Recent posts by Toggler on Kongregate

Topic: Outernauts / General Chat

Bortados, as So0meone said the wandering outernauts you encounter are selected to have roughly the same amount of BT (Battle Trophies) as you. By roughly I mean you will encounter some with almost the exact some BT as you, but also some several hundred BT above or below you. For example, someone with 2500 BT is likely to find opponents in the 2000-3000 range, whereas someone with 1500 BT will get 1000-2000 BT opponents mostly. You will sometimes see wandering outernauts with way more or less BT than you (800ish is the most I have seen), but that is rare.

If you are struggling there are 2 options. First is to just cancel and restart a challenge until you get matches you can win. You will likely get different opponents with about the same BT that might be easier. Some opponents might be too tough which is why you might need to restart a few times, but you should be able to beat some opponents with a few hundred more BT than you just because AI is really dumb in some cases. The other option is to just deliberately drop your BT until you get nothing but pushover opponents.

In Pandora’s arena you will almost definitely need to drop your BT to get through some challenges. Several of the PVP challenges have additional gimmicks that make them more difficult such as restricting abilities and tight time limits.

Determining wandering outernauts based on your BT is new since the release of sector 7. I kinda think it was a bad idea since it will make Pandora’s arena unreasonably difficult for newer players. Fortunately dropping BT is always an option.

Topic: Outernauts / What are good gifts?

To give gifts other than fuel or tickets you must NOT be in full screen mode. At the top of the screen click on gifts. You can select a wide variety of gifts from there. It is above glow bugs and lunar. If you are in full screen mode, you will not be able to see or click on this.

Topic: Outernauts / Outernauts Frontier Bundle Information

I never got anything in my in game mail or email about this.

Topic: Card Monsters / stronger AI

The AI really isn’t totally random just bad. It generally doesn’t do things like putting a ranged monster in center that causes melee to move to side. I also think people are underestimating just how difficult programming AI is when compared to the other aspects of games such as this. Look at the algorithms behind everything else in the game and they are pretty simple. If a monster has an ability, if it is in a position to use that ability, and if it does not have some debuff preventing that ability, then it triggers that ability (or for chance based stuff it looks at a RNG to determine if that ability triggers).

Now consider how many things must be looked at for AI to determine the proper card to play or sac. In any given instance there are a limited number of things the AI can choose to do. It can sac any one of up to 4 cards or play any one of up to 4 cards. Each of those 4 cards can depending on the state of the board be played in maybe 3 different ways. There is also the choice to do nothing. So at first glance deciding between up to 17 possible choices doesn’t sound terribly difficult.

What makes it challenging is all the information that must be considered to decide what action to take. In order to make the correct choice it must consider crystal amounts of both players, what cards are on the board, what cards have already been played and what cards remain in its deck to be used later. Considering that there are dozens of different abilities each card can have it makes the amount of information that must (or at least can) be used to make decisions is astronomical.

There are essentially 2 aspects of programming a game like this. First is programming the algorithms that go on behind the scenes. Second is the interface that takes the results of the algorithms and displays them to the player and also takes the actions of the player and feeds that information back into the algorithms. I really don’t have any idea as to how difficult it is to program the interface for something like this. I can say, however, that the algorithms for proper AI are FAR more complicated that any of the other algorithms in this game. For this reason I believe that difficulty of programming is the reason that there isn’t better AI.

Topic: Card Monsters / stronger AI

AI is hard to program and while this isn’t the best, it also isn’t the worst. I played War Metal Tyrant for quite awhile and the game had literally no AI programmed. AI would just play a card literally at random from its hand.

Topic: Card Monsters / Healing order

I have used Lapias alot and I don’t know exactly how it works, but I am confident that the first decision point of who to heal is NOT based on percentage of health remaining.

What I have observed is that the first thing it looks at it is how much of its healing ability will be used. Preference is given to using more of its healing. For example, a L5 lapia with 40 healing in my experience always will heal a L5 Sharknight with 70/110 health over itself with 40/70 health. Same thing for a Sharknight with 80/110 (or L5 petty thief) vs. itself with 50/70. Disease, however, is not considered. Ie. if the Sharknight has 80/110 and no disease and the Lapia has 50/70 with 20 disease the Sharknight will be healed despite the fact that the Sharknight will only use 30 points of healing whereas the Lapia would use all 40. I have observed these results hundreds of times without exception.

Things get a little less clear in instances when the same amount of healing could be used on both cards. This could be the case if 2 cards are missing the same amount of health (eg. 50/70 vs. 90/110) or if both are missing an amount at least equal to the healing ability (eg. a 40 healer and 30/70 vs. 40/110). In these cases what I have observed suggests that the card with less HP remaining will be healed. I am pretty confident in this being the second decision point, but not 100% certain like I am with the 1st.

