Carcassonne Central
Carc Central Community => Online Games and Competitions => JCloisterZone FAQ, Suggestions & Bug Reports => Topic started by: rfielder on June 28, 2014, 06:18:43 AM
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Surprised there are no messages about this yet.....we need to get the author to be a bit more proactive.
JCZ 2.7 has been released!
I gave it a quick try this morning, and it works.
Two enhancements that I saw mention of. However, I have not found a change log:
Interaction that creates an issue with dragon movement and the Builder resolved
Undo key added
I would suggest that everyone involved in playing competition games upgrade. We should all be at the same release level, JIC (Just In Case).
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However, I have not found a change log:
Change log is here:
https://github.com/farin/JCloisterZone/blob/master/changelog.md (https://github.com/farin/JCloisterZone/blob/master/changelog.md)
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Thanks for the update Rob.
Those two things were top of my list of fixes/ updates I'd like to see so I'm very happy about that! :(y)
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Updated and tested, very nice undo button.
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Hi
Remarkable feature is Undo, requested for years from project beginning.
Currently it is easy implementation with minimal effort - I want better undo effect and undoable meeple actions.
To undo meeple placement requires option to enable manual end turn (I don't know how much it is useful in such case)
Most work in 2.7 is internal refactoring. Part of step-by-step cleaning AI mess to be able support more expansion and improve AI play style.
Ideas & plans to future:
- include some missing expansion (currently completed German Monasteries), priorities are Hills & Sheeps, Plague, Ferries, Goldmines
- add time features - option to set game time limit and countdown each player time
- chat available during game setup
- there is still endless work to improving AI :)
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Hi farin,
you will include the "Plague"...
I don't know how you will manage the never answered question of "How to play the Plague together with other expansions"
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Updated and tested, very nice undo button.
Agreed. Plus, you can only undo the tile placement. Once you move wood, you are locked in, which I agree with.
Unfortunately, he forgot to put a description of this on the opening screen. All the rest of the keys are there, but not the new Undo.
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I found a bug while playing with Abbey & Mayor and Traders & Builders:
Let's say I'm Blue :blue-meeple: player and my friend is Red :red-meeple:. It happened to me during last game we both had meeples on a same city, but among them Red had the wagon. I myself had the builder so by placing a new tile I would get a piece. I happened to draw a tile that completed the city so i proceeded to do so, city got finished and the game switched to Red player for him to move the wagon, up to here all perfect, he placed the wagon no problem. But right after, strangely enough he got the second turn instead of me, but this second turn was even weirder because he could only place my meeples. If you go on playing a few turns with the meeples of the other player I don't know exactly at which point I recovered control over my meeples and he got his ones back too. I'm sorry I can't be more precise on the issue but I think you might get an idea of what happens.
All in all thanks again Farin for JCloisterzone which brings tons of fun to me and my friends over the net and all of the ideas you mention sound awesome. Thanks for your hard work!
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Unfortunately, we also have uncovered a bug in 2.7 of JCZ. Or rather, an existing bug that has not be eliminated.
Two player game on two PCs with:
Inns & Cathedrals
Traders & Builders
Princess & The Dragon
The Two
River
River II
Phamton
Festival
Wind Rose
On two occasions, the issue with the dragon and the builder occurred. Once for each player. As before, the player who extended a city with builder by using a piece with a dragon symbol had their second draw show on the other player's screen.
In this case, having the Undo was useful. The first time, my partner placed my piece. When I pointed out that it was actually my turn, she was able to Undo the placement and put the tile where I wanted it to go.
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This may be a question about the phantom and the rules concerning it, or it may be another bug with JCZ. The behaviour existed in V2.6, and continues in V2.7.
As far as I know, the phantom can only be placed on the tile being played. Checking through the rules, that seems to be clear.
However, in some situations, JCZ allows you to place the phantom any place on the board! This seems to be an interaction between expansions, because this is not always allowed.
Anyone else run into this? Any ideas which expansions allow this behaviour? I have tested it with no expansion, and it behaves per the rules. The game tonight, described in my earlier message, did allow placement of the phantom anyplace that wasn't already taken.
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If you play with "The Princess and The Dragon", then when you take a tile with magic portal and place normal follower on some feature on it, phantom can use magic portal as a second feature, so can take any free feature on a map!
