I'm going to talk about subscription oceans, specifically, here, so don't get your pants all in a knot about doubloon oceans. Much of this doesn't apply to doubloon oceans or, if it does, is slightly different.
On a subscription ocean, every subscribed account is given 24 hours of labor, per day, to work with. So what? Well, your labor is a great source of income for you. Whether you use it to forage or to work at shoppes, using your labor is a way to put PoE in your pocket. Nonetheless, I'm always surprised how many people don't understand the labor system and are wasting a lot of their potential. Seriously, on Midnight right now, 24 hours of labor can be worth well over 1,000 PoE per day.
I won't go over every detail, but here are a few highlights. (If you want greater detail, go here.)
Labor is Split Evenly Between Alts
That means that, if you have two pirates on your account, each is given 12 hours to work with each day. I constantly hear people say things like, "I have 3 pirates on my account, but only one of them has jobs, so it's okay." No! It's not! The hours are split up among your alts whether you use them, or not. Unused hours from one alt do not transfer over to other alts. So, if you have multiple pirates on one account and some of them don't have jobs, you're wasting labor. The only way to get more than 24 hours of labor available to you is to pay for a second account.
Active Puzzling and Foraging Uses "Advance" Labor
Whenever you try to forage or puzzle at a shoppe, the game checks to see if you have any "labor credit" available. Everyone gets 24 hours of "credit." Assuming you have labor available, you're allowed to puzzle and provide labor or forage. Every time you use an hour in this way, you must wait one real hour for that hour of labor to become available again.
So, if you happen to use 24 hours of in-game labor within 1 hour of real time, what happens? I'm so glad you asked.
If you're foraging, it's quite simple. The game tells you that you've used up your labor for the day. If you're puzzling at a shoppe, it tells you that you've used up all your labor for the day. You're still allowed to play the puzzle and your standing can change, but you can not provide labor, based upon your work.
Once your advance labor is all used up, you need to start waiting real time for it to become free, again. For example, if you were to go out and forage 24 times, you'd be stopped, by the game, from continuing to forage. After 1 real hour, you'd be able to forage one more time. After two hours, you'd be able to forage twice more, etc. After 24 hours had elapsed, all of your "labor credit" would again be available to you.
In General, Shoppe Puzzling Doesn't Pay
For the most part, if doesn't make good economic sense to play shoppe puzzles. Occasionally, you need to renew your labor or perhaps you want to work on improving your standing. However, if you're interested only in producing labor or making money, puzzling at shoppes isn't a great way to do it. You can make similar amounts of PoE working with the navy and far more pillaging. Meanwhile, your labor hours can be used up automatically, whether you're online, or not.
That's all I'm going to discuss, here. If you want more details, check the YPPedia. I just find that a lot of folks have misconceptions about the labor system, so I thought I'd post something quick about it.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Bilging: Value of Clearing Crabs?
A FU student asks:
The value of a cleared crab is proportional to the level of the water in the bilge. The higher the water, the more a cleared crab is worth. Unfortunately, you just don't have much control over when you get crabs. You do, on the other hand, have more control over constantly creating bingos.
A crab may be worth a good score, but so is a bingo. A bingo along with a crab cleared is worth far more. Wink Personally, I see the crabs as "bonus" points. I don't generally chase crabs. I just clear 'em as I work my bingos about the board. The only time I pay much attention to crabs is if I can arrange a clear to release multiple crabs at one time (which provides a bonus) or if I really can't find any decent clears. In such a case, I might just try to release a crab and then look for good clears, after that.
I've heard that clearing crabs scores as well as consistently doing bingos. What's your take on that?
The value of a cleared crab is proportional to the level of the water in the bilge. The higher the water, the more a cleared crab is worth. Unfortunately, you just don't have much control over when you get crabs. You do, on the other hand, have more control over constantly creating bingos.
A crab may be worth a good score, but so is a bingo. A bingo along with a crab cleared is worth far more. Wink Personally, I see the crabs as "bonus" points. I don't generally chase crabs. I just clear 'em as I work my bingos about the board. The only time I pay much attention to crabs is if I can arrange a clear to release multiple crabs at one time (which provides a bonus) or if I really can't find any decent clears. In such a case, I might just try to release a crab and then look for good clears, after that.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Bilging: Slow and Steady / Building Bingos
One of the common problems I see from bilgers (I myself was guilty of this for quite some time) is that they try to bilge "too fast." People want to swap pieces as fast as possible and make as many clears as they can in order to keep pieces moving through the board, release crabs, and feel like they're getting somewhere. Unfortunately, that doesn't translate well into emptying the bilge of the ship. To keep your bilging indicator sparkling, you generally want to go slow and look for efficient clears. You can actually have a good amount of downtime between moves. I believe I've heard that you can have up to 8 seconds between moves, but I've never tested it, myself. It does seem to be in the ballpark, though. So keep in mind that taking some time to observe and plan is perfectly acceptable.
In bilge, you score far better making combo clears than just straight lines. By that, I mean simply that a 3x3 will score better than a 3 piece clear followed by another 3 piece clear. Seems simple enough, right? The real goal is to clear the largest combinations using the smallest number of moves possible...and somehow coming to a nice balance between the two. For example, is a bingo that requires 5 moves more valuable than a 3x3 that requires only 1?
Here's my strategy for high-end bilging. Look for bingos. Constantly. They're actually not that difficult to spot and build. Here's the approach I use.
CONSTRUCTING BINGOS
1. Look for 3 common pieces in the same row
Here's an example of a beginning bilging board. The first thing I do is look for three common pieces in a single row. I've highlighted the first group I spotted.
2. Look for that same piece in the rows above and below that row
The next step is to look in the rows immediately above and below the row where you found the three common pieces. Our goal here is to be able to clear the row of three at the same time as we're able to clear a column of three. So, we either need one in the row above plus one more in the row above that, or the same thing on the bottom, or one above and one below. If you have more than that, great. If not, no big deal. The key here is 3.
