Recent posts by ThirdParty on Kongregate

Topic: Kongregate / New Homepage Discussion

Overall a positive change. I like having a “recently played games” section, and I like being able to reject recommendations. The only part of the change that I dislike is that the “top games this week” and “top games this month” sections got smaller; I used those a lot, and now I have to load an extra page before I can view the games lower down on the lists.

Topic: Dream World / Official Bug Reports Thread (new)

demon: when your armor says “103 (+8)”, what it means is that it started at 95, got enchanted 8 times, and so is now at 103. If you pay attention next time you enchant it, you’ll see it go to “104 (+9)”.

Topic: General Gaming / Orange Portals Needed

I’ll send oranges to anyone who sends me blues.
Never mind, I’m done.

Topic: General Gaming / Rebuild: Tips, Strategies, Etc

I won another game on Nightmare, this time on a 10×10 map.

- I’m now convinced that border length isn’t important. If you can capture a useful building, do so, even if it leaves you adjacent to a bunch of squares that you didn’t use to be adjacent to. And don’t bother capturing useless buildings just to make your fort more blob-shaped or to connect to edges. (Though capturing useless buildings to serve as buffers so that your most valuable buildings aren’t on a border is still a good idea.)

- In the long run, a police station is about equivalent to having an extra two soldiers who don’t take up housing or food. You could think of it as “housing +2, food production +2”. That’s not bad—especially considering that the two extra soldiers don’t have to be recruited and trained—but not as good as, say, an Apartment or a Big Farm. If you’re finding that police stations are crucial to your strategy, it’s probably a sign that you’re not spending enough effort on recruitment.

- Don’t forget to scavenge! The extra food will come in handy (you can throw parties with it if nothing else, assuming you have at least one church/bar); also, scavenging frequently improves morale.

Topic: General Gaming / Rebuild: Tips, Strategies, Etc

Today I beat the game on Nightmare for the first time. (Admittedly, I started out in a great position, adjacent to a Big Farm, an Apartment, and a Police Station.) Here are some tips:

- The game is well-balanced and has lots of strategy. Don’t try to play on Hard until you’ve beaten it on Normal, don’t try to play on Harder until you’ve beaten it on Hard, and don’t try to play on Nightmare until you’ve beaten it on Harder.

- The game’s primary resource is manpower. If you have enough manpower to do everything that needs doing, you’ll win. If you don’t, you’ll lose. When making decisions, focus on how they will affect your manpower. (It’s tempting to focus on defense, but ultimately this is just one thing for which manpower is used.)

- Don’t obsess over the length of your borders. I’m not positive, but my general impression is that whatever zombies spawn anywhere will eventually migrate to your border and need to be dealt with, regardless of how compact your base is. Trying to turtle won’t work: you’re better off having enough territory that you can afford to lose some of it, rather than keeping all your soldiers on defense and being doomed if you get an unlucky turn.

- Bad stuff happens. You will lose people and food to random events. You will lose people on missions. And you will lose people and buildings due to occasionally getting overrun. Don’t be discouraged; your job is to recruit people faster than you lose them, not to keep all of them safe. I lost my leader on an almost-perfectly-safe scouting mission on the second turn of my nightmare-difficulty game, and won anyway.

Topic: General Gaming / Rebuild: Tips, Strategies, Etc

A few bits of information that don’t appear above:

Miscellaneous buildings do nothing but can be converted into useful stuff:

• Rubble, Park, and Parking Lot – convertible to Surburb or Farm
• 8/12 Mart and XXor Gas – convertible to Bar or Laboratory
• Warehouse and McNoodles – convertible to Church or Hospital
• Motel and Office – convertible to Apartment or School

If you’re playing for points and so keep playing after a win, here’s what the wins do:

• Draft a Constitution (requires five leaders and city hall): improves morale
• Destroy the Portal (requires fifteen soldiers and evil graveyard): no more wandering hordes of zombies
• Find the Cure (requires five scientists and three labs): number of zombies in unsecured areas stops increasing (except if a horde wanders through)
• Retake the City: no way to lose once you’ve done this

Untrained survivors that perform a task have a chance of becoming specialized in that task. (I’ve created soldiers, builders, and scientists this way; I assume it works with leaders and scavengers too.)

Topic: MARDEK RPG: Chapter 3 / Your Favorite MARDEK Moments

I was pretty amused when I found the book in Chapter 3 that vehemently disagreed with the book from Chapter 2 that claimed that the most successful couples are ones where the man’s element dominates the woman’s.