See notes 388 and 389 of CAR for more details.
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If you play with "The Princess and The Dragon", then when you take a tile with magic portal and place normal follower on some feature on it, phantom can use magic portal as a second feature, so can take any free feature on a map!
See notes 388 and 389 of CAR for more details.
I am aware of how magic portals work.
The issue I am documenting has nothing to do with the portal. The placement of the phantom can be done at any time, regardless of which tile is placed.
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Any ideas which expansions allow this behaviour?
I just answered on this.
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Thanks for reports. I expecting next release earlier then half a year and i want to check and fix all reported here.
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Tested JCloisterZone v2.7 earlier today. Launched two games on one computer and played thru the LAN network without having to open up a port (for network test purposes).
Undo function bug, if I may call it that: If I have no meeples in stack I can't use the undo function after placing a tile. The turn ends immediately and it's the next player's turn.
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Undo function bug, if I may call it that: If I have no meeples in stack I can't use the undo function after placing a tile. The turn ends immediately and it's the next player's turn.
That is the scenario that is a programmer's nightmare. The best way to get it resolved it to talk about it, see how the players think it could be handled.
The issue is that, in the real game, you turn does end at that point. There is nothing to wait for - you have nothing to play, so the turn goes to the next player. Sorry for stating the obvious, but this is the issue for a computerized version of the game. With nothing to play, how can the game pause to give you the opportunity to Undo the tile placement? It means the computerized version of the game must do something different than you would do in a real game.
Should a banner appear where the meeple would appear, saying something like "Click to continue"? Or should it be a timeout, give the player 5 seconds to select Undo or else the turn progresses?
In either case, I would suggest the option of when to proceed could be set on the opening page, where you select expansions and some other rule variations.
Anyone else have alternatives?
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Obvious solution: the same "Skip" button should appear, even when you are out of followers, as a confirmation of turn end. If you have followers, deploying the follower is your turn confirmation. Otherwise - "skip" button.
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Obvious solution: the same "Skip" button should appear, even when you are out of followers, as a confirmation of turn end. If you have followers, deploying the follower is your turn confirmation. Otherwise - "skip" button.
Agree. :(y)
Always have the Skip or rather an End Turn button and put it somewhere more visible, perhaps under all the stats / players.
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Always have the Skip or rather an End Turn button and put it somewhere more visible, perhaps under all the stats / players.
I would suggest that having only the same Skip button visible in this situation is not sufficient. From a user interface viewpoint, it would be confusing, because the same button now means something different.
Having it change it's label - End Turn, or Continue - would be better, IMHO.
What about the idea of a variable, user set timeout to go along with it? I don't want someone forgetting, getting up to get a drink or a bathroom break, and leaving the game stuck. Or, even worse, spending 5 minutes thinking about it..... Say 15 or 30 seconds as a default, but can be changed on the setup page.
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A timer is not something I'm fond of, but then again if it's implemented that timer starts after the tile is placed and lasts 2 mins I can live with that.
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Skip button will be used (probably with a different label) but I want to make it optional. So you should be abte to enable turn auto end
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Skip button will be used (probably with a different label) but I want to make it optional. So you should be abte to enable turn auto end
Although I agree, one thing that would make it even more useful is if JCZ would save it's current state.
That way, if I do set flags, they would be set the next time I play. Although it is fun to experiement, I suspect that many play the game using the same options every time.
Again, having selections be persistent could also be controlled with a flag.
At this rate, you are going to have to turn the setup page into a tabbed entity, for all the options that users will have! :)
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rfielder
All the options are stored in "config.yaml" file. So, if you want the same options every time, you can edit this file with Notepad and set all the options as you want them to be.
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All the options are stored in "config.yaml" file. So, if you want the same options every time, you can edit this file with Notepad and set all the options as you want them to be.
I use the UltraEdit32 programming editor for stuff like this.
However, that kind of misses the point - those of us comfortable hacking a config file are in the minority.
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I just tried this for the first time.
As Will Smith would say in Men in Black "Now that's what I am talking about - DAM"
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Would a tutorial posted here for editing (sounds nicer than hacking) the file be something you guys want?
:meeple:
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What kind of stuff would a tutorial include? Sounds like it could be useful but the only thing I've seen that I'd really want to change is the speed at which AI players place tiles...
