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What if core subscription let you play up to level 10, only against bots?

1) It's an additional enticement for non-subscribers to buy core subscription level.
2) It offers a migration path for core subscribers to move to 'complete'.
Summary:  good for the subscriber, and good for Shuffle IT.  Win-win.

P.S. It could also be offered as an option on 'core' for .50 Euro more, say.

I'm getting a 'server not available' message.  First, at work.  Now, on my computer at home, as well. 
The last time was mid game, and I can't log in and reconnect.
Time 9:00 PM UCT, 30 October 2025.

I can't log in - 27 October at 16:45 EDT.

Is there a definitive way to determine server status, or is this is?

What is a "known dummy"?

A better way to say this is that if you play rated games against a set group and the general level of ability in that group is low, then I believe you could move yourself up the ELO ladder by playing only members in that group.
Although I'm not completely sure of it.

I generally like the feature, however ...

I'm playing at level 6, which gives me a total pool of 270+ cards.  So this is an intermediate, not beginner, level.

Compared to 'silver level' expansions, which I used to play exclusively, the game play is significantly different.

When I played silver level expansions (which means all the expansions available to a silver level subscriber) many of the games reduced to building +action/ draw chains as quickly as possible.  Whoever built the most effective action/ draw chain the quickest would tend to win. 

At level 6 I never run into this strategy.  There don't seem to be enough trash/ +action/ draw cards in most decks to make this a feasible approach.  I'm not sure this is bad, but certainly is different.

What I found looking through the levels is that many of the over-powered cards available as a silver level subscriber are now deferred to level 10.  I see 12 'silver level' cards not introduced until level 10 including Prince, Captain, Black Market, Tournament, Grand Market, Governor, Horn of Plenty and Peddler.   Those are all interesting cards and I wonder if some should come into play at lower levels.

A couple of thoughts:
I hope the purpose of levels is not to introduce concepts and cards in order of difficulty.  To my mind, the purpose should be solely to allow learning cards in blocks - and why not have some tricky cards at lower levels.
That being said, I'm not sure why, at level 6, I'm consistently not getting enough +action cards to chain actions.  But ... I hope that the developers feel free to shift a card or two around to balance things up based on play testing. Has anyone looked at the kinds of decks you get at each of the different levels?   

[Ally]

The Allies expansions includes a new landscape card type Ally (23 different single cards). It also contains Favor counters (with a Favors mat) and a card type Liaison that 9 kingdom cards have. How are they all connected?

Favors are a counters that players can get. In that way they're similar to the Villagers and Coffers you may already know from the Guilds and the Renaissance expansions. You can get as many of them as you can  during a game. The Favor mat is presented similar to Coffers and Villagers with an image and a number on it. The empty Favor mat online looks like this:



A card that will give you Favors has the type Liaison. That way, you can easily check when looking at your cards or randomizers if you'll need the Favor counters and the mat. The main difference to Villagers and Coffers is that what Favors are good for is different each game, and that is decided by the Ally!

There can be as many Liaisons in the game as you want. However, there is always only at most 1 Ally in a game. If you have no Liaisons, use no Ally in the game. If you have 1 or more Liaisons, put exactly 1 Ally out.

Finally, if there is an Ally in the game, all players start the game with 1 Favor. If getting more Favors is worth it, is for you to decide!

2 Liaisons:



Underling will give you one Favor each time you play it, and otherwise not get in your way. Broker, however, can make you a serious amount of Favors (or other things that are "nice to have") at once, if you are willing to trash something with high coin cost.

2 Allies:



Peaceful Cult is like most Allies, giving you a way to spend some of your accumulated Favors for a beneficial effect. Here it's getting rid of cards you no longer want. The League of Bankers is an example of a smaller group of Allies that will give you, at some time, a bonus for having Favors. So get enough Favors, and the Bankers will pay you interest.

Note that the word "favor" is properly spelled "favour".  The corrupt spelling comes from Americans who use "nite" instead of "night", "check" instead of "cheque", and "plow" instead of "plough".   Everything is too difficult for Americans.  Nice people, but never follow their lead.

Question:
This is a hypothetical.  Can I move myself up the ELO ladder by playing rated games against a pool of known dummies?   Asking for a friend.

I very much like the levels feature in Dominion.  I don't know if existing players very much appreciate it, as I believe the existing player pool has self-selected into gamers that aren't inhibited by the 'on boarding' limitations of the game.

But I think that this new feature will effectively expand the market audience for the game significantly.  A game like 'Hearthstone' with millions of users really had the onboarding figured out, and as far as basic game engine and play does not hold a candle to Dominion.

So this is a welcome improvement, except -

The main game dashboard is still a bit clunky.  I think that it is conceptually clear and powerful.  Now that I know it, I really like it.  But for onboarding new users there are issues. Just for interest sake, I set up a new account to see what the dashboard would look like, and I attached a screen shot.

Here are my observations from an onboarding perspective.  I don't pretend to have any final answers, these are just observations and opinions. Take them for what you feel they are worth.  My issues:

1) The function name 'Automatch' on the sidebar menu.  There are 3 conceptual ways of playing.  "Play Bots",  "Play Ladder", "Play Friends".  That makes more sense to the intiate.