Topic: MARDEK RPG: Chapter 3 / Characters/Stores/Equip Etc. Added on CH 4?(MAJOR SPOILERS)

I agree that a clean start would make sense from a gameplay perspective. Pseudo will definitely want to introduce new characters, and that’s hard to do when the player already has a godlike party. At the end of Chapter 2, everyone left Mardek, but that didn’t happen at the end of Chapter 3. Most of his friends were still around, and two (Elwyen and Solaar) explicitly said they were going to keep traveling with him. Meanwhile, he’s got enough items to give him immunity to practically everything. (Though his learned skills aren’t too ridiculously OP, if you take the items away.)

How it’s going to be accomplished, I don’t know. Shift perspective to Enki or Deugan or Bartholio? Have a warpport disaster teleport Mardek, sans friends and gear, to some other continent?

Topic: MARDEK RPG: Chapter 3 / miasmal chalice

After you win the battle for the Earth Crystal, you’ll get access a store in the Aeropolis Slums. There’s a key for sale there, called “Corrupted Key” or something like that, that gives you access to a dungeon below the Dark Temple. When you get deep enough in that dungeon, it’ll be obvious what to do with the chalices.

Topic: MARDEK RPG: Chapter 3 / Numb and Berserk

“Soulstrike” is an extremely handy ability for situations like this. (And should have been equipped anyway, since Zach has lots of ways to do Physical damage but not many ways to do Air damage.) You can choose whether or not to use it even while berserked, which gives you a choice between two different damage types.

Topic: MARDEK RPG: Chapter 3 / Characters/Stores/Equip Etc. Added on CH 4?(MAJOR SPOILERS)

Here are some interesting traditional FF character classes that we haven’t had yet as PCs:

• Monk (e.g. Steele): Can learn counterattacks, and some magic that can be cast only on self.
• Samurai (perhaps Enki): Can wield two weapons at once. Given the Mardek series’s emphasis on damage types, having a standard attack that did two types at once would be quite noteworthy.
• Dragoon (haven’t met one yet, unless Deugan changes his class): Has an ability which temporarily removes him from battle before doing delayed damage to the enemies.
• Thief (e.g. Vennie): Has a small probability of stealing an equipped item from the enemy.
• Black Mage (e.g. Bernard): Casts damaging black magic spells.
• Summoner (haven’t met one yet): Has the ability to add friendly monsters to the fight. This is one you can have fun with: just as the Blue Mage, Legion, learned attacks by being hit by them, you can have a Summoner acquire his pets by defeating them on the battlefield.
• Time Mage (haven’t met one yet): Casts spells such as “haste”.
• Trainer (haven’t met one yet): Has the ability to order enemies to attack each other.
• Gambler (haven’t met one yet): Has abilities with powerful but unpredictable effects.
• Equilibriumancer (haven’t met any who are alive after Ch. 3): Has Ether-based magic, and some elemental inversion skills that do damage based on how high monsters’ resistance to the relevant element is. This isn’t actually a traditional FF class, but I want one anyway.

Which of these character types will join in Chapter 4, I don’t know, but I predict at least some of them will.

Topic: MARDEK RPG: Chapter 3 / Is the water staff missable?

Meh, you’re right, Minnakht; I went back and checked my save at the end of Chapter 2, and it was an Earth Staff I’d gotten, not a Trilobite Staff. It must have just been that the first trilobite warrior I fought dropped it, and then I forgot where I’d gotten it.

Topic: MARDEK RPG: Chapter 3 / Possible new strategy?

Ballad of Balance doesn’t affect Repair.

Topic: MARDEK RPG: Chapter 3 / Is the water staff missable?

I got a water staff during M2. I think I found it either for sale in Cambria, or else dropped by a random from the tunnels into Cambria.

Topic: MARDEK RPG: Chapter 3 / Elements

It depends how you think of the elements. If you think of Earth as “trees and grass” and Air as “lightning”, then yeah, I see your point. But if you think of Earth as “rocks and clay”, and think of Air as “wind and insects”, then the current system makes more sense.

Fire consumes air.
Air erodes earth.
Earth absorbs water.
Water quenches fire.

Topic: MARDEK RPG: Chapter 3 / noob question about mereador

Mereador’s “Repair” ability is also not to be overlooked. It only works on Legion, but it works wonders. Resurrect, fully heal, remove all negative effects, and boost all stats by 1, all for no cost. It means that so long as Mereador is alive, Legion can function as an invulnerable killing machine.

