iOS Online Boardgaming Megathread (Carcassonne, Everything Playdek, & Many More)

Along with the Neuroshima Hex update all their titles and IAP are on sale :

  • Neuroshima Hex $2.99 (normally $4.99)
    • New York army $0.99 (normally $1.99)
    • Neojungle army $0.99 (normally $1.99)
  • Neuroshima Hex: Puzzle $0.99 (normally $2.99)
  • Army of Frogs HD – FREE (normally $2.99)
  • Caylus $2.99 (normally $4.99)

Okay, grabbed Neuroshima Hex despite the drama. How's the expansions, Caylus, and Hex Puzzle?
 
alright here's some 2p-game links pls post if you grab one giveaway style i suppose. all of them should work though first one might be borked

1.
nshex://g/425/E6B9B2971F3541B898983E6A56565158

3.
nshex://g/398/9F2CAC447D914AE5BF72FD92263285F5

4.
nshex://g/418/E32414918076438BAD8F82A1B2C516B2
 
what is fucked is there is no friends list, but posting invites in here is really NBD and i don't mind it too much

also just found out there's a 5-game limit for simultaneous games.

think they are trolling me

very interested to see how the actual implementation is though. also this game is a fantastic steal at $3 with retina, async or no
 
Here's what I assume is the developer of NH discussing his implementation of multiplayer:

Could you do what the Carcassonne app does and let us link our GC accounts to our accounts on your system? That way I can at least auto-add my friends.

The way it works now is very similiar to Carcassonne app - you send your friends an invitation e-mail, they tap a special link on their devices and automatically join your game.

Problem with GC friends is you won't be able just to send an invitation to any of your GC friends, they would have to log in to multiplayer server at least once before you do, so they can leave their device token used to send push notifications. Push notifications don't guarantee to be delivered, so it doesn't have to work every time.

Other mentioned thing here is logging in using GC to a multiplayer server. GC does not provide any third party server side authentication method (like OAuth), so using it means basically no authentication at all.

Plus i'm assuming this way the multiplayer will be cross platform with the Android version?

Yes, whole idea is to have cross platform multiplayer at some point and we'd love to have cross platform multiplayer with Android also (and other platforms, of course). We just don't want to risk putting too much time into Android now, as almost every developer says piracy is huge and income minimal. If that won't be the case with NSHex, we will add multiplayer with another update.

We will enable 5 concurent games per player (will also increase the limit on AoF and Caylus). NSHex game take from 15 to 30 minutes to finish, so I think this should not be a problem.
 
I suspect their long term plan is to have this cross-platform with the long promised Android version.
That's the only thing I can think of to rationalize the insistence on using such an inconvenient and user-unfriendly system.

That's just a guess, tho.

edit : mmmm, yeah confirmed over there
 
on bgg they said notifications don't work right now but they are pushing a fix tomorrow or something

heheh

so, actually not relying completely on GC is the right way to go. broken games like TTR rely totally on GC and this is why their async sucks. but the way they get around it is super-kludgy. I suggested in that thread on BGG to at least let us permanently add people as friends like Carc does.
 
Joined and started your game bonesquad! I think it worked, with eznark and astro? Also astro please make your links hyperlinks so I can click them...

Edit: joined the game in astro's second link! Not gonna join the others because i don't know if they're 2p or 4p :p i think this "post link here to join the game" system might work, let's hope the notifications are reliable...
 
Maybe they should only allow 2 concurrent games of Neuroshima Hex to reduce server strain lol.

Is charging $3-5 a game not enough to scale their back end for unlimited multiplayer games? No idea, but Ascension seems to be doing fine allowing you to play as many games as you like.

Not a good user experience, whatever the reason for it may be.
 
Maybe they should only allow 2 concurrent games of Neuroshima Hex to reduce server strain lol.

Is charging $3-5 a game not enough to scale their back end for unlimited multiplayer games? No idea, but Ascension seems to be doing fine allowing you to play as many games as you like.

Not a good user experience, whatever the reason for it may be.

whoo saw that you posted
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/9211286#9211286

the dev actually being engaged is half the battle. now that doesn't necessarily mean anything, but clearly they're aware of the issues.
 
whoo saw that you posted
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/9211286#9211286

the dev actually being engaged is half the battle. now that doesn't necessarily mean anything, but clearly they're aware of the issues.

It's great to see the devs active, but since it took them a year and a half to get this far I'm still skeptical.

But hey, online NHex works! Which is more than I ever expected. And that first link you posted AstroLad does work since I just joined it.
 
It's great to see the devs active, but since it took them a year and a half to get this far I'm still skeptical.

But hey, online NHex works! Which is more than I ever expected. And that first link you posted AstroLad does work since I just joined it.

It does NOT work. I was able to join the game but now it keeps crashing whenever I try to open the internet games menu :(


EDIT: it worked on wifi, but did NOT get a notification of astrolad taking his turn. Did they work for anyone else?
 
Notifications don't work yet they say they have published a fix that should go live tomorrow. You just have to go into each of your games at the moment to check.
 
They need to fix Neuroshima Hex's notifications quick:) I also ran into a fun scenario with a 4 player game. If anyone resigns, even if they are already knocked out of the game, the game ends for everyone. I'm sure when their base was defeated they hit resign to remove the game from their game list because you only get 5, but I had an
outside
chance to win!



Should I buy Caylus yes or not.

