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76

Hearthstone / Re: Tavern Brawl Discussion

« on: October 14, 2015, 09:33:19 pm »

This "randomonium" Brawl is easily my least favorite to date. You can't even plan ahead with the cards in your hand, and it feels like 80% of the games go to whoever lucks into a huge unanswerable minion on round 1 or 2.

77

General Discussion / Re: roguelike games

« on: October 14, 2015, 09:30:44 pm »

While we're talking Crawl though. I'm currently playing a Demigod Conjurer and I've found a lot of books. Wondering what people are recommending I go for in terms of spells. I usually die before I get this sort of spell selection. I have access to the following books:
Book of Conjurations: Magic Dart, Searing Ray, Dazzling Spray, Fulminant Prism, Iskenderun's Mystic Blast, Iskenderun's Battlesphere
Book of the Dragon:  Flight, Cause Fear, Bolt of Fire, Dragon Form, Dragon's Call
Book of Burglary: Swiftness, Passwall, Passage of Golubria, Lee's Rapid Deconstruction, Invisibility, Darkness
Book of Fire: Ignite Poison, Fireball, Bolt of Fire, Delayed Fireball, Ring of Flames
Book of Power: Fulminant Prism, Iskenderun's Mystic Blast, Venom Bolt, Bolt of Magma, Iron Shot, Orb of Destruction, Spellforged Servitor

Any recommendations from the more experienced players would be appreciated! I'm not sure what is good to spend my spell slots on here. More damage? Escape-y things? Summons?

Bolt of Fire is my very favorite bread-and-butter attack spell. It has good range, does way more damage than Fireball, and not much resists it. For fire-resistant monster, you'll eventually want something irresistable. Orb of Destruction is a great choice, when your Conjurations gets high enough. The aiming takes some getting used to, but it deals impressive damage. Iron Shot is also fine. Bolt of Magma is... tolerable; I was never impressed with its range or damage.

Don't train any skill based on a spell you might find later. If you find Haste, you can turn off everything but Charms and cast it soon enough.

Having a melee backup weapon is a good idea. In the absence of a compelling find, I think either a quarterstaff or morningstar is a good choice. Staves/lajatangs are probably the best damage/XP payoff for someone who doesn't intend to go to 20 in the weapon skill. Maces give you the option to do DWhip/buckler if you find the DWhip, or morningstar/buckler, or great mace. Finding a nice great mace is usually easy in Vaults.

You seem to be a little hung up on the idea of a randart weapon? I don't think most characters, melee or non, will end up with an artifact weapon. It's a nice surprise when you do find something that's as good as a well-branded, +9 weapon in your skill of choice.

78

General Discussion / Re: roguelike games

« on: October 08, 2015, 08:52:20 pm »

I am annoyed by how GDR is so incongruent with the way the rest of the game is designed.  Almost no offensive moves have a guaranteed chance of doing a minimum decent amount of damage, no amount of EV guarantees a dodge, a scroll of teleport isn't guaranteed to send you anywhere nice, etc, but GDR lets you have a sure-thing.  It contributes between the bumpy transition between trying to win a beserker and trying to win a caster a whole lot because robes have virtually no GDR.

I am really butthurt that I got two shotted from half health straight through phase shift + ozcubu's armor + condensation shield because I was playing the game a way that ice dragon armor's GDR had kinda conditioned me to before I started playing casters as often.  I was wearing a robe so none of the massive AC affected GDR. 

I am definitely not saying "give casters GDR too so everyone can coast easy", I'm saying that I think the high GDR on armor and how that's a huge part of why physical characters can tab past the game is against the spirit of crawl or even roguelikes in general and it ought to get nerfed so the game is harder on physical dudes.


I was gonna whine on the official forums but I realized no one is going to listen either way therefore this is way better.

Sorry, the devs are too busy adding weak, overcosted spells with lots of downsides and removing every monster that might accidentally give you some XP without killing you to look into balancing melee.

79

Hearthstone / Re: Tavern Brawl Discussion

« on: October 02, 2015, 01:27:37 am »

If Annoy-o-Tron manages to stick a high-attack minion, it becomes nasty because it can use its hero power and trade the Divine Shield against whatever Boom Bot summons. It feels oppressive to play against. I think Boom Bot's cards are overall better (Dr. Boom vs. Blingtron!), but being able to shield is so powerful that AoT ends up the stronger choice anyway.

