feedback, Dominion Offline & free subscriptions for old MF users

[Stef]

(link to Japanese)
(here is a list of extended subscriptions, which I will update every couple of days)

One day people bought Dominion from MF thinking they'd have it forever.
This turned out not to be true, and although I didn't think this was my fault in any way, unhappy Dominion players still made me feel bad.

Our idea was to compensate these users by giving them a choice between a year of online or the promised offline version. However, we failed to deliver an offline version until now, so this idea didn't fully work out.

I still really want an offline version, and when we get there the old MF owners will still get it for free. But this product does not make sense if we don't add campaigns first, and they don't make sense if we don't add a proper AI first. All in all it is much more work then I originally had hoped, and I now expect this to arrive in the fall of 2018.

------

I've come to the following decision: If you are one of the people for whom "free 2017" just ended, I am willing to extend it with another half a year in exchange for one hour of your time. The short version is "provide feedback and don't forget to include your username". Longer version below. The offer stands for anyone replying in this thread in the next 10 days and is only about expansions you once bought from MF. If you already bought a subscription for (a part of) 2018, I will extend it with half a year for the appropriate expansions.

------

Here are some guidelines on the kind of feedback I'm looking for:
1. Try to keep it short & concise
2. Try to describe your own personal wishes, not what you think is best for others.
3. Please make actual points in these posts (instead of refering to earlier posts making points)

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
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.

[Ingix]

Wer lieber in Deutsch antworten möchte, soll das bitte tun. Ich werde dann die entsprechenden Postings um die englische Übersetzung ergänzen.

(German users can respond in German, I'll translate their feedback)

[RTT]

Hi Stef,

I really enjoy Dominion Online lately and I think it has improved a lot already in the last year. New features I would like the most are:
- Android App or improved playability on mobile.
- The X card banlist (but i think thats in the works already)
- having a featured game to spectate (e.g. two high rank players, a game played in tournament mode)
- I dont know if im alone with that but the blue color on the automatch screen (15 searching) on the dark background is hurting my eyes and really hard to see.


OK so here are my personal thoughts on your list first:


1. An offline client, allowing you to play campaigns against bots /
   
I dont really need an offline client because when im on a PC im online anyway most of the time. More usefull
would be a App for phones for me personaly. And yeah as you say offline play only is fun with a at least decent
AI. Campaigns or andy PVE content really is a nice way to get new players into the game i feel. My wife would probably love that.

2. A bot with a setting for different play styles

If thet means i can set the bot to only play Big Money or only Engines i dont think this is really needed. Though different difficulty settings are nice.

3. A strong bot.

The Bot doesnt have to be really strong as I can just play humans instead but it should be decent and not completly fail on certain cards (counterfeit, bandit fort, ...)

4. Options for timed games

Would be very nice to have possibly with its own ladder or for mini tournaments. Not really needed though.

5. Options for undo settings

I dont need those but i guess it would be nice to filter out no info undo deniers

6. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends.

That would be a fun addition. swiss style would be cool because from Single elimination some players only get one game. I imagine when your game is dont and the other players arent you are able to spectate those games. For Player count I think it will mostly be used from 4-8 Players but if its not too much effort it could be expanded to more even.

7. Option to invite specific players to your table

Yes I would use that for tournament matches or games with my wife. More important is a tournament mode (no spec chat, alternating starting players, tracking the score)

8. More translations (to what language?)

Not needed for me
9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/...

This is especially interesting for playing with casual friends but the game already runs slow on my wifes netbook and im afraid more animations are even making the performance worse.

I honestly think sound effects other then the bing would be cool.

10. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ...

    Yes that is needed in my opinion.

10. Option to hide the log

    I will never hide the log.

11. Android app (or just improved compatibility?)

    Yes i would defenitly use my Phone if its decent to play on.

12. iPhone app (or just improved compatibility?)

    I dont have an Iphone, so no

13. Downloadable game logs

    Very important! if that means the comunity can finally extract stats like councilroom again.

14. Improved moderation (dealing with chat abuse, slowplayers, ...)

For me its fine as it is but i think the lower ranks could benefit from that.

15. Tutorial on how to play Dominion

Yes that is a must in my opinion. Pretty hard to show the game to friends without beeing in direct contact and explaining it at the moment.

16. Tutorial on how to play dominion online.

I dont really get the difference to 15. but If the usability of the Site is good (no log clicking, etc..) then that is not really needed.

