26
Goko Dominion Online / Re: Kingdom Visualizer
« on: June 28, 2013, 06:10:12 am »
Great work again! 
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27
Goko Dominion Online / Re: Yeahhhh, Goko leaderboard milestone
« on: June 27, 2013, 06:53:22 am »
LOL! Just played 4 games and exactly the opposite of yesterday happened. I beat the one opponent who was rated higher than me and lost to all three of my lower ranked opponent. Three of the four games were very very even though. Three of the four opponents all had ratings in "my rating zone" - the lowest at 4677 and the highest at 5184. The last opponent was rated 2300 but played much better than that ranking indicated.
I think the most sane conclusion from this entire experiment is that my rating from playing bots was more or less correct.
I think the most sane conclusion from this entire experiment is that my rating from playing bots was more or less correct.
28
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion School: Basic Knowledge
« on: June 27, 2013, 04:59:51 am »I believe the correct opening is Hermit/Hermit, and you should gain (and buy) only Hermits until you have 7 or the pile is out. Even if you only get three Market Squares, another Hermit+Madman lets you trigger them an extra time.Agree on it working with 7 hermits (turned into 5 madmen and three hermits), but having only three market squares will cost you crucial +buys, I think.
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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion School: Basic Knowledge
« on: June 26, 2013, 10:17:45 am »I am still surprised how many of my opponents know it's good to get Hermits and Market Squares, but then start gaining Golds on turn 5 and are really surprised when they see the megaturn.Indeed. Just earlier today I played such a game. Unfortunately for me, my opponent bought out just enough of the hermits and market squares to handicap my megaturn quite a bit, but I still did enough to win.
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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion School: Basic Knowledge
« on: June 26, 2013, 10:14:32 am »
Not really a winning strategy as such, but I feel that in the vast majority of cases when both Chapel and Market Square is on the board, it pays to trash down everything until all you have is chapel, market square, market square, market square, copper, then trash the copper and only then gain three golds and you're set to go from there - people tend to gain the golds far too early getting a much less efficient deck.
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Goko Dominion Online / Re: Number of games on Goko
« on: June 26, 2013, 09:11:21 am »
Seems to be a vague upwards trend over the last month, which is good.
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Goko Dominion Online / Re: Yeahhhh, Goko leaderboard milestone
« on: June 26, 2013, 06:28:35 am »
Just played another 3 games. Same pattern, except this time I only played against lower ranked opponents. One around 3300 and tow around 4400-4500. Won all three and my rating rose to 5127, which is in the high end of the 4700-5200 region that my rating is typically around.
My impression after these 10 games is that the lower ranked opponents rarely play the downright weird moves that the bots sometimes play - on the other hand, they play quite a lot of suboptimal moves. The opponents I have played have with one exception been higher ranked than the typical bot, but I rarely go on 7 win streaks against bots. It happens, but not often. Fairly frequently a bot will stumble upon an effective strategy.
I have definitely felt that I was a stronger player than the four players in the 4400-4600 range I played. On the other hand, I lost fair and square to the three players in the 5400-5900 range I played.
Even if I've only played 10 humans today, I feel that the rating I obtained from playing bots was not inflated. My rating around 5000 is probably more or less correct give or take a couple of hundred points in either direction.
EDIT: Played four more games for a total of 14 total. The pattern still holds perfectly, which amazes me quite a bit. The only REALLY close game today was one of the last against a player in the 5300-5400 range, where he bought the penultimate Province giving me a chance for the win. My deck was starting to struggle a bit, so he managed the win.
I'm quitting for today.
Rating at the start of "project" = 4943
Rating now = 5184
Win/loss ratio against lower ranked opponents = 10/0
Win/loss ratio against higher ranked opponents = 0/4
SECOND EDIT:
I'm starting to think that maybe I shouldn't look at my opponents rating before the game starts - I don't want any self-fulfilling prophecies at play here, but unfortunately it is often hard to find out what the opponents rating was after the game, if they don't return to the same room.
My impression after these 10 games is that the lower ranked opponents rarely play the downright weird moves that the bots sometimes play - on the other hand, they play quite a lot of suboptimal moves. The opponents I have played have with one exception been higher ranked than the typical bot, but I rarely go on 7 win streaks against bots. It happens, but not often. Fairly frequently a bot will stumble upon an effective strategy.
I have definitely felt that I was a stronger player than the four players in the 4400-4600 range I played. On the other hand, I lost fair and square to the three players in the 5400-5900 range I played.
Even if I've only played 10 humans today, I feel that the rating I obtained from playing bots was not inflated. My rating around 5000 is probably more or less correct give or take a couple of hundred points in either direction.
EDIT: Played four more games for a total of 14 total. The pattern still holds perfectly, which amazes me quite a bit. The only REALLY close game today was one of the last against a player in the 5300-5400 range, where he bought the penultimate Province giving me a chance for the win. My deck was starting to struggle a bit, so he managed the win.
I'm quitting for today.