80

General Discussion / Re: The age thread

« on: September 24, 2015, 07:48:27 pm »

34. Or should I say...

81

General Discussion / Re: roguelike games

« on: September 14, 2015, 08:34:54 pm »

I saw Dith mentioned, so let me throw in a plug for Dith as a non-stabber god. It turns out that Shadow Mimic is really awesome, both for conjurers and melee users--enough that the fact that the rest of the abilities don't match doesn't even matter. I played Dith on a VSIE and loved it--superpowered bolts and icicles (and Dispel Magic) and superpowered lajatang attacks.

82

General Discussion / Re: roguelike games

« on: September 11, 2015, 10:42:42 pm »

Bagged Low Scorer in Spelunky, the last of the achievements I was missing (except for the "play 1000 times" one). No jetpack, no cape, but I got a mattock which was a big help.

83

General Discussion / Re: Donating plasma

« on: September 01, 2015, 09:50:34 pm »

There seems to be a little confusion here. There are two different common blood donation processes:

• Whole blood donation. They take a whole pint of your blood, straight out with a needle; later, in the lab, they separate the blood out into its components. The red blood cells and platelets are used for transfusions (trauma patients, etc); the plasma is used for transfusions but also other stuff. You can only do this once every 8 weeks, because replacing the red blood cells takes a lot of time. In the US, donors aren't usually paid; they give you cookies and juice and sometimes a t-shirt, coupon, or whatever a local company tosses in as a goodwill freebie. The Red Cross is the biggest organization that does this, but local blood centers do too.
• Plasma donation. They take the blood out of your body, separate out the plasma (with a centrifuge or filter), and put the cells and platelets back in. This takes a little longer, but you can do it much more often because plasma is replaced quickly. Donors are usually paid (according to the articles, you can do it twice a week and it comes out to $10-$15/hour). I don't believe the Red Cross does plasma donations; this is typically a commercial endeavor, and the plasma is sold to be used to make medical products (I'm not familiar with the details, sorry).

There are more exotic donations (platelet donation, double red cell donation) but these are the common ones.

Background: I'm an American; I usually donate whole blood 4 or so times a year. I can't exercise effectively for a day or so after but otherwise don't notice any effect; this is pretty common, but some people feel more tired than usual for the rest of the day.

84

Hearthstone / Re: The Grand Tournament Discussion

« on: August 14, 2015, 08:07:22 pm »

The hate for the BBBG/Magma Rager upgrades was really startling to me. I mean, those are two of the worst cards in the game... and the replacements are at common. It's not like evil Blizzard put them at purple to make you open 50 packs to get a playset.

In fact, one of the things I noticed about the set is the high power level and playability of the commons. Especially at the high end of the mana curve (a 5/9 for 7, the 9/7 Fire Elemental at 9) but at the low end too, there's plenty of cards I wouldn't be embarrassed to put into a deck if I had to make one with only a couple hundred dust.

85

General Discussion / Re: Random Stuff Part II

« on: August 14, 2015, 06:31:18 pm »

So, I'm thinking about studying Information Technology or Economics in college, and have a good GPA and ACT score, but don't know whether it would be better for me to go to attend a good school (University of Washington) for high fees or a decent school (Utah State University/Boise State University) for cheaper fees. I still have a while before I have to totally decide, but am interested in hearing your guys' opinions on whether a University's prestige will make up for it's high costs or if I would be better off worrying about this sort of thing for grad school.

Software developer here. Save the money. IT hiring is pretty egalitarian in my experience. Once you have 18 months of experience, nobody will care where you did your undergrad. There might be an exception to be made for MIT/Caltech, where you'll get an actually unusual education and reputation and build a network you can't get elsewhere. Even so I would be leery of spending the... how many hundreds of thousands of dollars?

If your interest is more strongly towards economics... I don't know how egalitarian that field is; maybe the reputation of the school matters more there.

86

General Discussion / Re: roguelike games

« on: August 13, 2015, 11:36:10 pm »

I finally, FINALLY, finished Hell in Spelunky.

I had last played the game--and beaten Olmec--a couple of years ago, but picked it up again recently. I eventually learned to rob shops and the Black Market, but even so, jumping through the hoops required to even get to Hell is quite a challenge. I found that I have the focus to play just one good attempt (post-Black-Market, say) a night; after that, I play hasty, which is nothing but death. Thus, for about the past month, I've been playing one good game a night, and tonight was finally the night.