My username i RTT if you couldnt guess :)

[Seprix]

1. An offline client, allowing you to play campaigns against bots

I don't care about this in the slightest. Others do, but I do not.

2. A bot with a setting for different play styles

If this is the only way to make the most competitive Dominion Bot, then yes.

3. A strong bot.

There was talk about giving users the API so they could write their own bots. Is this still on the table?

4. Options for timed games

Blitz mode would be fantastic.

5. Options for undo settings

Convenient, not super high on my priorities.

6. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends.

Hey, this is a neat idea. Yeah, put it closer towards the top.

7. Option to invite specific players to your table

As long as it isn't obnoxious and pops up on the corner rather than up front where someone might click on it by accident.

8. More translations (to what language?)

Don't have the knowledge to answer this one with any authority.

9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/...

The biggest priority besides maybe AI. If the game looks great, more people will come.

10. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ...

Right below AI as very important and probably a lot easier to do than AI, so heck I'd do this before the AI anyways. Also very important.

10. Option to hide the log

Only when the game can be played entirely without the log. There should be an icon when chat goes off of course, and I will be using the log anyways because I like the log.

11. Android app (or just improved compatibility?)

Don't really care.

12. iPhone app (or just improved compatibility?)

Care mildly.

13. Downloadable game logs

Let's throw in a better game replay interface with this too. I would love to be able to visually scroll through the game with a bar with the animations flying around as fast as I scroll it, with each beginning of Turn marked with a colored bar signifying who was which player. I could stop somewhere at any point, play from there with a bot (maybe another user is an option but this isn't as important) or maybe with myself. This is very important to me. I would love to have this option to analyze matches while streaming/recording, or for personal viewing. I would love to try out alternate strategies at a certain point instead of straight up from the beginning.

14. Improved moderation (dealing with chat abuse, slowplayers, ...)

I never run into these problems, and it seems to be almost entirely on the lower levels.

15. Tutorial on how to play Dominion

Important for new players, I think.

16. Tutorial on how to play dominion online.

Mainly going through the stuff that isn't instantly obvious, like how autoplay works and the chat commands.

A couple things I would add: Making sure the system can never be gamed. People have been playing fixed boards with certain cards on a table with the rating on, and have gotten into the Top 10 in this fashion. Could you make it possible to never be able to have rating on if there is more than a single card as a required card? The single card isn't an offender, it would be more than a single card. I would say never make rated matches possible at all on a created table but that leads to annoying complications.

Avatars: Yeah it's one more thing to moderate, but I would love to have an avatar I could upload. Maybe this is a safety thing with parents and kids, so maybe you can turn this feature off with parental mode.

[Nidoking]

I didn't buy any of the old expansions, but I was advised to provide feedback anyway. For no reward, here are my thoughts:

1. An offline client, allowing you to play campaigns against bots

I would definitely check this out, depending on the cost. I'm not currently lacking real people to play against, but it would be neat to have a mode with goals and rewards.

2. A bot with a setting for different play styles
3. A strong bot.

I'm not personally concerned about bots, but a range of difficulty settings for the offline client would be a plus.

4. Options for timed games

Not likely something I'd use. I tend to play more casually and let the games take as long as they take. I assume this is timed chess-style, where each move is on a timer, as opposed to setting a time limit for the whole game, which selects against some long-term strategies.

5. Options for undo settings

This would be wonderful, particularly an option to choose a step in the log and undo to that decision.

6. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends.

I might use this if it's implemented, but I wouldn't miss it if it's not.

7. Option to invite specific players to your table

More friend functionality in general would be nice, and this seems to fit into that category. I generally organize games on Discord and then set up the table, so this is not something I would require, but it could make things a bit easier. (My friends wouldn't have to find my table before a random squatter pops in, so less kicking.)

8. More translations (to what language?)

I don't have a specific need for translations.

9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/...

I'm not too fussed about the aesthetics, but certain things happen very quickly and it's not always as convenient to consult the log to see what's happened. Animations that take the time to show what cards are moving where would be a big plus.

10. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ...

This would be amazing.

10. Option to hide the log

I always keep the log up because it's necessary to follow what's happening, and it's where the activation triggers for Reserve cards are. With animations that make it clearer what's happening and a different method for activating start-of-turn effects, this would be nice, but still not something I'd need.

11. Android app (or just improved compatibility?)

I would download this, depending on the cost.

