Guest posts by chriskang

241

False Gods / [Announcement] "Just For Fun" Challenge Part One: October 25th

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:07 pm »

There we go.
The first FG challenge starts this sunday.
Please, don't take it too seriously. This is mainly a test for me to see what I can do when I play with my hexadecimal editor

This challenge is Open to everyone. You don't need to register. Just come and play.
You'll have to take a screenshot now and then, that's all.
A much more competitive championship will be organized later, where you'll have to design the hardest possible secret deck. But for now, you can forget about that.
Just be ready at the following time:
Los Angeles: 2PM
New York: 5PM
UK: 9PM
Western Europe: 10PM
If you want to check your exact timezone, please click this:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?day=25&month=10&year=2009&hour=22&min=0&sec=0&p1=195 (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?day=25&month=10&year=2009&hour=22&min=0&sec=0&p1=195)

The challenge has 4 parts. The first part is at the end of this week. The second will probably be 2 weeks later. No schedule yet for parts 3 & 4.
Each part of the challenge lasts for 1 week.
You'll face 9 different Gods during the challenge and their builds won't be revealed before the end of the event.
I'm still open to suggestions for FG builds. Please follow these steps to submit new ideas:
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,858.msg8725#msg8725 (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,858.msg8725#msg8725)

If you can, join the chat a few minutes before the start of the event.
Don't crash my little website. Easy on F5 guys.

I promise you some surprises, some challenge, and -hopefully- some fun.

242

Issue Archive / Random Number Generator

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:07 pm »

I remember someone saying he had received an e-mail from Zanzarino 2 or 3 weeks ago.
Was it Pilchard? If he's still around he might try too?

243

False Gods / If you were a false god...

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:06 pm »

Master Lock (http://www.masterlock.com/)

Earth mark
20 earthquakes
5 protect artifact
3 diamond shield
3 pulverizer
9 (basalt?) dragons

20 darkness towers
20 pests
10 Vampires

Cannot use Pulv without Gravity

This deck will be played wrongly by ai, but i liked it and it made me came up with this:
Mark of aether
40 x fire towers
12 x fahrenheits
12 x flying weapons
12 x sundials
10 x fire lances
9 x explosions
12 x parallel universe

Concept: sundials will stop the attacking play while pued flying fahrenheits will hit with their ability!!! (only their basic damage is stopped by sundials)
Not so a strong deck but funny and heavily based on a simgle concept, so a perfect FG

Cannot use Sundial without Light

244

False Gods / Chriskang's Trainer

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:06 pm »

Wow.. that is awesome.

Zanz should hire you for sure.

Thanks SG.
There are builds from you everywhere in this forum but not in the suggestion thread.
Do you think one of your creation could be correctly played by the AI? I'd be happy to add it in the trainer.

245

False Gods / Chriskang's Trainer

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:06 pm »

For those of you who have missed it yet, I'm hosting a version of Zanzarino's Trainer on my personal site:
http://chriskang.free.fr/trainer/trainer.html (http://chriskang.free.fr/trainer/trainer.html)

As I'm highly concerned by Zanzarino's copyrights, I took great care of not modifying the game client in any way. So no bug fix, no new content, no AI change and please, don't ask me to do it.
In particular, the ads on the page (the one that is displayed in flash while the game loads AND the html banner below) are still connected to Zanzarino's account. So don't hesitate to click them if you want to support the game creator.

The only change that I made is letting the client load a different card database.
This card database contains:
- all 12 starter decks
- all builds for AI2, AI3 and Fake Gods
- the list of all cards available in the bazaar

I can change those parameters at will but nothing else. Don't ask me to create new cards, this would require changes in the swf client.

For now, I modified the following things:
- list of cards available in the bazaar (I added all rare cards and even some others that should never be visible like "Mark of Elements" and "Empty permanent slot")
- changed the builds of Fake Gods to include player created ones.

The list of my FG's basic build is here:
http://elementsthegame.wikia.com/wiki/User:Chriskang/Sandbox/13 (http://elementsthegame.wikia.com/wiki/User:Chriskang/Sandbox/13)
Remember that the final build used in game is exactly the double of the basic ones described there.

Most of those builds where suggested by forum users in this thread:
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,602.msg5906#msg5906 (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,602.msg5906#msg5906)
Feel free to contribute there if you have new build ideas. I'll add them in my trainer if they're original enough.
Before submitting a new suggestion, please remember that:
- the current AI should be able to play your build efficiently. Your strategy should not rely on special tricks like rewinding a creature forever with Eternity or protecting a given artifact.
- all cards in the deck have to be present in an even number
- for AI decks there is no restriction in the total number of card (you can put more than 120 if you want) and each card can be present in more than 6 exemplary
- try to be creative, and please do not submit decks that are only made of your 4 favorite cards

You're welcome to give feedback on the 11 current FG in this thread.
For new FG ideas, please answer here:
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,602.msg5906#msg5906 (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,602.msg5906#msg5906)
For starter decks/AI3 decks, please create a new thread.

Good luck fighting those new Gods

246

False Gods / Can false gods choose not to draw two cards per turn?

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:06 pm »

He draws a second card only if his hand is not full after the first draw (full = 8 cards).

247

False Gods / Gemini's Electrocuter

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:06 pm »

I thought that Fireflies had higher priority than the Queen, but I lost a game to Gemini's Electrocuter because it lobo'd 2 Queens and a 1/6 Oty before it went after the FF.  Anyone know why it's different with Gemini's Electrocuter than the other gods' creature control?  Any tips on how to deal with an early Electrocuter while you wait for a Pulverizer?

