"Best Experienced with a Gamepad"

[Dinosaurs_Are_Friends]

I have to say, when I read this I thought it might be a little snappier with a gamepad than a mouse, but I think what they actually meant was "our mouse controls are ineffective and frequently confuse inputs."

Picking up cards will randomly just not work, and wiping for certain suits is extremely challenging, The game is already a good brain teaser, so this extra dimension of unintended challenge isn't helping me to enjoy it more.

Is anyone having similar experiences?

[Dinosaurs_Are_Friends]

Well, I tried to persevere, but I just can't. The state of the mouse controls is awful, IMO, verging on essentially unplayable. It happens once or twice a scenario that I have to just restart because the game totally misinterpreted a completely clean input (the "full harvest" is hilariously bad).

I've applied for a refund. Perhaps I'll try again on console.

[LaChouette]

I'm playing the full game with a controller, so I can't say anything about late game tricks, but I've played the demo with mouse and keyboard and personally had no issue. Even went back to it a few days before release specifically to check the full harvest (as someone thought they were getting 'impossible combos") and had no issue with it.
May I ask what it is you're doing with your mouse on full harvest?

[fuochai]

Using mouse is too easy, so gamepad Makes you more likely to make mistakes, that increase the sense of immersion.(I think)

[Dinosaurs_Are_Friends]

On full harvest, about 50% of the time if you select the stack in the middle at 10 o'clock, or the stack at the exterior at 3 o'clock, you will be unable to select them with the mouse. If you then select another stack, that will work as intended, and then IMMEDIATELY after, as though a hidden cursor object was stuck in place on the previous stack, the previously unselectable stack will be picked up automatically. I reliably reproduced it on my brother's computer, and then watched him reproduce it with an entirely different mouse from the one I was initially using (which has never given me issues in any other game).

On the table wiping game, the game is nearly incapable of reading inputs other than the anti-clockwise and clockwise motion. I had my wife attempt to do it on her computer, and she couldn't make clubs happen at all during the practice run after a good minute of effort (though she was able to get diamonds after 40 seconds of alternating between hearts and spades).

Card jogging and deck shuffling work perfectly, as do things like three card monte that rely on click inputs, but numerous "wipe" inputs do not read properly, or even close to it.

I'm glad you had a good experience with MK/B, but from Googling elsewhere, it definitely seems like my issue is not idiosyncratic to the way I played the game. I'd urge you to try it on the current build, and I think you will see that either the build has changed from the demo version, or the slice of the experience in the demo just happened to be components of the game that function well.

I refunded the game and purchased it on Switch, and the experience is so much easier and dramatically more fun that I question why they enabled mouse controls at all, given the state they are in.

[LaChouette]

Originally posted by Steaksauce:

On full harvest, about 50% of the time if you select the stack in the middle at 10 o'clock, or the stack at the exterior at 3 o'clock, you will be unable to select them with the mouse. If you then select another stack, that will work as intended, and then IMMEDIATELY after, as though a hidden cursor object was stuck in place on the previous stack, the previously unselectable stack will be picked up automatically. I reliably reproduced it on my brother's computer, and then watched him reproduce it with an entirely different mouse from the one I was initially using (which has never given me issues in any other game).

On the table wiping game, the game is nearly incapable of reading inputs other than the anti-clockwise and clockwise motion. I had my wife attempt to do it on her computer, and she couldn't make clubs happen at all during the practice run after a good minute of effort (though she was able to get diamonds after 40 seconds of alternating between hearts and spades).

Card jogging and deck shuffling work perfectly, as do things like three card monte that rely on click inputs, but numerous "wipe" inputs do not read properly, or even close to it.

I'm glad you had a good experience with MK/B, but from Googling elsewhere, it definitely seems like my issue is not idiosyncratic to the way I played the game. I'd urge you to try it on the current build, and I think you will see that either the build has changed from the demo version, or the slice of the experience in the demo just happened to be components of the game that function well.

I refunded the game and purchased it on Switch, and the experience is so much easier and dramatically more fun that I question why they enabled mouse controls at all, given the state they are in.

I am currently testing this.

Wiping: it is a bit harder than with controller. Definitely doable and I don't understand how one can fail to get clubs at all, but it is indeed easier to mess up than with controller.
There's 4 small white dots on the screen (top, right, bottom, left) which seem to be what counts for picking suits. Hitting the left one, then right (or opposite) will lead you to clubs, however, if you happen to touche the top or bottom dot while doing so, the game will consider you're doing a half circle which will result in spades or hearts. Similarly, for diamonds, you need to only touch the top and bottom dots, not the left or right one0 So you have to make sure your mouse goes through the middle and you don't touch any other dot than the two you need for clubs or diamonds.
I'd say that the issue would be solved by putting those dots further apart so it's harder to mess it up by accidentally hitting an unwanted dot.

Full harvest: I did the training a bunch of times and had no issue. You have to move your cursor over the stack, hold the mouse button, then while holding move your cursor right or left depending on which way you want to pick up the stack. If that's what you're already doing, I don't really know what to tell you as I had no issue succeeding.
It does seem like there is an issue though, if you just click on a stack and don't hold the button: the game won't pick up the stack (which is normal, you never told it which way to do so), but if you then click other stacks or pick them up, the game will react weirdly, often picking up several of the clicked stacks one after the other. Might be what happened to you, which would fit with you simply not holding down the mouse button.

[RisingZan]

So I'm reading everyone's responses but I have the exact opposite problem. The controler I'm using has just the slightest bit of drift, normally not noticable in other games I play. But for Card Sharks it makes certian tricks impossible to play. So mid play session I switched to mouse and it made a big difference! Granted I've only done the first 5 or so tricks, so maybe that will make the difference.

[Bossanova]

There have been 2 moments where i knew exactly what card to pick/which to shuffle and the game hasn't read my command correctly,which leads to me losing.

Very frustrating and not helped by the suspicion meters + convoluted memory games.

I really like this game but until they do alot of bugfixes and quality of life upgrades i'm going to have to leave it.

[Blastaz]

The hit box of where you need to click with your mouse is very confusing. its usually related to where you are playing the card but never quite.

You also add suspicion WAY too fast while trying to scroll through decks or do tricks with the mouse. the false cut (?) where you draw a pattern with the mouse fills half the guage if you aren't careful.

In general the game needs a massive balance pass to make it more forgiving, but especially if you are playing with m&k.