Guest posts by itsnick

1

General Discussion / Re: Ask a simple question, get a simple answer

« on: April 13, 2011, 06:44:42 am »

Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

Yes ... Elements works on your computer and not online, so even if your connection
is lost you will always have the impression that it is the other players "fault".
You got dropped.

Thanks for the reply, but I'm not getting it.

Surely Elements is played online in the sense that both players must connect?

Anyway the example I described is the first time in the 6500-odd games I've played that I've ever gotten that particular message. I've played plenty of PVP games during which I got the message 'your opponent is not responding...the computer will take over' (or words similar), after which the game went on as if I was playing an AI. When I get that message I assume it's my opponent's 'fault' i.e. their connection has dropped out or they've left the game intentionally.

i imagine that when your computer said that your opponent was not responding he lost the game. if your computer loses connection you lose because you cannot take any more actions and thus your time runs out (if you quit the the game it informs your opponent, not causes the timer to go all the way into the red). it's inevitable and unfortunate. if you find it a really bad problem i would suggest making a topic on the "suggestions and feedback" section to make clear that it should be fixed.

Yes, sort of.
Elements surely is played online and both PvPers must connect but there doesn't seem to be a continuous
check on whether the connection is still stable on both sides. It's done whenever you press "end turn".
In the meantime your offline game keeps going. I am not an IT-pro but what happened is probably something like:

You press "end turn"
-> your (offline) computer continues with the programmed (offline) routine of starting your opponents count-down cause it should be his turn
-> your computer attempts over and over to send the package online which will then be submitted to your opponent
-> your computer fails to do that in time because your connection was/is lost
(by now your "opponents" counter is down to some 10secs on your offline screen)
-> the server finally resolves that your connection was lost and feeds back this info to you
(perhaps it's not even the server but also your offline program which, of course, knows by now that it couldn't submit the package)
-> you get the message "your connection was lost you will lose in ... "

What your opponent saw during the whole time was his opponents (your) counter going into the red because
his computer never received the package from you. For him, you never even finished your turn.

I guess this could be overcome by "stopping" the game right when you click "end turn" and perform a check
whether everybodys connection is still stable. You would get an info such as "attempting to send turn-info ... connecting ... connecting ... connecting ..."
However, losing the connection is not supposed to be the normal case so in any regular bug-free game it makes
for a much more fluent gameplay if such a checkpoint is not installed.

Yeah that makes sense. It is annoying because there should be a way to suspend, or draw, games in such a situation. Maybe that's asking too much of the whole set-up.

Thanks for the further explanation. Maybe I should just count myself very lucky that t's never happened before 

2

General Discussion / Re: Ask a simple question, get a simple answer

« on: April 08, 2011, 07:34:58 am »

Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

Yes ... Elements works on your computer and not online, so even if your connection
is lost you will always have the impression that it is the other players "fault".
You got dropped.

Thanks for the reply, but I'm not getting it.

Surely Elements is played online in the sense that both players must connect?

Anyway the example I described is the first time in the 6500-odd games I've played that I've ever gotten that particular message. I've played plenty of PVP games during which I got the message 'your opponent is not responding...the computer will take over' (or words similar), after which the game went on as if I was playing an AI. When I get that message I assume it's my opponent's 'fault' i.e. their connection has dropped out or they've left the game intentionally.

3

General Discussion / Re: Ask a simple question, get a simple answer

« on: April 07, 2011, 06:09:33 am »

I've been playing for quite a while now, but this has never happened before:

I was playing a PVP game, and had finished my turn. My opponent was taking a while to play, the timer got into the red, then suddenly I got the message: "Your connection to the server is not responding, you will lose this match in..." then it counted down about 6 seconds and BANG, I lost.

I hadn't had connection issues either before or after this game, and haven't in the past. I was winning by quite a margin, so I'm wondering if my connection really did drop off, or is it possible that my opponent somehow pulled a swifty? Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

4

In-game Troubleshooting / Re: What is T50

« on: January 25, 2011, 11:36:08 pm »

Thanks everyone, in particular Sir Valimont for the comprehensive explanation.