12. iPhone app (or just improved compatibility?)

I don't have an iPhone.

13. Downloadable game logs

Yes please. I don't save game numbers because the ability to do anything with them is so limited.

14. Improved moderation (dealing with chat abuse, slowplayers, ...)

I don't play with many people I don't already know, so I don't have a personal need for moderation. I think it's an essential element of any online community, though, so I support any kind of improvement to moderation.

15. Tutorial on how to play Dominion

I have my own method for teaching people to play, so I don't need a tutorial.

16. Tutorial on how to play dominion online.

A specific tutorial for DO features would be a good thing, but I think I've got a grasp of them now, and there is a FAQ.

As for specific features I'd request, I'd like the ability to specify the Boons for Druid and the point pile for Obelisk when manually setting up a kingdom with those cards. The pre-selected kingdoms in the manuals sometimes specify those, so it would help to be able to set that up myself. The ability to specify cards not to include in randomly-generated kingdoms (without having to exclude a complete set) would also be really nice, and please fix the issue where setting 0 Events/Landmarks as the maximum still adds one Event or Landmark most of the time.

[Bbl]

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

[Awaclus]

I have a couple of requests:

- Sometimes when my opponent's name starts with a lower case a, I can't Ctrl+F the log so it would be nice if enough characters were shown from both player's names until they are unique, even to a non-case sensitive Ctrl+F.
- An option to split the "buys and gains a Moat" lines in the log into "buys a Moat" and "gains a Moat"
- Make an "invite" button for friends who are logged in but not in a game, similar to the current "join" button in the Matching tab so that you can start a game with your friend without having to kick a million randoms from your table while you're waiting for the friend to join it
- I'm not sure if this has already been fixed, but sometimes, an opponent with a long name can cause the VP counter to become invisible. So, if that hasn't been fixed, it would be nice to get it fixed.

Here are my thoughts on the list:

1. An offline client, allowing you to play campaigns against bots
If it's going to be like the Goko/Making Fun campaigns in terms of quality, then I have no interest in it. If it's more like the Hearthstone solo adventures (i.e. actually fun and interesting even to an experienced player), then I could potentially like it, but it's a low priority thing for me.

2. A bot with a setting for different play styles
I don't care about this.

3. A strong bot.
I would appreciate this. I don't play against the rat very often because of how incompetent it is.

4. Options for timed games
This sounds like it could be potentially super fun for tournaments and stuff, if it's like the blitz mode from the old Making Fun mod. If it's more like just an automatch setting to make sure your opponent isn't playing much slower than you are, then that would be useful for laddering too.

5. Options for undo settings
Regarding undo, I want to have all no-info undos granted automatically. Beyond that, I don't care what's in the settings.

6. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends.
If there's a system for this which is similar to the current tables, i.e. you can easily join tournaments by randoms and randoms can join your tournament, that would be a feature I think I'd actually use sometimes. Also if it makes the tournament organizing easier than what tournament organizers are currently doing with e.g. Discord tournaments, then I'd probably benefit from the existence of the feature even when I'm not using it myself.

7. Option to invite specific players to your table
Oh, it was already on the list. Well, this is important.

8. More translations (to what language?)
I know people who would be a lot easier to talk into playing Dominion Online if it was available in Finnish. I might be able to help out with the translation myself, actually.

9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/...
I think the current animations are sufficient and they are already slower than I would like at times. It would be best to allow users to customize this.

10. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ...
Not important to me.

10. Option to hide the log
Not important to me.

11. Android app (or just improved compatibility?)
I would download it, but probably wouldn't use very much.

12. iPhone app (or just improved compatibility?)
Not important to me.

13. Downloadable game logs
I assume this means someone could make something like Council Room again, in which case this is important.

14. Improved moderation (dealing with chat abuse, slowplayers, ...)
I have been completely happy with the current level of moderation.

15. Tutorial on how to play Dominion
If there was a tutorial that teaches strategy as well as rules, that would help with getting some of my IRL friends into Dominion.

16. Tutorial on how to play dominion online.
I don't think this is necessary.

[tufftaeh]

Most important for me would be a nice game replay functionality, allowing the user to browse forward and backward through a completed game.

A second requested festure not mentioned yet would be some kind of personal messaging to a player. It is especially important for an adressee who is not on a table, and it would be nice for a spectator as well (to avoid having to spam the chat on their table). In some cases, messaging a player currently playing would be useful as well, but I'm not sure if that should rather be disabled for tournament games.

