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6626

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Another Incredibly stupid play on words challenge!

« on: December 23, 2012, 11:30:17 pm »

27. Sage
30. Contraband

31.  One in a thousand strokes
32.  A sometimes difficult hill to climb
33.  Hoping you have a great day
34.  Your kitchen remodeling contractor probably did this
35.  Only discusses groups on the same side
36.  Man, it hurts when I'm dreaming!

And since this is apparently dead, the answers here:

31. Militia (TIA = transient ischemic attack, i.e. stroke)
32. Upgrade
33. Wishing Well
34. Counterfeit
35. Transmute (a joke for the chemists, as opposed to cis...)
36. Remake (Rapid Eye Movement...)

I love how 24 and 34 took completely different angles... also 26 is awesome and I totally missed it.

6627

Game Reports / Re: double tactician golden deck

« on: December 23, 2012, 08:18:32 pm »

Hrm... it doesn't quite count as a Golden Deck because it's possible for you to have ten cards in hand and have neither Tactician nor Laboratory in hand.  Sure, it's unlikely... but if it happened, you were done.

6628

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Why aren't *you* playing on Goko?

« on: December 23, 2012, 06:31:16 pm »

I still wish I could go back to Word 97, rather than the monstrosity that is the newest version of Microsoft Office, for example.

OMG yes.  I just use OpenOffice nowadays though.

Actually holding the cards in your hand is a tactile pleasure that Iso can't replicate.  But Goko is just a poor imitation of the benefits you can get from real life, without capitalizing on the ways in which Dominion can be IMPROVED on the computer.

There's definitely some of this.  It tries to replicate the "feel" without actually doing so.

6629

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Why aren't *you* playing on Goko?

« on: December 23, 2012, 03:44:05 pm »

I hate the interface.  That's about it.

For those who say 'it's more like IRL Dominion,' I agree. But IRL Dominion is the inferior version of the game.  And for those who say 'it's more appealing to the common fan,' I'm not sure I agree. But regardless, I'm not the common fan, and I happen to hate it.

I can't really imagine spending money to play it that way, even with Dominion being my favorite game.  We'll see if that changes once Iso finally goes, but...to me it's just a completely different (and far worse) game.

I find it hilarious that you find what is essentially bug-testing software to be superior to an actual finished product.

It can be reasonably called superior for certain values of "superior."

It's superior for a tournament setting.  Any reasonably competitive player would prefer to play a tournament on Iso, and any tournament director should prefer Iso, for two reasons.  First, it's much faster.  A single IRL Dominion game, including setup time, can take as much as 30 minutes or longer even for 2P; in the time it takes to unbox and set up one game of IRL Dominion, you can play two Iso games if they're fast boards, or one on a slow board.  Second, this speed allows for best-of-N formats, which are superior in determining the "better" player--ostensibly the intent of a tournament.

Iso is superior for people who want to study the game of Dominion--which is ostensibly the intent of this blog and forum.  Sure, you could log an IRL game to look at the log afterward, but it's going to be an order of magnitude harder than logging, say, a game of chess.

Iso is superior for those who want to play a lot of games, due to its speed.

But IRL Dominion is superior in other ways.  Iso is not exactly a wonderful place for actual social interaction; even chats during and after games tend to be quite perfunctory, even nonexistent.  (Goko will have this same problem, if not worse.)

IRL Dominion is also superior if you prefer to play a variety of games.  My gaming group gets together for about 4 hours every second Friday; maybe that means a game of Dominion, then one of Power Grid, then one of something new we haven't tried before, or whatever.  Iso is great for... Dominion only.

----

Given that this discussion forum is for people who like to play a lot of games, and like to analyze their (and others') play, it's not at all surprising that people hanging out here would feel that Iso is better than IRL Dominion.

6630

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Why aren't *you* playing on Goko?

« on: December 23, 2012, 02:11:52 pm »

Isotropic is still up?  In all seriousness, as long as I can continue to play on isotropic I will continue to not make any sort of effort to switch.

It turns out the answer is "ingrained prejudice".  In response to this topic I've just given multiplayer Goko a whirl, and it's OK.

This is an interesting set of posts to come one shortly after the other!

6631

Other Games / Re: Ankh-Morpork

« on: December 23, 2012, 01:54:44 am »

Played it a while back.  It was... eh, it was thematic, which is the best I could say for it.  The game mechanics were far too random, surprisingly for Martin Wallace; even more random than London.  I'm surprised to see it with a 7.1 rating, though again that might be the thematic...ness... of it.

6632

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Where my streams at?

« on: December 23, 2012, 12:20:28 am »

Wasn't Goko supposed to implement an observer function?

Expect it sometime after the Final Trump and Shout.  Last I heard, it wasn't yet on their "things to do soon" list.

