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Messages - Dave970

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1
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Taking a Break
« on: November 27, 2012, 12:06:18 pm »
Gone one week without playing, woohoo!

Haven't missed it really.
I mean, when I used to read an article here, sometimes I would get excited and wanted to play immediately, but that's been subsiding.

Glad I haven't yielded yet. :)

Tomorrow is moving day, so exciting times!
And after a week or so living there we'll go and get some IKEA Expedits so I can finally put my games on display proudly!

Wait, wait... IKEA is a real thing over there, not just another joke played on us dumb Americans for our money, like "Chinese food"?  I mean, I've got some Furni myself (sorry, can't quickly get a "u" with umlauts on mobile), so I'm not knocking the usefulness and simplicity to set up, I just figured this was something else for people to point and laugh at us about.

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General Discussion / Re: DominionStrategy Forum Members Map!
« on: July 18, 2012, 07:53:24 pm »
On the playground is where he spent most of his days.

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Dominion General Discussion / Re: With my Dominion Time Machine...
« on: July 02, 2012, 02:10:10 pm »
This was my favorite line from Donald's explanation:

Explorer is fine, why do people even complain about Explorer. They can't all be the best $5 ever.

The particularly great part is "Explorer is fine" makes me think of this classic.


Epic.

4
General Discussion / Re: Anybody got Diablo 3 yet?
« on: June 13, 2012, 10:15:42 am »
Has anyone checked the prices yet?  I'm curious.

I went and looked for S&G.  Prices on the item market are ludicrous, in the range of $1 to 100k gold ratios.  I shit you not, there are items up in the $200 buyout range..  However, the commodities and forex markets (make no mistake, USD<>D3G is a forex market, just a very non-traditional one; I don't think Credit Suisse is going to start buying Diablo Gold) aren't currently open.  When the forex hits, I expect initial exchange rates to settle in the $1<>1-10M gold range.  No way are people going to buy 100k gold for $1.  I've been wrong before, though.
Within the public chat which you go to automatically after logging in (booooh!!!) there are a lot of advertisements for 1M gold for +/- $12 (last time I checked). So this means about $1 for 100k.
Sure, but that's buying gold on a black market, which is of necessity going to be more expensive.  As well as more risky.
Quote
While I don't care whether this is high or low I still wonder what kinds of people actually use these services and spend actual money for so much gold or an item that may give them 1 extra stat point over their current choice.
I'm not certain who would buy from a black market farming service, though obviously people do, or said black market would cease existing.  But I can understand people purchasing better equipment; they're hoping for a return on their investment, or they want to get into the high-level game a bit faster.  I wouldn't personally purchase using actual cash, but I'd purchase using gold because, hey, what else are you going to do with the gold?  And when the forex opens, I'll happily sell gold (legally) if it seems worth it.

Such interesting topics, here...

I'm sure we agree that the people hacking accounts for profit need shut down, but botting was brought up before, and we know that, at some point, buying gold for cash will be available.  I may be dumb (or old), but I take pride in earning what I have, so I'm not one for botting.  But what does it hurt, if what's being done is automating the collection of gold while you're not available to play and do it yourself?  Each person is in their own game world, with personal loot, so a bot killing mobs for gold isn't depriving someone else of the same gold.  Would I buy 10M gold for $1?  Man, would that be tempting.  Far more than I could farm in a night's work.  Is there a difference in buying it for $1 and letting a robot gather it, instead?

And when that option becomes available, what does that do to the market?  Will items that are listed for 20M gold now start getting listed for 200M?  2B?  It'll be interesting to watch.

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General Discussion / Re: Anybody got Diablo 3 yet?
« on: June 13, 2012, 09:59:47 am »
I'm curious as to what games have the most developed economies.  TF2 has an extremely active economy (all the more remarkable because it trades almost exclusively in items with only cosmetic in-game effects) with stable exchange rates to real-world currency.

I think a challenge is that you can't see the sale prices of items... no searching completed listings... so its very difficult to know the true value of something.  Sure, you can see a bunchof things listed @ 200 real world dollars, but those are just retarded.

One of the challenges to this line of thinking is that the D3 RMAH is (one of) the first attempt(s) at legitimizing a market that allows purchase of non-cosmetic in-game items for real-world currency, in a game that is not patently "pay to win" (which opens another discussion, entirely).  I'm sure that all games with player-driven economies settle into stability eventually, and D3 is still too young, with the opportunity to capitalize (both in the gold AH and the cash RMAH) on people that "must have everything NOW!", be it to fuel their forum gloating, or whatever their reasons might be.