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What kind of stuff would a tutorial include? Sounds like it could be useful but the only thing I've seen that I'd really want to change is the speed at which AI players place tiles...
Good point the speed of AI was too fast for me.
I opened the CONFIG.JAML file with notepad and changed
ai_place_tile_delay: 250 # miliseconds to wait before computer player place tile
to
ai_place_tile_delay: 2250 # miliseconds to wait before computer player place tile
it is a lot easier to see what is happening.
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Anybody else have this problem? I have the latest version of jcloisterzone and java, but whenever i save a game and then try to load it, it never gets past the "start game" screen. Any workarounds for this?
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Anybody else have this problem? I have the latest version of jcloisterzone and java, but whenever i save a game and then try to load it, it never gets past the "start game" screen. Any workarounds for this?
I had this with V2.6. Have not tried with 2.7.
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I uninstalled and reinstalled java and jcloisterzone along with restarting my computer before and after each. I also would wait about thirty seconds after i saved a game before i tried reloading it. So far this has worked the few times i've done it.
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Watching a video of JCZ in play, I found out you can highlight the farm fields to see where they connect.
:(
I did not know that and this game others a HUGE advantage in the CC League.
Next JCZ release, could we have this with the option to be able to disable it?
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Sorry Yellow, I didn't know you had no idea about that feature, you just need to press F. Also if you press X, you see last tiles placed. If you feel that was too big a disadvantage we can replay the game, I just want to be fair.
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Sorry Yellow, I didn't know you had no idea about that feature, you just need to press F. Also if you press X, you see last tiles placed. If you feel that was too big a disadvantage we can replay the game, I just want to be fair.
You are too kind. Thank you. But the favour would be too largely in my favour so we can't. A loss is a loss!
I might add there should be a hotkey legend on screen below the scoring/follower stack. That would help as well.
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I didn't know that you could highlight the farms either. Good to know for the next game!
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@Gerry - thanks for the tip with the config.jaml file! :)
@frankdux - I once managed to get a saved game to work. We didn't have to do anything special. Just closed JCZ, I loaded the game and my opponent connected back to me. Then we clicked Start and it worked! However, this was just once and on about a dozen occasions I've had games crash so we've followed the same procedure but it simply wouldn't load. I could load it, and my opponent could connect but the Start button didn't do anything. Maybe farin will know better, but 2.6 seemed a lot more stable than 2.7. We played the league using 2.6 which consisted of 42 games using the basic tiles and I only know of about 2 or 3 games that crashed and had to be restarted...
@Yellow - I knew that farm hints were there and even went so far as to mention them in the JCloisterZone FAQ. I also suggested that they should be avoided to keep things fair to everyone but I guess not everyone read this. Personally I don't think they make a massive difference, but they could be seen as an unfair advantage against people who don't know about them (hence why I requested not to use them - but I'm aware that there can also be genuine mistakes). I agree that there should be a checkbox on the pre-game screen which sets whether or not farm hints can be used, this seems like a neat solution to the problem.
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@Gerry - thanks for the tip with the config.jaml file! :)
@frankdux - I once managed to get a saved game to work. We didn't have to do anything special. Just closed JCZ, I loaded the game and my opponent connected back to me. Then we clicked Start and it worked! However, this was just once and on about a dozen occasions I've had games crash so we've followed the same procedure but it simply wouldn't load. I could load it, and my opponent could connect but the Start button didn't do anything. Maybe farin will know better, but 2.6 seemed a lot more stable than 2.7. We played the league using 2.6 which consisted of 42 games using the basic tiles and I only know of about 2 or 3 games that crashed and had to be restarted...
@Yellow - I knew that farm hints were there and even went so far as to mention them in the JCloisterZone FAQ. I also suggested that they should be avoided to keep things fair to everyone but I guess not everyone read this. Personally I don't think they make a massive difference, but they could be seen as an unfair advantage against people who don't know about them (hence why I requested not to use them - but I'm aware that there can also be genuine mistakes). I agree that there should be a checkbox on the pre-game screen which sets whether or not farm hints can be used, this seems like a neat solution to the problem.
