• The Contest Between Cities
• Donations
• "Active Citizen," City Council, and Mayors
• Further City Achievements
• Relocation
• End of the Game Period
• FAQ

The Contest Between Cities

Culture Points and "Capital of Catan"

In addition to the many board games, the Catan Online World is a sizeable game itself. The Catan Online World is subdivided into cities that, in each game period, compete with each other for the title "Capital of Catan." The citizens of a city can decide for themselves if - and to what degree - they want to commit themselves to their city, or if they prefer to just play the board games. However, what gives life to the COW is the community of its citizens, and each player is cordially invited to participate in the contest between cities.

Every 6 months (in fall and in spring) a new game period starts. All personal possessions such as resources, gold, coins, etc. are removed (see End of the Game Period), and city expensions also starts afresh in each game period. The city with the highest expansion level, that is, with the most culture points at the end of the game period is awarded the title "Capital of Catan." It will keep this title for the entire next game period.

Culture Points

At the end of the game period, the contest for the title "Capital of Catan" is decided by means of the culture points each city has accumulated. The city with the most culture points wins.

Culture points can be accumulated in two areas:

1. Common Culture Points

Common culture points are generated through collaboration of all citizens of a city.

a) City Expansions

Each city building is worth culture points for the city it is built in. The City Buildings Overview specifies the number of culture points generated by expanding a building. The buildings remain until the end of the game period, unless the city suffers a barbarian attack and the buildings are damaged (see Barbarians). In the latter case, the city's culture points decrease in proportion to the damages.

b) Statues

Statues are awarded for a variety of titles and contests. The period for which a city owns a certain statue depends on the corresponding title. An overview over all titles and statues can be found in the chapter "Statues and Medals."

The culture points for statues are weighted according to their rank:

Rank 1 = 10 points, rank 2 = 8 points, rank 3 or no rank = 5 points

Of course, the culture points of a statue count towards a city only as long as this city owns the statue. Culture points for statues that are awarded at the end of the game period are counted towards the next game period. The statue for the community riddle tournament is not providing any culture points.

2. Personal Culture Points

As the citizens increase their personal property, they also generate culture points. However, these personal culture points only count towards the city's culture points if the citizen is also an "Active Citizen." In addition, the sum of the personal culture points is divided by the "Active Citizens factor."

a) Your Own House and Clothing

You may commission the Masons' Guild to expand your own house or order new clothes at the Tailor Shop. Each of these actions has an effect on your personal culture points:

b) Gardens and Pets

Every player who owns a house may improve his/her garden.

If a garden is removed because its owner moves to another city or cancels his PlayCatan account, the city's culture points decrease according to the garden's current value.

In addition to the plants and objects for one's own garden, the players may also purchase pets at the General Store. Pets also generate culture points.

The culture value the citizens add to a city's total culture value is, therefore, calculated as follows:

Donations

To expand their city, the citizens must make donations for city expansion. A donation for city expansion costs one brick, one lumber, and one ore.

To protect the city from barbarians, the citizens need to make donations to the City Guard. A donation to the City Guard costs one ore, one wool, and one grain. After a barbarian attack, the donations to the City Guard are forfeited (for the city) and must be renewed for the next attack.

In addition to the obvious benefit for the city, each donation made by a citizen also has an effect on his/her status in the city.

Active Donations

Only donations made during the last 4 weeks (active donations) are considered for determining whether or not a citizen becomes or remains a member of the City Council. Donations made before this period are of no consequence here. This is necessary in order to guarantee a certain fluctuation among City Council members. Donations older than 4 weeks (reference time for backward count: 12 p.m. CET of the respective current day) are thus not considered. In the Citizen List (Town Hall), you can view the active donations for city expansion and to the City Guard made by each citizen. In your own house / the Hostel, you can get an overview of your own donations (Player Info / Active Donations).

You can't take your donations with you when moving to another city. The donations remain in the original city, where they expire after the usual period. If you move back to the original city, your donations are valid for you again, provided that they have not expired yet.

