AI is too slow
Tue Jun 09 2020 KelMarCosI love Viticulture, it's one of my top 3 favorite board games, I have been hyped for digital Viticulture's release. Unfortunately the AI's turns are too slow it's practically unplayable. I played a 2 player game with 1 easy AI to try out the app. Their turns were a minute long wait. I timed it, 65 seconds until it triggered my turn again. And that's with just the "ai is computing" wait, that's not even them taking lengthy involved actions and decision with a changing and interesting screen to look at. They don't actually make moves until the final seconds.
I look forward to playing the game, and really hope the AI turns get quicker. Cause as is it's irritating the play and it takes a really long time to play. I can't imagine how long playing with multiple AI's will take. Which is a shame cause the game is without Tuscany's vastly improved board (which has bonuses at the 1st spot) So to unlock bonuses you'll need a minimum of 3 players or 2 AI's.
Lastly, it was not super clear during the mama & the papa setup that the game was waiting on a actual choice on the papa card to progress. A highlight around the two box options would be most helpful. I could only imagine how confused brand new players would be.
Should be 5 stars
Fri Jul 28 2023 Bjorn ReddyI encountered a bug that essentially destroyed my chance of competing in the game. You can have at most 5 workers and you need all 5 to have a chance. There are 2 special workers you can train, one of those is a Merchant. He has the power to take an action in a season that has already passed. With the latest update they curtailed his power a lot, but he is still very useful. I am in a game where I could not play my Merchant. I tried all the remedies in the in game help faqs and in the community help all to no avail. That puts me down one worker and puts me out of the game. So I filed a bug report and got no response. Meanwhile my opponents are complaining to me that I'm not taking my turn. So I took an action which works in ever other game I have tried it with, and I have tried it with around 10-15 different games. I deleted and reinstalled the app. It came back and lost my game... sort of. I am only in one game and the main screen can't find it but the menu on the side sees it. When i do the refresh selection, the main screen comes up with no games found but the menu on the right side pops up with a yellow one indicating that it found one game. So at least one programmer did his/her job correctly. I sent in another bug report but again I got no response. Sigh. Please fix this bug, it is a game killer.
A solid start 🍷 🍇
Sun Jun 14 2020 Patrick KerwinI’ve been waiting for this to come out for a while, and... it’s good. Not great, but definitely good. 👍
Here’s what would improve gameplay for me:
1) The option to display or hide the worker placement location titles is currently a tiny question mark in the left corner. It was not clear to me what that did. A clearer icon design/tutorial would help. OR just do what Agricola digital edition did, and create a temporary pop-up with relative info when users press and hold on a location.
2. AI gameplay speed is buried in the backend of the user interface. That and other options need to become part of a guided intro system when you open the app for the first time.
3. Not sure why there is a permanent “card” icon on the bottom of the screen that lets me look through the entire deck of available summer and winter cards. 🤷♂️ You can’t just grab the decks of cards in the real game and browse through them for fun, so I’m not sure why it’s in this digital edition. Could that spot be replaced with something more useful to gameplay?
4. Lastly, and for me, the game app icon itself could use a bit of a refresh. The current red/green design colors invoke more Christmas vibes than wine making. 🍇 An idea: Keep the classic viticulture “V”, make it more of a deep red, then put some of the fields (creams and hunter greens) from the box art/game opening screen behind it and you should have something that clearly says, “this is that game you know and love.” 🍷
Update Screwed Up
Sat Jan 15 2022 DaconiamThe latest update not only changed the look, which is better. However! There are way to many bugs that are severely impacting game play. Please fix! Love the game! Examples: - if I have 2 coins and the 1 discount space is available, the game will not allow me to play on the build spot (it is greyed out) even though I would be able to build an available 3 coin structure… -Could not purchase 2 workers in one season (button greyed out) after 1st purchase. -Same visitor card showing up back to back (I play it, next player draws same card and plays it again) -Motivator visitor card does not allow all players an opportunity, if the 1st player declines it stops -Summer volunteer crew visitor card failed to function, even though thumbs up was selected it did not allow for the planting of a vine nor did it go on to other players.
UPDATE: increased to 4 stars because of great response from developers.
LOVELOVELOVE this game, but...
Sun Aug 09 2020 MikeTinVAThis is one of our favorite games, and porting it to a digital platform is something that we greatly anticipated. The execution of it is 100% loyal to the physical board game. If the Tuscany expansion is developed/released, we will buy it as soon as we are aware of its release.
That said — there are frequent complaints with the AI being slow (and setting the AI to "fast" does help with some of that), but I think the problem is deeper than that. When multiple human players are combined with at least one AI player — it will hang up frequently. Occasionally, the AI can be nudged into action by each player force-quitting and restarting. But, we had one game that hung-up and sat for 36 hours(!), eventually causing the AI to forfeit. (This problem only seems to happen with a combination of multiple human players and AIs. It has not occurred with a single human player and multiple AIs.)