I'm sorry I didn't read I should have avoided it. I won't use it onwards but I guess this became evident just because I recorded the game, so I can only trust in others not to use it in upcoming games since I don't see their screen. I don't think it makes a massive difference as Danisthirty states but it certainly helps making what would be 10 min thinking shrunk into 2 minutes or so. This game at least Yellow won all the fields (one was tie) so it effectively didn't influence. I don't really mind if others use it, I'm pretty used to having a sixth sense focused on the fields and tracking how they're developing. Still I think that feature would be a nice addition, just so everyone gets to play with the same tools. Anyway it was great fun and thanks for a great game Yellow, I wesh you the best of luck for the next matches you play!
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Wow - amazing!
JCloisterZone (JCZ) does a LOT to make you aware of your options! It is right in your face at the start, and available at any time.
The opening screen has most of the key combos. There are one or two of the newest not added, such as Ctrl-Z to undo a tile placement.
The menus within JCZ all show you what key to use.
Under Help, there is the Controls selection, which opens a window listing your options.
I am attaching screen shots for some of these. Click on the thumbnails to see a full size image.
When playing a game using software, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage if you don't take a few minutes and explore the software, see what it can do for you.
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To assume that you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage by not making yourself aware of all the little aids is to assume that everyone else is already using them! I prefer to point out that they’re there and then respectfully ask people not to use them. Obviously this relies on a certain amount of trust and respect between players but I think this is implicitly required when you play online anyway. O:-)
In an ideal world we’d all meet up at someone’s house and spend a day or two playing Carcassonne solidly to determine who should go home with the World Cup. Whilst I’d love to host something like this, it would be entirely impractical for a plethora of reasons (not least of all travel expenses for everyone else) so we’re playing online using JCloisterZone because it’s the best way of making it happen.
The fact that JCZ includes any aids at all (well, mostly just farm hints that I can think of) isn’t an argument for using them simply because they’re there. In my opinion, the playing experience should be the same for everyone if it’s going to be fair, and that experience should be as close as possible to playing Carcassonne in person at a top-level competition with independent score-keepers, judges, adjudicators or whoever else may be present at such events. C:-)
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Hence posted on this thread. As suggestions for the next version of JCZ.
Recap:
- Option setting whether to allow certain aids or not before game starts (for all the players or not).
- A hotkey legend bottom right screen with shadowed hotkeys if disabled during the game.
Because the Cup is already underway, I wouldn't demand people stop using. It is after all a trust issue. I for one will not use it. Call me purist! :@
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Because the Cup is already underway, I wouldn't demand people stop using. It is after all a trust issue. I for one will not use it. Call me purist! :@
Glad to hear it Yellow! I'm a purist too... :(y)
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The fact that JCZ includes any aids at all (well, mostly just farm hints that I can think of) isn’t an argument for using them simply because they’re there.
Farm hints, count of tiles placed, undo last tile placed, possibly others - it sounds like some of the players here were not aware of these features.
Even simple things like using the right mouse button to rotate a tile, or the spacebar to skip placing a meeple, can make your gameplay just a little easier and funner (more fun?) :)
We have been asked not to use the farm hints. Fair enough, but the other features were not disallowed, and they can help. I really like knowing which tile was placed last, since you can not see the tile being placed like you can in a physical game. If you look away at the wrong time, you may never find what tile your opponent placed unless you have a photographic memory.
My point is that there was surprise at these features in earlier messages. Not just farm hints. Not knowing about the features the software offers can work against you.
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- A hotkey legend bottom right screen with shadowed hotkeys if disabled during the game.
That is available now, from the Help menu, select Controls.
Unfortunately, this was not updated for V2.7, so the Ctrl-Z Undo is not listed.
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@rfielder - I guess some people are more curious than others by nature. I must admit I haven't delved into all of the menus within JCZ because I've never been all that intrigued by what they may contain. As such, I don't mind admitting that I didn't realise there was a tile list. But even if I had, I wouldn't have consulted it in games against human opponents as it would have spoilt my enjoyment of the game and my reliance on my own experience and knowledge of the tiles.
I have no problem whatsoever with the key to show you the last placed tile because the fact that it can be difficult to see where that tile is placed is introduced by virtue of the fact that you're playing online. In a normal game, it will always be obvious where the last tile went unless you've nodded off or not been concentrating, in which case it's your own fault for not paying attention anyway!
Likewise with the undo tile placement. When I play, my go isn't over until I OK the next player to take a tile. I might put my tile in one place to see how it looks, think about it, then move it somewhere else. The ability to do this isn't an advantage introduced by JCZ in the same way as farm hints are.
