BR beta Feedback

[Grissi]

Hey Everyone, here is my quick feedback after 1 AI game and one 3p Multiplayer game (that I crashed out of in middle of age 2).
I love Blood rage and really hope this game does well, I have tons of experience with games and noticed some thing right away I feel needs improving for both new players and experienced players.


Main menu
If you have not selected anything in the top menu yet the main menu looks very bare, if I was not used to this kind of setup I would not have noticed the main menu buttons on top. Their colors also blend to much with the interface, they need to be more obvious.
I actually didn't realize right away I was in the main menu after a game because the screen was empty (thought the game bugged out).


Compendium
After selecting an options the scroll does not go back to top, it stays in the same place.


Options
-Fullscreen window mode is missing
When changing sound FX no sound is played so you don't know the current volume.


Can't change options in a lobby
After a lobby has been create you can't adjust any options without re-creating the game
You have to use the all chat do communicate with your opponent, lobby chat is missing!
Lobby games should always be casual, ranked games should be automatically created by the server with pre-set settings when enough players have started looking for a ranked game.


Missing ability to chat with your opponent!!
This is such a huge part of playing boardgames/videogames like this one, right now there is no way to communicate with your opponents. This lowers the value of the experience a lot!
With low option turn based format like this one having time to interact with your opponents is a huge bonus and a must! (Low option compared to other turn based videogames).
At least have a toggle in options to allow chat. I would even consider offering voice chat a well but people could use other programs outside the game to make that work.
You can always add mute options if that is required.

After game ends entering a after lobby with chat and being able to interact with your opponent about the game would be pirceless!


In game

Overview map
Even though I have lots of experience with Blood rage the overview map was very confusing to me, I had hard time keeping up where units were and what was happening. When I look at the map from top down all the key information should be instantly clear to me but the colors are usually to subtle for this to be a reality.
Make better use of colors, when a unit is placed on a circle make that circle glow in his color, maker the territory glow that it is contested, even use a different color mix if there is 1 player there of multiple. Make it visually obvious what kind of unit is on the board even if you don't know the models.
Ragnarök zone needs to be WAY more obvious, again the subtle design around the circles(villages) makes it hard for someone that has not played this game before to see it. This is key information, it needs to be instantly reganized even for a total beginner. It took me awhile to see it.
At first I was just a bit zoomed inn and did not see any pillage icons, it would probably be better to have the pillage icons toggleable instead of disappearing automatic when zooming in. Also it was not clear to me what zones had been pillaged and what zone were not, again the game is to subtle about this kind of information. Visually is show barely noticeable flame around the banner.

The circles on the map blend with the environment and sometimes the trees and houses on the environment kinda block visually whats behind them. It's very common that key gameplay elements are not clearly distinguished from the background environment (Units, unit type, pillage information and so on).
The color on quest cards are different from the zone themselves, though the rotation is correct it caused me to doublecheck to make sure.

Each player color needs to be communicated much more clearly, so I know instantly that Played 3/Brown is this guy and these are his units, it really blends during gameplay.

How to pillage is not translated very well, when moving your mouse over a flag it should clearly say ,,Pillage x Territory?"

Suggestion: Add a button(Such as alt or tab), when pressed it shows extra details going on in the map that may not be needed normally.


Activating Card / Unit interaction
I mostly like the interaction except I would prefer to do clicks instead of drag, would be great option to add
It could be communicated more clearly if there is a rage cost involved on the screen, I accidentally placed a warrior instead of leader somehow and the interface was not communicating it clearly to me that I just paid a rage.


Game Flow
At any point of the game there should be 0 confusion who's turn it is and what action he is taking right now. Outside a very subtle animation on my opponent portrait there is no way of seeing who's turn it is. If you don't know the turn order by heart you also have no idea what is happening at some points in the game, you are just waiting and wondering if the game bugged out or not.
There are tons of opportunities here to communicate to the player visually / through sounds what is happening. Sound is very under utilized in the current version.
There should be a text somewhere on the screen showing what player is doing their turn(player name in their team color), how much time they have left on their turn and what phase they are doing. When they make a move a sound should be played based on the action they take and the action name should be shown on the screen.
After a move has been made the last move should be clearly shown on one of the side of the screen(not the huge text log). The territory and units that were used this turn should be instantly reganized, if card was used the card should be shown on the screen and then their player board should show that a card was added there visually. This is super important, having these interactions clear makes the gameplay feel soo much better!


