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1
Game Reports / Gaining and trashing for Golds all Treasure Maps
« on: December 29, 2014, 10:05:54 am »
http://gokologs.drunkensailor.org/static/logprettifier.html?20141229/log.509d90cbe4b0b84244365b8d.1419863275164.txt

I gain all 10 TMs and connect 5 pairs to gain 20 Golds out of them (to Bishop away later).

The game itself is not so interesting, because I went heavy for SP and my opponent did not so it was over early, but dragged on because SP is slow and I kept building until I was sure I would not lose out of stupidity and/or bad luck.

2
Dominion League / ADK's weekly "Art of War" quotes
« on: December 28, 2014, 10:08:33 pm »
ADK, can you please post them, for record keeping and +1ing?

3
Gamesou and me were playing the 5th game of our match when Goko went down just now. We need to decide whether one of us was far ahead enough to grant it the win or to replay (grant a tie seems pretty lame):

Supply: Market Square, Sage, Feodum, Trader, XXX, Baker, Library, Goons, Bank, Peddler
no Colonies and no Shelters

(I don't remember XXX, but it was not too relevant, if gamesou remembers, I will edit this post)

This is the state of the game when the system went down:
I finished 5 turns (1p), gamesou finished 4 turns
my deck: 5 silvers, 3 traders, 1 goons, 7 coppers, 1 estate
gamesou's deck: 2 traders, 2 sages, 3 silvers, 2 estates, 7 coppers

Please, help us decide whether one of us deserves the win because it was a lot far ahead or whether a replay is due.

Note: the posted partial result does not include this game.

4
Variants and Fan Cards / coin token inflation
« on: October 29, 2014, 06:43:56 pm »
Quote
Inflation - Action/Duration - $4
+1 Card
+1 Action
+$1
Each other player takes a coin token.
At the beginning of your next turn:
+$1
---
While this is in play, when a player spends a coin token, he returns a coin token to the supply.

5
Variants and Fan Cards / A revisit to a VP card that counts Curses
« on: October 27, 2014, 12:45:53 pm »
Maybe this could work out:

Quote
Graveyard - Action/Victory - $4
Each other player gains a Curse.
---
Worth 1 VP per Curse in the Supply.

There is plenty of room to wing it, but often VP cards counting Curses are discredited from the go. I did not find anything clearly broken with this one yet, so, do you?

6
Game Reports / GREAT board
« on: October 22, 2014, 05:48:27 pm »
I just played this game:

http://gokologs.drunkensailor.org/static/logprettifier.html?20141022/log.505f216aa2e6714a97eee440.1414013995411.txt



Code: [Select]
Chancellor, Develop, Scheme, Talisman, Worker's Village, Bandit Camp, Butcher, Adventurer, Altar, Grand Market
We both used 8/10 kingdom cards. Really fast game, but lots of tactics. It is one of the deepest games I have seen, because all the combos are there, and you probably want to use them all, but there are endless decisions in each turn.

I am pretty proud about my next-to-last turn.

7
Variants and Fan Cards / baby-themed present cards
« on: October 09, 2014, 12:20:46 pm »
This is a followup thread from this one: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=10764.msg361538#msg361538

The point is to make 2 baby-themed cards that are thematic and play decently well.

I made a new instead of necroing the old one because one of the cards is completely new (I convinced myself that the old concept was too complicated).

Unless there is a compelling case, I think Royal Lineage will remain like this:
Quote
Royal Linage - Action - $6
+2 Cards
You may play an Action card from your hand.
Do this number of times:
You may play an Action card from your hand that is more expensive than the last Action card you played.

I went through several variations in my head, but they were all too complicated. It is true that it can lead to confusing scenarios when chained with other cards that make you play Actions (TR, KC, Procession, Golem, Herald and maybe itself) but notice that the only thing variable about the card is the number of +Actions it gives, and when you are able to chain things in a confusing way, you probably just have all the +Actions that you need: if once in a while a situation is a bit confusing and needs careful following, so be it.

On to the new card:
Quote
Birthright - Action/Reaction - $4
+1 Action
Put the top 3 cards of your Birthright stack into your hand.
---
When you gain or discard a card other than during your clean-up phase, you can reveal this from your hand. If you do,
put that card on top of your Birthright stack.

Of course, the last one has a bit of Native Village feel, but I think not being a Village and also being somehow more useful for pseudo-trashing, defend against discard Attacks and also being better at keeping your Engine clean while greening makes it different enough.

