5401
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Can anyone not log into isotropic right now?
« on: August 19, 2011, 09:31:19 am »
And as quickly as it was up, i'm having 504 timeouts... anyone else?
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5402
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Can anyone not log into isotropic right now?
« on: August 19, 2011, 09:16:46 am »
Confirmed.
The monster is a tumbl-beast - from the oatmeal.
http://oatmeal.tumblr.com/post/2910950328/dear-tumblr
If you haven't seen the oatmeal before - then i apologize for wasting the rest of your day.
The monster is a tumbl-beast - from the oatmeal.
http://oatmeal.tumblr.com/post/2910950328/dear-tumblr
If you haven't seen the oatmeal before - then i apologize for wasting the rest of your day.
5403
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?
« on: August 17, 2011, 10:27:28 am »No, not at all. I don't think I've ever had any problem with you, and I think the person in question probably knows who he is.The only reason why I thought it might be me is that you always seemed to be in turbo mode, so maybe I had offended you at one point, but you didn't want to reject games because... hey... its dominion.
5404
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?
« on: August 15, 2011, 03:10:31 pm »lol u guys hav no life.I probably spend more time on chess than I do dominion!
@Davio, I disagree with your final premise, though I do want to add that I've had an even stronger player be the most... uncivil player I've dealt with.
Was it me? I have been known to whine and drive the Whaaambulance from time to time - hopefully in good fun for all, but I hope that I wasn't the most uncivil ever.
5405
Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Rules Challenge
« on: August 12, 2011, 01:35:21 pm »I am happy with this solution as it actually requires the use of cheating with a Treasure Map in order to win a game.
spoiler
Yes, this thread has gotten spoiler happy, hence my aristocrats joke.
5406
Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Rules Challenge
« on: August 12, 2011, 12:36:09 pm »But if you're playing Treasure Map to active Conspirator, and you have another Map in hand, that's not a reason where you might want to cheat and not trash the other Map, because you're playing 1 action towards activating your Conspirator either way.
You have 2 fishing villages in play, your hand consists of Navigator, Conspirator, Treasure Map x2 and an Estate. You play the Navigator, and see a Platinum and 4 Colonies. There is 1 Colony left in the supply, and if you don't buy it, you'll lose, because your opponent has previously played the ultra rare "triple tactician turn" (golem -> tactician -> l3b -> golem 6> tactician -> lab -> golem -> tactician) and is guaranteed to play KC x3 + Bridge x6 on his turn.. So, thinking quickly, you jump up on the table, remove your belt, take your hand, and proceed to play with your Navigator. You move your cards back and forth, putting the platinum on top of your deck then cheat by playing the treasure map and not trashing your other one, play your activated conspirator to draw the platinum, giving you $2 (fishing village) + $2 (navigator) + $2(conspirator) + $5 (platinum). The Aristrocrats.
5407
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?
« on: August 11, 2011, 09:25:13 pm »Someone today informed me that they "normally win" and that I'm a "lucky boy."
I've met him as well. Professor x?
I got this from someone today..."very lucky boy, normally I win...enjoy this moment". I looked him up, and he's 8-16. It wasn't the handle you mentioned, but all his games have been played in the last 10 days, so it's possible that guy created a new account.
I love this dude - he's auto wins!
5408
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Any Gossip About Fall 2011 Expansion?
« on: August 11, 2011, 04:17:22 pm »I know it gets mixed reactions but I just have to say I love the game descriptions and this one is probably my favorite yet.
I'm going to have to weigh in with a negative reaction to ensure that the reaction to the game descriptions is indeed mixed. Good thing that I only need to hear about it while waiting for the set to come out.
5409
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Counting House/Philosopher's Stone
« on: August 11, 2011, 03:52:15 pm »
Isotropic also doesn't show you the top card of your (or your opponents discard). On the other hand, playing on isotropic makes certain types of decks playable without wanting to stab yourself in the eye with a fork while your opponent plays a hunting party barrage. (I had one game in which I had ~40 reshuffles - imagine how long that would take in real life)
5410
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Inflation
« on: August 10, 2011, 09:20:08 am »
There's also some cool stuff you could do with a massive engine deck involving inflating, salvaging, and then bridging... but if you could do that, you'd probably just want to play multiple bridges.