Combat Flow
Same feedback as with game flow, each interaction, who is making what decision needs to be more clear and add sound effects!
When a territory is pillaged highlight that territory so it visually obvious what territory is being pillaged, this is not visually clear in the current version.
If all cards are discarded Highlight the winning card on the screen and show text - Combat cards discarded, play another combat card!
After someone wins play their teams winning sound / Show the units on screen that survived and what units died, show how much glory was gained! If a player steals a rage show that, if he steals rage from you play a painful sound and show it clearly and visually. Same with all other effects in the game.


Even if someone knows the game by heart, communicating information well without slowing the gameplay down will be key to attract new players and keep them around for a long time! I know it's not easy but it would be worth delaying release for if the execution is not ready by that time. Don't cut corners, it really makes a difference!


I will keep adding more feedback as I play the game more! Please share your experience as well to help the Devs create the best experience possible!


PS: I also recommend adding a center for feedback to prevent the discussions tab to be overflooded and prevent valuable feedback to be lost in the future. This Feedback center can be linked from the main menu to encourage people to give it with a single press, same with bug fixes.

[Grissi]

Some additional feedback:
The button to pass your turn is very hidden, took me like a minute to find it.

After quest phase its hard to keep track who finished what quest and what stat they decided to level up.

It's also hard to track the number of cards players have on their hand, would be nice to have a number for it like for clan stats always on the screen.

God's gift phase - only one person seems to be picking a card at a time, there is no reason why it should not be simultaneous between all players! Would also speed up the early game a lot.

After multiple games I see that its clearly not visual enough what has been pillage and what is still available

Players should be able to play combat cards at the same time to speed up the game, the card back can be hidden until all have placed their cards

After playing more games you kinda get used to the interface, still my original post still applies. It's more that you know what to look for than before. It can still be hard to keep track on what everyone plays as the cards disappear really quickly

The game does not visually tell you after you finish all your rage or when you are about to use your last rage. Would be good to show it clearly what players are out of rage and when you are about to use your last rage + when your out. This could cause confusion to new players when they suddenly stop getting a turn.

When placing a monster and your unit cap is full the game does not give you a warning that you won't be able to place that monster. Saw an opponent do a major mistake because of this. Sure its his mistake for not keeping an eye on it at the same time its a beginner trap.

There does not seem to be any indication where future Ragnarök will happen, you can only see the one that happens in the current age. This information should be clearly shown.

[Grissi]

Bug: Player drop
In age 3 close to the end of the game something happened, opponent never ended his turn, said oops a few times (seems something happened) then dropped out. Even after he dropped out his turn never ended so the 3 of us left in the game could not finish.In the end everyone had to leave the game without any winner.

Maybe after player leaves it should forcefully pass the turn or during beta at least at an option where you can force pass your turn in escape menu when these kind of bug happens, at least to prevent the game from getting stuck and reset the triggers. Not sure if it would help but just maybe :).

--
When I left the game a message popped up - Game aborted, all players used up their timers. Maybe there is a bug connected to player turntimer. How much time you have left is not really visible during the game so it's hard to tell.

[Grissi]

Bug: Steal Rage
If you steal rage it does not go over your start of turn cap. Example if your start of turn cap is 8 and you have 8/8 rage when you steal from someone it does not go to 9/8. In the base game ruleset(and reading faq online) you should get that rage except if it goes over 12 (the max limit).

Bug: Log text showing through cards
Between ages if you have the game log up the text from the log goes through the card that are above it. This can also happen with the STR number of cards, they sometime block the card text, making it hard to read.

[Haister]

Short description of the bugs: games crashed 3 consecutive times with 'unity...............' pop up box. 1st crash was after 3 mins in a game, 2nd crash after 7 mins and then 3rd crash after 13 mins in a game. All single player games with 2 AI opponents at normal difficulty.