So here's the next thing I look for:
3. Look for a column of 3 of a different piece, in those rows
If we've managed to find both of the first two pieces, we've almost got our bingo. The last thing we want to do is to find a column of at least three of some other piece that overlaps with our row of three. Here's what I spot:
Notice that I can also make a column of three of the pentagonal pieces on the left, as well. It just so happens that they're farther away, so I don't need to concern myself with 'em.
4. Build your Bingo
Notice that, as of yet, I haven't moved anything. Everything that I've done thus far has to do with observing the board. With bilging, you want to conserve your moves, so it's important to plan carefully what you're about to do. Once you have your plan, execute it. At this point, I have my plan. Here's what I intend to do:
Okay, we're all set, right? We've got our plan - now we just need to move the pieces into position. The important thing to keep in mind here is that we want to be as efficient as possible when moving our pieces. Try not to waste any moves. Here's the most efficient movement plan (I've numbered the pieces so that I can discuss movement more easily - individual pieces are numbered, while positions are lettered):
Our final move must be the swapping of pieces 1 and 2. With that in mind, let's look at how to move the other pieces into position.
1. Move Piece 5 to Position C - requires 2 moves
2. Move Piece 3 to Position A - requires 1 move
3. Move Piece 4 to Position B - requires 1 move
4. Swap Pieces 3 and 4 - requires 1 move*
5. Swap Pieces 1 and 2 - requires 1 move
That's it! We just built a 6 move bingo!
Pay special attention to Step 4 above. Pieces 3 and 4 need to cross. We could have moved Piece 4 all the way to Position A first, right? That would put Piece 4 into position. However, if we were to do that, when we crossed Piece 4 with Piece 3, in order to get Piece 3 into position at B, we'd be pushing Piece 4 out of position. Then we'd have to waste a move getting Piece 4 back into Position A, where we wanted it, in the first place. That would take us 5 moves. As I illustrated above, it can be done in 3. Whenever you have to cross pieces, be sure to pay attention to this.
5. Rinse and Repeat
Now that one Bingo is complete, start looking for the next one. You always want to be looking for big combos that don't require many moves to complete. In general, I try for constant Bingos, for better or for worse. Sometimes, though, there just isn't a Bingo available. Sometimes, you can't find any pieces that meet the criteria laid out in steps 1, 2, or even 3. In those cases, you really need to look for other combos that can be done easily. Perhaps you can spot a quick 3x3 or 3x4. Maybe you can't even find one of those. Hit a single move clear of 3 or more. You only want to resort to such small clears if you really have nothing going for you on your board, but it is necessary, at times.
Watch for "Accidental" clears
When you're setting up your Bingos (or anything else, for that matter), watch out for clears that you don't intend to make that may goof up your plan. Let's look briefly back at my positional picture, from before:
What would happen if we were to use this set of moves?
1. Piece 5 right one position (Still left of C) - requires 1 move
2. Piece 4 to Position B - requires 1 move
3. Piece 3 to Position A - requires 1 move
4. Swap Pieces 3 and 4 - requires 1 move
5. Piece 5 to Position C - requires 1 move
6. Swap Pieces 1 and 2 - requires 1 move
6 move Bingo, right? Not so fast! Order matters!
In this case, we started by moving Piece 5 one space to the right. Note that this actually makes an inadvertent clear of the 3 green balls. In this case, that's fine. It all happens below our Bingo and won't mess anything up. However, you may be surprised by it and move on to another part of your plan, rather than getting Piece 5 all the way to Position C. So you start working on the top half of your Bingo, moving Piece 4 Over to the left. Then you move Piece 3 to the right so you can swap them.
Oops!
You just cleared a column of three octagonal pieces - the three pieces you were planning on using to complete your Bingo! Now you've spent a bunch of moves on some crummy clears and your plan has gone to pot. Time to pick up the pieces and try to recover.
Try not to let this happen. Watch for inadvertent clears. If you can see that it won't goof up your combo, great - more points for you. If, however, it's going to screw things up, watch it. See if you can avoid it. In this case, avoiding the inadvertant clear is simple; be sure to move Piece 5 all the way to C before working the top half of the Bingo.
Conclusion
This technique takes a bit of practice (especially in recognizing the patterns), but it's not particularly difficult. Just keep in mind the steps I laid out and see what you can do. Hopefully, you'll find that your Bilging standing will increase without nearly as much effort.
I'll try to post a video of this technique in action, soon.
In bilge, you score far better making combo clears than just straight lines. By that, I mean simply that a 3x3 will score better than a 3 piece clear followed by another 3 piece clear. Seems simple enough, right? The real goal is to clear the largest combinations using the smallest number of moves possible...and somehow coming to a nice balance between the two. For example, is a bingo that requires 5 moves more valuable than a 3x3 that requires only 1?
Here's my strategy for high-end bilging. Look for bingos. Constantly. They're actually not that difficult to spot and build. Here's the approach I use.
CONSTRUCTING BINGOS
1. Look for 3 common pieces in the same row
Here's an example of a beginning bilging board. The first thing I do is look for three common pieces in a single row. I've highlighted the first group I spotted.
2. Look for that same piece in the rows above and below that row
The next step is to look in the rows immediately above and below the row where you found the three common pieces. Our goal here is to be able to clear the row of three at the same time as we're able to clear a column of three. So, we either need one in the row above plus one more in the row above that, or the same thing on the bottom, or one above and one below. If you have more than that, great. If not, no big deal. The key here is 3.
So here's the next thing I look for:
3. Look for a column of 3 of a different piece, in those rows
If we've managed to find both of the first two pieces, we've almost got our bingo. The last thing we want to do is to find a column of at least three of some other piece that overlaps with our row of three. Here's what I spot:
Notice that I can also make a column of three of the pentagonal pieces on the left, as well. It just so happens that they're farther away, so I don't need to concern myself with 'em.
