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5626

Dominion Articles / Re: Updating the Top 5 lists

« on: December 07, 2011, 11:37:12 am »

I count 16 $2 cards.

My ranking
Chapel - On most boards a must buy to get rid of your start cards fast
Courtyard - The best "deck-thinner" for its price. And if you draw a dead action card, just put it back. Great. Also mostly a must-buy.
Hamlet - one of the best villages available, and you can even have a +buy
Cellar - Maybe it shouldn't be so high, but I mostly buy 1-2, if there are no other "deck-thinner" available.
Crossroads - It's great to have at least one on boards with many good terminals to use +3 Actions, and it's great in the end to draw new cards for going green, so on most games it's useful.
Haven - It's great for equalizing draw luck.
Pawn - Similar to Hamlet, but benefit isn't that great. At least it can be a non-terminal copper.
Fool's Gold - Either it's so good, or so bad. So I leave it in the middle. You have really to know what you're doing if you buy this.
Lighthouse - Comparable to Pawn, but not that flexible. Of course great in 3+player games.
Moat - +2 cards is not that great, but on boards with a lot of attacks, especially in 3+games, it's one of the most important cards. You block 3 curses and draw your silver to get your Province. I can't understand all the haters. Yes, mostly there are better counters to Attacks, but not everybody plays only 2-player games.
Embargo - If you have the rare case that your opponent has a different strategy and you know it early on, then it's great. But mostly a one-shot silver if you don't have the luck to get to $3.
Native Village - This is also very board-dependant. The biggest problem is that you need a Spy or draw your whole deck and discard a card to know what you draw on your mat. On most boards this isn't possible. So you only get your +2 Actions.
Herbalist - I agree, that's not a great card. But it's useful like Scheme is useful. Just put your Potion or Gold back on the deck. It can guarantee a next turn Province buy.
Secret Chamber - I don't like it. It's a bad Vault and heavily depends on the Attacks in the supply. I think it's worse than Moat.
Pearl Diver - It doesn't hurt, but the benefit is minmal
Duchess - The uses are rare, e.g. a VP rush with Duchies and Dukes, all other times it's useless.

Edit: Forgot Embargo

5627

Dominion Articles / Re: Not Combos -- Cards that don't work well together

« on: December 06, 2011, 03:09:28 pm »

That came to my mind too. But I was in desperate search. There wasn't any Black Market there.

5628

Dominion Articles / Re: Not Combos -- Cards that don't work well together

« on: December 06, 2011, 02:52:12 pm »

Once I made the mistake and buyed Quarry with the intent to play Workshop/Ironworks/University to gain better cards.
I think you know why that didn't work.

5629

2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships

« on: December 06, 2011, 07:38:58 am »

It's just bad, that there is this problem with def and Delseban.
IMHO you should replay the 7th game again.

5630

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Four-player Mountebank: Estate rush?

« on: December 06, 2011, 05:04:58 am »

I don't think going to Estates from the beginning is a great strategy. One player needs only $5 to get a Duchy and equalizing 3 Estates.
But as you suggested, buying 1-2 additional Baron(s) could be great. Either you get an Estate for free and buy 1-2 more in the buy phase or you discard an Estate and buy 2 Estates or 1 Duchy. But in the end you must be sure that those VP can equalize the curses you may be behind.

5631

General Discussion / Re: PC/console gaming

« on: December 06, 2011, 04:37:04 am »

I used to play all the adventure games on PC. I fell in love with the genre when Leasure suit Larry came out. The graphics were apalling, but the game was hilarious and the puzzles very challenging. From then on the graphics and game play improved. Some of my favorites (which you can still play using an emulator):

-Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis
-King's Quest VI
-Day of the Tentacle
-Monkey Island (revamped for iPhone)

They just don't make these kind of games anymore... Yes, I'm old

Exactly what I played. I'm also a huge fan of the Myst Universe and the adventures from Benoît Sokal (like Syberia).
Beside of adventures I only play(ed) sport games with friends or very occasionally strategy games (mainly Civilization).

