Well-meaning but harsh criticism of the new platform

[tufftaeh]

Sorry if I repeat myself but everybody complaining about small cards and a crowded interface, please mention which device/OS/browser are you using. I play on full-screen Firefox under Windows 10 at 1920*1080 resolution (on a 55 inch TV), and there is nothing too small. I expect specific UI modifications for the future mobile clients.

[ghorty]

Samsung Tab S and Nexus 7(2nd gen), the current game is designed for a computer, not tablets.

[heeyuck]

Sorry if I repeat myself but everybody complaining about small cards and a crowded interface, please mention which device/OS/browser are you using. I play on full-screen Firefox under Windows 10 at 1920*1080 resolution (on a 55 inch TV), and there is nothing too small. I expect specific UI modifications for the future mobile clients.

The exact same setup I played with the MF version, which had none of those problems: A Windows 10 Laptop, 1366x768 resolution, 16" screen. I imagine many things that are small are no longer small on a 55" screen.

[Megas_Droungarios]

As I only play on a laptop, I have no issues with mobile platform issues.  I do think at very least there should be a sticky here in the forum explaining how the new interface works, or better still, a tutorial with good explanations reachable directly from the interface page. 

And can't they program Inheritance?  It was a great event.

[halapenyoharry]

I'm afraid we are going to lose a lot of users with this version.  Had I not been very deliberate with my wife in getting her account setup she would have quit using it and she played every night with MF. 

Perhaps when the mobile versions come out they will return, but a few things have to be fixed before then.

1. There are so many ways to play and entry points. That's pretty confusing to me and I played thousands of games on MF and play often the physical game board.

2. The movement of the kingdom cards between players turn makes me a little sick.  Its too much movement. 

3. Right Click is not a move most people get.  I recommend a click and hold, click hold and menu, click and menu (buy or read), or a "buy" button in the corner (but bigger than MF's buy button).

4. It doesn't need to replicate the physical experience so much.  i.e. upside down cards.

5. overlays often get in the way of viewing the cards or clicking to read more.

6. you need to be able to hide the game log and ideally open it in another window.

7. Needs sound.

8. I can't login from work if I forgot to close the window at home.  This is really dissapointing.

9. this is feature request: When I play treasures int he physical game I will be confidently lay them down all at once so they don't know I have more in my hand.  This is harder with the autoplay feature... maybe have an choice of which combo to play somehow.

Now, to be fair, here is what I love and hope to continue to see.
1. The placement of Victory and treasure cards makes a lot of sense and up in a corner out of the way.

2. the way the cards flip out is a nice reminder of where they are come from.

3. The truncation of the visuals for the kingdom card saves space and will be great for the mobile version.

4. The background artwork is beautiful.

5. The confirmations and undo are amazingly great, but sort of seems redundant, maybe make this more clear.

6. I like the ability to look at the cards and review what they mean int he "familiar cards" section.  but this could be in a glossary or whatever, I totally don't get that familiar is for  yet, but think I have an idea.

Thanks for your work and hope we see mobile version very soon.

[ffejselur]

The movement of the kingdom cards between players turn makes me a little sick.  Its too much movement. 

If you click the Options button on the main screen, then change the 1st option "Move kingdom and play area" from Yes to No this annoying problem will go away. HTH

[jsh]

9. this is feature request: When I play treasures int he physical game I will be confidently lay them down all at once so they don't know I have more in my hand.  This is harder with the autoplay feature... maybe have an choice of which combo to play somehow.

Already implemented. Go to your Options and turn on the "Autobuy" feature. Be warned it will take a few games to get used to playing with it, and you may make a few mistakes with Debt etc.

[ThetaSigma12]

With 8 just hit kick & resign. Unintuitve but it works.

[gkrieg]

2. The movement of the kingdom cards between players turn makes me a little sick.  Its too much movement. 

You can also turn this off in the settings.

3. Right Click is not a move most people get.  I recommend a click and hold, click hold and menu, click and menu (buy or read), or a "buy" button in the corner (but bigger than MF's buy button).

But once you figure it out, it is much better than having to click on the corner to see what a card does.

8. I can't login from work if I forgot to close the window at home.  This is really dissapointing.

You just need to put in your login and password and click "kick" at the bottom of the login screen then login from your other computer.  You could even continue a game after you reconnect!

5. The confirmations and undo are amazingly great, but sort of seems redundant, maybe make this more clear.

You can turn these off in the settings if you feel they are redundant.