The decision to attack a creature with Fire Bolt, Ice Bolt, Sniper or Freeze is based on the creature's attack. So if you have a battlefield with 1 Elite Queen, 1 Elite FF and a 1/6 Oty, the first target will always be FF (4 attack) then Queen (3 attack) then Oty (1 attack).

With Lobo, the decision is based on the target creature's summon cost (the upper right corner number). So, the queen's gonna be targeted first (cost 6) and, after that, there's a tie between Oty and FF (both cost 3). In this case, the AI simply chooses the first creature in the "slot order" (roughly the same as the order in which creature were played). If Oty entered the battlefield before FF, then it will take the lobo.

All details are here:
http://elementsthegame.wikia.com/wiki/User:Chriskang/Sandbox/10

Sounds like bad luck.

There's actually very few luck with the AI's decisions

I was wondering if some of the code got reworked. I used to wait to play my graveyards until i could play a bone wall since the AI would destroy the bone wall first. They have been targeting the graveyards recently.

For permanents, the decision is based on card's cost too.
While you use the unupgraded Boneyard (cost 3) and the unupgraded Bone Wall (cost 7), you're safe: Bone Wall will always be the first target. But after you upgrade both cost 5 and in this case each can be targeted by Destroy and Steal (depends on the play order again).

248

Issue Archive / Random Number Generator

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:06 pm »

Chris, since you seem to have your own version of the Trainer up, and since you seem to be able to edit it, have you thought about making all of the fixes that you talk about here, and perhaps adding more content? o-o

I probably think about that more than 10 times a day. I just don't want to do it without Zanzarino's consent.
I sent him an e-mail 2 weeks ago to offer my services but he never answered.
Changing the cards available in the bazaar, the starter decks and the AI decks (level 2, 3 & 6) is actually just a matter of parameters. It doesn't even require to decompile the swf. So I feel confident that there's no harm in doing this.
Editing the swf, on the contrary, is much more serious and risky for me.

Give me an agreement from Zanzarino and I can fix more than 10 bugs in a weeks' time.

249

General Discussion / You can't Protect Artifact then fly :(

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:06 pm »

Chris, perhaps you could fix the Sundial bug in the trainer, too? o-o

See my answer here:
http://elementstheforum.smfforfree3.com/index.php/topic,902.0/msg,8849.html
No bug fix, no additional content and no AI change without Zanzarino's agreement

Also, I'd love to be able to submit some deck ideas for the AI3, and I'm sure many others would as well.

Please do.

Can you edit the Fake Gods' decks, too?

The FG's decks are already modified on my trainer to let you fight against Ferox, the 12th FG.

If so, why not try trying out some of the decks in the If you were a false god... (http://elementstheforum.smfforfree3.com/index.php/topic,708.0.html) thread? o-o

Oh no! Looks like you found my secret plans for the week-end  


When you submit ideas for AI3 or FG decks, don't forget that they should be well handled by the current AI (I don't plan to change the AI now for the reasons I gave before). So no "Eternity + Photon" trick, no "wait for the fire quantums to build up before casting fire lance", and don't count too much on "protect artifact" as it has good chances to be cast on a weapon that will be flying on the next turn...
And, if you allow me to give my opinion, most of the decks submitted in the thread look quite boring to fight against. Most of them have less than 8 different cards whereas all those made by Zanzarino have more than 9 (if you count Fireflies for Fire Queen and Skeletons for Incarnate). I understand that challenge is a premium but the game has to remain fun to play. And facing a build that has only 4 different cards is not fun imho: no surprise, very few ways to counter it, and so on...

Oh, and don't forget to tell me what you want for starter deck (might be upgraded cards if you want).

250

False Gods / If you were a false god...

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:05 pm »

The gods have two copies of a regular deck, so having an odd number, or more than twelve for non-pillars, of any one card is impossible.
Deck size would be 60-120 cards, always even.

Problem is the 12-card limit of the FGs.

Didn't take the time to notice that there was even a limit. That pretty much makes the deck terrible. Oh well.

there's a limit???
Are you sure FG are simply doubled on card limits? Is it proved?

Wait, we're talking about 3 different things here:
* the odd number for each card is a consequence of the FG's deck being doubled just before the start. There's nothing we can do about that.
* on the other hand, the 60 card limit and the 6x copies are constraints that only apply to players. Zanzarino has applied them to AI decks too, probably for balance reasons, but there's nothing in the code that forces CPU to respect that.

251

False Gods / Seism's Rewinds

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:05 pm »

He likes to rewind my fireflys, and generally does for two consecutive turns.

That's the beauty of bioluminescence
This useless little skill makes the CPU consider your elite fireflies a greater threat than the queen :
(4 attack + 3 bioluminescence) > (3 attack + 3 queen)

252

Issue Archive / Random Number Generator

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:05 pm »

The (good) Math.random() from actionscript is used for:
* Hatch effect
* all AI decisions (see my post on the wiki for a complete list)
* picking opponent in t50
* deck shuffling
* coin spinning (at the beginning)
* card spinning (after a victory)
* building deck of level 0 & 1 AI
* choosing your opponent in level 2, 3 & 6

Opponent for ranked pvp is chosen by the server, so I don't know how it's done.