5632

2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships

« on: December 06, 2011, 04:25:09 am »

Is there a way to search for solitaire games in councilroom, or search for games by a specific date/time?  I'm asking because my opponent (bozzball) didn't show up at our agreed-upon time on Sat 8 PM GMT, and I'd like to submit my game as proof that I was waiting on Isotropic at the time.

I didn't see a response to that matter, but in the bracket Dark Force advanced. Can I assume that we can continue and schedule our match?

5633

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?

« on: December 01, 2011, 02:48:30 am »

Whats your guys take on offering advice to new players?

For example, sometime ago I played against someone who is registered but not yet ranked.  He proceeded to load up on villages and caravans and didn't pick up any Gold until I've started greening, which was a common mistake new players make.  When the game ended, he made a comment that he had bad shuffles and didn't get good draws.

I pondered for a bit, debating if I should offer some unsolicited advice.  I figured he is a fairly new player, so I ended up telling him that "rememberto buy treasure as well as building your engine".  He wasn't offended, though he also didn't really take my advice.  We left the game after exchanging 'gg'.

In real life, I like to engage in conversation and sometimes it leads to giving advice when I know my fellow player is pretty new to the game.  However, I feel that it may come off as inappropriate more often online since the in-game exchange is so short that it usually is very impersonal.

What do you guys think?

It happened to me once as I played a against a Newbie (at least it seemed so), I gave him an advice. But he felt offended like "How dare I to give HIM an advice?"
I think, there's no problem to give an advice, but at least ask for permission, because not everyone likes advices. They may feel criticized and may not see, we want to help. They may also think we just want to brag and show how good we are. So, at least, ask "May I give you some well meant advice?"

5634

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Expansion- Justice and Piety

« on: December 01, 2011, 02:28:08 am »

I don't have the time to comment all cards. And most things have been said already.
But I like to comment one card.

Inquisition- $5
Action
+1 Action
Place the Inquisition Marker on an Action Card supply pile other than Inquisition, or set it aside.
_
While the Inquistion Marker is on an Action Card supply pile, copies of that card may not be played (the Inquisition Marker begins the game set aside).

Like others who have replied, I'm not a fan of this card.  I don't think it's a tweakable thing, either:  it's just not very fun to be prevented from playing cards.  Plus, there are rules problems:  if you supposedly can't play Minion, what happens when Golem turns up two Minions?  Do you break Golem's rule, or this card's rule?  It's an unresolvable situation.

I had a similar idea of this one.
I think there are 3 problems:

• Theoretically preventing cards being played until the end of the game: I think you can solve this by make this a duration card. So you have two premises. While this card is in play and a marker is on a supply, you can't play the card.
• Free choice of the "banned" card: I think this might be too powerful. So, matching the duration card suggestion above, let a card from your hand set aside with the duration card, like a Haven. This card can't be played while the duration card is in play. That's another handicap for that powerful card.
• As already mentioned, preventing from playing has rules problems: I think that's the easiest part. You have only to change to text to "the card has no effects"

So you can make it (I don't know if the wording is right):
Inquisition $5
Action - Duration (- Attack?)
+1 card
+1 action
Set aside a card from your hand face up. At the start of your next turn, put it into your hand.
Whenever a player plays a copy of this card while it is set aside like this, it has no effect.

5635

2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships

« on: December 01, 2011, 01:38:28 am »

Qvist (37) - carlosthedwarf aka buzzmcnab (28) 4:0 in the Chapel Division
We played with veto mode, identical card hands and point counter.

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111130-212513-b7450a02.html
Qvist 42 - buzzmcnab 21
That was a Young Witch Colony match with Cellar as Bane Card.
I open Cellar/Young Witch while he opens Fishing Village/Young Witch.
I buy a second cellar, so I can play my Young Witch more frequently and can ban his Young Witch.
He buy an Upgrade and can trash the curses while I bought my second YW
I managed to get money faster as I got Platinum in Turn 11 and my second in turn 13.
Then we go for Rabble and Peddlers and I buyed some Apprentices to trash my Young Witches.
Later I could deplete 3 piles with a 4-1 Colony split.