I just hit 100k so perhaps sometime soonish I'll be in there even if just for a short time 

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In-game Troubleshooting / Re: What is T50

« on: January 25, 2011, 12:12:12 pm »

First, thanks..

Secondly, just to confirm, appearance in the T50 depends on how many points you've scored in a given week, not on the overall leaderboard?

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In-game Troubleshooting / What is T50

« on: January 25, 2011, 11:36:56 am »

Okay so maybe I haven't searched hard enough, but I've been trying to find a definitive explanation of T50, to no avail.

How do you qualify for it? What happens when you do? Are you notified somehow? Are there any benefits? Do you get to choose to be a Farm?

Hope I'm not outta line posting right here; happy to take suggestions as to where to do so, but I'm finding the lack of easily accessible info frustrating.

Cheers.

7

Patch Notes and Development News / Re: Elements 1.26

« on: December 20, 2010, 11:48:54 am »

First, let me say that the majority of changes and additions with the issue look quite good.  Unfortunately, my positive response is heavily tempered by the alterations to Empathic/Feral Bond.  Those of you not wishing to read (yet another) rant on this topic, please disregard the rest of the post.
Otherwise (rant on):

Well, heck, the Quest For Electrum has gotten even slower and more grindtastic now that Empathic/Feral Bond's operations have been changed.  With the 'during the turn' functioning, Elemental Mastery was, of course, much more accessible, allowing for greater gains... this is a change that (as noted) hasn't altered actual gameplay at all, just reduced the potential rewards for gameplay.  To put it another way, I will win the same number of games, with the same tactics, and by the same margin, I'll just get less for doing so.

Lovely.
Thanks for the change - I really didn't like getting rewarded for winning that much, anyway.  I think the playerbase will agree that toning down rewards is a good way of motivating players.

Right?

I'm so with you. My two main decks are pretty versatile and have been able to handle all the latest changes anyway, but over the course of a few games I'll end up with about half the electrum I used to.

So what's the point of this change?

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Patch Notes and Development News / Re: Zanzarino (Lead Developer) speaks about new features - updated 2010-12-09

« on: December 20, 2010, 11:12:37 am »

Without reading through the entire thread/forum,  it seems Feral Bond now gives health AFTER creatures have attacked. If anyone can point me to some posts regarding the introduction of this I'd really appreciate it; I'd like to see the reasoning behind it. This change means I'm going earn about half the electrum I do now.

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Rainbow Decks / Re: My AI5 Killa

« on: July 29, 2010, 09:56:37 am »

Yeah but I just hate getting the Supernovas really late in the game when they make no difference anymore. Also better against opponents using Earthquake. Remember this is purely for ginding AI5 so you can't argue with the success rate.

10

Rainbow Decks / My AI5 Killa

« on: July 11, 2010, 11:59:27 am »

Here's the deck I use for grinding AI5. It's not entirely dissimilar to some other large decks out there but I thought I'd post anyway.

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

5ro 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6u0 6u3 6u6 6u7 717 717 71b 74b 77g 77i 77i 7am 7am 7ba 7ba 7dm 7dm 7do 7do 7gv 7ju 7k2 7n3 7n5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7t9 7t9 80d 80d 80h 80h 8ps

against AI5:
win ratio approx: 85%
and of those a mastery rate of about 70%

I don't play AI6 so I don't have stats for it.
It works just as well with a different mix of creatures, though the Elite Queen is pretty essential.

Strategy: They key to most wins with this deck is the ability to generate multiple creatures and health, and choosing the right time to play your most important cards. Hold off as long as possible on the Fire Storms until you have at least one Graveyard in play so you can start to generate Elite Skeletons. Hold off on using Bone Wall until the state of the game dictates that at least one creature will probably die every turn. If you have a choice use the Eagles' Eye before Eternity just in case you need Eternity later in the game.

What I love about this deck is that it's good against all types of decks even upped rush decks if you have any luck at all. And the Fallen Druid makes it fun too.

Drawbacks: Because it's big it can be a bit slow sometimes, so using this deck requires some patience, but for me the win/mastery percentage makes it worth it.

Comments welcome.