Welcome to Dominion Online!

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werothegreat

      Dominion Online, developed by Shuffle iT, is the official platform to play Dominion, the award-winning deckbuilding card game created by Donald X. Vaccarino.



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).



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:


  • Matching: This is the menu you start on when you log in.  Here you can be matched automatically with another human player, in either a rated or practice game, or you can start a quick game against the AI.  Any game started this way will be played with a fully randomized set of Kingdom cards, according to your settings.  You can also see which of your Friends (or players that you follow) are online here, and join their Table if they have set one up.
  • New Table: Here you can set up a Table.  Think of a Table as a digital version of a real-life board gaming table: this is where you can set up a game, and people can join your table to play with you. Unlike a game started under Matching, here you can choose what settings you wish to play with, including what cards you want to use, whether to use a Victory point counter, and whether players and spectators can see each other chatting.  If a player has joined your Table that you don't wish to play with, you can kick them out.  Once all players have signalled they are Ready, the game begins.
  • Tables: Here you can view all Tables set up by other players, and join a Table that is open.  You can also spectate games that are already in progress.
  • Options: This menu has a number of options related to the user interface that you can toggle.  You can also set your autoplay options here.
  • 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.
  • Familiar Cards: Here you can view every card in the game, including cards that you are not currently subscribed to.  If you have seen a card before, and feel comfortable playing with it, you can mark it as familiar.  If a card is unfamiliar to you, it will show up in grayscale.  To change the status of a card from unfamiliar to familiar (or vice versa) simply left-click it.  Right-clicking a card will show you an enlarged view of it, including its text.  When setting up a Table, you can choose to only use cards that are familiar to both players (you can find this under Advanced Options).  Rated games do not respect familiar cards, and will take from all cards that the players are subscribed to.  10 cards from the Base Set are always familiar, and cannot be made unfamiliar.
  • Leaderboard: Here you can see the current ratings of the top 20 players, yourself, and all of your friends.  Note that your rating will not be calculated until you've played at least one rated game, and updates at midnight UTC.  The ratings for 2-player games and 3-4-player games are calculated separately.  Ratings are calculated using the Glicko-2 system, giving each player a level from 0 to 100.  Only whether you won, lost or tied a game factors into the rating; point totals do not matter.
  • Account: Here you can set your username, change your password, enter bonus codes for free subscriptions, and confirm your email address.
  • Store: Here you can purchase a subscription to Dominion Online, as well as view your current subscription status.  Subscriptions can be for any length of time, but will run for a year by default.  Two subscriptions are available: the Silver subscription, which grants access to Intrigue, Seaside, Prosperity, Cornucopia, Hinterlands, Guilds, and Promotional cards; and the Gold subscription, which grants access to all currently released cards.  Cards from the Base Set are available for free, and do not require a subscription.  When a new set of cards is released, subscribers do not automatically get access to them; you will have to renew your subscription to play with the new set.  Note that all prices are listed in euros.

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


  • Inbox: Here you can view messages sent to your account by the development team.
  • FAQ: This option will take you to our Official FAQ.
  • Need Help?: This option will direct you to the Support section of the Shuffle iT forum, where a moderator or member of the development team can assist you with your problem.
  • Logout: This will log you out of the game, taking you to the login screen. Note that you can only change language settings when you are on the login screen.



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.



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


  • Your Hand: These are the cards you're currently holding, and can see.  When you play a card, it will come from here.  You normally start your turn with 5 cards in your hand.
  • Your Play Area: When you play a card, it will go here.
  • Your Deck: When you draw a card, it will come from here.  You cannot see these cards, but you know how many cards are left in your deck.
  • Your Discard Pile: When you discard a card, it will go here.  At the end of your turn, all cards you've played that turn will be put here.  When there aren't enough cards left in your deck in order to do something, such as drawing cards, your discard pile is shuffled, and put under your deck.  You can only ever see the top card of your discard pile.

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.



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:


  • Victory cards: These cards have green borders, and are worth points at the end of the game, but don't do anything else; they are essentially dead cards that take up space in your hand.  If you have too many of them in your deck, you may find your hands clogged with these Victory (or "green") cards, and unable to do anything of value.  However, if you don't get enough Victory cards, you may not have more points than your opponent, and will be in danger of losing.  Thus a delicate balance must be struck, in deciding when to start acquiring Victory cards, which ones to get, and how many of them to add to your growing deck.
  • Treasure cards: These cards have yellow borders, and will be your main source of Coins, the resource used to buy cards.  During your turn, you will be able to play any number of Treasures, each of which will produce some amount of Coins, typically shown on a large Coin symbol on the card.  With the total amount of Coins you've produced, you will be able to buy one card from the Supply - each card has a cost in Coins shown in its lower left corner.  After you buy a card, it is put into your discard pile; the next time you shuffle, it will be added to your deck, and you will be able to use it when it shows up in your hand.
  • Action cards: These cards usually have white borders, though a few have an extra type (or two, or three) that gives them an additional or alternate color.  You can only play one Action per turn.  However, Actions have a wide range of abilities, and some can even let you play more Actions afterwards.  Actions are the most common type of card in Dominion.