4. Build your Bingo
Notice that, as of yet, I haven't moved anything. Everything that I've done thus far has to do with observing the board. With bilging, you want to conserve your moves, so it's important to plan carefully what you're about to do. Once you have your plan, execute it. At this point, I have my plan. Here's what I intend to do:
Okay, we're all set, right? We've got our plan - now we just need to move the pieces into position. The important thing to keep in mind here is that we want to be as efficient as possible when moving our pieces. Try not to waste any moves. Here's the most efficient movement plan (I've numbered the pieces so that I can discuss movement more easily - individual pieces are numbered, while positions are lettered):
Our final move must be the swapping of pieces 1 and 2. With that in mind, let's look at how to move the other pieces into position.
1. Move Piece 5 to Position C - requires 2 moves
2. Move Piece 3 to Position A - requires 1 move
3. Move Piece 4 to Position B - requires 1 move
4. Swap Pieces 3 and 4 - requires 1 move*
5. Swap Pieces 1 and 2 - requires 1 move
That's it! We just built a 6 move bingo!
Pay special attention to Step 4 above. Pieces 3 and 4 need to cross. We could have moved Piece 4 all the way to Position A first, right? That would put Piece 4 into position. However, if we were to do that, when we crossed Piece 4 with Piece 3, in order to get Piece 3 into position at B, we'd be pushing Piece 4 out of position. Then we'd have to waste a move getting Piece 4 back into Position A, where we wanted it, in the first place. That would take us 5 moves. As I illustrated above, it can be done in 3. Whenever you have to cross pieces, be sure to pay attention to this.
5. Rinse and Repeat
Now that one Bingo is complete, start looking for the next one. You always want to be looking for big combos that don't require many moves to complete. In general, I try for constant Bingos, for better or for worse. Sometimes, though, there just isn't a Bingo available. Sometimes, you can't find any pieces that meet the criteria laid out in steps 1, 2, or even 3. In those cases, you really need to look for other combos that can be done easily. Perhaps you can spot a quick 3x3 or 3x4. Maybe you can't even find one of those. Hit a single move clear of 3 or more. You only want to resort to such small clears if you really have nothing going for you on your board, but it is necessary, at times.
Watch for "Accidental" clears
When you're setting up your Bingos (or anything else, for that matter), watch out for clears that you don't intend to make that may goof up your plan. Let's look briefly back at my positional picture, from before:
What would happen if we were to use this set of moves?
1. Piece 5 right one position (Still left of C) - requires 1 move
2. Piece 4 to Position B - requires 1 move
3. Piece 3 to Position A - requires 1 move
4. Swap Pieces 3 and 4 - requires 1 move
5. Piece 5 to Position C - requires 1 move
6. Swap Pieces 1 and 2 - requires 1 move
6 move Bingo, right? Not so fast! Order matters!
In this case, we started by moving Piece 5 one space to the right. Note that this actually makes an inadvertent clear of the 3 green balls. In this case, that's fine. It all happens below our Bingo and won't mess anything up. However, you may be surprised by it and move on to another part of your plan, rather than getting Piece 5 all the way to Position C. So you start working on the top half of your Bingo, moving Piece 4 Over to the left. Then you move Piece 3 to the right so you can swap them.
Oops!
You just cleared a column of three octagonal pieces - the three pieces you were planning on using to complete your Bingo! Now you've spent a bunch of moves on some crummy clears and your plan has gone to pot. Time to pick up the pieces and try to recover.
Try not to let this happen. Watch for inadvertent clears. If you can see that it won't goof up your combo, great - more points for you. If, however, it's going to screw things up, watch it. See if you can avoid it. In this case, avoiding the inadvertant clear is simple; be sure to move Piece 5 all the way to C before working the top half of the Bingo.
Conclusion
This technique takes a bit of practice (especially in recognizing the patterns), but it's not particularly difficult. Just keep in mind the steps I laid out and see what you can do. Hopefully, you'll find that your Bilging standing will increase without nearly as much effort.
I'll try to post a video of this technique in action, soon.
Bilging: Required Reading
With the introduction of trophies, I've noticed a lot more people are bilging in order to obtain the various crab trophies. As such, I figured I'd do a little piece on bilging.
As is the usual case, I'll start off by pointing folks towards existing tutorials and information. Be sure to check these out:
Basic Bilging Info
Bilging Tutorial
As is the usual case, I'll start off by pointing folks towards existing tutorials and information. Be sure to check these out:
Basic Bilging Info
Bilging Tutorial
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Rumbling: Countering Turbo-Sprinklers with Bruises
If you've spent any reasonable time rumbling, you've run into someone that loves to sprinkle. Heck, many fights start as strike-fests and then degrage quickly into sprinkle tennis as you each send larger and larger spinkle attacks back and forth. This is a technique to help you counter someone that is sprinkling heavily. It can be done with any bludgeon - it's the technique that's important, not the tool.
The goal is to send bruises to your opponent. Because bruises take more effort to clear, the hope is to decrease the number of sprinkles your opponent can send for each row drop their given. Just to give you an example of what we're looking for, here are a couple screenshots I took - these are from a Renowned rumbler (Amatoria) fighting me, an Ultimate rumbler, showing that you don't have to be the best rumbler in the ocean to pull this off. The only caveat is that I sent her nothing but sprinkles, and she knew that was coming. I'll talk about why that's important, later. Here's her first strike against me:
Notice the large number of bruises in that strike. That was the first strike she sent in the game. None of those bruises are from board drops. Here's what happens if you continue using this approach effectively:
What a mess. There are some groups of similar colors in there but, all in all, it's a nightmare to clear. And remember, this is someone that's Renowned. You don't have to be an amazing rumbler to pull this off - you just have to understand the strategy. What nasty bludgeon was used to create this mess, you ask? Rope coils - a bludgeon often known as having one of the worst strike patterns in the game. It's truly the technique, not the bludgeon causing the mess.
