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Messages - RobertJ

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1
Dominion General Discussion / Re: JSH's True Art Rankings
« on: December 13, 2015, 02:50:50 pm »
The only one I can't find is the two people walking in the upper left. It's probably meant to be part of the art from the Base set box with the two people added in.

This is part of the picture on the front cover of the Base set rules.

2
Other Games / Re: Software type question/LaTeX
« on: November 03, 2015, 07:12:51 am »
Here's a silly idea: How about making a web service to convert Tex files to PDF?

I believe that Share Latex https://www.sharelatex.com/ does this kind of thing. I've not used it myself but I have heard positive things about it from people who have.

3
Re: the password discussion:
I've seen contrary opinions on the password thing as I've followed this thread off and on. There's an outstanding ticket on this issue. The passwords are not being sent between server and client in plain text, and if someone's machine is compromised, it would seem that you're hosed regardless.

Granted, that's not my field, and my code skills don't go further than rudimentary html and css. Can someone summarize why the above is wrong, or how concerns persist despite the above so that I can add that to the ticket on this issue?

Possibly this is because I have no technical expertise in this but the thing that troubles me most is that you seem to be asking for advice on security issues from a bunch of random people on an internet forum* (bolded quote above particularly). I can see that seeking feedback from the community is important for many aspects (how automatch works, the sparkliness of the animations, etc.) but security is surely something that should be approached in a more professional way.

This doesn't seem to be an entirely fair reading of the situation.  David is not a developer, he's someone involved precisely to act as a bridge between us and the developers.  In the best case, he can be an advocate for what we want to see.  I'm sure that he's not been specifically asked to seek our opinions on security, but it's important to a lot of people and it's entirely sensible for him to try and find out what our concerns are so that he can present them as clearly as possible to those in charge.

It's awkward for David that he's in this situation, but it doesn't seem to be his fault.  The developers are messing him around just as much as they are us.

Quite possibly I am misreading things but for clarity here is a fuller description of why I'm uncomfortable.

As I understood David's post there was a ticket saying something along the lines of "There are concerns over the unencrypted storage of passwords." To my mind this should be a perfectly legitimate and useful message for the developers to be getting.

What concerned me was the invitation:

Quote
Can someone summarize why the above is wrong, or how concerns persist despite the above so that I can add that to the ticket on this issue?

I took this as an attempt to move to a ticket saying:

"There are concerns over the unencrypted storage of passwords and here are some suggestions for how to deal with them......"

or

"There are concerns over the unencrypted storage of passwords but most people are happy that this is only a minor problem."

or

"There are concerns over the unencrypted storage of passwords and this is a really bad problem that people are very worried about."

But why are these better message for the developers to be hearing than just that there is a concern? Surely, if we believe the developers to be competent the judgement on what to do about the concern should be given to them not us. Ultimately, given that security is difficult and specialised, I'm not sure how reassured I'm going to be to hear that all concerns that forum people raised have been dealt with. Maybe:

"There are concerns over the unencrypted storage of passwords and some statement of how accepted security protocols will be followed or an external certification that the security is sound would be useful."

would be a good message to send.

By contrast, with a comment on how the automatch options work or something I would for sure want to have the view of as many people as possible clearly presented but security matters seem completely different.     

4
Re: the password discussion:
I've seen contrary opinions on the password thing as I've followed this thread off and on. There's an outstanding ticket on this issue. The passwords are not being sent between server and client in plain text, and if someone's machine is compromised, it would seem that you're hosed regardless.

Granted, that's not my field, and my code skills don't go further than rudimentary html and css. Can someone summarize why the above is wrong, or how concerns persist despite the above so that I can add that to the ticket on this issue?

Possibly this is because I have no technical expertise in this but the thing that troubles me most is that you seem to be asking for advice on security issues from a bunch of random people on an internet forum* (bolded quote above particularly). I can see that seeking feedback from the community is important for many aspects (how automatch works, the sparkliness of the animations, etc.) but security is surely something that should be approached in a more professional way.

I can't judge how serious any of this is but the impression I'm getting is that the developers are acting rather casually which doesn't inspire confidence.

* I don't mean to offend any posters here, I'm sure there are some very knowledgable people contributing but it still feels wrong that this discussion is happening here.

5
Dominion General Discussion / Re: CARD OF THE WEEK #9: Inn
« on: May 20, 2015, 05:34:17 am »
As eHalcyon already said, the on-gain effect is less useful if you already have a strong, reliable engine. Given that you don't have this, Inn is particularly useful on boards where you want to play multiples of some action in a turn. For example in a sloggy Goons kingdom, Inn may be the best way of getting a few multiple Goons turns.

