Category: Video Games

Video Games

Snap thoughts incomplete series 3

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Marvel snap card collection is split into five pools, the starting collection is 1 and 2. Pool 3 is the biggest one with a huge impact on deck building. Archetypes that already exist in earlier pools get better. New cards are added to series 4 and 5. The second dinner used to do series drops moving cards down towards 3. Nothing about that happening anytime soon, which makes spotlight caches and tokens rather important. Missing a couple of cards that open up new archetypes, improving on existing ones.

I currently own 68 out of 99 pool 3 cards, 68% complete a collection level of 2784. Looks unlikely I will complete the pool by 3500 levels.

Discard – Apocalypse discard shell is missing Dracula, Colleen Wing is rather nice. All about emptying your hand, buffing dracula based on biggest card in hand. Hela Discard can be a casino. Discard big cards and bring them back later on. Here I’m mising a blackcat, gambit and ghost rider. Gambit can sometimes find a place in other deck. Outside that i’m mising a couple common big cards that see play in that deck. I have hela but can’t do that style of deck. Apocalypse I can do weaker version of that deck with some success.

Destory – Getting Deadpool big in a destory package just fits into that shell. Annoyingly I have other part which is X23 both together work so well. Similar to discard just weaker version without it.

Good cards – Doctor Octopus good distruption card can upset plays your opponent may be wanting to do. Magneto good distruption that moves cards around. Mystique copies any ongoing cards in last played that creates some crazy turn 6 plays. Rogue tech card that steals ongoing effect from your opponent. Goose on paper should be good. Invisible Woman maybe a good card but not sure.

Move – Not sure if dagger is core part of move but she fits into so many lists. Miles Morales is just nice to have when you can move cards around.

Mister negative – Missing couple cards that reduces the slot machine nature of this shell. Jane Foster Mighty Thor lets me draw some rather good cards. Leader can swing this deck towards winning. Bast can find a home here and other decks.

Silver surfer – Crystal another 3 cost card can fit into this deck not sure if it any good here.

Shuri sauron -Zero gives this deck a mana curve, opens up some new playlines. Tiny boost that gives this deck another tool to use. I had success without it but would better with it.

Niche – Agatha Harkness is double edged sword, good at farming boosters and maybe discard deck. Quake is good distruption card with skill ceiling that is high. You move locations that are unplayable breaking what your opponent wants to do. Rockslide needs darkhawk to create a new type of shell.

Following cards one from pool 4 and 5 that I have my eye on. Some of these cards just improve existing decks looking out for spotlight caches with them in.

Pool 4

Khull – Destroy

Legion – Control

Man thing – Debuff

Mobius M mobuis – Tech card

Nimrod – Destory

Ravonna renslayer – Mister negative

Zabu – Discount 4

Pool 5

Alioth – Tech card

Echo – Tech card

Elsa bloodstone – Zoo?

Iron lad – Just good

Jeff the baby land shark – Just good

Hit monkey – Serra

Kitty pryde – Bounce

Nebula – Control

Thanos – Destory, control, lockdown

Feedback, Video Games

Halloween patch mainly Mobuis thoughts

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Halloween patch mainly Mobuis thoughts

The second dinner Halloween patch will be a treat or trick. Patch notes can be found here.

Mobuis M Mobuis

  • [Old] 2/3 – Ongoing: Your Costs can’t be increased. Your opponent’s Costs can’t be reduced.
  • [New] 2/3 – On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, your Costs can’t be increased and your opponent’s Costs can’t be reduced.

Developer Note: Mobius M. Mobius has had a massive impact on the metagame, forcing a changing of the guard among top decks that saw perennial powerhouses like Zabu, Sera, and Death fall from grace in favor of decks that could push Power by just playing cards for their normal Energy Costs. While we were eager to see the world Mobius would create, we expected to make an adjustment down the road in order to welcome Cost reduction strategies back into the sunlight. Today is that day, as we’re shifting Mobius to provide a temporary counter that requires good timing to maximize the effect. This makes him trickier to set aside Energy for, kind of like Shadow King, and also opens up counters like Magik for decks that are hyper-vulnerable to Mobius being played on turn 5. We’re also interested to hear your feedback on our approach here, using a new card as a tool to create a new play environment temporarily.

There are loads to unpick here let’s start with what is changing. Mobuis is redesigned and being changed from ongoing to on reveal.

He was designed as a counter against cost reduction and cost increases. As a card, trying to do two jobs at the same time. Tech cards are cards designed to counter a specific archetype.

Here is a list of all the cards that interacted with him.