Topic: General Gaming / Epic War 4 Best Non-Titan Units

Aside from the ones already mentioned…

Were-tiger: each has stats and behavior similar to hero Kara—very high damage, reasonable health, good crowd control. But they aren’t heroes; instead you can have five at once and treat them as disposable cannon-fodder if necessary.

Orang-utan: ridiculously long range. (Seriously, my orangs got me through normal mode almost single-handedly. They easily range-danced large bosses like the dragon, killing those bosses without ever getting hit. They couldn’t damage the black goblin, but were able to kill the enemy castle by firing over its head. Etc.)

Topic: General Gaming / Doodle God Guide! COMPLETE!!!

I decided to make the most entertaining sequence I could. I’ve also tried to use, as much as possible, reactions that appear in neither Apollo1230’s post nor Jejeje’s link—you may find some surprises here. Lastly, it’s been carefully arranged to produce the highest possible score, by creating elements only one at a time whenever possible.

earth + fire = lava
lava + air = stone
lava + water = stone + steam
stone + fire = metal
metal + steam = boiler (By a cosmic coincidence, cooling lava creates perfectly-shaped machinery on a lifeless world.)
water + fire = alcohol
alcohol + water = vodka (By another cosmic coincidence, the primordial soup comes to consist largely of vodka.)
alcohol + fire = energy
metal + energy = electricity
stone + air = sand
sand + fire = glass
water + earth = swamp
swamp + sand = clay
clay + fire = bricks (By yet another cosmic coincidence, wild vodka fires happen to produce perfectly-shaped bricks.)
energy + swamp = life
life + clay = golem
life + golem = human (Like it says in the Quran, Humans were created from the clay.)
human + human = sex
human + energy = wizard
wizard + energy = demigod
human + metal = tools
metal + tools = weapon
human + weapon = hunter
hunter + weapon = warrior
energy + air = storm
wizard + warrior = wizard + worm (Question: how did animals come into existence? Answer: a wizard did it.)
worm + swamp = snake
worm + snake = lizard
lizard + earth = beast
beast + human = domestic animal
snake + water = fish
fish + beast = dolphin
lizard + lizard = lizard + lizard + egg
egg + air = bird
bird + storm = thunderbird
bird + fire = phoenix
egg + sand = turtle
egg + earth = dinosaur
dinosaur + fire = dragon
worm + air = butterfly
worm + earth = beetle
beetle + sand = scorpion
snake + tools = poison
weapon + poison = poisoned weapon
human + poisoned weapon = assassin
assassin + human = assassin + corpse
assassin + warrior = assassin + corpse + blood (Since blood wasn’t created the last time the assassin killed someone, we can infer that the blood is his own, not his victim’s. This was a close fight.)
human + blood = vampire
vampire + beast = werewolf
corpse + life = zombie
zombie + corpse = ghoul
warrior + dragon = hero + blood
life + swamp = bacteria
bacteria + water = plankton
fish + plankton = whale
plankton + stone = shell
stone + shell = limestone
clay + limestone = cement
cement + water = concrete
bricks + concrete = house
house + glass = skyscraper (Notice that skyscrapers predate the existence of plants. The first trees will just be pale imitations of human works.)
human + stone = hut
earth + tools = field (I’m not sure why the humans need a field before the existence of plants. Maybe it’s a football field.)
clay + human = ceramics
life + water = weeds
weeds + swamp = moss
moss + earth = grass
grass + swamp = reed
reed + tools = paper
grass + fire = tobacco
grass + field = wheat
tobacco + paper = cigarette
alcohol + wheat = beer (Cigarettes and beer are created before bread, in accordance with the priorities of most consumers.)
human + beer = alcoholic
wheat + stone = flour
flour + water = dough
dough + fire = bread
hunter + beast = wool + meat + blood
domestic animal + human = wool + meat + milk
domestic animal + grass = fertilizer + milk
fertilizer + limestone = saltpetre
bacteria + swamp = worm + sulfur
sulfer + saltpetre = gunpowder
weapon + gunpowder = firearm
hunter + bird = meat + feather + blood
wool + tools = fabric
human + fabric = clothes
paper + feather = book
book + fire = ash
ash + life = ghost (Burning a book is like burning a person: sometimes it creates a ghost.)
weeds + earth = mushroom
moss + swamp = fern
grass + grass = seeds
seeds + earth = tree
tree + life = treant
tree + fire = coal + ash + ash
coal + water = oil
tree + tools = wood
wood + tools = wheel
wheel + wood = cart
cart + oil = car
car + air = airplane (Fun fact: airplanes were invented before boats.)
cart + beast = chariot
wood + water = boat
boat + wood = ship
ship + fabric = frigate
boiler + coal = steam engine
cart + steam engine = locomotive
ship + steam engine = steamship
air + earth = dust (The first element created in Apollo1230’s sequence is the last created in my sequence: in the end, all is dust.)

