1
Support / Re: Players insisting you don't buy a card then stalling
« on: Today at 11:08:22 AM »
The accounts can easily be banned. The players behind them then just make a new free account, unfortunately. 
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2
Support / Re: different game versions
« on: 24 August 2019, 10:23:35 AM »
Familiar cards are *not* respected when you play a rated game. So if you go to the "Matching" tab and under the "Automatch" section either click on "Two player" or "Three player", you try to enter the queue for rated games and when you find opponent(s), you enter a rated game and nobody's Familiar Cards are respected.
In order to have your Familiar Cards respected you need to click on "Practice game" (for a game against another human player) or choose 1-3 AI bots as opponents under the "Bot game" section in the "Matching" tab.
There are various advanced options you could change but the basic rules is the same: If you play a rated game, Familiar Cards are not respected. Of course, if the opponent you find via the automatch for rated games has (like I assume is true for you) no subscription to an expansion, then the game will select a kingdom on the combined set of cards that both of you are subscribed to, which would only be the base set because that is free for everybody.
In order to have your Familiar Cards respected you need to click on "Practice game" (for a game against another human player) or choose 1-3 AI bots as opponents under the "Bot game" section in the "Matching" tab.
There are various advanced options you could change but the basic rules is the same: If you play a rated game, Familiar Cards are not respected. Of course, if the opponent you find via the automatch for rated games has (like I assume is true for you) no subscription to an expansion, then the game will select a kingdom on the combined set of cards that both of you are subscribed to, which would only be the base set because that is free for everybody.
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Dominion Online Championship 2019 / Re: Signups Q & A
« on: 23 August 2019, 11:29:14 PM »
All official communication will be here. Unlike the league, there is no requirement to have a discord presence.
Mods are likely to be active on discord as usual, and there might be a channel dedicated to the tournament, where players can communicate. Contact your opponent via PM in this forum. Of course, if you see a discord name equal to your opponent's name, you can check if they are your opponent.
Mods are likely to be active on discord as usual, and there might be a channel dedicated to the tournament, where players can communicate. Contact your opponent via PM in this forum. Of course, if you see a discord name equal to your opponent's name, you can check if they are your opponent.
4
General Discussion / Re: German Forum Thread
« on: 23 August 2019, 07:24:57 PM »
English:
The main point of my answer is that forum activity is at the moment so low that
a) one or two German threads (or any other language) should not be difficult for English speakers to ignore and
b) finding German content will be easy if you use the forum ability to mark new content: It's maybe 2-3 new posts per day generally, so looking through them and finding any German content should be easy. A German only subforum would probably get only new 2-3 threads a month, after maybe an initial phase.
Deutsch:
Hauptpunkt meiner Antwort ist dass die Forumaktivität im Momement so gering is, dass
a) 1 oder 2 deutsche (oder anderssprachige) Threads es für englischsprechende Nutzer nicht besonders schwer macht, diese zu ignorieren und
b) das Finden deutscher Inhalte auch einfach ist, wenn man die Forumsfunktion nutzt, sich neue Beiträge extra markieren zu lassen. Bei vielleicht 2-3 neuen Beiträgen pro Tag sollte das machbar sein. Ein rein deutschsprachiges Forum würde geschätzt nur 2-3 neue Threads pro Monat haben, nach einer gewissen Anfangsphase.
The main point of my answer is that forum activity is at the moment so low that
a) one or two German threads (or any other language) should not be difficult for English speakers to ignore and
b) finding German content will be easy if you use the forum ability to mark new content: It's maybe 2-3 new posts per day generally, so looking through them and finding any German content should be easy. A German only subforum would probably get only new 2-3 threads a month, after maybe an initial phase.
Deutsch:
Hauptpunkt meiner Antwort ist dass die Forumaktivität im Momement so gering is, dass
a) 1 oder 2 deutsche (oder anderssprachige) Threads es für englischsprechende Nutzer nicht besonders schwer macht, diese zu ignorieren und
b) das Finden deutscher Inhalte auch einfach ist, wenn man die Forumsfunktion nutzt, sich neue Beiträge extra markieren zu lassen. Bei vielleicht 2-3 neuen Beiträgen pro Tag sollte das machbar sein. Ein rein deutschsprachiges Forum würde geschätzt nur 2-3 neue Threads pro Monat haben, nach einer gewissen Anfangsphase.
