Messages

I start this topic, because I just had a 30 turns game which felt like Lord Rattington was trolling: He went crazy with Masquerade as always, but in this kingdom there was Apothecary (another one of his favorites) and Port (awesome: more Masquerade plays!). The experience reader might know what followed: I spent the next 30 turns passing cards to his carefully adjusted treasureless engine of Apothecary, Masquerade, Port and a lonely Rogue he picked up. He made sure to trash my treasures, so he could pass Apothecaries / Potion which he then regained with another Masquerade, to ensure that I could watch his wheel spinnining for another few minutes - with some audience involvement when the next Masquerade came up. Dominion can be a loooooong game, if one side des not want to win...

My play wa snot perfect, shuffles were unfortunate, etc., but this experience was far more annoying than the usual AI province trashing or empty hand plays. I know: These are known issues, Nocturne is coming, good AI takes time, so I do not want to turn this into another 'Blame the developer' topic. But it would be nice if we could identify at least the most actively annoying AI quirks, so ShuffleIT can get rid of these, while we are waiting for a genuinely more clever AI. So I invite everyone to share their own worst AI moment story here.

I find it to be playable on my Xperia Smartphone. There were a couple of fixes on the Desktop version that helped the 'mobile' version as well (basically everything that transfers actions from the log to the card, i.e. for reactions).

Metagame-Interfaces are kind of mashed into each others, with buttons, frames, etc. overlapping, de facto disabling this part of the game. Fortunately, the '1 Bot' button is still reachable and clickable, so you can start games - and this is all that matters to me. If I need to set an option I do it on my PC. In the game itself, the interface works well enough (although it shows some odd behaviour when zooming in). You need to have good eyes and small fingers, but then it is working fine.

There are only three things that really bother me:
1) All the Point Counters are so tiny, it is impossible to see them on a phone. It would help if you could click on them and they would get bigger, as it is already the case for card-shaped things.
2) In the Victory / Defeat Screen the points are cut off, so you never seee the actual score, only defeat or victory. The combination of 1) and 2) is the reason why I still have not purchased Empires with its many ways to score.
3) As already mentioned: Sorting (Cartographer, etc.) does not work properly. This is the only game breaker, as it renders some card unplayable.

Do not get me wrong: I am fully aware that I am using the game on an unsupported device and I am glad ShuffleIt (unlike MF) is not restricting it. So I take what I can get. :)

I'm adding this thought to the "general discussion" of leaderboard: I would allow to have rated games against the bot, if they are drawn randomly (like in "find a game"). The bot would then also get a rating - and could be shown on the leaderboard.

Personally, I only end up in bot games now, if I load a game or want to try something out and typically resign on them. And of course they shouldn't be rated. Also people shouldn't be able to select specific kingdoms to game the bot.

When the bot is not great like now, it will just have a low rating and beating it will not get you to the top of the leaderboard. But apparently there are some people who only/mostly want to play bot games and you could provide them with a rating, which is more informative than level 20.

And you would get feedback on your future bot improvements, when its rating rises.  ;)

I love this idea. It would give all these AI only players out there a meaningful way to measure their skill, while providing useful data if they opt to play against human players.

The way I understand the rating system, this should really be not gameable, as the Bot is quite likely to have a very low level score. It also reflects the actual Dominion skill better: Someone who manages an 80% win ratio against a bot in full-random is probably a better player than most newcomers.

The effort to implement this feature should also be rather low compared to its value, so I would be really happy if this suggestion finds its way into the game.

Still unchanged:

1. Working AI with different playstyles and difficulty levels
2. Leaderboard vs AI, with increasing AI difficulty the higher you climb
3. Offline App for mobile phone
(4. Campaigns or Puzzles
5. UI Improvements, most importantly visibility of Duration Attacks)

I also want to take the opportunity to thank the devs for the more open communication.

1. Working AI with different playstyles and difficulty levels
2. Leaderboard vs AI, with increasing AI difficulty the higher you climb
3. Offline App for mobile phone
(4. Campaigns or Puzzles
5. UI Improvements, most importantly Duration Attacks)

AI is crucial when you play on a mobile device. With connection on and off, I cannot guarantee a good match for humans, thus I need to play Lord Trashington over and over again.

