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[Tombolo]

"In a new online adventure mode designed by Goko & Donald X, created to challenge you and improve your skills"

http://dominion.isotropic.org/

I demand a secret history of adventure mode!

I want previews!

[Donald X.]

"In a new online adventure mode designed by Goko & Donald X, created to challenge you and improve your skills"

http://dominion.isotropic.org/

I demand a secret history of adventure mode!

They wanted campaigns. What could they do, besides having different sets of 10 cards? I said, you could vary starting decks. They said sweet.

They made campaigns. One day Wei-Hwa sent me some lists of sets of ten cards for the campaign levels. I complained that they introduced new cards too slowly - when I play a Prosperity campaign I want to see lots of Prosperity cards. Wei-Hwa said, I don't remember what he said. I said I could make the lists. I made the lists. So most of the sets-of-10 are mine, but not the main set ones, or some of the later ones in the first few expansions.

I still have to send them the Hinterlands lists. Other than that I am out of that picture.

[werothegreat]

"In a new online adventure mode designed by Goko & Donald X, created to challenge you and improve your skills"

http://dominion.isotropic.org/

I demand a secret history of adventure mode!

They wanted campaigns. What could they do, besides having different sets of 10 cards? I said, you could vary starting decks. They said sweet.

They made campaigns. One day Wei-Hwa sent me some lists of sets of ten cards for the campaign levels. I complained that they introduced new cards too slowly - when I play a Prosperity campaign I want to see lots of Prosperity cards. Wei-Hwa said, I don't remember what he said. I said I could make the lists. I made the lists. So most of the sets-of-10 are mine, but not the main set ones, or some of the later ones in the first few expansions.

I still have to send them the Hinterlands lists. Other than that I am out of that picture.

Hinterlands... exists?  My happenstance... I had forgotten...

GooookkOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*fist shake*

[Cave-o-sapien]

"In a new online adventure mode designed by Goko & Donald X, created to challenge you and improve your skills"

http://dominion.isotropic.org/

I demand a secret history of adventure mode!

They wanted campaigns. What could they do, besides having different sets of 10 cards? I said, you could vary starting decks. They said sweet.

They made campaigns. One day Wei-Hwa sent me some lists of sets of ten cards for the campaign levels. I complained that they introduced new cards too slowly - when I play a Prosperity campaign I want to see lots of Prosperity cards. Wei-Hwa said, I don't remember what he said. I said I could make the lists. I made the lists. So most of the sets-of-10 are mine, but not the main set ones, or some of the later ones in the first few expansions.

I still have to send them the Hinterlands lists. Other than that I am out of that picture.

 

[^_^_^_^]

I approve that Preview :]

[One Armed Man]

Why has no one talked about Dominion base Act 2, where the first opponent has 3 provinces at the start and you have 3 curses. I did gardens and came 1 point from winning the first time and never got close again. That is just a cruel way to have an adventure game.

[werothegreat]

Why has no one talked about Dominion base Act 2, where the first opponent has 3 provinces at the start and you have 3 curses. I did gardens and came 1 point from winning the first time and never got close again. That is just a cruel way to have an adventure game.

I tried it three or four times and gave up.  If the bot just got better, that would be fine.  But having to not only race Usain Bolt, but give him a head start as well, is just insane.  This is different from, say, an RTS, where you can start with fewer and fewer resources and your opponent starts with more and more, because that's not really a race for a certain resource. 

[LastFootnote]

Why has no one talked about Dominion base Act 2, where the first opponent has 3 provinces at the start and you have 3 curses. I did gardens and came 1 point from winning the first time and never got close again. That is just a cruel way to have an adventure game.

Yeah, I stopped playing immediately after seeing that. The worst part is that Part 2 of the expansions is the same way, even though it's a different set of new cards.

Also, the base set doesn't even need three campaigns. It needs one. As it is, the new cards are introduced at a snail's pace and it gets really tedious to play.

[Insomniac]

Well this makes me sad. Hopefully Adventure Mode is balanced even if you opt out of the micropayments.