6633

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Some observations from a Goko newbie

« on: December 23, 2012, 12:19:33 am »

Occasionally I lose to a newb.  Sue me.

We all do!  There is, after all, some luck in the game...

6634

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Where my streams at?

« on: December 22, 2012, 11:28:17 pm »

Hmm.  What do I have to do to get on that list?

Get an account for the Wiki?

6635

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Why aren't *you* playing on Goko?

« on: December 22, 2012, 11:01:59 pm »

On Goko, there are 15 games running (just over 30 playing) and not quite 30 in the lobby.  About 60 people total online.

And how many playing campaigns?

I am told that more people are playing outside of the lobby than in it.

An interesting point, though one could reasonably suggest that these are two different populations anyway--people who are playing vs. bots aren't going to hang around Isotropic anyway.

Perhaps this should instead read "Why aren't you playing *multiplayer* Dominion on Goko?"

6636

Goko Dominion Online / Why aren't *you* playing on Goko?

« on: December 22, 2012, 10:29:24 pm »

So, it's 22:15 EST.

On Isotropic, there are 145 games running (over 300 people playing) with about 50-60 people in the lobby.  About 360 people total online.
On Goko, there are 15 games running (just over 30 playing) and not quite 30 in the lobby.  About 60 people total online.

Now, I know why I'm not playing on Goko--though as more sets appear there, the problem of missing cards starts to be less of a problem than the almost total inability to find games.  But I'm interested to know what's preventing other people from going over to Goko, and what the tipping point is.

So, post your thoughts, if you like.  I think I've set this up to allow multiple choices.

Edit: Clarification as per Donald below:  There are a lot of people, apparently, playing solo; the question then becomes, why aren't you playing multiplayer?

6637

Game Reports / In which Develop is the star

« on: December 22, 2012, 10:09:35 pm »

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/22/game-20121222-185316-17e62f6d.html

Native Village, Develop, Mining Village, Minion... Treasure Map?  Well, it turns out that in the right circumstances, Treasure Map and Develop synergize...

My opponent grabs more Develops and gets rid of his Coppers, and grabs Libraries instead of Minion, both of which facilitate his win.  This was a fun game though, and close.  Some highlights:

Treasure Map <3 Develop

— Kirian's turn 10 —
Kirian plays a Mining Village.
... drawing 1 card and getting +2 actions.
Kirian plays a Develop.
... trashing a Silver.
... gaining a Treasure Map and put it on the deck.
... gaining a Native Village and put it on the deck.
Kirian plays a Develop.
... trashing a Minion.
... gaining a Treasure Map and put it on the deck.
... gaining a Gold and put it on the deck.
(Kirian draws: a Native Village, 2 Treasure Maps, a Copper, and a Gold.)

Treasure Map </3 Minion

  — DomCat's turn 12 —
   ......
   DomCat plays a Treasure Map.
   ... trashing the Treasure Map.
   ... trashing a Treasure Map from hand.
   ... gaining 4 Golds on the deck.
   ......
   (DomCat draws: a Mining Village and 4 Golds.)

— Kirian's turn 13 —
......
Kirian plays a Minion.
... getting +1 action.
... discarding the hand.
... drawing 4 cards.
... DomCat discards the hand.
... (DomCat reshuffles.)
... DomCat draws 4 cards.

Beating a 10-point deficit with Develop:

   ......
   DomCat plays a Develop.
   ... trashing a Mining Village.
   ... gaining a Duchy and put it on the deck.
   ... gaining a Silver and put it on the deck.
   DomCat plays a Develop.
   ... trashing a Navigator.
   ... gaining a Duchy and put it on the deck.
   ... gaining a Develop and put it on the deck.
   DomCat plays a Native Village.
   ... getting +2 actions.
   ... picking up 1 card from the Native Village mat.
   DomCat plays a Vault.
   ... drawing 2 cards.
   ... discarding a Develop, 2 Provinces, and a Duchy and getting +$4.
   ... Kirian discards 2 cards.
   ... drawing 1 card.
   ......
   DomCat plays 2 Silvers and 3 Golds.
   DomCat buys a Province.

6638

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What Do You Wish You Knew When You Started Dominion?

« on: December 22, 2012, 02:19:18 am »

It depends on the kingdom.

6639

Game Reports / Re: In which I lose the curse split 6-0 and my opponent pile-drives provinces...

« on: December 22, 2012, 02:18:11 am »

And this, boys and girls, is why you always veto alt VP when playing against WW.

6640

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Encountered an odd level for an isotropic player

« on: December 21, 2012, 09:29:22 pm »

I added special case hacks for BGGDL.  It just assumes BGGDL-foo and foo are the same player.  I (used to) love you guys ;P.

I feel like such a foo for not knowing this.