5411
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Any Gossip About Fall 2011 Expansion?
« on: August 09, 2011, 07:58:12 pm »guided's "bizarre fact" is actually not that bizarre:
Player Effect with Effect w/out Dstern -0.67 1.01 Larry -2.19 3.80 Obi Wan Bonogi -0.66 1.55 drg 0.06 -0.19 Captain_Frisk -0.72 1.66 tat -0.77 1.33 Celicath -0.79 1.10 theory 0.48 -1.17 natchez -0.4 0.45 Blooki -0.41 0.60
...which suggests that most top players do better than average relative to their opponents, playing strategies that do not involve gold.
Yeah, same thing applies for colonies and provinces I believe... you buy them no matter what (win or lose)... and when you aren't, you're doing something nifty (hopefully winning)
5412
Game Reports / Re: Gray's Game Help
« on: August 09, 2011, 10:59:46 am »
I'm with mustard - although I wouldn't buy fortune teller. I'd go silver / silver opening, no more than 2 merchant ships, menageries for all buys < 6 going forward.
If I managed to get 4 coppers in a hand, I might be tempted to try to mint it up and switch to a hand that could do this:
KC -> Menagerie -> Fortune Teller -> Saboteur - hopefully targeting opponent duchies and provinces... but I know better than to try for 4 card combos.
If I managed to get 4 coppers in a hand, I might be tempted to try to mint it up and switch to a hand that could do this:
KC -> Menagerie -> Fortune Teller -> Saboteur - hopefully targeting opponent duchies and provinces... but I know better than to try for 4 card combos.
5413
Dominion General Discussion / Re: is bureaucrat underestimate?
« on: August 08, 2011, 11:23:37 am »Most of the time it isn't.It only isn't good if it breaks up your draw engine, or (much of the time) if it's a Colony game.
If you will consent to give me any number of silvers I might care to name on, say, turn 5, I will happily name an extremely large number.
I would love to see a graph of win probability based on # of extra silvers added to your deck at the start of the game.. For sure, if # of silvers was say: 100, your WP is 100%, because you'll just buy nothing but provinces and duchies for the rest of the game - never reshuffling.
And for sure, 1 or 2 silvers would be better than not having them them.
I just have a suspicion that there is some point in there where it isn't a positive thing by bloating your deck, or at least a local minimum. If I was to guess, I would expect it to be in the 5-10 range, where it puts your deck into a situation where it can't reliably buy a province, but it also takes forever to get whatever good cards you want into your deck (10 silvers would mean that you can't draw your first buy until turn 5.
5414
Simulation / Re: Dominion Simulator available for download!
« on: August 05, 2011, 11:58:26 am »
All right - here's a new question... lets say I wanted to add a rule that says:
Don't buy a duchy if I've already got a 2 province lead over my opponent.
Since I don't have a max count of opponent deck, i started with:
P(mine) + P(opponents) + P(supply) = 8
I want to add the condition that P(Mine) - P(Opponents) <2
P(opponents) = 8 - P(Supply) - P(mine)
Thus the condition I'm interested in is
P(mine) >= -0.5 * P(Supply) + 4
Unfortunately, even with the VXML, I can't seem to add enough extra operations, and it barfs at me.
Any way to model this?
Don't buy a duchy if I've already got a 2 province lead over my opponent.
Since I don't have a max count of opponent deck, i started with:
P(mine) + P(opponents) + P(supply) = 8
I want to add the condition that P(Mine) - P(Opponents) <2
P(opponents) = 8 - P(Supply) - P(mine)
Thus the condition I'm interested in is
P(mine) >= -0.5 * P(Supply) + 4
Unfortunately, even with the VXML, I can't seem to add enough extra operations, and it barfs at me.
Any way to model this?
5415
Simulation / Re: Dominion Simulator available for download!
« on: August 05, 2011, 11:46:10 am »Frisk, I haven't worked out how to get that vxml into my newly-downloaded copy of the sim (new laptop, all other data gone...), but it looks to me like instead of not buying provinces if you are behind by more than 6, you aren't buying provinces until you're AHEAD more than 6...