As far as stabile non-currency markets go, look no further than WoW.  Granted, it's been around for 8 years, now, so it's had the time to develop, but the prices for nearly everything are well-established on each server, with many independent websites dedicated to working the virtual economy, plus the Undermine Journal, which gathers historical data for items from every server to provide a searchable database on the price of... everything!  Talk about robust.

D3 will settle in, some day, and what has an outrageous price today will eventually become reasonable.  I could be wrong, but I can't see the RMAH being all that profitable once this initial fervor to "win" (first!, NOW!) dies down.


Within the public chat which you go to automatically after logging in (booooh!!!)

With yesterday's patch, you're no longer auto-joined to General chat.

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General Discussion / Re: Anybody got Diablo 3 yet?
« on: June 12, 2012, 04:22:53 pm »
Are you guys having any luck finding legendaries?

I've had 3 drop, plus a Wizard set piece.  I had a low-level barbarian 2 hander, that I sold, Skywarden, that I used on the wizard a while, then sold, and Nailbiter, that sold for a decent amount.  The stats on the set piece were terrible, so I sold that for 1.9M, then bought the weapon my Wizard is still using.

Drop rates are intentionally low, and Blizzard admitted they screwed up on Legendaries and are fixing their stats soon.  Only the set piece dropped off a boss.
Too bad the markets are already being flooded by Chinese goldfarmers who are hyperinflating.

I really wonder why Blizzard doesn't do anything about botting...

They banned thousands of users today!

Yup, the banhammer is out.  With the release of the RMAH, they want to try to get this somewhat under control.  Unfortuantely, much of the damage may have already been done, judging by the amount of product already flooding the regular AH, be it legitimate or, more likely, ill-gotten gains (intentional reference).  Another factor in the amount of product is that each AH is region-wide, rather than smaller servers as found in WoW.  More people selling in the same space.  Otherwise, that lucky-drop set piece might have really set me up for a pay day, instead of listing it on something like the 20th page and the lowest price.

7
General Discussion / Re: Anybody got Diablo 3 yet?
« on: June 12, 2012, 12:31:18 pm »
I'd strongly recommend dropping Disintegrate, though; anything that requires you to channel is going to kill you while kiting.

I don't die much, at all.  That's the point to kiting.  Disintegrate is used for extreme burst, when it's safe to do so, and hits everything in the beam.  Generally, a finisher.

I like Arcane Orbs, but they're directional, even from the Hydra, and kiting is constantly changing the angle of attack and position of the mobs, thus the orbs can often miss.  Conversely, the attack from Venom Hydra is directed, so it will always hit, even while moving all around.  Also, to maximize orb damage, the mobs have to be in the blast radius, and the orbs explode on first contact.  So, you may get some random white mob instead of the blue/yellow pack you want to hit.

If I were truly worried about having something else to use while kiting, I'd swap Disintegrate for Magic Missile with the Seeker rune (another spell guaranteed to hit).  Disintegrate is used to pour on damage when it's safe to stand still and do so, and will hit more mobs than an Arcane Orb will.

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General Discussion / Re: Anybody got Diablo 3 yet?
« on: June 12, 2012, 12:18:08 pm »
Are you guys having any luck finding legendaries?

I've had 3 drop, plus a Wizard set piece.  I had a low-level barbarian 2 hander, that I sold, Skywarden, that I used on the wizard a while, then sold, and Nailbiter, that sold for a decent amount.  The stats on the set piece were terrible, so I sold that for 1.9M, then bought the weapon my Wizard is still using.

Drop rates are intentionally low, and Blizzard admitted they screwed up on Legendaries and are fixing their stats soon.  Only the set piece dropped off a boss.

9
General Discussion / Re: Anybody got Diablo 3 yet?
« on: June 11, 2012, 04:12:18 pm »
I'm mostly playing solo, because I can start and quit whenever I like and don't have to excuse myself.
Sometimes a friend joins or I join one of my friends to help out, but that's about it.

I'm playing a Demon Hunter which is lvl 43 and in A2 NM now.

It's getting harder and harder killing the blue and yellow monsters, because they get stuck in my trap for less time than the regular white monsters it seems.

So basically I lay the slow/immobilize trap, place a Sentry and fire a bit with Rapid Fire. Then the group comes out of the trap and I rinse and repeat.


What's really annoying is that my Templar doesn't (seem to) take any aggro. So every monster rushes towards me, the glass cannon. I wish he could taunt them better or something, not just when I'm close to dying.


And I find myself having to do an Auction Hall upgrade every few levels. While I don't find this annoying as I think the AH is done pretty well and makes it easy to buy and sell stuff, I think the drop rates can be made a lot better. Maybe I'm too perfectionistic as I like to have insane amounts of Dex and Vita at all times, but 11k+ life at lvl 43. isn't that unnecessary.

