Very much NOT IN LOVE with this implementation

[Boardgame Babylon]

These are not bugs. These are observations.

First, I love this game like few others. It's in my top 5 board games of all time.

Second, I play this A LOT on Yucata. Their implementation is far from perfect, but it's highly functional and smooth.

Third, I have both the original game and the 2019 re-release. I think the re-release is deeply flawed and pretty ugly.

That said, I like a lot about BGA and was excited for the game to come here.

So, it's not surprising perhaps that I find the BGA version incredibly difficult to play. The detail on the individual pieces is just overwhelming and even though I know this game really well, it's hard to track what's what.

Also, I play this game on my iPad and the tool tips are almost impossible to get to come up. Instead, the system gives you the EVIL RED BLOCK OF DEATH error message. I know very well I need to select a die first, you annoying app! I will never understand how BGA thinks that's a good interface - it's like nails on a chalkboard annoying to me and makes me want to leave the site ASAP.

Why not just assume the user ISN'T clicking on a piece so they can get an error but that they're seeking the tool tip? If they don't know the game, it's still no harm, no foul.

And PLEASE consider using the game's original look. I don't know anyone who thinks the 2019 version was an improvement from a usability perspective. Why shackle us with Alea's failed experiment?

[Al Menez]

I really see no problem with this implementation, to be honest. It has been playtested for quite some time now and you can see the amount of effort that has been put into it. I've played yucata's and this is better. I play on a PC though (everything's been pretty smooth so far) so I can't vouch for the mobile version of the website/app. About the 2019 edition: BGA has both and you can switch between them before starting the game at the table settings.

[fafa-fr]

Hi Boardgame Babylon,

About the 2019 edition: BGA has both and you can switch between them before starting the game at the table settings.

About this point, I just want to point out that the table admin can switch between 1st and 2019 edition. This option has to be the same for the whole table because it's not only cosmetic: there are some differences in the rules that are visible on a few tiles (especially yellow tile #6). So to be able to choose our favourite art, regardless of the chosen edition ruleset for the table, we would need a reworking of yellow tile #6 images of both editions to match the rule of the other edition. I'll create a thread about this soon.

Regarding visibility / usability, just in case, did you notice the Zoom level user preference, that lets you have bigger images? (Of course, if the images were clearer, you wouldn't have to zoom in, and so you'd be able to see more of the game without having to scroll, but I think I can't do much about this.)

Now, the most important part: tooltips on touch screens. It is not surprising to me that it is not satisfying on some devices (apparently iPad and iPhone users often have problems on BGA).
I use the BGA-recommended way to display tooltips in Castles of Burgundy, but the way to make tooltips pop-up on touch screens is very inconsistent among devices, and BGA tooltips seem to not work well for some of them. I tried to know more about this, but found nothing exhaustive. I just saw that on some devices, a long press works, and on some other you can double-click and hold the second one. (Please let me know if one of these works, and I would also like to know how you trigger tooltips in other games on BGA (that do not implement a special tooltip / action switch), like in RFTG (I saw you played this game a lot).)
But since there isn't an easy way to make classical BGA tooltips available for touch device users, I added several things: a help zone on the main board that shows what the buildings do, and a Tile help section below player boards that lets you display tooltip texts for all tiles. It might not be as convenient as a tooltip, and maybe it would have been better to implement a tooltip / action switch like in a few other recent games, but I didn't spend time for it because I think that you don't need to check tooltips for a long time: fairly quickly players get used to the tiles and know what they do. (I mean it's not like some dev6 in RFTG with several different scoring bonuses.)

[fafa-fr]

I have another question:

Third, I have both the original game and the 2019 re-release. I think the re-release is deeply flawed and pretty ugly.

Why do you think the 2019 edition is flawed? (I have something in mind, I just want to check if it's the same thing)

[purple1203]

I'll be honest, the tooltips NEVER work for me on iPhone. For any game on BGA. In fact, they make things stuck, since they take up screen space even when they do show up and then I can't get them off. Potions Explosion is a good example that's relevant for Castles of Burgundy players - sometimes clicking the potion brings up the tooltip when I'm trying to actually click the potion to select it and add to my hand or click it to use the effect of the potion. Same thing happens on CoB - click a tile to place it on your duchy/estate - you see tooltip instead.

On Castles of Burgundy, I honestly love the tiles help section at the bottom. It's very easy to scroll down on iPhone, it's neatly laid out there for all the tiles, and it doesn't impact the gameplay. Further, since the tooltips don't actually show up for me, my game itself isn't affected and I can play my turn very easily. I also like the layout of the help section itself - it's very organised, with yellow tiles having their own "section" essentially so it's a max of 2 clicks to see the meaning of any tile.

I want to add a caveat that at this point I've played a lot of the 2019 version, so don't really need the explanation for anything except a few of the yellow tiles - I can figure out from the images on the tiles. But, when I wasn't used to it, and even now for those edge cases, the help section is seriously useful.

[cybrweez]

I've played a few hundred games on Yucata as well, this 1st edition version is very good. I'm used to Yucata, so of course hard not to compare. But glad this was brought to BGA, good job!