5
AI bugs / Re: please fix the bloody issues with Bank and Fortune :-)
« on: 23 August 2019, 12:18:05 PM »
The main source of problems is often the design of something, that makes an apparently easy change complicated.
To give you an example, when I did a bit of Dominion programming for myself years ago, I just started with the base set. In that time, a supply pile during the game could easily be described by 2 things: The card it represents, and the number of cards still in it.
When you start with this and continue and do work, then everything is fine, until Dark Ages comes out and suddenly you have 2 piles that contain different cards (Ruins and Knights), later of course more (split piles, Castles).
What's easy to do and handle in real life becomes a problem in your code. In real life, you always had to put down 10 cards per pile, that doesn't change with Kniths. But in the code, you just had 2 things representing a pile: The card in it and the number of cards left in it. That has to change, you must now represent each card in a pile by its own thing (thats an object in todays programming paradigm).
That's some busywork, but usually doable. The big problem is that probably in some places in your code you have assumed that only one kind of card can come from a pile. Consider Talisman, a Treasure card that when it is in play and you buy a card costing $4 or less, you gain another copy of that card.
So, what you could have done in the Dominon world before Dark Ages is to check, when you buy a card, how many Talismans are in play (call that number X), and how many copies of the card you want to buy are still in the supply (call that number Y).
If X+1 is less than or equal to Y, then you give the player X+1 copies of the card from the pile (one bought and one each for the X Talismans). If not, then you give them the remaining Y copies of the card, emptying the pile. That would have worked pretty well.
When Dark Ages comes around, you implement the changes I outlined above. You will have to change how to represent a supply pile and probably have a function that gives a player the top card of a pile, because that is needed very often (gaining cards happens regularly). If you don't have a special function that gives a player several cards from a pile, you'll change the check I described above to give the aditional cards from Talisman out one at a time. Everything works, even after extended testing.
So, on the surface all is well, until Empires comes out a few years later. You implement the split piles like you did Knights and Ruins. But 1 day after the online implementation goes life, you get bug reports. One player is complaining that their opponent got a Fortune in addition to the Gladiator they bought. Another says they don't think it is correct that they got an Emporium with the Patrician they bought. You look up the games and see that in both cases the players had a Talisman in play.
So what happened? The old assumption that you only need to count the cards in a pile to handle Talisman is now incorrect. If you buy the last Patrician/Gladiator, Talsiman is not supposed to give you the next card in the pile, because it is differently named card! That situation could not exist when you programmed Talisman, so you did not take it into account. Such kind of problems are the source for many bugs, one of them the loss of an Ariadne 5 rocket: https://www.bugsnag.com/blog/bug-day-ariane-5-disaster
What happened was that an assumption that was correct for Ariadne 4 rockets was no longer true for Ariadne 5 rockets!
What I want to show with this is changing things that appear easy may have consequences that are not easily understandable from an outside perspective, because that doesn't take into account how the current behavior has been implemented. Maybe the part of the program that plays out the Treasure cards for bots isn't really part of the bot code, but some other code that needs to exist anyway for other reasons. Then you have to make new code (because the old code is still needed).
Sometimes information needed is not available at the place that executes that code, or it is complicated to bring this infomation to the place (think of transmitting someone who is physically away from you a lengthy shopping list, in the days before mobile phones; usually you had to talk to them on a (fixed) phone and they had to write it down, if they had something to write with and on). Information flow in a program is restricted for good reasons, so sometimes things are harder to do than then they appear.
To give you an example, when I did a bit of Dominion programming for myself years ago, I just started with the base set. In that time, a supply pile during the game could easily be described by 2 things: The card it represents, and the number of cards still in it.
When you start with this and continue and do work, then everything is fine, until Dark Ages comes out and suddenly you have 2 piles that contain different cards (Ruins and Knights), later of course more (split piles, Castles).
