games/sortit unexpected behaviour: boxes are marked as sorted wrongly

[b7g]

Description

• Bug Report or UX flaw

I did not expect:

1. that empty pedestals between pedestals with delivered boxes would be causing wrong markings
2. that an empty pedestal at the low end of numbers would cause a wrong marking

Neither the description, nor the tutorial/help screen indicated this.

Screenshot “in between”:

Screenshot “at the beginning”:

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. start games/sortit
2. play so that the stated conditions are met

Context

• OS: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
• Software versions: Godot 3.4

[RedstoneMedia]

That is indeed intended behaviour and in no way a bug. Your proposed "solution" would cause the game to be practically impossible in multiplayer, because other players can just steal the first box from other players, causing that player to get 0 points immediately. The current system allows players to get points for a partially sorted list and still win (while still allowing stealing from others), if their list is sorted "better" then the other players, when the timer ends.

I agree that the current help message could need some more information to indicate this (although it should be pretty obvious from a gameplay perspective). The reason I didn't do this is, that I couldn't find a phrase that wouldn’t be too long (around 140 characters). The Help screen already has a lot of text and adding even more, by adding a wall of text is not a good Idea.

[b7g]

To be honest I don't understand what is the intended behavior, even after having read your message now.
I also did not propose a solution.

What is to be noted is that it was unexpected, at least to me, so that is a UX flaw.

[RedstoneMedia]

The intended behaviour is literary what you described as "unexpected behaviour". Gaps should not count as wrong. The only thing that matters to get a point is, that the lower pedestal number is bigger than the current one (this check is ran for every pedestal) and that is a good thing.

[b7g]

I think we are talking past each other or that you have misread the issue text, as I have written nowhere that gaps should be counted as wrong.

[RedstoneMedia]

Ah, sorry. I see what you mean. I skipped over the "not" in your original message.

The "wired" behaviour could be counterintuitive some people.
I am however not sure if changing it would result in better gameplay. It could throw off the balance of the game, but it could also not. If this behaviour is truly changed it has to be play tested in multiplayer to validate this.
The current system pushes the player to place the lower numbers first, in order to get more points, but also make the game longer, since you don't get points as quickly (The game end timer is tuned to this).

That's why somehow writing this behaviour into the Help screen, without adding a wall of text would probably be the better option.

[MarioLiebisch]

Maybe the game should use one extra color:

Green – okay
Yellow – open end (i.e. there's a gap next to this one)
Red – wrong sorting order

It wasn't obvious on my first playthrough either. I kind of put one plus one together and made that connection, but it wasn't intuitive and could be confusing, especially for a younger audience (considering this would make an excellent first grader game).

[RedstoneMedia]

I don't think adding more colors to the mix would make this problem more intuitive. Red and green would not need to be explained, but you would still need to explain what yellow does (Yellow = Open end is not an obvious connection to make either) in the help screen. But if you're going to do that you could just explain what yellow does there.

[MarioLiebisch]

Is there actually any intended gameplay difference between yellow and green other than to signify some potential issue?

[RedstoneMedia]

What do you mean by that ? You obviously need to tell the player what numbers are correct, and what isn't (currently) correct.