Sorry Stef that mine will be a bit longer. Before you posted this offer for feedback I was already documenting all of the things I would like fixed or improved in Dominion Online in 2018 so that I would feel comfortable renewing subscription for 2019 (I have already renewed for all of 2018 for both myself and my wife). I'm listing my desired updates first, and answering your questions at the end of the post.
Desired Dominion Online Updates (not necessarily in order):
1) Dramatically improve communication! Establish either a customer service rep to respond to issues and questions, or at least leverage the large community of top players to assist Stef. Provide regular (monthly or at least quarterly) updates on planned changes. Document a current list of outstanding issues and planned changes so that people will know if the issue or proposed change has already been documented and prioritized.
2) Place ALL log links, options, and selections into buttons or small windows within the main "table" screen so that the log can actually be hidden. This would GREATLY improve the overall visual appeal and ease of viewing the cards. The log should really disappear from the game except for rare times you need to reference it.
3) Have a quick reference button (like Goko/MF) which would display all of the basic 10/11 kingdom cards on a single screen so that you can see the full detailed text on each card. Even as an experienced user who has played well over 10,000 games online plus hundreds of games IRL, I still need to review some cards occasionally, and it is absolutely essential for new players. Add ability to scroll to additional screens to view extra cards like Ruins, non-supply cards, Black Market Deck etc.
4) Improve overall AI for Bots. Especially - do not have Bots buy last province and end the game when they are losing!
5) Make distinctively different styles for differently named Bots in a more or less hierarchical fashion (easy bots to very difficult). This would be especially helpful to new players, and just fun for more experienced players like myself who want to play quick games and play with the mechanics while not dealing with constant matching to strangers.
6) Make the layout of the cards, events, and landmarks as consistent as possible regardless of the device, window size, and resolution. In my full screen MacBook retina display sometimes the events and landmarks display to the right of the cards (making the kingdom cards all very small), and sometimes they display below the cards. This happens even with just normal 10 card kingdoms. My preference is to ALWAYS place events and landmarks BELOW the kingdom cards so the kingdom cards will display larger. Display as much text as you can on the kingdom card display (might be more possible when log display is hidden).
7) Display the new Nocturne State cards when used or gained. Currently you cannot see them at all (only the cards or hexes which give them to you), and until you have them memorized you do not know what they are doing. I sometimes still get confused between the effect of Deluded and Envious, and have to swap to another window to look up the State.
8 ) Add "Campaigns" (used to be called "Adventures" in Goko/Making Fun) so that new players can gradually learn the cards through a fun series of games that leads them through the expansions one by one. I cannot stress enough that Dominion Online needs to become much more accessible to new players. I am unable to recommend the current version to friends and family who need to learn to play the cards and expansions. It is much too oriented to very experienced players.
9) Complete the promised ability to play Dominion offline and offer that to the old Goko/Making Fun subscribers as originally stated.
10) Add ability to set up a private game. Please!...this is huge for me! I really hate to have people trying to join when I am just setting up a game for friends or family.
11) Display the complete log after the game ends. It would be really nice if you could display the stats for the game in a more graphical manner like the we used to get with the color coded chart and log.
12) Add ability to save kingdoms, and to replay certain kingdoms. When a game ends, there should really be a button to allow you to replay the same kingdom without having to enter a game number.
13) Rename "practice game" to "unrated game" to reflect what it really is. I guess this isn't essential, but it just makes sense and should be very easy.
14) Add ability to write short text or name or description for a game (e.g. "reserved for friends", "practice game with new expansion", "no VP displayed", "all expansions", etc...)
15) Show my own rating and win/loss/tie stats on the website – just like Goko/MF used to do - preferably right on the screen where I am looking for other players so that I can compare my own rating with theirs. In other words, I don't really like blind matching, I prefer to find opponents myself.
16) Show the ratings and win/loss stats for other players that I might want to play with (just like Goko/MF).
17) Add ability to browse through all ratings just like Goko/MF. I would like to be able to see more than just the top 20 players, and see where I rank in the list.
