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[werothegreat]

What opening split did you get?

3/3 via using one zap to give myself a Silver (the others downgrading Provinces obv). I opened Trade Route / Loan.

I don't know what will happen with these, but I think I will push for making the act 3's start over, maybe run the same span of easy to hard that the act 1+2 pair do but at twice the speed? Like, I spent dominion coins on act 3, I should get entertainment for that, not the privilege of spending more dominion coins on zaps. If they somehow need that particular total cost, it should all be up front; charge me more for the campaign and then let me play real levels.

Right.  The toughness should be in the bot, not in the starting conditions.  The resources in Dominion are too limited to pull something like that.

[gryph202]

Well I finally went for trying an act three. I went for Prosperity figuring it would give me the best chance to win against the starting advantage.

Level one you get 5 coppers 5 estates, the computer has 4 provinces, 5 silver, gold. Five free zaps. I won with the free zaps anyway, because you could build a Bishop deck reasonably quickly.

Sounds to me like there's no metagame.  That's what I enjoy the most about tabletop Dominion, and the metagamig was preserved in the Isotropic implementation.  The more I have to wait for the Goko release, and the more I hear about it, the less likely it gets that I will spend a single red cent on it.  HTML 5 FAIL

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is the proof that is not possible to implement a metagame in HTML5...

Edit: Seriously: What do you mean with 'metagame' here?

Perhaps I should clarify here.  A metagame is the discussion and strategizing that takes place outside of actual gameplay.  The concept was brought to the fore originally in Magic: The Gathering, where metagaming refers to the strategy of deckbuilding before a single game is played, particularly within the tournament environment.  It's always seemed to me that Dominion, with its similarities to certain TCG mechanics, has its own metagame.

IMNSHO, the later campaigns in Goko's implementation of Dominion are stale and linear.  What bothers me more than the fact that they are difficult (which they are) and practically force you to spend zaps (which they do) is that that it just *feels* different.  Once you figure out how to defeat a bot on a certain board, you can defeat the same bot over and over again using the same play strategy, subject only to opening hand vagaries.  THAT is what I mean when I said that Goko Dominion seems to be lacking a metagame.  My reference to "HTML 5 FAIL" was simply an observation that I was excited, but am not anymore; I'm probably one more customer Goko has lost after seeing the beta.

[blueblimp]

IMO, the real problem with adventure mode is that it resembles RTS campaigns circa early '90s. (Actually, worse than that, because those had more variety.) By now, RTS designers have figured out that "you have crappy stuff, enemy has good stuff, enemy is dumb, go win" is boring. In a campaign for a modern RTS such as Starcraft 2, there are extremely few missions that follow that pattern.

[Jive Junkie]

IMO, the real problem with adventure mode is that it resembles RTS campaigns circa early '90s. (Actually, worse than that, because those had more variety.) By now, RTS designers have figured out that "you have crappy stuff, enemy has good stuff, enemy is dumb, go win" is boring. In a campaign for a modern RTS such as Starcraft 2, there are extremely few missions that follow that pattern.

I haven't played Starcraft 2, so I'm curious - how does it break from the mold?

I imagine Dominion could make things interesting in a campaign mode by presenting things more like a puzzle - the AI has an advantage, but some wacky combo on board will let you crush it.

[ftl]

All modern RTSs don't do that, not just Starcraft 2.

It has missions with a variety of objectives - destroy a certain building or set of buildings, survive for a certain amount of time, collect items or resources, etc. The maps have a variety of ways of causing difficulty besides "give your opponent more stuff and you less stuff" - time limits, scripted events on the map, a limitation on what units/buildings you can build, limited resources.

Few campaign missions (if any?) are anything like "a standard 1v1 game except your opponent starts off with more stuff and you start with less".

[cactus]

It would be better if the quantity of the adventures was less and the quality was more IMO.

It is very poor form to make experienced player wade though hour after hour of uninteresting/unchallenging games just for the privilege of being allowed to play with the governer or the walled village.