Not exatly, he buys Provinces if
A) There are at least 2 left or
B1) his VP are at least the once of his opponent MINUS 6 and
B2) there is exactly one left
In my Simulator Frisk's vxml also gives 43% winchance. The point is that, as far as I understood it, the simulator by itself does not buy cards if they cause you to loose. You can see this in the individual sample game, when the line "SUICIDE!! Can not buy Province" apears (If you want to see it yourself delete the lines for Duchies and Estates, that increases the likelihood that this will happen)
So then my rule should have no effect...and then i found out that i had accidentally put another rule on Duchy! Sorry folks... nothing to see here!
5416
Simulation / Re: Dominion Simulator available for download!
« on: August 05, 2011, 11:41:34 am »As DStu said (and this has been mentioned several times) the simulator bot will not buy ANY card that causes it to lose the game.
Guess I should have RTFM. Thanks folks!
5417
Dominion General Discussion / Re: is bureaucrat underestimate?
« on: August 04, 2011, 07:24:58 pm »
Every card has its day. B-Crat is one of those that just has fewer days than say.... mountebank. There's an old strat article over on BGG about B-Crat being better than Chapel in heads up play. I think someone countered with some simulation results and said "wrong".
I generally only buy B-crats on a final buy where I want to mess with rrenaud's win%s.
I generally only buy B-crats on a final buy where I want to mess with rrenaud's win%s.
5418
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Opening: Horse Traders or Baron?
« on: August 04, 2011, 07:22:39 pm »
I'm a horse traders fan, but this isn't based on any scientific study. It's more because of the rage inducing hand of Baron + 4 coppers, followed by Silver, Copper, Estate x3.
With HT, as long as you don't draw it on turn 5, you're guaranteed to get at least 1 5-cost. Also, HT remains useful-ish throughout the game, while Baron becomes less and less useful unless you have monster draw engines. The HT reaction is just an added bonus.
Disclaimer: don't underestimate the power of the baron alternate... simply gaining a single estate can be the deal breaker in a province only game that's going to split 4/4.
If both were available, I would probably go with Baron if I really wanted to hit 6 fast.
With HT, as long as you don't draw it on turn 5, you're guaranteed to get at least 1 5-cost. Also, HT remains useful-ish throughout the game, while Baron becomes less and less useful unless you have monster draw engines. The HT reaction is just an added bonus.
Disclaimer: don't underestimate the power of the baron alternate... simply gaining a single estate can be the deal breaker in a province only game that's going to split 4/4.
If both were available, I would probably go with Baron if I really wanted to hit 6 fast.
5419
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dirty Cards
« on: August 04, 2011, 07:17:25 pm »
I'm so disappointed that this thread was about physical dirt on cards, and not about some secret alternate printing of Harem. Name your posts appropriately people.
5420
Simulation / Re: Dominion Simulator available for download!
« on: August 04, 2011, 05:32:39 pm »
How on earth does the countMaxOpponentsVP work? Is that the theoretical maximum vp of the opponent, or the current max?
I tried "improving" the big money ultimate strategy that wouldn't buy the final province if it would cause you to lose... assuming that you wouldn't buy the final province unless opponentVP - YourVP >= 6 (I was playing from 2nd place).
Naturally, this dropped my win rate from 43% to 20%.
What am I doing wrong?
<buy name="Province">
<condition>
<left type="countCardsInSupply" attribute="Province"/>
<operator type="greaterOrEqualThan" />
<right type="constant" attribute="2.0"/>
</condition>
</buy>
<buy name="Province">
<condition>
<left type="countVP"/>
<operator type="greaterOrEqualThan" />
<right type="countMAXOpponentVP"/>
<extra_operation type="minus" attribute="6.0" />
</condition>
<condition>
<left type="countCardsInSupply" attribute="Province"/>
<operator type="equalTo" />
<right type="constant" attribute="1.0"/>
</condition>
</buy>
I tried "improving" the big money ultimate strategy that wouldn't buy the final province if it would cause you to lose... assuming that you wouldn't buy the final province unless opponentVP - YourVP >= 6 (I was playing from 2nd place).
