Posts from Round table

Galina Sergeevna, people need to be trusted ;)

"For example, I believe that people should only be trusted in extreme cases" (Diamond Arm, the building manager who is a "friend of the people").

Here's the task: Capture a demon lair with a level cap of 121 (specifically, those found on the first map).

Here's the task. Capture a demon lair with a level cap of 121 (the ones on the first map).

It's not loading. Is that right?

Yes, there was a typo.

Lose to the elves with Pyrrhus, then buy a book. Take the dwarf Xiron, use Pyrrhus to kill the pegasus with mass slow, then use Inteus to attack the devils; Impl kills 2, and the remaining army finishes off the last one.

Is this how you did it, or is it just a draft? You can't use Implode – it's a save from an online match.

So, what’s the problem then? In online play, it doesn’t make sense to sacrifice half your troops for the Devil. The early-game development is very weak, and there are no ballistas, and the secondary Barbarian upgrade hasn’t been taken. Also, if Pyrrhia has captured a territory, she should have the book by now if she plans to take the Devil’s Lair. If I were playing, I would probably choose this method for taking the lair: build similarly, upgrade the Magogs to level 117 (this would also be useful for taking the Barbarian Castle), then the Pegasi are killed with minimal losses, and then the Devils are also taken without problems. The cannon can be upgraded to advanced level normally, and it will probably even become an expert.

Perhaps we should organize a small internal tournament on Balance? Specifically to improve skills on this map. Because there are some worrying reports coming from Gamerhome... What do you say, knowledgeable heroes? Is there any interest?

I played the original TE but haven't seen TE-Light, so please don't throw stones at me. I wrote a program for quickly transferring troops from one hero to another. /topic/6498/ If this is interesting, I can improve it to also transfer artifacts and separate individual units. Or is the question of TE-Light's existence no longer relevant?

Or does the existence of TE-Light make this question irrelevant?

Yep, it's irrelevant.

Otherwise, we'd have to add chess clocks, tokens for things like building a 2nd level structure from the start (which many TE-Light players use), and so on.

If you have the desire and skills to tinker with the code, there are several other relevant ideas that haven't been implemented in TE yet.

Otherwise, I'll have to make chess clocks too

Just don't do that in SoD :)

Just not this in SoD :)

For a tournament, it's very much needed. Cobra just visually explained to Vitalik what SoD-style time control entails.

Ideally for tournaments, the timer should be improved to tick in more situations — tick into negative when time reaches zero, also tick while waiting for a turn to be received (maybe with a slight delay).

Because the more the timer ticks, the more predictable the game time becomes. I briefly saw a tournament where they played with something like 10000+100 control, which is perfect for a club format.

If you're interested, I can refine it to include artifact transfer and separate single-unit selection.

This is very interesting!

If this is interesting, I can refine it to include artifact transfer and the separation of single units. Or is the issue with TE-Light no longer relevant?

A copy of the Chinese program? ;)
In my opinion, this is a blow to TE.)
Separating single units is the main argument of TE players against SOD. :)

And in general, I watched people in Kyiv play... to be honest, I was a little horrified... almost everyone has a lot of unnecessary movements... almost no one knows how to separate single units using Shift... and they hardly use the keyboard at all.
If they knew how to use all the possibilities, they could easily play on a regular SOD in 2 minutes.)

Generally speaking, I watched how people played in Kyiv... to be honest, I was a bit horrified... almost everyone has too many redundant movements.. almost no one knows how to split off single units using Shift... and in general, they hardly use the keyboard at all.
If they knew how to use all the possibilities, they could easily play on 2-minute timers even in standard SoD )

It's the same deal in TE; I've observed this more than once in Alaska and Kingisepp. What amuses me most is splitting a stack in half using the slider. I practically never use it myself; it's a very slow method—when "throwing" it by eye, there's a high chance of a mistake, and when positioning precisely, time is wasted.

The ones who use the keyboard most effectively are those who played on 2-minute timers in the past, and who generally keep the timer readings (not just current, but potential future ones) in their field of attention.

Among the regular Alaska players, I've observed good device control and speed of thought in Alex, Kral, and Term. It was interesting to watch all of Kral's games against Alex. Starting from the 2nd week (occasionally the 3rd), both usually hit zeitnot (the time limit on fixes is stricter), yet they almost never ran out of time, and even the efficiency of their actions didn't suffer much.

Meanwhile, guys like Mike click pointedly slowly, searching for keys before pressing them; often the left hand isn't even on the keyboard, but somewhere else. Sometimes even commands like Defense are executed via mouse or, which is even stranger, using the 'D' key instead of the spacebar.

Added after 28 minutes

A copy of a Chinese program? ;)
imho this is a blow to TE )
splitting off singles is the main argument TE players have against SoD :)

Nah, overall it's good that people are digging into the code and making improvements. AlexSpl is doing some interesting things too.

This raises the general level of technical literacy and reduces dependence on one or two developers. Because developers, like players, have a tendency to lose interest in the game.

For example, the TE code is currently being dug into mainly by asm and Ivor, partially by SAG and myself. This is all a new wave that arrived after the old developers retired.

And naturally, along with making mistakes in programming, similar mistakes are made in implementation methods. I've spoken with many players; almost everyone (both SoD and TE players) is bothered by the variety of different rules and settings. Many would gladly agree to play one specific version—almost any version—if there truly were only one.

In this regard, my personal position is this: since it's impossible to force everyone into one specific version anyway, it makes sense to concentrate the spread around 2-3 main options, minimizing the difference in rules within each of them as much as possible.

One is, naturally, SoD, with the position of changing nothing in it. It would be good to synchronize the rules for HW, HP, and offline tournaments. As I understand it, the bottlenecks are resting upon meeting, the starting hero for Necropolis, and resource gathering past shifted guards.

The second center is TE with gradual evolution. Lately, the active flame wars have almost stopped; players take improvements more lightly. Or maybe the improvements are just being made more competently, who knows.

And then there's the intermediate option—Lite. Moreover, a certain standard of settings should be developed for it as well. For example, judging by reports, I see that people prefer to check the box for building a second dwelling. A script for setting road types is also often used. In Kingisepp, they used replacing scrolls with gold (to speed up the game). The time limit also varies. Perhaps the Moscow and St. Petersburg qualifiers, as well as the Grand Final, will show which set of Lite settings should be settled on. And the remaining bugs will be caught, naturally.

By the way, lately I've noticed an increase in tolerance toward the version of rules/settings—people just play however the organizer says and don't stress about it. Apparently, they've gained enough experience playing under different rules that the brain switches between them without difficulty.