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111130-213726-5e905195.html
Qvist 32 - buzzmcnab 28
That was a close match. We had both the same strategy. Buy 1-2 Hagglers to buy Wharf with Shanty Town.
He managed that to do better while I concentraded to buy more money.
He already had 4 Provinces while I had 2, when I got lucky to get enough money to buy the last two, so my 2 Islands made the difference.

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111130-214839-1bb30394.html
Qvist 36 - buzzmcnab 27
That was another close match. We both go for Quarry as there are many nice action cards and one Woodcutter as the only source for +Buy. Then we buyed Crossroads for +Actions and added 2 Vaults for getting Gold. While he got more Crossroads, I bought more Menageries, but it was basically the same strategy. I made the mistake to buy the second last province in a 3-3 split, but he didn't got his Woodcutter, so had to buy a Duchy. So I got lucky and could end on a 5-3 split.

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111130-221017-d97ce67e.html
Qvist 57 - buzzmcnab 37
That was a very mean play on my side, sorry for that buzzmcnab. I opened Double Ambassador and with Courtyard and Fishing and Walled Village on the board I managed to spam him with Estates and Coppers. Then I buyed a Curse and spammed Curses. He struggled very well by massively forging the trash, but that was still slow. So after a few Colonies I tried to deplete the Fishing Village and Courtyard pile, then buzzmcnab gave up by depleting the last pile. So sorry, not a very good game to end the series.

But it was very fun, he was a very good and fair opponent, I like to play with again anytime soon.
Edit: Changed to councilroom links

5636

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Exception to the rule?

« on: November 30, 2011, 10:47:46 am »

Noble Brigand can steal my Silver, but not my potion

Edit: Two guys, one thought. DStu was faster. 

5637

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Plague (Fan Expansion for Dominion)

« on: November 30, 2011, 09:57:57 am »

For me a cantrip can't be a $1 card.
If you compare Rats to Pearl Diver, which are the most basic cantrips and are $2 cards. Rats seems superior to me than those two.
So it's at least a $2 card.

5638

2011 / Re: Prize

« on: November 29, 2011, 06:26:20 am »

I agree with the previous comments. I already have Hinterlands, but I still haven't all expansions. So, choosing the expansion would be great.
And as Davio already posted, choosing the language too, would be perfect.
(I don't think I win the tournament, but I hope this also applies to the Kingdom Design Contest)

5639

Simulation / Re: Dominion Deck Calculator

« on: November 29, 2011, 06:15:59 am »

Wow, thx ghostofmars.
That's exactly what I meant. I will analyze this and hopefully can implement this in my AI.

5640

Simulation / Re: Dominion Deck Calculator

« on: November 25, 2011, 10:04:52 am »

So, I started a whole new retry for my AI and I need some help.

Let's say I have a 10 card deck with 1 Village and 2 Smithies and the rest are treasures and victory cards. I need the mathematical possibilities for drawing a Village and for drawing a Smithy dead ... I mean with no actions left.
How would you calculate that?
For simplicity the deck gets not reshuffled if no cards are left in the deck.
Can anyone help me?

5641

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Leaderboard change

« on: November 24, 2011, 10:21:36 am »

The problem with my idea (basing it on the last X games) is that you could very easily end up winning a game and going down in rank, which doesn't really make much sense.

I thought about it last night, and it seems that there's not much options beyond doing a "Top Players in Last 30 Days" leaderboard and a separate "Top Players All-Time" leaderboard.  Outside of TrueSkill's built in time decay, if you want to further encourage activity and highlight the recent stars, there's not much options other than what doug has done here. 