[It is not adhered to]

Nobody here asks for engagement in Internet debates. Frankly, the time invested in commenting this topic, could have been used better for writing a monthly 'State of development' entry, giving a preview of what to expect for the next four weeks, what topics are being worked on, which topics you will start looking into, and where there is currently no clear solution in sight. Be honest and talk about things in sight, and nobody will beat you for it. Make it a sticky in the 'Announcements' section, for everyone to read, and then let the discussion go as it goes - I doubt that this is harder than to micromanage all the rumors caused by the current insecurity.

When you refer to the 'Missing Feature' List, there are a couple of problems with it:
1) It is not adhered to. Adding the Russian language support for instance is at priority number 5 - and here it is now, probably creating new bugs in need of fixing, delaying priority 1-4 topics further. If you have one priority list, and it is not adhered to - why should I as a customer trust it?

I want to stress out, that it is totally normal that these kind of lists change, depending on the feedback that pops up, how easy one feature is to implement, urgent problems, etc. But this is, why you should not make such a uncommented, numbered lists in the first place, but rather talk about the things you know and which you are currently working on. You can mention the missing features (to give an idea of the 'finished' product you strive for), but I think it should be simply a list of bullet points without numbers and a couple of caveats attached to it. This should not be your primary tool for communication.

2) It is overpromising: By setting the timeframe to 'somewhere 2017' you promise features, you have not even started working on - you have no idea how complicated these will turn out to be. Looking at this list and the current speed of development, I feel that the bottom priorities are already quite ambitious for 2017. Remember when you#v made a similar statement back in 2016 (Offline Mode, all Cards on time, etc.)? These are the promises that come back to haunt you. Compare this to a statement like, i.e. that you expect to open the ports at the end of January, solving the Proxy problem. Here you can speak with confidence and caution, and still surprise positively, if the feature comes earlier. And if its really more complicated and it gets delayed, in the monthly update post you can give reasons and no sane person will challenge it.

3) It is underpromising: As mentioned before: Saying 'At some very distant day in the future that we cannot name, we will achieve all the things we like', is nothing to evoke trust or expectations for a 'positive' surprise. You are setting yourself a bar so low, that (in theory) you cannot fail, but you will not get applause (and trust) for it either. And worse, due to problem 2), odds are goods, that you will miss even this 'low' bar at least partially, opening the flood gates for derision and flaming.

4) It is vague : As pointed out by Ravi, it is extremely vague and can mean a lot of things. This is a logical result of reaching out way to far into the future, as mentioned above. I am pretty sure, your roadmap for the next 4 weeks would look far more accurate & detailed.

Having worked with online communities before, I can say that you have an extremely polite and constructive community at your hands. I think with a a little bit of time investment for 'macro' communication (Announcements, Dev Diary, etc), you can save yourself quite some time of 'micro' communication (Forum Discussions, Discord, PMs, etc.), as the community will help to adress these, if they know your trail of thought.

From my work experience, what works best with Internet communities is
a) Honesty & communication on all the things you DO know (including, most importantly, acknowledgment of things you do not know)
b) Regularity - If you know, there will be a blog post every first Thursday of the month, the pressure for a feedback on any given topic will decrease
c) ONE clear channel of communication, accessible for all users (i.e. a sticky post in the Announcement section)

I just wanted to give a thumbs-up for changing the Port. I assume this saves lunch breaks for a lot of people. :)

With the new version the problem is fixed for me. The Client runs now perfectly on my office PC.

Thanks for fixing!  :)

The Victory Point Counter is really hard to read in the current implementation. I know, that some people do not like this counter at all, but when you enable it, it should be really easy to read, as it is one of the most important information on the screen. In terms of font it should have at least the size of the text in the Action / Buy / Coin display in the middle of the screen.

For instance, I really do not understand, why the Victory Chip Point Counter is so much bigger than the display of the total amount of Victory Points. I am not interested in knowing that I gained 20 VP with Monument, but it is far more relevant to me that my current score is 13 VP, as a I gained all curses. With Empires and Landmarks this topic becomes even more important.

On Touch Device there is also a scaling problem with the Victory Points: While the Log stays always at a readable scale, the VP counter shrinks to tiny sizes, when you try to zoom in.

In a match against bots, the Undo Button should ignore the bot actions and immediately jump to the last player action.