Priority of the listed suggestions (top to bottom):

Really useful:
13. Downloadable game logs
10. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ...
9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/...
3. A strong bot.

Secondary:
5. Options for undo settings
2. A bot with a setting for different play styles
6. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends.
7. Option to invite specific players to your table
4. Options for timed games
14. Improved moderation (dealing with chat abuse, slowplayers, ...)
1. An offline client, allowing you to play campaigns against bots

Completely irrelevant for me (but not for others who might be potential opponents):
8. More translations (to what language?)
16. Tutorial on how to play dominion online.
15. Tutorial on how to play Dominion
10. Option to hide the log
11. Android app (or just improved compatibility?)
12. iPhone app (or just improved compatibility?)

[limetime]

As I have not purchased for MF, I am ineligible for additional compensation. I also appreciate what you have done to dominion in the past year and am responding because I like what you have done and I want my opinion to be heard.

1. An offline client, allowing you to play campaigns against bots
I might use it if it were free but it is not something I am super excited about.

2. A bot with a setting for different play styles
This would be interesting especially if there is an easy way to program play rules.

3. A strong bot.
This is really important to me as right now playing the bot is basically playing solo.

4. Options for timed games
I would enjoy this, I would also enjoy a blitz mode.

5. Options for undo settings
Not super important to me(although something to prevent spamming the undo button is important)

6. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends.
This would be nice but not super essential to me

7. Option to invite specific players to your table
This again is a nice feature

8. More translations (to what language?)
Not important to me

9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/...
Not important to me(would not use)

10.A Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ...
This would be nice but I really don't care that much.

10. BOption to hide the log
Would not use

11. Android app (or just improved compatibility?)
Would not use

12. iPhone app (or just improved compatibility?)
Would use if it worked for Ipad

13. Downloadable game logs
Really Really Important as I believe it would lead to really cool statistics

14. Improved moderation (dealing with chat abuse, slowplayers, ...)
I haven't had a huge problem with other players and I think the current moderation is sufficient(at least for now)

15. Tutorial on how to play Dominion
Not important to me personally but it would be nice for introducing dominion to others.

16. Tutorial on how to play dominion online.
I think this can be incorporated into #15

My ranking of the features I care about (in order of most important to least important)

13.
3.
2.
6.
4.
7.
14.
12.
5.
15/16.
Don't really care about the rest.

[amoffett11]

Thanks for the offer of the 6 months free, but I don't need it.  Here's my feedback:

1. An offline client, allowing you to play campaigns against bots

I enjoyed the old campaigns, so I would use this feature.

2. A bot with a setting for different play styles

This would be nice, but isn't as important as a stronger bot.  If a stronger bot is the only bot, that would be fine for me. 

3. A strong bot.

A stronger bot would be great.  The biggest issue with the current bot is that it traps itself on too-high a percentage of boards (the bot trashes itself down too far and falls into a loop).  It's hard to get an idea of how you're doing when the bot isn't able to play at least some kind of strategy. 

4. Options for timed games

This would be one of my top requests.  We like to call it "Blitz Mode" (basically a mode where you don't have long amounts of time to think, you just have to do), but any kind of setting that we can play around with on tables to alter the amount of time available would be great. 

5. Options for undo settings

This is not important to me, the current undo functionality is good enough for me. 

6. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends.

I don't know how this would/could work, but it sounds great and would definitely be something I would use (the Dominion discord would probably love it)

7. Option to invite specific players to your table

This would be useful, but the current tables and friends/followers setup seems to work well enough too, so its not a high priority for me. 

8. More translations (to what language?)

This would be great I guess but it's not something that I need. 

9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/...

I've gotten used to playing without them, but it would be a nice addition.  Especially some of the autoplay decisions, if I'm not looking for it I can miss what happens.  Trashing with doctor (did I just reveal 3 coppers, or did I trash 3 estates?), Swindler with only 1 target to replace with, I would like some visual clue as to what happened. 

10. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ...

Of these three, Archive/Crypt are the most important to me.  It's hard to plan for my next turn if I can't remember exactly what is in each Archive/Crypt.  Split piles and Prince I'm ok with. 

10. Option to hide the log

I like the log so I don't need to hide it. 

11. Android app (or just improved compatibility?)

This is not something I would use. 

12. iPhone app (or just improved compatibility?)

