• What is Sea3D?
  
• Who developed it?
  
• How long has it been in development?
  
• Is Sea3D legal?
  
• What about Microsoft's new online version?
  
• How often do new versions of Sea3D get released?
  
• Is there a way that I can be notified when a new version is released?
  
• What are the minimum required specs to run Sea3D?

General Questions

• Is Sea3D free?
  
• Can I play Sea3D against other people over a network or the Internet?
  
• Can I play Sea3D against other people on the same computer?
  
• Can I play Sea3D over the network with multiple people at my computer?
  
• What about playing Sea3D against a computer opponent?
  
• What happens if I'm playing online and I lose my connection? Can we restart the game?
  
• What about the expansions?
  
• What about a map editor?
• Does Sea3D run on Linux or MacOS?
• I'm having trouble running Sea3D, where can I find help?
  

Cities3D Questions

• What is Cities3D?
  
• Why are you working on it instead of fixing this #@&*% problem with Sea3D?
  
• When will Cities3D be done?
  
• Can I help work on it?
  
• Do you keep track of your Cities3D progress somewhere?
  
• Will Cities3D bring about world peace, end hunger, and remove George W. Bush from office?
  

Background Questions

• What is Sea3D?
  Sea3D is a software implementation of one of the world's greatest board games. It uses the OpenGL graphics library to display the board and game pieces in three glorious dimensions with beautiful texture mapping to make things look just like the board game you play and love. It includes the maps for the basic game as well as every Seafarers map and special rules, including 5-6 player expansions and unique variants like Jungles and Volcanoes. º
  
  
• Who developed it?
  Sea3D has been and is being developed by Jason Fugate, a 27-year-old game fanatic who makes his residence in the Chicago, IL area. By day he is an uber-geek writing code for a Chicago-based game company, but by night he transforms into an uber-geek writing code for all you Settlers fans! º
  
  
• How long has it been in development?
  Development started in October of 2001 and continues to this day, whenever I have time. º
  
  
• Is Sea3D legal?
  That's a good question. The short answer: to the best of my knowledge, absolutely.

  The long answer: I am not a lawyer, but I have looked into the copyright laws related to games in the United States and here is what I have discovered: The idea for a game is not in any way copyrighted. In fact, neither is the actual name of the game. What is copyrighted is the particular way it is represented, i.e. artwork, rule text, etc. So from a straight reading of the copyright law of the United States, Sea3D is completely legal, because it does not use any original artwork from the board game, nor contain any text from any of the rules distributed with the game by Mayfair or Kosmos. Furthermore, I have removed all references to "Catan" from anything having to do with the game so as to stay as completely distant from anything that might be a registered trademark as possible. The game I have written is distributed completely freely, and is in fact, open source. I have never made money from it, and have given thousands of hours of my own free time to making it and maintaining it, as well as spent hundreds of dollars of my own resources in its development and in running the site. In summary, I have done everything I know how to to ensure that what I am doing is legal, and will willingly and quickly conform to anything I have done that is pointed out as noncompliant. º
  
  

• What about Microsoft's new online version?
  For those that haven't heard, the 900-pound gorilla of software development, Microsoft, has sensed a great business opportunity and announced they are making an online version of the game, which will be released some time in 2004, probably by the end of the summer.

  What does this mean for Sea3D? In terms of still existing and operating, hopefully, nothing. See above for the question of legality. In terms of competition, I expect Microsoft's version to be outstanding and very enjoyable. They have a whole team of developers (not just 1!) to work on it as well as all the resources of the biggest software company in the world to market and further promote the Catan brand name. This will probably cause a further explosion in the popularity of the game, which is fabulous. It will also cost money to play online with Microsoft, and that will be pretty much the one thing Sea3D will always have that Microsoft's Catan Online will not. Free as in beerness. I honestly hope that Catan Online makes a lot of money for all involved and brings an enjoyable experience to all who play. I also honestly hope that Sea3D continues to exist as a free, high-quality alternative to Microsoft that allows people who can't afford Catan Online to still be able to enjoy playing their favorite game online in a meaningful, friendly community.

• How often do new versions of Sea3D get released?
  New versions of Sea3D don't get released anymore. All my development time is spent working on my cross-platform rewrite, Cities3D. See the Cities3D section for more information. º
  
  
• Is there a way that I can be notified when a new version is released?
  Sure, just sign up at the offical Sea3D mailing list site. As mentioned above, Sea3D is not in active development anymore, but the same list will be used when Cities3D is ready for prime time. º
  
  
• What are the minimum required specs to run Sea3D?
  The following specifications are required to run Sea3D:
  • Pentium 500 MHZ processor or better
  • An OpenGL 1.2-compliant video card
  • 64 MB RAM
  • A Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP operating system
  • A working brain
  
  If you are having trouble with choppy frame-rates in Sea3D and you have an older graphics card, consider downloading GLDirect from SciTech software.

General Questions

• Is Sea3D free?
  Yes, Sea3D is completely free, always has been, and always will be, with no ad ware, spy ware, vaporware, or bloat ware. It even stays crunchy in milk. º
  
  
• Can I play Sea3D against other people over a network or the Internet?
  Yes, you can do that. Sea3D even has a built-in game-finder through this site called the S3D Connector. This way, you can just download Sea3D, create a name, and thenfind a game to play in right away! For help on getting started, check out this awesome walkthrough in the Newbie forum.