  1. Baron Mordo
  2. Beast
  3. Death
  4. Evolved abomination – High evo
  5. falcon
  6. Iceman
  7. Loki
  8. Mile morales
  9. Mister negative
  10. Quin jet
  11. Ravonna renslayer
  12. Sabretooth
  13. Serra
  14. She hulk
  15. Spider ham
  16. Stature
  17. Swarm
  18. Wave
  19. Zabu

The result wide range of archetypes was impacted. Therefore seen in 1/3 of decks on release before reaching settling at 1/4 of decks. A powerful effect that the game needed but overpowering. Which is why something needed to change. Now we can talk about the notes provided with this change.

Developer Note: Mobius M. Mobius has had a massive impact on the metagame, forcing a changing of the guard among top decks that saw perennial powerhouses like Zabu, Sera, and Death fall from grace in favor of decks that could push Power by just playing cards for their normal Energy Costs. While we were eager to see the world Mobius would create, we expected to make an adjustment down the road in order to welcome Cost reduction strategies back into the sunlight. Today is that day, as we’re shifting Mobius to provide a temporary counter that requires good timing to maximize the effect. This makes him trickier to set aside Energy for, kind of like Shadow King, and also opens up counters like Magik for decks that are hyper-vulnerable to Mobius being played on turn 5. We’re also interested to hear your feedback on our approach here, using a new card as a tool to create a new play environment temporarily.

The most interesting line here is we expected to make an adjustment to bring cost reduction back. Maybe I’m misreading this but strikes me as naive developers expected a shake-up but were surprised by rapid change. They knew this card design would most likely mean more balance changes are needed later down the line. I don’t think they fully understood or considered the far-ranging impact would be so quick. 

When I saw this card I knew it would be impactful, I was shocked because even limited cards I owned it hit some hard. I’m still surprised that he was never a temporary effect with a body but an ongoing 2-cost card. Of course, if you have a deck based around cost reduction you would include him. If the meta is full of cost reduction that counter just makes sense.

I don’t know what the hell second dinner was thinking here. Maybe we get a better statement but the damage has been done. Mobuis should be split into two cards and something should be given to players who picked him up.

Call Of Duty, CoD, Video Games

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 first impressions

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Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 first impressions

Modern Warfare series was rebooted in 2019, this is the third entry. Small rant here I don’t understand why you don’t call this modern. The studio behind this title is Sledgehammer Games with Infinity Ward original creators of the series. Infinity Ward now acting like a satellite studio but updating Warzone. Tons of studios working on Call of Duty, three main studios and many others.

I have not played a Call of Duty game in years and similar to the older games. Combat is fast and smooth, maps are redesigns of modern warfare 2 core maps. New art improves the look and feel of the legacy maps. A list of confirmed maps can be found here.  Honestly rather happy with that list, some really good maps here. Not going to call it a beta but more a demo, the final release is due in November.

Perks return, and other things.

Let’s talk about the negatives

The art design of operators blends into the maps so easily. Not just that it really difficult for me to work out who is friendly or foe. This has been a problem for years and drives me mad. Countless people have similar problems.  Call of Duty has been removing information from players for years now and is core to the formula.

Progression is locked by levels, including upgrading your weapons. I’m not sure weapon challenges exist for progression I hope not. Speaking of which you can’t build your own loadout at level 1 which is really annoying.

One thing I did notice is minimap no longer gives you red dots. Given how fast you die I could have missed that detail.

Outside of that, it is just more call of duty nothing groundbreaking. More single-player, more zombies and more online madness. Not sure how many guns will be in the full game but the selection here is limited which is okay. Balance has been a problem for a while, trying to balance a range of guns is hard.  Sway feels like it returns but not sure.

Grown out of the call of duty as I got older mainly tiny things that annoy me remain.

Infinity Ward

Video Games

Snap Loki season pass ladder climb, some deck thoughts

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Snap Loki season pass ladder climb, some deck thoughts

Marvel snap ladder goes up until rank 100, I’m currently in the low 90s. Making it my highest rank so far, I have seen a major improvement in terms of my gameplay. A game of luck with skill being a thing. Have been able to reach 97 but am now stuck at 96 again. 

Mainly used three decks all rather consistent in my view against other common styles. The archetypes used are ongoing, Serra control and high evo. Meta right now is all about using as much board space as possible. Yet to finish pool 3 some decks are missing parts and can’t access other decks. 

Mister negative – I don’t like this card, don’t find it works too great at the moment. Something is missing from my deck not sure what. 

High evo – I don’t have all the pieces but it can still work. Undervalued this playstyle but it is rather flexible with major power swing potential. Being able to impact your whole deck without being played is huge. Sort of becoming a tech card against Loki, just strong against others near the top right now. You can counter it but most people just ignore it. Sleeper deck that has been rising the ranks. 

Destroy – Past two months destroy has been popular, with three cards venom, death and knull. These cards push destory to being rather good and I don’t have them. I can’t destroy and people destroy me. Counterplay exists due to the familiar and easy-to-spot play pattern. Loads of power spread across the board. 