Anyway, I feel accomplished, and relieved, and I'll probably put the game down for a few night. I'm still interested in mopping up the last of the achievements, but I don't think those'll have the same kind of emotional pressure.

Edit: 24 hours later, still feeling good about it. This must be what a ghost feels like after its murder is avenged.

87

General Discussion / Re: Random Stuff Part II

« on: July 07, 2015, 08:44:37 pm »

You know that SMBC now has both hover text and the red-button extra panel, right?

Happy reread!

EDIT: Ninja'd, of course.

Maybe if I read random comics enough times I'll get through all the new voteys and tooltips I missed. The new red-button panels have art consistent with the author's modern style, so it looks like they were made recently. What possessed him to go back and add red-button panels for old comics anyway.

At a certain Patreon threshold, which was hit, he offered to do 1/day until the backlog was filled in.

About 1000 comics in, SMBC really turned the corner from "pretty good most days" to "incredible". I don't know if it was sheer practice or a conscious decision to make the humor a little less dark and a little more absurd, but whenever I'm recommending the comic, I recommend that new readers start from the present and work backwards.

88

General Discussion / Re: Punctuation matters

« on: July 07, 2015, 07:07:43 pm »

Motor vehicle camper:



Non-motor-vehicle camper:


I agree with the woman's reading. Given that the restriction is for 24 hours, it's clear that it's not a traffic safety issue. I took it to mean that they don't want people parking RVs and camping in that location.

89

Hearthstone / Re: Tavern Brawl Discussion

« on: July 01, 2015, 08:58:59 pm »

I'm really loving Tavern Brawl. Lots of different decks, funny situations, and "what if" questions answered.

In this Spider Brawl, I was playing Priest, because I had some quests. We spent the first two turns bringing out spiders and hitting face. On opp's turn 3, he traded one spider. He got a Timber Wolf and hit my face with the other spiders. I got a Scavenging Hyena, and was looking forward to capitalizing on that mistake by trading the rest of the spiders into a huge hyena...

then I topdecked a Mass Dispel. The opponent resigned.

90

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Dominion Online Open Beta coming up shortly!

« on: June 30, 2015, 07:56:07 pm »

It looks like certain "clunky" UI actions weren't ever changed from early in the Goko days:

- Moneylender not auto-trashing (is there any good reason not to?)
- Dragging cards across the entire screen to top of deck (I forget which card made me do this, but it was very frustrating when playing full screen)

Are there plans to further streamline the UI?

There are edge cases where you wouldn't want to auto-trash a copper (for example you plan to play the copper with Storyteller, but you need to play Moneylender, that you got from Sender, to start your Conspirator chain), but there is no "you may" on the card, so therefore it should auto-trash.

Exactly. Trashing isn't an option with the card, so I was wondering if there was any good reason not to auto-trash.

I created a fan card with the text "this counts as a Copper as long as it is not in the Supply". Maybe they implemented that, so now you have to choose your Copper, just in case your hand includes my fan card.

91

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Homage to the Best Card

« on: June 23, 2015, 08:53:33 pm »

Ohioan here: the vowels in "haunt" and "font" are 100% the same to me.

Do you say "faunt" or "hont"?

Hont, if I'm understanding the question right. Also to me rhymes with want/gaunt/taunt.

92

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Homage to the Best Card

« on: June 23, 2015, 08:45:14 pm »

Ohioan here: the vowels in "haunt" and "font" are 100% the same to me.

93

General Discussion / Re: Maths thread.

« on: May 23, 2015, 06:50:24 pm »

It looks to me like the apparent paradox is resolved by the fact that in the second scenario, you have an additional piece of information: the knowledge that the experiment is already over.

I am also reminded of the two-envelopes paradox, although I can't put my finger on exactly why.

94

General Discussion / Re: Tea

« on: May 23, 2015, 10:10:13 am »

that just makes the bitter drink taste sugary.

It's not supposed to be bitter.

I know, right?! But any unsweet iced tea tastes bitter to me.

can of frozen lemonade

I have no idea what this is, and it seems to be one of those things that no-one on the internet has thought to explain.  Is it what it sounds like: lemon something or other that it is both frozen and in a can?  Or is freeze-concentrated something or other? Or...?

Sorry, yes, "frozen lemonade concentrate" would be the thing to google for. It comes frozen in a 12 oz. cardboard can and you dilute it to 64 oz. of lemonade. I don't really love it on its own but it does the job for delivering lemon flavor and sugar to iced tea.

