Bugs with new update - automa

[eudie13]

This update seems particularly buggy for me as an automa player. I posted this as a comment under the update post, but I'm also putting as its own discussion, in hopes it'll be seen. Here are the issues I've noticed so far:

Something seems amiss with the Australian Owlet Night Jar - it doesn't trigger consistently, and I've noticed that it doesn't give you the opportunity to reroll the dice if there's one food type left that isn't an invertebrate. Other, similar cards allow to reroll a single remaining food type before determining whether there is a given food type in the tray. Additionally, when this happens, sometimes it doesn't give the text "there is no food of this type available - it just skips it completely; sometimes it does give the text. It's very odd.

Something is going on with the counter cubes on the automa's card - they aren't counting correctly. They seem to be working correctly in terms of scoring, but they aren't visually consistently correct.

I've noticed in my prairie, between cards, it will sometimes pop up the automa's card, as though it was about to do the automa's turn; it doesn't end my turn, and it will then go to the next card in my prairie, but it shouldn't be doing that.

Request for UI change: you changed the animation when the automa clears the card tray on its turn. It *really* should visually clear the cards on the automa's turn. It's really easy to miss that they've changed when they're just different at the start of my turn with no animation; if they got removed while the automa was taking it's turn, it would make it much more natural to look for the new ones.

I play in the brown card view. With the update, after the end of every round it reverts back to the standard view, and I have to change it back.

Here's one that doesn't affect gameplay, but I thought I'd mention it: there is a visual glitch when the automa removes a food type from the feeder. When I am playing in the brown card view, It will momentarily show the changed food on my browncard screen before it moves to the automa's screen. On the automa's screen, the food will be reverted back to what it was, and the automa will remove it again. Again, this doesn't affect gameplay, but it's a visual glitch I thought I'd mention.

Last but definitely not least: a request I've been making since I downloaded the game, ~600 of hours of play ago: give us the option to reorder and fan out our hands. Please. I always go for a card drawing strategy, and I often wind up with 20 cards or more that I can't fan out or change the order of. This is the most basic, fundamental QOL thing that should have been in the game from the start. It is just...why is this not in the game? This is particularly irritating after this update, because the update took away the workaround I used to use to use to reorder my cards - I used to be able to pretend to spend them on extra eggs or food, and then cancel it - they would pop into the end position in my hand. Now the game will reorder them to the original draw order at random intervals. I have commented on this *so many times* and it has never even been acknowledged. Despite the fact that I have, again, played ~600 hours of this game, it still has a negative review in from me in the steam shop because of this and other UI things like it. I'm able to play the game bc I have all the cards memorized, but this could not be a more basic and essential QOL feature. Please add the ability to fan out and reorder our hand, for the love of Pete.

[AronFJenks]

Originally posted by eudie13:

Last but definitely not least: a request I've been making since I downloaded the game, ~600 of hours of play ago: give us the option to reorder and fan out our hands. Please. I always go for a card drawing strategy, and I often wind up with 20 cards or more that I can't fan out or change the order of. This is the most basic, fundamental QOL thing that should have been in the game from the start. It is just...why is this not in the game? This is particularly irritating after this update, because the update took away the workaround I used to use to use to reorder my cards - I used to be able to pretend to spend them on extra eggs or food, and then cancel it - they would pop into the end position in my hand. Now the game will reorder them to the original draw order at random intervals.

UGGGGGHHH WHY !????

So, rather than FIX the problem, they removed the actual workaround !? Your workaround is exactly what I would do when I wanted to move a specific card to the front of a large hand of cards.

That's very frustrating.

[eudie13]

Originally posted by AronFJenks:

UGGGGGHHH WHY !????

So, rather than FIX the problem, they removed the actual workaround !? Your workaround is exactly what I would do when I wanted to move a specific card to the front of a large hand of cards.

That's very frustrating.

Yep, that's about right. Ughhh.

[marttini7]

Just like you, i also gave a negative review to this game recently on Steam marketplace, but for another reason: the lackness of multiplayer improvements. My original review (positive review) published on August 28 reached 8 likes in less than two months -- probably some brazillians bought the game because of my review (in portuguese language). But i had to change it, in order to protest against these things 😂. Although i still like the game on the overall aspects, and i have good results in multiplayer; those statements are not to be ignored!

[Waschbär42]

Originally posted by AronFJenks:

Originally posted by eudie13:

Last but definitely not least: a request I've been making since I downloaded the game, ~600 of hours of play ago: give us the option to reorder and fan out our hands. Please. I always go for a card drawing strategy, and I often wind up with 20 cards or more that I can't fan out or change the order of. This is the most basic, fundamental QOL thing that should have been in the game from the start. It is just...why is this not in the game? This is particularly irritating after this update, because the update took away the workaround I used to use to use to reorder my cards - I used to be able to pretend to spend them on extra eggs or food, and then cancel it - they would pop into the end position in my hand. Now the game will reorder them to the original draw order at random intervals.

UGGGGGHHH WHY !????

So, rather than FIX the problem, they removed the actual workaround !? Your workaround is exactly what I would do when I wanted to move a specific card to the front of a large hand of cards.

That's very frustrating.

To me, it is funny and sad at the same time how they either a) never had their game playtested by actual people - like pretty much everyone runs into this issue over the course of just a few games - or b) didnt prioritize this issue to be important enough.
Either way, seems like a glaring oversight (unless technical restrictions would have made it impossible/way too much effort) of an very obvious UI issue. ;(

[AronFJenks]

The same issues have plagued the digital implementation of Terraforming Mars for years. It's a combination of:

1) The developers do not know the actual rules.
2) The developers do not actually play the game.
3) The developers do not listen to paying customers who do meet one or both of the above criteria.

Nobody who likes the game could possibly do a single play-test and acquire a hand of 20+ cards and say, "Yeah, this interface is perfectly fine with the way it handles a large hand size".