Is this good enough? Too weak? Should have a different vainilla bonus?

Any comments are welcome!

8
Variants and Fan Cards / A Duration/Ironworks/BoM hybrid
« on: June 17, 2014, 10:32:07 am »
Is this too strong for $4? How about $5?

Quote
Action/Duration
Gain an Action card costing up to $4 and set it aside.
At the beginning of your next turn, play the set aside action.

9
Variants and Fan Cards / a more tactical salvager
« on: May 19, 2014, 11:58:00 am »
I have the following idea, which I think is pretty cool for a card. This is one possible way to apply it, but there are several which I would like to hear. It works in big engines and comboes especially with gainers. It is hard to buy once the engine is rolling, so it can be good to buy a few planning ahead. Quite tactical.


Quote
Greenhouse - $3*
+1 Buy
Trash a card from your hand. +$ equal to its cost.
---
During your turn, this costs $1 more per Action card you have in play.

10
Game Reports / a threesome made in heaven
« on: May 08, 2014, 12:03:29 pm »
I used to think Coppersmith was Apothecary's best friend. Now I think Stables is. By far. And the better payload for the endless drawing: Goons! With its +Buy and VP-giving Copper gaining.

This came from this game:


Code: [Select]
Apothecary, Shanty Town, Ironmonger, Tournament, Trader, Ghost Ship, Royal Seal, Saboteur, Stables, Goons

11
Game Reports / strange fast board
« on: May 05, 2014, 08:22:00 pm »
Opened double trasher (Chapel / Spice Merchant), used HoP with few non-terminals, game over in few turns. Still, unconvinced of what I did, was mostly improvising and turned out quite well, so, was it better to do something else here? Taking HoP to Province-gaining territory was possible, but really difficult, and there was only Wharf for draw (without a Village).

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140505/log.5160dac4e4b05d3fb42496d8.1399335542487.txt



Code: [Select]
Chapel, Lookout, Bridge, Navigator, Noble Brigand, Spice Merchant, Horn of Plenty, Jester, Upgrade, Wharf

12
Game Reports / Nice Rats + Watchthe tower trashed engine.
« on: April 28, 2014, 04:45:48 pm »
Lots of Watchtower combos, everything but disappearing money. Rats as trasher and Outpost for good second turn thanks to the draw-to-3. I manage to pull off a nice engine. I was not concentrating properly due to the fact that Goko was EXTREMELY slow, and also, my opponent was doing a simpler non-trashing engine so I was kind of overconfident I would win anyway (probably badly done on my part, but hey). I should probably pick up Mine earlier, once I am overdrawing.



Code: [Select]
Courtyard, Oasis, Watchtower, Caravan, Rats, Throne Room, Worker's Village, Mine, Outpost, Rabble
http://gokologs.drunkensailor.org/static/logprettifier.html?20140428/log.507b0ba30cf284b7e34291f6.1398717422634.txt

13
Game Reports / nice engine using almost all Kingdom cards
« on: April 21, 2014, 01:46:11 pm »
Here is a couple of nice games I played against dudeabides (nice guy, btw, do not hesitate to play with him). We played it, analyze and replayed. I streamed and recorded the replay, so here are the kingdom, the two logs and the video:



Code: [Select]
Crossroads, Hamlet, Ambassador, JackOfAllTrades, Salvager, Festival, Haggler, Outpost, Rogue, Tactician
First game log
Second game log
Second game video

In the first game, I went for Jack/Amb to thin out into Hamlet/Xroads for actions and Festival/Haggler/Salver for money, using Jack and double-Tactitian for draw. Lots of combos. Jack loves disappearing villages (Necro, Hamlet, Festival) and both Jack and Tactitian love dissapearing money (Festival, Haggler, Salvager). Also, there are nice cheap piles, so Haggler is a must.

He opens Silver/Salvager, which I think is a mistake for any plan. In any case, he says he wants Tact ASAP and thus skips Amb, although he said after the game he would rather open Silver/Jack. I say Amb is key to thin out coppers, and with both Jack draw-to-5 and Tact's discard, Amb does not wastes your hand.

I won the first one due to building up much faster thanks to increased cycling and thinning, and I clinched points early. Possibly misplayed the endgame, got a little to confident, and could have lost it to some bad draws for me or good draws for him.