Computer information: Windows 10 home; intel i5-3570K cpu, 16GB ram, 64-bit OS, AMD radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card, 237BG SSD in RAID 0 config

What precisely happen and what you've done before it happens: 1st crash was after 3 mins in a game, 2nd crash after 7 mins and then 3rd crash after 13 mins in a game. All single player games with 2 AI opponents at normal difficulty. No obvious trigger for crashes as I was doing different things each time it happened.

What did you expect when you do the last action before the bug: n/a

[TotallyBananass]

Combat expert? the one that makes EACH warrior worth 2. had 2 warriors (each+2) and a boat in a province and lost to a leader and a +1card. anyway you slice that it was wrong.

[TotallyBananass]

the card that lets you deploy an extra warrior on deploy. doesn't trigger for Boat or leader placement

[Alhazred]

Originally posted by TotallyBananass:

the card that lets you deploy an extra warrior on deploy. doesn't trigger for Boat or leader placement

I tested it during a whole game and it worked perfectly fine for me.
You can select the land and it s highlighted in green for dropping an additionnal warrior.

Note that if you already have max miniatures on board based on your horns stat, it will not work of course.

[Ectaban]

Just noticed this post, good idea to centralise somewhere, i delete my post and put it back here...

Hello,

When i received the key a few hours ago, i couldn't wait to test the game, after finally getting the time for that, i decided to play a first game vs 2 AI (3 player game)

I played wolf clan (dunno if it matter in order to find my bug) against bear and snake (both easy and random) and if i really like the music (good, but maybe too repetitive for it's own good), i've to admit that the game doesn't feel intuitive at all !

Here are a few complains an bugs :

1) Almost no validation at all (the only validation is a pass button if you don't want to react to a pillaging action), it's very annoying as i accidently clicked on something a few time in order to find what i can or cannot do.

2) no roll back, even if what i did has no consequences (ex : pillaging an area where i fill all the slots, or ending your turn (i ended my 3rd age with 3 remaining rage, a quest, an upgrade in hand and plenty of troop to send to valhala))

3) after 3 ragnarok, i still don't know where the next destroyed area will be, preventing me from the benefits of this wonderfull event. i tried to find the information and this is how i ended skipping my turn accidently (thanks no roll back and no validation)

4) march is supposed to allow to move multiple units from one province to a single other one province, saddly, i didn't find the way to do it... since there's no roll back nor validation, i did wasted a lot of march actions...

5) Valkirie has no horse... ok, the ingame miniature doesn't have one either.. but yyou missed the opportunity to make her join the battle field on one...

6)i couldn't play heimdal's watch battle card... quite annoying for a battle card... specially one that allow to discard other player's cards !

7) when a battle's triggered and you have the opportunity to join in, there's no displayed information about where the battle is...
Just add the name of the province on the shield, plus make the area shiny or something obvious but it's freaking annoying...


8) where are oracle and gods expansions ?



Nor everything is bad however, here are the good points

1) Maybe i didn't played the game for too long (thanks rising sun), but i believe there's new cards that doesn't exist (i don't remember that card that allow to sacrifice 2 troops as an action... for exemple)

2) the music

3) the game is very close to what he's has a board game.


_________________________________________

I played a few other games vs ai because i couldn't get a game vs players...

2 new bugs to add for me...

1)in vs player, it seems like i've only one option in every combo box..., after that, i have "option B" and "option C"...

3 options is clearly not enough since you have mystic and gods, you need at least 4 options
"vanilla"
Mystic
Gods
Mystic + Gods.

2) i've infinite loading when searching for players... or maybe it's normal to wait at least 20 minutes without finding a game or a single player ? might be related to the first bug.



One last thing, is it me or there's no kickstarter monsters ?

[Grissi]

Rules / Bug problem:
In battle, since you can see the card backs before fights happen you can see the back of a card before it is your turn. This allows you to predict what card your opponent is using easily, such as steal rage in age 2. In the original rules you can hide the card you are playing and all battle cards are played at the same time, this takes away mind games involved.