18) Oh, and some last thoughts for my wish list. I really miss the lobbies of GOKO/MF. It made it easier to find people I recognized from the forum to play with. I still dislike playing with random strangers, and tend to play mostly bots when family or friends are not available (much of the time). In the old system, the bots had ratings, and I could gain in my own rating by winning a very high percentage of games (90-95%+) against the best bot (usually Conqueror Bot at that time). I had been able to get my rating over 5,000 in the old system mostly playing bots which meant that I was able to play some of the better players, and at one time was in the top few hundred players. I usually lost to them, and the occasional Bot loss would make my rating plummet, but I really enjoyed the opportunity to play with top players and learn, and I often held my own, which made me feel my rating was truly justified. I'm sure most people won't agree with me, but I would like to see an AI Bot strong enough to have a rating that could count towards my rating.
******************************
Answers to your questions:
Here are some features we have on our wishlist; please let me know if you would appreciate/use them:
1. An offline client, allowing you to play campaigns against bots - YES
2. A bot with a setting for different play styles - YES
3. A strong bot. - YES
4. Options for timed games - YES
5. Options for undo settings - MAYBE, but probably NO...it would depend on the options and whether that would make games harder to agree on...I lean towards NO because I do not think that undo options should be negotiated - in general I'm thinking they should always be the same for everyone.
6. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends. - YES, but VERY LOW PRIORITY
7. Option to invite specific players to your table - YES, HIGH PRIORITY
8. More translations (to what language?) - NO
9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/... - MAYBE, BUT LOW PRIORITY - ability to set speed of animations is HIGH PRIORITY
10. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ... - YES
10. Option to hide the log - YES, HIGH PRIORITY
11. Android app (or just improved compatibility?) - NO
12. iPhone app (or just improved compatibility?) - NO
13. Downloadable game logs - YES
14. Improved moderation (dealing with chat abuse, slowplayers, ...) - YES, but LOWER PRIORITY for me personally because I mostly play with family & friends
15. Tutorial on how to play Dominion - YES, MEDIUM PRIORITY to attract new players
16. Tutorial on how to play dominion online. - YES, HIGH PRIORITY to attract new players
Desired Dominion Online Updates (not necessarily in order):
1) Dramatically improve communication! Establish either a customer service rep to respond to issues and questions, or at least leverage the large community of top players to assist Stef. Provide regular (monthly or at least quarterly) updates on planned changes. Document a current list of outstanding issues and planned changes so that people will know if the issue or proposed change has already been documented and prioritized.
2) Place ALL log links, options, and selections into buttons or small windows within the main "table" screen so that the log can actually be hidden. This would GREATLY improve the overall visual appeal and ease of viewing the cards. The log should really disappear from the game except for rare times you need to reference it.
3) Have a quick reference button (like Goko/MF) which would display all of the basic 10/11 kingdom cards on a single screen so that you can see the full detailed text on each card. Even as an experienced user who has played well over 10,000 games online plus hundreds of games IRL, I still need to review some cards occasionally, and it is absolutely essential for new players. Add ability to scroll to additional screens to view extra cards like Ruins, non-supply cards, Black Market Deck etc.
4) Improve overall AI for Bots. Especially - do not have Bots buy last province and end the game when they are losing!
5) Make distinctively different styles for differently named Bots in a more or less hierarchical fashion (easy bots to very difficult). This would be especially helpful to new players, and just fun for more experienced players like myself who want to play quick games and play with the mechanics while not dealing with constant matching to strangers.
6) Make the layout of the cards, events, and landmarks as consistent as possible regardless of the device, window size, and resolution. In my full screen MacBook retina display sometimes the events and landmarks display to the right of the cards (making the kingdom cards all very small), and sometimes they display below the cards. This happens even with just normal 10 card kingdoms. My preference is to ALWAYS place events and landmarks BELOW the kingdom cards so the kingdom cards will display larger. Display as much text as you can on the kingdom card display (might be more possible when log display is hidden).