Understanding Bruises
First of all, it's important to understand how bruises are created. When you trigger a major strike (triggering a charged group), the size of the strike is determined by the number of charged groups that are triggered and how many total balls are in those groups. However, the number of bruises included in the strike is determined by how many loose balls "fall off" of the puzzle due to the clear. I've not tested it, personally, but Boothook claims that up to one half of the volume of a strike can consist of bruises. It seems about right to me, so I'll assume that's true.
That means that, if you send a 20 ball strike, up to 10 of those balls can be bruises. What does that mean for your strike, though? Well, if you send that strike as is, there won't be any bruises (unless you're using a bruising bludgeon, like a hammer, of course). If you want to turn 10 balls of that strike into bruises, you need to add 10 "loose" balls to your strike so that, when you clear it, those 10 balls fall off the puzzle, turning 10 balls of your strike into bruises. That means that you're using a considerably larger number of balls to send a strike that's no larger, at all, but a strike that's filled with bruises.
Because it requires so many extra balls to create srikes filled with bruises, they're not often used. However, if you're fighting someone that likes to sprinkle endlessly, you can use their attack strategy against them in the form of bruises.
Let's take a look at how it works.
Step 1: Pay very special attention to the sprinkle pattern of your opponent.
In this case, I'm fighting someone using bare fists. The sprinkle pattern, from left to right, is red/yellow/orange.
Step 2: Set your trigger group.
The goal here is to make a fairly large strike so we need to assume that the opponent will send one or more sprinkle attacks while we're busy building. That makes it very important to start the combo by placing the trigger group in such a way that it lines up with your opponent's strike pattern. In this case, my trigger group is orange on the right, which lines up with my opponent's sprinkle pattern. If my opponent sends any sprinkle attacks, the orange balls they send will simply attach to my trigger group, keeping it available for me to trigger.
Here's the basic setup:
This may not look like much, but there are two things to note. First, my trigger group is oranges on the right. As I said earlier, I know this lines up with my opponent's sprinkle pattern. Second, notice that the charged groups stretch all the way from one side of the board to the other. Here's an illustration to help you see it:
What's so important about that, you ask? Well, the important part is that anything that comes up from below is bound to fall off the puzzle when you break this combo. So, no matter how many sprinkles your opponent sends, those balls can be incorporated into your attack and sent back.
Step 3: Cut off the charged groups.
If you allow the balls to all mesh together, you're going to create a nice, wide strike, but it's not going to be very large, unless you can create a combo with a lot of individual charged groups. Because turbo sprinklers can fill your board so quickly, it can be hard to build a combo with a lot of charged groups. That means you end up wasting a lot of the attack.
To take full advantage of your opponent's attack style, make sure that these groups aren't all connecting. So, if you have a red charged group on the left (where your opponent is sending red balls), be sure to block it off with some other balls. That ensures that the red balls become a separate group. Your goal here is to make sure that your opponent's attacks become unattached groups. As long as they're unattached, they'll become bruises in your counter-strike.
Here's what it looks like when you're ready to trigger the attack (I've left the black line in place so that you can see where the cut-off is):
Step 4: Trigger the Strike
A couple things to notice here. For one, the strike is actually pretty small. There are only 6 charged groups in there. That means my strike is only going to be about 4 or 5 lines long. However, notice how large that group of oranges is on the right. That's because my opponent's attacks all accumulated onto my trigger group. Because that group is so large, my strike is going to be very wide, even if it is short. Also, look at how many uncharged balls are just hanging off that strike. Tons. Honestly, there are far more hanging off it than there need to be. Because a strike can only be about half bruises, I have many more balls hanging off this strike than I need. Many are simply wasted. Nonetheless, I really wanted to illustrate the strategy, so I kinda overdid it.
Step 5: Follow the attack
Once you send the strike, you're not done. You need to keep the pressure on and make sure that your opponent doesn't have time to recover. If you immediately go back to building a large strike, you're going to allow your opponent a chance to dig through all those bruises. My suggestion is to send a lot of small strikes. Small strikes are good for a few reasons:
So that's the basic strategy. Please note that, in order to make this work, you do not have to cut off the entire board with charged groups, from one side to the other. It's nice, if you can do it, but it's not essential. If I were to set a trigger group on the orange, I could charge the red on the left and then cut it off. Anything that attaches to that group would become bruises in a strike - just make sure that those balls don't attach to anything except the red group, which will break. To make it a little more effective, you could attach balls to the edges of the group hanging off the red, so that it catches more rising sprinkles.
You can even slow down a bit when using this technique. Very quickly get the setup in place, setting the trigger group and making a line of charged groups for attacks to hang off of. Once that's in place, though, let your opponent do the work. Let them fire ball after ball and fill your screen with sprikle attacks. This causes them to get many more board drops (and with them, bruises) than you do. Finally, when your board is nearly full, let it rip. Once you're at this stage, get back on your horse and get to work, sending small strikes to keep the pressure on.
Also, you need to be careful when using this strategy. It can be very useful against someone that is only sending sprinkles, but, if you're busy building and your opponent sends a strike attack your way (even a small one), it can really screw up your board, making you easy prey.
This certainly isn't a strategy that works against everyone, but it can be useful against those that want to play sprinkle tennis against you. I hope you find it helpful.