Please note: After a barbarian attack, the donations to the City Guard are forfeited for the city, but they can still be active for the citizens who made them. Therefore, a citizen's City Council member status is not affected by a barbarian attack.

Active Citizens, City Council Members, and Mayors

a) Active Citizens

Citizens who received at least 15 resources (not gold or coins) during the last 4 weeks or who belong to the City Council are "Active Citizens." The number of Active Citizens of a city is unlimited.

To denote their position, Active Citizens wear a bronze necklace, and, if they own a house, smoke comes out of its chimney. They also receive a small salary (1 coin per day).

Only the daily resources and the bonus resources are counted towards the Active Citizen status, not the resources a player obtains via trading (between players, with the bank, or at the Market Square) or from the Beggar or by winning in the Bathhouse.

b) City Council Members

The 15 citizens with the most active donations are members of the City Council. In case of a tie, the citizen with the higher hero value (total of all donations to the City Guard in this period) becomes City Council member, the older donation being the second important factor.

City Council members are always Active Citizens too.

To allow for a quick formation of a new City Council during a new game period, City Council membership is no longer depending on a minimum number of donations made.

City Council members receive access to the main room of the Town Hall. They make decisions that are important for the city; for example, they are the ones to decide on the next city expansion.

To denote their position, City Council members wear a silver necklace, and they have at least level 3 clothing. City Council members also receive a small salary (2 coin per day).

c) Mayor

The Mayor is elected in free elections held on the city's Forum.

The Mayor has a prominent position in the city. He/she receives access to the main room of the Town Hall, and together with the City Council members he/she makes decisions that are important for the city. During voting on city expansion, his/her vote counts double in case of a tie.

The Mayor is the only one who may distribute the city's gold (Town Hall) among players. He/she also coordinates and decides important issues. Other than that, the Mayor has the same rights and obligations as a City Council member. If a Mayor moves to another city, he/she automatically loses his/her status.

To denote their position, Mayors wear a golden necklace, and they have at least level 3 clothing. Mayors also receive a small salary (2 coin per day).

Note regarding the clothing level of City Council members and Mayor:

The clothing level 3 received by these two groups of people is only a loan. For example, a player who has clothing level 2 before becoming a City Council member and doesn't increase his/her clothing level while in office goes back to clothing level 2 after departure from office. If a City Council member who originally had clothing level 2 buys a clothing level from the tailor, he/she attains clothing level 3 (meaning that this player's current appearance does not change); this clothing level also remains after departure from office.

City Expansion Costs

City expansion is the central element of the COW Metagame. However, nobody is forced to participate in the Metagame. Players who would rather like to exclusively play the board games are welcome to do so. Therefore, having "Active Citizens" provides a regulating effect, geared to reach a certain balance between small and large cities and between cities whose citizens are very active and those whose citizens are less active.

The calculation of costs for expanding a building is a function of the number of Active Citizens.

The more Active Citizens a city has, the more expensive an expansion becomes.

This guarantees that a small city with few Active Citizens can’t fall behind in terms of development and is able to participate in the contest just like the large cities.

This is how the formula looks like:

Active Citizens factor = 15 + 0,8 * (Number of Active Citizens - 15)

Number of donations required = 2 * Active Citizens factor

If a city has 15 Active Citizens or less, the Active Citizens factor has a value of 15.

Example: If the city has one Active Citizen, the Active Citizens factor is 15; in a city with 20 Active citizens, the factor is 19, and in a city with 40 Active Citizens, the factor is 35. The building costs thus increase as the number of Active Citizens goes up, although not proportionally. That way, smaller cities are hardly disadvantaged, while at the same time there is always an incentive to have more Active Citizens in the city.

When a city starts a building project, the amount of donations needed is specified and will not be changed, even if the number of Active Citizens changes afterwards. The current number of Active Citizens is considered again when the next level of the building begins or when the current level is continued after an interruption in favor of another building project. Please note that, in this case, the building costs can not get lower than before; they can only rise. Therefore, stopping the expansion of a building in favor of another building project should only be an exception, because - even in an ideal situation - the building costs for the city can only be equally high as before.

Other City Titles

In addition to the title "Capital of Catan," in each game period the cities of the Catan Online World compete for other important titles.