  Sea3D also has a built-in ELO ladder ranking system, if you like to play in a more competitive manner. Details on how the ladder works can be found here. º
  
  

• Can I play Sea3D against other people on the same computer?
  Yes, this is called "hotseat" mode. It is one of the main options on the opening splash screen. º
  
  
• Can I play Sea3D over the network with multiple people at my computer?
  This is, in effect, combining network and hotseat mode. The short answer is no, this is not possible. The long answer is, well, maybe, but you'll have to do things a little out of the ordinary. You could try running two (or however many you want) versions of Sea3D at the same time on the same computer, and then connecting them all to the host. I recommend that you give each version its own copy of the data and tex files (in other words, copy the Sea3D directory to a new one for each version you want to run). I have not tested this much, so I can't promise you it will work, but it's worth a shot. º
  
  
• What about playing Sea3D against a computer opponent?
  No, you can't do this. If you are a super-genius and would like a very challenging task, you could volunteer to write an AI for Sea3D that encompasses the standard game, Sefarers, and eventually C&K. Good luck. Several have volunteered, gotten a look at over 100K lines of code in Sea3D, and mysteriously disappeared never to email me again. =D

  I am certainly not opposed to an AI in Sea3D, and I would heap accolade upon accolade upon any who could do it, but I am realistic about the chances of it happening. º
  
  

• What happens if I'm playing online and I lose my connection? Can we continue the game?
  Yes, Sea3D saves the game at the start of every turn in a network game. The way to restart is simple. The host of the game either chooses "Open a saved game" from the starting splash screen or goes to File->Open from the main Sea3D window. From there, the host just selects the game they were playing from the list, clicks open, and the network join screen appears. Everyone else then joins the game and the game starts right from where you left off. º
  
  
• What about the expansions? Are there any plans to add C&K?
  Sea3D already has the Seafarers expansion in it, as well as other unique variants like Jungles and Volcanoes. However, the Cities & Knights expansion is what most people truely pine for. This is in the works, in my rewrite of the game, called Cities3D. See the Cities3D section of the FAQ for more information. º
  
  
• What about a map editor?
  We'll see about this one. º
  
  
• Does Sea3D run on Linux or MacOS?
  No, it does not. It runs on Win32 platforms only. For those interested in knowing why there's no port to Linux, it's because I use MFC everywhere in Sea3D.

  However, I have seen the error of my ways, and in my rewrite of the game, in which I am adding the Cities & Knights expansion, the entire game is being refactored to use wxWidgets, a cross-platform GUI toolkit, which, in theory, will allow Cities3D to be run on Linux and/or MacOS. Only time will tell on that for sure. º
  
  

• I'm having trouble running Sea3D, where can I find help?
  You can try visiting the Online Help section for starters. There's tons of information for you to look through, including a list of common problems and solutions.

  However, should that fail you, visit our friendly chat room. More likely than not, someone will be there who can help you through things. You can also try posting a message in our Newbies and Guests forum. º
  
  

Cities3D Questions

• What is Cities3D?
  Well, here's the deal. I had always planned from the start to add the Seafarers expansion to the game, and then, before I realized I was insane, add the Cities & Knights expansion, too. Well, I got Seafarers done and then started working on Cities & Knights and came to the shocking conclusion that the way I had written Sea3D, which evolved organically from nothing (a truly horrible way to develop software), precluded me every being able to ram Cities & Knights rules into it. It would be like giving someone a back massage with nunchukas (and about as pleasurable). The only possible way to add C&K rules was to rewrite from the ground up. Thus, Cities3D.

  Once the massive mental hurdle of rewriting was leapt, I also realized, hey, why not kill 2,915 birds with one stone and do some other things that people always wanted, like making it cross-platform, easily customizable, and with better support for certain online features. This is what I am doing. When Cities3D is eventually done, it will kick the ass of Sea3D into the deep blue sea. Every design mistake I made in the original version I am correcting. See the last question for some of the other amazing features of Cities3D. º
  
  

• Why are you working on it instead of fixing this #@&*% problem with Sea3D?
  Ah, yes. Something bad happened in Sea3D. It crashed on you, did something wrong with rules, gave you a drop when you didn't, or failed to respond lovingly to your demands for more time and attention, and you want it fixed. Here's the thing. There's only one of me, and, unfortunately, I am the only one who really knows how to make sense of the rat's nest of code that is Sea3D. However, I am also the only one who knows exactly what I want to do with Cities3D (surprising, eh?). I am also an extremely one-track kind of guy. I start gibbering and foaming at the mouth when given too many tasks to do at once. Therefore, I have made a conscious decision not to provide any more bug fixes to Sea3D. It is stable enough, has been playtested enough, and has well-known issues and bugs that can usually be worked around. Sorry if this bothers you, but that's how it is. º
  
  
• When will Cities3D be done?
  Ha! º
  
  
• Can I help work on it?
  Not likely, but it may be possible. You would have to be 1) extremely dedicated, 2) a very good C++ coder, and 3) very involved in the community. I get emails every once in a while from people who want to help. Don't be offended if my first response is with less ardor than you were hoping for. People have to prove themselves to me before I trust them with things. I have high standards. But in the end, I think it is best, because I end up with great people like RyanMC who do consistently excellent work over long periods of time. That is the goal I set for myself and what I look for in others. If you can do it, show me. º
  
  
• Do you keep track of your Cities3D progress somewhere?
  Why, yes! For information, check out the Cities3D secions in the forums. You can also try harassing some of the people (who are not myself) in the chat room. They usually have a better idea than most. º
  
  
• Will Cities3D bring about world peace, end hunger, and remove George W. Bush from office?
  Absolutely. In fact, it will also mow your lawn, do your banking for you, and resolve domestic disputes with your significant other without you having to lift a finger!! º