[andrewd18]

Intro
Hello, fellow card game enthusiasts, as you may or may not be aware, there is an ongoing effort to digitize STCCG into a rules-enforced, web-browser version of the game. This is the first in a series of requests for comments about the User eXperience (UX) when playing STCCG. The feedback from this and future UX RFC threads will be used as input to both short-term digital UI design and a planned, long-term UI redesign.

These threads will be focused on 1E since that's the target format for the initial launch; you are welcome to add context for 2E and Tribbles if you think it's relevant but the examples will be focused on 1E.

Context
STCCG 1E loves its cards. Unlike Magic or YuGiOh or Hearthstone where there are maybe 15 cards on the table per person, the average STCCG 1E table looks like you tripped and spilled your deck box. Case in point, the example layout from the rulebook has 62 cards on the table just after completing the seed phase. Once you add side decks, personnel, ships, equipment, Radioactive Garbage Scows and Osaarian Pirates flying around, it gets even more crowded.

IRL Questions
Think back to a mid-way point in a memorable, in-person game, when there were lots of cards on the table. It's your turn.

1. You need to play a card that you will use again on a later turn. When you play it, do you do anything specific to help you find the card later?
2. You need to find a specific personnel to activate their special download. You know you played the card, but you don't remember where it is. What is your thought process to find the card?
3. You need to find a specific card seeded or previously played in your Core so you can activate its text, such as Temporal Benefactor or Construct Starship. What is your thought process to find the card?

Lackey/Digital Tabletop Questions
Think back to a mid-way point in a memorable, online game, when there were lots of cards on the table. It's your turn.

1. You need to play a card that you will use again on a later turn. When you play it, do you do anything specific to help you find the card later?
2. You need to find a specific personnel to activate their special download. You know you played the card, but you don't remember where it is. What is your thought process to find the card?
3. You need to find a specific card seeded or previously played in your Core so you can activate its text, such as Temporal Benefactor or Construct Starship. What is your thought process to find the card?

Any other related comments are welcome. Cheers!

[Smiley]

IRL
1. I play it where it should go according to the card text or card type requirement. But that does not stop me from losing track of it anyway. =)
2. I start looking at the most likely place for it and then look everywhere until I find it.
3. I look where my core is located and hope the card has not left the table.

[Professor Scott]

For me, under my ship/outpost I tend to place my equipment closest to it followed by things with important skills/downloads/traits next. Sometimes I will organize them by affiliation if I am doing and something else.

In Lackey I tend to do the same but in Lackey I can see all the cards in a tab at the same time so it's less critical but I tend to follow the above pattern.

As for seeded or played cards in my "core" I tend to seed them in the same order each time I play so I tend to know where the card is I need. The played ones can be more difficult to track as they do not play in a certain order, unless it's a sequence of Captain's Orders or some download chain.

I do not generally stack cards except in Crews/Away Teams, so all my and other seeds are fully visible. This is also true in Lackey, whereas some players stack their to save space on the table.

Hope this helps.

[andrewd18]

IRL
1. I play it where it should go according to the card text or card type requirement. But that does not stop me from losing track of it anyway. =)
2. I start looking at the most likely place for it and then look everywhere until I find it.
3. I look where my core is located and hope the card has not left the table.

Thanks! One followup:

2. How do you define "most likely place"? Are you thinking about it spatially left-to-right on the table, with Trek-sense like "on DS9", in groups like "probably one of these piles", or somehow else?

[andrewd18]

Hope this helps.

Very useful, thank you!

[Smiley]

How do you define "most likely place"? Are you thinking about it spatially left-to-right on the table, with Trek-sense like "on DS9", in groups like "probably one of these piles", or somehow else?

It's memory thing as well as a trek/rules sense thing. But unfortunately as things have a tendency to be all over the place when attempting missions, cards can get lost a little bit everywhere.

This is not a good thing or even a good representation of how the game should be played, but rather a symptom of the aged and patched nature of the game that it is now.

[andrewd18]

It's memory thing as well as a trek/rules sense thing. But unfortunately as things have a tendency to be all over the place when attempting missions, cards can get lost a little bit everywhere.

This is not a good thing or even a good representation of how the game should be played, but rather a symptom of the aged and patched nature of the game that it is now.

Got it. Thanks. Hopefully with a custom STCCG game interface I can improve findability somewhat.

[jadziadax8]

IRL Questions
Think back to a mid-way point in a memorable, in-person game, when there were lots of cards on the table. It's your turn.

1. You need to play a card that you will use again on a later turn. When you play it, do you do anything specific to help you find the card later?
2. You need to find a specific personnel to activate their special download. You know you played the card, but you don't remember where it is. What is your thought process to find the card?
3. You need to find a specific card seeded or previously played in your Core so you can activate its text, such as Temporal Benefactor or Construct Starship. What is your thought process to find the card?

1. I try to put stuff like this in the same place in my core. That way I know where it's at when I need it. I try to put recurring things like Process Ore: Mining right in front of me so I don't forget it.
2. For most personnel, I activate their when I play them, so this isn't a big deal. For people who useful bugouts, I keep track of where I send them on mission attempts to use them if needed. There's a similar thought process for personnel who something that needs to go somewhere specific, like Valrik and Warp Core Breach, I deliberately move them where they need to be.
3. I put core cards in the same place, so I know to raster through them until I find what I need.