I hope it's beatable by experienced players without "zaps" or whatever, yes.

It is my understanding it isn't. I made it to Act 2 of Base, and I beat the dark ages one, in the base act 2 the opponent starts with 3 provinces to your 3 curses every time. Now sure I might be able to beat this on some boards (Gardens, KC+Bridge) but most? Not a chance

[Kirian]

Why has no one talked about Dominion base Act 2, where the first opponent has 3 provinces at the start and you have 3 curses. I did gardens and came 1 point from winning the first time and never got close again. That is just a cruel way to have an adventure game.

I mentioned it in the other thread discussing adventure mode.  It's a bit ridiculous; it's probably theoretically beatable (with a lot of luck), but still ridiculous.  Heck, if they just gave the bot a 20-point handicap without disturbing the number of Provinces in the supply, that would be annoying but at least doable against most of the bots.  But that 20-point lead plus only five Provinces in the stack is a killer.

I'm assuming that for Act 3, you will start with a deck of 10 Curses, and the AI will start with 5 Provinces and 5 Golds.

[Donald X.]

Why has no one talked about Dominion base Act 2, where the first opponent has 3 provinces at the start and you have 3 curses. I did gardens and came 1 point from winning the first time and never got close again. That is just a cruel way to have an adventure game.

I would not try those levels with no zaps. You get free zaps though, usually five. Just click on cards to zap them. It's a decision as to what to zap - although using three on Provinces is mostly automatic. At first I was upset by it, but I mean, in the end it's a variant and there's nothing especially wrong with it.

Now about halfway through an Act 2 (dunno about the base set one which I haven't played), it becomes very hard to get through any level with only free zaps. Some campaigns have the cards you need, cards that let you beat the computer despite the edge; especially, the Prosperity ones with Goons and Colony. Sometimes there will be a Bridge engine or something and the computer will miss it and you'll get it built in time to win. But some of those levels, well Kirian can correct me, but they seemed unbeatable with no free zaps.

The zaps that aren't free are well free. You buy with them with Dominion coins which you get for playing Dominion. I can certainly afford a ton of them just from playing through act ones. But for me all interest goes out of the level once I need those zaps. If I try to use just enough zaps to win, maybe I'll lose, and then I'm out those zaps. So I overkill on zaps and then what is this pointless exercise.

Possibly the solution is to have zaps be permanent by level - you spend one non-free zap and now there's always an extra free zap. Then I could use just enough to keep it challenging and use more if I guessed wrong.

I have not looked at an act three yet.

[GendoIkari]

But for me all interest goes out of the level once I need those zaps. If I try to use just enough zaps to win, maybe I'll lose, and then I'm out those zaps. So I overkill on zaps and then what is this pointless exercise.

This is exactly what has taken the fun out of the campaigns for me as well. At first I was enjoying them, but once I was forced to use zaps, it seemed silly to try and guess how many zaps I should use to make it both challenging and reasonably possible... so instead I just ended up using as many zaps as you can use; in which case the games become no fun. (Though opening Province/Gold can be amusing... the first couple times).

[One Armed Man]

I would not try those levels with no zaps. You get free zaps though, usually five. Just click on cards to zap them. It's a decision as to what to zap - although using three on Provinces is mostly automatic. At first I was upset by it, but I mean, in the end it's a variant and there's nothing especially wrong with it.

Ohhhh the 5 free zaps are free every game! I thought it was only every Act or something. Thanks.

[Beyond Awesome]

I would not try those levels with no zaps. You get free zaps though, usually five. Just click on cards to zap them. It's a decision as to what to zap - although using three on Provinces is mostly automatic. At first I was upset by it, but I mean, in the end it's a variant and there's nothing especially wrong with it.

Ohhhh the 5 free zaps are free every game! I thought it was only every Act or something. Thanks.

Trust me though, later on, like in Acts 2 and 3, having 5 free zaps won't do you any good because you will need to buy more zaps to make things on an equal playing field. Although, you can buy zaps with Dominion coins if you so choose which you earn by playing games or you can purchase Dominion coins with real money.

