Catan deconstruction explained

About this model

This diagram models a resource management and construction system inspired by the board game Catan. The system dynamically simulates the gathering and spending of resources such as Wood, Brick, Sheep, Ore, and Wheat to build Roads, Settlements, Cities, and buy Development Cards, each of which contributes to a player's victory points. Resources are generated by Source nodes indicating the production of raw materials, which then move through Converters—interpreted as purchasing or upgrading actions—to construct Roads, Settlements, and Cities, or to acquire Development Cards that influence the player's score.

The setup incorporates elements of randomness and strategic decision-making, mimicking the variability and planning inherent in gameplay. For example, Gates simulate decisions or chance events, like the probability of resource production or the choice between different construction paths, influenced by the player's current assets and game conditions. Registers calculate victory points based on the structures built and Development Cards gained, while implementing game logic such as the requirement of having less than five settlements before a settlement can be built, or checking if the player has reached the winning condition by accumulating 10 victory points. This dynamic interplay of nodes creates a system that not only mirrors the resource generation and spending strategies of Catan but also incorporates mechanisms for growth and victory condition evaluation, making it a complex emulation of strategic gameplay within Machinations.

“Catan deconstruction explained” is a diagram in the Machinations Community by Catalin Ichim.

You can open the original diagram in the Machinations app, press Play to watch how resources move through it, and change its values to see how the system responds. Machinations is a visual tool for designing, simulating and balancing game economies and other systems, where resources flow through sources, pools, drains, converters and gates. In a diagram, a source creates resources, a pool stores them, a drain removes them, a converter changes one resource into another and a gate decides where they go next.