Rating at the start of "project" = 4943
Rating now = 5184
Win/loss ratio against lower ranked opponents = 10/0
Win/loss ratio against higher ranked opponents = 0/4
SECOND EDIT:
I'm starting to think that maybe I shouldn't look at my opponents rating before the game starts - I don't want any self-fulfilling prophecies at play here, but unfortunately it is often hard to find out what the opponents rating was after the game, if they don't return to the same room.
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Goko Dominion Online / Re: Yeahhhh, Goko leaderboard milestone
« on: June 26, 2013, 04:54:39 am »
Sooooo.....this morning I restarted my router....so far ZERO lagging. I couldn't believe it, so I actually started playing human players. I have now played 7 in a row. So what are the conclusions?
Well, disregarding the fact that you can't conclude much off of a mere 7 games, the results seem to suggest my rating is probably not WAY off in either direction. Basically, so far I have lost EVERY game against higher rated opponents and won EVERY game against lower rated opponents. Unfortunately, I have yet to encounter anyone with a similar level to mine. I've played three higher ranked players (all in the 5400-5900 range) and four lower ranked players (all in the 4000-4600 range) - so I haven't played anyone in the 4700-5200 range, which is basically the range within which my rating has fluctuated for several weeks. Consequently, there has been no significant change in my rating. I started with 4943 and am now at 5021.
Regardless, I'm incredibly happy that I don't experience any lagging right now. I really really hope that that simple router restart has solved it.
Well, disregarding the fact that you can't conclude much off of a mere 7 games, the results seem to suggest my rating is probably not WAY off in either direction. Basically, so far I have lost EVERY game against higher rated opponents and won EVERY game against lower rated opponents. Unfortunately, I have yet to encounter anyone with a similar level to mine. I've played three higher ranked players (all in the 5400-5900 range) and four lower ranked players (all in the 4000-4600 range) - so I haven't played anyone in the 4700-5200 range, which is basically the range within which my rating has fluctuated for several weeks. Consequently, there has been no significant change in my rating. I started with 4943 and am now at 5021.
Regardless, I'm incredibly happy that I don't experience any lagging right now. I really really hope that that simple router restart has solved it.
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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Would folks be interested in a polling tournament for cards?
« on: June 24, 2013, 11:01:23 am »
Yes, bring it on!
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Goko Dominion Online / Re: Number of games on Goko
« on: June 21, 2013, 09:26:56 am »I haven't had the motivation to play on Goko lately since most people (me included) don't have Guilds yet and playing non-Guilds Goko feels like a waste of time now that Guilds exists.Guilds is $4 on Goko. Just buy it, it's well worth it.
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Dominion: Guilds Previews / Re: Favourite Guilds cards
« on: June 20, 2013, 04:03:47 pm »
It's early days, but this has got to be one of the best expansions. I like pretty much every card here. Lots of really interesting twists to the game. A great way to end the expansion series. Bravo Donald!
My personal favourite might be Herald. Really good in a lot of engines.
My personal favourite might be Herald. Really good in a lot of engines.
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Game Reports / Re: Herald: village idiot 2.0 ?
« on: June 18, 2013, 01:23:05 pm »Here's some results from simulation.How many variations have you done? Intuitively, I would think that you'd want a Bridge fairly early since it gives you an extra buy to pick up cheap engine pieces and it enables remodeling coppers into villages. Having said that I'm not a strong engine player so I'm probably wrong.
The Herald/Bridge engine is very very strong! It will win 95% of games vs Navigator BM.
The buy rules:
Open Remodel/Village (yes Village! is better than Oasis or Silver)
Buy Bridge if you have 3 more Heralds in your deck
Buy Herald
Buy Village
Buy Provinces if you have 6 or more Bridges in play.
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Game Reports / Re: Herald: village idiot 2.0 ?
« on: June 18, 2013, 03:31:19 am »
This is a massive eye-opener. Thank you Stef!
I really really need to start improving my engine building skills.
I really really need to start improving my engine building skills.
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Goko Dominion Online / Re: How's Goko these days?
« on: June 16, 2013, 05:45:31 am »
I still have massive lagging problems, but I think I've more or less concluded that it is an issue with my home network and not a Goko issue as such. Aside from this, I love Goko.
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Goko Dominion Online / Re: Goko ratings drift -- Now with data!
« on: June 14, 2013, 09:39:55 am »
I'm usually hovering in the 4700-5200 range and my rating also drops overnight.
41
Goko Dominion Online / Re: Guilds on Goko immediately after physical release
« on: June 14, 2013, 09:36:55 am »
I'm finding that when to use your saved up coins, is not an easy decision. This is a high skill set indeed.
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Goko Dominion Online / Re: Guilds on Goko immediately after physical release
« on: June 14, 2013, 07:43:00 am »
Soothsayer is goooood!
Merchant Guild seems weak for a $5 card.
Candlestick Maker is a very useful cheapo card.
Merchant Guild seems weak for a $5 card.
Candlestick Maker is a very useful cheapo card.
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Goko Dominion Online / Re: Guilds on Goko immediately after physical release
« on: June 14, 2013, 07:13:52 am »
Guilds is HARD man. I'm playing with only Guilds cards against Conqueror Bot and I'm getting killed by the bot's simplistic Masterpiece/Advisor BM. The bot simply overpays like crazy for Masterpiece to flood his deck with silvers and then goes BM with Advisor.