Hopefully the next version of JCZ will make all of this a moot point anyway as we'll be able to disable additional tools/ features/ aids before the game begins.
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I did not know the Farm hint was there either. I can think of a couple of occasions where it might have saved me. But I wasn't using them in any case.
It's my impression that we should be playing as though we were sitting at a table together, so we wouldn't have these advantages. A few of them have bugged me from the start because I am a purist. They are elements that you would not have if you were playing at a table. Two that I can think of: The tile count down, and the possible tile placement "hints" (the highlight box that shows you all the possible places to put the tile). Also the hints that tell you where you could place a Follower on the tile is more than you get at the table.
One advantage some of them have is you can't make a mistake in tile placement, follower placement or scoring. We've played games at the table before and never noticed until end game scoring that someone illegally placed a farmer in a field that was occupied way across on the other side of the board. Simple mistake that could have distasteful results in a competition. How many of us have discovered that a cloister was completed 4 rounds earlier and no one noticed...meanwhile the owner was playing a follower short. Ever finish the game and find an illegal tile placement? I have. So all of these issues are eliminated.
I understand some of them can't be helped and some of them are helpful for competition. If they are going to be inherent in playing JCZ and can't be avoided, then the main thing is we all play on the same playing field. They should be able to be turned on or off or at least drawn attention to so all players know they are available. (We're probably pushing issues on farin that he never anticipated being a problem. He likely didn't foresee this being used in competition.)
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Hopefully we get a Purist mode setting. :(y)
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I would be happy if you could just stop the AI program from trying to take over all of my cities.
The game seems to end up with long rambling impossible to complete cities as we each keep extending them to get another follower placed.
However it is an excellent teaching tool as you can just play certain followers over and over till you understand how they are best used.
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To recap then, here are the artificial aids as I see them:
1. Farm Hints
Clearly nothing like this is available in the game played in real life. I don’t find it very helpful, but I can imagine that some people might do so it will usually result in an uneven playing field or will give less experienced players a boost.
2. See Tile Placement Options
I think this is more of an aid than is immediately obvious as it can quickly show you if the tile you’ve drawn fits a certain gap. Yes you can work this out for yourself anyway, but it just makes it so much easier to see all of your available options at a glance.
3. Tile Countdown
Although it’s difficult/ impractical to be exact, when playing in real life you normally have a good idea of how many tiles are left simply by counting the stacks in front of you or by getting a feel for how many are left in the bag.
4. See Meeple Placement Options (on tile)
I’ve normally considered my meeple placement before I’ve placed my tile so I don’t really see this as an advantage.
5. Undo Tile Placement
It’s useful being able to do this, and I’m grateful of it. But this isn’t exclusive to JCZ as you control when your turn has ended in real life games anyway...
If JCZ included a "purist" (or "competition") mode I’d expect to see options 1, 2 and possibly 3 excluded whenever it is active. I don’t see the harm in leaving options 4 and 5 available as I don’t feel that these change the experience over that of sitting up at a table and playing. I guess the whole point about the recent discussion on this point though is that it’s a personal thing, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if anyone/ everyone disagreed with this.
Ultimately it’s up to Farin what he includes in his game. All we can do is offer our advice based on extensive testing from a large base of enthusiastic fans of the original game, its expansions and spin-offs. He already has something special on his hands, but I believe that if he chooses to follow our advice then it could end up being very special indeed!
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I would suggest not a "mode" but rather a list of checkbox options that can be selected at the start of the game. That would be universal and every game could be set up differently to taste.
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I guess the whole point about the recent discussion on this point though is that it’s a personal thing, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if anyone/ everyone disagreed with this.
It can be considered as "personal", or from the point of view of a "purist".
For me - JCloisterZone is a game. You play the game the way it is built. It is based on Carcassonne, and follows the rules of Carcassonne, but it is a computer game, so it is not the same playing Carcassonne on a table with physical tiles.
Applying your personal likes and dislikes as an absolute to others may not be in the best interests of the competition. I see no difference between the tile hints, meeple hints, and farm hints - none are available with the board game, all exist only because this is a computer game. I don't understand why farm hints would be discouraged while the others are considered acceptable.