A couple of tactical points (both rather obvious but they have caught me out before):   

- If you are buying Inn and other actions in the same turn then you probably want to buy the Inn last so you can shuffle your other actions in;
- Since Inn reduces your handsize, playing too many of them in a turn can be dangerous. In particular, be careful not to use your Inn to shuffle in too many Inns unless you've got some draw to go with them.



6
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Adam is bad at kingdom design
« on: May 20, 2015, 04:27:13 am »
I'm happy to help with this.

I have the opposite constraint to JaquesThe Bard in that I've never played with Adventures. Count me in unless you want Adventures cards in all your kingdoms!

7
Anything that allows you to play your Philosopher's Stones more often is good, especially if it doesn't lower P.Stone's value. Herbalist is the big one; it gives you +1 Buy and allows you to topdeck a played P.Stone. Warehouse and Cellar are nice. Cartographer removes a card from your deck/discard, but is still a good option. Scavenger is great.

I don't know how much of a thing this really is but Storeroom seems like it should be a good enabler to add to this list. The sifting helps find your Potion to buy Stones and then to find your Stones when you have them, the second discard maximises the number of cards that your Stones count, and it has a +buy.

8
Dominion Videos and Streams / Re: Best of Stream & YouTube compilation
« on: April 23, 2015, 05:42:43 am »
There is an old thread with a similar aim here although it didn't get many replies.

Here's another game from the good old days of iso. It's probably more for entertainment value than particularly nuanced or instructive play (sorry Adam!).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATtBSeJyLpY



9
Dominion Articles / Re: Hunting Grounds
« on: March 24, 2015, 03:56:32 pm »
The thing about Hunting Grounds that struck me most from this discussion is this comment of WanderingWinder:

A play pattern I often find in games with HG and Trash for Benefit is that you should very very often overbuild with extra Hunting Grounds as the game comes close to the end - it increases the reliability of your engine, and then when you get through your deck, the extra ones are payload and/or pile control.

(I'm sure others have said similar things too.)

This idea is present in Stef's article but not particularly prominently.

If you can trash your own Hunting Grounds, you should generally build a little longer.

I wonder if this sentence could be expanded a little. In fact looking again it seems as if Stef is talking about overbuilding generally while WW's point is about specifically overbuilding with more Hunting Grounds.

Other than that tiny point, Stef's article seems succinct and informative to me.

For context, this is from the point of view of a moderate player (around level 30 iso).



10
Dominion Articles / Re: Ruined Market as the only +Buy
« on: March 05, 2015, 05:14:10 pm »
I had a funny one of these.

http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150212/log.51396c35e4b0cd4b5a40deea.1423735225595.txt

Ruined Market was on top so I went for Death Cart and .....

---------- RobertJ: turn 6 ----------
RobertJ - plays Bandit Camp
RobertJ - draws Caravan
RobertJ - gains Spoils
RobertJ - plays Caravan
RobertJ - shuffles deck
RobertJ - draws Copper
RobertJ - plays Masquerade
RobertJ - draws Copper, Bandit Camp
RobertJ - passes Estate
dhcblitz - passes Copper
RobertJ - trashes Copper
RobertJ - plays Bandit Camp
RobertJ - draws Spoils
RobertJ - gains Spoils
RobertJ - plays 4 Copper
RobertJ - buys Death Cart
RobertJ - gains Death Cart
RobertJ - gains Ruined Market
RobertJ - gains Ruined Market


Even better, there was still a Ruined Market on top so:

---------- RobertJ: turn 8 ----------
RobertJ - plays Masquerade
RobertJ - draws Bandit Camp, Spoils
RobertJ - passes Copper
dhcblitz - passes Copper
RobertJ - trashes Copper
RobertJ - buys Ruined Market
RobertJ - gains Ruined Market

and three Ruined Markets was enough.

11
Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Easy Puzzles
« on: October 23, 2014, 06:40:39 pm »
New puzzle, hopefully there are fewer answers. This one didn't actually happen. As first player, begin turn 3 with some number of cards in hand that isn't 5. For simplicity, no noble brigand shenanigans.

Open with Market Square/Watchtower and draw them together during turn 2 clean-up. Your opponent buys Ill-Gotten Gains on their turn 2 and you react with Watchtower to trash the curse, and then discard the Market Square in reaction to the trashing of the curse leaving you with a 4 card hand to begin turn 3.

12
Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Easy Puzzles
« on: August 15, 2014, 04:04:14 am »
Hmm, you want some trash fodder, but not something which can be discarded by Cutpurse or Taxman?