The second game was much closer. He could not open Jack due to getting 5/2, but still went heavy into Tact and Outpost (with Jacks this time), while I went into Ambassador early. I got pretty bad draws in the beginning and thought it was doomed (you can hear me whine about it in the video), but then the Ambassador thinning proves to be key, as he starts getting some bad draws while I consistently draw my deck or most of it. However, he is in the lead thanks to his better start, but I concentrated on watching piles trying to squeeze the win and his Copper finally gives him bad draws while I get a good turn and pile out while grabbing exactly the extra point I need to win. I think he misplayed the endgame, not getting an extra point in his last turn and getting xroads instead which made it easier for me to 3-pile, I guess it was probably due to being his second really bad turn in a row.

So, please comment on the games, but also on the kingdom. How many Jacks do you want? Is Jack and Salvage Silvers really good? Is it better to try to load up on Festivals faster for money? Is there something better than double Tactitian?

Also, if you can comment on the video, it would be great. I am going to stream live for GokoDom this weekend for the first time and I would love some pointers.

14
Goko Dominion Online / All tables are for playing Dominion!
« on: April 12, 2014, 11:04:27 am »
There is a user on Goko whose name is Dominionnn. This makes some automatch tables (and possibly some manually made tables) to have as title "For Dominionnn". I cannot stop myself from thinking "Of course it is for Dominion, there are no other games you can play in this system" every time I see one of those.

15
Dominion League / Rules & Regulations - discussion
« on: April 12, 2014, 10:39:51 am »
A couple of comments:

A. I think specification of how divisions are divided in non-top level is required. Specifically: Non-promoting non-demoting people will definitely/maybe/randomly stay together for next season? I think this should be:
1. Decide whether existing divisions will mantain themselves and then assign new people (promoters, demoters, newcommers) in some way, or just take the entire pool of players in a given level and redraw the divisions each season.
2. To draw or assign new players, either use some algorithm considering timezones or pure random (anything else seems unnecessarily convoluted).

I would go for not mantaining divisions, because it is so much easier to process people leaving/joining in between seasons.


B. What happens with the bottom divisions? Each get floor or ceiling of k/nr of divisions, where k is the number of people in the bottom level? That seems like it could give some stupid things like divisions with 2 or 3 people in. I would just have less divisions in the bottom level and try to have 4/5/6/7 people in each division, possibly making only #6 demote from some next-to-last divisions and even have no demotion in some (randomly assigned) if necessary.


C.
Quote
2. If a good new player joined, we try to insert at a sensible level

I really dislike this. I understand the reasons for it, but I think it is a too sensitive issue to leave at the organization's will. Basically, I am worried that some people can be easily offended. So, I would either specify a deterministic algorithm beforehand or insert people disregarding "good player" considerations other than last performance in the league. Here is a possible algorithm:

Process levels from top to bottom. If there is a hole and there is a returning player who had that level or higher at the time of departing, put them there. If there are still holes, put highest Isotropish ranking newcomer if it is higher than all possible promoters (all #2/3/4 still available for wildcard promotion). If there are still holes, promote extra people from the immediately lower level (use divisions in random order, first all #2s, then all #3s and so on, and producing new holes to be processed when is that level's turn).

This makes returning players to be inserted at their old positions or worse, prefering promoting existing players if a too high spot is available.

I would still prefer Isotropish (or Goko Pro or whatever other external ranking) to be disregarded after season 1 and just place newcomers randomly. They would raise to the top by promotion soon enough anyway, and makes the league independent from external sources and also the placement algorithm way less convoluted.

D. I think a ruling on Salvager usage and specifically VP counter for online games should be done (i.e., what happens if players do not agree on something). Possibly also for identical starting hands, given that it seems like it would be technically possible in the near future. In all cases, I think both player's agreement overrides the ruling.

E. I think a ruling on a couple of players not being able to play a match should be done. Moreover, I would force some schedule, like you have to play at least half the matches before the last week, to avoid people playing everything on the last day, possibly earning an advantage from knowledge of the current status.

F. I think mandatory/optional/forbidden publicness of results should be explicitly stated. There is reason not to publicly discuss results, because the league is asynchronous. However, I think this is really bad because it stops people from discussing matches online, which is a great thing about playing tournaments.

G. Since several new players and some old players believe that score difference is good to take into account, I would explicitly say (even if it is redundant) that the final score does not matter. Also, I would say tied score counts as win for the player who played less turns, if such player exists (because "tie" in the rules could be interpreted as tied score instead of tied game by the rules of Dominion). I would just say "shared victories" in the rules instead of ties, to make it clear that the official rules apply. Technical thing: Can we just award lone victories 2 points and shared victories 1 point? I don't like the halves if we can avoid them.