Loki – Okay card with loads of natural counters, requires building a deck around him. The collector was nerfed in response to him meaning none loki decks dropped off a cliff. 

Mainly playing against well evo, control decks and other weird combos. Which can seriously throw you off. 

Marvel Snap, Video Games

My budget patriot deck – Marvel Snap

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My budget Patriot deck 

Marvel Snap is a card game, everybody’s collection is different. You don’t always have required cards and need to experiment. Archetypes exist based around good cards creating new decks and playstyles. Some open up new ones others improve existing base decks. Patriot has a number of different decks, boosted or iron patriot. Zoo term comes from hearthstone due to being animal cards, but Magic: The Gathering is where the idea came from. Zoo decks are cheap, high power-to-mana ratio decks. Patriot decks generally are similar to the Ka-Zar playstyle. The difference is that 1 cost can be hard countered by Killmonger, Patriot avoids that weakness. Shang chi means we need to avoid reaching 9 power.

The core idea is similar to spreading cheap mana but high power cost cards across multiple locations. Overwhelming your opponent forces them to spread thin or overcommit. Control decks that lockdown lanes or big combo power match or beat this. After about a week’s worth of play, I like this archetype but it does have a number of weaknesses. Some due to missing cards and others due to the overall structure. You do need at least 3 cards in hand in order to apply pressure and win.

Decklist

(2) Forge – Core combo
(2) Luke Cage  – Flex
(2) Mister Sinister – Core
(2) Scarlet Witch – Flex
(3) Patriot – Core
(3) Brood – Core combo
(3) Cosmo – Flex
(3) Wave – Core combo
(4) Shang-Chi – Flex
(5) Blue Marvel – Core
(6) Doctor Doom – Core
(6) America Chavez – Good

Combos

Forge into Mr. Sinster or brood

Patriot with Blue Marvel

Wave into Dr. Doom

America Chavez

Why don’t you use an X card instead? 

The answer is simple cause I don’t have that card yet.

Iron Man has been swapped in and out of this deck a couple of times he a good option.

Absorbing Man and Iron Lad are two obvious choices to boost the consistency. Don’t draw the right card you can copy something or copy something in the deck. I’m missing both cards sometimes that consistency is badly needed. The result is I have 4 cards spare, one flex spot and 3 empty spaces.

Replacement cards

Luke cage – Counters reducing power effects

Scarlet witch – Change poor locations

Shang chi – Counters 9 power cards

Iron man – Flex spot

Cosmo – Goblin counter and on reveal counter.

Honestly more cards I could use but I don’t have them.

Final thoughts

Anything that causes disruption to filling up a lane or causing changes to the board state is a problem. Locking down a lane causes huge issues.  A couple of choices exist that can reduce or restrict that. I’m tempted to change the list as I climb right now this deck works. Off meta deck at my current collection rank which ends up surprising people. Big good card decks do well against it along with control decks.

I theorycrafted this deck after getting Dr. Doom and messing around with a couple of other cards here.

Smite, Video Games

Smite common mistakes people make

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Smite Common mistakes people make

  1. Three pillars of smite, mechanics, knowledge and decisions
  2. Lack of present – Being near a lane changes decisions that players make, kills are a bonus. not the end goal. Sometimes all you need to do is turn up and that’s it.
  3. Vision is important – Wards help you inform your decisions and allow you to play safer or understand what happening. Ward anything you view as important. Jungle ward under your feet before late-game team fights
  4. Side lanes matter – Solo and carry are important, presence is required in both lanes don’t ignore one.
  5. Focus on one side lane
  6. Miss and commit anyway – Not hitting a target is fine leave a fight don’t have to commit if your missing.
  7. No plan –  While playing most players don’t have a plan for what to do next. Result they become reactive over proactive. Look at the map and plan what needs doing next, fight afterwards.
  8. The other team is off-meta and not present – Even pro players don’t know the match ups do you expect the average player to know? Just turn up and help people out.
  9. Behind in gold – Just farm, jungle need to help secure buffs
  10. Being focused is fine and dying early is fine – Don’t worry about dying, do your job later
  11. Understanding your god role and point
  12. Counter-ganking matters – Don’t babysit but keep the other team in check.
  13. Builds and scoreboard – Failure to check the scoreboard to find out what people are building and who is ahead or behind.
  14. Supports left and right hand – You must protect your carry and mid-laners. They are your left and right hand.
  15. Solo and supports running at people – Need to be flexible, aggressive and defensive with your team.
  16. Glass cannons running at people – Jungle players stop attacking head-on during team fights, hit from the side and wait for fights to start. Bruiser hybrid tank builds IF this is your style.
  17. Not understanding win conditions
  18. No surrender – 20k down at 15 mins just surrender
  19. Not understanding what is reportable
  20. Insulting players won’t make them play better
Smite, Video Games

First impressions of Charon – Smite

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First Impressions of Charon – Smite

Charon is a guardian, closer look blog post and patch notes 10.7.

