Since everyone's sharing their thoughts, I guess I should as well.
Obviously it's fantastic that the people designing Dominion Online this time are long-time, high-skill players. So congrats on that.
The pricing system... I guess I'm okay with it. I'd kind of like for there to be a "bundle" or something, where you get the offline version cheaper if you also get the subscription online or vice versa. And there definitely should be some way to play for free - the Goko model of Base-only-unless-you-land-a-game-with-someone-who-has-all-sets seems like a good starting point. Maybe free players (guest accounts?) could also be blocked off from certain game modes like tournament mode.
In terms of features, I have a couple requests. You don't have to take them, but I think they're worth considering.
- There's going to be a leaderboard, right? If there is, can you maybe implement the option of being able to hide your place on the leaderboard (and your level/rating) from other players, as long as you don't see their level/rating either? It would be sort of like the system Making Fun has now where you know you're automatched with someone on a similar level but you don't know what it actually is. I feel like I might not be the only one who's turned off by any sort of ranking system because it adds instant judgement.
- On that note, please say that unrated games will still be possible - it's the best way to test out contrived boards and unfamiliar combos/cards among other things. It could even be cool if that was table style so we don't get what's going on on MF right now with "Hey, does anyone want to play a game with X cards?"
- It's good that you're doing both a text-based and a graphics-based mode. I've said it before, but what I think Goko and MF got very right was the feeling that you're actually playing a card game - the look of the real cards, the fanned-out hand in front of you, the play area in the middle, the cards moving to and from their various locations. I really don't want that to go away. By all means rearrange it so the information is more convenient (*cough opponent's deck size is always visible cough*), but please try to keep the realism.
- Social features, ya? I got so tired of asking MF for this that I just stopped, but now we're back. I kind of assume you're doing this, because you hinted at something like it with the observing feature (which I can't wait for), but it's worth mentioning anyway. So, friend list, blacklist, seeing who's online, private messaging, that sorta thing.
- Your interactive game log idea looks really great. Can it also include a way to see what your screen (or any player's screen for that matter) would have looked like on each move, without having to play the game from that point on? Or video replay for each turn? Or both? I'm asking this because of the trouble I have with reading logs and I hope I'm not the only one.
- This might be a given since SCSN is involved but it's worth asking anyway. There will be autoplay options, right? Like auto-reveal Moat and stuff?
- And speaking of things to make games go faster, can there be some way to notify people when they're slowrolling? If a player is taking a while on their turn, they should get a message like "You have been inactive for X minutes. Keep playing?" Their opponent also would know that they got the message so they don't have to ask themselves. Maybe if someone is a repeat offender they should start getting captchas or something at some point, and/or their time before they get booted gets gradually shorter.
- You don't have to do this one but it's something I just thought of. What if there was a section outside of games where people can get details on each card? Like if someone was unclear about what a particular card does, they could click on it and get an explanation like "1. Draw one card. 2. Take one action. 3. You may discard one card. 4. If you did, take one action. 5. You may discard one card. 6. If you did, take one buy." There could even be graphics or animations or something but that might take too much time. But each card page should also list the rules clarifications for the card, such as the lose-track rule or the you-can't-Prince-durations thing. So basically this would be like the DS Wiki pages for each card but without the strategy guides. I've seen enough people who make unintended mistakes with cards they don't know because they thought the rules were different that this could be a big help - using it in games with real people should not be possible of course but outside games definitely and against bots might also be nice. Just an idea.
So yeah. Excited for this to happen!