Shuffle iT Forum

Dominion => How to Play => Topic started by: werothegreat on 22 September 2017, 03:37:37 AM

Title: Welcome to Dominion Online!
Post by: werothegreat on 22 September 2017, 03:37:37 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/a0urCDS.png)

GETTING STARTED

Dominion Online is located at https://dominion.games/.  When you navigate to this site, you will be presented with the above welcome screen.  You can log in with your username and password, or sign up to make a new account.  You can also select your preferred language by selecting it from the list on the left side of the screen (Dominion Online currently supports Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, and Russian).

(https://i.imgur.com/JEZ2lXN.png)

Once you have logged in, you will be presented with the above screen.  The buttons along the top of the screen will take you to several different menus:


You will also note the smaller box in the lower right corner, with four more options:


(https://i.imgur.com/pjUIPNZ.jpg)

HOW TO PLAY

Dominion is a deckbuilding card game.  Each player starts the game with a small deck of low-quality cards, which they can use to add more cards to their deck.  The new cards they add can have a variety of effects, from drawing more cards into your hand, to being able to play more cards, to removing unwanted cards from your deck, to gaining more cards per turn than you would normally be able to, to hurling detrimental effects at your opponent(s).  As your deck gets better, you will be able to acquire better and more expensive cards, including the very important Province cards, which are worth 6 points at the end of the game.  However, the supply of cards is limited, and competition for certain cards will be fierce.  The game ends when either the Province pile, or any 3 piles, empty out completely.  At that point, the player with the most points wins.

(https://i.imgur.com/OMAa9ZS.jpg)

On your side of the game board are a few different areas:


Your opponent has the same areas, just on their side of the board.  You cannot see what cards are in their hand, but you can see all the cards they've played, and the top card of their discard pile.  There is also a resource tracker in the center of the screen, that will say how many Actions, Buys, and Coins the current player has (see below), as well as what the current player can do, or if the game is waiting for someone to do something.

(https://i.imgur.com/j4mqbhK.png)

Between the players is a communal area called the Supply.  This is the set of cards that players can add to their deck this game.  There is a set of seven Base Cards on the left side of the screen - Copper, Silver, Gold, Estate, Duchy, Province, and Curse.  These cards are in every game.  There are also 10 other cards called the Kingdom, which will change from game to game.  Whenever a player buys or otherwise gains a card, it will come from the Supply.  Each pile in the Supply has a limited number of cards in it, and when that pile runs out, cards can no longer be gained from it.

Card Types and Turn Phases

There are 3 main types of cards in the game:


There is also one card with its own, eponymous type: the Curse card.  Curses have purple borders, and are worth -1 points.  You will usually not want to buy these, but a few Attack cards can force you to add a Curse to your deck.

Each turn is broken down into 3 phases:


Note that you are never forced to play an Action during your Action phase, and you are never forced to buy a card during your Buy phase, even if you have Actions or Buys remaining, respectively.  You can always choose to end the phase early, and move on to the next one.  After you've finished your Clean-up phase, play moves to the person to your left, and they take their turn, in the same 3 phases.  Once play returns to you, you will start again with a new Action phase, and have 1 Action and 1 Buy to use. If  either the Province pile, or any 3 piles, are completely empty after a player's turn, the game ends immediately and each player's Victory points are counted.

Secondary Types and Keywords

Some cards have more than one type.  The most common secondary type is Attack.  This does not have any special ability associated with it, it just signifies that this card has a hostile effect on other players.  Some other effects also reference Attack cards - several of these are Reaction cards, which have blue borders.  A Reaction card has an effect that can be used at an unusual time, which is most often detailed on the lower half of its card text, beneath a dividing line.  For example, the Moat card can be revealed from your hand when another player plays an Attack, to protect you from the Attack's effects.  There are also other secondary types, with their own rules and peculiarities.