---
I let a friend of my try out the game, he has played blood rage boardgame 2 times and has experience in videogames. He was completely lost and pretty much everything I mentioned in the original post happened. He knows the game but not memorized all the cards and monsters.

Did not figure out how to pillage, was trying to drag units on the field, did not realize how to use cards right away (trying to click instead of drag). Did not find ragnarök territory and so on, had hard time keeping track where each player units are(and his own and so on...

After Age 1 he didn't really want to continue as he had no idea what was happening.


An experienced play can navigate the interface as they know what everything does but it seems that it needs some major improvements if the game wants to draw new blood into the game. I doubt tutorial is enough to solve this.

[Grissi]

Rules / Bug: Winning pillage with 0 troops left alive.
Odin's smite was used and both me and my oppoment were brought down to 0 str. My card had 2str and his card has 1str, so even with 0 warriors left I won the fight and should have been able to get a win and pillage successfully.
The game however took it as a draw and all troops got destroyed.

I checked faq's online and rules and confirmed this is the case. Having a troop alive is irrelevant when it comes to winning combat.


Bug: Player can't end his turn
My opponent had lots of rage left while I had 0 rage, after he did a pillage he played a quest card and after that could not end his turn. The game pretty much froze and we could not continue our duel.

Bug: Pass in combat
I noticed in one game the pass button was still clickable even if it was not my turn in combat, even if the button it self disappears if you click the area it still makes the sound like its still there. After I pressed it accidentally in a game it froze and no one could continue their turns.
I wonder if there are more cases like this in the game, that would mean a doubleclick or a click at the wrong spot at the right time might be causing games to stop working.

[Grissi]

Bug: Player timeouts
Even when a player leaves a game often that player lingers in it and never times out, this can cause a turn to be stuck on them forever with nothing happening.

Forfeits:
When a player forfeits a AI seems to take over but there is no notification that this happens and it looks like he is still playing in the game, this needs to be communicated more clearly!

If the last player forfeits the game should end (or I as the last player should have the option to end it) instead of being forced to play the rest of the game vs AI opponents. This happened to me when Playing a 1v1, my opponent forfeited but the game continued with an AI even though I had no interest in doing so.


----
Sometimes when the game seems to bug out and freeze players, if I rejoin the game it gets fixed(if I'm one the players in that action). Seen it work 2 times now during combat

[Grissi]

Turntimer clearly needs more visibility as I have seen 3 times now players run out of time in age 3. Also time to do per turn is needed, a limited pause function could always be added for WC breaks. Sometimes opponent take a very long time to do their turn and you have no idea if the game bugged out or not.

[Grissi]

Bug / Rules
Friggs sacrifice combo with Dragon is not working properly. When I destroy my own ship it should give me glory for destroying them but currently it does not give any glory.

This can be done multiple time with Frigga's Domain that llows you to spend 1 rage to invade from valhalla but it gave 0 glory each time I tried.


I hope this feedback is being useful, would be nice to see a dev confirmation on that :).

[Ectaban]

impossible to pause the game when playing against AI.

No hot seat on single player commputer (not sure anyone need it ... yet)

impossible to invite people (from the chat) by right clicking on their name or from you friend list

No private game

I just lost 5 rage after a fight i wasn't part of... i know it's due to last pillaging area, but without a message like "all province has been pillaged" it really feel like a bug...

Had 4 warriors in ygdrasil with master in arms (base strengh of 2 for each warrior, each pair have strenght 6), first round i was at a strenght of 12 (normal, i had no cards left to play) but one player played discard the battle cards than play a new one...
Second round i was at a total strenght of 8... should have been at 12 since nothing is cancelling master in arms

[Grissi]

Drag dropping can feel buggy at times, sometimes the card does not drag properly and you have to be really careful to not accidentally overwrite a card that you have already placed. It could be smoothed out. I believe click to select a card and 1 click to select its final location would be more fitting for this UI design, the locations you can play the card could be highlighted.

When you have special clan upgrade abilities it is not obvious that you need to click the cards to activate them, there is no visual hints that you can do so, these cards should glow to show that you can do an action with them!