Topic: General Gaming / Light-Bot 2.0 Optimization/Walkthrough

Compare the two E2 paths yourself:

FTFTRFTRFTFTFTFTRFTRFTFTRFFFTRFFFTLFFFTRFFFT

FTFTRFTRFTFTFTFTRFTRFTLJFJTLFFFTLFFFTRFFFT

Unfortunately, the latter doesn’t compress well into the available program space.

Topic: General Gaming / Light-Bot 2.0 Optimization/Walkthrough

Regarding E5: The solution in my previous post is correct. You must have entered it wrong when testing it.

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Regarding E2: Yes, there is a shorter route. Instead of using the second teleporter, jump off the cliff. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to fit that route into the available program space, but I might just be missing a trick.

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Regarding E3: I spent a few hours playing with it, and found five different ways to hit the initial blue:

E3 (14 cmds, 38 calls): 1, T{o2}FFFR1, LJLJT{o2}
E3 (11 cmds, 48 calls): 1, 2FFFR1, {oLJ}T{o2}
This is a variant of the standard algorithm. (Close enough that we really should have found it sooner.) The walking loop performs its T command after its R command instead of before, which enables it to perform the T command at the start. The cost of this is a need for the staircase loop to perform its L command before its J command.

E3 (17 cmds, 30 calls): 1, TFFF2L21, JLJT{oFFFR}
This one scripts its jumps rather than using a staircase loop, which allows it to reserve the color orange for special handling of the corner with no staircase. This is the fastest solution I found, just two calls above the theoretical minimum.

E3 (16 cmds, 41 calls): 1, TFFFJT2, LJTLJLJ1
This one handles the corner with no staircase by simply jumping around on an imaginary one. (I think I tried this back when I was optimizing for size for Tass’s video walkthrough, but I gave up on it because it wasn’t size-optimal and at the time I didn’t care about speed.)

E3 (15 cmds, 34 calls): 2, FFFT{o2}R1, {oJLJ}T{oL2}1
E3 (13 cmds, 40 calls): 2, FFFT{o2}R1, {oJ}T{oL2}1
This is another variant of the standard algorithm. It smuggles in a T command at the start of the level by starting out in staircase mode rather than walking mode.

E3 (13 cmds, 41 calls): 2, FFFR2, {oLJLJ}T{o2}1
E3 (11 cmds, 47 calls): 2, FFFR2, {oLJ}T{o2}1
We can combine the insights from the two “standard algorithm” variants above to generate the fastest 11-command solution yet discovered.

Topic: General Gaming / Light-Bot 2.0 Optimization/Walkthrough

R2 in 29 calls: TJTJTL1TLFF1T, FFTLFFFF
R5 in 30 calls: 1, JF2F2F2, JFJFFTLF
C3 in 57 calls: JT1JJJLFFF2JFL2, JRJTL{oS}1, JTJLJT1
E5 in 90 calls: 21TFR1LFL22TLFR1, FFTLFFL{o1}, FFFRF{pF}

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Tass: Okay, I went through and computed theoretical minimum calls for each level. Here are the ones that differ from our current best:

R3 (52), R5 (29), C1 (9), C2 (15), C3 (52), C4 (16), C5 (128), C6 (57), E2 (46), E3 (28), E5 (67), E6 (83?).

Some of these are drastically underestimating the needed calls. The only levels actually worth revisiting for speed-optimization, in my opinion, are R5, C3, C6, E2, E3, E5, and E6.

Topic: General Gaming / Light-Bot 2.0 Optimization/Walkthrough

I went back to the early Expert levels.

E1 in 19 cmds: FF2J1, JL2LFF21, JJFFTL
The concept for this one was that the loop would involve a single 360° turn, doing everything that would ever need doing in each cardinal direction. It didn’t quite work out the way I’d hoped, and ended up requiring an extra four commands to initialize.

E2 in 17 cmds: 1122L1, L22T2, RFTFFT
“RFTFFT” turned out to be a better chunk than “FFTRF” was, notwithstanding the occasional need to preface it with an “L” to cancel out undesired turns.