I didn't quote both of you in the last reply, but do agree on both the Templar and AH points.  As always, more DPS is the answer  :P

10
General Discussion / Re: Anybody got Diablo 3 yet?
« on: June 11, 2012, 04:05:51 pm »

I guess that's partially why I have a 60 mage, barb, and monk.  Each of them gets frustrating at times, so I need to switch around if I want to keep my interest in the game, given all the guaranteed instant-and-repeated death that gets thrown out of the randomizer.  I get the most success out of kiting with the mage, but that's also the least interesting method to play, to me.

Are you playing solo, or in groups?

I'm finding mage in group to be fun, but solo in inferno to be un-fun.  Blizzard -> Venom Hydra -> Kite Kite Kite Kite Kite.  If the monster has extra health?  Great - I'm going to be running for a while.  I've now got my resists up to ~350... maybe I can afford some glass cannon now.

When in a group though, then options are around...   one person can run past the trouble monsters and then everyone can teleport down to them.  i wish there were more explicit "taunt" abilities to help separate packs etc.

Some of both.  I'd drop my BattleTag, but I don't have the mobile authenticator to look it up.  DaveTheMage#something.  I also do the blizzard>hydra>kite method (no other way to live, though let it be said that I can completely see how it would be possible to magetank if I had the right gear), but I find it extremely boring, so much so that I'm currently running without a signature spell and subbing in Disintegrate, instead.  I find the added power allows me to mow down groups when I have/want to, and it even works well in group play.  It doesn't drain my AP pool all that fast, so I can throw a couple hundred thousand damage on the whole mob group occasionally, which helps with the boredom of kiting.

That being said, the extra mob health in group play is troublesome at times, and I'll spend a couple seconds doing nothing every once in a while waiting for the AP to recharge a little.  It's not so frequent that I feel like not having Magic Missile is a horrible mistake, but I think about it.  Blizzard, itself, does not do enough damage, nor does the poison pool from Venom Hydra, without being able to get the mobs stuck in it for a bit.  The monk suck-em-in move (name escapes me, window switching on Android not worth the time) is awesome for that.  Of course, that move also lines them up nicely for Disintegrate.

In solo play (though it's still tough in groups), the real issue is the followers' AI.  I know it's not a true MMO with that design, but they can't tank.  There's no discernable threat model.  The best we've come up with is whoever hits them first, so we try to let our monk or barb to go in and grab "aggro".  With the followers, good luck.  Even if you let the Templar charge in, as soon as you hit something, they're all coming for you, instead.  You'd think maybe at least Tyreal could tank, but no.  So, it's kite all day, and that puts me to sleep.

I try the melee characters to see if I can "tank" better than my friends, and for the change of pace, but starting with Act II Inferno, it goes significantly downhill.  My barb has like 70% DR from armor and 45K health, but not enough resists to live long.  My monk has about 60%, less health, and more resists (and One With Everything), but it's still a chore.  The BS is useless, and I need more money for the AH, so it is what it is.  Both of them, if solo, just run into random combinations like I described earlier that are roughly impossible.

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General Discussion / Re: Anybody got Diablo 3 yet?
« on: June 11, 2012, 10:57:18 am »
Aside from the obvious (don't stand in the poison), your monk needs an escape move.  Try using Tempest Rush.  It allows you to bulldoze through mobs to get away/through (ignores collision) and into safer positions.  Won't help if you're jailed, of course, but your Serenity can be saved for that.  Chain CC will still be an issue, so try to pull as little as possible for any given fight.  Caves are the worst (you run out of places to run), and they actually highlight the issue mentioned in the CAD blog.

The point is to stack NV, then go boss hunting.  But what do you do when you're on a melee character and the entrance has a pack of Jailer Frozen ArcaneEnchanted Vortex FireChains mobs?  Did I mention they were naturally fast, too, like bats or something?  Well, you die.  Then you decide: can I skip this cave, or do I have to reset the game, losing my NV stack?  Sucks when that cave is your progression, not optional.

I guess that's partially why I have a 60 mage, barb, and monk.  Each of them gets frustrating at times, so I need to switch around if I want to keep my interest in the game, given all the guaranteed instant-and-repeated death that gets thrown out of the randomizer.  I get the most success out of kiting with the mage, but that's also the least interesting method to play, to me.

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Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?
« on: February 13, 2012, 01:14:53 am »
"Player 1" likes to leave you with a nice "fuck u" after you beat him.