If 2 cards will use an equal amount of healing AND have equal HP I have no idea who will be healed. Maybe it then looks at what is missing the most health (in this instance this is equivalent of what is missing highest %). Even if that is the case there would still need to be some 4th decision point if those 2 are equal. I will pay more attention from now on to hopefully be able to figure out the 3rd (and 4th if applicable) decision points.

Topic: Outernauts / Glow Bug Tree ~idea~

They should just do away with glowbugs. They serve no purpose other than to hamper new players. Even if they introduce a new higher level area with 50 glowbug cost gates it will only be an annoyance to high level players. Once you have enough neighbors it doesn’t actually stop you it just forces you to deal with the lag of going to a bunch of different friend’s trees. Games need to encourage new players not throw up annoying roadblocks for them.

Topic: Outernauts / sugesstions for new beasts

If they are going to make new beasts they should be of the flux type so it is something genuinely new and not and not just a slightly different version of stuff we already have. An epic flux beast could also serve as a much need foil to Rowls. Yeah, I know in theory pure tech types have alot of weaknesses, but in practice among epics, only Cuddlepuss, Electria and other Rowls can have a STAB bonus that also is strong against tech (I am not gonna count Bobongo). Every other epic has only same type attacks that are weak against tech. Not to mention tech is completely immune to posion type.

Topic: Card Monsters / Roulette Request

Before 50 consecutive logins, there are 2 chances for light crystal.

Topic: Card Monsters / Roulette Request

Basic Booster, Advanced Booster, and Hard EVO are a total waste. Any or all of those 3 could be removed instead of Light Crystal.

Topic: Card Monsters / Current AA System

I am in an alliance with a low ranking but I have thought about these issues some. In fact the fear of pushing too high and killing my alliance as you described in point 2 is one of the reasons I have not pushed further up the ranks.

There is a simple solution to point 1. Just make a cooldown for attacking alliances similar to what there is for alliances that were defending. I am not talking about a 12 hour CD in which you can’t attack, just something small that doesn’t even need to limit the number of fights per day you can have. Just make AAs 23 hours or something instead of 24 followed by a 1 hour period in which the attacking alliance can be attacked but not start an AA.

I really don’t have a good solution for point 2. The underlying problem is that rank itself provides no real value to an alliance and in some cases can be a detriment. This can kill an alliance that pushes up too far, or even one that simply has the bad luck of having 2 or 3 key players quit in a short period of time. Since other alliances are aware of this, they have little incentive to move up which is needed to push the semi-dead alliance back down to a spot where it can perhaps rebuild.

I also would like AAs to be shorter and more frequent. Something along the lines of 11 hours with a 1 hour CD for attackers and 4 hour CD for defenders. This could help stir up quicker movement up and down the rankings. The main draw of these 24 hour AAs is that they make it reasonable for all members to participate in most AAs, but they just feel so slow to me compared to other games.

Topic: Card Monsters / Change of Ability:"Disease"

The problem with this is that Aggression would be too much of a death sentence in swarms. For me at least it might set me back from being able to easily auto NS to struggling with Mushrums since a level 5 Sharknight is my go to guy in swarms. I guess that would depend on what you mean by healing preventing disease. If having any healing monster on the board prevents disease from activating at all I guess this could work.

Topic: Outernauts / Support Issue Thread

Player ID: 47626053

In Frostfall Ridge, Sludge Co Base I am unable to access a switch on the right most platform. It says “Unable to walk there” despite no gaps or obstacles in the way. This is preventing me from progressing in the quest “The Wreckoning” as I can not get to the last Silo and refinery needed for “Diversionary Tactics”.

Topic: Outernauts / Bug Reports

Player ID: 47626053

In Frostfall Ridge, Sludge Co Base I am unable to access a switch on the right most platform. It says “Unable to walk there” despite no gaps or obstacles in the way. This is preventing me from progressing in the quest “The Wreckoning” as I can not get to the last Silo and refinery needed for “Diversionary Tactics”.

Topic: Card Monsters / Upgrading Epics

Tons of gold may be available in later swarms, but without upgraded epics even making it through the necessary quests to unlock the later swarms is a chore. Doing well in those swarms without some good epics is also a daunting prospect.

Topic: Card Monsters / Swarm Building Advise

That should do the trick. Hopefully RD is tough enough to stand up when all the breaks go against you.

I am basically using what I suggested except with level 4 Sharknight w/ Dragoon Spear as my tank. At 90 HP the Shark still at times can bite the dust if he gets hit with Thorns/Counter then doesn’t dodge any of the attacks the next turn.

Not sure if RD will stand up better or not. He’s got 20 less HP but 10 shield and fortunately no Aggression unlike shark.

