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General Discussion / New 3DS XL Question
« on: July 30, 2016, 08:50:23 pm »
So.
Lately, I've been thinking pretty heavily about picking up a new 3DS XL. However, after doing some research, I've come across the widespread problem of inconsistency in the displays. It seems that it's virtually random whether you get one with dual TNs or a top IPS display and bottom TN (or other more rare combinations of the two I don't care about as much). Some people play down the difference, but now that I know this exists--and after seeing videos like this or posts like this one it has me kind of concerned. I really don't want to play the lottery and deal with buying and returning units that are dual TNs. However, some people say that this issue is way overblown and you really can't tell the different unless you have IPS and TN screens side by side.
So basically, I guess I'm just wondering what peoples' experiences have been if you own a new 3DS XL. Maybe this isn't as much of an issue as I think it is. I mean, it's not like the 3DS's display is going to be exceptional regardless--and apparently all previous generations have had the TN displays, but I just know it's going to bug me if I get one with dual TNs now that I know about this...

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General Discussion / The Legend of Korra [Spoilers]
« on: September 29, 2014, 02:29:40 pm »
Continued discussion from Random Stuff Part II
ATLA and LoK stuff

Yeah, some things are best left to the imagination.  Though to be fair, the time before Wan is still pretty mysterious!  Have you read the comics?  They tell some other neat stories (including some closure for the Ursa plot).

The stuff with Vaatu was pretty weird, definitely.  I enjoyed it, but the season 2 plot of Korra did feel a bit off and over-the-top.  Part of it was because it didn't fully mesh with what I thought the spirit world was, but I can't even articulate what that might have been anyway.  The final battle with a giant Korra was also a bit crazy.  Even so, it was all very intriguing and I can see now how the season 2 plot really opened up the possibilities for the universe.  Season 3 was brilliant and it'll be really fun to see what season 4 is like.

I'm perfectly happy with them leaving the background of lavabending up in the air.  There's just so much possible creative space in the various uses of bending, maybe it just takes a unique mind or critical moment to uncover those cases.  Just off the top of my head...

Imagine a waterbender with the subtlety to freeze little patches of ice on the ground just as opponents are making a move to throw them off balance.  Or an earthbender shifting the earth for the same effect, hidering opponents and helping himself.  Imagine a lightning bender who can hold the electricity in her hands and feet for close combat like what Asami has demonstrated with her glove.  Imagine an airbender manipulating sound waves for espionage, or even using sonic attacks or throwing sounds to distract and mislead (IIRC Aang has used airbending at times to increase the volume of his voice, so there is basis for sound manipulation). 

Outside of a family-friendly setting, it can get even better.  Earthbenders and water benders who specializes in controlling small projectiles (read: psychic bullets) instead of chucking giant boulders and torrents of water.  Earthbenders who work with razor sharp crystal and waterbenders who actually use their ice to cut and pierce.  Metal bloodbenders who use the iron in blood instead of the water. Man, now that there's lavabending, there could even be an airbender who can control air temperature.  Or vacuums!  And even lightning bending could be so much more deadly.  It could all get so ridiculously destructive. 

So yeah, I don't think lavabending needs much more of an explanation.  I don't think combustion was ever elaborated on, was it?

Totally happy to discuss this show.  Maybe a separate thread would be worthwhile.  We might already have one floating around somewhere...
I've read of the comics, so know some stuff that happens in them. It'd probably be something nice to check out though.

Mm. Still not sure that I agree about lavabending. In the original show, I loved how they explained how special abilities worked (Toph and the minute pieces of earth contained with metal, Iroh trying to teach Zuko how to make and redirect lightning). To me, it added an extra level of believability and authenticity to those abilities. Like ok, Toph can bend metal because she is better able to sense and manipulate the earth inside of it. And Azula's preference and mastery over lightning took on greater meaning when we learned about the skills necessary to perform the technique. It's not that big of a deal for me, but I do normally like it when they provide explanation for this sort of thing.

I like all of the things that you mention in regard to other special abilities. One that I really enjoyed and I thought had great impact was Zaheer's ability to kill people by stealing the air out of their lungs. It innately made sense that that was something airbenders were capable of but had never done before because of their pacifist nature. So it took someone like Zaheer who wasn't bound by that culture to take things to another level. And theoretically, considering that bloodbender's can move people like puppets, they should also be able to steal all of the liquid out of their bodies.

I like your idea about an airbender being able to control temperature. Lavabending does make more sense from the point of view that nearly all bending forms have been shown to have some control over temperature. Waterbenders can freeze and unfreeze water, firebenders can obviously create heat but they have also been shown to have the ability to siphon it off in order to cool objects (the major scene coming to mind is Firelord Sozin assisting Avatar Roku with the volcano. He basically channeled the heat from the lava, solidifying it into rock again). So at this point, airbending is the only form not shown to have control over temperature (unless I'm misremembering some scene with Aang blowing on some chains repeatedly to freeze them).

Combustion has some explanation. I think most of it is related to the position of chakras in the body and the tatoo allowing some focus of energy. P'li's ability seemed significantly less powerful than the original Combustion Man, but she could bend it around corners and stuff which was cool.