6641

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Music

« on: December 21, 2012, 07:54:53 pm »

If you're only using cards from the Base set, the music should be something by Skrillex.

6642

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Encountered an odd level for an isotropic player

« on: December 21, 2012, 07:53:19 pm »

Guy has played 5 games, losing four of them.  Yet he is level 28?

easiest explanation is that this player switches names regularly. isotropic level is tied to an account, but council room doesn't know this and just scrapes the player name for its data. if you check the isotropic leaderboard it says they have 4278 games.

Weird.  That was not previously the case; CR.com corralled both my usernames into one page. (Way, way, WAY back when, I'd sometimes log on as Kirian [BGGDL] if I was doing match play.)

6643

Rules Questions / Re: Politics and Bargaining

« on: December 20, 2012, 07:27:18 pm »

The Contraband/Envoy issue is the interesting one to me. I guess the default ruling is consistent with the "you can't tell them what to pick." It's interesting, because on the "point counter" debate my intuition is strongly that it's obviously not ok to use a point counter and here it goes the other way.

I remember reading that it is acceptable for other people at the table to provide input to this decision. I will have to go and look for the source. Where does the default ruling you mention come from?

The default ruling is that anything not specifically permitted is disallowed.

6644

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Match Making

« on: December 19, 2012, 04:56:49 pm »

Expanding on Iso in the early days: it was easy enough to find matches because you could advertise availability in your status, and it was quick and easy to propose and accept/decline invitations.  Whenever I peek at Goko people seem to be fragmented into 10 different rooms, and creating a game is moderately involved.

There is that.  In the early days of Iso, the process was:

1. Click checkbox(es) for opponent(s).
2. Click "Propose."
3. Wait for replies.

Current Goko is:

1. Click "Create Game."
2. Wait for cards to load, or choose "Pro Play."
3. Click "Create Game."
4. Wait for people to join.
5. Start the game.

----

Also, even in the beginning Iso would keep your settings from game to game (though not across separate logins).

6645

Dominion: Guilds Previews / Re: First small Guilds Spoiler

« on: December 18, 2012, 03:23:16 pm »

"UWguild ($4)
UYguild ($4)"

Pretty sure one of those is Journeyman....

Journeyman = ?

Donald's adding a time travel aspect to Guilds, of course.

6646

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Match Making

« on: December 18, 2012, 11:05:49 am »

At the beginning of iso i'm sure there was very poor matchmaking. These sort of things take time to develop. I know it is on their list and it will come eventually. Personally i would like the cards implemented correctly first. I can wait for the matchmaking.

Actually, at the beginning of Iso there was no matchmaking, nor ratings.

6647

Rules Questions / Re: Politics and Bargaining

« on: December 17, 2012, 08:33:28 am »

What?

When someone has $1 to spend, I can't look all snug and say "Hey, you can always buy a Curse!" (Yeah, I'm not mentioning Copper) And no Bridges or Highways or Quarries, you pedantics! Shoo, shoo!

I always believe that strategic advice should be limited, but un-strategic advice: The more, the better!
Depends on the setting of course.

I suppose as long as the sarcasm is obvious, that's... OK, but not good in a tournament setting.  It's kinda akin to Bobby Fischer blowing cigar smoke in his opponents' faces: distracting and unproductive.  In addition, because you're distracting someone, and because (as discussed elsewhere) time controls are all but impossible in Dominion, you're slowing down the game.

6648

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Bizarre bot strategies?

« on: December 17, 2012, 08:30:43 am »

The big problem I've noticed is they don't know/care about their money density. So when they get into a position where they consistently hit less than 3, they buy Coppers and Estates, making their deck worse and worse. Or they buy lousy 3's that don't help their deck value over Silver.

Although, coding the AIs to base their buying decisions on money density could be pretty nasty, since what is tricky for humans to track would be a doddle for a computer to do.

It wouldn't be as simple as saying "If the new card does not increase my average coin, then don’t buy it," because victory cards do decrease your average coin and will need to be bought at some point.

I suppose there could just be a tipping point. The bot can be programmed to increase average coin and then when it goes green, that conditional no longer applies.

Actually, consider the code written for the simulators out there.  Not only is this relatively easy to do for a bot, it's readily codeable.

6649

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Wait, you can DO that?

« on: December 17, 2012, 01:03:13 am »

Not even remotely close.  Because it isn't on Isotropic people just haven't played the volume of games to truly understand a lot of the cards yet.  And of course it doesn't help that they are some of the most zany cards in Dominion to date.

Yeah.  Given that it's only on Goko, and games take twice as long there, the numbers of DA games played by this community, total, is likely in the 1000-2000 range.

6650

Game Reports / Re: Why I like point counter

« on: December 16, 2012, 07:53:37 pm »

You have a pre-installed point counter that you take with you everywhere.