The goal is to send bruises to your opponent. Because bruises take more effort to clear, the hope is to decrease the number of sprinkles your opponent can send for each row drop their given. Just to give you an example of what we're looking for, here are a couple screenshots I took - these are from a Renowned rumbler (Amatoria) fighting me, an Ultimate rumbler, showing that you don't have to be the best rumbler in the ocean to pull this off. The only caveat is that I sent her nothing but sprinkles, and she knew that was coming. I'll talk about why that's important, later. Here's her first strike against me:
Notice the large number of bruises in that strike. That was the first strike she sent in the game. None of those bruises are from board drops. Here's what happens if you continue using this approach effectively:
What a mess. There are some groups of similar colors in there but, all in all, it's a nightmare to clear. And remember, this is someone that's Renowned. You don't have to be an amazing rumbler to pull this off - you just have to understand the strategy. What nasty bludgeon was used to create this mess, you ask? Rope coils - a bludgeon often known as having one of the worst strike patterns in the game. It's truly the technique, not the bludgeon causing the mess.
Understanding Bruises
First of all, it's important to understand how bruises are created. When you trigger a major strike (triggering a charged group), the size of the strike is determined by the number of charged groups that are triggered and how many total balls are in those groups. However, the number of bruises included in the strike is determined by how many loose balls "fall off" of the puzzle due to the clear. I've not tested it, personally, but Boothook claims that up to one half of the volume of a strike can consist of bruises. It seems about right to me, so I'll assume that's true.
That means that, if you send a 20 ball strike, up to 10 of those balls can be bruises. What does that mean for your strike, though? Well, if you send that strike as is, there won't be any bruises (unless you're using a bruising bludgeon, like a hammer, of course). If you want to turn 10 balls of that strike into bruises, you need to add 10 "loose" balls to your strike so that, when you clear it, those 10 balls fall off the puzzle, turning 10 balls of your strike into bruises. That means that you're using a considerably larger number of balls to send a strike that's no larger, at all, but a strike that's filled with bruises.
Because it requires so many extra balls to create srikes filled with bruises, they're not often used. However, if you're fighting someone that likes to sprinkle endlessly, you can use their attack strategy against them in the form of bruises.
Let's take a look at how it works.
Step 1: Pay very special attention to the sprinkle pattern of your opponent.
In this case, I'm fighting someone using bare fists. The sprinkle pattern, from left to right, is red/yellow/orange.
Step 2: Set your trigger group.
The goal here is to make a fairly large strike so we need to assume that the opponent will send one or more sprinkle attacks while we're busy building. That makes it very important to start the combo by placing the trigger group in such a way that it lines up with your opponent's strike pattern. In this case, my trigger group is orange on the right, which lines up with my opponent's sprinkle pattern. If my opponent sends any sprinkle attacks, the orange balls they send will simply attach to my trigger group, keeping it available for me to trigger.
Here's the basic setup:
This may not look like much, but there are two things to note. First, my trigger group is oranges on the right. As I said earlier, I know this lines up with my opponent's sprinkle pattern. Second, notice that the charged groups stretch all the way from one side of the board to the other. Here's an illustration to help you see it:
What's so important about that, you ask? Well, the important part is that anything that comes up from below is bound to fall off the puzzle when you break this combo. So, no matter how many sprinkles your opponent sends, those balls can be incorporated into your attack and sent back.
Step 3: Cut off the charged groups.
If you allow the balls to all mesh together, you're going to create a nice, wide strike, but it's not going to be very large, unless you can create a combo with a lot of individual charged groups. Because turbo sprinklers can fill your board so quickly, it can be hard to build a combo with a lot of charged groups. That means you end up wasting a lot of the attack.
To take full advantage of your opponent's attack style, make sure that these groups aren't all connecting. So, if you have a red charged group on the left (where your opponent is sending red balls), be sure to block it off with some other balls. That ensures that the red balls become a separate group. Your goal here is to make sure that your opponent's attacks become unattached groups. As long as they're unattached, they'll become bruises in your counter-strike.
Here's what it looks like when you're ready to trigger the attack (I've left the black line in place so that you can see where the cut-off is):
Step 4: Trigger the Strike
A couple things to notice here. For one, the strike is actually pretty small. There are only 6 charged groups in there. That means my strike is only going to be about 4 or 5 lines long. However, notice how large that group of oranges is on the right. That's because my opponent's attacks all accumulated onto my trigger group. Because that group is so large, my strike is going to be very wide, even if it is short. Also, look at how many uncharged balls are just hanging off that strike. Tons. Honestly, there are far more hanging off it than there need to be. Because a strike can only be about half bruises, I have many more balls hanging off this strike than I need. Many are simply wasted. Nonetheless, I really wanted to illustrate the strategy, so I kinda overdid it.
Step 5: Follow the attack
Once you send the strike, you're not done. You need to keep the pressure on and make sure that your opponent doesn't have time to recover. If you immediately go back to building a large strike, you're going to allow your opponent a chance to dig through all those bruises. My suggestion is to send a lot of small strikes. Small strikes are good for a few reasons:
- It pushes the bruises down at your opponent, forcing them to work through them.
- It deprives your opponent sprinkles to clear to help work through the bruises. Your opponent is forced to fire balls from their gloves to clear the bruises, causing them to get more row drops.
- It helps to scramble the bruises about, making them more difficult to clear.
So that's the basic strategy. Please note that, in order to make this work, you do not have to cut off the entire board with charged groups, from one side to the other. It's nice, if you can do it, but it's not essential. If I were to set a trigger group on the orange, I could charge the red on the left and then cut it off. Anything that attaches to that group would become bruises in a strike - just make sure that those balls don't attach to anything except the red group, which will break. To make it a little more effective, you could attach balls to the edges of the group hanging off the red, so that it catches more rising sprinkles.
You can even slow down a bit when using this technique. Very quickly get the setup in place, setting the trigger group and making a line of charged groups for attacks to hang off of. Once that's in place, though, let your opponent do the work. Let them fire ball after ball and fill your screen with sprikle attacks. This causes them to get many more board drops (and with them, bruises) than you do. Finally, when your board is nearly full, let it rip. Once you're at this stage, get back on your horse and get to work, sending small strikes to keep the pressure on.
