Need an option to play game in which trading cannot be disabled
Posted: 12 January 2025, 23:03
Even though I like Catan a lot, I stopped playing it on BGA two years ago, except for an occasional game with real-life friends.
I play only turn-based games. When someone turns off what this game misleadingly calls "trade notifications" in a turn-based game, it means that when someone else offers a trade, that player will _never_ see it. They won't come back to the table until BGA says it's their turn, and that will only happen after the trade has been withdrawn. Effectively, that means you can no longer trade at all at that table, because there's no way to even show the other player what you might want to trade, or for them to even find out that you might want to trade.
Some people inexplicably seem to like this. Fine as long as they play with each other. But trading is a core part of this game, and when you take it away from the game entirely like that, it's not the same game. It becomes a game I do not like at all. But even if I start my own tables, there doesn't seem to be any way to ensure that people who join my table won't ruin the game in that way. I can put it in the table message, and that helped, but there were still some people who joined a table where I wrote "only join this table if you will keep trade notifications on" and still turned them off, and didn't respond to chat messages. So then I'm stuck playing through a game I really don't enjoy, all the way to the end, or **I** get the reputation penalty if I quit due to their bad behavior.
In 2022 I posted this suggestion, to add an option that would make it possible for me and - and other people who feel that Catan without trades isn't worth playing - to actually play this on BGA: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=74393
I gave up in 2023 because it seems like the developer had abandoned Catan here and there would never be any updates made. But I checked recently and saw that sometime in 2024, there was a major update, and new options. Unfortunately, the really bad trading UI was not improved, and the option I suggested was not added, which means I still can't play this game here.
I understand that other people who feel similarly have probably also given up on BGA Catan so they're not reading this forum and won't see my suggestion, but I'm giving it another shot: Even if you yourself are okay playing with people who disable trading, would you please vote for my suggestion anyway, so that this game becomes accessible for us, and so that people who think trading is a core part of the game who join in the future won't give up and go away?
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=74393
I play only turn-based games. When someone turns off what this game misleadingly calls "trade notifications" in a turn-based game, it means that when someone else offers a trade, that player will _never_ see it. They won't come back to the table until BGA says it's their turn, and that will only happen after the trade has been withdrawn. Effectively, that means you can no longer trade at all at that table, because there's no way to even show the other player what you might want to trade, or for them to even find out that you might want to trade.
Some people inexplicably seem to like this. Fine as long as they play with each other. But trading is a core part of this game, and when you take it away from the game entirely like that, it's not the same game. It becomes a game I do not like at all. But even if I start my own tables, there doesn't seem to be any way to ensure that people who join my table won't ruin the game in that way. I can put it in the table message, and that helped, but there were still some people who joined a table where I wrote "only join this table if you will keep trade notifications on" and still turned them off, and didn't respond to chat messages. So then I'm stuck playing through a game I really don't enjoy, all the way to the end, or **I** get the reputation penalty if I quit due to their bad behavior.
In 2022 I posted this suggestion, to add an option that would make it possible for me and - and other people who feel that Catan without trades isn't worth playing - to actually play this on BGA: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=74393
I gave up in 2023 because it seems like the developer had abandoned Catan here and there would never be any updates made. But I checked recently and saw that sometime in 2024, there was a major update, and new options. Unfortunately, the really bad trading UI was not improved, and the option I suggested was not added, which means I still can't play this game here.
I understand that other people who feel similarly have probably also given up on BGA Catan so they're not reading this forum and won't see my suggestion, but I'm giving it another shot: Even if you yourself are okay playing with people who disable trading, would you please vote for my suggestion anyway, so that this game becomes accessible for us, and so that people who think trading is a core part of the game who join in the future won't give up and go away?
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=74393