95

General Discussion / Re: Tea

« on: May 22, 2015, 09:33:37 pm »

Yankee here, but I love sweet tea. I'm the inverse of GendoIkari in that I don't care for sugar in unsweet tea; that just makes the bitter drink taste sugary.

Since it's summer, here's the recipe for lemonade iced tea, borrowed from my aunt:

* Bring 4 cups water to a boil
* Add 1/2 cup sugar and steep 8 tea bags for 30 minutes
* Add a can of frozen lemonade and enough water to make 1 gallon
* Try not to drink it all in one hot afternoon

96

General Discussion / Re: roguelike games

« on: May 11, 2015, 11:50:40 pm »

Interesting... would you say that it has good lasting power? I might not want to buy it if I'm going to see everything in two hours.

Yes. It's a little unusual in that "beating" the game is relatively easy--it takes 5-10 minutes and you'll probably get it on your 2nd-5th try or so. However, the challenge is in getting good scores--because scoring points not only costs resources but adds monsters to the map that you have to deal with. Furthermore, you try to maximize the score of your "streak"--a series of successively won games. However, as your streak goes on the game throws more and more complications at you until mere survival is tough. So you have to take the points when you can get them.

There's also a progressive unlock system where the easier-to-use programs are available first.

97

General Discussion / Re: roguelike games

« on: May 10, 2015, 11:32:51 pm »

Are there any good roguelikes for iphone? I've hit a brick wall in hoplite, and I am looking for something new. I've tried Shattered Planet, but that's more of a time waster than a true roguelike.

If you like Hoplite, you'll very probably like 868-HACK.

98

General Discussion / Re: Logic Riddles

« on: April 29, 2015, 10:54:12 pm »

I have used the number 3 twice to reflect the fact that I also used that number twice when counting for the clue, apparently. My shame is immense.

So that means I got it completely right!

Indeed.  Remind me not to make any real life decisions that require critical thinking after between the hours of 11 PM-9 AM.

99

General Discussion / Re: Logic Riddles

« on: April 29, 2015, 08:36:35 pm »

I'm pretty bad at solving these, but I love reading about them and presenting them. I was about to post my favorite, but I seemed to recall doing so already. Found it:

http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=6426.0

Damn. I even looked (searched for "riddles", because I quickly found sudgy's recent post about pen-and-paper logic puzzles) but didn't go back this far. Good stuff there, including some of the ones I had meant to post.

My favorite follow-on to the blue eyes/brown eyes problem, although one that I don't have a good handle on myself: Why does the Guru making a statement that everyone already knows is true matter? If he had come in and said "Bacon is delicious", would that have had the same effect? Why not, given that it added no new information?

100

General Discussion / Re: Logic Riddles

« on: April 29, 2015, 08:30:59 pm »

For the coins (basically a summary of what others have said):

There are 4 possible states of the bowls:  3 the same (3), adjacent pairs the same (A), opposite pairs the same (O), and all 4 the same (4).
We have 3 possible moves we can make: flip opposites (o), flip adjacents (a) and flip 1 (1).

From O, o is a winning move.
From A, ao is a winning move (since a takes A to O).
From either O or A, oao is a winning move (since o takes A to A).
From 3, 1oao is a winning move (since 1 takes 3 to either O or A).
Therefore, from O, A or 3, oao1oao is a winning move (since o and a take 3 to 3).

If it's possible to start in state 4, add any move to the start (it can be the zero move, but 1 might be a good choice, since 3 seems the most likely starting state).

i.e., it's a solution with 8 moves, and sitnaltax needs to fess up what his "better" solution is.

Sure. Fingers crossed that I didn't screw anything up. I like Avin's notation for the possible states, so I'll stick with that.
Although I realize I wasn't as crystal clear as I could have been in the description, I consider it an assumption that the initial state is nonwinning. If you don't like that, then yeah, you have to add a do-nothing "step 0" at the beginning.

1. Flip opposite. Now I am in 2A or 3/1.
2. Flip adjacent. Now I am in 2O or 3/1.
3. Flip opposite. Now I am in 3/1.
...
...
3. Flip one. Now I am in 2A or 2O.
4. Flip opposite. Now I am in 2A.
5. Flip adjacent. Now I am in 2O.
6. Flip opposite.

I have used the number 3 twice to reflect the fact that I also used that number twice when counting for the clue, apparently. My shame is immense.