Is BGA inclined to ever update the UI on this game? This has been my favorite game for a while now and I play this often with friends. However, I play it also a lot on BGA and the implementation on BGA takes some of the fun out of it. Is this the correct place to suggest some improvements?
First, as has been posted here before, can we get a few more confirm and/or undo options? For the gameplay it's not problematic to habe those, and there is no real reason to make every mouse click stick directly. It's very sad to see your game ruined by one erroneous mouce click. You should be able to undo your turn, or at least to the point after you last revealed a card. (Take Great Western Trail or Ark Nova as an example. If you do an action that's irreversible, it says "You cannot go back to before this action if you want to undo your actions. Are you sure?")
This brings me directly to my second suggestion. When you play a card you see an empty red box appear on the spot where your card will land. It could be easily made so that you can see the card you played there in advance in that red square. For example, many times over I've thought to click on 'Take a walk' to find out I've played the card I ment to discard. There's no way to see this upfront and no way to undo.
Third, can we quit the scrolling competition? Aside from the interface being too big, the items appear in the wrong place so you have to contantly scroll up and down. The hand cards you can switch to the bottom temporarily, but it doesn't store those settings. I've seen in other games that it possible to store those, so it should be possible here too. It's utterly annoying that you cannot see your hand cards and your played cards at the same time. Same goes for the final round where you have to choose a side for your walk. Totaly up top, and the cards you need to inspect totally at the bottom. Therefor many times I've clicked the wrong side, again without an ask for confirmation or any option to undo. The scorecard appearing between those is certainly not helping. Same for the player panels. Scroll up to click to switch to the played cards of my opponents, and scroll all the way back down to acually see them.
The latter bringing me directly to the fourth. Can you make it not switch back on your first mouse click? I.e. You need to discard 3 cards after a research token. So, you inspect the cards of your opponent, but as soon as you've selected the first card to discard, your looking at your own played cards again, which means, scrolling up again, click to see your opponents played cards and scrolling down again. This could very easily be avoided with a simple 'Go back' button.
Fifth, can you prevent the screen from jumping everytime your opponent scores a day? You are happily inspecting your board and pondering to decide how to score your day (which side of the walk? use wild tokens or not?) when your screen jumps up because your opponent scored a day. And apparently for the next day they, unlike you, have nothing to centemplate so it happens again just after you've scrolled down again.
Sixth, It should be possible to first play your cards before discarding afther using a research token. Again, for the gameplay it doesn't matter but it makes life a lot easier, since before discarding you're likely wanting to look at the cards played by your opponents. This is what you do in real-life gameplay. Of course, you do have to discard before using a second research token. There is no urgency in forcing the discards before playing your hand cards.
Last is a mere suggestion, not really necessary, that would be to track the number of mood symbols as well. Especially since it's very easy to overlook the ones you get as a highlight of the day bonus. The game itself doesn't have that, but it might be nice to have.
I'm curious as to how others experience this. I play the game very often turn based, so some of the points will be less interesting for those playing it real-time.
Please do not see me as ungrateful for this long list of complaints/suggestions, but compared to other implementations of games I think it could be a bit more considerate.
First, as has been posted here before, can we get a few more confirm and/or undo options? For the gameplay it's not problematic to habe those, and there is no real reason to make every mouse click stick directly. It's very sad to see your game ruined by one erroneous mouce click. You should be able to undo your turn, or at least to the point after you last revealed a card. (Take Great Western Trail or Ark Nova as an example. If you do an action that's irreversible, it says "You cannot go back to before this action if you want to undo your actions. Are you sure?")
This brings me directly to my second suggestion. When you play a card you see an empty red box appear on the spot where your card will land. It could be easily made so that you can see the card you played there in advance in that red square. For example, many times over I've thought to click on 'Take a walk' to find out I've played the card I ment to discard. There's no way to see this upfront and no way to undo.
Third, can we quit the scrolling competition? Aside from the interface being too big, the items appear in the wrong place so you have to contantly scroll up and down. The hand cards you can switch to the bottom temporarily, but it doesn't store those settings. I've seen in other games that it possible to store those, so it should be possible here too. It's utterly annoying that you cannot see your hand cards and your played cards at the same time. Same goes for the final round where you have to choose a side for your walk. Totaly up top, and the cards you need to inspect totally at the bottom. Therefor many times I've clicked the wrong side, again without an ask for confirmation or any option to undo. The scorecard appearing between those is certainly not helping. Same for the player panels. Scroll up to click to switch to the played cards of my opponents, and scroll all the way back down to acually see them.
The latter bringing me directly to the fourth. Can you make it not switch back on your first mouse click? I.e. You need to discard 3 cards after a research token. So, you inspect the cards of your opponent, but as soon as you've selected the first card to discard, your looking at your own played cards again, which means, scrolling up again, click to see your opponents played cards and scrolling down again. This could very easily be avoided with a simple 'Go back' button.
Fifth, can you prevent the screen from jumping everytime your opponent scores a day? You are happily inspecting your board and pondering to decide how to score your day (which side of the walk? use wild tokens or not?) when your screen jumps up because your opponent scored a day. And apparently for the next day they, unlike you, have nothing to centemplate so it happens again just after you've scrolled down again.
Sixth, It should be possible to first play your cards before discarding afther using a research token. Again, for the gameplay it doesn't matter but it makes life a lot easier, since before discarding you're likely wanting to look at the cards played by your opponents. This is what you do in real-life gameplay. Of course, you do have to discard before using a second research token. There is no urgency in forcing the discards before playing your hand cards.
Last is a mere suggestion, not really necessary, that would be to track the number of mood symbols as well. Especially since it's very easy to overlook the ones you get as a highlight of the day bonus. The game itself doesn't have that, but it might be nice to have.
I'm curious as to how others experience this. I play the game very often turn based, so some of the points will be less interesting for those playing it real-time.
Please do not see me as ungrateful for this long list of complaints/suggestions, but compared to other implementations of games I think it could be a bit more considerate.
