Messages

Josh,
if you look at some Dominion League matches of the higher categories on YouTube, you will discover some games that last 90 minutes and longer - with 25 turns per player, that makes 2-3 minutes on average - especially the first move is often a lengthy affair - this is enjoyable playing without the usual hectic pace.
All this is not necessarily my world either, but it shows the difficulty of doing justice to both the pros and the flash-players here - the current 4-minute rule can only be a bad compromise, which inevitably leads to complaints.

I had suggested an optional time agreement elsewhere, which the host selects between fast, medium, slow and no time limit, and to which all players must agree. Unfortunately, however, I have the feeling that nothing has been implemented here for a long time.

Hi,
the community is certainly not completely broken, but perhaps it is much too open to be abused accordingly. For me the main problem is that every new user is immediately allowed to do EVERYTHING here - there is no period of probation, no public reputation and above all it doesn't cost a cent - all this makes it so easy for a troll to reinvent himself 10 times a day - and before the mods intervene, 100 trolls with the same account run through the community.
Some thoughts:
a)   There are generally 2 groups - paying and non-paying members
- If you don't pay, you can only play Base Set (against bots)
- If you don't pay, you will be auto-matched with Base players only – waiting for expansions isn't any longer allowed
- If you don't pay, you only can play expansions with your (paying) friends by joining a game
- If you don't pay, you can't enter the leaderboard (to get rid of alts)
- Only if you have paid, you are allowed to play with expansions to host your own games

b)   "Newbies" are players with less than 50/100 games with humans, regardless they are paying or non-paying members
- "Newbies" must prove themselves - they have to earn personal reputation points first before they are "Full Members" of the community
- "Newbies" should always get a mandatory voting from "Full Members" after the game (thumb up / thumb down)
- The "Newbie" status and the number of thumbs is flagged out publicly to all players - this can also be used as a filter in a "Full members" preferences for auto matching
- "Newbies" can't vote for other players – even not for other "Newbies"
- "Newbies" can't enter the leaderboard
- If the difference of Thumbs up vs. Thumbs down is higher than X a "Newbie" will be introduced ceremonially as a "Full Member" to the community
- Occasionally some "Newbies" will need some more games than 50/100 to get this level

c)   Of course, also "Full members" can be abusive or they can mutate to a troll
- "Full members" can propose a defined time window per turn (fast, medium, slow, endless) before the game starts – those who agreed on "fast" can be kicked after 1 minute
- Full members do not necessarily receive a rating after the game, but a player always can do this, if he wants to (this may be the old blacklist feature then)
- Blacklist features should be clustered into "Intended Slowplay" / "Quitting" / "Language" / "Foul play"
- Blacklist accumulations for "Full members" can be observed from the Shuffle IT mods to start the banning process with clear and public rules
- "Full members" have the option to press a report button while the game is running - if required, a mod can switch into the current game.

d)   Further annoyances
- Using the same IP address in the same game is not allowed (or it can only be used for unrated games)
- Alternative accounts (if known) are publicly displayed or flagged

May be much too much, but this is the way other platforms are acting successfully.

Hi Katie,
playing a Black Market is still part of the action phase of your turn, even though you have a buy embedded. I assume because of your still running action phase a Crown is only able to duplicate an action card, but not a treasure card (like Fool's Gold). This will only happen in your buy phase afterwards, where the crowned Fool's Gold worked properly.

Have fun
Rachmaninoff

In fact, this can be interpreted in different ways - especially with some other cards in the game it is actually solved differently (or better). In this respect, I agree with you that a term top/bottom or next/overnext would help.

I don't have any real trouble with Ghost Ship, though, because I always imagine the situation in a real paper game - the first discarded card goes into the draw pile and the second card goes into the pile on top - so it covers the first discarded card and with your next turn is of course drawn first.
I find it somehow very logical that it was solved exactly this way in the online game - but again, some text descriptions would avoid the possible confusion, which - by the way - might affect not only newbies.

Have fun
Rachmaninoff

Josh, this only works for rated games - your last rated game was 152 days ago.
And the leaderboard says, you only played 190 rated 2P games so far - I guess, the system is a little bit confused (or very slowed) by filtering 3.000 (rated) games, which never took place.

Have fun
Rachmaninoff

OK, I think we've really lost you now.
I think it's a pity that after thousands of games you've come to such a negative understanding and now you've drawn a very disillusioning conclusion for yourself.

Being enthusiastic about something may actually mean not being able to get a completely neutral picture - but I assume that you haven't tried enough so far to convert the game structure consistently into a strategy that prepares you for the next level and lays the foundation stone for lasting joy in playing and experimenting. In the meantime I rather have the feeling that you chalk up your own missing success to the game and its supposedly oversized luck component.

And that's really something Dominion doesn't deserve, sorry.

Ok, I'm taking back the 'bullshit', sorry for that (you can replace this with another word of your choice) - but please don't stop pruning yourself - you've played a few thousand games here - you've had some fun with it. Above all, you haven't been unlucky every time, but that's exactly what you write here - "I lost many, many, many times just because of this and it's getting frustrating".

You might have lost because you were unlucky - but you'll have lost a lot more often because you weren't good enough - because you're still at level 44 despite all the 1000 rated games. That's quite a reasonable level, but if you come to the conclusion after so much experience, it's often due to the luck of the others, then you simply don't understand it - you didn't understand the real appeal of this incredibly complex and versatile game.

I write aggressively to wake you up, to keep you here - and most of all I want to keep other players from bumping into the same horn. Dominion has never been a game where luck plays a decisive role - I hardly know of any (modern) game so much based on strategy, skill and experience. Of course, it's lucky to be able to open the game with Mountebank/Chapel, but that's no reason to win the game in the end.