At the moment, it is not possible, to undo an action which ended your turn with the Undo Button, as the Button just undoes one of the Bot actions, which the bot then repeats again. This is particularly annoying,as these turn-ending misclicks are usually the ones that hurt the most (i.e. buying the wrong card, playing a terminal action before the village, etc.).

I know of the option to use the /undo command, but this soluton is quite clumsy to use on my touch devise. The Interface button should allow for the same functionality, even if taking a few more clicks.

Nein, gibt es momentan leider nicht. Es ist aber geplant, schon sehr bald eine deutsche, russische und japanische Version anzubieten, wo die Kartentexte, etc. übersetzt sind. Das hat mit die höchste Priorität laut den Entwicklern, von daher erwarte ich, dass das in den nächsten 2 Monaten erscheint.

Das Forum ist aber rein englischsprachig, da der Entwickler relativ klein ist und in den Niederlanden sitzt.

Ich hoffe, das hilft weiter, ansonsten gilt: Questions in English please.

Not sure, if it should work this way, but Training on Wharf does not give the +1 coin, when Wharf is played as a Duration Card, coming from the mat:

Game #145 frankfurt-test

• Banned cards: Sentry, Inheritance, Stash
Players
Bbl (host)   |   Not Ready

Spectators
Ready Leave Table Edit Table You Win
Player
Score
Turns
1
Bbl
32
16
2
Lord Rattington
25
15
Bbl
Card
#
VP
Description
Curse
1
-1
Estate
3
3
Province
5
30
Lord Rattington
Card
#
VP
Description
Estate
1
1
Duchy
2
6
Province
3
18
B starts with 7 Coppers and 3 Estates.
B shuffles their deck.
B draws 4 Coppers and an Estate.
L starts with 7 Coppers and 3 Estates.
L shuffles their deck.
L draws 3 Coppers and 2 Estates.

Turn 1 - Bbl
B plays 4 Coppers.
B buys and gains a Silver.
B draws 3 Coppers and 2 Estates.

Turn 1 - Lord Rattington
L plays 3 Coppers.
L buys and gains an Amulet.
L draws 4 Coppers and an Estate.

Turn 2 - Bbl
B plays 3 Coppers.
B buys and gains a Silver.
B shuffles their deck.
B draws 3 Coppers, a Silver and an Estate.

Turn 2 - Lord Rattington
L plays 4 Coppers.
L buys and gains a Potion.
L shuffles their deck.
L draws 4 Coppers and a Potion.

Turn 3 - Bbl
B plays 3 Coppers and a Silver.
B buys and gains a Wharf.
B draws 3 Coppers and 2 Estates.

Turn 3 - Lord Rattington
L plays 4 Coppers and a Potion.
L buys and gains a Familiar.
L draws 3 Coppers, an Estate and an Amulet.

Turn 4 - Bbl
B plays 3 Coppers.
B buys and gains a Silver.
B shuffles their deck.
B draws 3 Coppers, a Silver and an Estate.

Turn 4 - Lord Rattington
L plays an Amulet.
L trashes an Estate.
L plays 3 Coppers.
L buys and gains a Silver.
L shuffles their deck.
L draws 2 Coppers, 2 Estates and a Familiar.

Turn 5 - Bbl
B plays 3 Coppers and a Silver.
B buys and gains a Wharf.
B draws 2 Coppers, 2 Silvers and an Estate.

Turn 5 - Lord Rattington
L starts their turn.
L trashes an Estate.
L plays a Familiar.
L draws a Copper.
B gains a Curse.
L plays 3 Coppers.
L buys and gains a Silver.
L draws 4 Coppers and a Silver.

Turn 6 - Bbl
B plays 2 Coppers and 2 Silvers.
B buys and gains a Wharf.
B shuffles their deck.
B draws 3 Coppers, an Estate and a Wharf.

Turn 6 - Lord Rattington
L plays 4 Coppers and a Silver.
L buys and gains a Council Room.
L shuffles their deck.
L draws a Copper, an Estate, a Council Room, a Potion and an Amulet.

Turn 7 - Bbl
B plays a Wharf.
B draws 2 Silvers.
B plays 3 Coppers and 2 Silvers.
B buys and gains a Wharf.
B draws a Curse, 3 Coppers and a Wharf.

