Messages

For me the remaining critical features for the January release are:

- Store (Otherwise, how will people buy in?)
- Better lobby/matchmaking/ratings in order to find and create games.
- Multiple levels, styles, and/or difficulties of AI. Doesn't have to be much; just enough to justify that this isn't multiplayer only.
- A Learning to Play Dominion tutorial or module. Really any instructions, at all.
- Less critically, Campaigns/Single Player mode. Less critical with a working AI, but I think because the product as it stands demands direct comparison to MF's implementation, a lack of campaigns invites an unfavorable comparison.

I am surprised Ruins are displayed with kingdom cards rather than next to Curses. I am wondering how common that is when people set up games IRL? (I usually set them up next to Curses.)

Click efficiency is not the highest priority for a product that's just starting out, accessibility and intuitive controls are.

This is so important to remember.

I think the best would be radio buttons/checkboxes.  Either "exchange" or "keep" is checked.

Make sure labels for radio are also clickable. It is more comfortable to click on label, than on small dot.

+1 to both of these.

[Yeah, it was the other way around but people complained that it did the opposite of what they expected, so I changed it. I'm afraid that about half the people expect it one way, and another half the other.]

I think what's going on is with one, you click exchange to exchange it.  But with more than one, it's a toggle set to exchange by default, and so it says "exchange".  Clicking exchange toggles it to "keep".  Not very intuitive.

Yeah, it was the other way around but people complained that it did the opposite of what they expected, so I changed it. I'm afraid that about half the people expect it one way, and another half the other.

I am one of the main complainers from the "other way". And frankly, I would fight hard to prevent a reversion back to the old method. The "other way" was confusing because the default actions that would be taken when you hit "execute" were not clear and the pictures also didn't describe what was going on accurately in certain cases (e.g. Alchemist), either.

Now, at least, the cleanup screen has improved to only somewhat confusing. When you hit execute, the actions taken match the words that are on the screen (rather than their opposite) and the behavior of toggle buttons are consistent across the entire implementation (e.g. in the personal preferences menu).

I do still think that toggle buttons that hold a state should look and feel different from buttons that execute immediately in order to reduce confusion (different text color, button shape/size, etc.).

Until reading this thread, I have not fully appreciated the difference in clean up when there is one card to make a decision about versus multiple. When you have one card the button is a button that takes the immediate action displayed and shows you both choices available. Very clear. Now we move to 2 or more cards. The buttons are now toggles with delayed execution and one of the two options is hidden (made default). Not clear.

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But the main UI issue, I think, cannot be solved by switching toggle labels one way or the other and is something I have had trouble articulating generally: The client is very unclear about what happens when you DON'T press a button or what to do when the action you want to take is not clearly displayed on the interface.

This leads to exactly the phenomenon you see here: people "expect" different things; the client does not clearly convey what is happening or what will happen; thus people are left confused no matter what "default" you pick. The UI just simply has to be more direct.

I will also note that this is an additional confusion to people who are new to the game and don't even know what the hidden (i.e. default) option is without reading the text of the card at every stage of the decision process.

I will also chime in to agree that being clear on what is happening and removing dependence on the log is one area where the UI could be vastly improved.