Naturally, this dropped my win rate from 43% to 20%.
What am I doing wrong?
<buy name="Province">
<condition>
<left type="countCardsInSupply" attribute="Province"/>
<operator type="greaterOrEqualThan" />
<right type="constant" attribute="2.0"/>
</condition>
</buy>
<buy name="Province">
<condition>
<left type="countVP"/>
<operator type="greaterOrEqualThan" />
<right type="countMAXOpponentVP"/>
<extra_operation type="minus" attribute="6.0" />
</condition>
<condition>
<left type="countCardsInSupply" attribute="Province"/>
<operator type="equalTo" />
<right type="constant" attribute="1.0"/>
</condition>
</buy>
5421
Other Games / Re: Are any Dominion inspired games worth playing?
« on: August 03, 2011, 02:17:22 pm »
As someone who's played far too much Dominion and secretly craves some additional deck building variety.
Ascension: There are some real problems here that you can find over @ BGG. Basically, when you're adding cards to your deck, you're basically buying form a black market of size 6 - that only cycles when new cards are bought (with 1 of 2 different currencies). If there's 1 trasher card, and you get it and the opponent doesn't... then the game is over. Dominion is far better, but when someone comes over to play something physically with me, it hits the table more often than Dominion does because:
1 - setup is easier
2 - theory & rrenaud are the only person in real life that I know who it would be interesting to play dominion against. If / when I see them, we don't play dominion because its so much better on isotropic.
Puzzle Strike: This is the best game of the bunch. It's clearly designed for serious gamers. The problem I have with it is the way the game ends. It ALWAYS ends with what feels like not good enough. You start your turn over the threshold for elimination, and you have to see if you can crash enough gems at your opponent to get back under the limit. There is at least "on the order of" as much skill as there is in Dominion (something that Ascension or Resident Evil can't claim), but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth at the end of each game. Chips in a bag are fiddly. Shuffling is indeed better, but drawing sucks.
Resident Evil: SUCKS HARD. This is absolutely a cash in on the success of Dominion coupled with the large % of gamers who like Zombie stuff. Don't believe anything positive that you read on the geek.... this game is trash. It's just trash with a better theme than Dominion.
Thunderstone: I've heard mixed things of this. I own it (due to a good deal from deniath) but have as of yet been unable to play. The consensus seems to be: Not as good as Dominion, but more fun. I'm told that the later expansions did alot of things right, and that the base game standalone should probably be skipped.
Nightfall: Haven't tried it yet, would like to.
Quarriors: Die-ing (hahhahaha) to try this one.
What I'm also really interested in is the new Deck Building game from Martin Wallace. I can't remember the name offhand (something like "through the snow and woods?").
Oh... and Blood Bowl Team Manager can't come out soon enough. Will pre-order this without even reading reviews.
Ascension: There are some real problems here that you can find over @ BGG. Basically, when you're adding cards to your deck, you're basically buying form a black market of size 6 - that only cycles when new cards are bought (with 1 of 2 different currencies). If there's 1 trasher card, and you get it and the opponent doesn't... then the game is over. Dominion is far better, but when someone comes over to play something physically with me, it hits the table more often than Dominion does because:
1 - setup is easier
2 - theory & rrenaud are the only person in real life that I know who it would be interesting to play dominion against. If / when I see them, we don't play dominion because its so much better on isotropic.
Puzzle Strike: This is the best game of the bunch. It's clearly designed for serious gamers. The problem I have with it is the way the game ends. It ALWAYS ends with what feels like not good enough. You start your turn over the threshold for elimination, and you have to see if you can crash enough gems at your opponent to get back under the limit. There is at least "on the order of" as much skill as there is in Dominion (something that Ascension or Resident Evil can't claim), but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth at the end of each game. Chips in a bag are fiddly. Shuffling is indeed better, but drawing sucks.
Resident Evil: SUCKS HARD. This is absolutely a cash in on the success of Dominion coupled with the large % of gamers who like Zombie stuff. Don't believe anything positive that you read on the geek.... this game is trash. It's just trash with a better theme than Dominion.