What's easy to do and handle in real life becomes a problem in your code. In real life, you always had to put down 10 cards per pile, that doesn't change with Kniths. But in the code, you just had 2 things representing a pile: The card in it and the number of cards left in it. That has to change, you must now represent each card in a pile by its own thing (thats an object in todays programming paradigm).
That's some busywork, but usually doable. The big problem is that probably in some places in your code you have assumed that only one kind of card can come from a pile. Consider Talisman, a Treasure card that when it is in play and you buy a card costing $4 or less, you gain another copy of that card.
So, what you could have done in the Dominon world before Dark Ages is to check, when you buy a card, how many Talismans are in play (call that number X), and how many copies of the card you want to buy are still in the supply (call that number Y).
If X+1 is less than or equal to Y, then you give the player X+1 copies of the card from the pile (one bought and one each for the X Talismans). If not, then you give them the remaining Y copies of the card, emptying the pile. That would have worked pretty well.
When Dark Ages comes around, you implement the changes I outlined above. You will have to change how to represent a supply pile and probably have a function that gives a player the top card of a pile, because that is needed very often (gaining cards happens regularly). If you don't have a special function that gives a player several cards from a pile, you'll change the check I described above to give the aditional cards from Talisman out one at a time. Everything works, even after extended testing.
So, on the surface all is well, until Empires comes out a few years later. You implement the split piles like you did Knights and Ruins. But 1 day after the online implementation goes life, you get bug reports. One player is complaining that their opponent got a Fortune in addition to the Gladiator they bought. Another says they don't think it is correct that they got an Emporium with the Patrician they bought. You look up the games and see that in both cases the players had a Talisman in play.
So what happened? The old assumption that you only need to count the cards in a pile to handle Talisman is now incorrect. If you buy the last Patrician/Gladiator, Talsiman is not supposed to give you the next card in the pile, because it is differently named card! That situation could not exist when you programmed Talisman, so you did not take it into account. Such kind of problems are the source for many bugs, one of them the loss of an Ariadne 5 rocket: https://www.bugsnag.com/blog/bug-day-ariane-5-disaster
What happened was that an assumption that was correct for Ariadne 4 rockets was no longer true for Ariadne 5 rockets!
What I want to show with this is changing things that appear easy may have consequences that are not easily understandable from an outside perspective, because that doesn't take into account how the current behavior has been implemented. Maybe the part of the program that plays out the Treasure cards for bots isn't really part of the bot code, but some other code that needs to exist anyway for other reasons. Then you have to make new code (because the old code is still needed).
Sometimes information needed is not available at the place that executes that code, or it is complicated to bring this infomation to the place (think of transmitting someone who is physically away from you a lengthy shopping list, in the days before mobile phones; usually you had to talk to them on a (fixed) phone and they had to write it down, if they had something to write with and on). Information flow in a program is restricted for good reasons, so sometimes things are harder to do than then they appear.
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AI bugs / Re: please fix the bloody issues with Bank and Fortune :-)
« on: 23 August 2019, 09:20:06 AM »
Of course, both (Bank/Fortune) are good points. I'm not sure how easy it is to fix this, but I'll bring it up with Stef. There is another update in the pipeline that will probably get pushed out first, though, which will need Stef's attention.
7
Interface Issues / Re: Tournament, cannot choose Prize
« on: 22 August 2019, 04:45:02 PM »
Thanks for the report, SkyHard.
I thought that old bug was gone long ago
I'll take a look at it.
I thought that old bug was gone long ago
I'll take a look at it.
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General Discussion / Re: Can we have variants to the "3 piles empty=game over" rule?
« on: 22 August 2019, 12:40:57 AM »
Pizzaelemblast, what your posts come down (to me) is that you wonder why nobody is implementing your idea, when this would be a relatively short endavour and (as you said) optional.
The reality is that lots of proposals for various enhancements have been made, you also looked at the one posted by the developer himself. So, one kind of reaction to your wonder would be "Get in the line for all the people who proposed changes, at the back."
Another fact is that there is only one developer, who has help from a very few number of people when it comes to actually writing code for the client (aka what runs in your web browser). Even something that is easy needs to be done, and it always is more complicated than one thinks.