7) Display the new Nocturne State cards when used or gained. Currently you cannot see them at all (only the cards or hexes which give them to you), and until you have them memorized you do not know what they are doing. I sometimes still get confused between the effect of Deluded and Envious, and have to swap to another window to look up the State.
8 ) Add "Campaigns" (used to be called "Adventures" in Goko/Making Fun) so that new players can gradually learn the cards through a fun series of games that leads them through the expansions one by one. I cannot stress enough that Dominion Online needs to become much more accessible to new players. I am unable to recommend the current version to friends and family who need to learn to play the cards and expansions. It is much too oriented to very experienced players.
9) Complete the promised ability to play Dominion offline and offer that to the old Goko/Making Fun subscribers as originally stated.
10) Add ability to set up a private game. Please!...this is huge for me! I really hate to have people trying to join when I am just setting up a game for friends or family.
11) Display the complete log after the game ends. It would be really nice if you could display the stats for the game in a more graphical manner like the we used to get with the color coded chart and log.
12) Add ability to save kingdoms, and to replay certain kingdoms. When a game ends, there should really be a button to allow you to replay the same kingdom without having to enter a game number.
13) Rename "practice game" to "unrated game" to reflect what it really is. I guess this isn't essential, but it just makes sense and should be very easy.
14) Add ability to write short text or name or description for a game (e.g. "reserved for friends", "practice game with new expansion", "no VP displayed", "all expansions", etc...)
15) Show my own rating and win/loss/tie stats on the website – just like Goko/MF used to do - preferably right on the screen where I am looking for other players so that I can compare my own rating with theirs. In other words, I don't really like blind matching, I prefer to find opponents myself.
16) Show the ratings and win/loss stats for other players that I might want to play with (just like Goko/MF).
17) Add ability to browse through all ratings just like Goko/MF. I would like to be able to see more than just the top 20 players, and see where I rank in the list.
18) Oh, and some last thoughts for my wish list. I really miss the lobbies of GOKO/MF. It made it easier to find people I recognized from the forum to play with. I still dislike playing with random strangers, and tend to play mostly bots when family or friends are not available (much of the time). In the old system, the bots had ratings, and I could gain in my own rating by winning a very high percentage of games (90-95%+) against the best bot (usually Conqueror Bot at that time). I had been able to get my rating over 5,000 in the old system mostly playing bots which meant that I was able to play some of the better players, and at one time was in the top few hundred players. I usually lost to them, and the occasional Bot loss would make my rating plummet, but I really enjoyed the opportunity to play with top players and learn, and I often held my own, which made me feel my rating was truly justified. I'm sure most people won't agree with me, but I would like to see an AI Bot strong enough to have a rating that could count towards my rating.
******************************
Answers to your questions:
Here are some features we have on our wishlist; please let me know if you would appreciate/use them:
1. An offline client, allowing you to play campaigns against bots - YES
2. A bot with a setting for different play styles - YES
3. A strong bot. - YES
4. Options for timed games - YES
5. Options for undo settings - MAYBE, but probably NO...it would depend on the options and whether that would make games harder to agree on...I lean towards NO because I do not think that undo options should be negotiated - in general I'm thinking they should always be the same for everyone.
6. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends. - YES, but VERY LOW PRIORITY
7. Option to invite specific players to your table - YES, HIGH PRIORITY
8. More translations (to what language?) - NO
9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/... - MAYBE, BUT LOW PRIORITY - ability to set speed of animations is HIGH PRIORITY
10. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ... - YES
10. Option to hide the log - YES, HIGH PRIORITY
11. Android app (or just improved compatibility?) - NO
12. iPhone app (or just improved compatibility?) - NO
13. Downloadable game logs - YES
14. Improved moderation (dealing with chat abuse, slowplayers, ...) - YES, but LOWER PRIORITY for me personally because I mostly play with family & friends
15. Tutorial on how to play Dominion - YES, MEDIUM PRIORITY to attract new players
16. Tutorial on how to play dominion online. - YES, HIGH PRIORITY to attract new players