Temple Gates Games: Difference between revisions
Kieranmillar (talk | contribs) →Features: Updated this section |
Kieranmillar (talk | contribs) →Gameplay: Update this section. Seems to have overlap woth Features section, maybe a page-wide review should be considered |
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== Gameplay == | == Gameplay == | ||
For | For custom games the expansions used depend on what the table host owns and selects. People who join in do not need to own the expansions. | ||
The ranked and unranked quickplay queues combine the owned expansions of both players. | |||
The client supports | The client supports 9 languages: English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Hungarian, Japenese, Chinese and Korean. Translations are volunteer contributions. | ||
== Praises and criticism == | == Praises and criticism == | ||
Revision as of 08:01, 22 September 2024
Temple Gates Games developed the official implementation of Dominion for Steam and mobile app stores.
Features
All released cards are implemented on the Temple Gates Games client.
Offline play against four difficulties of AI, or pass-and-play. The AI has been touted as a headlining feature of the client, taught via neural networks, and receiving some press upon its announcement.
Cross platform online play on Windows via Steam, Android via the Play Store, and iOS, with asynchronous timing available and the ability to play multiple games simultaneously. You can create custom tables, public or private, with private games shareable via code. Online tables allow everybody to use the host's owned expansions. Unranked and ranked quickplay queues are available for 2 player games, which combines the owned expansions of both players.
Card gallery can be used to customize the Kingdom. You can also ban cards there. You have unlimited bans available for offline play, and up to 5 cards and 5 landscapes for online games. Cards banned state will be maintained for future games. In multiplayer, all player's bans are respected.
Daily lets the user play a specific, shared Kingdom each day to take one shot at vs the AI. Everybody can play this kingdom once that day even if they do not own the used expansions, although you can trivially bypass this limit by making more profiles. You need to own the expansions to play past days. The daily kingdoms are randomised but the expansions used is limited according to this criteria:
- Monday - Base plus one other random expansion
- Tuesday - One random expansion (Base, Alchemy, Cornucopia and Guilds are excluded)
- Wednesday - Two random expansions
- Thursday and Friday - Three random expansions
- Saturday and Sunday - All expansions are used (but not Promos)
Tutorial to help new players learn the base game or different expansion mechanics.
There are achievements for each card in Base and Intrigue with more in development. You need to own the set to be eligible to earn its achievements.
Campaigns are in development.
Despite being combined for the physical releases, Cornucopia and Guilds are sold separately here.
Cost
The base game is free to download and play. Each expansion can be purchased with a one-time payment.
Purchases can be shared across platforms while online. Expansions from other platforms are only maintained for 7 days when offline.
The developers are honoring purchases of expansions made through previous platforms (Goko and Making Fun) as cross-platform purchases, though those clients only ever implemented up to Adventures.
Gameplay
For custom games the expansions used depend on what the table host owns and selects. People who join in do not need to own the expansions.
The ranked and unranked quickplay queues combine the owned expansions of both players.
The client supports 9 languages: English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Hungarian, Japenese, Chinese and Korean. Translations are volunteer contributions.
Praises and criticism
Praise
- AI Strength - exceeds that found on Shuffle IT
- Offline and Asynchronous Play - both firsts for Dominion implementations
- Honoring of previous purchases - although Shuffle IT provided free expansions for a year after release for those who had purchased on Making Fun, Temple Gates is providing them as online products to those who had them.
Criticism
- Cost - There are objections to the model of one-time payments for a digital service, and the cost is not presented in the app. Additionally, it has been criticized for being large - when compared to Shuffle IT, the total cost of expansions is equivalent to 2 years and 9 months of an all-expansions subscription.
- Platform availability - The app is only available on Windows through Steam, iOS, and Android. Players on other operating systems are unable to play, as well as those on Windows unwilling to install Steam.
- AI Strength - Compared to the promise of an AI that could beat top players, it has so far underdelivered. Experienced players are able to beat the hardest level of AI over 80% of the time, and it is uncompetitive on engine boards.
- Poor UI for engine decks - The default hand display does not support large hands, and so the hand rearranges over the course of a turn, and the play area does not support showing all played cards at once, so players often need to scroll to see what they have played.
- Lack of Online Features - Compared to Shuffle IT, the Temple Games client lacks many quality-of-life features for playing with other people, such as chat and the ability to spectate games.
Links
Temple Gates Games Discord server