The idea of making adventure mode more like the challenges/puzzles that are some times posted on this site is a good one. One (optional) part of the adventure mode could double as the tutorial for folks that haven't played before. The other part could be the more challenging one for the higher level players. The point is the different bits should be fun/interesting to play in their own right - not forcing you to play something long and dull just to get access to all the cards....

[Stealth Tomato]

Jumping on the bandwagon. As one of the highest-ranked players on Isotropic, the only way I can beat the campaign is to abuse Zaps and hope for incredible luck. Most of the boards are monumentally straightforward and the bot plays near-perfect strategy because they're bot-playable boards. The only exception is a few that take their deck starting with 5 Silvers and bizarrely try a Workshop-Gardens strategy, which is beaten by another deck with 5 Silvers going Province.

Even if you even the money with Zaps, you're still walking in down 7-10 points in most missions and going second, which is death.

The only thing any player is going to learn is save-scumming. Bad opening hand split, restart and try again because you don't have a prayer.

[Tombolo]

While I agree with most of the stuff posted, I have to admit that I am having a bit of fun despite myself.  There's something weirdly satisfying about exploiting a strong Workshop/Gardens rush by rushing Estates while the bot tries blindly to three-pile.

[Stealth Tomato]

While I agree with most of the stuff posted, I have to admit that I am having a bit of fun despite myself.  There's something weirdly satisfying about exploiting a strong Workshop/Gardens rush by rushing Estates while the bot tries blindly to three-pile.

That'll change when you start running into BM bots with 5 Silver 2 Copper + Duchies vs. your 6 Copper 4 Estate. 2 Zaps isn't even enough to get off the GROUND in those games.

[Tables]

It does depend on the kingdom cards. For example, I've won one game with 5 Coppers, 5 Estates vs. 1 Copper, 6 Silvers, 3 Provinces with only 4 Zaps (total). Seaside 3:8 for reference, by abusing Embargo and Ambassador.

[hooforfoo]

I'm sorry but am I the only one who is offended that Goko has turned Dominion into some weird card game for children? I seriously was excited when I heard about this. When I got on I felt like I was 5. Everything made me feel like I should not be playing this game, and I'm 20 and LOVE dominion. I have all the sets and play often. I was really hopeful because I wanted something better than isotropic. Something that felt more like dominion. And don't even get me started on the Avatars, they RUIN Goko. Seriously, they are so creepy. The thing that Goko has going for them is that the interface is clean and fun to use when playing an actual game of dominion. Otherwise I am offended that as a huge, long-time fan of dominion, that I am offered this garbage. It is truly awful and we as fans deserve better.

[shark_bait]

Welcome to the F.DS, I think you'll fit right in with what many of us have been saying for the past half year 

[Beyond Awesome]

I'm sorry but am I the only one who is offended that Goko has turned Dominion into some weird card game for children? I seriously was excited when I heard about this. When I got on I felt like I was 5. Everything made me feel like I should not be playing this game, and I'm 20 and LOVE dominion. I have all the sets and play often. I was really hopeful because I wanted something better than isotropic. Something that felt more like dominion. And don't even get me started on the Avatars, they RUIN Goko. Seriously, they are so creepy. The thing that Goko has going for them is that the interface is clean and fun to use when playing an actual game of dominion. Otherwise I am offended that as a huge, long-time fan of dominion, that I am offered this garbage. It is truly awful and we as fans deserve better.

You should post that on their Get Satisfaction Page. Maybe if they hear enough complaints like yours they will actually do something to change those avatars....

[Captain_Frisk]

I'm sorry but am I the only one who is offended that Goko has turned Dominion into some weird card game for children? I seriously was excited when I heard about this. When I got on I felt like I was 5. Everything made me feel like I should not be playing this game, and I'm 20 and LOVE dominion. I have all the sets and play often. I was really hopeful because I wanted something better than isotropic. Something that felt more like dominion. And don't even get me started on the Avatars, they RUIN Goko. Seriously, they are so creepy. The thing that Goko has going for them is that the interface is clean and fun to use when playing an actual game of dominion. Otherwise I am offended that as a huge, long-time fan of dominion, that I am offered this garbage. It is truly awful and we as fans deserve better.

