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Author Topic: Critiques from a non-beta user  (Read 2726 times)

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Razzishi

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Critiques from a non-beta user
« on: September 25, 2012, 11:22:23 pm »
+8

I didn't get into the beta, but have spent much of my free time since the stealth launch messing around on Goko.  I have three very important concerns, and a few things that I don't really care about but would like to see improved.

Reconnecting: You need to be able to reconnect to games you lost your connection to.  This is absolutely required for me to spend any money on this product.

Multiplayer Lobby: A complete mess.  It would be nice if there were a system like League of Legends where you input your game preferences, and then sit back and wait for a game to be offered; it would first look for people of your level and then slowly expand its search.  But that's likely a pipe-dream with the way it's set-up with a host providing cards they have purchased, so I'll settle for things a bit more reasonable: the ratings of the players in a game and the leaderboard status of the game should be available at a glance.  If I want to play a pro leaderboard game, I want to play against someone else who wants such a game, not just a random guy who sees an open game.  Likewise, I'd like to be able to easily join a game against a player of similar skill level.  I suppose this information is sorta already available, and given the low traffic isn't a big issue yet, but if the place ever gets really busy it'll be quite useful to not have to click on everyone's avatar, which in a rapidly moving lobby might easily miss.  In such a world I also see the ability for the software to filter open games based on criteria.  Stuff like this will make it far more likely I will purchase products Goko offers.  Also, information about how long a game has been sitting around unattended probably should be available so we don't sit around 5 minutes waiting for someone to start the game before deciding they're afk or tabbed out. And the eye icon does nothing (maybe it's actually goggles).

Content: I plan on getting everything if the product is good, but will make every excuse I can to not do so if there's part of some expansion(s) missing.  Only 1/3 of Dark Ages at launch is a travesty, and I refuse to buy anything until all of DA is released.  I'd also love to see Hinterlands, etc, and certainly every set that gets released will increase the likelihood I buy anything at all.

--

Zaps: Adventure games require way too many of them at higher levels and are trivialized by just a few more, but what's really "worse" is that they are too cheap.   You can play games fast against the bots for 2 zaps per game overall, and there's nothing besides more campaigns and zaps to spend Dominion coins on.  I also note that if you really want to grind and not worry about losing you can even play against Serf Bot every time by investing a few more seconds in the multiplayer lobby.  I like the idea of having a campaign mode with scaling difficulty, but each zap should mean more than it does now to make you really think about if you need another or not.

Bots: There need to be some mid-level bots.  Maybe some of the bots are weaker than others in non-Base games, but in general Base games are simple enough and the majority of bots competent enough that they will slaughter most beginners and casual players.  Since you're giving Base away for free, you really need to make sure the players enjoy it, not get annoyed by a simple bot continuously beating them.

Rotating Free Content: Make one purchasable section of an expansion freely available each week on a rotating basis.  League of Legends works on effectively the same pricing model and has a lot of success offering opportunities for everyone to experience all the content on a rotating limited time basis.  People not familiar with the game will become much more interested in cards if they get a chance to see what they can really do for them.  Plus, Base is not particularly representative of part what makes Dominion as great as it is: all the neat little synergies that are out there spread between sets.  And tying this to the above, I'm guessing that the bots aren't quite so good at non-Base, giving newer players a better chance.

Store: Needs to be organized, with each category visible from the start page.  That is, there should be links to sub-pages for expansions, campaigns, coins, promos, and whatever else there is, instead of needing to click through a scrolling window that gives you no hint of what's on the next page.  Putting all the zap offers, for example, in the same place would make far more sense than the current system.  I find it appalling that anyone thought it was a good idea to only show such a small section of the store at the same time.
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bedlam

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Re: Critiques from a non-beta user
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2012, 02:57:56 am »
0

I agree about the store. It is not designed in a very convenient or appealing way.
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SharpWave

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Re: Critiques from a non-beta user
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2012, 12:02:50 pm »
0

Totally agree about the multiplayer lobby.  Start over, ditch the "rooms" idea, make it as close to isotropic's as possible, include an auto-match function.  The vast majority of players who are serious enough about the game to give you their money will be spending most of their time in multiplayer, and the interface that's up right now just isn't gonna cut it.

Also agree that I should be able to hit reload on my browser and not forfeit the game.
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Kuildeous

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Re: Critiques from a non-beta user
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2012, 01:45:22 pm »
0

Rotating Free Content: Make one purchasable section of an expansion freely available each week on a rotating basis.  League of Legends works on effectively the same pricing model and has a lot of success offering opportunities for everyone to experience all the content on a rotating limited time basis.  People not familiar with the game will become much more interested in cards if they get a chance to see what they can really do for them.  Plus, Base is not particularly representative of part what makes Dominion as great as it is: all the neat little synergies that are out there spread between sets.  And tying this to the above, I'm guessing that the bots aren't quite so good at non-Base, giving newer players a better chance.

I think quite a few of the free players will get the opportunity to see non-Base cards by just playing multiplayer. Regardless, I think this idea has merit for those people who only play against bots or their own sets of friends who didn't buy anything. It gives them a glimpse into what they could be having if they pony up the dough.

For that matter, I could see a bimonthly "free set" day being offered. Or a weekend. One weekend, everyone can play half of Prosperity for free. A couple months later, everyone can play Cornucopia for free. Obviously, this can't happen too frequently or you risk isolating players who did pay their dues. There will be plenty of cadging from free players looking to play with people who bought the expansions so they can enjoy them. And for that reason, this promotional model might not be needed, but it's an idea.
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aaron0013

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Re: Critiques from a non-beta user
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2012, 07:51:57 am »
0

Very well written. This contains a lot of the stuff that I was wanting changed too. Although I agree that multiplayer needs to be changed, I don't think it could be formatted like iso without a ton of major changes. However, I like the idea of more info at first glance and maybe a separate lobby for people that want to play a professional game.
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Beyond Awesome

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Re: Critiques from a non-beta user
« Reply #5 on: September 27, 2012, 10:56:14 am »
+1

I was in the beta, and I can tell you that I have been pretty much advocating for all of the changes you have listed for some time now.
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Razzishi

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Re: Critiques from a non-beta user
« Reply #6 on: October 01, 2012, 09:25:59 pm »
+1

A couple more thoughts that might have been said hundreds of times already, but are important enough for me to vocalize as well due to my interest in playing a quality product:

There are way too many adventure mode games that offer almost exactly the same experience.  Maybe it gets better in the expansion campaigns, but in Base it's quite monotonous.  The Base campaign doesn't need 3 acts, and probably should be more like a tutorial to the game.  While it offers one easy game you're thrown into difficult-for-newbies situations quite quickly, with very little help.

Think about using a something like a check-box system when a player is doing the same thing to one or more cards (Cellar, Chapel, discarding to Militia).  That is, have players select cards, pushing them graphically slightly out of the hand, and have the normal right-hand button say "Trash" or "Discard" for finalizing those actions. 
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