16
Goko Dominion Online / making Goko look like Iso
« on: April 01, 2014, 10:35:33 am »
I have been playing with a new extension (based on Salvager) for a while. I have not shared because it was a bit full of bugs. There are still a few that remains, but at this point, I think it is something workable with others. The idea is: whenever a game starts, open a new browser window with an Iso-like interface and replicate everything done in the actual game. That way, the game play looks and feels like playing on Iso (minus the lobby, for now at least). It would need some tester/developers (it is not ready for just testers yet) to fix lots of minor things that annoying to solve by testing/reporting/solving/retesting.

Features:
* All cards in the Supply displayed on a single "page" (i.e., there are no pages).
* Plurals spelled correctly (I think).
* Rollover miniature cards to see their full version.
* Iso-like chat in the same window (courtesy of Salvager side-chat)
* Look-alike font and colors (I am not sure they are perfect)

Missing:
* Finer autoplay (currently, it only auto-plays Treasures with the same algorithm as Goko, but only autoplays other things when they are forced trashing from hand).
* One or two images for Guilds.
* Older text-only mode.
* Looking through discard Iso-mode (now, you have to go do it in the Goko window).
* Stability issues (it hangs once every ten games)

17
Variants and Fan Cards / Help with present cards
« on: March 28, 2014, 09:48:52 am »
My best friend is having his first baby, and he and his wife are newly hooked up with Dominion (only played IRL), but quickly buying sets. I thought I would made them some thematic (to some extent) fan cards as present. I have 10 blanks from my own sets, so I would make two regular 10-card piles.

Problem: They are the ones I play with the most, so I don't really have a good group to playtest it thoroughly.

So, I would want to shape it up here as much as possible. Any suggestion, wording, tweaking, even changing name or some mechanic, is appreciated.

This are my initial ideas for the cards. Costs and even some vainilla bonus amounts are a bit preliminary (I gave it some thought, but may be way off).



This is a strange Lab variant. It seems a bit weak to me at $6, but it is strictly better than Lab. I thought about costing it $5 and adding a small penalty, like discard a card.

Quote
Royal Linage - Action - $6
+2 Cards
You may play an Action card from your hand.
Repeat any number of times:
You may play an Action card from your hand that is more expensive than the last Action card you played.



This was actually going to be my submission for the second Seaside Treasure Chest contest, but those are really delayed (maybe cancelled), and this seems like a better use for it. I think the idea is nice, and especially fun, but the specific bonus needs tweaking. I am not sure about the name, would Heritage or Legacy sound better? I am not a native English speaker, which one sounds more Dominion-y?
Better wording options are also welcomed (I was thinking for a while and could not find a better one).

Quote
Birthright - Action/Duration - $5
+1 Action
+$2
Look at the top two cards from your deck. Set one aside face down and put the other one back.

At the start of your next turn, if the card set aside is face down, discard it. Otherwise, put it in your hand, together with this card.
---
While this is in play, when an opponent plays a copy of the set aside card, you may flip it face up.

The vanilla +$2 may need tweaking. +$1 seems really weak to me, and I think is better if its money and not cards, because the card drawing is covered by getting the set aside card next turn, and it would look too much like Wharf otherwise. Also, regarding how to choose the card to set aside, I am open to radical suggestions. These are my thoughts:
* From hand is weak. From hand and +1 Card is too strong, even if you miss most times.
* From discard or discard+hand is too strong and a bit swingy (I do not mind the swingyness, although I prefer to reduce it if possible; they are good but not competitive and the card seems really fun which is important for this use).
* From deck is easier to tweak, since you can see X cards from deck. X=1 seems really weak, I am thinking either X=2 or X=3.

EDIT: Fixed Birthright wording.

18
General Discussion / Forum app / version ?
« on: March 26, 2014, 08:10:47 pm »
I was wondering whether there was a good app or mode to use to read and post in the forum from a cellphone with a not-too-big screen (samsung galaxy fame in my case). Using regular browser leads to either too small font or too much screen taken by non-message items, so it is quite inconvenient.

As an illustrating example, newspaper regular sites are really annoying to read in my phone, but their mobile versions are perfect.

