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[catsclaw]

Mine just happened, and it's bitten me three times in this game.  If you play a Throne Room, it asks you what card to play, unless you only have one type of action card in your hand.  Which is all well and good, unless you only have two Ambassadors in your hand.

In that case, when 95% of the time it asks you what card to play, it's instead asking what card to Ambassador.  And you end up giving your opponent your Ambassador.

Horrible, horrible interface design.

[GendoIkari]

Auto-play all money with Grand Market plays Copper even when you have Quarries. But I hate to complain about anything, really, since it's an awesome, free thing that I'm grateful for.

[ARTjoMS]

Scheme -> treasury ... (new) or (old) wharfs !?

Basically when software asks which card you want to clear first - beware.

[greatexpectations]

man, it is a huge stretch to call anything on isotropic a horrible interface design.  the whole thing is very well written, especially for something that is basically one guy's hobby.  and as gendoikari said, its free so we can't complain anyway. 

if ambassador was your only action then you had coin or green in your hand.  it would make no sense to throne those, so that should have stood out in your example. though i have to wonder at what sort of strategy you are playing where you drew throne room/ambassador/ambassador/coin/coin 3 times in one game.

the whole grand market thing i find to be a nonissue, personally.  if the all money button wasn't there people would have been complaining for it because they had to click so much.  for the few cards/situations where the difference actually matters, it isn't hard to click the individual coins. i think that situation is just like when theory said he lost the game to WanderingWinder because he was in autoplay mode and played a tactician when he didn't have to.   you can't fault the software just because you are in autoplay mode. 

and a lot of the scheme/treasury/alchemist interactions are tricky to figure out IRL too.  that isn't a problem limited to isotropic.

[Davio]

Code: [Select]

You buy a Curse.
... You reveal a Trader to gain a Silver instead of a Curse.
... You gain a Silver.

about to gain a Silver> reveal a Trader

Yes, I would very much like a Silver instead of a Silver. Man, I hate Silvers, love Silvers though.

[jsh357]

Not auto-playing Fool's Gold.  It's messed me up several times.

[catsclaw]

though i have to wonder at what sort of strategy you are playing where you drew throne room/ambassador/ambassador/coin/coin 3 times in one game.

Here's the game: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/19/game-20120419-064043-4eef8c0f.html

I was using Hunting Parties and the Bazaar to draw my entire hand, leaving me with the two Ambassadors and the Throne Room, along with an assortment of victory cards and coins.  Enough to buy Colonies most times.  You'll note at the end of the game my opponent ends up with 5 Ambassadors.

[RisingJaguar]

Trying to type cards you want to play with.

Not that I ever use it so who cares! (I think it only affects Mozilla if I'm correct?)

[barsooma]

man, it is a huge stretch to call anything on isotropic a horrible interface design.

false.

  the whole thing is very well written, especially for something that is basically one guy's hobby.

true.

and as gendoikari said, its free so we can't complain anyway. 

false.

you can't fault the software just because you are in autoplay mode. 

false.

[DStu]

man, it is a huge stretch to call anything on isotropic a horrible interface design.

false.

I don't see the problem. It already has the now ground-breaking Google+ whitespace-design since years. And I thought dougz was working on android...

[WanderingWinder]

man, it is a huge stretch to call anything on isotropic a horrible interface design.

false.

  the whole thing is very well written, especially for something that is basically one guy's hobby.

true.

and as gendoikari said, its free so we can't complain anyway. 

false.

you can't fault the software just because you are in autoplay mode. 

false.

Just because you CAN complain doesn't mean you should...

[greatexpectations]

right. i believe there are alternate options for playing dominion online available, you can always go to one of those.  dougz mentioned in his AMA that he would like to make some improvements but it really is not worth his time because isotropic is theoretically going down soon.

and i still find it hard to blame the software for autoplay mistakes.  at some point we need to take responsibility for our own actions. you either have a ton of extra clicking or you have a couple of conditions where you have to pay extra attention. you can't have it both ways. 

[barsooma]

right. i believe there are alternate options for playing dominion online available, you can always go to one of those.  dougz mentioned in his AMA that he would like to make some improvements but it really is not worth his time because isotropic is theoretically going down soon.

and i still find it hard to blame the software for autoplay mistakes.  at some point we need to take responsibility for our own actions. you either have a ton of extra clicking or you have a couple of conditions where you have to pay extra attention. you can't have it both ways.

Great design will continue to be overlooked until people demand it.
And btw I find your username ironic.

[barsooma]

Just because you CAN complain doesn't mean you should...

I've said this many times before, but I'll say it again: isotropic is awesome and has greatly increased my enjoyment of dominion.
If it was for sale/subscription I'd be happy to pay for it, and I am fairly certain the commercial version will pale in comparison.

However, this doesn't mean we should pretend it's perfect, and it does definitely have some rough edges (moat anyone? autoscrolling on iOS? cut&pasting constraints in a busy lobby?)

[WanderingWinder]

Point is, could isotropic be better? Yes. Of course. I don't think anyone would deny this. Is it worth the effort to make it better? Well, if you really think so, then do it yourself.