Third, while in theory an option is just an option and doesn't need to be taken, to many options are bad because nobody can at a glance understand them all and how they interact. If variants are implemented, then it would not make sense to only have one.
Recently there was a discussion if emptying Provinces should trigger the game end in Colony games. Then there are players who want everybody to have the same number of turns, so the game continues until before the starting player would take their regular turn again. Then there is a subset of those that want to put 'imaginary Provinces' in the Province pile, so in the turns after Provinces were depleted, the other players can buy them as well.
What I want to show is that an idea never exists in isolation, and often has consequences for other things. Even then banned/liked/disliked card lists had to be disregarded for 'base only' automatched games, because banning 25% of all existing cards was deemed to much of an opportunity to game the system.
The reality is that lots of proposals for various enhancements have been made, you also looked at the one posted by the developer himself. So, one kind of reaction to your wonder would be "Get in the line for all the people who proposed changes, at the back."
Another fact is that there is only one developer, who has help from a very few number of people when it comes to actually writing code for the client (aka what runs in your web browser). Even something that is easy needs to be done, and it always is more complicated than one thinks.
Third, while in theory an option is just an option and doesn't need to be taken, to many options are bad because nobody can at a glance understand them all and how they interact. If variants are implemented, then it would not make sense to only have one.
Recently there was a discussion if emptying Provinces should trigger the game end in Colony games. Then there are players who want everybody to have the same number of turns, so the game continues until before the starting player would take their regular turn again. Then there is a subset of those that want to put 'imaginary Provinces' in the Province pile, so in the turns after Provinces were depleted, the other players can buy them as well.
What I want to show is that an idea never exists in isolation, and often has consequences for other things. Even then banned/liked/disliked card lists had to be disregarded for 'base only' automatched games, because banning 25% of all existing cards was deemed to much of an opportunity to game the system.
9
General Discussion / Re: German Forum Thread
« on: 21 August 2019, 04:10:54 PM »
I guess if you ask in German, most non-German players will immediately see that it is not in their languange and ignore the thread. Any German speaker will look into it and answer/respond, if they want to.
Höchstwahrscheinlich bin ich dann dieser deutschsprachige Nutzer.
Höchstwahrscheinlich bin ich dann dieser deutschsprachige Nutzer.
10
General Discussion / Re: Can we have variants to the "3 piles empty=game over" rule?
« on: 21 August 2019, 04:07:30 PM »
The forum is at the momet a slow-burner, nothing much hapening from day to day. I have no idea if mostly high level players lurk here, or who does. Usually I would assume that engaged players would look in here semi-regularly. Players of all skill levels can be engaged, maybe there is some overrepresentation of experienced, good players, simply because if you loose constantly, you might not play much more.
Pizzaelemblast, you made some good points about a variante that, in your opinion, would improve the game.
However, this online game is closely linked to the IRL game, which it does not control. This is a blessing (game is already familiar to many people) and a curse (no way to generate itself new content, like an expansion).
And to be frank, once you argue
in the context of your proposal to include a variant, you have left the way of a reasonable argument, IMO.
I don't deny that "growing the appeal/customer base of the game" is a worthy goal, but I totally deny that your variant is going to be any significant part of that.
Pizzaelemblast, you made some good points about a variante that, in your opinion, would improve the game.
However, this online game is closely linked to the IRL game, which it does not control. This is a blessing (game is already familiar to many people) and a curse (no way to generate itself new content, like an expansion).
And to be frank, once you argue
Quote
And yeah this forum is just a whole lot of high-ranking experts who have something against growing the appeal/customer base of the game
in the context of your proposal to include a variant, you have left the way of a reasonable argument, IMO.
I don't deny that "growing the appeal/customer base of the game" is a worthy goal, but I totally deny that your variant is going to be any significant part of that.
11
General Discussion / Re: Is Possession programmed into the game?
« on: 20 August 2019, 09:36:22 AM »
Possession is programmed (since the beginning of dominion.games) and no longer autmatically banned. If you don't want to play with it occasionally, you'll have to put it on your ban list. That's what that list is for.
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General Discussion / Re: Can we have variants to the "3 piles empty=game over" rule?