You will find that the text of most Dominion cards is fairly straightforward in detailing the effect of the card.  However, there are a few keywords with a specific meaning:


There are also a few other keywords, mainly to do with different types of tokens, but they don't appear on very many cards.  While most can be understood from context, these may require additional explanation:


You may sometimes see an Event, Landmark or Project in the game - these are not cards, and cannot be added to your deck.  An Event is an effect that can be bought, just like a card, but the effect happens right away.  However, if you want the effect to happen again, you will have to buy the Event again.  Buying an Event costs a Buy, just like buying a card.  An Event's cost is in its upper left corner.  Similarly, Projects are also bought, but they can only be bought once per game, and grant the buyer a permanent effect once purchased.  A Landmark is not bought; it is instead a rule change for scoring in the game.  It provides a new way to acquire points other than buying Victory cards.  It is not recommended that you play with any of these if you are unfamiliar with the game.

USING THE DOMINION ONLINE INTERFACE

Each game begins by showing you the cards starting in your deck; this is most relevant when playing with Shelters or Heirlooms.  To start playing, all players must click the "Start Game" button; once they all have done so, play commences with the first player's turn.

To play a card from your hand, or to buy or otherwise gain a card from the Supply, simply left-click it.  If you only want to view the card, right-click it instead, and you will be shown an enlarged version of the card, including its full text.  During your Buy phase, there is a button "Autoplay Treasures" which will play all of your Treasures from your hand so you don't have to click on them each individually. 

Cards that you are able to play will have a shining green border around them.  Cards that you are able to discard will have a shining amber border around them.  Cards that you are able to trash will have a shining red border around them.  Cards that you are able to buy or gain will have a blue plus sign in their lower right corner.  Any other effect that requires you to choose a card will highlight allowed cards in green or blue.

Some cards have autoplay options associated with them - this means that under certain conditions, you can choose to have the game client deal with these cards without requiring your input.  For example, you can ask the client to always reveal Moat for you when another player plays an Attack (normally the game waits for you to choose to reveal it or not).  Autoplay settings can be changed in the Options menu in the lobby, under the Autoplay Options section - right-clicking on a card name here will take you to a detailed documentation of what each autoplay setting does.  You can also change autoplay settings in game by right-clicking a card; settings you change this way will only apply for the current game, and will not carry over to future ones.

Each pile in the Supply, and each player's deck, has a red number in the upper left corner indicating how many cards are left in it.  Identical cards in your hand, or that you have in play next to each other, are stacked, with a red number in the corner of the stack to indicate how many of the same card are there.

As a game proceeds, everything that happens is recorded in the log, on the right side of the screen.  The log is color-coded by card type, and can help you figure out what happened on a particularly complicated turn, or you can use it to check back on something if you forget what happened.  A few abilities must be done through the log: specifically, the calling of Reserve cards and the ordering of simultaneous effects are prompted in blue text at the bottom of the log.

Below the log is the chat, where you can communicate with any other players, as well as any spectators.

Above the log are four options:


Next to each player's deck is their username, and a point counter, which tracks how many Victory points that player would have if the game were to end at that moment.  If you hover your mouse over a player's username, you can see any cards they have set aside or on mats, and any Duration cards they have in play from previous turns.  If a player has any tokens, their count is displayed next to the player's username.

(https://i.imgur.com/p7WQUwl.png)

After a game has ended, you are shown the game end screen.  On the left are the options chosen for the Table.  On the right are the contents of each player's deck at the end of the game, and the chat.  In the center is a description of the outcome of the game, including the winner, and the score of each player, including a list of the sources of their Victory points.  From here, you can choose to replay the Table by clicking Ready, or you can leave the Table or edit its settings.  If all players click Ready (bots always will), a new game starts with the same players and settings.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to peruse our Official FAQ (http://forum.shuffleit.nl/index.php?topic=2246.0).[/list][/list]
Title: Re: Welcome to Dominion Online!
Post by: JW on 22 September 2017, 04:06:26 AM
Great! This should be stickied.

