Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Dominion Online at Shuffle iT => Dominion General Discussion => Goko Dominion Online => Topic started by: philosophyguy on April 02, 2013, 01:46:54 pm
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I desperately need help with the Goko adventures. I was a mid-20s level player on iso, but I cannot win Goko's adventures to save my life. On the sets that I did well on iso (e.g., I was +3.43 on Alchemy), I can win a Goko adventure on the second or third try, usually. On sets where I didn't do as well, I can play the same set five or more times and still not figure out how to beat the bot.
So, what gives? These bots can't be that good, right? I know that my win rate drops precariously as soon as the starting conditions change (and yes, I'm using zaps to either take away Silvers from my opponent or give myself Silvers, rather than playing with the victory cards), but even on the adventures that start with identical decks I'm barely scraping by with a win.
Without getting into strategy for specific sets: how do you need to change your playing strategy in order to succeed at adventure mode?
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Well, for one I always just use as many zaps as I need to to start with equal decks. It's not worth the time to minimize zap use IMO, I just wait for my multiplayer or single player to accumulate gokoins when I'm out of zaps.
I don't think there's anything in particular for strategy in adventures. It's just that the bots really are not that bad at this game on some kingdoms! Especially when there's multiple opponents, groupthink really dominates, so you have to keep in mind that the game might end really early and you need to divert for duchies and not just build up provinces. That's one thing that helps.
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In multiplayer, bear in mind that the bots are trying to make you lose, rather than to make any specific one of them win. The bots don't play like human players - whereas a human player might risk one more turn trying to build his engine, the bot will immediately go for Provinces, and to hell with its deck. So you can't really play them like you would another human.
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In multiplayer, bear in mind that the bots are trying to make you lose, rather than to make any specific one of them win. The bots don't play like human players - whereas a human player might risk one more turn trying to build his engine, the bot will immediately go for Provinces, and to hell with its deck. So you can't really play them like you would another human.
I don't think this is accurate. It's more that engines tend to be less worthwhile in games with more players. They're going for those Provinces early because it's a good strategy, not because they're ganging up on you.
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Play multiplayer at IL-25. Collect a ton of coins. Buy a ton of zaps. Use them. Win.
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That is a crapton of zaps. Even if I'm playing multiplayer games constantly, it's gonna take a while.
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That is a crapton of zaps. Even if I'm playing multiplayer games constantly, it's gonna take a while.
Well, you get two or three free zaps per game. Add another three or so, and the game usually becomes a cakewalk. 60 zaps is about 300 or so coins? So that's 30 multiplayer games if you keep a 50% average.
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That is a crapton of zaps. Even if I'm playing multiplayer games constantly, it's gonna take a while.
It adds up over time. Play a couple of months, and you will have more coins than you ever knew what to do with them. Hmm...Maybe they can make a redemption that if you have 100,000 coins you can get a promo.
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Man, I really wish there was an alternate way to get promo cards. Slogging though a Dominion variant (at best) against bots just isn't doing it for me.
I wish I could just pay Gokoins for them and be done with it.
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I wish I could just pay Gokoins for them and be done with it.
I absolutely agree. Since you have to play through the adventures to get victory points (VP) for the promo cards, do you get a set number of VP for beating the minor and major bosses or does it look at the stars to determine how many you get?
I don't want to play through the adventures and end up with 298 points.
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I wish I could just pay Gokoins for them and be done with it.
I absolutely agree. Since you have to play through the adventures to get victory points (VP) for the promo cards, do you get a set number of VP for beating the minor and major bosses or does it look at the stars to determine how many you get?
I don't want to play through the adventures and end up with 298 points.
It does not look at stars.
I too wish I could just pay coins. It's nothing but a grind, and can be made simple by buying a few hundred zaps.
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Since I am still new to dominion (and goko... and this site) is there any advantage to not using zaps for a new player? Will playing the bots over and over and over again with a standard hand improve my game?