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I for one never said anything about forcing the settings, rather as many posts already suggested (including myself) it would be an option.
Yes, it is a computer game.
In conclusion it would stand to reason for some of us requesting an option or two to make the game more enjoyablef or them yet still have the option to revert back to the older settings.
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@rfielder - Simply put, because this is a Carcassonne competition rather than a JCloisterZone competition. Although it’s a great game in its own right, in this context JCloisterZone is merely a tool for making it possible to play Carcassonne over the internet and with this in mind, the goal is that the gameplay experienced by players taking part in our online competition should be as close as possible to the experience of playing it properly (i.e. up at a table).
Some of JCloisterZone’s features detract from this experience more than others so I’ve made an effort to distinguish between those that are the most disruptive as opposed to those that aren’t by relating them back to traditional Carcassonne as it’s played offline. Being able to change your mind about where you’ve placed your tile isn’t an advantage offered purely by JCloisterZone, but seeing how best to get onto someone else’s farm certainly is.
For a one off game I don’t think it matters which aids are allowed as long as everyone playing agrees on them in advance. Placing them on the pre-game screen seems like a good way of setting this. When there are 40 2-player games being played between 20 different players though, it’s very important to try and keep things fair for everyone.
I don’t feel like this discussion is particularly helpful any more as we’ve already established how these inconsistencies can be corrected. As long as we’re all making an effort to play under “exam conditions” so to speak then we can make the best of it and ensure that the league is fair to all players going forward. Next time I will be sure to make it abundantly clear what is expected from everyone who takes part. I thought it had been covered this time round, but evidently I was wrong so apologies to all for any confusion this has caused...
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Twice today, I have had JCZ 2.7 hang. Both times was much the same situation - my opponent (the computer) completed a feature that had a wagon. In the second game, a barn was placed.
I was playing the base game plus two expansions - Inns & Cathedrals, and Abbey and Mayor.
After this, the pointer moves to me, but the wagon remains in the object area. Far as I can see, it was the computer's turn to place the wagon or skip. The issue seems to be that the computer does neither, but advances the pointer to the second player.
You can more the board around, and you can make selections from the menu. You can kill the game.
I am attaching a screen shot of the second game.
If the author is here - Farin, can you have a look and advise if you have any idea why this is happening, and if it can be fixed?
Feels similar to the interaction between the dragon and the builder, which STILL occurs in V2.7.
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Would a tutorial posted here for editing (sounds nicer than hacking) the file be something you guys want?
:meeple:
I would kill for a tutorial! Would it possible to learn how to add fan expansions to the program? Would I have to be exceptionally skilled at programming to make something like that possible?
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Twice today, I have had JCZ 2.7 hang. Both times was much the same situation - my opponent (the computer) completed a feature that had a wagon. In the second game, a barn was placed.
I was playing the base game plus two expansions - Inns & Cathedrals, and Abbey and Mayor.
After this, the pointer moves to me, but the wagon remains in the object area. Far as I can see, it was the computer's turn to place the wagon or skip. The issue seems to be that the computer does neither, but advances the pointer to the second player.
You can more the board around, and you can make selections from the menu. You can kill the game.
I am attaching a screen shot of the second game.
If the author is here - Farin, can you have a look and advise if you have any idea why this is happening, and if it can be fixed?
Feels similar to the interaction between the dragon and the builder, which STILL occurs in V2.7.
Just like to add that I have had the same experience when using the Wagon.
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Here also. I encountered such bug more than once with the wagon while playing against AI.
I don't know if it happens in a game human vs. human and could represent a potential showstopper for the world cup final...
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I don't know if it happens in a game human vs. human and could represent a potential showstopper for the world cup final...
I saw it last night playing against my partner. We were linked into the server I use for playing against others here.
In this case, the wrong person (Me!) was expected to place the wagon, even though it was her turn, and her wagon to place. I used the space bar to Skip, and the game continued.
This is EXACTLY the same behaviour as the interaction between the dragon and the builder - the game gets confused as to who should be making the next move. That issue continues in V2.7 for me.
We can only hope that the author is monitoring these discussions, and our descriptions are sufficient to give him some idea where to find the software bug that is confusing an otherwise excellent product.
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For the most part, JCloisterZone is an excellent product. I suspect that few of us appreciate the level of skill and knowledge needed to create such a product. Having it deal with the changing and complicated rules for Carcassonne is impressive!
