Messages

Thanks for the opportunity to test the new client! Since I do not see a designated feedback thread, I open one here. Feel free to move it, whereever it fits best.

The good:
- I like the new way to introduce cards, sorted by types and levels. This looks like a huge improvement when you are starting to learn the game and go from base to silver and gold.
-The new mechanics intro texts are really nice and should help getting accustomted to a new 'level'
-The new symbols in the game itself look way more professional
- The animations are really clear right now
- The new plus buttons are a great improvement too
- I like the new, smaller log


Things to improve
- The new layout reqires landscape mode, when playing on a phone. This is fine, but there should be a hint, when starting in such a resolution. The most recent version is perfectly playable when held up, so it would be nice, if we could reach this state again. As usually, there are couple of interfaces overlapping each other even in landscape mode, but I hope these get fixed over time
- The animations feel pretty laggy right now. I do not know if it is due to their animation speed, or because of technical problems (Mobile, Chrome and Opera, good wifi).
- Same with all interfaces where a lot of card art is loaded (like in the new levels, but also in the card selection)
- Putting the resign button at zhe very left, next to the undo button, calls for many misclicks. A better position would be at the very right, right of the options button. It feels more logical when trying out all options from left to right and it works this way in many other games.
- It is nice that you can hide the action/buy/coins tracker, but if it reqires mandatory actions (like when you have a buy left), it should come up again.
- A close-button for the trash and play area would be nice. I know, it is redundant (you can click on the area to close it again), but it feels more in line with the other interfacees to have an x-button at the top right corner

Some update regarding the mobile version:
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=5799.msg809552#msg809552

Quote from: Jashezilla on August 28, 2019, 12:37:02 am
   

Hey Donald! Just wondering, will there ever be any good head-way made with a Dominion phone app? Been itching to play it on the go for ages now. Thanks heaps!

Yes, there has been no formal announcement, but someone is working on it now, a real company with published games.

Speculation mode:
The last few expansions all got announced at the beginning of August. I assume, Rio Grande Games will combine this reveal with some kind of statement about the future of online Dominion. Given the current radio silence from ShuffleIT, the lack of progress, the unhappy comments of Donald X himself, I am expecting a transfer of the license to a new company. If RGG would want to shut down online Dominion as a whole, they would surely have said it by now. I guess, they are waiting in order to bundle the bitter pill (service shutdown) with some sweet news (new shiny expansion in new shiny client). Additionally, if there is really a new company working on Dominion already, this company needs some time until their client looks nice enough to show it to the public. Until then, all sides remain silent.

I want to start this thread, with a great amount of appreciation for ShuffleIt's smooth release of 'Rennaissance', including the Promo Week with playable card. Cards (ord card-shaped things) are the heart of Dominion and I feel they are in good hands with ShuffleIt, thus I extended my supriction for half a a year.

Still, I'd like to question the Status Quo. In January 2018 we were asked about the following list of Priorities:

1. An offline client, allowing you to play campaigns against bots
2. A bot with a setting for different play styles
3. A strong bot.
4. Options for timed games
5. Options for undo settings
6. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends.
7. Option to invite specific players to your table
8. More translations (to what language?)
9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/...
10. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ...
10. Option to hide the log
11. Android app (or just improved compatibility?)
12. iPhone app (or just improved compatibility?)
13. Downloadable game logs
14. Improved moderation (dealing with chat abuse, slowplayers, ...)
15. Tutorial on how to play Dominion
16. Tutorial on how to play dominion online.

What we have seen since is...

- 8. More translations -> Addition of French and Chinese (January)
- 10. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ... (November)
- (to some extent) 9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/... (November)

In addition, the King'sCourtier Mod was made an official feature, Autoplay was improved, expansion /landmark / event /project placeholders can be selected when creating a table (very welcome!) and there was some rework on UI and the game log, probably to match Renaissance better.

We heard that an client rework was in the making, leading to better AI, maybe campaigns, etc., but it seems to be stuck, as it is often the case with refactoring in IT. Similiar news reached us about a new table logic.