Similarly to Davio's suggestion: You want to guarantee starting your next turn with a 5 card hand (because of Vault or Madman perhaps) and opponent is playing Cutpurse or Taxman?

13
One other way of resolving the problem of an infinite loop of reveals of fraud would be by making it react to buys rather than gains. Something like:

"When any other player buys a card you may reveal this. If you do choose any card with the same cost for them to gain instead."

If you really wanted to keep the reaction being to gains, a similar solution would be to make the acquisition of the new card be technically not a gain (there is some precedent for this kind of thing with Masquerade in that you do not gain the card passed to you):

"When any other player gains a card you may reveal this. If you do choose any card with the same cost for them to put in their discard pile instead."

Of course this still leaves the problem that the reacting would be a bit awkward in a 3-4 player game.

14

I took a rather unsophisticated approach to this so I don't have a huge amount to say. Still, since many of the other finalists have said a bit about their entries here is my secret history of Kingdom #3.

Kingdom #3: (USE Colonies, No Shelters) Storeroom, Wishing Well, Coppersmith, Mining Village, Salvager, Throne Room, Mint, Tactician, Bank, Forge

The basic approach in designing this kingdom was to start from Tactician and to throw in a load of stuff that goes well (but not overpoweringly well) with it until it got to the point where I had no clue what I would do.

So, with a single Tactician there's Bank and Coppersmith (ideally Throned). Going for double Tactician, virtual money is a bit weak but is there in Salvager (Mint fueled) and Storeroom. Wishing Well can fit nicely with several of these approaches, particularly since there's no real draw. Finally, Forge could find a use in various ways in both possibilities. Even having decided on the basic strategy it's not obvious (to me at least) how to get there quickly or what the best opening is.

I didn't give it any playtesting and I didn't really have a good idea of what the best approach was although my hope was that some kind of double Tactician thing with money coming from Minting then Salvaging Platinums was the way to go. In the two matches all four players took slightly different lines and both single and double Tactician strategies were used. It seemed that the single Tactician and money approach worked better but I'd love to see someone prove that wrong and show us how to make double Tactician/Mint/Salvager more competetive.

Congratulations to all four players involved for giving us two great matches. It was fun to see you playing my kingdom. Huge thanks also to all involved with running the tournament and the Kingdom design challenge.

15
Dominion Articles / Re: Possible Combo: Plaza, Counting House
« on: February 14, 2014, 06:19:49 pm »
This topic made me think of a game I've just played with some nice Counting House interactions.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20140214/log.505dd328fca2e44e30819afd.1392419192315.txt

As well as Plaza and Sage, there's Hamlet and Vault. I'm not sure how well I played it but if nothing else the final turn was a fun one: Counting House to draw a load of Coppers, Vault them away for money, another Counting House to draw them up again giving just enough for two Provinces and the win.

16
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Procession logs
« on: February 11, 2014, 12:58:41 pm »
Border Village is another card which Procession works nicely with. Process your favourite $5 action and get it back with a free village.
 

17
Game Reports / Re: Transmute/Duke beats Governor
« on: January 14, 2014, 04:30:31 am »
I was A Drowned Kernel's opponent in this game. I'm sure you are right that I was trying to be a bit too fancy with Procession and that a more straightforward Governor thing would have had a better chance. At the time it seemed as if having a few Adventurers around as remodel targets wouldn't be so bad. In retrospect I didn't have enough Governors to be able to survive trashing them to Procession.

Anyway, it was actually nice to see Transmute/Duke working even though I was on the wrong end of it! Thanks for the game and for posting it here.

18
Tournaments and Events / Re: Dominion Team World Cup Discussion Thread
« on: November 30, 2013, 06:04:50 pm »
Comments on Germany v. UK Match 4

Psyduck and I played on Tuesday and I wrote most of this up then. Since then I've had a busy week and have only just got round to finishing it off and posting. Any comments welcome.

Game 1
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131126/log.505f5ec4a2e6714a97eee844.1385497786579.txt

A Vineyard board although it could do with a more accessible +Buy. I start on the Vineyards early
and eventually win the split 5-3. He gets a couple of Provinces but my 6 point Vineyards are just enough.
Psyduck: 28, RobertJ: 31

Game 2
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131126/log.505f5ec4a2e6714a97eee844.1385498926186.txt
Vagrant, Woodcutter, Nomad Camp, Band of Misfits, Duke, Ghost Ship, Harvest, Rabble, Treasury, Forge, Colony