This is something I might use, but isn't important to me. 

13. Downloadable game logs

This would be great.  I think Scavenger was part of the way there, but I like to either see the log after the game, or at least be able to download it from somewhere.  Currently you can always reload an old game and take a look at the active log, but that tends to be too much of a hassle.

14. Improved moderation (dealing with chat abuse, slowplayers, ...)

This is not a problem I run into, and it seems like the current system is working ok.  Blacklisting is a nice feature, and it seems like the mods get around to banning the repeat offenders. 

15. Tutorial on how to play Dominion

Not something I need, and not something I think needs to be connected to the client.  There's lots of these out there already which users can find. 

16. Tutorial on how to play dominion online.

This would be more useful than a Dominion tutorial, not something I need, but a short 10ish minute video walking through some of the basics (how to start a game, how to find a friend, how to make a table and get a friend there) and some of the features (setting up kingdoms, some more advanced settings, dealing with abusive players) would be a great step towards pointing people I know to the client.  Now I don't have to walk them through this stuff. 


If I was putting these in order:

Top - Strong Bot, Timed Games, Downloadable game logs, online tournaments

Middle - Offline mode (campaigns), Visualization for Archive/Crypt, different bot settings, better animations

Bottom - Dominion tutorial, iphone and android, hide the log, undo settings, invite players to your table, translations, improved moderation


It wasn't listed here, but I liked RTT's idea of a featured game; maybe not two high-ranked players (this might get old for them after awhile), but an option to toggle a table as a "tournament game", for the Dominion League or for other tournaments, would be great. 

Thanks for everything you do with this client, it's come a long way in Year One and I look forward to Year Two. 

[allanfieldhouse]

My feedback is grouped into 3 main areas.

• My biggest request is a client for playing vs bots that I don't have to subscribe to (I don't really care if it's specifically offline or online). I also don't care if this includes campaigns or not.
  
  As part of that, we definitely need a better/stronger AI. Different AI playstyles would be cool, but even a choice of easy/medium/hard would be a great first step.
  
  I'd love to be able to play this on my iPhone, but that's lower priority for me than the rest.
  
  


• The next most important thing for me is just the overall polish and quality of the game's user interface. This includes your points 9-10. Namely, better graphical displays of all game state (and state changes) such that using the log is basically optional. A lot of your UI looks and works okay, but I think bringing in a consultant who has more experience designing game interfaces could provide a huge boost in usability and professionalism.
  
  


• Finally, when I do play online vs other people, it's typically only people I know IRL. So anything to facilitate that would be greatly appreciated. This includes the ability to create a private table and invite specific players to it. The mini-tournament idea also sounds awesome for when we have several players wanting to play.
  

Thank you for the free months and the update on your progress. I really appreciate any time you communicate out your status, plans, difficulties, etc. (even if it is "hidden" on a forum).

[markus]

1. An offline client, allowing you to play campaigns against bots
it would only be useful to me if it was available on Android for mobile use without internet connection.

2. A bot with a setting for different play styles
I want the best possible bot, so a simple version of this is not important to me. The complex version would be something like "teaching" the bot: e.g. telling him how to open on a board and then he takes it from there in the best way.

3. A strong bot.
That would be nice, but only useful to me, if you get the bot to at least mu=1.5. If at some point computational effort becomes the limitation, I'd be willing to pay extra for games against a very good bot.

4. Options for timed games
Yes, I'd like to have quick games as an option.

5. Options for undo settings
I don't remember a situation, in which I didn't grant a reasonable undo and vice versa, so it's low on my priorities. You could have it as an advanced search option with yes/no/don't care and people who really don't like undos will have to wait longer to find a suitable match (similarly also adding the same for VP counter).
There are some cases now that require an undo even though nothing happened from an opponent's point of view. (e.g. selecting discard option with Hamlet before discarding). It would be nice to be able to simply undo those decisions.
I'm more skeptical about a general undo without new info as I don't want to see a back and forth in my opponent's turn / buy phase. If that becomes possible, I would only like to see the opponent's decisions that have been "locked in".

6. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends.
Not a high priority for me as the main problem in organizing a tournament is arranging opponents to be available at the same time. An option would be a quick tournament for people that state to be available for the next 2 hours or so, but I doubt that the player base is large enough for that.

Something that should be easy to implement is having a separate ladder for a group of friends: you specify the friends and a time horizon and a ranking is calculated using only rated games between those friends.

