Did anyone who actually likes Dominion playtest this before release?

[allanfieldhouse]

Finally, they can customize some of the specific animations -- if you gain 5 silvers, that should be one animation that flashes up 5 silvers, not 5 animations of 1 silver each.

In the case of gaining 5 Silvers, MF may have been annoying with showing the Silver in your face 5 times, but it also let you react individually to each Silver gain this way with say Watchtower.

Here's where the system just needs to be smart. If you're gaining 5 Silvers, the default should be to show 5 Silvers and have them go into your discard. Reactions and Reserves are just a case where you can't use the default. If you have a Watchtower in hand, the interface would have to ask you about what to do with each Silver.

[fett0001]

I like the sentinels of the multiverse app's solution: they have an animation speed up button.

[Billy the Mountain]

I was going to start a thread, but this one addresses a lot of the things I wanted to rant about, so I'll just reply here and agree with what has been said.

I have been playing Dominion online since about when the Goko version started, and though the MakingFun implementation wasn't perfect, it was pretty darn good. When I look at the new client, I see an implementation devised by people who have forgotten what it means to be new to Dominion. They seem to have spent too much time on certain advanced features while all but ignoring many basic ones. The GUI is shockingly cluttered and counter-intuitive, in both the game screen and the menus. I've watched tournament games between the ultra-masters (on Twitch), including the guys behind Shuffle iT, and the new game GUI is reflective of the way those guys play: the game log is always on, and they keep one eye on it constantly. I think that's why things like reveal/discard animations have been overlooked. The information is there in the log, so why bother? What really blows my mind is that the trash pile and Tavern/NV/Island/VP token/Coin token mats are all excluded from the GUI. The features for customizing kingdoms are so robust, them seem specifically geared toward tournament play. There's nothing wrong with that, but the menus are confusing to me. I can't imagine a brand-new player being anything but hopelessly lost.

The AIs were smarter in the MakingFun version, too.

I used to play Dominion Online every day, and now I must admit that my enthusiasm for doing so has been largely destroyed. I feel bad saying that, because obviously a lot of hard work has gone into this. I got a partial subscription for free because of my MF purchases, but there is no way I will pay money for this unless a serious overhaul happens. I guess the upside is that I'll end up making new friends when trying to find people to play the physical game with.

[MrCochese]

If I had been developing a new version of online Dominion with limited resources (which actually I was - I miss Isotropic), I would have focused on making it work well for experienced players first too. In fact, I'd have put retaining the core player-base at the centre of everything, as players who move onto other online card games now may never return.

It would be nice to launch with a raft of beginner focused features like animations and tutorial, along with a massive publicity blitz about the relaunch, but let's face it - Shuffle IT is not Blizzard and does not have that kind of resource. Those things can come later, and then it'll be up to us to spread the word and get Dominion the recognition it deserves online as well.