We need to keep in mind that this is a FREE product. The author is not making any money on it at all. I am sure he has a day job, and a life, and other projects of interest. These are important things to keep in mind when we ask for fixes and enhancements.
In fact, IMHO, we have no right to expect anything. There is no financial reward for the author to improve or extend JCZ. Nor do I expect him to start charging, since once people start paying for something, they will feel they have a right to make demands of his time for support, assistance, training, and improvements. Unless he decides to make a living off Carcassonne, things may not change.
I appreciate the product, and his involvement here, and his commitment to future versions. I do hope that fixing bugs takes priority over enhancements or alternate versions, but that is his call.
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For the most part, JCloisterZone is an excellent product.
Definitely agree with this post.
It is an amazing free program from Farin and he is to be commended for all the things that work so well on it.
I did my second little tweak to the config.yaml to make it display the scores for longer on the screen. Old codger settings now keep the score displayed for about a minute.
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Hi guys
Be sure I am reading all this discussion carefully.
There was large discussion about purist mode.
Motivation for farm hints is limited pc sceen. For larger games table is always little more clear then pc game
(but for tournament basic + inns and 23'' display it's not needed much).
I this option should better orientation. I didn't expect much advantage for experienced player to prevent "forgotten" farm.
Sneaking into farm is rather domain of beginner level. (and if prevent such omissions it makes game more strategic :-)
Now I see it's controversial. point and make option to disable is not much work. I can add it easily (eg version 3.1, see my roadmap bellow)
Similar motivation is for undo feature, fix some aspect of pc controls. You can simply click next and place to unwanted place.
About tile countdown, exact number is important at the end. And at the end exact number is also counted even in table game.
And finally tile/meeple placement options - is only speed up game, anyway i can't allow invalid tile/meeple placement so it not cause any advantage for anybody.
Now I am working hard (but don't forget it is still my fun freetime project) on next release, it will be 3.0.
Inspired with tournaments here am focused on remote PvP play enhancements - broken connections & auto reconnection, list of connected clients during setup
Second part is AI glitches, it's annoying when game freeze (save&load often help, but still really annoying) -
and German Monasteries expansion -> i hope in realease during August
w
3.1 - host mode / play server - fixing can host and all firewall issues - network layer is reworked for this now in dev - this should be only about ui and server itself - want it done in September
other big things I want to add - Hills & Sheep, more configurable games (eg. disable only Abbeys, or use whole Princess&Dragon just without dragon. Or play with 2 basic sets) - in fact engine almost support it now - it needs mainly ui, I also want to support more home variants described in Completed Annotated Rules (eg King and Robber baron - score simple 15 pts for each) and finally there are many of small feature requests :)
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Amazing job Farin!
All these games played for the league/world cup will end up being valuable playtesting for your app. Glad we can all contribute a bit.
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most impressive.
Having some way to automatically export the game results to a text file might be useful to whoever organizes the next competition. Perhaps in a format that could be imported into a spreadsheet program so that it would be easy to tally the points scored and show who had the highest scoring city, road or field.
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Farin, thank you so much for everything you've done for the Carcassonne community! Cloister Zone is an absolute blast to play and it easily outshines all other electronic releases of Carcassonne.
Any chance you may add the Mage and Witch mini expansion in the future?
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And in between all that development farin, do you think you will get time to eat and sleep?
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And in between all that development farin, do you think you will get time to eat and sleep?
Eat and Sleep ??
Now that is a Carcassonne expansion that I could go for.
Does Carcassonne have an official snack of choice?
I know Scott (or at least his Avatar) would pick bacon.
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Just a small list for Farin:
Bugs:
Builder and Dragon interaction continues, leaves game hung on single PC game, incorrect play to place wagon on multiple PC game
Placing tile with no meeples removes ability to undo tile placement
Wagon sometimes leaves game hung on single PC game, incorrect play to place wagon on multiple PC game
No description of Undo Tile Placement key on opening screen or Help => Controls screen
Improvements:
Host Mode
Show more details on final summary screen - date and time of start of game, date and time of end of game
Detailed audit trail of scoring - available at any time, including at game end. I have this in the Android app I use for scoring the real game, and it is very useful to see what has happened at any time. 'Specially with a memory like mine.... :)