Turn 7 - Lord Rattington
L plays a Council Room.
L draws 2 Coppers and 2 Silvers.
B draws an Estate.
L plays 3 Coppers, a Potion and 2 Silvers.
L buys and gains a Gold.
L draws 4 Coppers and a Familiar.

Turn 8 - Bbl
B starts their turn.
B draws a Silver and a Wharf (Wharf).
B plays a Wharf.
B draws a Copper and an Estate.
B plays 4 Coppers and a Silver.
B buys and gains a Villa.
B puts a Villa into their hand.
B plays a Wharf.
B shuffles their deck.
B draws 2 Coppers.
B plays 2 Coppers.
B buys and gains a Silver.
B draws a Copper, 2 Silvers, an Estate and a Wharf.

Turn 8 - Lord Rattington
L plays a Familiar.
L shuffles their deck.
L draws an Amulet.
B gains a Curse.
L plays an Amulet.
L trashes a Copper.
L plays 3 Coppers.
L buys and gains a Silver.
L draws 2 Coppers, a Silver, a Gold and an Estate.

Turn 9 - Bbl
B starts their turn.
B shuffles their deck.
B draws 3 Coppers and a Silver (Wharf).
B plays a Wharf.
B draws 2 Estates.
B plays 4 Coppers and 3 Silvers.
B buys and gains a Gold and an Amulet.
B draws a Curse, 2 Coppers, a Silver and a Villa.

Turn 9 - Lord Rattington
L starts their turn.
L gains a Silver.
L plays 2 Coppers, a Gold and a Silver.
L buys and gains a Gold.
L shuffles their deck.
L draws a Copper, a Silver, an Estate, a Council Room and a Potion.

Turn 10 - Bbl
B starts their turn.
B draws a Copper and a Wharf (Wharf).
B plays a Villa.
B plays a Wharf.
B shuffles their deck.
B draws a Curse and a Silver.
B plays 3 Coppers and 2 Silvers.
B buys a Training.
B moves +Coin token to the Wharf pile.
B draws 2 Coppers, a Silver and 2 Wharves.

Turn 10 - Lord Rattington
L plays a Council Room.
L draws 2 Coppers, a Silver and a Gold.
B draws an Estate.
L plays 3 Coppers, a Potion, a Gold and 2 Silvers.
L buys and gains a Province.
L draws 2 Coppers, a Silver, a Familiar and an Amulet.

Turn 11 - Bbl
B starts their turn.
B draws a Copper and an Amulet (Wharf).
B plays a Wharf.
B gets +1 Coin (from Training)
B draws a Gold and an Estate.
B plays 2 Coppers and a Silver.
B buys and gains a Villa.
B puts a Villa into their hand.
B plays a Villa.
B plays a Wharf.
B gets +1 Coin (from Training)
B draws a Copper and an Estate.
B plays an Amulet.
B trashes an Estate.
B plays 2 Coppers and a Gold.
B buys and gains a Province.
B shuffles their deck.
B draws a Curse, a Copper, 2 Silvers and a Wharf.

Turn 11 - Lord Rattington
L plays a Familiar.
L draws a Gold.
B gains a Curse.
L plays an Amulet.
L plays 2 Coppers, a Gold and a Silver.
L buys and gains a Province.
L shuffles their deck.
L draws 3 Coppers, a Silver and a Province.

Turn 12 - Bbl
B starts their turn.
B draws 4 Coppers (Wharf).
B trashes a Curse.
B plays a Wharf.
B gets +1 Coin (from Training)
B draws an Estate and a Villa.
B plays 5 Coppers and 2 Silvers.
B buys and gains 2 Wharves.
B draws a Curse, an Estate, a Province, a Wharf and a Villa.

Turn 12 - Lord Rattington
L starts their turn.
L plays 3 Coppers and a Silver.
L buys and gains a Gold.
L draws 2 Golds, an Estate, a Council Room and a Familiar.

Turn 13 - Bbl
B starts their turn.
B draws a Copper and a Silver (Wharf).
B plays a Villa.
B plays a Wharf.
B gets +1 Coin (from Training)
B draws a Silver and a Gold.
B plays a Copper, a Gold and 2 Silvers.
B buys and gains 2 Wharves.
B shuffles their deck.
B draws a Curse, 2 Coppers, an Estate and a Wharf.

