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1
Other Games / Re: Baba Is You
« on: August 12, 2019, 03:31:18 pm »
Hm, I see. Currently stumped by Depths-3: Crushers. Winning is of course trivial. But I have not found a way to make level into anything - and I'm not actually sure what useful things it could be made based on the keywords in the level, either. Probably it would be Text I suppose? Whatever that will do. I feel like the three blocks on the right, the two Is and a Push, must be relevant somehow - but there doesn't seem to be a way to make use of them at all. The only thing I can push over there is Text, and well Text is Push by default. And the only word I can get out is an is, but that feels like I'm missing something.

In addition to GendoIkari's hint, another specific but non-spoilery hint is that it is actually possible to make use of the "Push" text.

2
Other Games / Re: Slay the Spire
« on: August 08, 2019, 09:40:52 pm »
I beat act 4 with all characters a few months ago, and I have been playing some modded Steam Workshop characters as well.  I have over 500 hours in this game, it's great.

3
Other Games / Re: Baba Is You
« on: August 03, 2019, 11:44:54 pm »
I finally finished all 223 levels yesterday!

Strange, because we have completed 225 levels...

How do you know when you are done? Everything online is inconsistent with how many total levels there are. We think it might be a difference between Switch and Steam versions? Can anyone confirm? Or just updates that changed things after guides were made.

We’ve read about a level in Meta called “woah”. But no idea if it actually exists. Any time we create an extra level that we haven’t done in Meta; it gets a “00” number; and when we select that level; it just takes us to a different; already completed level. Even though we never actually did “00”.

Except; the level number on the level load screen changes! We can either go to “Level Meta-8: Mutual Feelings”... or with a lot of work, we can get to “Level Meta-0: Mutual Feelings”; which looks the same and does not award an additional flower when beaten.

Is this a glitch? There are a couple different ways to make this “Level 00”; but they all end up the same.

I got the "area complete" thingy on every level, so I assume I got them all.  The only thing in Meta that I thought of that I could maybe make a level was the cursor, but I couldn't figure out a way to do that.  It seemed like I was done, so I assumed I was done.  I have the switch version.

Cursor is Level is supposed to make the “woah” Level that doesn’t exist for me. It’s super hard to make but possible.. but for me it creates a “00” level that almost acts like a glitch.

Did you get the 3 orbs, and the area called “Center” which has just 2 levels; one that requires 3 orbs to get to?

On the Switch, there are only the 225 levels you have found.  "Whoa" is the last one, and it's currently only on the Steam version.

4
Other Games / Re: Baba Is You
« on: July 28, 2019, 12:23:47 pm »
Help! On level ??? - 6: Parade. No ideas left.

I’ve had 2 different lines of thought so far. 1:

Make Me Is Keke for a few moves; then Keke is Skull (or Me). This gets the Keke on the right halfway there. Using Bug somehow, move into the upper-left and get that Keke back to the right to get more time. Make them Keke again; win. The best I can do with this seems to be  needing 2 more moves/time than I have.

2:
Move into the upper left while Keke Is Skull Is Keke. This gives Keke only half of the time. Make Bug also Skull/Keke.  Push all of Baba Is You to the left one space. Get both Kekes that are there to the middle row where they can’t do more damage. With this, I seem to be 1 move too slow to get to one of the Skull/Keke in time to swap it to the “Is” row. 

Are either of these lines of thinking on the right path? Or do I need to think of something completely different?

I have heard of other people who managed to solve it with something like your second way, but I haven't seen their solutions spelled out so I don't know how close you are.

I did it a completely different way, but the easiest way to get close to my solution is to leave Parade unfinished and come back after you have found and completed the level called "Fireplace", which is much easier and teaches the trick I used.

5
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: spineflu, an idiot, designs fanspansions
« on: July 23, 2019, 02:01:20 pm »
Crops is strictly better than Estate and thus has to cost at least .
Crops is strictly better than Estate and thus has to cost at least .

Indeed. Yet at $3 it would be strictly worse than Tunnel. So it has to provide 1/3VPs or something else to differentiate it enough from Estate and Tunnel.
It changes up the relative value of Estates but that's about it. Maybe that's fine that it's the same price?
On the 'strictly better' front I am fairly moderate. I believe that designing a card that is strictly better than an existing card is not a horrible design crime per se. It depends on whether the card one's design stands in relation to is singular, representitive of an entire card category or always present:
- You could e.g. do a Mine which provides +1 Action and the world would not end.
- But if you did a Village with an cherry on top for $3 that would be bad as there are many villages in Dominion so the price of $3 for vanilla Village is a relevant benchmark.
- Designing a card which outclasses a card which is present in all Kingdoms is even worse.