At the same time, the top ten of today's leaderboard has only 2 of yesterday's all-time top ten (plus Karumah, of course).  I'm currently level 27, and whoever I play with is going to have their ranking seriously distorted.  This ends up defeating the original purpose of TrueSkill, which was to promote fair and automatic matchmaking.

I don't see the problem with this. If we count the last X games, every game one game drops out of your rating. So let's say, that game that dropped out of my ranking was a win against a Lvl 40 player, and now I win against a Lvl 30 player, of course the rank goes a little bit down, but that shouldn't change so much. That's probably not more than -0.05 considering 500 games (just an estimation).
And it could happen so now too. If you play today one match and win against a Lvl 30 player, but 31 days ago you played exactly one match too and won against a Lvl 40 player, your rating drops too.

Most of the sport rankings work this way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATP_Entry_Ranking

The problem is you are now forced to play massively. If not you get high variance. That seems not fair.
I would leave it as it was because ranking systems like ELO or TrueSkill are designed to be balanced.
If it's because some people found out how to tweak it, then not the system failed. Then you have to change which games to take into account like already suggested.

5642

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Noob's Expansion - Part 2 - Come rip it apart even more...

« on: November 23, 2011, 10:39:04 am »

You're right rinkworks. Forgot about the $1 of venture.
So it might not be so strong.

I still like removing the +1 action instead of a penalty like discarding. It makes the card simpler. But as ChaosRed hinted at, it might me not so much fun to play with and exactly the +1 Action ensures that it works as intended. I cannot tell you that, because you were the one who have tested it dozens of times.

So I propose to leave the effect as-is but make it at $4. Your ratings seem to show that it wasn't that broken and making it a $4 card ensures that you can't open Summon/Young Witch or Summon/Sea Hag, what would be a strong opening I think.

5643

Simulation / Re: Dominiate: a Dominion simulator that runs on the Web

« on: November 23, 2011, 10:08:33 am »

So I edited some functions for this bot and it already beats most of the other implemented ones.

Some remarks:
You probably want to use my.getAvailableMoney() instead of pessimisticMoneyInHand() in gainPriority. The latter is written for use during the actionphase, where you have to guess how much money you will end with after the turn, while when you buy something, you are already in the buyphase and know how much money you have. So the function is much easier there.

Thanks for the tip, but that doesn't work for Fool's Gold as I've already tried that. That function only counts the coins which are defined in the card, which is 1 for Fool's Gold. So I have to simulate all cards already have been played, for that I have use pessimisticMoneyInHand() or write a new function. But pessimisticMoneyInHand() does its job.

5644

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Noob's Expansion - Part 2 - Come rip it apart even more...

« on: November 23, 2011, 09:51:42 am »

This card is close to Venture. But Venture is limited to Treasure cards. This is not. So basically this seems like a $5-$6 card to me.

Another comparism would be Scheme. This is a $3 card which also allows you to play your favourite attack more often. I think at the first few turns both card would play similarly, but Summon would be more faster and more reliable in the mid- and end-game, what definitely makes it better.

Dicarding a card is a good try for a disadvantage.
But what about removing the +1 Action? So if you have no village in your hand, you have to search for a treasure for the cost of an action. That would make it a $3 card for me.

5645

Simulation / Re: Dominiate: a Dominion simulator that runs on the Web

« on: November 23, 2011, 09:30:54 am »

Thanks for the advice.
It already helped me a lot.

So I edited some functions for this bot and it already beats most of the other implemented ones.

