Some playflow improvements

[mark]

I like forge because I can play really, really fast games but there are some delays by forced interaction I'd like to get rid of, like unnecessary popups.

For example, I checked out the current svn sources and found out that forge now opens a popup when I have open mana in a phase left. Could you please add the option to disable this? I know that I have mana left, don't care about it and this interrupts the playflow.

Which brings me to the second suggestion: There are many cards with "look at $zone and select cards from there" properties, e.g. Demonic Tutor, which often opens the same set of cards twice in forge though only the second one is really needed. It happens quite often that I search for the card in the first popup, select it, hit OK and then forge shows me the second dialogue which is supposed for selection. Searching for the same card again is quite annoying.
Actually, even a card like Duress with a "look at $zone and select $specialcards from there" property could open only one dialogue and include the $specialcard filter from the second dialogue in the first one e.g. as a checkbox.

There is a third suggestion: If the player is asked about the order of stack entries, a popup opens. This is formally needed but I cannot recall a moment where I ever needed to rearrange the proposed order (most of the time I wouldn't even like the proposed order to change). I guess I played some thousand games in forge and always needed to hit the Auto button. I would appreciate an option to always apply the proposed stack order automatically.

And a last one: I really like the End Turn button because it speeds up the game even more. But I would also like a Force End Turn button which really ends a player's turn, no matter what the other player does in between. This is great if e.g. I cannot do anything in my current position (no mana, no cards, whatever) and the AI plays card after card after card in it's phase which makes hitting the End Turn button quite tedious. This also introduces the danger of hitting it once too much, skipping my own turn.
A Force End Turn button would need one click and guarantee the next turn to start. If I want to know what happened in detail, I can always check the log.

[Fizanko]

For example, I checked out the current svn sources and found out that forge now opens a popup when I have open mana in a phase left. Could you please add the option to disable this? I know that I have mana left, don't care about it and this interrupts the playflow.

Yes, this new dialogue has been bothering me a bit, as i have some lands (from ravnica) in decks that give more than 1 mana, it's often then that i have 1 mana left after playing all i could/want.
This is something i know and still i have to confirm that i know everytime.

Making this message optional would be great. It's certainly usefull when you're playing with the manaburn rule, but out of it, it's another layer of click that isn't needed

Which brings me to the second suggestion: There are many cards with "look at $zone and select cards from there" properties, e.g. Demonic Tutor, which often opens the same set of cards twice in forge though only the second one is really needed. It happens quite often that I search for the card in the first popup, select it, hit OK and then forge shows me the second dialogue which is supposed for selection. Searching for the same card again is quite annoying.
Actually, even a card like Duress with a "look at $zone and select $specialcards from there" property could open only one dialogue and include the $specialcard filter from the second dialogue in the first one e.g. as a checkbox.

+1 , i never understood why there's a panel to look (at first i thought i had to select something, but no, it's just "to look") and then the panel in which you can actually to select the card.
Going directly to the panel to select would be a gameplay "flow" improvement in my opinion.

[rikimbo]

I guess that the intent of the first screen is for zones like the opponent's hand, where it is nice to get to see the opponent's full hand before you have to make a restricted choice. For zones like your own library though, it's just an extra menu to have to click through.

[Fizanko]

Ah yes, indeed i was only thinking for the player looking into his library case in which it's more annoying than usefull.

[drdev]

I have been meaning for sometime to design a dialog for looking at all contents of a specific zone while simulateneousing grouping all selectable cards at the top. Such a dialog would allow consolidation of reveal then choose dialogs into a single dialog. It would also allow consolidating places where you have to select multiple cards to just select multiple cards then press OK once.

[Xitax]

Yes these 2 dialogs are only different when the card list is different between them. Usually in library searches, like Demonic Tutor, they are the same. Therefore not useful. But others, like Thoughtseize, are useful because the hand revealed is usually larger than the restricted choose list.

Could there be a way to combine them? To have a pick list that includes everything revealed, but mark choosables? I suppose this is what drdev means. To expand on his idea, a single list with multiple highlights would seem to be a good idea. If it's not a legal pick target, then it just refuses to highlight.

Also, I second the idea to make the extra mana popup between phases go away. I almost never had a problem with this.

[drdev]

Yes these 2 dialogs are only different when the card list is different between them. Usually in library searches, like Demonic Tutor, they are the same. Therefore not useful. But others, like Thoughtseize, are useful because the hand revealed is usually larger than the restricted choose list.

Could there be a way to combine them? To have a pick list that includes everything revealed, but mark choosables? I suppose this is what drdev means. To expand on his idea, a single list with multiple highlights would seem to be a good idea. If it's not a legal pick target, then it just refuses to highlight.

Also, I second the idea to make the extra mana popup between phases go away. I almost never had a problem with this.

That extra mana popup is now hidden by default behind a setting. I guess I misjudged the desire for such a popup existing when implementing it.

[elcnesh]

After all the comments I thought this to be the best solution: you can still activate it when playing a deck like storm combo, where a single misclick means the difference between winning and losing.

[friarsol]

That extra mana popup is now hidden by default behind a setting. I guess I misjudged the desire for such a popup existing when implementing it.

I think it's sometimes a problem for vocal new users (who tap mana before playing spells/abilities), but not really a problem for non-vocal longtime users.

[Fizanko]

That extra mana popup is now hidden by default behind a setting. I guess I misjudged the desire for such a popup existing when implementing it.

I think it's sometimes a problem for vocal new users (who tap mana before playing spells/abilities), but not really a problem for non-vocal longtime users.

You never played with lands giving you 2 mana on a single tap like some of the special lands from the Ravnica set ?

Because when you play with them, you'll see that confirm "you have a mana lef" dialog a lot even if you're a "non-vocal longtime user" and after some time it's just plain annoying (unless you're playing with the manaburn option set on of course).

[friarsol]

You never played with lands giving you 2 mana on a single tap like some of the special lands from the Ravnica set ?

Because when you play with them, you'll see that confirm "you have a mana lef" dialog a lot even if you're a "non-vocal longtime user" and after some time it's just plain annoying (unless you're playing with the manaburn option set on of course).

You misunderstood me. Mainly the users complaining about bypassing phases with mana in their pool were new users.

I was agreeing that drdev misjudged the "on by default" setting of the popup. As a long time dev and a longtime user, I like to play through my Forge games very fast, and if I have mana floating, it's because I have some way to generate a bunch of mana that I don't need all of (or I'm testing a card with mana generation via dev mode).