I just finished the three basic areas with 52 VP, about 400 coin, and a ranking of 4674. I don't know if that is good or not but that is where I am.
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If you're new to Dominion, then it probably is quite beneficial to play against the bots a few times without zaps because it will hopefully help teach you some of the useful lessons like "Don't buy too many terminals", "Sometimes Big Money really is where it's at" and "Card X isn't actually that good most of the time, except where it is". You can learn many of these through playing casual games against the bots or even playing against other humans, but at least doing most of that learning through adventures means you take care of that before you get into some serious gaming.
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Since I am still new to dominion (and goko... and this site) is there any advantage to not using zaps for a new player? Will playing the bots over and over and over again with a standard hand improve my game?
I just finished the three basic areas with 52 VP, about 400 coin, and a ranking of 4674. I don't know if that is good or not but that is where I am.
It's probably better to use only the right number of zaps to get your starting hand and the bots' starting hand back to what it is in a regular game (3 estates, 7 coppers, if possible). You don't learn THAT much from playing against a bot specifically, but you still get a feel for your own deck. Whereas if you use zaps to make your starting deck awesome, you won't improve so much.
I think the amount of VP you earn from an area is always the same once you finish it. I have no idea what a reasonable amount of coin or ranking is though. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
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One l more question, what are the stars for? I read the instructions and would think it is a measure of point gap at the end of the game, but I had one game where I beat the bot by 50 points and got one star, and another where I was only ahead by 6 and got two stars. I believe the stars don't matter, but in case something in the game looks at them I wanted to check.
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One l more question, what are the stars for? I read the instructions and would think it is a measure of point gap at the end of the game, but I had one game where I beat the bot by 50 points and got one star, and another where I was only ahead by 6 and got two stars. I believe the stars don't matter, but in case something in the game looks at them I wanted to check.
The stars are based on your score, unless the've changed something:
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=7147.0 (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=7147.0)
I found it impossible to get 3 stars on at least one of the levels...
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They did say they'd change the number of points you need to get the stars, make it different for each level. I guess they did that. Still isn't particularly important though, I don't think it affects anything.
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I think they also said using zaps increases the number of points required.
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I am confused. I have completed all three areas of the base set, but no new area has unlocked for me to continue. I thought I had to purchase the next adventure set so I got intrigue and still can't access anything but the base set. How do you move on? ???
Or do I have to purchase the next set with goko coin?
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Are you sure you actually bought the cards for intrigue or whatever? You can't play the adventures for a set unless you purchase the cards. The other sets for the adventures are always unlocked except for the finale, which you have to purchase from the store with the coins.
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You need to buy both the cards (with gokoins) and the adventure (with dominion coins)
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I actually really like the adventures. They give you a good feel for each expansion. Only things I find annoying are:
1) Zaps in general, but more specifically when you can't zap your way back to a regular starting hand, like when you start with 4 estates and 6 coppers. That's just dumb. I then have to give myself 1 silver, 5 coppers and 4 estates ti even the playing field a bit, but that isn't similar to the regular starting hand at all.
2) That the expansion is always mixed with the base set, which for that same reason I'm getting sick and tired of. I understand the reasoning for this though given that everybody has free access to the base set and you can't make special adventures for people who have bought for instance two specifik expansions.
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You need to buy both the cards (with gokoins) and the adventure (with dominion coins)
I finally broke down and got all the cards (the mega pack). That unlocked all of the starter adventures for each set. I thought I saw someone say they played through the adventures without purchasing all the cards, so I was trying to do the same.
What is up with the non-standard starting hands? It is taking me 7 zaps to get close to a normal open in some games. Does anyone know why the variant was added?
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One more vicim to Goko's trap. Buying all expansions on their own would have been a lot cheaper than the Megapack.
Anyway, you still need to look the adventures with Dominion coins. Just click on them on the map or do so in the store.