Given that the last quoted update was from June, I hoped to find some of the November backend rework in the Rennaissance release, but apparently this was not the case. This leads me to assume that every new expansion takes so much development time, that anything but minor improvements to the client are simply out of reach for ShuffleIT's manpower, as long as new expansions come out.

If this is true, I would really appreciate more attention to the glaring issue of the abysmal bot AI in an otherwise fine product. Hotfix it, please, if you cannot refactor it in time! From the comments in the feedback thread, I do not seem to be alone with this opinion, including DXV.

I would love to hear the developer's opinion and their plans for the future.

If you have some time to spare, there was quite an extensive discussion on the subtle nuances of the term 'gg' on http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=17825.0;all ;)

He meant this thread: http://forum.shuffleit.nl/index.php?topic=2750.0

[Suggestion 1, 2, 3]

Thank you for the open communication. I would not need the extra half year of subscription to respond, but I appreciate the gesture. My username is TeDeO. I also want to point out that (despite some well-intended criticism below) I think you have done a great job over the last year. The client is in a good state right now, most major flaws have been addressed, Nocturne went over perfectly and communication has improved vastly since launch.

Regarding your list of suggestions:
Suggestion 1, 2, 3 have always been my core requests for a while now, so I would be extremely happy too see these features come to life. I am not sure if I would be able to beat a 'strong' bot at your skill level, so different types of bots would be a good starting point.

I assume suggestion 11 and 12 are what most people have in mind when they talk about an offline version. I personally do not need an offline version for my PC, but i need an app that I can play on my cellphone when being on long train rides or in areas with bad connectivity. In the meantime, better compatibility (display of menus mainly and the victory screen in particular) would definitely help.

I also want to stress out that I would be satisfied with offline matches against Bots without a fully-fledged campaign. A real campaign mode would be great too, but to me this can wait some while - classic Dominion with all expansions has enough exciting replayability. Maybe there could be some kind of smaller solo mode, where you play full-random dominion against one Bot type and if you have beaten him often enough, you unlock the next stronger bot.

Suggestion 10a, 10b and 13 are functional fixes to me, so these are no-brainers that should happen at some point soon.

Suggestion 15 and 16 are tricky, because noone that answers this post, will need tutorials for themselves. But like RTT, I hesitate to show the current Dominion Online to friends, because it is so clunky and nerdy. Dominion itself is complex enough to explain, it does not help if the interface gets in the way. The MF implementation was far easier to show to someone without any Dominion experience and their ingame tutorial did a good job teaching it, in my opinion. So yes, I would appreciate a clear and easy Tutorial within the actual game, so no Youtube video or text doc. (Not to mention that your business would benefit the most, if more new players would stick with your game).

Suggestion 10 has come a great way since the start of the new client, so I would not mind, if the animations remained at their current level. Suggestion 6 would be nice, but to me it is not really important.

I personally do not care about suggestion 4, 5, 7, 8, 14.

Not on this list, but something that I would love to see are Achievements. Maybe you would not even need the special solo mode, if there would be Achievements like 'Beat Banker Bot 50 times". You could start with these easier ones and then add more interesting puzzle style achievements, like 'Play a card in the same turn you gain it". While the solution might be easy for experienced players, it is a fun way to teach some of the more advanced tricks to newer players.

And could you please gain someone that pretties up your Main Menus? I know, they are functionally working (if you know what to do), but they still look like they came from an early Windows 95 games or from one of these game maker tools.

