PSO?
Phantasy Star Online.
I just got this game too and I wanted to thank whoever is responsible for unearthing it…
I have to say that I disagree about the luck factor and the AI cheating. Even though my gut tells me that the computer rolls higher than I do and tends to not land on my territories, I think that’s the natural human reaction when confronted by something that truly is random. Kind of the same way that everyone who plays Magic Online is always compaining about the shuffler stacking their decks against them…
As for the amount of luck in the game, that’s a personal preference I think. My guess is that, like Magic, there’s a lot of luck, enough to screw you in any given game. But that, in the long run, a good player with a good deck will win more matches. I’m already seeing that as I figure out the game mechanics better and start building better decks.
When I started playing, I used all the obvious tactics like adding really big monsters and lots of hard-core items to win combats. That got me through the first few matches, but now I’m finding that I need to follow different strategies. I’m using a lot more spells, particularly the ones that let you control the randomness, like the Holy Word spells. Also, I’m focusing much more on getting round the board faster and avoiding combats rather than trying to win them all. There are a lot of things that you can use to ameliorate the effects of bad rolling, like fog and so on.
Anyway, this game rocks! Thanks again for pointing it out to me. :D
The more you play, the more you realize that luck is a lot less important than you probably first think. Like Magic or Titan, it’s an odds game. There is randomness in the draws and the die rolls, but because you get to make your deck (and heck, there are cards that counter die rolls), you can mitigate bad luck through clever planning. There are also enough random events that no one event is likely to cost you the game, if your strategy is sound.
I also recently picked this up. Got to play some more this weekend, and finally got past the first 2-opponent map. It was incredibly nerve-wracking, as on the final lap, one opponent and I were both above the winning threshold. Finally, we were each two squares away from the castle – and I was slowed! Thankfully, I did not roll a 1, but it was damn close.
I just picked this game up on Sunday (yes…yes, b/c of Qt3 attention… A Thank Ye!).
Any preferences on deck stacking? I’m talking percentages. I’ve been setting up books with about 50% creatures; 20% spells; 30% items. I unsure whether to creep up on more items to win more battles or bulk up on creatures to grab more land.
So far, so good.
I’m no expert on the game, but here’s my 2 cents.
I found that keeping the original percentages found in your default deck works pretty well… just replace the lousy cards with better cards that you find in your journeys. Also, I found that focusing on just two colors was usually the best strategy. (As opposed to one, three, or four colors)
I go 60% creatures, at the moment. Sometimes, in the late game, that seems a bit top-heavy, but nothing sucks quite like not having a free creature at all times during the early game. And if you can get creatures with the “Support” ability, excess critters can be used as item cards.
I switched from the distribution in the starter deck to include more spells, particularly things like Holy Word, Manna and so on. These can be cycled through your hand at pretty much any time whereas creatures and items can stack up in the late game. If you ever have to discard a card, you’re really not optimizing your play.
Unless you have a lot of support creatures, I think 50-60% creatures might be a bit high.
I’m focusing my play at the moment on not contesting every land I step on - instead trying to avoid or neutralize high cost lands and get around the board as quickly as possible.
The great thing about the game though is that I think there are lots of different possible strategies. The whole symbols thing I haven’t even really started exploring yet, for example.
Tyjenks- What have you seen/heard of Shadowvault?
Nothing. Seems like someone had a preview a few weeks back, but that title has been another quiet one. How do these titles continue to get churned out? Mayhem also did Endless Ages and I cannot imagine it or Empire of Magic selling nearly enough to keep whatever investors they have interested enough to keep funding these projects.
Strategy First is publishing it and their releases have become a lot more hit-or-miss lately. I used to take a serious look at everything they released and now that they are expanding, I hope they are not spreading themselves too thin. As they are not doing much advertising for ShadowVault, maybe its not costing them too much to just slap it on the shelves, hope it sells enough to break even, and keep the SF name out there. Who knows.
Yea Culdecept.
Bringing this thread back from the dead again. I just played a match and was, surprisingly, doing very well. So you know what happens next. I get reamed. The (seemingly, at the time) low point was landing on the girl’s 100 HP monster with a 720G toll, then having her pull a Holy Word 0 out of her ass to really get me. That caused me to require another trip around the board (otherwise I would have won), but I still managed to get enough magic to be able to win if I could only get to the castle. Only thing is, the girl had even more magic than me. So there we are, me at the exact halfway point of the board, and the girl two squares ahead of me. It’s a race.
So what happens? I GET FOUR FUCKING ONES IN A ROW, THAT’S WHAT HAPPENS!
And somehow, the medal I got for this string of bad luck did little to cushion the blow.
That was the sort of thing that happened just a leetle too often in culdcept to be bad luck. It irritated me that the AI had to make things challenging by compensating for poor play with probabilty distortions.
with probabilty distortions
Read: the game fucking cheats.
–scharmers
Have you confirmed this, Nick? If so, how?
I ask simply because I’m skeptical whether this is the case. I think Culdcept would be plenty challenging without ‘probability distortions’, aka cheating. So I’d be surprised if this was part of the design.
-Tom
If I recall correctly, when you set up a custom AI opponent, the amount it cheats on die rolls is configurable.
I thought this was all a bunch of whining until I heard that actually IS and option when creating an AI player. As others have said, I really doubt they had this aspect of AI ONLY FOR YOU to play with when creating an AI character. If its in there it because the AI already uses it. Do they let them cheat on the card draws as well?
If I gather right this “lucky roll” stuff doesn’t really kick in at full power until that final battle where it sounds like this aspect might get a little out of hand.
It never got too out of hand in my recollection. It was annoying from time to time, but overall Culdcept was still an awesome game. Since the player can pull things like Old Willow and Kelpie out that the A/I had no good way to deal with, the A/I needed something to even things up a bit. I’m disappointed that it uses cheating, but it does keep the games more challenging.
Yeah, I can see the need to allow a little.
Another unfair advantage the human player has that the AI has NO WAY to counter is simply the fact that you can tweak your deck to counter theirs while they’re stuck with the same deck in a given duel every go. Sure some of their decks are so loaded with supra rare wonder cards that can practically counter anything you can throw at them BUT still I think this was done to level things a bit.
Actually, is it true that you can sort of control your own rolls? Like hitting the button at just the right moment to lock in a number you just saw flashing by?
Incidentally, Culdcept is now $11.99 used at EB, if you can find a copy in your local real-life store. Pretty good deal - I picked it up thanks to recommendations from QT3 forum-goers, and am digging it a lot.