If you've never played Caylus it's worth getting to check it out, or just to add to your "collection". However, as an app I can't recommend it. The presentation just isn't very good. (Also note these type of resource heavy euro games aren't my favorite.)
 
If you've never played Caylus it's worth getting to check it out, or just to add to your "collection". However, as an app I can't recommend it. The presentation just isn't very good. (Also note these type of resource heavy euro games aren't my favorite.)

Agreed.
 
How are Heel and I the only ones commenting on the NH thread with the developer on BGG?

GAF iOS board gaming thread>>>BGG
 
Nightfall finally clicked with me. The tutorial could have been a little more descriptive but I am now ready to play online. Hit me up if you for games of Carc, Ascension, and Nightfall. I have the expansions for each of them.
 
It's funny like parts of NH I think this is really well done. It gives you a little notification when someone pops into a game. There's chat (on the right side, you can barely see it). But then other parts not quite so much! (Not being able to see which games it's your turn in WTF!!!???)

When you have two people live though it works really well.
 
It's funny like parts of NH I think this is really well done. It gives you a little notification when someone pops into a game. There's chat (on the right side, you can barely see it). But then other parts not quite so much! (Not being able to see which games it's your turn in WTF!!!???)

When you have two people live though it works really well.


Yeah saw that too, kinda odd. On the bright side, I got a notification now! :D

EDIT: But it's not going away? -confused-
 
Just noticed with the NS Hex update, chats now pop up on the top of the screen, just like a Game Center notification which is very nice.
 
Beat AstroLad 15-0 in my first NHex game. I'll just stop playing now because it can only get worse.
 
Beat AstroLad 15-0 in my first NHex game. I'll just stop playing now because it can only get worse.

I posted in chat that I totally screwed up two moves in my first two turns b/c I didn't realize you can't undo. :p

Too bad chat is broken too (I think -- the messages seemed to disappear) :P :P
 
Too bad chat is broken too (I think -- the messages seemed to disappear) :P :P
I think chat only works when the other player is online. Chats aren't saved when you leave and rejoin a game. It really seems like the whole implementation was designed assuming all players would remain in the game until the end.
 
It's funny like parts of NH I think this is really well done. It gives you a little notification when someone pops into a game. There's chat (on the right side, you can barely see it). But then other parts not quite so much! (Not being able to see which games it's your turn in WTF!!!???)

When you have two people live though it works really well.
You can replace "NH" with "Caylus" and what you said still applies exactly. Not sure what's up with Big Daddy and multiplayer.
 
I think chat only works when the other player is online. Chats aren't saved when you leave and rejoin a game. It really seems like the whole implementation was designed assuming all players would remain in the game until the end.

Yeah I didn't get any chat messages...
 
I think chat only works when the other player is online. Chats aren't saved when you leave and rejoin a game. It really seems like the whole implementation was designed assuming all players would remain in the game until the end.
smh

It does work a touch better than Caylus though!
 
I think chat only works when the other player is online. Chats aren't saved when you leave and rejoin a game. It really seems like the whole implementation was designed assuming all players would remain in the game until the end.

The funny thing is when you are both live it works great -- maybe one of the best.

I'm thinking about putting together a Geeklist of what makes a good async game when I have the time tonight that everyone can thumbs up :D

feel free to add:
-working notifications
-sensible friends lists (easy to add, easy to use -- doesn't need to be GC, but something)
-universal (to have a robust player base and avoid TTR-like confusion)
-persistent chat
-persistent rating (elo)
-clear delineation of game status (esp. what games it's your turn in)
-clear presentation of last turns (play out the other players' turn(s) for me -- NH actually does this right though games like T&E do not)
-persistent stats (be great to know your record against specific players -- don't think any game has this actually)
 
Not sure what happened with my NHex game with AstroLad, it just ended. No matter, I was getting killed. :) Twice dropping a tile where I didn't mean to and not allowed to undo it didn't help (not sure why they don't allow undos:( One of those times I used push out of frustration and even though there was only one possible place, it still passed the turn and made AstroLad "choose". Whoops.

Let's see if any of these 4 player games get off the ground...



The funny thing is when you are both live it works great -- maybe one of the best.

I'm thinking about putting together a Geeklist of what makes a good async game when I have the time tonight that everyone can thumbs up :D

feel free to add:
-working notifications
-sensible friends lists (easy to add, easy to use -- doesn't need to be GC, but something)
-universal (to have a robust player base and avoid TTR-like confusion)
-persistent chat
-persistent rating (elo)
-clear delineation of game status (esp. what games it's your turn in)
-clear presentation of last turns (play out the other players' turn(s) for me -- NH actually does this right though games like T&E do not)
-persistent stats (be great to know your record against specific players -- don't think any game has this actually)


Nice list. I'd add:

-Overall game state monitor. A game like T&E it's the board, but like in Ascension it's great how you can look at what's in your deck to remind yourself.
 
How is Scotland yard for local multiplayer, and as a family friendly game in general? Either pass and play or we have an extra iPad and iPods around the house that could be used
 
Good NS Hex game, Astro. This is really an awesome game - I hope they can get the multiplayer issues worked out. It deserves a Carcassonne-level iOS implementation.
 
Good NS Hex game, Astro. This is really an awesome game - I hope they can get the multiplayer issues worked out. It deserves a Carcassonne-level iOS implementation.

I totally agree. It's an insanely fun 2P game. Need to learn the new armies actually but the tactics involved are really enjoyable.

It's the perfect async game! (Ironically.)
 
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