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51

General Discussion / Re: roguelike games

« on: March 08, 2019, 03:59:33 am »

I also enjoyed Into the Breach a lot. I agree that it may be better to think of it as a puzzle game. People seem to be disappointed if they go into it expecting something like FTL (which it isn't much like) or a tactics game (which it resembles, but streamlines away a lot of what people like about tactics games). The replay value is kind of low but playing through each squad once delivers plenty of solid gameplay.

The one persistence feature bugs me though (you can bring one pilot forward to the next run), so I just edited my save file to give myself whichever pilot I wanted for my next run.

52

General Discussion / Re: Random Stuff Part IV

« on: February 25, 2019, 01:44:09 am »

When a student asks "Why do we go in the PEMDAS order?", it is technically correct to say "Because that's the easiest way to do it", because that is why we do it; it's just some arbitrary convention, and we had to make up some consistent rules, so why not those rules.

I don't know the real reason behind the convention, but I suspect it's to let you write polynomials in standard form without parentheses and without the insanity that would result from addition binding tighter than subtraction. ("Why standard form" is that it allows you to easily add and multiply polynomials. "Why polynomials" is that they're pervasive in math.)

That doesn't cover division, but I think that's just imitating the way addition and subtraction work, and, anyway, the division symbol hardly ever gets used.

Edit: Turns out I wrote about the same point on here 7 years ago.

53

Other Games / Re: Celeste

« on: October 09, 2018, 06:49:53 pm »

I gave up when some strawberries were too hard to find, hurt my completionist soul

Are you aware that, on the world map, you can view which subchapters are missing berries and in which order? Also, that the pause screen shows which berries you've collected (ever, and in the current play) and their order? I found these two sources of info very useful when collecting the last few berries.

54

Other Games / Re: Celeste

« on: October 02, 2018, 10:03:56 pm »

Spoil me this, are there any prize levels besides heart of the mountain and it's pretty low cost of 4 hearts?

I'm not sure I'm in enough to 100% this.

Each chapter has an associated B side (harder version comparable in length to the A side) and C side (hardest version, but short). Each B side is unlocked by finding a cassette in the corresponding A side. The C sides unlock once you have completed all B sides.

The quality of the B & C sides is generally very high so I would very much recommend at least trying them. (Start with 1B or 2B, as they are easier than the rest.)

55

Other Games / Re: The Mind

« on: September 25, 2018, 07:03:44 pm »

Previous discussion: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18730.0.

56

Other Games / Re: Celeste

« on: September 24, 2018, 12:20:38 am »

Is there a good dpad controller for celeste? I keep getting diagonals I don't want using the stick.

Which platform?

57

Hearthstone / Re: Semi-interesting Hearthstone moments

« on: September 22, 2018, 06:35:27 pm »

Warlock might be fine if it weren't for its trash class cards. I find it basically impossible to win vs Mage as Warlock, and easy in the other direction (though maybe I only saw that once). They play good cards, I only have bad cards, and my hero power is worse... seems hard.

58

Hearthstone / Re: Semi-interesting Hearthstone moments

« on: September 21, 2018, 08:05:51 pm »

(which I'm not sure any other class can beat a warlock in)

Mage is easily the best. (Caveat: I haven't played it since they gave Warrior & Paladin their weapons, but Mage should still be tops.)

I take it back. Paladin is actually playable now. (Still worse than Mage, but winnable.)

59

Hearthstone / Re: Semi-interesting Hearthstone moments

« on: September 21, 2018, 04:29:52 am »

(which I'm not sure any other class can beat a warlock in)

Mage is easily the best. (Caveat: I haven't played it since they gave Warrior & Paladin their weapons, but Mage should still be tops.)

60

Other Games / Re: Dicey Dungeons

« on: June 15, 2018, 04:19:36 am »

I've played v0.7. It's definitely fun and worth a try. One thing it does nicely is to keep play moving along. It doesn't drag much.

The Yahtzee-style dice manipulation in particular is quite fun, but after I got used to that, I feel like the rest of the game isn't as interesting. In combat, it feels like you're usually trying to do the same thing every turn. Slay the Spire solves that with systems like showing enemy intents and combat with multiple enemies. I think that enemy intents might work even better in DD than they do in StS, because in DD you almost always have access to all your abilities every turn. (I haven't played much StS, though, mostly because of pacing.) Here's an article about the StS intents: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/02/19/why-revealing-all-is-the-secret-of-slay-the-spires-success/.

61

General Discussion / Re: Random Stuff Part IV

« on: May 24, 2018, 08:08:16 pm »

Does anyone think it's odd that our mouths are used for so many functions? If you were going to design a person would you have separate facilities for eating, breathing, speaking, etc. Also I feel like we could end up just dropping verbal speech.

Fun fact: newborn babies can breathe through their noses while suckling using their mouths. We lose this ability at some point later.

