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Option to Set your meeple's Color

Posted: 20 July 2025, 19:50
by Fizzy_Soda
Hey Dev Team,

Can you create a feature that allows a user to set their meeple's color in their profile? this would then be their meeple's color in all games? Since the games are played virtually, I should always be able to be blue.

Re: Option to Set your meeple's Color

Posted: 20 July 2025, 20:35
by Thoth12
That is already available. Go to preferences under your name and it is the first TAB

Re: Option to Set your meeple's Color

Posted: 20 July 2025, 21:00
by Meeplelowda
Thoth12 wrote: 20 July 2025, 20:35 That is already available. Go to preferences under your name and it is the first TAB
You're not quite getting what they want. By saying "since the games are played virtually" they were implying that they want to always be blue even if someone else wants to be blue and to have both players see themselves as blue on their own screen. That is *not* what the current color preferences setting does.

Re: Option to Set your meeple's Color

Posted: 20 July 2025, 22:31
by Kayvon
Fizzy_Soda wrote: 20 July 2025, 19:50 Since the games are played virtually, I should always be able to be blue.
That's going to make it really tough to play chess, just to name an example.

A feature that allows you to see yourself as blue, even if other players see you as something else, isn't something that can be implemented site-wide without rewriting most/all existing games. It needs to be implemented on a game-by-game basis.

Speaking as a game developer, I would not want this feature in any game I implement. We're already inundated with false reports from players who don't understand what's going on. I don't want confusion about player colors on top of that.

Re: Option to Set your meeple's Color

Posted: 21 July 2025, 14:15
by Fizzy_Soda
Kayvon wrote: 20 July 2025, 22:31
Fizzy_Soda wrote: 20 July 2025, 19:50 Since the games are played virtually, I should always be able to be blue.
That's going to make it really tough to play chess, just to name an example.

A feature that allows you to see yourself as blue, even if other players see you as something else, isn't something that can be implemented site-wide without rewriting most/all existing games. It needs to be implemented on a game-by-game basis.

Speaking as a game developer, I would not want this feature in any game I implement. We're already inundated with false reports from players who don't understand what's going on. I don't want confusion about player colors on top of that.
Those are good points. Could it just be implemented for Catan? I think that would make it easier to make moves across multiple games in one session.

Re: Option to Set your meeple's Color

Posted: 21 July 2025, 14:36
by Kayvon
Yes, if the developer who implemented Catan wants to do it and if BGA doesn't push back against it.

IMO, the pain in dealing with the additional false bug reports outweigh the convenience from thew few people who want the feature. I absolutely wouldn't do it, but may Catan's developer feels differently. You could always file a suggestion and see what happens.

Re: Option to Set your meeple's Color

Posted: 22 July 2025, 07:57
by Jellby
Having that feature in some games only could be even worse. And there are games where it cannot be implemented (asymmetric colors).

Re: Option to Set your meeple's Color

Posted: 26 July 2025, 14:54
by Thomas
Having virtual colors would require to translate chat texts, too. Image, all players are playing with Blue and someone writes: „Wanted to trade sheep for wood with green“. Who is the „green“ player, that is mentioned in the chat?

Why can‘t you accept to play with any color? What do you do in real time?

Maybe, you need an option to „only join games, if no other player has blue as their favorite color“? (By the way, with this option, you would never be able to play chess, as blue is not available for chess).

Re: Option to Set your meeple's Color

Posted: 27 July 2025, 03:22
by Shivaware
Here's something I posted in a previous thread.
You can consider voting for this issue: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=31224

There is another site (which cannot be named) that allows players to choose their preferred color and multiple players can have the same color. There are a few games there that do not allow this like Terra Mystica where the colors have specific abilities. In the rare cases where there is table talk to target a particular player, people quickly learn to use player names rather than colors. The system works exceedingly well.

BGA could at least add this capability to their framework so that new games could take advantage of it. It's very unlikely that they could easily get it working for old games, though.
I'll half-jokingly add that BGA could alter their bot that monitors the chat for insults, to watch for mentions of color and warn players that multiple players can share the same color.

Re: Option to Set your meeple's Color

Posted: 27 July 2025, 07:20
by FSKFSK
The main reason I care that I'm partially color blind, and some games don't give enough contrast among the colors.

If I'm White or Black, I can figure out which pieces are mine.

If I'm Green and another player is Red, I might not be able to figure out which pieces are mine.