Quote from: werothegreat on 22 September 2017, 03:37:37 AM
  • FAQ: This option will take you to this page.

"FAQ" presumably should go to the separate "FAQ" page.

But there should be a "New to Dominion Online" option that goes here as well.

Also, if the thread for this is locked, I will not mind this comment being moved to a "comments" thread. :-)
Title: Re: Welcome to Dominion Online!
Post by: werothegreat on 22 September 2017, 04:19:42 AM
Quote from: JW on 22 September 2017, 04:06:26 AM
Great! This should be stickied.

Quote from: werothegreat on 22 September 2017, 03:37:37 AM
  • FAQ: This option will take you to this page.

"FAQ" presumably should go to the separate "FAQ" page.

Good catch!  Fixed.
Title: Re: Welcome to Dominion Online!
Post by: dane on 22 September 2017, 08:42:05 AM
Quote from: werothegreat on 22 September 2017, 03:37:37 AM

  • Options: This menu has a number of options related to the user interface that you can toggle.
    Friend List: Here you can add a Friend if you know their username, and view Friends you have already made.  You can also view those who have requested to be your Friend, and potentially accept their request.  You can also end friendships.  You can also check your Blacklist, which comprises the users who are no longer allowed to join games with you.  You are able to blacklist a user on the end game screen after playing a game with them, by clicking the lightning bolt icon.
There's a bullet missing in front of 'Friend List'.

Quote from: werothegreat on 22 September 2017, 03:37:37 AM
During your Buy phase, there is a button "Autoplay Treasures" which will play all of your Treasures from your hand so you don't have to click on them each individually. 
It might be worth changing that to something like "which will play all of your Treasures from your hand that do not have side effects so you don't have to click on them each individually."
Title: Re: Welcome to Dominion Online!
Post by: JW on 24 September 2017, 05:29:32 PM
As evidenced by http://forum.shuffleit.nl/index.php?topic=2277.msg9288#msg9288, some well meaning people may not know that if you close your browser tab, that doesn't count as a resignation but just a disconnection- and that the game will wait multiple minutes before giving your opponent the option to force you to resign. This is worth mentioning in the discussion of the "Resign" option.

It would also be good to link to the Dominion Strategy blog's "New to Dominion" page (https://dominionstrategy.com/new-to-dominion/), either here or (perhaps more likely) in the FAQ.
Title: Re: Welcome to Dominion Online!
Post by: SkyHard on 25 September 2017, 10:52:42 AM
Quote from: dane on 22 September 2017, 08:42:05 AM
It might be worth changing that to something like "which will play all of your Treasures from your hand that do not have side effects so you don't have to click on them each individually."

Which at the moment is false. It will play Coppers and thus making it impossible to buy Great Market (which is an annoying side effect!).
Title: Re: Welcome to Dominion Online!
Post by: JW on 18 October 2017, 08:15:15 PM
This post and/or the FAQs should mention the "reload game" feature. Relevant information includes:

Currently, to see the game log after the game, you'll need to use the "reload game" feature using the game ID. You can look up the game numbers for your rated games here: http://dominion.lauxnet.com/scavenger/

Instructions for using the reload game feature can be found here (https://imgur.com/a/tazJ8)

Note that if you aren't a paid subscriber then the only games you will be able to reload in this way are ones with only base set cards (you can only reload a game if you have subscribed to all of the cards used in that game).
Title: Re: Welcome to Dominion Online!
Post by: PanopticEmu on 06 December 2017, 11:38:57 AM
Is there any way to create a private match, in which one would invite only people on his friends list?
It seems as if this would be a welcome addition
Title: Re: Welcome to Dominion Online!
Post by: Ingix on 06 December 2017, 12:18:41 PM
At the moment this is not (directly) possible. What can you do?

1) If somebody else joins, just kick them off the table. Those players arrive there by manually selecting a table from a table list, not by the general queue. Or maybe just don't do anything, they will usually go away if nothing happens. I sometimes have "Sorry, waiting for someone" in the Clipboard that I can paste into the chat before that.