62

Hearthstone / Re: Tavern Brawl Discussion

« on: May 19, 2018, 01:49:09 am »

I hate mill decks. I resigned as soon as I saw someone play naturalize in this Tavern Brawl. It's just no fun playing against those decks.

Well, it's totally sensible to resign auto-lose matchups in this brawl, and there are a lot of matchups like that. It's kind of the point of it, I think.

Some combinations that do well vs Naturalize, if you're looking to win (though I haven't played these all in reality):

Anything with Faerie Dragon wins. For example, Faerie Dragon + Duskbreaker or Murkspark Eel + Faerie Dragon.

Against Naturalize + Ferocious Howl (or other non-minion), Thoughtsteal+Duskbreaker wins. Steal their naturalizes and naturalize each duskbreaker on the same turn you play it. The Druid can't do anything. (Don't play Ferocious Howl.)

Against a Naturalize deck not running healing, any Mind Blast deck should win.

Mana Wyrm + Primordial Glyph felt unbeatable when I played vs it with a Naturalize deck.

Edit: TBH, Naturalize decks feel kind of weak to me. They lose to a lot.

63

Hearthstone / Re: Tavern Brawl Discussion

« on: May 17, 2018, 07:30:29 pm »

I've heard of some other interesting ones like Murspark Eel + an even card for Shaman and Wax Elemental + Earthen Might for Druid.

I ran murkspark decks for a bit. First I tried pairing with Fireplume Phoenix (for no particular reason), then with Faerie Dragon (to counter naturalize decks). They did OK but not that well compared to the other decks I tried.

Earthen Might is a Shaman card. I played someone running Earthen Might Glacial Shard and lost vs it. I didn't get very good results with either the Glacial Shard or Wax Elemental variants, but I didn't play them for very long.

64

Hearthstone / Re: Tavern Brawl Discussion

« on: May 17, 2018, 03:18:25 am »

Yeah I'm happy Top 2 is back. It's very good this time. So far I'm seeing very high deck diversity.

I'm not even sure what I'd consider the strongest decks:

• Mage obviously has some good ones: Black Cat + Arcane Missiles, Mana Wyrm + Arcane Missiles, Mana Wyrm + Primordial Glyph.
• Druid does well with Naturalize-based decks. I don't know what pairs well with it, though picking a minion seems wise so that you have the option of naturalizing your own minions.
• For Priest, Duskbreaker is pretty great. I got a pretty good winrate pairing it with Thoughtsteal, though there's probably a less greedy way to do it.

65

Hearthstone / Monster Hunt

« on: April 28, 2018, 03:42:55 am »

This is the follow-up to Dungeon Run in the newest expansion. It was released just a couple days ago (about a week after the expansion release).

It's good. Better than Dungeon Run, in my opinion. As with Dungeon Run, it's free. I play fairly little Hearthstone now, but I'm glad I stuck around for this content.

It fixes up some of Dungeon Run's flaws. The final bosses are actually fair. The treasures and passives seem a bit better balanced (strong ones weaker, weak ones stronger).

Instead of playing the 9 base classes, you pick from 4 special classes just for this mode: Tracker, Cannoneer, Houndmaster, Time-Tinker. The cards are collectible cards, but the hero powers are new. The design of the hero powers to me signals a new direction for Hearthstone: acceptance of higher complexity. In particular, the hero powers for Cannoneer and Time-Tinker are very challenging to use optimally. The thing I enjoy most about Hearthstone is planning out a good play in a turn, and those two classes strongly emphasize that task.

Once you finish a run with all 4 classes, a Final Challenge opens up. I enjoyed it a lot.

The difficulty level is lower than Dungeon Run. I won first attempt with a couple of the classes, and beat the Final Challenge on first attempt too. That said, I don't think it's too easy, since you need to think a lot about your plays to do well. But replayability might not be as good as Dungeon Run.

66

Other Games / Re: Celeste

« on: April 08, 2018, 05:54:45 pm »

I played on a DualShock 4, which has separate buttons for each direction, and I never had any major issues with dash direction, so I think that helped. I imagine it would be pretty frustrating to play with analog stick or single-piece d-pad.

Keyboard is probably objectively a little better.

67

Other Games / Re: Celeste

« on: April 07, 2018, 09:28:47 am »

Out of curiosity, how did you know that? Did you die/see someone else die, or is there a way to examine the levels?

I don't remember for sure, but I think I learned it from the internet at first. Later, when practicing it for consistency, it turns out that the checkpoint actually makes things slightly awkward, because you can't use "retry" to go back to the beginning of the whole room. So it's necessary to die before reaching the final platform, if you want to continue practicing after a successful playthrough.

68

Other Games / Re: Celeste

« on: April 07, 2018, 12:23:40 am »

To make things even crazier--after I talked to the old woman, I set down the controller for a second. When I picked it up again, I jostled the button and dashed off the cliff. Somehow I had enough composure to dash back, climb up, and recover the heart. But man, I would have been tilted if I had come so far to die at the final cliff for nothing.