We both go for predominantly Ghost Ship and Money. I also pick up a Harvest as a counter of sorts to Ghost Ship. The key question seems to be when and how to green. I dive into the Duchies having lost hope of reliably getting to $11 while he builds up his economy for longer. Eventually the Duchies are evenly split and he has a few Colonies for an comfortable win.
Psyduck: 83, RobertJ: 62

Game 3
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131126/log.505f5ec4a2e6714a97eee844.1385500245919.txt
Develop, Militia, Noble Brigand, Sea Hag, Wandering Minstrel, Golem, Hunting Party, Mint, Rogue, Hunting Grounds

We both get a 2-5 opening. He goes for Hunting Party while I get Sea Hag. He manages to control the Curses with Develop, wins the Hunting Party split 6-4, and picks up his own Sea Hag later. In Turn 14 I have some kind of brain explosion. I feel as if I need to do something risky as I'm way beheind, and choose to Develop a Hunting Party into a Wandering Minstrel+Hunting Grounds. This is partly to set up a good next turn and partly in the hope of developing the Hunting Grounds into 2 Duchies later. In retrospect I really needed to keep that Hunting Party and everything falls apart from here.
Psyduck: 36, RobertJ: 17

Game 4
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131126/log.505f5ec4a2e6714a97eee844.1385501216441.txt
Great Hall, Tunnel, Bureaucrat, Nomad Camp, Sea Hag, Silk Road, Taxman, Minion, Grand Market, Peddler

Silk Roads with Great Hall and Tunnel for support. He opens Nomad Camp while I go for Sea Hag. I use my Great Halls to pick up a few cheap Peddlers and build a bit more while he goes hard for Silk Roads. I manage to get a couple of Provinces but it's not quite enough.
Psyduck: 36, RobertJ: 35

Game 5
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131126/log.505f5ec4a2e6714a97eee844.1385502511114.txt
Lookout, Plaza, Procession, Butcher, Haggler, Knights, Tactician, Tribute, Border Village, Expand, Shelters

This is a crazy board! I can never reisist double Tactician and here I think there is pretty good support for it
with coin tokens and Haggler/Border Village to pick up Butcher fodder. He gets just a single Tactician, more money, and Dame Anna. I probably should have got Processions earlier (among other nice moves, Processioning Butcher and then getting it back with a Border Village thrown in is a neat trick). Other than that I'm pretty happy with how I play this one. There's a moment of concern when he gets a 14 point lead with 2 Provinces left but I've got a big turn coming in which I Expand and Butcher my way to the win.
Psyduck: 26, RobertJ: 33

So we reach the last game with him leading 3-2 and I need a win to get anything out of this match.

Game 6
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131126/log.505f5ec4a2e6714a97eee844.1385504119675.txt
Cellar, Oasis, Oracle, Swindler, Conspirator, Cartographer, Embassy, Merchant Guild, Rabble, Nobles, Colony

I aim for Conspirator with Oasis, Cellar and Cartographer to help it out. We both get an early Swindler and this stops either of our decks coming together. Swindling also depletes piles and after a while we're both scrambling for points with rather clunky decks. I feel good about my chances right to the end but somehow when it finishes I'm 2 points behind. Grrrr.
Psyduck: 40, RobertJ: 38

Overall a nice match with some interesting boards and several close games. In particular, I reckon Games 1,4 and 6 could easily have gone either way so I'm a bit disappointed not to come away with a draw. However he certainly out-played me in Games 2 and 3 and played well throughout so it's definitely a fair result. Losing in agonising fashion to Germany in other World Cups is practically our national tradition so maybe it's no surprise to see Dominion going the same way!

Thanks Psyduck for a fun set of games and for hosting. Amazingly Goko also behaved itself apart from a few login in problems and minor lagging in one game.

19
Tournaments and Events / Re: Dominion Team World Cup Discussion Thread
« on: November 15, 2013, 03:12:17 am »
Comments on Sweden v. UK Match 4

Game 1
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131114/log.517d03b5e4b0b903ada05b62.1384460940452.txt
Vineyard, Herbalist, Steward, Alchemist, Island, Plaza, Smithy, Thief, Margrave, Witch

This one was really close. I though my early Witch while he struggled to get to $5 gave me the edge. Then it looked as if his two double Vineyard buys to win the split had got it. By then we were both gumming up and I managed a couple of Duchies to get close. On the last turn I didn't know whether or not the last Herbalist would take me over a Vineyard threshold for the win. It didn't.