« on: 19 August 2019, 08:59:53 AM »
Well, maybe most players don't start their strategy to go for a 3-pile ending, escpecially as their seem to be few cards geared to that (maybe Ill-Gotten Gains). But in the course of the game, when contested piles run out/low, it may be possible to pivot to that.
Or rather, players can anticipate that certain piles will be contested, so they build their deck around gaining multiple cards per turn to take advantage of that. Of course, if opponent does not contest those piles, then they can build a very strong engine with it and win by buying Province/Colony.
As you noted, piles are much more contested in 3/4-player games, so one could argue that not being prepared for a 3-pile ending in those games just means you are overlooking an option to win the game.
Of course, I can still understand your wish to have an optinal game mode to remove 3-pile endings, it just means some slogs will take forever.
Or rather, players can anticipate that certain piles will be contested, so they build their deck around gaining multiple cards per turn to take advantage of that. Of course, if opponent does not contest those piles, then they can build a very strong engine with it and win by buying Province/Colony.
As you noted, piles are much more contested in 3/4-player games, so one could argue that not being prepared for a 3-pile ending in those games just means you are overlooking an option to win the game.
Of course, I can still understand your wish to have an optinal game mode to remove 3-pile endings, it just means some slogs will take forever.
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Card Bugs / Re: Guardian does not protect against Minion
« on: 18 August 2019, 11:38:31 PM »
Hi tilo,
thanks for reporting the issue! Do you remamber the game number of that game, or against whom you played it? I checked your last 20 rated games (assuming you go by the same name in-game), but Guardian/Minion didn't came up together.
I tried to recreate the situation, and then it worked as it should: it protected me from discarding due to opponent's Minion.
2 things to remember:
1) Guardian needs to be in play to protect you from an attack, not in hand like a Moat.
2) If you can see the Guardian in play at the start of your cards, it will go away this turn and has protected you already on opponent's last turn, it will not do so on their next.
If you remember against whom you played and when, that might get as toward finding the game and look what actually happened.
thanks for reporting the issue! Do you remamber the game number of that game, or against whom you played it? I checked your last 20 rated games (assuming you go by the same name in-game), but Guardian/Minion didn't came up together.
I tried to recreate the situation, and then it worked as it should: it protected me from discarding due to opponent's Minion.
2 things to remember:
1) Guardian needs to be in play to protect you from an attack, not in hand like a Moat.
2) If you can see the Guardian in play at the start of your cards, it will go away this turn and has protected you already on opponent's last turn, it will not do so on their next.
If you remember against whom you played and when, that might get as toward finding the game and look what actually happened.
14
Support / Re: Colony bug
« on: 18 August 2019, 11:02:09 AM »
Hi dacian22,
the behaviour is correct. When Colonies are in the game emptying that pile is an additional game ending condition, it doesn't replace the "Province ending".
From the Prosperity rulebook:
the behaviour is correct. When Colonies are in the game emptying that pile is an additional game ending condition, it doesn't replace the "Province ending".
From the Prosperity rulebook:
Quote
Prosperity game end: In games using Platinum and Colony, there is an additional way the game can end. At the end of each turn, the game ends if one of these three conditions is met: the Supply pile of Province cards is empty OR any 3 Supply piles are empty (4 piles in a 5-6 playergame) OR the Supply pile of Colony cards is empty.
15
Connection Problems / Re: Can't log in as of the August 14th 2019
« on: 18 August 2019, 08:10:09 AM »
The kick solution is meant soley for the problem RosieGirl described, where you are immediately sent to a black screen with Dominion's castle icon in the middle and and endlessly spinning progress indicator.
In your case it seems like you actually have connection problems to at least one part of the server family that is responsible for a game.
I have absolutele no knowledge of Amazon Fire/Silk. Reading a bit in wikepedia only shows that Silk is derived from Chromium.
Did those problems start recently, or have you just started using the tablet and it never worked?
In your case it seems like you actually have connection problems to at least one part of the server family that is responsible for a game.
I have absolutele no knowledge of Amazon Fire/Silk. Reading a bit in wikepedia only shows that Silk is derived from Chromium.
Did those problems start recently, or have you just started using the tablet and it never worked?