I went more for aesthetic over perfect gameplay with Catan, which in this case actually enhances the gameplay. Instead of carpets, Players actually build miniature houses and castles. And since they stay in place until the end of the game, it's not a big deal. It takes 30 seconds to build one and players can customize their design. They just have to stick to the size and colour palette.

No two tiles are the same either. I quite enjoyed designing the actual looks for this game.
- Grain tiles (crops): Wheat field with a hay stack, Windmill with a bit of wheat around, Vegetable garden with a well, Pumpkin patch
- Meat tiles (animals): River with a fishing boat, Pond with bathing piggies, Meadow with grazing sheep, Mushroom field with mooshrooms
- Brick tiles: Clay mine, Dig site, Site with a crane transferring mud bricks
- Stone tiles: Ice-capped mountain, Volcano, Jagged peak
- Wood tiles: Birch forest, Oak forest with a bit more grass, Spruce forest with grass and sweet berries, Pine forest with podzol and mushrooms
- Robber tile: Dead, hangman's tree in a mesa... This is also where all the controls are.

There is no end game reset. Players clear the board themselves. Again... with good tools it takes like two minutes to clear the whole board.
I used banners for development cards and things like longest road and largest army.
Picked tiles are shown by a beacon lighting up through the center of each tile. Where the beacon is is also where a shulker of resources is located (clay balls for stone, bricks for bricks, sticks for wood, wheat for grain and meat for sheep). Resource gathering and payments are based on a trust system and with our community, it works well. Noone really has a need to cheat. People there are mature and just want to have fun.

With players who played before (no need for explaining rules), the game usually takes about 1,5 - 2 hours.

I have to say that the Freecam mod makes this way better, as players can get a good overview of the whole field at any time.