So, think about it again and just stay here.
You are addicted enough, that you don't really want to go either ...

Bye, destrapunch.
But when you say goodbye, please do not tell me any nonsense!

I'm with you that players of equal value can win with each other through the fact that the other has a bit more luck. But that's supposed to balance out in a thousand games, isn't it? And of course you can also win against a strong opponent, because luck is on your side - but that's not the case for a vast part of all games.

I see you in the Leaderboard at level 44 - so there's plenty of room for further improvement, there are 5.000 players ahead of you. From this point of view, claiming that these 5.000 players are above you in the ranking because they all have more luck is really total bullshit.

But ok, you probably won't read these lines any more, because you are looking for a game that offers more skill and less luck - for that I really wish you good luck.

Martin

I thought it was an intended change since the last release 1.3.12 - it has been in every game since then.
However, since I don't need the text - and especially not when it's upside down - I thought it should be like this from now on.
(Windows 10 with chrome)

Have fun
Rachmaninoff

Hi, Josh,
I also win over 95% of my bot games - and because Lord Rattington is exclusively focused on Big Money, he usually only wins if he gets his Council Rooms earlier or buys Envoys with a bit of luck.
Compared to some of my engines I'm surprised how 1-2 action cards plus 3 golds and some silvers could be enough to win - but as a rule the bot mostly runs out of air at the end...

The bug with the bank is well known - here is the link to the "Known Bot Issues" - if you look at it, you will know all these bugs from your own bot games - you can be 100% sure that the bot won't stand a chance against you at bank, counterfeit, apothecary, tournaments or travellers etc.
http://forum.shuffleit.nl/index.php?topic=1218.0

I think our big feedback last month to Stef has shown how urgent it is to improve the AI, and it would indeed be very helpful if the worst 3-5 mistakes of Lord Rattington could be eliminated - that would in fact mean a good step forward, so that maybe you could only win 90% of your games against him.

Have fun
Rachmaninoff

Hi Stef,

here's my prio list.
User name in Dominion online: Rachmaninoff

1. An offline client, allowing you to play campaigns against bots
not necessary for me
2. A bot with a setting for different play styles
yes, nice to have - the bot's play style should be chosen either randomly or with a pre-set
3. A strong bot.
yes, this should be included in #2
4. Options for timed games
not necessary for me
5. Options for undo settings
undo should be automated in case there is no new information detected
6. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends.
I am not sure, whether me personally will use this often - but could be fun for many players
7. Option to invite specific players to your table
yes, matching tab should include private tables and invitations for friends (or specific players)
it would be nice to have some more information together with the player's name always when this is shown (current level, a little flag of home country, an avatar)
8. More translations (to what language?)
no
9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/...
yes, could be nice - but I recommend a smoother log with last cards bought pictures, last card trashed pictures etc.
"smooth log" means also replay funtions in slow-motion for the last 1,2,3 turns
10. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ...
no - I use the kingdom visualiser from Icehawk for this
10. Option to hide the log
see #9
11. Android app (or just improved compatibility?)
no
12. iPhone app (or just improved compatibility?)
no
13. Downloadable game logs
no
14. Improved moderation (dealing with chat abuse, slowplayers, ...)
no - Discord moderators do a great job here
15. Tutorial on how to play Dominion
no
16. Tutorial on how to play dominion online.
no

To be honest, I would like more statistics:
- leaderboard of the day / week / month (based on games last day / last week / last month)
- shooting star of the day / week / month
- bring the Breppert tool into Dominion online
- leaderboard against bots (when #2 and #3 is implemented)

That's it - have fun and many thx for the job done so far.

Rachmaninoff

Hi, Lotoreo,

this is more an attempt at an explanation, because I think there is no conscious system behind it. There are simply two ways to get to a new game - via the Matching Tab with the Automatch function or via the Tables Tab and the Join function.
I assume that the great majority of users use the autoplay function, but in the end there is also the tables tab, which always shows the newly created tables first by default - this is due to the alphabetical order of the possible statuses (new, post-game, running) - so the status NEW is always at the top of the list. And I think it's the easiest thing for some players to just press the join button for the top new table in the list - that's all.

As you may know, I'm a fan of multiplayer games and sometimes I also look at the tables list for the newly created or running 3-player games. If I know the host of one of these tables, I have pressed the join button several times to get more or less unasked directly to one of these tables.
And I think that for the 2P games it is ultimately the same intention and approach.

Have fun
Rachmaninoff

Hi Ingix, it's nice when even I can give you a few good tips - because it's usually always you who gives good tips to others.

Of course, the data you see on the leaderboard for 2P games is different from that for 3P games - but in order to see it, you not only have to switch the tab in the leaderboard, you also have to click on your own name in addition (ok, this could be technically optimized, indeed).

And then you will see that at 2P you have a level 45 (248 games scored) and at 3P you have a level 41 with exactly 3 games scored.

Have fun
Rachmaninoff

Ingix: Is there even a rating list for 4P games?

Quite apart from the real mistake discussed here, I would like to say that there is of course a leaderboard for games with 4 players - it is a combination of all 3 and 4 player games and will be judged exactly like the rules of the 3 player game.
This is to be added, because Ingix's rhetorical question has just given the impression that games with 4 players are never scored - this only applies to 5 or more players.

Have fun
Rachmaninoff

Hi Lotoreo,

of course there is a modification - for some weeks now there is this button "Start game", which you have to press - and I don't think all players are aware that they have to press this button to get the game started.

Personally, I like this additional button because you have a little extra time to look at the cards in peace - especially for the new Nocturne cards.

But I'm with you, it shouldn't take three minutes in average to get everyone ready.

Have fun
Rachmaninoff