Online play by mail alternative

David_Mac wrote:

I'd be happy to chip in ~$15 US a month for a JoL alternative if it were up and running, for at least the first few months. Interested which platform you'd use to go about building it- background in IT development here and hopefully might be able to help out a little.

Awesome thanks for the offer. I dont think costs would be that high, but it depends on what size server etc we would require.

David_Mac wrote:

One suggestion if you're fishing- auto 'No Sudden'- maybe something hidden a player could toggle. Spent half of my time playing JoL waiting for people to confirm No Sudden on most every stinking Master I played- very tedious process.

Added to top post

David_Mac wrote:

One suggestion if you're fishing- auto 'No Sudden'- maybe something hidden a player could toggle. Spent half of my time playing JoL waiting for people to confirm No Sudden on most every stinking Master I played- very tedious process.

And to add to this idea... if the deck doesn't have any cancels in it (i.e. No Wash, Sudden, etc) then the "No Cancel" flag is 'default on'.

Juggernaut1981 wrote:

And to add to this idea... if the deck doesn't have any cancels in it (i.e. No Wash, Sudden, etc) then the "No Cancel" flag is 'default on'.

This will make things much more complex, as you will not be able to simply import the card .csv, but will have to then manually flag each card for having a sudden type effect. So it would be sudden, Wash, Rewind time, Synesios, etc. Doable, but adding complexity to the card updating interface, which would need to be maintained for every new expansion.

Hi,
here, a few comments about the topics in this thread
1. Interface
There are some players that play the game at work. The interface should allow you to choose some kind of "disguise/at work/easier" modus to support those players

Also, the text interface is nice. Maybe supporting both, gestures + text inputs?

2. Fees, Pay plattforms
TBH, I wouldn't play JOL if the prize is higher than 20 $ pro year, maybe 30 is my max. But also is important the way how you collect the money and show where it goes.
I do not have any Paypal account and paying with credit card, well, also do not like it. Better offer all those options and here my proposal:
When you develop an Android App, you can "donate" to that app. Why do not develop an "collecting donations app", that just helps as interface for the donations?
Using that interface, I would go up to 5 $/month

And also would be nice, if the costs of the site would be public, that everyone can follow where the money goes and how much the site costs the maintainer (I assume, currently is writing red-numbers, but, who knows?)

3. Development/Test
Maybe you can create an "open source" project, using any of the collaborative plattforms available. Lot of JOL players have a professional technical-background and that would help a lot not only in the development phase but also in the testing phase

That's all by know, I hope this all help!

Regards and many many thanks, Blooded

Sor

sor_garcya wrote:

Hi,
here, a few comments about the topics in this thread
1. Interface
There are some players that play the game at work. The interface should allow you to choose some kind of "disguise/at work/easier" modus to support those players

Also, the text interface is nice. Maybe supporting both, gestures + text inputs?

Added to top post, excellent suggestion, will depend on complexity of implementation, but should not be impossible, will mean dual CSS for each type, but maybe only 2 variants to start with will do? Simple and Expressive, for example?

sor_garcya wrote:

2. Fees, Pay plattforms
TBH, I wouldn't play JOL if the prize is higher than 20 $ pro year, maybe 30 is my max. But also is important the way how you collect the money and show where it goes.
I do not have any Paypal account and paying with credit card, well, also do not like it. Better offer all those options and here my proposal:
When you develop an Android App, you can "donate" to that app. Why do not develop an "collecting donations app", that just helps as interface for the donations?
Using that interface, I would go up to 5 $/month

And also would be nice, if the costs of the site would be public, that everyone can follow where the money goes and how much the site costs the maintainer (I assume, currently is writing red-numbers, but, who knows?)

I will accept donations towards the running and maintenance of the site, but, again, i dont think it will be THAT expensive, will depend entirely on the space/#of Db/bandwidth required. However developing an app JUST for donations seems a bit excessive, paypal and CC is enough i think. In fact, just paypal should be enough.

sor_garcya wrote:

3. Development/Test
Maybe you can create an "open source" project, using any of the collaborative plattforms available. Lot of JOL players have a professional technical-background and that would help a lot not only in the development phase but also in the testing phase

granted, this will help a lot, but i kind of want to see if i can run this as a side project fr the fun of it.

sor_garcya wrote:

That's all by know, I hope this all help!

Good suggestions, thanks

sor_garcya wrote:

Regards and many many thanks, Blooded

Sor

Piss off you toxic troll...

One of the best things you can offer, that JOL can't, is a good public API. With that you or anybody else can create all kinds of crazy ways to play the game, including but not limited to:

• App alternatives for every device, in-case the browser version isn't good enough for them.
• Play-by-email - send commands via email, receive board state via email. Good for those wanting to play at work, but have restricted access to sites, but not email.
• A Google Excel sheet that updates with the game, so you can play inconspicuously at work.
• ...

Blooded wrote:

This will make things much more complex, as you will not be able to simply import the card .csv, but will have to then manually flag each card for having a sudden type effect.

I understand there's thousands of V:TES cards, but what if you were to out-source the importing to the users?
You start off with simply importing the card, but you also create a page where a user gets a random card displayed to them, and they have to fill out the extra flags for it correctly.
Then if X other users review the submission and approve it, the extra flags get automatically added to the database.

sor_garcya wrote:

Maybe you can create an "open source" project, using any of the collaborative plattforms available. Lot of JOL players have a professional technical-background and that would help a lot not only in the development phase but also in the testing phase

+1 from me. Even if nobody collaborate/creates any pull requests, at least you know the developer doesn't have any shoddy coding to hide, before asking for donations.

^This is meant in general and in no way directed towards you Blooded. I would have done the same if I were to start work on this. Taking care of the maintenance costs is the least the users can do for the amount of work ahead of you!

/edit:

Quick suggestion: Along with the *-flag JOL has, maybe also a sound notification that you can enable?