You should post that on their Get Satisfaction Page. Maybe if they hear enough complaints like yours they will actually do something to change those avatars....

I think we need some extra moderation capabilities to f.ds - kindof like slashdot.

+1: Funny

[Lashof]

Anyone else having the adventures very inconsistently load for them?  Now that the difficulty is to "normal dominion" mostly, sometimes I play the AI when I think I may be interrupted, and I figure I might as well grind out those VPs.

But usually when I go to start an adventure game, after the kingdom/starting deck screen I hit "start", the screen blacks out, and it just sits there.

Anyone have a fix for this?

[LastFootnote]

Anyone else having the adventures very inconsistently load for them?  Now that the difficulty is to "normal dominion" mostly, sometimes I play the AI when I think I may be interrupted, and I figure I might as well grind out those VPs.

But usually when I go to start an adventure game, after the kingdom/starting deck screen I hit "start", the screen blacks out, and it just sits there.

Anyone have a fix for this?

Dang, that's been an ongoing problem. I thought they'd fixed it. Have you tried clearing your cache?

[Insomniac]

Anyone else having the adventures very inconsistently load for them?  Now that the difficulty is to "normal dominion" mostly, sometimes I play the AI when I think I may be interrupted, and I figure I might as well grind out those VPs.

But usually when I go to start an adventure game, after the kingdom/starting deck screen I hit "start", the screen blacks out, and it just sits there.

Anyone have a fix for this?

Dang, that's been an ongoing problem. I thought they'd fixed it. Have you tried clearing your cache?

LAst time I played adventures (I've beaten Intruige/Base/Dark Ages [the ones that aren't stupid difficulty] and the other act 1s) it did that all i had to do was refresh and try again.

[Lashof]

Dang, that's been an ongoing problem. I thought they'd fixed it. Have you tried clearing your cache?

Just tried clearing my cache, didn't fix it.

Here's the last few entries from the JS console log:
*** Campaign images preloaded. *** gameMapLoader.js:361
Creating new meeting room for campaign game. FS.MeetingRoom.Dominion.js:11772
>>>>> setTableSettings resp:  FS.MeetingRoom.Dominion.js:11772
Bot invited: 


Maybe it is "inviting" a bot to the game, no bot is responding or something, and it gets stuck?

[Beyond Awesome]

Adventures tend to crash for me after 2 or 3 games.

[Narz]

Adventure Mode is super crapalicious.  They stole the idea for it off the free Dominion application a fan made except his free version is 1,000 times better with no zaps & much more interesting adventures.

The only reason I started playing was I saw you could earn the little Dominion icons which I could use to buy Black Market.  Once I see how long it takes to gain them... well, I'll just shell out $4.  Playing Adventure mode is only slightly more fun than data entry or making iPods in a Chinese factory (I can only speculate on the latter, the former is from experience).

I wonder if any poor lost soul has actually paid for coins to buy zaps.  That would made me want to cry if they did.

[Narz]

Also agree with hooforfoo 100% about the avatars.  These people pay, let them use custom avs (without having to install a script).

[Awaclus]

Also agree with hooforfoo 100% about the avatars.  These people pay, let them use custom avs (without having to install a script).

Why wouldn't you use the extension?

[Narz]

I do it but the site would be better if everyone could have a custom av.  How hard could it be, every forum has it as an option.

[eHalcyon]

I do it but the site would be better if everyone could have a custom av.  How hard could it be, every forum has it as an option.

Not every forum.  I don't visit that many forums, but I know that the forums for League of Legends only allows custom avatars for staff.  Everyone else gets a grey question mark.  It's not difficult to implement custom avatars, but it does take up resources in the form of storage space and moderation.  Plus, there are potential issues if moderators are not quick enough to deal with inappropriate content, especially since their demographic probably includes minors.

A good compromise would be to allow a choice of avatars, rather than the option to upload your own.  Art from the Dominion cards is an obvious way to go, and that would give a decent variety.