19
Introductions / doctor soulnet
« on: March 17, 2014, 07:06:22 pm »
Despite being on this forum for more than a year, I have never wrote an introduction here. And today, I find myself in need to communicate to everyone that I became a doctor. A real doctor, those that spend all time thinking problems nobody else understands and that have no impact in everyone else's life, not the kinds that saves life or those other mundane tasks.

Anyway, thanks for providing a way to keep being nerdy while resting from research.

For the math or CS inclined, if anyone would like to read the thesis, you are welcomed to ask for it. I am not expecting any responses on this, but after so much work, if I can get at least one or two people to read them besides the ones that are forced to, it would be nice.

So, to introduce myself, I am almost 30 years old now, almost-married (not legally married, but factually) recently graduated from my PhD in Computer Science, and addicted to IRL and online Dominion. I live in Argentina but I am considering a job offer that may make me move to the bay area in California, USA in a year or so.

20
Dominion General Discussion / Uses for untrashable Rats!
« on: February 16, 2014, 03:47:10 pm »
In a board without other cards that trash, can Rats be good?

I thought about this examples:


1. Scrying Pool. In this case, each Rats is almost a cantrip trasher, since SPs will draw extra Rats without problems.

2. Vineyards. Seems narrow, maybe a nice endgame move, but I cannot imagine feeling my deck with Rats that I cannot use from the go.

3. HoP and Fairgrounds for extra different names (I cannot imagine Menagerie working). HoP seems incredibly narrow, but maybe the best 8th card for the megaturn. Fairgrounds seems reasonable, although it would be an endgame purchase, almost a Victory card in a sense.

4. Hunting Party to reduce different names (reduce Coppers, Estates, Curses and Ruins into just Rats). This seems weak. Maybe to clear up Curses in an awful game like HP + Marauder. If it works, sounds like a nice find, but I cannot estimate its effectiveness.

5. Wishing Well and Mystic may have an easier time guessing. This seems like a total nombo, though.

6. Journeyman could have an easier way filtering. Again, sounds like a nombo.

7. Library will also filter better if we replace Estates, Curses and Coppers with Rats. Especially with non-drawing Villages, it could work. I imagine Rats being a nice mid-game addition to Festival/Library, to clear up and make room for the green.

From all of these, only 1 and 7 seem to me that are decen on themselves. Fairgrounds may have a room for Rats, but is just a dead $4 cost, if all the alternatives to reach 15 or 20 different names are expensive or Curses.

21
Dominion General Discussion / Why trashing attacks reveal two cards?
« on: January 16, 2014, 09:51:53 pm »
Thief, Noble Brigand, Pirate Ship, Knights, Rogue. They all reveal two cards. Why always two? Is there something inherently wrong with revealing 3? Would Thief or Pirate Ship be overpowered if the revealed 3 cards?

Saboteur is of course different because it does not have a fixed number. Swindler I guess could be argued that is a case that reveals just 1 card. But I am amazed that two of the weakest attacks (Thief and PS) also reveal just 2. I don't remember this being mentioned as a possible fix, nor I remember a story behind the number set in 2 appearing in the secret histories.

22
Help! / Jack game, how could I lose?
« on: December 30, 2013, 12:27:21 pm »
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131230/log.513bdc80e4b0da6e3de056bb.1388419483769.txt

Steward, JackOfAllTrades, Plaza, Procession, Sea Hag, Trader, Haggler, Merchant Ship, Vault, Nobles
(Shelters, no Colony)

I opened Jack+Silver, and then got a lucky $6 in T3 and nothing in the $4-$5 range for a while, so I played basically Jack+BM+support (Nobles and Plaza, which I did not use much), and still was one Province short of winning, after getting $7 in the last 3 turns. Was this just unlucky? Did I play poorly?

23
Goko Dominion Online / Grinch Goko?
« on: December 19, 2013, 01:19:33 pm »
Is it just me or Goko started failing again? It has been working horribly until I could not even get to the login page anymore.

24
Goko Dominion Online / Historic ranking data
« on: December 12, 2013, 01:47:19 pm »
Does anyone have or know how to obtain without redoing AI's work, historic data on the Goko rankings or the Isotropish rankings or both? I would like to see some evolution graph.

25
Goko Dominion Online / silly bragging
« on: November 26, 2013, 07:49:34 pm »
After a long time hovering in the 5200-5900 range, I finally made it to 6000 for the first time in Goko. Just a game after I made it to the top 100 on the Isotropish rankings, also for the first time. I felt like posting it before I plunge.

Maybe I should be bragging about how I got to play 8 games without significant lag problems today instead.

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