Thunderstone: I've heard mixed things of this. I own it (due to a good deal from deniath) but have as of yet been unable to play. The consensus seems to be: Not as good as Dominion, but more fun. I'm told that the later expansions did alot of things right, and that the base game standalone should probably be skipped.
Nightfall: Haven't tried it yet, would like to.
Quarriors: Die-ing (hahhahaha) to try this one.
What I'm also really interested in is the new Deck Building game from Martin Wallace. I can't remember the name offhand (something like "through the snow and woods?").
Oh... and Blood Bowl Team Manager can't come out soon enough. Will pre-order this without even reading reviews.
5422
Game Reports / Re: When Goons are correct
« on: August 03, 2011, 08:39:47 am »
One thing you didn't do was add the Masquerade to the mix once you got this rolling. If you can play Goons followed by Masquerade every turn...
I'll agree with the others, this was over as soon as you managed to buy a 6 cost card on turn 4 AND trashed 2 estates on turn 3.
If I had been playing against you, I would have drawn my silver and chapel together on turn 5. with 3 coppers.
I'll agree with the others, this was over as soon as you managed to buy a 6 cost card on turn 4 AND trashed 2 estates on turn 3.
If I had been playing against you, I would have drawn my silver and chapel together on turn 5. with 3 coppers.
5423
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Tournement / Competition?
« on: August 01, 2011, 03:59:18 pm »Ever ever ever using VP count as a tiebreaker is asking for lots of trouble.Yes, but since all games would have the same setup, I think it's ok.
And we could choose to only consider it after the results between the tied players, instead of the other way around.
Example: If John and Sarah were tied for 2nd place, whoever beat the other player would go through, if they had tied, I guess we could count total VPs.
I am also thinking whether we should include Colony and Platinum for every game, since they seem to add more depth to the games, which should favor the better players. If you think this is brilliant or absurdly stupid, please let us know.
I agree that colony games should favor better players, but I worry that it causes you to develop bad habits as you get use to looking for the engine, rather than figuring out how to province race first.
5424
Game Reports / Re: Dear My Opponent: I am Sorry
« on: August 01, 2011, 02:47:54 pm »I have a fondness for decks with 3-4 Torturers in them... I always feel a little bad for my opponents when I get them going (particularly if they're newer/lower-ranked and it may be the first time it's happening to them). Sucks to be consistently hit with multiple Torturers every turn.
Yes, I feel immediately sorry for the Torturer scenario. As soon as you see Torturer + a source of 2 actions... you know with 97% certainty that the game is going to be ugly, and one player isn't going to want to play dominion again for a while after it.
Losing due to torturer lock is one of the few times that I'll break my rule of "never waste a loss by ragequitting"
But isn't it only rage quitting if you post some hate/smack talk before quitting? More often now if I'm clearly losing and watching my oppenent play a 10 card chain and leaving me with nowhere to go I'll simply congratulate them for playing well and resign (only in 1 v 1, quitting in a 3/4 player game often affects the outcome).
I can take being beaten (it happens very often) but if there is nothing to learn I don't waste my time.
Perhaps we need to adopt a term for resigning gracefully to counter rage quit.
I do my best to resign gracefully (unless I tell my opponent I intend to resign, and then he continues to play another 5 minute turn), I meant rage quitting from the perspective of being so angry I close my browser, instead of going back into the lobby and using my 1st player advantage to challenge some unsuspecting high level player.
5425
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Tournement / Competition?
« on: August 01, 2011, 02:39:00 pm »I think it's easier to run one tournament when every participant is online during the course of an evening / sunday afternoon, rather then spreading out over a couple of weeks and trying to comply with everyone's schedule.
If you just do a knockout tourney with 32 players on Isotropic, there are only 31 (32 if playing for 3rd/4th spot) games that need to be played.
There will be 5 rounds. With each lasting up to 30 mins (Saboteur, Goons, no trash) with some variation and some pee breaks, this can be done within 3 hours.
Alas, my schedule doesn't allow for 3 hours of tourney administration, so I will not be able to do this, although this may change.
This sounds about right... get everyone together for a quick tournament, results available immediately.
Would recommend including fixed tables for each round (first team runs random, everyone else copies?)