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:


  • Action phase: To start your turn, you may play one Action card.  Specifically, you have 1 Action to use, which you can spend to play an Action card.  Note that Actions, a resource you accumulate, are different from Action cards.  You spend an Action to play an Action card.  The resource counter tab in the center of the game screen tells you how many Actions you have remaining.  Often when you play an Action card, it will yield an extra 1 or 2 Actions, allowing you to play more Actions afterwards.  When you play an Action, it goes into your play area, and you follow the directions written on it.  While most effects are written out, there are a few very common effects that are written in a shorthand:

    • +X Cards: Draw that number of cards from your personal deck, and add them to your hand.
    • +X Actions: Add that many Actions to your total, allowing you to play that many more Action cards this turn.
    • +X Buys: Add that many Buys to your total, allowing you to buy that many more cards this turn (see below).
    • +X Coins (represented by a Coin symbol): Add that much Coin to your total, giving you that much more to spend on buying one or more cards this turn.
  • Buy phase: After you have finished playing Action cards (either because you've run out of Actions or Action cards, or because you decided you didn't want to play any more), you may play any number of Treasures.  You may then buy one card.  Specifically, you have 1 Buy to use, which you can spend on a purchase.  Some Action cards (and a few special Treasures) allow you to buy additional cards during this phase.  The resource counter tab in the center of the game screen tells you how many Buys you have remaining.  When you buy a card, the cost of the card is deducted from your current Coin total, and one of your Buys is spent.  You may then buy another card, and so on, until you have no Buys remaining, or have decided you don't want to buy anything else.  Note that some cards cost 0 Coins - it still costs a Buy to buy one, though.
  • Clean-up phase:  After you have finished buying cards, you then discard any cards you have played this turn, and any cards left in your hand.  Discarding cards puts them into your discard pile.  You then draw 5 cards from your deck, to be your hand for your next turn.  If there are not enough cards left in your deck to do this, your discard pile is shuffled, and is put under what remains of your deck, and then your new hand is drawn.  The same applies anytime you need to do something with the top of your deck and not enough cards remain.

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:


  • Gain: Take a card from the Supply, and put it into your discard pile.  The Supply is the set of cards that make up the large part of the game board, as described above.   The most usual way to gain a card is to first buy it, but some effects instruct you to gain a card without buying it.
  • Discard: Put a card into your discard pile.  If an effect doesn't otherwise specify, cards are discarded from your hand.  Some effects will tell you to discard a card from another location, though, such as your deck, and all the cards you have in play get discarded during your Clean-up phase.  Note that when you play a card, it is not immediately put into your discard pile; it stays in your play area until your Clean-up phase.
  • Trash: Put a card into the trash pile.  The trash pile is used by all players as a receptacle for cards removed from their deck.  Cards can only be trashed if an effect says so.  Be careful: discarding and trashing are different things.  If you discard a card, it will eventually be shuffled back into your deck and you will see it again in your hand; if you trash a card, it is removed from your deck entirely, and it will not show up in your hand again.
  • Reveal: Show this to all players.  After a card is revealed, it is returned to where it came from, unless otherwise specified.
  • Look at: Only you get to see this.  After you look at a card, it is returned to where it came from, unless otherwise specified.
  • Set aside: Put this card off to one side, not in your hand, play area, or discard pile, or on your deck.  Cards are set aside face up by default, but some effects may tell you to set a card aside face down.  Cards remain set aside until the effect that put them there says otherwise, or else until the end of the game.

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:


  • Reserve/Call: When a Reserve card is played, it is put on a player's Tavern mat.  It then stays there until a condition is met where the player can "call" the card, bringing it back into play for some effect.  Calling a card does not use an Action.
  • +X Coffers: Take X Coin tokens and add them to your Coffers mat.  These can be spent at the start of your Buy phase (before buying anything) for 1 Coin each.  Unlike normal Coins, Coffers can be saved from turn to turn.
  • +X Villagers: Take X Coin tokens and add them to your Villagers mat.  These can be spent during your Action phase for 1 Action each.  Unlike normal Actions, Villagers can be saved from turn to turn.
  • Receive a Boon/Hex: Reveal the top card of the Boon/Hex pile and do what it says.  The Boons are a set of 12 good things, while Hexes are a set of 12 bad things.  In games using them, their respective pile is shuffled face down.
  • Night: In games with Night cards, a new phase is added to the game.  The Night phase happens after your Buy phase, but before Clean-up.  During the Night phase, you may play any number of Night cards from your hand.

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:


  • Kingdom: This shows you all cards used in the current game (other than Basic cards), replacing the play area.  This includes all Kingdom cards, non-Supply cards, and non-cards, like Events and Landmarks.  These all have their text visible, but each can be right-clicked to see a larger version.  To switch back to the play area, simply click "Play Area", which replaces the "Kingdom" button when you are viewing the Kingdom.
  • Trash: This shows you the current contents of the trash, replacing the log.  To switch back to the log, simply click "Log", which replaces the "Trash" button when you are viewing the trash.
  • Undo: Request to undo the most recent thing that happened.  Your opponent(s) must allow the undo in order for it to happen.  While refusing may seem unsportsmanlike, it is every player's right to refuse an undo request.
  • Resign: Concede the game, ending it.  This counts as a loss for you if it is a rated game.  When another player resigns, the remaining players can choose to continue playing with a bot filling the role of the resigner.  However, resigning in games with more than two human players is not encouraged; you will take a greater ratings penalty than if you had simply played the game through and lost.  While conceding to only one other person (or to bots) can be the right decision if it's clear the other person will win, conceding to more players makes the game less fun for the players remaining in the game.

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.



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.[/list][/list]

JW

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. :-)

werothegreat

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.

dane

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."

JW

#4
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.

SkyHard

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!).

JW

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

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).

PanopticEmu

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

Ingix

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).

DocDoe

is there any way to play 2 person games?

Ingix

Yes.

Your "Matching" tab is the place to go:



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.

jmark

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.

Ingix

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.