There's actually a checkpoint once you reach the area with the woman.

69

Other Games / Re: Celeste

« on: March 28, 2018, 09:17:05 pm »

For 7C, it helped me a lot to have done it on 50% speed first. There are a lot of places where you need certain positions that aren't obvious (like there's a certain bumper that you have to hit as high as possible, and some spikes you have to get so close that it looks like you should die). Once I knew all those, it wasn't _too_ crazy to get it done on full speed. I actually feel like to be consistent on it is easier than some of the other hardest C-sides (3C, 8C) because there isn't any reactive or timing aspect.

I just couldn't get through the last bramble patch to save my life, the rest was not super terrible. I found diagonal dashes to be pretty much the hardest move for me to execute correctly. Either my thumbs can't do it or some combination of my thumbs + the controller.

Having issues with diagonals seems like a common input issue. I played on a DualShock 4, which has separate buttons for each direction, and I never had any major issues with dash direction, so I think that helped. I imagine it would be pretty frustrating to play with analog stick or single-piece d-pad.

70

Other Games / Re: Celeste

« on: March 27, 2018, 10:53:58 pm »

For 7C, it helped me a lot to have done it on 50% speed first. There are a lot of places where you need certain positions that aren't obvious (like there's a certain bumper that you have to hit as high as possible, and some spikes you have to get so close that it looks like you should die). Once I knew all those, it wasn't _too_ crazy to get it done on full speed. I actually feel like to be consistent on it is easier than some of the other hardest C-sides (3C, 8C) because there isn't any reactive or timing aspect.

The last bit I cleared in the game (on full speed) is actually 8B. There are a few early screens that IMO are harder than most of the C-side content.

71

Other Games / Re: Celeste

« on: March 27, 2018, 09:34:44 am »

Yeah, 5C requires mastery of the super wall jump. One issue with teaching advanced tech so late in the game (in 7B and 8C) is that they aren't repeated much in less demanding situations, making them hard to learn fully. IMO it would have been better to not bother teaching dash long jump at all, since 8C doesn't use it an interesting way anyway. For the dash wall jump, maybe require it for all B-sides instead so that the player gets more practice with it. (There is the problem though that people might play the B-sides out of order.)

72

Other Games / Re: Dominion clones

« on: March 25, 2018, 10:47:34 pm »

About Ascension, this isn't something that matters, but I found the game's over-the-top card names amusing (in a bad way). For example, "Ascetic of the Lidless Eye", which just draws two cards. The name has more words in it than the card text does...

73

Other Games / Re: Celeste

« on: March 23, 2018, 09:27:53 pm »

I'd say Spelunky is different. It's less hard than it feels, it's just super high stakes, because if you die, you've got to start completely over. If you had no items and only one hitpoint, but there was a checkpoint after every level, it would be a lot easier.

That's the tricky thing about the term "hard". There are a lot of different ways for a game to be hard. I wish there were better terms that more precisely described what makes the game hard, because some forms of hardness I like, and some I don't.

For games with hand-crafted levels, I like Celeste's model a lot (which dates back at least as far as Matt Thorson's early work Jumper (2004)): frequent checkpoints and instant respawn. Maybe it's that I like low stakes games that nevertheless require you to actually spend mental effort to play them.

74

Other Games / Re: Celeste

« on: March 23, 2018, 09:04:33 pm »

Thanks for the encouragement. I finally finished 8-B and indeed the C-sides seem pretty fair so far--I'm on 4-C right now. They're not as bad as I imagined--some intense maneuvers with no breaks, but the individual pieces are ok. For example, in 3-C (the level where the hotel ghost charges at you) I dreaded having to jump, dash, stomp the ghost to gain altitude/refresh, and dash again. The level doesn't require you to do that, though, which was nice.

For me, 3C was by far the hardest, because I find the Oshiro bop timing really hard. (Well, maybe not the highest deaths since it's not very long, but bopping Oshiro was the single hardest move for me.) The ones most people think are hardest are 5C, 7C, 8C. They're all fair though.

75

Other Games / Re: Celeste

« on: March 14, 2018, 08:50:52 pm »

I did think it was cool in the video above where the creator talks about the “multiple approaches” and making hard levels that aren’t reduced to just a sequence of precise inputs. There’s always a cushion even if it is very small.

Yeah. Actually, considering that there isn't much precision demanded and you're given lots of rest points, it's a bit subtle why the game is hard at all. I think the key is that most generically-reasonable inputs will cause you to die (or otherwise fail to complete the room). That means very few of the rooms can be completed by accident, so you're forced to understand the room so that you can find specific inputs that work for that room. That gives it a slight puzzle-y feel to me, even though it really isn't a puzzle game.