7. Option to invite specific players to your table
nice to have but not a high priority

8. More translations (to what language?)
not needed

9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/...
Yes, in particular for cards that reveal and discard cards (e.g. Hunting Party). There should be a speed option - for me it would be enough to briefly flash what was revealed.

10. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ...
That's the most important point for me, in particular Archive and Crypt contents.

10. Option to hide the log
I don't care

11. Android app (or just improved compatibility?)
Yes, in particular with offline availability

12. iPhone app (or just improved compatibility?)
no

13. Downloadable game logs
It would be really nice to be able to (automatically) analyze logs again.

14. Improved moderation (dealing with chat abuse, slowplayers, ...)
I don't experience problems with my opponents.

15. Tutorial on how to play Dominion
not necessary for me, but important for new players

16. Tutorial on how to play dominion online.
not necessary for me, but important for new players

[twasa]

I also think the online client has improved much over the year.

1. An offline client, allowing you to play campaigns against bots

I don't really care about offline play. I realize others may have good use for it though.

2. A bot with a setting for different play styles

If the bot had some API and a way to specify buy rules, this may be interesting.

3. A strong bot.

I think a bot which doesn't get trapped by some cards is fine.

4. Options for timed games

I would probably not use it often, but I can see the usefulness of such a variant.

5. Options for undo settings

I think undo in its current form is fine. I don't deny any undo as it is.

6. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends.

This sounds like a good idea.

7. Option to invite specific players to your table

Especially if there is a way to message the player that the table has been created.

8. More translations (to what language?)

English is fine for me, even if not my first language.

9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/...


I like that there are not that many animations, but sometimes one needs to look at the log to figure out what happened.

10. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ...


Archive perhaps especially, and maybe crypt. Prince is fine as it is.

10. Option to hide the log


If the log could be hidden, I won't.

11. Android app (or just improved compatibility?)


Although I use an android phone, I would never use it to play Dominion.

12. iPhone app (or just improved compatibility?)


I don't use iPhone.

13. Downloadable game logs


This or some way to "replay" a previous game as if it were a recording would be great.

14. Improved moderation (dealing with chat abuse, slowplayers, ...)


I rarely have games with such problems, although they have happened. I think blacklisting is fine for the few times I felt the need not to play a player again.

15. Tutorial on how to play Dominion


Obviously meant for new players, but I'm not sure that it is needed on the online client.

16. Tutorial on how to play dominion online.


I think this would be useful: auto buy, familiar cards, subscription etc are only relevant online.

In addition to the list:

(a) A featured game that has been suggested, could also be a featured game log. Especially if it could be replayed as the game was played.

(b) I like the idea of having an avatar, but maybe players could also have a profile with limited personal information that they may optionally provide. Perhaps things like country, time zone (in case one would like to play again in future) and language(s). Although this may just be things I'd be interested in.

[Zhuria]

So I'm someone who bought expansions thinking they'd last forever, and didn't play the game for a long time. By the time I started playing, it had switched over to a subscription and my free year was gone (I literally started playing a week after it ended, so I got NO use out of that entire year. It went completely to waste.)

Considering that, I would definitely love an extra 6 months. My username is Zhuria

I'm also a casual and just learning to play better, so my main wishes are:

A) Save my bot table settings or let me change them BEFORE starting a bot game. Right now I have to start a bot game, resign, then I can lower the bot difficulty (I'm real bad)
B) Improved bot AI (they seem way too obsessed with chapels, for one!)

1. An offline client, allowing you to play campaigns against bots
I would definitely use this as I'm only playing versus bots and the browser can get laggy. Furthermore, one with all the expansions, for a player like me, would be wonderful. I tend to only play things for short periods at a time before taking long breaks so subscriptions are very annoying for me.

2. A bot with a setting for different play styles
Absolutely!

3. A strong bot.
A strong bot would wipe the floor with me right now so I'm indifferent.

4. Options for timed games
Not interested, I like to take my time. Already the games move quicker than I'd like, but that's the nature of the game itself.

5. Options for undo settings
I'm not entirely sure what this would be but I can't see myself needing it.

6. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends.
I wouldn't use this in my current state of ability, but it does sound fun

7. Option to invite specific players to your table
That sounds extremely useful and like something I would use if/when I play versus players or with friends.