2) Card Pool.  The levels starts at "10" with a min level "1" ... for a new account.  I would start the level at 1, and maybe dim (but not hide) the levels box, with a switch to turn it on.  Throwing the switch, gives the new user a description of what levels are all about.

3) Card Pool.  I would call this "Choose Level".

4) The 'Automatch' box.  I would call it 'Ladder Search' or something more descriptive.  Previews switch should not be there, but in the overall options, and set to off.  Rating should be set something like (+3,-3) possibly, but certainly not (+10, -10). 

5) I would head this section as "Play Bots", and possibly give it its own screen.  Repeat the "Card Pool" area.

These are all very minor cosmetic suggestions.  I really like the interface in that it is NOT dumbed down.  I like all the options and varieties of play.  The game engine and the general interface is great, once you know it.  But I think that it needs a bit more thought in terms of a brand new user.

In case you missed it, this week the upcoming expansion Allies is being previewed. You can find the previews explaining the cards here:

http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?board=1.0

You will have an option for automatch called Previews. This lets you play with the previewed cards, but games with previews are forced to be unrated. Turn off the previews option if you want things to go back to normal.

Ah, so I just turn off "previews".  Thanks so much.  I have just upgraded from silver to gold, so that's 7 or 8 expansions to get under my belt.  I have seen notices of a new expansion, but just ignore them as at this point it's of no interest to me.  I have an abundance of new cards to learn already.

I'm not sure though why this new preview was not properly integrated into the "Levels" feature?  If I play at level 4 and previews is set on, should I not see only cards in the new expansion that are level 4 or lower?  I realize this is a question for the developer and not for you particularly. Thanks again for the info.

It will be integrated once the Allies expansion is actually released (which will be next Wednesday).
Previews have rules of their own.

I can understand that argument - i.e. if someone turns on previews, then they want to see all the cards.  In that case, it would have been better to have previews OFF as a default value. 

I quite like how the Automatch screen looks at this point.  I see lowest level is now also on the levels section.  There's a bit of a learning curve on this screen, but I think you now have a way for beginners to ease into the game. 

In case you missed it, this week the upcoming expansion Allies is being previewed. You can find the previews explaining the cards here:

http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?board=1.0

You will have an option for automatch called Previews. This lets you play with the previewed cards, but games with previews are forced to be unrated. Turn off the previews option if you want things to go back to normal.

Ah, so I just turn off "previews".  Thanks so much.  I have just upgraded from silver to gold, so that's 7 or 8 expansions to get under my belt.  I have seen notices of a new expansion, but just ignore them as at this point it's of no interest to me.  I have an abundance of new cards to learn already.

I'm not sure though why this new preview was not properly integrated into the "Levels" feature?  If I play at level 4 and previews is set on, should I not see only cards in the new expansion that are level 4 or lower?  I realize this is a question for the developer and not for you particularly. Thanks again for the info.

I moved up to the gold subscription.  I've been playing only bots in order to learn the unfamiliar cards.  So far I'm up to level 6.

I thought I'd try an automatch today for the first time, timidly at level 4.

I got a bunch of cards with "favours", which I'd never heard of.  I went looking through the levels selector.  Nothing on 'favours'.

I noticed the game was unrated. 

What happened?

But if it works well for us, then that means the problems are machine, not design dependent.  And that means it just requires fixin' and everyone should be back to normal - i.e no UI or game logic changes required.

This is simply not true.

but even if it was, there needs to be a list of supported devices and the software needs to be tested on all of those devices before it's released. People have paid money for something that works for them and when that is taken away, there is a problem.

Of course, you are right.  Even for the smallest change there should be a full regression test against a complete device list.  That's standard procedure for anything with thousands or millions of subscribers.
And my argument is preceded with an 'if'.  I really am speaking only from my own anecdotal experience and don't mean to undermine your or anyone else's experience.

But I would urge you to stick with it for a while, or time out and come back after a grace period.  Because if you enjoy the game, and have to stop playing, then the biggest loser is you, not the game publisher.  I still think that what we are seeing is glitches, not a catastrophic failure, but in any case, time will tell which it is, so isn't it worth just waiting out and seeing?

Why don't you revert the software to a working version

Were the 10 or so rated games I played today just a figment of my imagination? Worked just fine for me, and outside of the outage last night, I've been playing a working version of Dominion since release

This is now my experience.  Admittedly I play only on PCs in a browser.  But if it works well for us, then that means the problems are machine, not design dependent.  And that means it just requires fixin' and everyone should be back to normal - i.e no UI or game logic changes required.
Note I said 'if'. 
Today I upgraded to 'gold' and started working through a few levels playing bots.  A much more enjoyable way to learn new cards and how to use them.

I'm not sure if some optimization of the code occurred or as a result of re-setting the animation slider, but the game play is exceedingly fast.  The other thing that used to bug me quite a bit was the way the black bar covered up the lower 5 cards in supply.  It seems to be less aggravating.
In general, well done.

Found it.

Have to turn on 'advanced automatch' setting.

From the release notes:

"Your card pool settings in automatch involve two numbers: the level you want to play at, and the pool range you're willing to accept. For example, you could set your own level to 8 and the pool range to 2, indicating you're looking for a game at level 6, 7 or 8. Setting the Pool Range lower means you're more likely to get exactly the level you want, but you're less flexible so you might have to wait longer for a match."

I have not found where to set the Pool range parameter.  Where is it?