[Kirian]

It saddens me that this is the only way (that we know of) to get the promo cards.

[Beyond Awesome]

It saddens me that this is the only way (that we know of) to get the promo cards.

That and you can't even get all the promo cards this way so far. 

[Donald X.]

It saddens me that this is the only way (that we know of) to get the promo cards.

My understanding is that the other method (besides buying them) involves doing well in tournaments. I don't have any idea how easy they'll be to come by via that route. I was certainly expecting that winning a set's campaigns would be enough to get you a promo.

[Donald X.]

Well I finally went for trying an act three. I went for Prosperity figuring it would give me the best chance to win against the starting advantage.

Level one you get 5 coppers 5 estates, the computer has 4 provinces, 5 silver, gold. Five free zaps. I won with the free zaps anyway, because you could build a Bishop deck reasonably quickly.

[gryph202]

Well I finally went for trying an act three. I went for Prosperity figuring it would give me the best chance to win against the starting advantage.

Level one you get 5 coppers 5 estates, the computer has 4 provinces, 5 silver, gold. Five free zaps. I won with the free zaps anyway, because you could build a Bishop deck reasonably quickly.

Sounds to me like there's no metagame.  That's what I enjoy the most about tabletop Dominion, and the metagamig was preserved in the Isotropic implementation.  The more I have to wait for the Goko release, and the more I hear about it, the less likely it gets that I will spend a single red cent on it.  HTML 5 FAIL

[DStu]

Well I finally went for trying an act three. I went for Prosperity figuring it would give me the best chance to win against the starting advantage.

Level one you get 5 coppers 5 estates, the computer has 4 provinces, 5 silver, gold. Five free zaps. I won with the free zaps anyway, because you could build a Bishop deck reasonably quickly.

Sounds to me like there's no metagame.  That's what I enjoy the most about tabletop Dominion, and the metagamig was preserved in the Isotropic implementation.  The more I have to wait for the Goko release, and the more I hear about it, the less likely it gets that I will spend a single red cent on it.  HTML 5 FAIL

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is the proof that is not possible to implement a metagame in HTML5...

Edit: Seriously: What do you mean with 'metagame' here?

[dondon151]

I don't know about you guys, but I'd like a single player mode that is just basically pre-designed solo challenges. Stuff like "get 8 Provinces within 15 turns using this kingdom." It does take a little bit out of it in that you're not competing against something dynamic (that, and Attack cards are kind of useless), but come on, you were competing against a bot anyway.

[Donald X.]

I don't know about you guys, but I'd like a single player mode that is just basically pre-designed solo challenges. Stuff like "get 8 Provinces within 15 turns using this kingdom." It does take a little bit out of it in that you're not competing against something dynamic (that, and Attack cards are kind of useless), but come on, you were competing against a bot anyway.

I think something like this may happen.

[ThePhantom]

I don't know about you guys, but I'd like a single player mode that is just basically pre-designed solo challenges. Stuff like "get 8 Provinces within 15 turns using this kingdom." It does take a little bit out of it in that you're not competing against something dynamic (that, and Attack cards are kind of useless), but come on, you were competing against a bot anyway.

I think something like this may happen.

If I could up vote this twice, I would.

[Captain_Frisk]

Well I finally went for trying an act three. I went for Prosperity figuring it would give me the best chance to win against the starting advantage.

Level one you get 5 coppers 5 estates, the computer has 4 provinces, 5 silver, gold. Five free zaps. I won with the free zaps anyway, because you could build a Bishop deck reasonably quickly.

What opening split did you get?

[Donald X.]

What opening split did you get?

3/3 via using one zap to give myself a Silver (the others downgrading Provinces obv). I opened Trade Route / Loan.

I don't know what will happen with these, but I think I will push for making the act 3's start over, maybe run the same span of easy to hard that the act 1+2 pair do but at twice the speed? Like, I spent dominion coins on act 3, I should get entertainment for that, not the privilege of spending more dominion coins on zaps. If they somehow need that particular total cost, it should all be up front; charge me more for the campaign and then let me play real levels.