Messages

When you gain a card with a Watchtower in hand you have three choices, which are nicely spelled out in three buttons.  I like this - it's much better than other implementations which made you click the Watchtower card to reveal it and then do the action you want.

However, if the Watchtower is reacting to cards gained simultaneously it's difficult to figure out which one you are being prompted for.  You have to read the log and even then it's not clear:

You gain a Duchy
and...
• Duchess

• may reveal Watchtower to trash it.

• may reveal Watchtower to topdeck it.

The choice there is referring to gaining the Duchy, not the Duchess.

Feature request:  Can you add the card name to the text of the 3 buttons so it's clear which card you are making the choice for?

Bug report: When buying a Duchy with the Watchtower in hand, there is no way to tell it to put the Duchy on your discard pile UNLESS you are willing to give up the duchess.  Clicking on "Done Reacting" applies to both the Duchy and the Duchess.

Game 2210 is where I tested this after observing it in another game.

Game 2072.  It correctly marked the 4 cost cards and I got one.  It just needs the text in the log corrected.

I would recommend turning off almost all automatic decisions by default.

I agree.  A very easy way to make this work from the users' point of view is that the message they have to click on would also have a checkbox saying "don't ask me to confirm these decisions in the future".  That way the most experienced players would have everything configured to their liking within a few plays, and the newbies can turn them off gradually as they learn the game.  It would be easier than going through a list of options in your profile and trying to imagine whether a confirmation is useful or not.

That might not be easy to program though.

I would prefer that the opponent could kick the player. Maybe you agreed to wait for the player a little longer than the system would allow for any reason, which should be possible. I agree with Jacob Marley, there should not be a timeout against bots.

I agree.  There are valid reasons for pausing a game if all opponents agree.

It would also be nice to be able to see how many times a player has been kicked so that we can avoid playing with people who frequently quit games.

[This probably belongs in AI bugs - I didn't notice that forum before posting]

I used Prince on a Develop card (not a very smart move - for some reason I was thinking it would be optional and if I didn't use it the Develop would go back into my deck), so each of my turns started with trashing a card.  Several times during the game, instead of prompting me to trash a card at the start of the turn the message said "Waiting for Lord Rattington".  I could fix it with "/undo 1" - LR would repeat his previous turn and then I'd get the prompt to trash a card.

Game #2054.  Screenshot of one instance is attached.

Are the coins we have at MF good for anything?  I have 168 coins which I can't use because they stopped selling expansions sometime before I started playing again.

I just played a Page game where I spent several turns not exchanging my Pages for T-hunters because I was confused by the interface. I thought that I should click the button that said "exchange" because then I would be exchanging them.

"Exchange" is the wrong word to use on that screen.  It's very confusing when you first see it.

I think it would be adequate to let people click the card images, which would behave just like html radio buttons - when you click one the other automatically changes its state.

Sound alert, yes please, both when you have to do something not during your turn, and when your turn starts.

I agree.  One of the problems at MF was no sound alerts when you needed to react.

I think putting a 1 on a pile is a good idea, because it's consistent and therefore easier to recognize the state of the pile.

I was able to undo to go back, but I clicked back pretty far.  I hope you can still see the complete logs to diagnose the problem.

Joining game #624 on frankfurt-test.
Turn 22.
The waiting message disappeared when I clicked it, but clicking on anything else doesn't work.
Embarrassing screen shot below (I'm losing to the bot badly).

Scott

I agree on the long mouse paths.  Keyboard shortcuts are another way to help with that.

Yes!  The default setting for new players needs to have explicit graphics or messages on the main screen that describe every action, for both the player and their opponents.  This is one thing that MF did well.

It would be nice to have a move summary display at the end of each opponent's turn, which shows in an orderly display: cards played, cards discarded, cards trashed, other cards used, and points gained.  Then you would click on it to move on to the next turn.  Of course if all of that was obvious while being played then it wouldn't be necessary.

One of the things that frustrates me is having to review the log to see what my opponent purchased, because with bots it goes by fast and you only see the last card discarded, not what was purchased.