So yeah, even from a very lenient perspective you cannot design a card which provides 1 or 2 VPs that costs $2 or $3.

I think it's fine to design a card that is strictly better than Estate, especially since Estates aren't the strongest card to begin with (in most games the pile never gets touched until the last few turns).  Delve is strictly better than Silver (technically it's exactly Silver but costs less), and it doesn't hurt the game, it just modifies it so Silver is easier to get.  Crops seems fine as-is; nobody will buy Estates unless the Crops pile is gone, but I don't think that's a problem.

Edit: a word

6
I'm still slightly confused about this, even though I thought I understood the Lose Track Rule.

Maybe we can clear this up with some hypotheticals.  If Throne Room told you to "play a card, trash it, then play it again", would that Throne Room move it from the trash to the play area the second time, or would it have lost track?

(If it would have lost track, then why doesn't Prince lose track of its set aside card?)

On the other hand, if Necromancer didn't have the "leaving it there" clause, would it move the card from the trash to the play area?

My understanding of the Lose Track rule is that a card can't be moved by an effect if it first leaves the place where the effect expects it to be.  I think the part that's tripping me up is determining where a card is "expected" to be; would the Throne Room variant above expect the card to be in your hand the first time and move it to play, and then expect it to be in the trash the second time and move it to play?  Would the hypothetical Necromancer expect the card to be in the trash and move it to play?  (Also, in both of those cases I assume you would put the card into your discard pile at the end of the turn as usual, effectively gaining it in the case of Necromancer.)

7
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« on: July 20, 2019, 01:07:08 pm »
Manor - $5 Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
If this is the first time you played a Manor this turn, trash a card from your hand.
---------------------
When you gain this, gain another Manor (that doesn't come with another).
Heirloom: Haunted Mirror.

Potential problem: Ghost does not play well with forced trashers. I think this is the reason it was paired with a trashing Victory card.

Thank you for pointing that out.  It might not be a big deal since it would only trash once when played with Ghost, but I went ahead and made the trashing optional anyway - it doesn't change that much.

8
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« on: July 20, 2019, 12:36:29 am »
Here is my submission.



Manor - $5 Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
If this is the first time you played a Manor this turn, you may trash a card from your hand.
---------------------
When you gain this, gain another Manor (that doesn't come with another).
Heirloom: Haunted Mirror.

Any card that is paired with Haunted Mirror should have a way to trash the Mirror.  Manor is a cantrip that trashes the first time you play it in a turn, and it also comes with a second copy.  If you draw them together, you might be able to trash the Haunted Mirror and discard the second copy for a Ghost.  Even if you can't do that, the second one is still a cantrip so it isn't completely dead.

Version 2.0: Edited to make the trashing optional.  Original:

9
Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Easy Puzzles
« on: July 19, 2019, 08:08:07 pm »
Then, they Possess you, and (for some reason, maybe tfb; the Goons don't really benefit the opponent when possessed anyway) decide to "trash" all of your Goons. While they decide what "this turn's purchase" should be (i.e. your purchase which they will gain), "your" 4 Goons are not technically yours
I'd considered and rejected that possibility. I can't see anything in the rules which says those cards cease to be yours?

The Inheritance rules say that a card stops being yours when it is trashed, and cards trashed on a Possession turn are still trashed even though they are set aside afterwards.  There isn't a specific ruling in this case because it never comes up for Estates, but I would assume that the Estates or Goons stop being yours when they are trashed and become yours again when they are returned to your discard pile.

10
Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Easy Puzzles
« on: July 19, 2019, 07:00:40 pm »
I'll redeem myself.
I am playing a game with just the base set.

There are no attacks in play.  It is my third turn of the game.  I play just one card, but after I play it, I have no cards left in my hand!  What has happened??

Um, are you talking about having played a Chapel?  (I don't think the spoiler is really needed...)

11
Other Games / Re: Baba Is You
« on: July 19, 2019, 06:57:29 pm »
Garden-Out at Sea:  I'll answer your second question: you will not need to make any new sentences after crossing the belt yourself.

Chasm-Automated Doors: you are right about the level design - you will need to use the text in Wall is Stop.