Code: [Select]

{
  name: 'Mint + Fool\'s Gold'
  author: 'Qvist'
  requires: ["Mint", "Fool's Gold", "Steward"]
  gainPriority: (state, my) -> [
    "Province"
    "Duchy" if state.gainsToEndGame() <= 5
    "Estate" if state.gainsToEndGame() <= 2
    "Mint" if my.countInDeck("Mint") == 0 && my.countInPlay("Copper") >= 4
    "Steward" if my.countInDeck("Steward") == 0
    "Fool's Gold"
  ]
  actionPriority: (state, my, skipMultipliers = false) -> [
    "Mint" if this.pessimisticMoneyInHand(state)>=8
    "Steward"
    "Mint"
  ]
  trashPriority: (state, my) -> [
    "Curse"
    "Potion"
    "Estate" if state.gainsToEndGame() > 4
    "Copper" if my.getTotalMoney() > 4
    "Estate" if state.gainsToEndGame() > 2
    "Silver"
  ]
  benefitValue: (state, choice, my) ->
    cardValue = 2
    coinValue = 1
    trashValue = 4      # if there are cards we want to trash

    if my.ai.wantsToTrash(state) < (choice.trash ? 0) || my.getDeck().length <= 5
      trashValue = -4
    if this.pessimisticMoneyInHand(state) >= 8
      cardValue = -2
      coinValue = -1
    else if this.pessimisticMoneyInHand(state) >= 6
      cardValue = -2
     
    value = cardValue * (choice.cards ? 0)
    value += coinValue * (choice.coins ? 0)
    value += trashValue * (choice.trash ? 0)
    value

}
But there's still one thing I'm missing that's making problems. The benefitValue seems to only trigger after already playing it. I'd like to check benefitValue before choosing to play it.

Something like that:

Code: [Select]

actionPriority: (state, my, skipMultipliers = false) -> [
    "Mint" if this.pessimisticMoneyInHand(state)>=8
    "Steward" if benefitValue>0
    "Mint"
  ]
Is this possible?

5646

Simulation / Re: Dominiate: a Dominion simulator that runs on the Web

« on: November 23, 2011, 07:36:42 am »

So, now I tested Dominiate and I must admit, it's great. Kudos, great work.

Here's a bot, I did not get to work for Geronimoo's Simulator and it works quite well as it beats Double Jack for instance:

Code: [Select]

{
  name: 'Mint + Fool\'s Gold'
  author: 'Qvist'
  requires: ["Mint", "Fool's Gold", "Steward"]
  gainPriority: (state, my) -> [
    "Province"
    "Duchy" if state.gainsToEndGame() <= 5
    "Estate" if state.gainsToEndGame() <= 2
    "Mint" if my.countInDeck("Mint") == 0 && my.countInPlay("Copper") >= 4
    "Steward" if my.countInDeck("Steward") == 0
    "Fool's Gold"
  ]
}
But I see still some poor decisions.
As I understand it right you can basically program your AI here as complex as you want by overriding the respectice methods which is very nice for a programmer like me. But I have no experience with CoffeeScript. I looked into your code and understand it most of the times, but I couldn't understand benefitValue for example. As I understand it right choice cards like Steward use it. I don't know how this function works, but it seems to make wrong decisions. Maybe you can either help me to find the reason for these following issues or you can explain me the benefitValue method or you can explain me how to override it.

Here are the problems:
Hand: Mint, Steward, Fool's Gold, Fool's Gold, Fool's Gold
I have enough money for a Province, so normally I would mint a Fool's Gold. But the AI takes the +2$ from Steward.

Hand: Mint, Steward, Province, Fool's Gold, Fool's Gold
I have not enough money for a Province, so normally play the Steward and hope to draw another Fool's Gold. But the AI takes the +$2 from Steward although I have no card for $6 or $7 in my gainPriority.

Can you help me?

5647

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Royal Scepter - combining Golem and Throne Room

« on: November 23, 2011, 05:07:01 am »

For comparism:
Adventurer costs $6 and is searching the deck for 2 treasure cards.
Golem costs ~$6.5 and is searching the deck for 2 action cards.
Venture costs $5 and is searching for 1 treasure card.

So: A card searching for one action card playing it twice seems like $6 for me.
I think the biggest problem with Throne Room is having an action card to play twice in your hand (be one of your 4 other cards in hand).
So, buying Throne Room in the first, let's say, 5 turns is mostly no good idea or very luck-dependant.
But Royal Scepter would be great from the start. So you buy a curser or another strong attack in turn 1/2 and then a Royal Scepter in turn 3. This could crush the opponent. Let it cost $6 would fix that.