These titles are:

• City of Champions - Success at Tournament Days (see Tournament Days)
• City of Riddle Masters - Success in the Riddle Game (see Park - Riddle Game)
• City of Dice Masters - Success in the Dice Game (see Assembly Hall - Dice Game)
• City of Defenders - Success against the barbarians (see Barbarians)

Relocation

Relocation to a new city is a rare event and should be considered carefully. If you leave your old city, you burn your bridges behind you and build a new future in the new city. Therefore, you should think of the following consequences:

1. The ranking position in the Citizen List is reduced by one level.
2. All resources, gold and coins are discarded.
3. The garden is removed.
4. All scores for the Monthly List obtained during the current month are removed. The games are not erased, of course, but you no longer appear in the Monthly List of your old city and must start afresh to enter the Monthly List in the new city.
5. The donations for the old city remain there; they are not transferred to the new city. This means that you have a separate donations account for each city.
6. 10% of the value in the current Citizen List is deducted.
7. Loss of one house level (level cannot get lower than 1)
8. Loss of one clothing level.

Please note:

1. Scores for the Garden Master, Dice Master, Riddle Master, Champion and Hero remain.
2. Scores for the Dice Game and the Riddle Game remain, because they are global.
3. Within 7 days after the beginning of a new game period, players may relocate without any disadvantage (exception: point 1, if you have the title "patrician", and point 5). This function is implemented for the sole purpose of allowing members a way to move to a different city without loss and is not intended for short relocations.
4. Active citizens can not relocate in the last 42 days of the actual game period.
5. The relevant income is calculated separately for every city. Even if a citizen was an active citizen in his old city, he becomes an active citizen in the new town not until his relevant income reaches the limit in the new city, too.

End of the Game Period

At the end of the game period, the final evaluation takes place, and the titles for the next game period are awarded. The statues a city receives for the titles it is awarded at the end of the game period count towards the city's culture value in the new game period. The new game period starts the day after the final evaluation.

In the new game period, each city once again has the possibility to become "Capital of Catan." For this reason, all city expansions are reset to zero.

All unspent possessions (resources, gold, coins etc.) of the citizens are removed at the start of the new game period. Each citizen receives 3 new resources and begins from scratch. Pets abandon their owners - they cannot be taken to the new game period. The players may change their profession immediately after the new game period begins, regardless of whether the wait time of 4 weeks until the next change of profession has expired or not.

The citizens' houses and clothing are an exception; they are reset depending on the level they reached in the previous game period.

Please note: The game rankings are not influenced by the game periods. They are continued normally.

FAQ

It's all way too complicated for me. Do I have to memorize all those formulae?

No. The formulae are presented here to give interested players some background information.

If you are only interested in the board games and not in the Metagame - no problem. It is each player's own decision how to act in the Catan Online World. If you want to commit to your city, it certainly makes sense to join forces with other citizens - for example, via the forum - and develop a common strategy. It may also make sense to have, in each city, a player or a small group of players who take a good look at the rules and, depending on the game situation, decide on the city's strategy. However, this doesn't mean that everyone has to participate in strategy development. For these purposes, the City Council was created, whose members can directly influence the strategy by voting. City Council members should invest some time and interest in developing the city's strategy and use the forum to come to an agreement with other Council members and the Mayor. For all other citizens applies: You may do whatever is doable, but you don't have to. Basically, all your actions - be it buying clothing or donating for city expansion - can provide your city with culture points and thus contribute to its success. So, it's entirely up to you if, and to what extent, you want to get involved in the Metagame, or if you just want to play the board games.

Why is relocation so costly?

In the previous version of the Catan Online World, the relocation function included far less restrictions. Relocations thus were much more frequent and easier than in the current version. As a result, the function was also used for actions it was not intended for. Those actions were mostly innocuous, but sometimes they also were contradictory to the concept of the Metagame.

The relocation function was always meant to be used scarcely - for example, when a newcomer selects a city or a citizen likes another city better. Due to the changes made to this function in the COW 3, it now is in keeping again with its original meaning.