Nuisance Confirmations are killing turn-based Agricola

[George Smiley]

BGA Developers:

Please reverse the changes made that have triggered several nuisance approvals.

"Would you like to receive a food from the supply triggered by player X's Beer Table?"
"Yes - I have thoughtfully considered it and, while it is a close call, I want the food. I will confirm."

I'm sure the snark is not appropriate, but Agricola turn-based games are really dragging out, especially when players are from different continents. It can take several days just to get through the harvest.

So, very respectfully, can we go back to the way things were when it felt like there was more reasonableness in the amount of off-turn confirmations required to keep the game moving. I'd hate for this to unintentionally dissuade players from joining the terrific BGA Agricola player base.

Thank you.

[Jshavey]

I second this. It's frustrating in real time too, but in turn based it's a massive mistake.

[Acerbic]

Hi George, rest assured this is being looked into. All the same, I'd like to clarify that there are two things at play here:
- The confirmation is not there for you to 'accept' the free food, it's to provide a window to do conversions or activate card effects that cost food
- Reverting this change introduces a bug. We're not yet sure what's causing this bug in the first place, or which change was responsible for it

[George Smiley]

Thanks, Acerbic. I love the game and love the implementation. I five-star it anytime the prompt pops up. I trust a good path forward can be found.

[Ranior]

I continue to advocate for removing this change.

Yes, technically in person games give you the ability to do anytime conversions on other players turns, and to be faithful to the physical game you'd have to allow this.

However, it's a total pain to the online game flow, especially for turn based games. Given Agricola is now a digital game, on a digital platform, some changes from the base game rules ought to take priority.

We already allow and have a visible score counter, which is not something you have in physical Agricola game play.

I advocate for accepting some minor changes to the rules to accommodate a better online experience.

The Through the Ages app is a great example of a game that understands and nails this. They have digital edition rules which reduces the number of times it prompts people for their turn, so even though some effects should happen immediately, it simply waits for the next players turn.

I think online Agricola should be the same. It's okay if every once in awhile someone can't do a thing they'd like to be able to do and could do in a live game, for the sake of a much smoother overall online experience for everyone else. It's an obvious trade off, and it's a terrible decision to have made this change in the first place.

[alexwjb]

Just adding my vote to reverting this change. Needing the other person to confirm their Chairman food (for example) really slows things down.

[Acerbic]

I may not have been clear enough in my last post, but the main point of it was that reverting this came with technical difficulties, not that we were debating the merits of doing so. Those should now be resolved and the extra confirmations have been removed. Please let me know in this thread if things are not working as expected.

[alexwjb]

I may not have been clear enough in my last post, but the main point of it was that reverting this came with technical difficulties, not that we were debating the merits of doing so. Those should now be resolved and the extra confirmations have been removed. Please let me know in this thread if things are not working as expected.

Thank you!