A couple of bugged item interactions which I’m expecting to be patched soon enough. Effects are reapplying when they should only happen once. Certain items are stupidly powerful and increase his damage output way higher than it should be.

Passive provides you with extra health and gold gain. Some soft crowd control with slow combined with silence. Marking opponents with attack speed reduction creates a shield if people hit the mark. Dash that roots and gives movement speed. Ultimate is a tidal wave, fears providing movement speed and protection.

Well, a rounded kit that is aggressive with some peel against diving characters. The combo is ult follow by a dash into a fight, throwing mark down followed by a soul throw. Appears to be designed with solo and support in mind, leaning more towards the support side of things. However, until the bugs are removed it is hard to judge his damage output. Seems to be on the weaker side for damage without the bugs. Overall I like him and got a positive impression of him. Only two games played but I did learn a decent amount from both games.

Using two into 1 seems like the best starting combo. Unless you want to fully commit to a fight. Therefore using 4 with 3 to get into position before 2 and 1.

Quality of life improvements ultimate, after you cast it needs to be shown on the map.

Video Games

Marvel snap – Kazoo is fun

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Marvel snap – Kazoo is fun

Marvel Snap is something I have been playing. Collectable card games have an archetype called Zoo. Low and medium-cost minions, flood the board and overwhelm. The Snap version is called Kazoo, taking its name from Kazar. Thus using ongoing mechanics to power up the minions. Turns out this deck is popular and good. A couple of different win condition cards. My current deck has Armour and Cosmo acting as counters, Iceman is a disruptive card.

Snap has pools of cards players can earn, I’m currently in Pool 2. Not many cards on offer here but they do help refine existing decks. Oddly enough not seen many Kazoo decks yet.

Reveal – Becomes more control-based using reveal mechanics

Destroy devil – Destroy cards to increase power and gain control

Ongoing – Focuses on two locations

Good card – Get better cards with bigger power swings

Arrgo discard – Gets one new card swarm but becomes an even stronger win condition.

Now have 6 possible decks but missing a couple of cards that make things work. You can still use pool 1 style decks against pool 2 sometimes people have counters. Still learning how to play and bait people.

Video Games, WarFrame

Warframe Duviri paradox circuit probability – incorrect

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Warframe Duviri paradox circuit probability

Durviri Paradox added a new game mode called Circuit. Inspired by a Tenno complaining about the crap weapons being most common. No weighting system so we can do some simple maths. *Correction weighting system does exist for weapons you don’t own and do own, along with warframes.

A pool of weapons and frames excluding prime and kit guns. Frames have 5 rolls, weapons 2 each for ne.

51 Frames

140 Primary

106 Secondary

162 Melee

The outcome you want / total count = probability, rolls can’t be repeated so you need to remove 1 each time. I decided to use 10 and 20 for the outcome number.

Frames

10/51 = 19.61%

40/50 = 64%

39/49  = 79.59%

38/48 = 79.16%

37/47 = 78.72%

Likely to get something useful but still possible to get something awful.

Weapons primary, secondary and melee in that order.

20/140 = 14.29%

20/106 = 18.87%

20/162 = 12.35%

Minus 1 from both totals, ^2 for the second roll gives you the likelihood of something you wanted.

(119/139)^2 = 73.29%

(85/105)^2 = 65.53%

(141/161)^2 = 76.69%

7 in 10 still have 3 chances of getting something you disliked. Based on experience, more extensive weapon stocks reap a benefit here. Sometimes you can be unluckily forced to use default mods which suck on steel path.

* I fully expect I have made a mistake with the maths.

Feedback, Video Games

XDefiant I don’t like it

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XDefiant I don’t like it

My first impressions are pretty bad, I don’t enjoy the game. The core is deeply flawed in some respects.

Movement feels heavy and sluggish and sliding feels smooth with aiming. Odd contrast that just feels disjointed. A super short time to kill with poor hit detection feels awful together. I have no idea if that is due to the tick rate or by design. Finding it hard to trace players, the art style bends people into the backgrounds. Maps don’t suit having so many game modes. Just feels bad playing this game with a controller right now. Each complaint I have just flows into a game I don’t enjoy.

Therefore feeling like a worse Call of Duty clone. Got to be a better version or have a different gameplay hook. Instead, designers follow the path without considering other options. A big problem I don’t understand the direction this game wants to take. Beyond being a shooter crafting feedback that is useful is well difficult. I don’t like this game in its current state and that is okay.