[theory]

As a BSW refugee, maybe I just have lowered expectations, but I'm so blissfully happy with Isotropic it's just mentally difficult for me to find fault with it.

[barsooma]

Point is, could isotropic be better? Yes. Of course. I don't think anyone would deny this. Is it worth the effort to make it better? Well, if you really think so, then do it yourself.

Unfortunately it's not open-source, so the question really is "Is it worth the effort to completely reimplement in order to make it 5% better?"

[DG]

Putting cards back onto the deck in the clear up stage is confusing and not particularly intuitive. Complicated process, hard to model with limited interface, but it would be nice if it was easier to use.

[WanderingWinder]

Point is, could isotropic be better? Yes. Of course. I don't think anyone would deny this. Is it worth the effort to make it better? Well, if you really think so, then do it yourself.

Unfortunately it's not open-source, so the question really is "Is it worth the effort to completely reimplement in order to make it 5% better?"

Yeah, well, he went through all the work to put this together in the first place. Keep that in mind when you're complaining - he's done a heckuva lot more than you have.

[blueblimp]

Point is, could isotropic be better? Yes. Of course. I don't think anyone would deny this. Is it worth the effort to make it better? Well, if you really think so, then do it yourself.

Unfortunately it's not open-source, so the question really is "Is it worth the effort to completely reimplement in order to make it 5% better?"

Actually, some of the issues raised in this thread could be addressed by a Chrome extension (or Greasemonkey script), like drheld's point counter.

[greatexpectations]

Unfortunately it's not open-source, so the question really is "Is it worth the effort to completely reimplement in order to make it 5% better?"

he actually posted some of his code in his AMA. it is not open source, but it is a jumping off point.

and ironically, dougz has made the same case you just did.  it just isn't worth his time to go back and change things when it is something that is only 5% better and will only be around for a few more days/weeks/months.

i don't think anyone out there is saying isotropic is perfect, but i think it is safe to say that we have been spoiled with what we have.  no ads, quick play, dedicated user names and accounts, scrapable logs, a variety of gameplay customizations, two lobbies, the blessing of the game's creator, and a competitive ranking system. all for free.

[barsooma]

Point is, could isotropic be better? Yes. Of course. I don't think anyone would deny this. Is it worth the effort to make it better? Well, if you really think so, then do it yourself.

Unfortunately it's not open-source, so the question really is "Is it worth the effort to completely reimplement in order to make it 5% better?"

Yeah, well, he went through all the work to put this together in the first place. Keep that in mind when you're complaining - he's done a heckuva lot more than you have.

Blah blah blah ... and the circle is complete. Goto my 2nd post again.

[barsooma]

Unfortunately it's not open-source, so the question really is "Is it worth the effort to completely reimplement in order to make it 5% better?"

he actually posted some of his code in his AMA. it is not open source, but it is a jumping off point.

and ironically, dougz has made the same case you just did.  it just isn't worth his time to go back and change things when it is something that is only 5% better and will only be around for a few more days/weeks/months.

i don't think anyone out there is saying isotropic is perfect, but i think it is safe to say that we have been spoiled with what we have.  no ads, quick play, dedicated user names and accounts, scrapable logs, a variety of gameplay customizations, two lobbies, the blessing of the game's creator, and a competitive ranking system. all for free.

That is cool, will have to check that out.

I totally get that he doesn't want to spend more time on it.. once you get a project 90% of the way there it's no fun doing the final polishing, and once you let code of this size sit for a few months it's almost as much work to remember how it all fits together as it was to build it.

However, as devil's advocate the few more days/weeks/months thing has been out there for at least 6 months by now, with no real deadline in sight.

[WanderingWinder]

Point is, could isotropic be better? Yes. Of course. I don't think anyone would deny this. Is it worth the effort to make it better? Well, if you really think so, then do it yourself.

Unfortunately it's not open-source, so the question really is "Is it worth the effort to completely reimplement in order to make it 5% better?"

Yeah, well, he went through all the work to put this together in the first place. Keep that in mind when you're complaining - he's done a heckuva lot more than you have.

Blah blah blah ... and the circle is complete. Goto my 2nd post again.

Call me back when you turn 15. dougz is giving you a product for free. Even if it was an absolute piece of garbage, you've got no reason to complain, no right to expect anything more out of him. You haven't given him anything. Heck, he isn't even making money off of ads. Why in the world should he have to give you something? I read your post, and my response still stands: of course it isn't perfect, and nobody's arguing that it is. The point is that he doesn't need to do anything. It can be better, but he doesn't need to make it better. So you can go ahead and think that the world revolves around you, and everyone else's effort is worthless if it doesn't meet with your total satisfaction, but let me tell you, it won't get you very far.

[olneyce]

man, it is a huge stretch to call anything on isotropic a horrible interface design.

false.

  the whole thing is very well written, especially for something that is basically one guy's hobby.

true.

and as gendoikari said, its free so we can't complain anyway. 

false.

you can't fault the software just because you are in autoplay mode. 

false.

What a helpful contribution to this thread!