Game 2
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131114/log.517d03b5e4b0b903ada05b62.1384461614503.txt
Candlestick Maker, Pawn, Ambassador, Doctor, Market Square, Coppersmith, JackOfAllTrades, Mining Village, Smithy, City

I had hoped that Market Square and Doctor would give a thin deck full of Gold. In reality they took forever to collide by which time his Jack of All Trades, Candlestick Maker, Money deck had too big a lead. I tried to empty the Candlestick Makers to do something with Cities but by then it was far too late. I feel I was a bit unlucky with the draws here although I'm pretty sure his approach is better.

Game 3
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131114/log.517d03b5e4b0b903ada05b62.1384462533828.txt
Moat, Native Village, Pearl Diver, Menagerie, Warehouse, Scavenger, Smithy, Talisman, Tournament, Young Witch, Altar

Not really sure what happened here. We start similarly but I take Gold on $6 while he goes for Altar. Without good $5 cards and needing an early Province for Tournaments Gold looked a better bet. However, he got Province at the same time as me, connected it with Tournament and with a thinner deck was on top from then on.

Game 4
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131114/log.517d03b5e4b0b903ada05b62.1384463094002.txt
Secret Chamber, Forager, Village, Gardens, Nomad Camp, Rats, Treasure Map, Stables, Tribute, Expand

Fairly simple money Stables board. He gets an extra Nomad Camp, I get more Stables. He makes a late detour into Gardens but my Expand (which I'd hesitated about picking up over Gold at turn 10) helps to finish things off before the his Gardens get too strong.

Game 5
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131114/log.517d03b5e4b0b903ada05b62.1384464003422.txt
Duchess, Masterpiece, Smugglers, Cutpurse, Ironmonger, Worker's Village, Young Witch, Band of Misfits, Bazaar, Haggler, Horn of Plenty

Interesting board. A variety of useful cards suggesting that Horn of Plenty may be good but not enough draw to make it reliable. We both go for some kind of mixed deck looking for good Horn of Plenty plays. His extra Ironmongers probably win it for him. I like my Smugglers here but the second was probably a mistake. It's close for a while but his deck is always looking better.

Game 6
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131114/log.517d03b5e4b0b903ada05b62.1384464813456.txt
Moat, Smugglers, Remodel, Talisman, Tournament, Worker's Village, Catacombs, Haggler, Saboteur, Upgrade

Another Tournament game. We each get a Province at about the same time but he has more Tournaments and snaffles 3 prizes quickly. I grab a desperate Saboteur but it doesn't hit anything of note and he wins comfortably.

------------
Thanks HampusEriksson for an interesting set of games and for hosting (I can't bear to give money to Goko so I'm living as a parasite off those who have cards). You definitely deserved the win although I think a couple of the games could easily have gone either way.

This was my first experience of tournament Dominion and I have to say I found it far more tense and nerve-racking than I expected! Looking forward to the Germany match the week after next.

20
Dominion Videos and Streams / Re: best videos you've watched
« on: November 13, 2013, 10:41:34 am »
I imagine most people will have seen this one (again featuring WW). If you haven't then I won't spoil the surprise by saying why I like it:


21
Tournaments and Events / Re: Dominion Team World Cup Signup
« on: November 08, 2013, 04:22:43 pm »
Goko username: RobertJ
Nationality: UK
Cards: none

22
Tournaments and Events / Re: Dominion Team World Cup Rules
« on: November 07, 2013, 06:44:00 pm »
I know of no modern international competitions in which the UK dies not compete as a united team.  Maybe some sort of intra-commonwealth games might do that?

Funny, the only one I can think of where this is not the case are the Olympics (I'm sure there are others, but not in major sports AFAIK).

Even the Olympics is a bit strange in that the team is always referred to as Great Britain despite being really the UK (or more accurately the UK together with the Crown dependencies)!

Maybe this thread should get back to Dominion matters before we risk confusing the Americans too much. :P


23
Tournaments and Events / Re: Dominion Team World Cup Rules
« on: November 07, 2013, 12:07:46 pm »
No, we already have troubles to get enough teams. But, I have looked at your rating, and I'm not as confident as you that you won't make the cut. Just signup and maybe you can play (or be a substitute). Just try it out.

Thanks. I'm still deciding whether I will have time to play but I'll have a think about it and hopefully sign up before the 10 November deadline.

24
Tournaments and Events / Re: Dominion Team World Cup Rules
« on: November 07, 2013, 11:38:33 am »
Is it expected that the UK will enter as a whole or as its constituent countries?

I must admit to having a vested interest in this. The way I've been playing lately I'm unlikely to make a UK team but I might get into a Welsh one!


25
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: New Dominion CONTEST
« on: October 01, 2013, 06:01:05 am »
My Governor arrived this morning. Many thanks again Dominon_Contests.

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