Since this is the biggest part of the new release, I think it's good to start a thread on feedback on the new lobby.
Big improvement so far. What I like:
- Friends list
- Familiar Cards concept - could be really cool for beginners
- Matching - not sure exactly how it's being implemented, but good that it's there
Areas needing improvement:
- In the table view, there has to be a way to see who is in each game before entering as a player/spectator
- When you leave a table as a spectator it brings you to the "new table" screen as opposed to the "tables" screen. I think this makes no sense and was annoying when trying to find a table I was looking for to spectate
- When making a new table for 2, clicking "ready" before someone enters my table starts the game with a bot. This was super counter-intuitive for me. I think there should be a warning for this or a much clearer text. I may be "ready" but that doesn't mean I want to play a bot, that could mean I am "ready" to play whomever enters my table. A fix for this is to have the button say "Play a bot" while no one is at the table and switch to "ready" when a player enters your table. Not sure how to scale this up for 3+ player games but I am sure there is a better solution than now.
- On that note, when I finish a game with someone and want to rematch and click "ready" the game doesn't start. They leave the table and the game still doesn't start. Then to start a game with a bot I have to unclick ready and reclick. This seems really clunky to me
- The "need help" link is nice, but this should open in a new tab and not close out your current run of the game
Agree with the above. Also, the 'need help' button doesn't work for me (using Chrome on Windows 10).
Agree with ravi.
I think the technical design of the lobby is heading in a good direction, but the aesthetics still need work. It looks like something an undergrad student made in their Java 101 class when they covered applets. I understand there is nostalgia for isotropic, but there really needs to be art assets, something that looks more like a professional game lobby.
Compare to this, this looks fantastic: https://multani20.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/ao.jpg
Another note I have. I think it is too complicated to have tables for 2-6 players. I think most players are looking for a certain amount of players (2 if they are playing competitively and higher than that if they already have friends they want to play with, but the usecase for a range of player numbers is probably really rare).
I think it would be easier if players could just choose 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 rather than give a range. Then you could make a button that says "fill opponents with bots" if all players are ready but the table isn't full yet to avoid the confusion I had above.