Also, you need to be careful when using this strategy. It can be very useful against someone that is only sending sprinkles, but, if you're busy building and your opponent sends a strike attack your way (even a small one), it can really screw up your board, making you easy prey.
This certainly isn't a strategy that works against everyone, but it can be useful against those that want to play sprinkle tennis against you. I hope you find it helpful.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Rumbling: The Able Perspective
I've tried to show folks videos of me rumbling but, quite often, I'm told that it just goes too fast and it's difficult to follow. Fine. Yoanne has been kind enough to provide a video of her (an Able rumbler) rumbling against a bot. I've taken her video and added my own narration discussing some of the things that she could work on to make herself a better rumbler.
Enjoy.
Yoanne Rumbling
Enjoy.
Yoanne Rumbling
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Duty Navigation: Tips & Tricks
The duty navigation puzzle serves two purposes. For one, it works as a multiplier that impacts the efforts of your sailors. So, by having a duty navigator in addition to your sailors, you can accelerate your ship even faster. However, without any sailors, duty navigation does you no good, at all. Also, duty navigation is used to memorize league points, which is usually what the puzzle is used for. As it can't be used in battle, it's simply not used much on pillages or commodity runs (although some folks do prefer using duty nav and allowing swabbies to sail on commodity runs - I oppose that concept, but some prefer it). So, in general, the main benefit of duty navigation is memorizing league points.
It's known that you memorize league points faster (in less passes) if you perform better at the duty navigation puzzle. Therefore, the better you are at the puzzle, the less time you'll have to spend memorizing to learn your routes. Some folks complain of having to make 6-8 passes over a league point to memorize it. Garnering Excellents and Incredibles, I can normally memorize any league point in 4-6 passes (usually 4-5). So, if that's the case, let's talk about how to be a good duty navver.
Duty Navigation is different from most puzzles in Y!PP in that it isn't based largely around combos. Sure, you can combo in duty nav, but it's very difficult and I never even bother to try. Regardless of not doing combos, I've climbed as high as #11 on Midnight. If you really want to get to #1, I'd suggest spending some time learning about combos and then you can write about how to be a good duty navver. ;) The scoring is based on clearing constellations - the larger the constellations, the more your indicator is impacted. As such, when you first start duty navigation (at Able standing), you're going to have very small constellations which won't be worth much. As you increase your standing, however, your constellations will become more complicated. This means that they'll take more effort to complete, but they'll also have a greater impact on your duty report. Here's an example of a basic 5-star constellation. The easiest constellations will have only 2 or 3 stars in them - the most difficult will have around 8.
However, while Duty Navigation may be different in that it's not largely combo-based, it's very similar to most puzzles in that a little planning will take you a long way. Actually, I'd go as far as saying that the duty nav puzzle is almost entirely about planning.
Replacing Lower Circle Pieces
Filling the first constellation is usually pretty simple. You just drop stars as you need them and you're good as gold. The real trouble comes when you have to complete constellations and you have existing stars in your way. Sooner or later, you're going to run across a situation like this:
In this case, we have an orange star in the lowest ring that's preventing us from putting the yellow that we need in that place. So we need to find a way to clear that orange star and replace it with a yellow. It's not a complicated process - let me guide you through what the steps are.
And, to go along with that, just so you can see it in action, here's a quick video of me doing the same maneuver. In this case, I'm trying to replace an orange in the inner ring with a blue star.
Video Sample
Planning For the Future
Quite often, it seems like you get a lot of stars that don't fit into the constellation so you can just drop them anywhere. Beware - what you don't pay attention to now may come back to haunt you later. Take a look at this example:
In this case, I've got a red star coming that I simply don't need. I could easily just drop it where it is. But, what happens if I do? Then I have two red stars on top of one another (the red star on the inner ring is even part of the constellation). If it takes me a while to get the orange star needed to clear this constellation, I may have to be careful not to accidentally clear that column of reds. If I do accidentally clear it, I may have to start all over, which is costly.
Okay, so that example is a little contrived and not too hard to deal with, but what about this situation?
In this case, I have two oranges stacked - one of which is part of my constellation, so I don't want to clear it. Both the inner and middle rings are locked into place because it helps me clear my constellation. What's worse is that, to complete this constellation, I need two yellow stars. The chances of me getting two yellow stars prior to getting one orange one are not good. That means that I'm probably going to end up with an orange star in my outer ring and I'm going to have to be careful about moving it about so that I don't accidentally clear that column and ruin my constellation.
These situations aren't always avoidable - sometimes you just get stuck in such situations. However, a bit of planning can help you avoid them as much as possible. Even if you can't avoid the situation, being able to recognize that you don't want to accidentally clear that column can help you clear your constellation without a gaffe.
"Fixing" Troublesome Setups
The situation I just pointed out isn't hopeless - far from it. If you're really getting taxed for space in the outer ring and you have an orange star out there, you may want to try to clear it out, giving you some more freedom to move.
In this case, we're fortunate in that there is another orange star in the inner ring. If another orange falls to us in the outer ring, we can shift the inner ring counter-clockwise one position. This action maintains the formation of the constellation in the inner ring (although it's now offset by one position) but allows you to clear the "new" column of oranges safely, making the constellation easier to complete.
Be wary of using this strategy when your outer ring is getting quite full. As you rotate the inner and middle rings, you might find yourself accidentally making clears where you don't intend to and potentially destroying your constellation. This brings me nicely to my next point.
Buying Yourself Time
There are five different colors of stars in the navigation puzzle: red, yellow, white, blue, and orange. As such, you can expect that it'll take, on average, about 5 stars before you get a repeat of the same color you just got. Of course, what star you actually get is random, but the law of averages plays its part, here.
