:shrug: Ask the developers. As for why I deleted it, it's not entirely fun and it was taking up space on my device.
Maybe it will improve when they release it again? I didn't even know they were doing an app version of this game.
I've never really played a deck building game. For some reason this one has my interest. Please post impressions and I hope someone dies a real gameplay video so I can understand it better. Billy
I was pretty impressed. I've played only a handful of sessions but I really have enjoyed it. I would say the quality of the digital app is pretty good, compared to my expectations of board game apps these days. The mechanics of the game were also pleasantly surprising--the player powers seem kinda weak but make sense in practice. The scaling is also fun, but the enemy can totally crush you given how the cards come out--but that's a staple of both deck builders and co-op games and isn't that big of a detractor. I haven't delved as much into the online multiplayer but look forward to it soon. Do I recommend it? Yep. It's a well implemented app and a neat take on deck building that keeps me coming back.
I was listening to a review of the physical game on "The Game Pit" podcast and I think they brought up a good point which was that while 1 player is technically possible, it really shines with more players. The reason being not some lame, "everything is better with multiple players" but that the ability to intervene on the other players' behalf is crucial and might be the only hope to make it through the full 9 rounds.
First impressions are... Not good. Yes this is Xenoshyft the base game, with the Grafting Laboratory expansion available as IAP for one buck. I do hope they release the other expansions over time because I really miss the Psychogenics Research expansion. The problems begin already when choosing game modes. As far as I can tell there is no option to play solitaire with more than one division and no pass and play option. Bad! That should be standard in games like this. The things that bugs me the most though is the interface. It just kinda sucks. Its clunky, its unintuitive and very very fiddly and frustrating even on iPhone 6+. Imo this game is best played on iPad. The devs should really take a long, hard look at other iOS board game adaptions to see what a good interface looks like. Other deckbuilders have much better UIs for example Ascension, heck even Dominion Online, which isn't even a native app but browser based, is better than this. Another things that is really frustrating is that there is no regret button. If you click the wrong thing (which happens very easily because of the terrible UI) you're screwed, there is no way to go back and make another choice. All games like these should have a regret button that can always be used when no new information has come up (like revealing an enemy). ITS NOT THAT HARD DEVS! Speaking about information there is no way to see how many cards are left in a pile which isn't gamebreaking but annoying. Now to the gamebreaking stuff, bugs. So far I've encountered a few. On one occassion one of my troops just died without anything happening. No reveal effect, no combat no nothing, it was just reduced to zero health and discarded. The other bug was more weird. One of my militia cards was reduced to zero health in combat but somehow the game didn't discard it so it just sat there. The gamebreaking thing was that I couldn't continue with the combat, the enemies refused to hit my "undead" militia so the game just kept jumping back and forth between combat steps without anything happening, I was completely stuck. Needless to say I had to quit that game and start over. One last thing which is only a minor annoyance, is that I want to see exactly what killed me. What happened was that my base was low on HP and I dealt damaged to a facedown enemy and immediately lost the game. and got the game over screen. Now having played this game before I'm 99,9% sure that what happened was that the facedown enemy was a bomber, the damage caused him to reveal and one-shot my base. But somebody who hasn't played this game before would be left scratching his head. Its only a minor thing but still how hard is it to show exactly what made you lose? So thats what I think of it.
Hi everyone, I'm Lucas, the app's lead developer here for Cool Mini. Please keep posting your feedback about the app! It's really helpful for us to determine in what direction we should steer development. If you prefer you can send feedback through email or our forums, here: http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?80-Xenoshyft-APP That being said I'd like to respond to a few particular points of Chiller ONE's post above: You'll be glad to know we're working on all of these, expect them in future patches. We actually have two bug-fixing versions on queue, waiting for Apple's review process. The first one hopefully will be out in a few days (out of our hands I'm affraid). Then the other should be available next week. And rest assured we will keep working constantly on improving the game! Could you please ellaborate on why you believe it sucks and is clunky? We have played pretty much every adaptation of board games and card games that have been published to mobile devices and we're hard-pressed to see how XenoShyft lacks in this department. If you point us to where you'd like to see improvement we may be able to assist you. Actually, for this particular game, it is really hard. You see, XenoShyft has synchronous phases of play, it is not a classical turn-based game during the deploy & acquire phases (which are the phases most prone to requiring an undo button); undoing there could lead to, at best, "sketchy" game states. Now, if you're having issues and having to undo because of the interface, we'd love to hear where we could improve it all. Thank you all for your interest and please keep sending your feedback, we'd love to hear you out!
@B1ackLotus How hard, once the big issues are cleared, would it be to allow 1-4 characters single player?
I would really love the above to be an option also, as playing solo (which is probably the only way I'll ever play it) I get smashed without a co op partner to support or call on. Awesome game otherwise.
@B1ackLotus: About the inferface, where do I start? Basically I just want to say do it like this and point to Star Realms and Ascension for iOS, but that wouldn't be very constructive. So here it goes. First and most important, cards in hand should be shown in full and sorted by type. Right now cards are overlapping and you have to swipe your finger over every single one to see them. Same goes for the discard pile. How about a "play all" button for XS cards kinda like Dominion Online has? Instead of having to drag them one by one onto the board. Also a number under each item stack indicating how many cards are left in the stack would be nice. The division abilities need to be easier to activate. Maybe get rid of the division card entirely and just give us an on screen list with abilities you just have to tap? Just an idea. Another things is (and I'm talking about iPad now) squandered screen space. Why is there so much space on the sides? Couldn't you just make the cards bigger? Also is there ANY reason the hive decks have to be on screen? I can't find any. Fair point about the regret button though, I didn't think of that because so far I haven't been able to play online (there are never any games when I play), but maybe give us one for solitaire play? Thats just what I think it would take to make this a really great iOS game. I also wanted to say to my fellow gamers that while I am a bit disappointed with the app, the actual game is still fun as hell and challenging as ever. If you're even remotely interested in co-op card/board games or deckbuilders I would recommend buying this now why its still dirt cheap. All the problems I mentioned can easily be patched.
Their post right before yours says they're working on it as Chiller ONE also asked for the same thing. I'm definitely looking forward to it as it is the one big thing missing from the game for me.
@LordGek Can't give an estimate, but we plan on making it available if not in the first content update, in the second, max!
Great news! I don't know the board game and I downloaded it today so I might play as 2 players in future? I haven't really touched it yet and I hear going solo is too hard - are there any things that compensate that you are alone you don't get when there are more players? I'll give more feedback later and see if there should be
Playing solo can be hard at times but its very fun. The best thing you can do to give you a better chance of winning solo matches is to pick the right division. The best divisions for solo play imo are Command Center and Science Lab. Weapons Research and Med Bay work too but they aren't as good in solo as they are in multiplayer. Armory and Grafting Research are so-so I'm not really a fan of either of those divisions. Barracks is the absolute worst division both in solo and multiplayer so only pick that if you think the game is too easy.
Thanks Chiller for useful post. The game is great. I purchased the additional crafting lab already and looking forward to more. Can we get AI playing with us in an update? The AI might or might not be good (adjustable?) - either to play in team or to add challenge to be protecting them becouse of them being not so good
