I'm not sure that this is a bug, per se - so I'm not sure where to address it - but it is an issue in my opinion, and I'm wondering if anyone else finds it frustrating sometimes. I experience it in Takenoko, but I am pretty sure I've heard the same issue brought up about other games.
The problem is that I can't necessarily see how many cards are left in a deck in an electronic version of a game. This can have a real impact in Takenoko when you are deciding what gambles to take at the end of the game for those critical last few points - wasting an action trying to draw an objective card that is no longer in stock can potentially lose games, and is always annoying. I suppose one could calculate the number of cards remaining by looking at the game state and knowing how many of each specific objective type are available at the start, but this information is not even in the rule book.
And I don't want to hear any arguments about how the rules don't say that you are allowed to know how many cards are left. If the game didn't come with invisible cards or some other obfuscation method, it is obviously implied that you be able to see the deck and know how many cards are left. Also, in every IRL gaming group I've been in, table information (like number of cards in a deck) is considered public - unless, of course, it is 'black boxed' somehow, like drawing tiles from a sack; or specifically prohibited in the rules, like camel cards in Jaipur.
While this sort of thing is easily overlooked in coding (or looked at and deemed unimportant to devote time to), in games with chance elements, knowing how to make use of every scrap of actual information available is crucial. Limiting access to this normally presumed public data makes results more subject to chance instead of careful planning, and it makes the gameplay feel further away from that of the tabletop version. As usual, I find myself referencing Tash-Kalar as the ideal implementation of a mechanic.
So to the players I ask:
Does this happen in other games? If so which ones, and what useful information is missing that would be available if playing at a table (deck size, remaining amount of public resources, etc.)?
And to the admins I ask:
Can you please show the remaining amounts of cards in each of the 3 objective decks in Takenoko, so players can make decisions with the same information they have access to in the tabletop version of the game? You already have a display section for information like this, where it tracks the remaining number of plots and plot upgrades; I'm not sure why the objective cards were not included, it is much more important information than remaining plots, IMO. And please keep this issue in mind when adding games in the future - if there is a deck or any other supply of something that impacts gameplay, you should make the normal information about it accessible to the players.
The problem is that I can't necessarily see how many cards are left in a deck in an electronic version of a game. This can have a real impact in Takenoko when you are deciding what gambles to take at the end of the game for those critical last few points - wasting an action trying to draw an objective card that is no longer in stock can potentially lose games, and is always annoying. I suppose one could calculate the number of cards remaining by looking at the game state and knowing how many of each specific objective type are available at the start, but this information is not even in the rule book.
And I don't want to hear any arguments about how the rules don't say that you are allowed to know how many cards are left. If the game didn't come with invisible cards or some other obfuscation method, it is obviously implied that you be able to see the deck and know how many cards are left. Also, in every IRL gaming group I've been in, table information (like number of cards in a deck) is considered public - unless, of course, it is 'black boxed' somehow, like drawing tiles from a sack; or specifically prohibited in the rules, like camel cards in Jaipur.
While this sort of thing is easily overlooked in coding (or looked at and deemed unimportant to devote time to), in games with chance elements, knowing how to make use of every scrap of actual information available is crucial. Limiting access to this normally presumed public data makes results more subject to chance instead of careful planning, and it makes the gameplay feel further away from that of the tabletop version. As usual, I find myself referencing Tash-Kalar as the ideal implementation of a mechanic.
So to the players I ask:
Does this happen in other games? If so which ones, and what useful information is missing that would be available if playing at a table (deck size, remaining amount of public resources, etc.)?
And to the admins I ask:
Can you please show the remaining amounts of cards in each of the 3 objective decks in Takenoko, so players can make decisions with the same information they have access to in the tabletop version of the game? You already have a display section for information like this, where it tracks the remaining number of plots and plot upgrades; I'm not sure why the objective cards were not included, it is much more important information than remaining plots, IMO. And please keep this issue in mind when adding games in the future - if there is a deck or any other supply of something that impacts gameplay, you should make the normal information about it accessible to the players.