[MVoltaire]

8. I can't login from work if I forgot to close the window at home.  This is really dissapointing.

You just need to put in your login and password and click "kick" at the bottom of the login screen then login from your other computer.  You could even continue a game after you reconnect!

I think, you don't even have to do this anymore. It was changed with the new release. You can now just login even if you were still logged in at home. Only if you are still "stuck" in a game or something like that you have to use "kick & resign", I think.

[geraldoa]

Panoptikus,

I played this new web-based Dominion for the first time today using Chrome on relatively new Android Tablet. I found some annoying interface problems not to mention the game crashed/froze when the match ended, it did not even declare who was the winner.

I came to this forum and found your post saying most of the things I wanted to say.

I reinforce that launching Dominion only for web browsers AND not designing it to work well on tablets is a huge mistake. Even the front page is bad, if you choose "sign-up" by mistake instead of "login", there is no going back, you have to manually reload the page. The website version I am using is 1.0.4.1.

I also hope that the new developer is able to fix it. Dominion deserves better.

Geraldo

[Elanchana]

There's one thing that I don't see anybody's brought up in this thread, and I think it's relevant, so I'll say it here.

It seems like S&S designed a lot of this interface with Isotropic in mind. I know a lot of hardcore players "grew up" (for lack of a better term) playing Dominion on Iso, so it would feel more familiar to them. But the thing about Iso is that it's entirely text-based. There's no play area, no reveal box, hardly any visual representation of anything. Even the graphic mode operated only through the game log. And it's understandable why S&S liked that from a technical perspective - text-based stuff is easier to make than graphic stuff.

But Dominion is still a card game, not a word game. What Goko/MF brought to the game when they took over is the feeling that you're actually playing with cards, rather than generating lines of text. People who started on Goko (including me) learned to keep track of games by seeing them happen, not by reading about them, which is what would happen in a real life card game. Yes there's still a log, and it helps to have the log visible just in case you miss something, but unless there are tricky, complex, super-fine-tuned combo moves involved, you can usually understand exactly what's going on without even looking at the log. And of course there were complaints about the Goko/MF interface, but they were mostly about things like bugs and misclicks, which makes sense given the sheer complexity of Dominion mechanics.

Now there's Shuffle iT, which is in the awkward place of trying to combine Goko's dynamic with Iso's functionality. And they're just not getting there. They look like they want to keep the card game feel, but it's compromised by heavy dependence on the log. I understand that some buttons, boxes, and other features haven't been placed yet, but there are a few features that look fully implemented (some reveal areas, for example) and yet are nearly impossible to interpret without reading the log's description. If S&S take anything from this post and this thread, it should be that they need to make this an interface where the game log isn't vital to understanding what's going on. The text-based Iso era is over. This is still a card game.

[quori1]

What Goko/MF brought to the game when they took over is the feeling that you're actually playing with cards, rather than generating lines of text.

This is why I have stated that Blizzard's Hearthstone is THE benchmark here. It is the single most successful digital card game developed. It is available for both desktop (Mac and Win) and mobile (iOS and Android). It is smooth and clean, the design of everything in it is amazing. It is a fully intuitive UI and sets the bar for any other digital card games.

I did not expect the new release of Dominion to match Hearthstone...but I did expect it to at least match what MakingFun had done. I've stated this before the single biggest issue I see is that this new version of Dominion Online was "designed" by "developers" without any understanding of UDX. I say this as a professional designer and developer for the past 15 years in Financial Services. Sites and materials I have designed and developed have won industry awards on this...so I am not critiquing without any expertise here. I know I come across as harsh, but truly...the UI is HORRID. I saw another poster state it perfectly that this seems "amateur" that is exactly it.

[twasa]

This is why I have stated that Blizzard's Hearthstone is THE benchmark here.

Yes, maybe, but also a card game that has been online since 2014, so not really a fair comparison. I get that people had high expectations and feel disappointed, but frankly mine have been exceeded already, having been around long enough to know the Goko and MF issues.

Stick around, I'm sure the current UI issues are high priority.

[twasa]

But Dominion is still a card game, not a word game.

I think you have a fair point, that the game log should be incidental to the game play and that all information required to follow what you opponent has done on their turn, should not require reading a log. Stef has acknowledged as much himself. So one can expect improvements towards that I would think.

Still, your distinction made me think. Perhaps Dominion and card games in general are really word games at bottom? Although one doesn't need to implement them as text only.