So my personal priority list in order of how I hope to see the features getting implemented:

1. Improved mobile compatibility (Reorder + Menus, mainly Victory screen)
2. A bot with a setting for different play styles (Suggestion 3)
3. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ... (suggestion 10a)
4. Option to hide the log (Suggestion 10b)
5. An offline client [without campaigns] (Suggestion 1)
6. Achievements (not suggested)
7. Android (offline) app (Suggestion 11)
8. A strong bot (Suggestion 3)
9. Prettier interface (not suggested)
10. Tutorial on how to play Dominion (Suggestion 15+16)
11. Campaigns with Puzzles (Suggestion 1)
12. Option to invite specific players to your table (Suggestion 7)
13. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends. (Suggestion 6)

Not important to me: Suggestion 4, 5, 7, 8, 14

#9226099 on tokyo, 2P vs Bot

Turn 11: I trashed my Magic Lamp, gained 3 Wishes and in my next turn I still drew Magic Lamp? Initially I thought, Lord Rattington passed me his copy via Masquerade, but I did find no such action in the log.

Maybe it was because I undid my turn via /undo to the middle of Turn 11, where I initially played a second Gold causing the Magic Lamp not to fire.

Wolf Den is also a pretty common reason for a second Champion.

First of all, thanks for cnsidering the change.

Regarding your initial question, why I would turn off Autoplay in general, the answer is rather simple: Because it leads to autoplay - which leads to mistakes in return. If I reveal Moat all the time, I will definitely miss the one time where I should not have done it. The alternative is to check in every kingdom whether it is better to turn off Autoplay here (at least after I purchased the Autoplay card). So, I need to keep in mind "Oh, there is Moat, I should better check the Autoplay if I plan to buy it"). To judge this, I need to think through all situations that can occur for this card in relation to all other cards, not only if it is worth buying in general. I asume, a top player like yourself does this automatically, but for a mediocre player like me it frontloads quite a lot of thinking process. I prefer making the choice when the situation actually occurs, as there are far less factors involved. It is all about Cognitive load

Sure, I could just turn on autoplay and undo the mistakes when they occur. But undoing a turn to me feels more disruptive and requires more mental effort than just autoclicking a big 'reveal' button in the middle of the screen. And I just don't like making mistakes. ;)

So, my main problem is really the window size & UI of the feature. We have several hundred kingdom cards by now, so from time to time I need to check the exact wording of a card - again, I am not a top level player. Usually I do this while considering a buy. Being able to see most of the kingdom and the log in the background actually helps in these situations.

On a purely personal level, I find the positioning distracting. I am forced to make an active decision to ignore the Autoplay option - which is quite hard, if this element fills half the screen. My eye is drawn to the right, the card is not centered anymore, there is lot of empty black space, it just does not feel 'right' to ignore it.

I also imagine this change to be rather confusing for new players. As it affects Moat, they will see it quite often and I am not sure, if they will find Dominion easier to pick up this way.

So, long story short: I know, it is an edge case of an edge, I will get used to it, if it does not change, but a more subtle UI would be nice.

For those of us who do not need/use Autoplay, it would be great to have an option to disable the display of the Autoplay UI in the card details. It takes up so much space and I find it quite distracting.

So, with Nocturne going live and no plans for an offline version in sight: What happens to the legacy MF purchases after December 31st? Will they expire completely? Will matches against bots still be possible with the purchased sets?

It is a tiny detail, but i appreciate the small shuffle animation + sound when your cards go back to your pile, after you pressed the 'Start' button.

In my opinion, this is related to the fact that you cannot play the new cards against bots. There are a lot of people who just want to check out the new cards and they are now forced to player Multiplayer matches. Depending on their device it is also not easy to use the chat (i.e. if you're playing on mobile or a tablet)

You can play the Nocturne preview cards against bots. Create a table, select "Nocturne preview," and add a bot.

*facepalm* I was checking Advanced options for the automatch, and in the tables tab I checked in the kingdom selection... ::)

Thanks for pointing this out!

Man, I've never experienced more resigns than playing Nocturne unrated. I still haven't been able to play a single game to completion. And nobody says a single word, just quits, or (just once, I believe) disconnects. I get that you're losing, but It would still be nice to be able to play the endgame with these cards. That seems to not be...in the cards.

In my opinion, this is related to the fact that you cannot play the new cards against bots. There are a lot of people who just want to check out the new cards and they are now forced to player Multiplayer matches. Depending on their device it is also not easy to use the chat (i.e. if you're playing on mobile or a tablet)