Look again at the previous example. I need two yellows to complete that constellation. Unfortunately, if you count the red one that is falling, I only have 8 positions remaining in my puzzle before I booch. Will I get two yellows before then? I don't know, but it'll probably be dang close. This is a great example of a situation in which I'd like to "buy some time."
Buying time is really just the process of clearing stars in rows or columns to give yourself more room. The most important part of this, though, is that you must clear them without jeopardizing the integrity of your constellation. If you screw up your progress, you really cost yourself more time than you saved.
As I mentioned earlier, you can try to "repair" the column of oranges. Not only does that make the constellation more manageable, but it also opens up three additional spaces on your board, giving you more opportunities to get the two yellow stars needed to complete the constellation.
Any other possible clears that stand out? How about the whites extending off to 3 o'clock? Those have nothing to do with the constellation and are already lined up, just waiting to be cleared. That would be a great way to open some more space.
Okay, I've rambled on long enough about duty navigation. Hopefully, some of the above makes some sense. As usual, if you have questions, post them here.
Below is a link to a video of me doing some duty navigation. Be warned that I went for video quality over file size, so it is a very hefty download (just over 47 MB, zipped).
Duty Navigation Sample Video
It's known that you memorize league points faster (in less passes) if you perform better at the duty navigation puzzle. Therefore, the better you are at the puzzle, the less time you'll have to spend memorizing to learn your routes. Some folks complain of having to make 6-8 passes over a league point to memorize it. Garnering Excellents and Incredibles, I can normally memorize any league point in 4-6 passes (usually 4-5). So, if that's the case, let's talk about how to be a good duty navver.
Duty Navigation is different from most puzzles in Y!PP in that it isn't based largely around combos. Sure, you can combo in duty nav, but it's very difficult and I never even bother to try. Regardless of not doing combos, I've climbed as high as #11 on Midnight. If you really want to get to #1, I'd suggest spending some time learning about combos and then you can write about how to be a good duty navver. ;) The scoring is based on clearing constellations - the larger the constellations, the more your indicator is impacted. As such, when you first start duty navigation (at Able standing), you're going to have very small constellations which won't be worth much. As you increase your standing, however, your constellations will become more complicated. This means that they'll take more effort to complete, but they'll also have a greater impact on your duty report. Here's an example of a basic 5-star constellation. The easiest constellations will have only 2 or 3 stars in them - the most difficult will have around 8.
However, while Duty Navigation may be different in that it's not largely combo-based, it's very similar to most puzzles in that a little planning will take you a long way. Actually, I'd go as far as saying that the duty nav puzzle is almost entirely about planning.
Replacing Lower Circle Pieces
Filling the first constellation is usually pretty simple. You just drop stars as you need them and you're good as gold. The real trouble comes when you have to complete constellations and you have existing stars in your way. Sooner or later, you're going to run across a situation like this:
In this case, we have an orange star in the lowest ring that's preventing us from putting the yellow that we need in that place. So we need to find a way to clear that orange star and replace it with a yellow. It's not a complicated process - let me guide you through what the steps are.
And, to go along with that, just so you can see it in action, here's a quick video of me doing the same maneuver. In this case, I'm trying to replace an orange in the inner ring with a blue star.
Video Sample
Planning For the Future
Quite often, it seems like you get a lot of stars that don't fit into the constellation so you can just drop them anywhere. Beware - what you don't pay attention to now may come back to haunt you later. Take a look at this example:
In this case, I've got a red star coming that I simply don't need. I could easily just drop it where it is. But, what happens if I do? Then I have two red stars on top of one another (the red star on the inner ring is even part of the constellation). If it takes me a while to get the orange star needed to clear this constellation, I may have to be careful not to accidentally clear that column of reds. If I do accidentally clear it, I may have to start all over, which is costly.
Okay, so that example is a little contrived and not too hard to deal with, but what about this situation?
In this case, I have two oranges stacked - one of which is part of my constellation, so I don't want to clear it. Both the inner and middle rings are locked into place because it helps me clear my constellation. What's worse is that, to complete this constellation, I need two yellow stars. The chances of me getting two yellow stars prior to getting one orange one are not good. That means that I'm probably going to end up with an orange star in my outer ring and I'm going to have to be careful about moving it about so that I don't accidentally clear that column and ruin my constellation.
These situations aren't always avoidable - sometimes you just get stuck in such situations. However, a bit of planning can help you avoid them as much as possible. Even if you can't avoid the situation, being able to recognize that you don't want to accidentally clear that column can help you clear your constellation without a gaffe.
"Fixing" Troublesome Setups
The situation I just pointed out isn't hopeless - far from it. If you're really getting taxed for space in the outer ring and you have an orange star out there, you may want to try to clear it out, giving you some more freedom to move.
In this case, we're fortunate in that there is another orange star in the inner ring. If another orange falls to us in the outer ring, we can shift the inner ring counter-clockwise one position. This action maintains the formation of the constellation in the inner ring (although it's now offset by one position) but allows you to clear the "new" column of oranges safely, making the constellation easier to complete.
Be wary of using this strategy when your outer ring is getting quite full. As you rotate the inner and middle rings, you might find yourself accidentally making clears where you don't intend to and potentially destroying your constellation. This brings me nicely to my next point.
Buying Yourself Time
There are five different colors of stars in the navigation puzzle: red, yellow, white, blue, and orange. As such, you can expect that it'll take, on average, about 5 stars before you get a repeat of the same color you just got. Of course, what star you actually get is random, but the law of averages plays its part, here.
Look again at the previous example. I need two yellows to complete that constellation. Unfortunately, if you count the red one that is falling, I only have 8 positions remaining in my puzzle before I booch. Will I get two yellows before then? I don't know, but it'll probably be dang close. This is a great example of a situation in which I'd like to "buy some time."