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General Discussion / Is anyone playing Banished?
« on: July 02, 2014, 07:02:04 pm »
Banished is this incredible city-building/management game that I picked up during the Steam summer sale.

It is quite difficult--especially on hard with disasters turned on. You have to manage your citizens through different professions divided between food production (through farming, animal husbandry, gathering, fishing, and orchards), craftsman (blacksmiths and tailors to provide tools and clothing), and more resource gathering type jobs such as foresters and miners. Later on, you can get more infrastructure relates professions such as traders, market vendors, physicians, and teachers. You require not only enough food to feed your people, but also sufficient variety to promote good health. If you don't prepare for winter with enough firewood, your citizens freeze to death because they can't heat their homes. Although the graphics aren't incredible, I find something very charming about them. The maps in this game are HUGE, and with careful planning and management, you can eventually fill them out.

You also have to manage population growth by determining when to build houses and/or accept nomads into your lands. If you stop building new houses, young people will not marry and have children and eventually your whole population will die off. If you build too many houses at once, you will have a huge amount of children that you have to feed even though they can't work--and then your people will die of starvation.

One of the best things about this game is how it leaves progression up to you. Any building can be built at any time provided you have the resources and labor.

The details in this game are incredible: down the point where you can't keep planting the same crop in the same field or the nutrients in the soil will be depleted--necessitating the practice of crop rotation.

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General Discussion / Magicka: Wizard Wars
« on: June 24, 2014, 06:36:59 pm »
So. Is anyone playing this amazing game? I got the original Magicka and really enjoyed it. This version is free to play and really not p2w (at least at this point).

It's been in Open Beta on Steam for about a month now I think. I actually can't believe that it's free to play, it's such a good game. It's still somewhat simple at this point, but you have all 8 elements (but can only cast spells using 3). There's a lot of elemental countering / prediction that is a lot of fun. It supports 4 vs. 4 and you can have basic parties with your Steam friends.
At this point, its really just at the kill people and take spawn points stage, but it's still got a surprising amount of depth to it.
The matchup system is somewhat broken, so noobs will still go up against high level opponents but it's very easy to join and leave games (and you get to see your opponents beforehand).

I mostly enjoy the strategy, because the combination of elements and shield vs. walls which block different things--and the addition of wards; it makes it fairly complex if you've never played any of the Magicka games before. I mean, it's got two maps and I've already sunk 11 hours into it and still nowhere near to being tired.

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General Discussion / Superbrothers: Swords and Sworcery
« on: April 21, 2014, 02:59:33 pm »
Wow. I just got this game a few days ago. It is probably the best mobile game I have ever played. It combines a really interesting story with incredible music, and striking pixel art. It breaks the fourth wall almost instantly, and has this self-referential sort of undercurrent that is pretty funny considering its overall dark theme.


I think it's like 4.99 for mobile, which is kind of steep. And it is also one of those rare games which started on ios, and subsequently migrated to both android and steam. I still think it's well worth the money though. Particularly considering that the game has one part <spoiler alert> that can take about a month to complete since it is dependent on cyclical changes in the moon.
If anyone on here has played it, I'm sure they'll have great things to say about it!

The puzzles aren't all that difficult, but some of the battles can be challenging. Overall, this is a game built to create a particular experience--which is something I think it does very well. And because the designers are aware of the potentially addictive qualities of the game, they built in break points. Which are explained because “Our research shows that prolonged exposure to the mythopoetic psychocosmology of S:S&S EP can have adverse side effects”. That right there tells you a lot. The game basically has this meta-claim to be some sort of therapy for sadness.
Anyway, I'd love to hear what you guys thought/think of it and hope that you play it, because it really is an incredible experience.

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Feedback / Do Mafia posts now count now count for total post count?
« on: April 02, 2014, 07:39:55 pm »
I just noticed that my post count jumped up to 266--and there is no way I have made that many posts outside of mafia.
Is this a new change that has been implemented?

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General Discussion / Why f.ds is such an awesome online community
« on: February 06, 2014, 05:57:29 pm »
Man. I just have to say that of all the online communities I'm a part of (which is a fair number).
This one is just incredible. Everyone is warm, intelligent--and quite understanding as well.
It's not every day you get such a collection of interesting people who are of such high quality.

I feel like a community of this caliber can be a rare thing these days. So I guess just a general shoutout to everyone: the mods, members, etc. For being so great.

Part of the reason why I'm posting this, is just seeing the difference that sets this community apart. I just joined another online community (I won't say which one) and got somewhat of a cold, almost nasty welcome from one of the mods. Actually ticked me off kind of  :(

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General Discussion / Cave Story
« on: December 07, 2013, 12:49:56 am »
Just wondering if any of you have ever played the game Cave Story before. I haven't played it all the way through yet, but it's a pretty incredible retro-style platforming gem. Not only are the mechanics very nice, but the overall story is very impressive as well.







