A quick question. Has anyone played Agricola using iOS 7 beta? Does it work? If it does, I'm pretty sure I'm buying right away..
Opinion: Yes, it is even more ways to win the game than Stone Age, so I guess some would say it is more complex. You need a bit more planning ahead too so that you can harvest the most score out of it -- a skill which I have yet to master. But IMHO, Agricola is more down-to-earth as I have a bit of a problem to get why getting some painting in SA helps with running your tribe. Retraction: it is not to say SA is a very good and fun games. Friendly mode players wanted! (as usual)
It's very true. Agricola is more complex than Stone Age but the farming theme makes it more accessible. Everything just makes more sense because there is an inherent familiarity with how the mechanics work.
I did the first tutorial and then felt like I needed to take a break. LOL. The game seems pretty complex. So many different bits to the game. I will keep at it, though. Graphically it's quite the looker.
Suggestion: if you have played Stone Age, it is easier to get into. Just read the manual and learn the Stage and Turn pattern, how many turns in each stage and what facility would be available, which is regretfully not stated clearly in the tutorials. As the occupation "card" adds a whole new dimension to the game, try Family Mode first. Reflection: I suspect the tutorials actually tells you how to get 50+ points in solo mode. I am going to run the tutorials once more all over again later today.
Heating phone and battery drain Hi, Im having a blast with the Agricola app. One concern though, the app turns my phone to a stone oven, with high temperature and heavy battery draining as a result. One game vs two AI:s drain approximately 30 % of the battery. The heat and draining occurs even when just browsing menues and reading rules/looking at cards, which I guess is not CPU heavy. Anyone else having this problem, or even better, a solution? I'm on iPhone 5 IOS 6.1.4 //Pedroapan
How to remove players Has anyone figured out how to remove players from the offline game setup screen? I saw how to add them and bumped it up to 5 but now I can't figure out how to get rid of them. If I click the icon it just changes the AI and if I drag them off nothing happens.
Currymutton: I got your invite but haven't really had a chance to learn the game yet. I'm gonna familiarize myself a bit and then I'll send you an invite once I have at least something of an idea of what's going on, haha.
I forgot to post earlier but I was lucky enough to have a friend who gifted me a copy of Agricola and I have to say... I'm shocked that this game is getting 5 star reviews. There are so many design errors I don't even know where to start. Top left square: Animated corner to represent there is information on the other side... First off it looks awful. Second IF you implement it you should roll the entire care to represent a flip, what they animated suggests that you're peeling a layer off. Third the action to flip is a tap anywhere on the card... slide on the corner to peel does nothing! Bad design. Top right square: When tapping the "?" to make all the location descriptions visible it does NOT include any new locations which are made available at the end of a round. These new locations just like more visual fluff and I consistently ignored them. Bottom left square: What the hell is that symbol? It's a closed eyelid, there to represent the ability to turn off the current overlay so you can see the game board. The problem with that is you need to tap the unknown symbol to see the eye (bottom right square) and understand the correlation. It should be the eye first, then the natural assumption is that tapping on it will close the eye. How any of this got past their QA is shocking. That's not even the end of it. As mentioned by others the game is a battery hog due to the excess 2d animation used all over the village. Had those images been static no one would be complaining about Playdek not animating a chicken or giving the rivers a faux current overlay. It's very much like Playdek's implementation of Can't Stop, they put an emphasis on visual impact at the expense of battery life. Then there's Playdek's need to make the game a scrollfest... then not even implementing scrolling well! I've never played Agricola before but from pictures that game sure takes up a lot of space.... so why make the DIGITAL version of that same game a giant game board that you must scroll across? What's worse is that I, like other human beings, am not capable of making perfectly horizontal swipes. You see, Playdek felt the need to not only make this a giant rectangle of a game board but they also allow 1-1 1/2 inches of vertical scrolling (for what reason I'm baffled). As you scroll horizontally the screen just bounces up and down which not destroys immersion but becomes borderline nauseating. The game could have just as easily been set to 3 pages of 10-12. Then a quick swipe (vertically or horizontally, your preference) takes you to the next page faster than if you had to scroll. There's also the added benefit of battery life as all the animations aren't being run at the same time, only the ones on the current page. I know this was ranty and YES I do take board games far too seriously, but this is also why I've had the opportunity to beta test so many of them. The fact of the matter is that it's been designed in a way that makes it less fun to play. 3.5 / 5 stars. A great board in a flashy but flawed package. If possible, play on a friend's device before you buy.
Observation: points well taken. Not a big fan of the animations either. The tutorial is lacking but it is much better than Eclipse, Clayus or Alien Frontiers which the last one has none to speak of. Invitation: care to have a game?
Heat and battery draining It also happens in my iPhone 5. Its the main motive why I don't play this game as often as I wanted...I need the phone to also make calls and messages. Its strange because Playdek's Ascension is one of the least consuming apps I have in my iPhone 5...
It's a pity really, it works fine on the iPad. I sent a mail to the developers but no reply yet. Hopefully it's something they can fix with a patch. BTW, this is the third time an IOS boardgame app converted me into buying the physical game as well. Tigris and For The Win was the first two. Is that considered an In App Purchase? //Pedroapan
Contrary to the post a few above this, I think Agricola is one of the best, if not thee best, boardgame apps every developed. Perhaps only Carcassonne remains an equal in terms of polish and features. This wouldn't have been an easy game to do either as it's far more complicated than Carcassonne in its gameplay and in the information you need to have available, and it still amazes me how they got everything you need only one or two points away! When I heard about the scrolling I must admit it made me a little doubtful, but for me at least, the scolling offers no serious detriment to the playing experience. I can't wait for more Playdek games, and the current top of my list is Command & Colors: Ancients. Main worry here is timelines.
I dont believe that Agricola is as hard as those two examples (Le Havre or Eclipse). Its a bit more easy to understand...
Just read about this on the TA front page. is there any chance of a sale in the next 2 wks? I say because it looks good but I've only got £4.23 on my account until next month.