Doctor is not easy to use unless you're great at deck tracking. I don't know how many useless Doctors I've played trying to trash Estates to no use. This card is far better for trashing coppers than Estates (obviously).
Doctor is not easy to use unless you're great at deck tracking. I don't know how many useless Doctors I've played trying to trash Estates to no use. This card is far better for trashing coppers than Estates (obviously).
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Goko Dominion Online / Re: Yeahhhh, Goko leaderboard milestone
« on: June 13, 2013, 09:40:38 am »Try HTTPS: https://play.goko.com/Dominion/gameClient.htmlThanks, but it doesn't change the lagging, unfortunately.
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Goko Dominion Online / Re: Yeahhhh, Goko leaderboard milestone
« on: June 13, 2013, 05:06:00 am »
Ehhh....we're gonna have to postpone this. I just tried a couple of games on my laptop (against bots, as usual). Lots of lagging and the second game even froze up completely. Apparently, games work fine on my laptop, but NOT at home. So I guess the issue really must be with my home network after all, since I can play from my laptop just fine from my workplace. But obviously I'm not gonna play a load of games at work. 
Need to figure out what this network issue is about.
Need to figure out what this network issue is about.
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Goko Dominion Online / Re: promos?
« on: June 13, 2013, 01:45:04 am »
I have Envoy and Governor, but I had to play a shitload of Adventures to get there. If you enjoy the adventures then its fine. If you don't then I really don't think it is worth it. I'm not playing to obtain Walled Village because the remaining adventures are all ones with stupidly uneven starting hands, which can't be made even with zaps, and I'm not registrered via google+ anyway. I wouldn't mind another village though.
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Dominion General Discussion / Re: The In No Way Official Dominion Podcast.
« on: June 13, 2013, 01:40:41 am »
I enjoyed it. Please keep doing these. I agree with everything Qvist wrote as to how you could make it even better.
As for games to analyze, there are plenty of really really interesting games posted on this very forum. Some of the crazy things Stef manages to pull off might be worth a look.
As for games to analyze, there are plenty of really really interesting games posted on this very forum. Some of the crazy things Stef manages to pull off might be worth a look.
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Goko Dominion Online / Re: "Quit rate"?
« on: June 13, 2013, 12:41:23 am »
I have never ever quit a game, but I've had games freeze up on me and this has resulted in a 1% "quit rate".
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Goko Dominion Online / Re: Yeahhhh, Goko leaderboard milestone
« on: June 11, 2013, 10:46:49 am »According to that theory my rating should indeed be inflated as I have all the sets.My general feeling is that the bots are weaker in colony games, where they tend to go straight for Provinces whenever possible, as if it was a non-colony game.More generally, the bots are weaker when the kindgom suits a strong engine or other complicated strategy. For simple kingdoms they indeed play reasonably well, both because it is inherently easier, but also because the bots probably have been handcrafted to play certain strategies with some skill (BM, gardens rush etc).
Whether playing against the bots makes the rating artificially too high or low depends on the set of kingdoms owned not just by you but by people playing against the bots in general. If you only have Base but most others own all sets then playing against the bots will make your rating artificially low. This is because the guys playing complex kingdoms will thrash the bots' ratings whereas you have to play them on kingdoms they actually know how to play. If you have all sets but most people play against the bots using Base only, then your rating will be artificially high; you beat them easily, but their rating reflects primarily their skill on simple kingdoms that you do not see that often.
The effect "the more complex kingdoms you tend to play (i.e., the more complex sets you own), the more your rating will be inflated if you play just against the bots" should hold in any case, but whether the spectrum goes to both sides of zero depends on the overall distribution of sets owned by people playing against the bots.
This needs to be put to a test. I think either on thursday or friday I will have to set aside a few hours to play against human players on my laptop. People can make bets however they like.
I would probably bet on my rating going down, not necessarily due to the issues discussed here, but due to the fact that I tend to play too fast (=thoughtlessly) when playing humans (I don't like people waiting on me to make a play).
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Goko Dominion Online / Re: Yeahhhh, Goko leaderboard milestone
« on: June 11, 2013, 09:25:28 am »
According to Andrews log search I beat the bots less frequently than I thought. I almost always play either Conqueror Bot, Lord Bottington, Defender Bot or Banker Bot (Villager Bot and Warlord Bot tend to be lower ranked so I avoid them).
My winning percentage against those are:
Banker Bot - 75,4%
Lord Bottington - 74,2%
Conqueror Bot - 71,4%
Defender Bot - 65,3%
This is consistent with my feeling that Defender Bot is the one causing me the most trouble.
However, when playing with colonies - which happens far too rarely, my winning percentage against those four bots is upped to 85,2%.
My winning percentage against those are:
Banker Bot - 75,4%
Lord Bottington - 74,2%
Conqueror Bot - 71,4%
Defender Bot - 65,3%
This is consistent with my feeling that Defender Bot is the one causing me the most trouble.
However, when playing with colonies - which happens far too rarely, my winning percentage against those four bots is upped to 85,2%.