5648

2011 / Re: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Kingdom Design Challenge Rules

« on: November 22, 2011, 09:01:00 am »

Ok, so is it better or doesn't it mind if I add notes (or a title achieving the same) describing the intention behind this set?

5649

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Plague (Fan Expansion for Dominion)

« on: November 21, 2011, 11:42:42 am »

Most things were said. But I like to add my opinions too.
Scavenger: As already been said, gaining from the trash pile seems straight forward, but is problematic. I think the most problematic thing is, that every card should give at least some benefit on every board. With a board with no trashers, this is a dead card. So if you really want to add the "gain from trash"-thematic, please let the card it self be a trasher. “Choose one:  gain a card costing up to 5$ from the trash pile; or trash a card from your hand.”

Rats: Why do you cost it $1? I can't see any reason for this. I have no problem for a card costing $1. But when, I think you have to do this on purpose, for a good reason. Letting it cost $2 doesn't change much. The bigger problem is: Dominion is designed to be a non-political game. A targeted "attack" is something I personally don't like, and if you do that, it may be a theme of a whole expansion I think. Why not: "put this on top of the deck from the player to your left".
With the 2 fixes, the card could be interesting, but needs to be playtested for sure.

Poisoned Well: +1 Action, +2$ is at least a $3-card. You try to fix that with gaining a curse. I'm not sure, but using this as a cheap silver could work, but returning all curses to the supply, could get crazy if you try to build a witch-heavy deck. I even think this could end in a lockout, in which one player is cursing and the other player tries to trash them indefinitely ... This needs to be play-tested.

Medicine: Looks nice. But this may also a dead card, if there are no curse-giving cards on the board, especially if Chapel is there too. Changing that into "If that card costs $0" may work.

Plague Doctor: Nice one, seems a little bit weak in comparism to Trader with only $1 cheaper. Maybe let it cost $2?

Outbreak: Nice conditional curser. First one I really like as-is.

Missionaries: I suggest changing it to +2$ instead of +2 cards. Trigger a reshuffle with this could really be frustrating. Trashing cards that are not in hand is new and nice, but I don't know how this may be priced. It seems a little bit strong, but as a little bit of luck is involved (size of discard pile), the card may be priced right.

Quarantine: Hm, very interesting card. I like it. It kept me thinking a while. It could work, seems like fun.

Inheritance: This is strictly superior than Smithy at the start. Smithy gives you 3 cards with a rough average of 0.8$ per card if you open Smithy/Silver. So Smithy gives you 2.4$ in average. Inheritance gives you $3.6 in average. So this is at least a $6-card. Then comes the additional effect which makes it a little stronger. Pricing it $7 or changing the effects seems necessary.

Relief: If I understand it right, an 5/2 opening, buying Relief and then a hand with Relief and 4 Coppers could give you $6. But this very unlikely, so an opening buy seems too weak. It could get crazy with a good running engine of Bridges or Highways and massive drawers. I would change the cost to $4 and change the text to only "in your hand" instead of "in play". But this is a subjective opinion.

Morgue: Wow. +4 cards. I think that each player may trash a card from their hands is not that big penalty, because you can too. I think you either change that to $6 or remove the "(including you)" clause.

Sewers: I think this is too expensive. If your deck is clogged up with curses or coppers it is difficult to get $5. Compare it to the Gardens strategy. If you price it $5, you basically say: "With no big strategy this is worth 3VP, because you could easily buy a Duchy too". I like the card, but I would price it $4.

Miracle: Crazy card. This card need big supporters, like good drawers or cards like Bridge. Do you mean by "Price" the Cornucopia prices? I have no idea if this is a good card, really.

5650

2011 / Re: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships Registration

« on: November 21, 2011, 05:03:41 am »

1) Qvist
2) UTC +1

Thanks for organizing. I'm looking forward to this.