PTCGL + Bluetooth Mouse = Disappointment

I was disappointed. I love playing Pokemon TCG Live with a mouse on my PC. What a wonderful setup to play Pokemon TCG Live on a table, right? On Android it is different. Not only is it not working… It is even worse. It can be game breaking! 🤬

Disappointment

I took a few days off on the World Championship weekend. I had this vision of sitting at a table with my folding phone on a stand, using a mouse to control the game and work on my ELO. I even 3D printed a foldable stand that fits in my pocket for this. It finished just 10 minutes before we left home. While it printed, I desperately searched for my bluetooth mouse. I was so happy once I found it and had everything packed up for my TCG grind. 🤩

The next morning I woke up in the hotel, as always earlier than my family. Ready for the morning coffee, I headed for the restaurant equipped with phone, stand and mouse. I started my first round with the deck I recently picked up again, Gholdengo ex. I was so happy up to my first turn. But apparently, you can do everything on Android with a mouse, except the most important mechanic that a card game offers, playing the cards!

Slightly disappointed, I continued to play on the touchscreen. I played against Tinkaton. The joy of playing against a rogue deck made up for it and I nearly forgot about the issue again. 🫣

Crash

I continued playing. Tinkaton, despite having Xatu on the bench, could not keep up with its energy requirements and we were standing at 4:1 prize cards. „No way I can lose this game“ I thought, leaning back and sipping on my coffee. 🍵

Then I realized my bluetooth mouse is still switched on. 🤨
„Time to turn it off!“
Well… guess what PTCGL does when you turn off any BT HID (Human Interface Device)?

It crashes the app!!! 💥

I know it is a rather unusual use-case, but Android has mouse support since what feels like forever. TCG Live is written in Unity. They have to have some usable HID implemenation to make this setup work (or at least not crash). Please fix PTCGL.

Thank you PTCGL developers for all the hard work you put in! 💜