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Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?
« on: February 08, 2012, 10:46:06 am »
...The worst incivility I've encountered so far was after some KC-Swindler shenanigans...

eeeeeeeeeevil shenanigans!

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Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?
« on: September 20, 2011, 02:24:58 pm »
as an extension of this, maybe a new feature to request on isotropic would be a preference for either a single match or a best of n set against the player.

Interesting thought.  I think I'd probably check off "best of 3" in my preferences.  I think I also find that multiple games in a row against the same person leads to a small bit of conversation.  More than a best of three, though, I'm not sure I'd check off.  Like most, I'm looking to play a variety of players.  Giving a drop-down option for the number, is certainly better for functionality, however.

15
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?
« on: September 17, 2011, 05:01:42 pm »
Here's another guy: oaishdoiahsda

Real brilliant conversationalist.

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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Compare the Single-Card Engines
« on: September 15, 2011, 04:38:36 pm »
Scrying Pool without the Festivals (sub any +coin card, as well), from that example, wasn't doing squat.  Plus, it was a solo game... a real opponent would have to be clueless to not gain some portion of those cards.  Scrying Pool and Treasures (to enable gaining the VPs), would limit the amount of cards drawn by any given Scrying Pool.

I totally get your argument that Menagerie needs another engine component, but so does Scrying Pool, and the example given showed that, as well.

The argument is needs to re-center on the definition of "engine".  If card-drawers are the sole component, let's go back to the "Compare the Smithies" thread.  If card-drawers are the sole component, what wins in the simulator between BMU+Smithy and BMU+Scrying Pool?

As was said earlier in this thread, about the only "self-sufficient" "engine" (note all the quotes) is Minion.  It, by itself, provides both the cycling and the cash to win.  To a lesser extent, a Market variant will accomplish this, as well.  Scrying Pool, plus money, plus green, without outside assistance, will grind to a halt.

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Dominion Isotropic / Re: Optimizing your level
« on: September 06, 2011, 05:00:40 pm »
I would hardly think a tournament that banned, say, Possession would make the game unrecognizeable as Dominion.
Did I say that?

Banning only Possession, if the goal is to avoid long games, is in the "not going to work" category, not the "unrecognizable" category.

It's in your quote, referring to villages not possession specifically.  Which I think was facetious, anyway, just to make a point.  Regardless, we're on the same side of this... I want to play with all the cards.  I was only saying that I could see a reason for banning some notorious cards, whether they lengthen tournament time, or time spent on isotropic.  It would be, and is, our choice to not join such games.

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Dominion Isotropic / Re: Optimizing your level
« on: September 06, 2011, 04:10:32 pm »
I wouldn't play in a tournament where the director banned cards in an attempt to shorten games. There's no small, targeted way to do that, and any blunt hammer you try ("Let's ban all Villages!") is either not going to work or it's going to create a competitive situation that is unrecognizable to people who know how to play the actual game of Dominion.

Wasn't necessarily making the case for banning cards, just saying I could see a use for it.  I enjoy playing with any card, any time, but I would hardly think a tournament that banned, say, Possession would make the game unrecognizeable as Dominion.

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Dominion Isotropic / Re: Optimizing your level
« on: September 06, 2011, 02:31:17 pm »
Hrm, I think that first makes the assumption that all cards are "equal" on some level
I assume no equality beyond the entirely obvious fact that they're all official Dominion cards. Unless you can get Donald to publicly disown some of them, or get an overwhelming consensus among the entire competitive community that some of them are totally unsuitable for competitive play, the only reasonable baseline is that all official cards are included.

Possession is a card a lot of people don't like. If you think it's unsuitable for competition... well, I'll just say I disagree. I don't like Swindler's variance-inducing ways, but I wouldn't for an instant presume to strike it from rated games for the whole community (nor from a tournament I was organizing).

I do not prohibit cards when I play, but one use I can see for banning certain cards in a setting like a tournament is the average length of time it takes to play the given card.  Some turns are just really boring to sit through and, as was mentioned in the "Pet Peeves" thread, lead me to tab out to other windows and lose any interest or concentration on the current game.  Of course, it's not always a given card's fault... some people have massive actions/cards chains that draw their entire deck every turn, but they don't realize that they never bought any gold, and they continue to perpetuate their chain with their buy.

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Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?
« on: September 01, 2011, 04:55:39 pm »
Huh, that is pretty funny.  th2wo has beat me repeatedly, I am 1-7 against him.  Maybe that is why he isn't rude to me. :D

I beat this person a long time ago, when my rank was probably in the low teens (don't pay too much attention to it, if anyone recalls the discussion in the "I don't know what this thread has become" thread).  He/she was pissed about it, and wanted an immediate rematch, and I asked if he/she could wait a couple minutes, because I had to attend to my laundry.  Some manner of insult was thrown at me, plus some sort of threat of never getting to play this person again, as if it was some kind of privilege for a lowly person such as myself.  Sorry, "th2wo", not my loss.  I do get a chuckle when I see him/her logged in.  I always auto-match... wonder if the veiled threat would still apply...