It's available for download free at http://www.cavestory.org/downloads_game.php

It was originally made in japanese, so if you speak english, you have to download a patch for translation (there may be patches for other languages as well, but I am unsure) . Anyway, if you take a look at it--I'd love to hear what you think of it. I thought it was awesome!

Edit: translation is also available for other languages

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Game Reports / Diplomacy Recommended Set
« on: November 24, 2013, 02:24:54 pm »
I played this set last night with my father and brother.
$6 Farmland
$5 Ill Gotten Gains, Embassy, Bazaar
$4 Trader, Noble Brigand, Caravan
$3 Ambassador, Smugglers
$2 Embarbo

I opened Ambassador/Noble Brigand for some reason. I planned to open Ambassador/Silver, but decided to pick up the Noble Brigand with the expectation that it would be Embargoed very soon (My dad *really* hates that card).
My Dad opened silver/embargo I think. My brother, lucked out with a 5/2 split and opened Ill-Gotten-Gains, Embargo. Ouch.

The game quickly devolved into the worst slog I think I've ever played. As expected, my dad Embargoed Noble Brigand like 4 times. My brother went for smugglers, and Embargoed Gold 3 times. After my dad started buying Traders, I embargoed those, but later realized that it probably would have been a good idea to get at least one myself before embargoing them.
My brother bought I think 4 IGG before I embargoed them, leaving my father and I riddled with curses, while he remained relatively curse free. Embargos ran out, and with 2 Ambassadors--I got rid of all my curses and coppers, Ambassadoring my deck down to a couple silvers, some caravans, Bazaars, 1 noble brigand and an Embassy.

My opponent's decks were grossly large and inefficient. At one point, my dad bought a Gold despite the Embargo, gaining
three curses. My brother smuggled the Gold on his turn ;D
This game lasted a *long* time, and at some point I remembered that I should be trying to end it. So, on a whim, I started buying Farmlands. Keep in mind that my deck probably only had 15-20 cards in it, and with the Embassies and Caravans, I could consistently draw it every turn.
So, long story short, I bought out almost all the Farmlands. And after drawing my whole deck every turn, I said the same thing "Buy a Farmland, Trash a Farmland, Gain a Province" This went on for about 7 provinces, at which point my opponents gave up. The game probably would have ended soon anyway, but it was pretty clear who was going to win.

So postgame analysis, I'm wondering what you guys would have done differently. With the triple Embargo on Golds, it was almost impossible to get my economy up to the point where we could buy Provinces consistently. And at the point where the game was at, I think Farmlands was the best way to go, but I'm just thinking things would have turned out different if I had been more vigilant in the early game.

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Dominion General Discussion / Remembering Your First Game of Dominion
« on: November 20, 2013, 07:47:38 pm »
I remember my first game of Dominion. It was in a study room in the library of my school.
It was me, my older brother and his friend--who was introducing us to the game for the first time.
We did not play with the starting set, yet I still recall some of the cards on the table: throne room, witch, militia, laboratory.
The first kingdom card I bought was a witch--my brother's was a laboratory. I couldn't seem to understand why silver cost $3 when it only gave you $2, or why copper cost $0, it just seemed so strange. Why would you ever buy something that gave you less money than it cost? Eventually I realized that I was able to keep these cards even when I "spent" them. To tell the truth, I don't think my brother's friend was that great of a player--but he will always stand out as the person who introduced me to *the* game.
I can't remember who won that first game, but I do remember what it sparked in my mind.
The next week, while I was at work, I couldn't stop thinking about it. And, within the week, I purchased the Base set and began playing with my family.
Now, two and half years and 5 expansions later, I've come a long way from that first game. But the nice thing about Dominion is that every time is different--every kingdom offers a new insight into the marvelously complex interactions between the cards. Add more expansions, and it only gets better.
Anyway, just an amateur reminiscing about his first game.
Feeling the nostalgia yet?
Why don't you post something about your first game and where you are now.

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Dominion General Discussion / Which expansion should I get next?
« on: November 17, 2013, 05:21:11 pm »
I own every dominion expansion except cornucopia, dark ages, and guilds.
I'd say that I'm a fair player--but I can really only afford one expansion right now.
I don't know whether I'm sold on guilds yet, it seems like it adds some more advanced mechanics.
I know that dark ages is huge, but I'm kinda thinking of picking up cornucopia first.
Any thoughts about which one you think I should get would be greatly appreciated.

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Introductions / Nice to meet ya
« on: November 17, 2013, 12:49:26 am »
Hey everyone. I've been playing Dominion for about 2 years. Own every set except cornucopia, dark ages, and guilds--but I want them all! College student, business major with a concentration in information systems.

I prefer playing dominion in real life--although I do play on Goko occasionally--it's nice not having to shuffle ;).
Familiar is one of my favorite cards--but I also really enjoy games without attack cards, as there are less things for me to worry about.
I feel pretty solid in my understanding of the base set by itself--but I acquired the rest of my collection relatively quickly, and haven't had a lot of experience with Prosperity, Alchemy or Hinterlands.
I've read a number of threads on this forum--and finally got around to making an account.
So guess I'm just looking forward to learning some better strategies and having fun.

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