Here's why I got a refund after only one game online...
J
Jeff Dogbert
started a topic
almost 7 years ago
Firstly I was assuming it would play more like a turn based game like Scrabble where you can have multiple games running and go to each when it is your turn. That's the advantage of making a board game into an app. Sitting around for five minutes waiting for a turn is far too reminiscent of actually playing a board game. I think the turn time was set to 120s and whilst I rarely came close to
using it all I still felt uncomfortably rushed and would have much
preferred being able to take my time to think and then coming back to
the game at any time for my next turn rather than watching everyone
else.
There were three other people in the room. The first used his entire turn time each turn but never seemed to bother attacking anyone. So be it.
The second player lost almost every attack he made. Even when he dumped 17 troops down next to my territory with only 5 he still managed to lose 16 of them and fail to capture it. Partly the problem is that with the turn time limit you pretty much have no choice but to use blitz and risk it all rather then playing it safe but in his case it seemed like the dice were insanely loaded against him. It happened so consistently to him and only him that it would defy all odds on real dice and really made me doubt the RNG is up to much in this game (something I'd previously assumed from single player).
The third player made an alliance with me as soon as I took a whole continent. I didn't know you could make alliances, still don't know how to make them and certainly didn't know you could just break them without any warning at all and that they mean nothing. So I let him take Africa and South America whilst I took Europe and Asia and either assumed we'd duel it out when everyone else was gone or we'd win as a team - either was fine. Instead he waited until one player was eliminated and my attentions were on the other guy to seize the entire continent out from under me. Yet still it showed him as being my ally and I couldn't see how to change that or ally with the other guy in response. If I was aware the alliance meant absolutely nothing I'd have tried to stop him getting those continents in the first place. Even if he'd had to break the alliance one turn before attacking it would have been tolerable.
In summary:
1. The game being real time instead of turn based with multiple games being played at once makes it a lot more time consuming and boring than it should be.
2. The dice are ridiculous.
3. Alliances break the game and mean nothing. They might make sense sitting around a table playing the board game as everyone is going to know you've made an alliance, might make their own in response and your ally is going to be right there staring at you when you invade him - and then no one else will trust you in future games. Still seems like a cheap move making an alliance - like in Monopoly when people start making dodgy deals to keep the other guy going bankrupt - but at least there's probably going to be some fallout from it. Online they just don't work at all.
1 Comment
P
Paul Lockwood
said
almost 7 years ago
1. The game/app you're looking for is Landrule, this has up to 48 hour turns I believe.
2. I see people upset about dice rolls and must admit sometimes I think the same. I doubt however they are anything but random and would argue that since with blitz and the speed of automation rather than manual game play, many more dice rolls are seen and therefore strange odds appear occasionally.
3. Alliances are great but should obviously be watched with caution. It seems that you were just unaware of the game rules and where the buttons were since it was your first game. Surely this is just venting rather than saying because I couldn't find how to break/make an alliance (it's not that hidden I'm sure you know now), the alliance function shouldn't be there..
Jeff Dogbert
Firstly I was assuming it would play more like a turn based game like Scrabble where you can have multiple games running and go to each when it is your turn. That's the advantage of making a board game into an app. Sitting around for five minutes waiting for a turn is far too reminiscent of actually playing a board game. I think the turn time was set to 120s and whilst I rarely came close to using it all I still felt uncomfortably rushed and would have much preferred being able to take my time to think and then coming back to the game at any time for my next turn rather than watching everyone else.
There were three other people in the room. The first used his entire turn time each turn but never seemed to bother attacking anyone. So be it.
The second player lost almost every attack he made. Even when he dumped 17 troops down next to my territory with only 5 he still managed to lose 16 of them and fail to capture it. Partly the problem is that with the turn time limit you pretty much have no choice but to use blitz and risk it all rather then playing it safe but in his case it seemed like the dice were insanely loaded against him. It happened so consistently to him and only him that it would defy all odds on real dice and really made me doubt the RNG is up to much in this game (something I'd previously assumed from single player).
The third player made an alliance with me as soon as I took a whole continent. I didn't know you could make alliances, still don't know how to make them and certainly didn't know you could just break them without any warning at all and that they mean nothing. So I let him take Africa and South America whilst I took Europe and Asia and either assumed we'd duel it out when everyone else was gone or we'd win as a team - either was fine. Instead he waited until one player was eliminated and my attentions were on the other guy to seize the entire continent out from under me. Yet still it showed him as being my ally and I couldn't see how to change that or ally with the other guy in response. If I was aware the alliance meant absolutely nothing I'd have tried to stop him getting those continents in the first place. Even if he'd had to break the alliance one turn before attacking it would have been tolerable.
In summary:
1. The game being real time instead of turn based with multiple games being played at once makes it a lot more time consuming and boring than it should be.
2. The dice are ridiculous.
3. Alliances break the game and mean nothing. They might make sense sitting around a table playing the board game as everyone is going to know you've made an alliance, might make their own in response and your ally is going to be right there staring at you when you invade him - and then no one else will trust you in future games. Still seems like a cheap move making an alliance - like in Monopoly when people start making dodgy deals to keep the other guy going bankrupt - but at least there's probably going to be some fallout from it. Online they just don't work at all.