Turn 13 - Lord Rattington
L plays a Council Room.
L draws 2 Coppers and 2 Silvers.
B draws a Villa.
L plays 2 Coppers, 2 Golds and 2 Silvers.
L buys and gains a Province and a Magpie.
L shuffles their deck.
L draws a Copper, a Silver, a Gold, a Province and a Potion.

Turn 14 - Bbl
B starts their turn.
B draws a Copper and a Silver (Wharf).
B plays a Villa.
B plays a Wharf.
B gets +1 Coin (from Training)
B draws a Copper and a Wharf.
B plays a Wharf.
B gets +1 Coin (from Training)
B draws an Estate and a Province.
B plays 4 Coppers and a Silver.
B buys and gains a Province.
B draws a Copper, a Silver, a Gold, a Wharf and a Villa.

Turn 14 - Lord Rattington
L plays a Copper, a Potion, a Gold and a Silver.
L buys and gains a Duchy.
L draws 2 Coppers, a Silver, a Gold and a Province.

Turn 15 - Bbl
B starts their turn.
B draws 2 Coppers, a Silver and a Wharf (Wharf).
B plays a Villa.
B plays a Wharf.
B gets +1 Coin (from Training)
B draws a Silver and a Wharf.
B plays a Wharf.
B gets +1 Coin (from Training)
B draws a Curse and a Wharf.
B plays a Copper and a Gold.
B buys and gains a Villa.
B puts a Villa into their hand.
B plays a Villa.
B plays a Wharf.
B gets +1 Coin (from Training)
B draws a Wharf and an Amulet.
B plays a Wharf.
B gets +1 Coin (from Training)
B shuffles their deck.
B draws a Curse and an Estate.
B plays 2 Silvers.
B buys and gains a Villa.
B puts a Villa into their hand.
B plays a Villa.
B plays a Wharf.
B gets +1 Coin (from Training)
B draws a Copper and a Province.
B plays an Amulet.
B trashes a Curse.
B plays 3 Coppers and a Silver.
B buys and gains a Province and a Wharf.
B draws a Copper, a Silver, an Estate, a Wharf and a Villa.

Turn 15 - Lord Rattington
L plays 2 Coppers, a Gold and a Silver.
L buys and gains a Duchy.
L draws a Silver, a Gold, an Estate, a Province and a Familiar.

Turn 16 - Bbl
B starts their turn.
B draws a Copper and a Province (Wharf).
B shuffles their deck.
B draws 4 Coppers, a Silver, a Province, a Wharf and a Villa (Wharf).
B plays a Villa.
B plays a Villa.
B plays a Wharf.
B gets +1 Coin (from Training)
B draws a Curse and a Province.
B plays a Wharf.
B gets +1 Coin (from Training)
B draws a Gold and a Wharf.
B plays a Wharf.
B gets +1 Coin (from Training)
B draws an Estate and a Villa.
B plays 6 Coppers, a Gold and 2 Silvers.
B buys and gains an Estate and 2 Provinces.
B draws a Copper, 2 Silvers, a Wharf and a Villa.
Joining game #145 on frankfurt-test.

I second all of the above.

- I miss a way to easily veto full expansions: If I did not overlook it, there seems to be no way to set up a table that vetoes Alchemy cards as a whole.

To the first point: Can't you remove the tick in next to the name of the expansion on the screen when you click on "Select kingdom cards"?

Not sure, if I overlooked it, or whether it got adressed by an update, but yes, the current interface does exactly what I asked for.

I've been thinking about the left vs right click thing, and now that auto-playing treasures is off by default, I think the left vs right is fine how it is.

Having played a bit more with the new client, I still disagree. Even though auto-purchase is disabled by now, the new debt cards from Empires are still real traps for newcomers. You click on them to see what they do, and wham, you're knee deep in debt.

One could argue, that Empires is hidden behind the Gold Subscription anyway, but there might be future deals like a 1-month All-In trial or the like and I would make sure that dominion works even with these advanced addons as smoothly as with the base set.

As mentioned above, I also totally agree with 'Show everything' which to me also means turning off all automatic decisions by default. Handling it with a 'Never as me again' might be an option for this (though it might feel confusing for newcomers again)

One more +1 for the Checkbox solution instead of the multitude of otions.