8. More translations (to what language?)
I'm find with just english.

9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/...
I don't like that I almost always have to look at the log to figure out what just happened. I think there could be a short delay when opponents do things (i.e. when they buy something or play an action that affects me but requires no input from me, leave it on the screen for a moment longer so I have a chance to see it) - you could make up this time by having them play all their treasures at once instead of one at a time.

10. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ...
Not applicable as I haven't encountered these mechanics yet

10. Option to hide the log
Could be useful but I'm find without it since I rely quite a bit on the log to figure out what just happened..

11. Android app (or just improved compatibility?)
I would use this.

12. iPhone app (or just improved compatibility?)
I wouldn't use this.

13. Downloadable game logs
I wouldn't use this.

14. Improved moderation (dealing with chat abuse, slowplayers, ...)
Not applicable as I have only played versus bots.

15. Tutorial on how to play Dominion
Would be very useful for newcomers but not for me as I had friends teach me. I do remember using it in the previous version of the online game, though. (I tried it briefly before putting it down for literally years)

16. Tutorial on how to play dominion online.
Would be useful. Had to press a few different buttons before I figured out how to magnify cards, for example. And it sounds like there are some more complex mechanics that I haven't tried yet that could be confusing.

[AdamH]

I'm Adam Horton on the client.



1. An offline client, allowing you to play campaigns against bots

I would like this. I wouldn't really be into the campaigns but just the ability to play a specified kingdom against a bot would be very useful for me to do offline.
Particularly, I want to do playtesting for kingdoms I design for my IRL tournaments and it would be nice if I knew there was no online record of those games being played.

Personally, I don't think a campaign would be all that useful -- just the ability to play a recommended set by just selecting from a menu would be way better.


2. A bot with a setting for different play styles

The only setting for a specific play style that I would want is a bot that can play big money with one kingdom card, and is optimized for that. So I could tell the Fun Police Bot to find the best single-card big money enabler on a given board and play an optimized strat for that.

Aside from that, easy/medium/hard might be useful but I would say only if it's very easy to code.


3. A strong bot.

I would like for a strong bot to exist, but I don't think it's a reasonable thing to ask. I think this is difficult enough that it will take so long to do; and there's enough other stuff on the client that needs work that this should be the lowest priority.


4. Options for timed games

I wouldn't use this.


5. Options for undo settings

I would like a setting (similar to the game-specific autoplay setting) where I could grant all undo requests for the rest of the game without having it ask me. I'd also like a setting (similar to the regular autoplay settings) where it will grant every undo request that doesn't reveal additional information without asking me.


6. Online mini-tournaments; the option to easily create one for you & your friends.

I wouldn't use this.


7. Option to invite specific players to your table

I would use this pretty much every time I played Dominion.


8. More translations (to what language?)

I wouldn't use this.


9. Better animations when cards are gained/bought/played/...

An option to have this enabled (and have it enabled by default) is the one single thing that would improve the software the most, in my opinion. Whenever a card is gained on an opponent's turn, that card should dance in front of me. Perhaps a similar animation for if they trash a card. I really don't care about other animations (in fact I'd turn them off) but having this animation would improve the player's experience more than anything else.


10. Better visualization of split piles, Archive/Crypt contents, Prince targets, ...

Archive/Crypt/Haven, etc. contents, yes there needs to be a way to see that.

Split piles, eh, I don't care as much. The King's Courtier plugin does that well enough for me.


10. Option to hide the log

I'd never do it, but I think that option should be there for sure. I would use an option to hide the log and pop out another window that contained an auto-updating log.


11. Android app (or just improved compatibility?)
12. iPhone app (or just improved compatibility?)
I wouldn't use these.


13. Downloadable game logs

These would be great.


14. Improved moderation (dealing with chat abuse, slowplayers, ...)

I'd like a way to squelch the chat. I'd also like a button for "report abuse", mostly because I'm tired of trying to defend the software from people who are frustrated because everyone is a jerk and they don't know how to report abuse. A lightning bolt icon with no explanation isn't enough.


15. Tutorial on how to play Dominion

You can just link mine!


16. Tutorial on how to play dominion online.

The second most important thing for me -- In fact, if the animations were better and this existed, I'd start recommending the software to a lot of people. I'd even make it for you at no charge, provided someone pings me when there are changes to the interface that would affect the tutorial, just so I could keep it up-to-date.

I should make the distinction that I would use this heavily for myself, in addition to showing it to other people.


Edited to make it more readable