2) On "New Table", click "Create Table", then choose "Advanced Options". Set the Min and Max relatice rating to 0 (see attached picture). This means only your friends can join, and somebody with the exact same rating as you (very improbable).
Title: Re: Welcome to Dominion Online!
Post by: DocDoe on 28 July 2020, 05:17:06 AM
is there any way to play 2 person games?
Title: Re: Welcome to Dominion Online!
Post by: Ingix on 28 July 2020, 10:02:28 AM
Yes.

Your "Matching" tab is the place to go:

(https://i.imgur.com/AF9g797.png)

Players who want to play enter here their preference of the "style" of play, then click on "Start Search" and will be matched with other player(s) that want to play the same "style".

The yellow parts can be changed by clicking on them. "Player count" is likely already at 2P.

The game has a rating system where players win/loose rating points when they play against each other. "Rated games" can be "Rated", "Unrated" or "Rated or Unrated". "Rated" means the game will count towards the ratings system, "Unrated" means it will not. "Rated or Unrated" means you don't care and can be matched with players that want to player "Rated" or "Unrated".

"Expansions" deals with availability of expansions. The base set is free to play for everyone, you can buy a subscription to have expansions available for a given time frame. I assume you don't have a subscription right now. "Prefer exapansions" means that if possible, you will be matched with a player that has some expansions, so the generated kingdom will most likely contain cards from those expansions. If after some time no such player is found, the search is widened to other "free" players, so the resulting game will then only have cards from the base set. "Wait for expansions" means you want to wait for a player with expansions no matter how long it takes. "Only base games" means you are guaranteed to be matched with another player without subscription, so the resulting game will only have base cards.

"Min rating" and "Max rating" are only important if the game is rated. Games between players of very different skill level are often not fun, so this allows you to say how much better or worse your opponent is allowed to be. Every new player starts at level 38.5, the very top players are in the upper half of the 60's. "Min rating" -10 means you want your opponent to be at most 10 levels worse than you. Similiarly, "Max raring" 10 means you want your opponent to be at most 10 levels better than you. The bigger the number, the better there is a chance to find a player that falls into that range. But personally I would make that "-5" and "+5", 10 levels is a big difference.

Extra Menagerie is a special rule because that is the newest expansion (since March 2020). If "Yes" and one player has the Gold subscription, there will be more Menagerie cards than normal, to make players familiar with the new set. "No" means no special number of Menagerie cards, and "Yes or no" means you don't care.

After you have selected your preferences, click "Start Search" and the game server fill find players that have compatible preferences. If after a minute or so there was no match found, you should consider widening your preferences.

Generally you should not have a problem finding 2P rated games regardless of other options if your "Min rating" and "Max rating" are at or above 5 in absolute value.
Title: How do you see what's on your native village matt?
Post by: jmark on 23 November 2020, 06:52:52 PM
I played with Native Village and I was able to put cards on it and pick it up, but I couldn't figure out how to look at it. Is there a way? I thought I could maybe right-click on the card and press a "view matt" button, sort of like you can set the autoplay options.
Title: Re: Welcome to Dominion Online!
Post by: Ingix on 23 November 2020, 07:33:38 PM
All of the cards that a player has on any mat or otherwise set aside can be viewed by hovering with the mouse over that player's info box (with their name and vp count), then those cards will be shown in the place where usually the log is. If you click on the box (or tap on it on mobile) this becomes a permanent change until the next click inside the game area, so you can scroll the view in case there are many cards.

Looking at your Village Mat is just a special application of the above, and when you actually play Native Village, you get the current content of the Village Mat as an additional help shown in the big info box in the middle of the screen.

If you do this for your opponent, you'll just see the card backsides, so you see how many cards they have on the Village Mat, but not which ones. Some effects store the cards publicly (Cargo Ship), so you can see them for your opponent as well.