I don't think those hints spoil too much.  Let me know if they did, or if they were too vague and you want more.

Those both sound like great level hints. The idea is we still have to work at figuring out the answer, but we don't have to waste a bunch of time going down a completely wrong path. I'll get back to you after I get a chance to play again. Thanks!

Solved both pretty quickly! The hints basically just forced me to go back to questions that I had previously been asking, but somewhat dismissed as "that's not possible, so I should look for a different way". Those questions being:

Garden-Out at Sea:
How can I push both Lava and Ice at the same time?

Chasm-Automated Doors:
How can I make a useful sentence out of the fact that I have "Wall Is Word"?

Lots of levels in Baba is You tend to be like that, especially later in the game.  There are lots of things we assume are impossible and move on to other thought processes, but many times the solution relies on one of them not actually being impossible.

12
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« on: July 18, 2019, 04:55:31 pm »
Thanks for choosing Gremlin!

I think it could still use some tweaking that I didn't get around to. Maybe I'll revisit it soon.

Anyways, for now, there should be a new challenge. Here it goes: Design a card or card-shaped object that comes with an existing Heirloom.

So the card should include the Heirloom in the normal way, replacing a starting Copper. Of course there should be some mechanical reason for having it come with the Heirloom.

Clarification: this is about designing a new card but pairing it with an Heirloom that is already in the game?

13
Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Easy Puzzles
« on: July 18, 2019, 03:55:47 pm »
While my opponent decides what this turn's purchase will be, I realized that the synergy Goons and Worker's Village is probably key to winning this game, but I don't have any Goons, there are no Goons left in the supply, no Goons in the trash, and all of my opponent's Goons are on his Island Mat.  But by the time my opponent is done deciding, I've already realized that's A-OK.  A dozen turns later, I play four Goons in a turn and pile out the Estates for a win.

What happened?

All those factors would be technically true if Goons was not in the Supply, so:

Goons is available in the Black Market deck.

You buy the only one, then KC the Goons for 3 plays, while calling RC for the fourth.


Hmm, if this is correct, then I dislike the puzzle, because it simply comes down to a trickery of "all of my opponent's Goons" actually means "no Goons", because my opponent doesn't have any. Guess what, all of my opponent's Goons are also Victory cards that are on his Tavern Mat, and are worth 100 at game end! It's too much like this: https://xkcd.com/169/.

It might be just a matter of preference.  I actually like this kind of vacuous logic, although my math background does play into that as well (often the wording of theorems needs to take into account that edge cases like this exist).

14
Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Easy Puzzles
« on: July 18, 2019, 03:50:09 pm »
While my opponent decides what this turn's purchase will be, I realized that the synergy Goons and Worker's Village is probably key to winning this game, but I don't have any Goons, there are no Goons left in the supply, no Goons in the trash, and all of my opponent's Goons are on his Island Mat.  But by the time my opponent is done deciding, I've already realized that's A-OK.  A dozen turns later, I play four Goons in a turn and pile out the Estates for a win.

What happened?

Is it that super weird situation involving Inheritance and Ambassador where you can manage to actually play one of your opponents Estates (while your opponent is Inheriting Goons, thanks to cost reduction).

From this thread.

That doesn't work since you are playing an Estate, which has the abilities and types of Goons but isn't called Goons.  Also, that would mean your opponent has one Goons that isn't on the Island mat - it's the one set aside by Inheritance in the first place.

Edit: Looks like you realized this and edited your post while I was posting.

15
Other Games / Re: Baba Is You
« on: July 18, 2019, 01:15:28 pm »
Ok, hint me... preferably very minor hints; I really want to be able to solve these as much on my own (my and my wife's own) as possible, but also don't want to waste hours going down the wrong path.

World 7; Out at Sea - You seemingly need to push both Lava and Ice at the same time; but it's almost obvious that you can't do both at once. The entire puzzle seems to be how to get Lava on to Box. Our thoughts...

Turning Ice into Text is nice because then you can push Lava and Text-Ice at the same time. Then it would just be a matter of turning the Text-Ice back into regular Ice at the right time. But that really doesn't work, because to open the door with Ice, you have to push Ice into the door... so "Ice Is Push" seems to be a hard requirement.

A good hint here might just tell us whether or not we're at all on the right track with the above thinking. Another thing we are unsure about is whether or not we need to put some words through the belt area to make new sentences on the other side. It seems like you would have to, because you need to change what sentences exist after being on the other side, but on the other hand. there isn't room in that tiny room to put more than 2 words/things.