E1 in 34 calls: FFFFL1JLJ2JFR2, JJJRJFTL, JFFTLLFR
E4 in 36 calls: 1R2RJRFTFT2FTLFT, JLJTFTJT, FTRJTR
Simple technique for estimating a theoretical minimum call number for a level: let X be the number of steps comprising the shortest possible path. The minimum number of calls is X+(X-16)/7, rounded up. Knowing the minimum is helpful, because you know exactly how many calls you get and so exactly how big your chunks need to be. These two solutions are both at the theoretical minimum, so should be unbeatable. Interestingly, the theoretical minimum for E2 is 46, but I wasn’t able to find a way to do it.

E3 in 43 calls: 1, FFFT{o2}R1, JLJT{oL2}1
Nothing special here, just me optimizing this level for speed for the first time.

Topic: General Gaming / Light-Bot 2.0 Optimization/Walkthrough

I revisited E4.

E4 in 20 cmds: JLJ1, TFTJTRF2, {oTF}RJFRR1
One big loop that repeats four times, very efficient. Even reasonably fast: only 53 calls.

E4 in 38 calls: JLJTFTJTRF22FTF1, TFT2FL1, RJTR
No fancy logic, just executing a preplanned sequence of moves.

Topic: General Gaming / Light-Bot 2.0 Optimization/Walkthrough

Formatting of your posts: Textile gives up the ghost if your posts are too long. Abbreviate the level names (e.g. “B1” instead of “Basics 1”), and stop listing all the redundant "Main – ", "F1 – ", and "F2 – " things (we can just assume that the first string of a solution is the main method, the second is function 1, and the third is function 2). After that it should be fine. If not, manually add line breaks using the html command “<br>”.

Notation: I prefer “F” for “forward” instead of “U” for “up” (the in-game help calls it “walk forward”, and it shouldn’t be confused with “jump up”), “S” for “stop” instead of “B” for “break” (the in-game help calls it “stop”, and you’re already using “B” for “blue” in another context), and “T” for “touch” instead of “Y” (what the heck is “Y” supposed to stand for? “yellow”? “lyght”?). I prefer using lower-case letters to denote colors; I feel that it makes the codes easier for the eye to parse.

I went back to some of the non-expert levels to see about optimizing them for speed instead of size:

C6 in 8 cmds: 1, FT{oR}{pL}TJ1
Boy, do I feel silly for missing this one last night. I was so excited by the fact that my solution to C5 also worked for C6 that I didn’t think about how it might be improved.

C6 in 132 calls: 1, {b2}{oRT}{pLT}FT1, JT{oR}{pL}TJT
You were correct that the blue conditionals are worth paying attention to when playing for speed.

C5 in 172 calls: 1, FT{p2}{o2}FT1, {pL}{oR}J{pL}{oR}TFT
I’m very happy with this one: it really zooms along.

B6 in 29 calls: 1LFF1LFF1, LJJTLLJJ
R6 in 36 calls: 1LJLJ1JLJ1LFRFT, TJJJFJT
C3 in 68 calls: JT1LJJLFJTL1RJF2, JRJT{oS}L1, JTJRJTL1
C4 in 18 calls: 1JT, FFRFFLT{o1}
These are nothing to get excited about, just slightly better than what you listed.

(Edit: fixed the error in C3 which Tasselfoot pointed out below. I hate how the icon for “turn right” is an arrow pointing left, and vice-versa.)

Topic: General Gaming / Manufactoria Walkthrough / Optimization Thread

Yeah, I’m still around for another day or two.

Here’s a solution to “Police” using a genuinely different algorithm than the one we’ve been using:

small POLICE (insert yellow in middle of string) (2:54, 34)

?lvl=19&code=g12:2f3;y12:3f3;g12:4f3;q12:5f4;p11:5f2;r11:4f3;b11:6f1;c12:6f3;p12:7f3;b11:7f3;r13:7f3;c11:8f2;c13:8f0;y12:8f3;p12:9f3;r13:9f0;b11:9f2;c14:10f1;c14:9f1;c14:8f1;c14:7f1;c15:5f0;g13:5f0;q12:10f6;q12:12f6;p12:11f3;b11:11f1;r13:11f1;c11:10f2;c13:10f2;c14:5f0;p14:6f5;b13:6f1;r15:6f1;

Instead of moving one marker forward and one marker backward until they meet, this solution moves one marker forward two spaces and the other forward one space until the faster marker hits the end of the string.