Lackey/Digital Tabletop Questions
Think back to a mid-way point in a memorable, online game, when there were lots of cards on the table. It's your turn.

1. You need to play a card that you will use again on a later turn. When you play it, do you do anything specific to help you find the card later?
2. You need to find a specific personnel to activate their special download. You know you played the card, but you don't remember where it is. What is your thought process to find the card?
3. You need to find a specific card seeded or previously played in your Core so you can activate its text, such as Temporal Benefactor or Construct Starship. What is your thought process to find the card?

My answers are pretty similar to above, but with some variants for Lackey.

1. For this one, I make use of the table marking feature on Lackey. I plonk Process Ore: Mining right down int he middle of my core and point two arrows at it.
2. I'm very conscientious about marking all my crews and away teams with the black marker in Lackey. Then I cycle through tabs until I find them.
3. I put core cards in the same place, so I know to raster through them until I find what I need.

[BCSWowbagger]

raster through

Just commenting to admire the vocab.

[boromirofborg]

In lackey at least (and somewhat in person) I tend to group my core into a few areas:

- Side Decks
- Static abilities (AMS, AU Door, etc)
- Play/draw engines. (Part of this is because I try to double click them to use them in lackey to add to the logs for my battle reports, but in an interactive interface you would want them easily noticeable.)
- Hidden Agendas
- Other activated cards. (ASP, TMW)
-- I also group cards that are tied together. For example whatever Reshape the Quadrant downloads often overlaps RtQ. Dominion War Effort goes underneath an overlapping ASP, etc

[Takket]

1. You need to play a card that you will use again on a later turn. When you play it, do you do anything specific to help you find the card later?

Nope. just memory.

[*]You need to find a specific personnel to activate their special download. You know you played the card, but you don't remember where it is. What is your thought process to find the card?

I pick up my crews off the table and rummage through them until I find the personnel.

[*]You need to find a specific card seeded or previously played in your Core so you can activate its text, such as Temporal Benefactor or Construct Starship. What is your thought process to find the card?
[/list]

I lay out my cards with decks to my right, and cards played on table to my left. So there's not really a thought process. I just always put them in the same place.

Lackey/Digital Tabletop Questions
Think back to a mid-way point in a memorable, online game, when there were lots of cards on the table. It's your turn.

1. You need to play a card that you will use again on a later turn. When you play it, do you do anything specific to help you find the card later?
2. You need to find a specific personnel to activate their special download. You know you played the card, but you don't remember where it is. What is your thought process to find the card?

Usually I put all the cards on the table off to one side. I start with the doorways, and if I have a lot of stuff to seed on the table I will overlap some things. Things that I'll never touch again stay way over on the left. Things I need to flip/discard/whatever I don't overlap and place them to the right of the first cards. I'll also drop stuff over here that technically plays on missions to help unclutter the spaceline. Like Leader of the Sect

If I'm going to be dropping my outpost on the left side of the spaceline, due to how the spaceline laid out, I'll move all those table cards over to the right side of the screen to give me more room.

[*]You need to find a specific card seeded or previously played in your Core so you can activate its text, such as Temporal Benefactor or Construct Starship. What is your thought process to find the card?
[/list]

Just look at them.

Any other related comments are welcome. Cheers!
[/quote]

[jadziadax8]

raster through

Just commenting to admire the vocab.

[WeAreBack]

This isn't a direct answer to your question, but I have always thought that it should be much EASIER to find cards in online play than physically.

I always thought that one of the best features of Lackey was the card search function. Unfortunately, this function is only available during deck building and not during play. Mostly, my thought was that search would make downloading MUCH easier. That is, why should I have to manually scroll through a deck to find a card that I want to download when, surely, the program I'm using knows exactly where that card is in my deck or side deck. (Indeed, I would not even need to know whether it is in a Q's tent, deck, or other download location.)

Let's say I'm playing General Order 7 and I want to download Yeoman Colt to hand. I should be able to type "Yeoman Colt" into my search box and and get a results list that (assuming I play with a crazy number of copies of this card, maybe because I use her for Process Ore: Mining) states the location and number of copies that looks like this:
-Q's Tent 1
-Deck 2
-Discard Pile 1
-In Play: 2
Aboard I.S.S Enterprise 1
On Mine Dilithium 1

Basically, any search feature to make downloading easier should also allow you to find where cards are in play anyway. (And the would obviously take 1 copy of the card you searched for and get that card for you so you would then put it into play, or hand or wherever.)

[andrewd18]

Thanks for the feedback; all very useful posts, and I'm starting to see some trends form! Keep it coming!

That is, why should I have to manually scroll through a deck to find a card that I want to download when, surely, the program I'm using knows exactly where that card is in my deck or side deck. (Indeed, I would not even need to know whether it is in a Q's tent, deck, or other download location.)

You and I think very similarly on this; both a UI to handle "you have two Yeoman Colts, one in draw deck, one in Q Tent, which one do you want to download?" cases, and a second UI to search or highlight cards on the table are definitely on my gameplay UI roadmap.

[Professor Scott]

See, that is the real trick. What IS the correct location? It's a game time decision and the player may even get it wrong, so how can you expect the computer to get it right? For me, in most cases, I'd rather pull from the deck than the Tent simply to prevent drawing a card I could have downloaded, but maybe my Tent got Netted or something.