World 8; Automated Doors

Our thoughts on this one...

Make "Box Is You" in the upper room. Use Box to push "Not" onto the belt to get it into that room. Move Box to lower room; and make "Box Is Word" while Box is next to "Is Flag". Now you have a Flag. Just make "Not Box Is You", and you would win, because you would be Flag while Flag Is Win. Only problem is, it is seemingly impossible to get Not off of the edge where it first entered the upper room. And it can't be used from its current location. Another reason I suspect that this isn't the solution is that it doesn't make any use of any of the text in "Wall Is Stop"... that text could just be a red herring of course, but it seems like based on most of the level design we've seen, if you didn't need to use any of that Text, then "Wall Is Stop" just would have been off into a corner where you can't access it at all. We know you can make "Wall Is Word", but I can't think of any sentence you could make with "Wall" that would actually be helpful; even if you had no location restrictions on what sentences you could make.

Again, it would be great to know if our line of thought is at all in the right direction. I feel like we've spent a lot of time just trying to move the "Not"; but we've also tried to think of different things.

Garden-Out at Sea:  I'll answer your second question: you will not need to make any new sentences after crossing the belt yourself.

Chasm-Automated Doors: you are right about the level design - you will need to use the text in Wall is Stop.

I don't think those hints spoil too much.  Let me know if they did, or if they were too vague and you want more.

16
City Gate/Treasure Map

Just keep topdecking your Treasure Map until it finds its other half. Really easy way to connect Treasure Maps.


Obviously only works if you have no drawers. Open City Gate/Treasure Map, then Treasure Map and other card that does not draw, then you should be able to connect the Maps before third reshuffle.

I'd try and get a +Buy card though

Yes, like Forager. Wait ...

I mean, Forager probably still gives you $11 along with your pseudo-Windflall.

17
Other Games / Re: Baba Is You
« on: July 17, 2019, 12:47:58 am »
Island-6 research facility

Aside from not being able to look at it and deduce it with logic, it seems like I have bruteforce attempted every sequence of moves that seems meaningfully different from the other ones, and I STILL can't clear it.  It's different from a really hard Hearthstone puzzle where there's N! options where it's kinda fun to get to goof around and try different angles, and even without taking notes I can eventually remember "I tried healing northshire cleric BEFORE using power word shield twice already i've exhausted that"
Here stuff is kind of abstract and positional and it's like, "I move that block left but was I lightning bolt or a baba at the time that that happened" and I can't actually even brute force which is already a fail state for a puzzle game if it has to be the resort too often

Yes, that level was one that I was stuck on for a while as well.

So the eventual win condition is getting Baba below the bottom skull.  If you can manage that, then you will be able to push out the Win block and win the level.  You can get most of the way there, but that pushes the Defeat block and forms Skull Is Defeat, blocking you from progressing further.  If you push it farther than that, you'll break Baba Is You and lose.  Meanwhile the bolt can't even reach the first phrase because it melts when it hits the skulls.

Hint 1: If you could make the skull be neither Hot nor Defeat, this puzzle would be easy.

Hint 2: Baba can do things while the bolt is moving.

Hint 3: If the skull weren't Hot, the bolt could go farther into the corridors.

Solution: Create Bolt Is Move with the bolt heading into the top corridor, then race it with Baba in the bottom corridor to break Skull Is Hot before the bolt gets to the skull.  The bolt will break Skull Is Defeat, allowing Baba to reach the Win block from behind.

18
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« on: July 16, 2019, 06:32:07 pm »
I also apologize if my comment caused offense.  It was rather forceful, and maybe it was too much.

19
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« on: July 16, 2019, 03:57:33 pm »
I wasn't gonna enter this week because I forgot about it but then i saw there was still like two days left in the contest so here I am, with my Potion remodel + Potion overpay junker.



card text:
Metamorphosis • $3+ • Action
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing up to [Potion] more than the trashed card.
-
When you buy this, you may overpay for it. For each [Potion] you overpay, each other player gains a Copper.

This is useless without other potion cards. The top just says “trash a card and gain a card costing up to the same amount” while the bottom only junks if I’ve already junked myself with useless potions. I’m not sure how to fix it. Maybe make it cost potion and overpay with coins? The top part would still be pretty bad though.

how about don't play it without other potion cards? it's rare that there'd be only one in a "good" kingdom setup anyway.