Topic: Card Monsters / Swarm Building Advise

If you don’t mind it taking a little while, you can just use 2x level 5 lapia + any tough card that can do some damage + anything with courage. RD with Excalibur + 2x Lapia w/ Staff of Power should work. You could run into some issues with getting things set up since a Lapia played first turn might get killed too quickly. To help get things set up you can play a tough filler card and just let it sit out there until it gets killed and you get some more crystals. Snail could do that job well. The other issue is that Staff doesn’t come in green and you might not want to make them generic, but you really can put whatever on the Lapias or nothing at all and just let tank slowly do all the killing.

Topic: Card Monsters / Plz Strengthen Squidiver and Melody of Healing

Ok, so Squidiver isn’t as good as the absolute best epics like Musc and RD, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good. You complain that it isn’t enough better than Lapia, but 20 HP, 10 heal and 1 less CC is actually a huge difference. Curer M could be more useful in some situations, but 50 HP is just so fragile. I’d say the biggest drawback to Squid isn’t how it compares to other healers, but that all healers can be rendered useless against the popular deathstrike and not so popular silence.

Topic: Card Monsters / Duels Light Crystal 2-7-13

OK. Seems to be working for me now as well. Thanks for the fix.

Topic: Card Monsters / Duels Light Crystal 2-7-13

So wtf how is it fixed for everyone except me? I did get a crystal when I just logged on today, but I am guessing that is the one we were supposed to get from putting our name on the list. Please realize that this problem is NOT fixed for everyone.

Topic: Card Monsters / Duels Light Crystal 2-7-13

Is this ever gonna get fixed? People were saying it was fixed now, but this is definitely not the case. 3 days in a row and no crystals. Seriously, if it can’t be done correctly, just put it back the way it was.

Topic: Card Monsters / Duels Light Crystal 2-7-13

I know this may seem like spoiled people just complaining they aren’t getting something for free but it actually a big deal. The free daily light crystal is one of the big reasons to become an exclusive member and increase your light cap. I was actually finally about to do that, but not until this gets fixed. I really don’t see what the problem was with the old system.

Topic: Card Monsters / Duels Light Crystal 2-7-13

Originally posted by Lamatiel:

Trigger for getting the LC is from going under to above 25 points. So tomorrow everything should work just fine.

Wrong. I didn’t get it yesterday and today I got over 25 again, and again no crystal.

Topic: Outernauts / Post your 4 sigils results, or how u got an epic.

Nezzy + Seamew = Puffalo (no sigils)

Topic: Card Monsters / What changes would you like to see?

Doing something to make swarms less tedious should be priority #1. The current situation is brutal for players of all experience levels. This basically is what stopped me from spending to increase my light cap. I simply couldn’t bear sit even longer waiting to exhaust my light on swarms.

The other big issue I see is getting new players to stay. I played for a few weeks months ago and just recently came back, so I consider my self pretty new to this game. I can definitely see why new players would not stick around. It comes down to 2 problems from what I can see.

First it requires a ridiculous amount of grinding to get and level good cards. Fixing swarms would certainly help make this less painful but it would take more than that to really fix it. Most of the problem is the cost in gold and the amount of experience needed to level rare and epic monsters.

A player’s experience is also way too dependent on their luck when it comes buying packs. Until you get one good tough creature you are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to swarms and quests which are the primary way for a new player to progress. A player could easily buy dozens of packs and only get equips, items and less durable creatures like ranged and magic. In the end you will need some of those types of cards, but starting off they just don’t make as big of a difference as a good durable creature. I probably would not have stuck with the game as long as I have if I hadn’t gotten a Sharknight early on.

My solution to this is to start each player with a durable rare card instead of a crappy common card. Give a choice between things like Sharknight, Swoord or Nin’jutsurtle. I can’t see the giving each player 1 rare card hurting Edgebee’s bottom line. Getting a taste of what good cards are like might convince more people to stay. It would make early quests really easy, but I don’t see that as a problem. It is common practice in many games to provide advantages to help new players catch up.

Second, PVP is total crap for new players. It would takes months of grinding, tons of cash, or way more luck on packs than I have had to get a respectable enough deck to be in a real alliance. New players basically have to form their own alliance and fight other 1 person alliances. 1 fight AAs are quite lame. Even getting several players together doesn’t solve this problem as it depends on the number of people in the opposing alliance.

Live play is even worse for new players. The restrictions put in place presumably to keep top players from being able just steamroll with their best cards only make it worse on new players. Really, rare only with no nature when I only have 4 rare creatures, 3 of which are nature? Even the common and uncommon only restrictions are problematic. How many new players can afford to take away from leveling up their best cards in order to focus on cards they will only use in specific live play situations?

I know I offered more complaints than solutions, but if nothing else I think enabling multiple swarm runs as suggested by OP, giving every player 1 beefy rare card, and maybe reducing the cost to level creatures would make a world of difference.