21
Fine, you're taking "everyone" to it's extreme.  How about "everyone that is passionate enough about the number to come onto a message board and abduct a topic to complain that someone else has a higher number than they do".

By the way, I'm part of this group, and I'm not "interested in this number", in the sense that it's being argued about here.  So, it goes both ways.

22
Regardless, Doug probably shouldn't turn down the randomness factor: if he turned it down to less than the average, then people who care about their rank wouldn't want to play lower-ranked players. (Which they already don't, to some extent, despite tat's counterexample.)

And it's this that I don't get.  Why is everyone so invested in this number?  Why are people so deathly afraid of dropping in rank?

Said another way... everyone has to start somewhere.  Whether you're level 2 or level 42, you started at level 0.  Just because you refuse to play a lower "ranked" player (quotes intentional) now, doesn't mean that player isn't actually good, or isn't even actually better than you are.  What, you're going to wait until their level surpasses yours, then mystically accept the challenge, as they're now "worthy" of you?

The number is nowhere near as important as some people make it out to be.  This quote above can give rise to the argument that tat's actually "doing it right".

23
TrueSkill has a parameter that is supposed to measure how random the game outcome is.  You'd expect this to be very high for a game like chutes and ladders or Rock Paper Scissors, and low for Chess.  If the parameter is very high, the model thinks that the games are very random, and then the model thinks that it requires very much skill to do better than 50/50, and so it compensates you by giving you a huge level for winning frequently, even against low rated players ("omg, it's AMAZING that you win this mostly random game so often!").  On the other hand, if the parameter is very low, then the model thinks that even with a small skill advantage, you should almost certainly beat a somewhat lower rated player, and it will penalize you harshly for losing ("it must have been lack of skill, and not luck, that made you win, therefore, you certainly aren't as good as I used to think you were").

I suspect the parameter is not optimally tuned on isotropic.

It appears, then, based on the statements of others saying that tat would not accept their game requests, that the parameter is high, possibly a little too high.  That being said, there really is a fair amount of randomness in any given Dominion game.  Right from possibly only one person hitting the 5/2 start, down through each shuffle of each deck (not considering strategies that reduce shuffle luck, which can be a measure of player skill).  If the obvious path to victory in a given game is Big Money, with no variants, and both players know this and play accordingly, then you bet the inherent randomness of the game is going to drive the victory towards a coin flip, regardless of the players' designated skill levels coming in.

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I have no idea because I've not played tat. Similarly, neither have you. Nor has painted_cow or anyone else complaining about him (as far as I can tell). He is obviously a good player because he is at the top of the leader board. Why, exactly, do you feel the need to bitch and moan about a person being at the top of a table on a website? It means nothing other than "he is good at dominion", and you know what... if he wins 76% of his games, he is good. Doesn't matter who his opponents are. There's a lot of luck involved in Dominion and if someone can overcome that luck and win 76% of games, they're good at Dominion.

Essentially this.

I was lucky enough to play against Theory one time, long before isotropic was as popular as it is today (before you couldn't even log on on an Eastern US Friday afternoon), and long before these forums existed.  The early days of the blog.  I lost to him by one point, because somewhere in the middle of the game, I took a silver, or something, instead of an estate, and at the end of the game, he was able to pick up an estate right before the game ended with a 4/4 province split.  His level on isotropic, today, is roughly double mine.

Do I think he's twice the player I am?  No.

Better?  Maybe... we'll never know.  We played one time, and that's not enough to determine anything.

I would like to see the results of matches between you guys and tat, so it's unfortunate that those games are being declined, but I would still submit that even one game against him won't prove anything.  Of course, the reason I'd like to see the results, is to look at the game log, and see how the game played out, and compare that to what my in-game choices would have been.

I don't know what else there really is to say on this, but I don't think it's something we should be getting worked up about.

25
Correct me if I'm misinterpreting you then, but you think tat would easily be the strongest player on isotropic if he played other strong players too, then? If this is not what you believe, can you explain?

If you're asking me, what I believe is that the number is meaningless... for everyone.  Like the game, play the game, win some games, have fun.  There's enough RNG inherent in the game that anyone can play "flawlessly" (per the given board) and still lose.

If you're asking someone else, hopefully they answer you, also.

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