Like... yall need a breather - not every card is good in a random kingdom. Let there be weirdness and edgecases. That's how you make a fun game. Yall wanted an unconventional junker. This is not a conventional junker. It's gonna have setups where it's underpowered / not worthwhile. Those aren't its interesting cases - its interesting cases are the ones where its a contender.

Having a card that is completely useless in some kingdoms is a design flaw.  It's the reason why Donald X cut a card that was "+$2, return this to your hand" - it was almost useless without villages (I forget its cost, but it was at least $3).  It's the reason why every card that gains or plays a card from the trash also has a way to put good cards into the trash (Graverobber, Rogue, Lurker, Necromancer).  It's also the reason why every Reaction card has an effect that might be useful even if there is no opportunity to use the reaction, such as Moat for +2 Cards without attacks and Tunnel for 2 VP with no way to discard it.

I strongly suggest changing this to have a positive effect even in games without other Potion-cost cards.  A different above-the-line effect that interacts with Potions would be one possibility, something like Apothecary or Alchemist.  That would prevent the Potion you bought from being a dead card.

20
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« on: July 16, 2019, 06:31:22 am »
CHALLENGE #36 - NON-CONVENTIONAL JUNKER SUBMISSION:

A lab cheap Lab variant that can leave you open for counter attacks.



Quote
+1 Action
You may turn your Journey token over. Then if it's face down, +2 Cards. If it's face up, +1 Card.
Each other player with a face down Journey token gains a Ruins.
Cost: $4 Action - Attack - Looter

This is purely a conceptual idea. Potential problems with Ruins distribution, but that can likely be countered with proper play. A lab at $4 may still be too good even with the chance of gaining Ruins thrown in. Especially if you can reach a sort of critical mass of Lancers where you can always get your Journey token flipped back into the up state. But for that to work you need to spend a lot of $4 cost buys on something that only has an effect around mid game. Sort of like Sauna in a way.

Also probably broken levels of good with other Journey token cards, but there are only three others things that care about that so I'm ultimately okay with that.

Thanks for looking!

I'm not a fan of having a bonus for a facedown Journey token that the faceup side doesn't have.  One thing the existing three have in common is that the faceup token is always better, and this card breaks that and feels weird as a result.  Maybe it could have its own token?  It could also flip the token every time but be cheaper, and/or move the +2 Cards to the faceup side.

21
Other Games / Re: Baba Is You
« on: July 16, 2019, 06:23:57 am »
this game is too hard

Don't be scared to look up hints, or to ask for hints here.  If you're enjoying it, it would be a shame to get stuck everywhere and frustrated instead of being able to move on.  Are there specific levels you are stuck on right now that you want help with?

22
Other Games / Re: Baba Is You
« on: July 15, 2019, 11:35:41 pm »
I finished all the levels!  (Some of them I looked up hints for, but only after trying them myself for a while.)  Now I'm playing through user-generated custom levels and worlds.

I have the switch version and haven't been able to do that.  Seeing that you mention custom worlds, I was wondering, is "level" completely implemented in the custom worlds?

Yes, it is correctly implemented.  Many of the custom worlds use it, in fact.

There is one custom level pack available for both PC and Switch; it's called Unlicensed Hill.  I haven't played it myself yet.  Here is a link to a site where you can download the Switch version: https://gamebanana.com/maps/204920

23
Dominion Articles / Re: Combo: Dismantle, Catapult and Spices
« on: July 15, 2019, 10:31:54 pm »
It's cool that that worked, but it probably belongs here: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=16947.0

This thread is for strategy articles that you want the community to learn from.  Your combo required 4 specific cards that will never show up together again, and it also required extra conditions that usually aren't true, so it will be almost impossible to apply outside of that specific game.  If you wanted to write a general strategy article on uses for Dismantle, or on how to balance terminals when +Actions is limited but draw is not, either of those would fit well in this subforum.

24
Hearthstone / Re: Semi-interesting Hearthstone moments
« on: July 15, 2019, 10:08:34 pm »
My Arena opponent (a Shaman) evolved a 7-cost card into a Lucentbark with Witchy Lackey, then proceeded to play three Walking Fountains afterward.

25
Other Games / Re: Baba Is You
« on: July 15, 2019, 10:04:04 pm »
I finished all the levels!  (Some of them I looked up hints for, but only after trying them myself for a while.)  Now I'm playing through user-generated custom levels and worlds.

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