Casual async multiplayer needs work
Wed Jun 17 2020 Eric Lu.The UI is sufficient to play but definitely lacks polish. Certainly a good start, but I hope they add more incremental undo and do fewer jarring state resets as the game moves from phase to phase.
But, casual multiplayer has a bunch of problems. It’s fine for a synchronous game, but the timers are way too aggressive for casual, multi day games. Currently set to 24 hours with no reset per player, it will time someone out unless everyone is right in front of their devices waiting for their turn.
Further, players don’t get a notification pip on their badge, so if they swipe away or can’t deal with a turn as soon as it comes up, they are likely to forget it is their turn.
Network session connectivity for the games listing is spotty. I’ve never opened the app and had it load successfully without restarting that listing.
The app lacks polish in presentation of the listings. The font is small even on my spacious iPad, the games don’t have a clear enough connection to the timer, player statuses are green for everyone who is waiting and red for the player the game is blocked on, and player avatars are shrunken in favor of a box that shows score for each player.
Crushing Candy? How About Grapes?
Fri Jun 12 2020 AtlanteanNomad7Viticulture is one of my favorite board games, and one of many that I love by Stonemaier Games. When I heard of the digital version, I was really excited to try it. And, it’s made by the same company that made the Terra Mystica digital port, so my expectations were high.
I didn’t experience any extended wait times for the AI. I’ve only played on the medium difficulty with the AI, and I also tweaked the settings to make the game play more quickly.
The Tuscany expansion isn’t included here, which I know might be a turnoff for some. However, being able to play online and even with a full table with AI is a huge bonus. I know that I don’t dust off my physical copy as often as I’d like, so this helps scratch the Viticulture itch.
This digital version can be a little clunky in terms of getting affirmation every single time you do something. And, for those of you that like to hammer the Undo button, you’re in for a rude awakening. Just like the Terra Mystica port, Undo will only take you back to the beginning of your current decision tree.
Overall, I’m very happy with the app. Being able to play board games on the go is huge for me, and Viticulture checks all of the boxes for me. Start crushing those grapes!
10/10
Mon Jan 17 2022 srkdavidI can’t say enough about how wells this is priced together. The physical version of this game has a great amount of moving pieces, they nailed it. Just brilliant. The gameplay must be thought through, not sure what all the complaints are about; ai speed is adjustable but for new players like myself it is set to allow us to see how the computer plays through a turn. The game even comes with a higher difficulty setting, and allows players to take back a turn if they are not sure whether or not the right choice is being made. Jamie is a brilliant game designer, one of the top in the industry and these guys allowed all his brilliance to show through: so many app developers try to take over the game but this is done correctly.
Great port of the board game
Sun Jun 14 2020 1.3.11I love the board game and think this is a great rendition of it. I do wish it had the Tuscany board and rules but I’ll take this for now.
In regards to the complaints I’ve read about the slow AI. There is an option in the settings to toggle its speed. The AIs speed is quick and there is no waiting on my part. I’m playing on an iPhone 11; I don’t think that would have any bearing, but just starting just in case.
I also read that it was 2 separate purchases for iPhone and iPad. Not true. I purchased on my iPhone and the app is also on my iPad playable and I was only charged once.
The Papa action/selection could be more intuitive but once you figure it out, you’ll be fine.
I think this game and Raiders of the North Sea are super close to their original board game counter parts and they’re quicker because there is no setup or breakdown. I’ve never tried Viticulture’s automa, and to be honest, with this app, I don’t think I ever will. This game is an excellent port, and I’m very happy with it. Makes me want to play the board game with my friends now because I feel like my strategy is getting better.
Ugh….
Thu Jan 27 2022 thenmrkidIt pains me to give this three stars… because viticulture is SUCH an amazing game. But, you know whats ironic about this digital adaptation? For me, one of the high points of the physical game is that Stonemaier made it absolutely gorgeous: quality components, art - it’s seamless. This app is unfortunately pretty clunky. Everything from the font, the menu, the animations, the audio… it’s all kind of clunky.
So, I get that’s not all going to change, but here is a couple ideas to improve what this app is built on:
1) Add slider controls for FX and sound separately
2) remove that drop down player turn prompt- why do we have to watch that ever single time?
3) move the AI speed to somewhere where people can find it easier- I can’t believe how hard I had to search for this. the game is practically unplayable until this is sped up- it should be front and center for everyone
4) having to press the check mark to confirm I want to do the next action for EVERY SINGLE THING is so monotonous. Especially when doing actions like creating wines or filling orders. There has to be a more fluid way of getting these actions out.
Thanks!
