have that sort of capacity.
cosdogg
Posts: 10
Joined: 15 July 2024, 21:28

Re: Will we ever get a change in arena settings?

Post by cosdogg »

Can you give me an example of this 'skill' you mention? I draw LA NY and LA Chi and you draw tor-mia, winnipeg houston
Ceaseless
Posts: 1395
Joined: 12 November 2022, 17:06

Re: Will we ever get a change in arena settings?

Post by Ceaseless »

cosdogg wrote: 15 July 2026, 20:41 Can you give me an example of this 'skill' you mention? I draw LA NY and LA Chi and you draw tor-mia, winnipeg houston
They's still going to have to play the game out and make their choices. You failed to even mention third tickets that could affect chances, the fight for the middle of the board can still happen, as well as sheer efficiency selection is how quickly and effectively you complete your routes. That's why someone still learning the basics of the game at 300 rating loses to 600s over 80% of the time. The skill gap just offers that good of odds, if luck truly dominated to the degree you claimed players would regularly be going 50/50 and as a result players aren't going to be able to climb to 600. But yet Ticket to Ride has plenty of 600s and higher. That's because over the course of the various ticket pairings and card draws they get, they can make better decisions that gives them noticeably better results.

Unlike in 4 player, your routes won't all randomly be blocked up for no reason with nothing you can do about it one game while the next game it's a different random player that might get buried. It's not even that they're trying to team up on you, though it's a possibility, you're just simply placed in the wrong spot at the wrong time. 2 player only has one opponent that can only take one route at a time before your next move. If you're both in each other's way then you'll both have to deal with it, as opposed to in 3-4 player where one player may be completely unaffected as everyone else got routes clashing with each other, allowing the unimpeded player to coast for a free win.
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preacc
Posts: 12
Joined: 01 January 2025, 04:13

Re: Will we ever get a change in arena settings?

Post by preacc »

This is actually interesting, I joined several Ticket to Ride tournaments from local tournament and wsbg asia, all of them are 4/5 players competition. It’s really different to play from 2 players to 4/5 players cause you can’t just use longest route or play all 6 routes in 4/5 players since either one of them looking for that routes.

I agree that it has some luck factor in 4/5 players, but adapting the gameplay is most important in 4/5 players and it can be played competitively.

Hopefully arena settings can be implemented as tournament settings in real life as we can practice to play the tournaments.
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Cournot
Posts: 62
Joined: 30 July 2023, 20:17

Re: Will we ever get a change in arena settings?

Post by Cournot »

cosdogg wrote: 15 July 2026, 20:41 Can you give me an example of this 'skill' you mention? I draw LA NY and LA Chi and you draw tor-mia, winnipeg houston
You cannot win them all, but LA NY is not that good :lol:
ExaltedAngel
Posts: 277
Joined: 16 January 2021, 22:15

Re: Will we ever get a change in arena settings?

Post by ExaltedAngel »

cosdogg wrote: 15 July 2026, 20:41 Can you give me an example of this 'skill' you mention? I draw LA NY and LA Chi and you draw tor-mia, winnipeg houston
While lurking the forum I stumbled across this thread and I wasn't going to answer because it's pretty old. Literally ten seconds later though, I searched an arena game and got the two tickets you mentioned (along with a third that you missed to mention, which is pretty important to do since I think among the other 28 possible tickets, I often would get a combination of one of the two plus the third rather than the two you mentioned).

First of all: this is the set, what would you pick and why?

Image

Then, these are the opponent's tickets, what do you think is the best set?

Image

Also, would you rather have 21+16 (LA-NY + LA-Chi) over my set? (spoiler: I wouldn't)
DrakeStorm wrote: 14 December 2024, 02:47 So the designer, the developer, the publisher, top players, and most sane people agree that any kind of blocking is ok, but apparently that just isn't good enough to end this argument.
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Jontia
Posts: 251
Joined: 06 March 2014, 22:59

Re: Will we ever get a change in arena settings?

Post by Jontia »

Check out this game.
If given free rein on the ticket deck I would have picked my starting hand.
Ended the game with 9 points. Absolute blinder by my opponent.

https://boardgamearena.com/gamereview?table=909690160
ExaltedAngel
Posts: 277
Joined: 16 January 2021, 22:15

Re: Will we ever get a change in arena settings?

Post by ExaltedAngel »

Jontia wrote: 14 September 2026, 23:10 Check out this game.
If given free rein on the ticket deck I would have picked my starting hand.
Ended the game with 9 points. Absolute blinder by my opponent.

https://boardgamearena.com/gamereview?table=909690160
Good call from the opponent to block, but you made a bunch of mistakes. (I hope you'll get the following as constructive criticism, I mean no offence) Keeping the 17 was ultra greedy: you already had the absolute best possible hand in the game (20+22), 99% of the time a free win, no need to worsen it by picking a third ticket that forces you to play some more short routes. When I started playing, a very good player said me "it's very hard to win with two 1s". Try to avoid that at all costs. Also, even if you strictly need them, starting with the 1s is wrong because you go right away behind in number of cards and that matters when you get contested (like happened in that game). It also gives away informations on your plan which is never good. Last but not least, drawing face up cards is pretty bad, because you miss on the opportunity to draw some locomotives. On turn 20 you had 7 cards with 0 locomotives, while your opponent had 20 cards with 3 locomotives: of course you lose the blocking war.

This said, yes this is a very good example where skill overcomes lucky draws. In this case it is particularly extreme, but it happens on a smaller scale in most games where one of the players is significantly better than the other.
DrakeStorm wrote: 14 December 2024, 02:47 So the designer, the developer, the publisher, top players, and most sane people agree that any kind of blocking is ok, but apparently that just isn't good enough to end this argument.
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Jontia
Posts: 251
Joined: 06 March 2014, 22:59

Re: Will we ever get a change in arena settings?

Post by Jontia »

ExaltedAngel wrote: 14 September 2026, 23:52
Good call from the opponent to block, but you made a bunch of mistakes. (I hope you'll get the following as constructive criticism, I mean no offence) ...
It also gives away informations on your plan which is never good. Last but not least, drawing face up cards is pretty bad, because you miss on the opportunity to draw some locomotives. On turn 20 you had 7 cards with 0 locomotives, while your opponent had 20 cards with 3 locomotives: of course you lose the blocking war.

This said, yes this is a very good example where skill overcomes lucky draws. In this case it is particularly extreme, but it happens on a smaller scale in most games where one of the players is significantly better than the other.
No offense taken, that's really helpful. The point about information is well taken, and is probably acting as a strong cap on my play. I don't really have any significant memory of the tickets in the game and so information leak like this is not something that I pick up on. With face up cards there is obviously a balance to strike between running into Locos and getting the specific colours you need. Definately feels like I got the balance wrong in this game.
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