Buying time is really just the process of clearing stars in rows or columns to give yourself more room. The most important part of this, though, is that you must clear them without jeopardizing the integrity of your constellation. If you screw up your progress, you really cost yourself more time than you saved.
As I mentioned earlier, you can try to "repair" the column of oranges. Not only does that make the constellation more manageable, but it also opens up three additional spaces on your board, giving you more opportunities to get the two yellow stars needed to complete the constellation.
Any other possible clears that stand out? How about the whites extending off to 3 o'clock? Those have nothing to do with the constellation and are already lined up, just waiting to be cleared. That would be a great way to open some more space.
Okay, I've rambled on long enough about duty navigation. Hopefully, some of the above makes some sense. As usual, if you have questions, post them here.
Below is a link to a video of me doing some duty navigation. Be warned that I went for video quality over file size, so it is a very hefty download (just over 47 MB, zipped).
Duty Navigation Sample Video
Monday, August 14, 2006
Duty Navigation: Required Reading
Unfortunately, there just isn't much for tutorials on duty navigation. Here are a few things that will help to get you started, though.
YPPedia Entry for Duty Navigation
Duty Navigation Tips Thread on the Y!PP Forums
Scarymuffin's Navigation Video
Start there and I'll come back with some of my own tips shortly.
YPPedia Entry for Duty Navigation
Duty Navigation Tips Thread on the Y!PP Forums
Scarymuffin's Navigation Video
Start there and I'll come back with some of my own tips shortly.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Power Memming
If you're serious about memorizing the entire ocean, you're eventually going to have to do what is known as "power memming." Power memming is the process of hopping on a boat and then putting everything you have into memming as quickly as possible. There are a number of things to keep in mind to make the most out of your time memming.
Chart Long Routes
Chart the longest route you can chart (that's feasible). For example, if you need to memorize the entire route from Remora to Vernal Equinox, chart the entire thing, if possible, rather than just Remora to Beta. This will help in a few ways.
For one, if you're asking someone else to hop on and chart for you (and rechart once you reach the end of the route), you don't have to bother that person as often.
For another, how well you perform the duty nav puzzle directly impacts how long it takes to memorize a given league point. It often takes a league or so to get your indicator sparkly, so that first league is going to be tough to get a good score on. However, once you're going, you might as well make as much as you can out of that glowing indicator.
Watch Out for Brigands
It may go without saying, but being engaged by brigands just slows down the memorization process. While playing the duty nav puzzle, be sure to keep an eye on your ship and watch for brigands moving in. If you have to, do a quick "Turn About" to avoid the brigands. A little lost speed is well worth it, if you can avoid an entire battle.
If you do get caught in a battle, you'll probably have to switch to sails to augment the token production of your bots. In general, when I'm out memming, I don't even carry any shot. So, when I get into a fight, I just run away for 10 turns, disengage, and then go on with my memming.
Get a Helper
One problem with memming is that, when you reach the end of the route, you need to leave the duty nav station and rechart (assuming you're using charts). Whenever you leave the duty nav station, your indicator resets. What's worse is that you're probably already at max speed so, once you rechart and get going, you're going to have even less time than usual to get your indicator sparkly. This might not only booch your score at the first league point, but the second, as well.
A potential solution to this is to bring someone else aboard to help out. That person will probably sail to help you get up to speed quickly (and thereby enable you to avoid brigands) and, when you reach the end of the route, rechart back over the same route again. Note that this only works if the other person has access to chart your ship (an officer in the same crew as you, for example). The great thing about this is that you never have to leave the duty nav station. You can just keep puzzling away and you never have to lose your sparkly indicator. The downside, though, is that you have to impose on someone else to sit on your ship with you and you also never really know when you're "done" memorizing the route because you're not looking after each pass. This technique works great when you're just starting a route and you know it's going to take a full 5-6 passes to get it memmed. When you're down to a handful of league points, this method loses its effectiveness, because you're going to want to leave the station anyway, just to check your progress.
Chart Long Routes
Chart the longest route you can chart (that's feasible). For example, if you need to memorize the entire route from Remora to Vernal Equinox, chart the entire thing, if possible, rather than just Remora to Beta. This will help in a few ways.
For one, if you're asking someone else to hop on and chart for you (and rechart once you reach the end of the route), you don't have to bother that person as often.
For another, how well you perform the duty nav puzzle directly impacts how long it takes to memorize a given league point. It often takes a league or so to get your indicator sparkly, so that first league is going to be tough to get a good score on. However, once you're going, you might as well make as much as you can out of that glowing indicator.
Watch Out for Brigands
It may go without saying, but being engaged by brigands just slows down the memorization process. While playing the duty nav puzzle, be sure to keep an eye on your ship and watch for brigands moving in. If you have to, do a quick "Turn About" to avoid the brigands. A little lost speed is well worth it, if you can avoid an entire battle.
If you do get caught in a battle, you'll probably have to switch to sails to augment the token production of your bots. In general, when I'm out memming, I don't even carry any shot. So, when I get into a fight, I just run away for 10 turns, disengage, and then go on with my memming.
Get a Helper
One problem with memming is that, when you reach the end of the route, you need to leave the duty nav station and rechart (assuming you're using charts). Whenever you leave the duty nav station, your indicator resets. What's worse is that you're probably already at max speed so, once you rechart and get going, you're going to have even less time than usual to get your indicator sparkly. This might not only booch your score at the first league point, but the second, as well.
A potential solution to this is to bring someone else aboard to help out. That person will probably sail to help you get up to speed quickly (and thereby enable you to avoid brigands) and, when you reach the end of the route, rechart back over the same route again. Note that this only works if the other person has access to chart your ship (an officer in the same crew as you, for example). The great thing about this is that you never have to leave the duty nav station. You can just keep puzzling away and you never have to lose your sparkly indicator. The downside, though, is that you have to impose on someone else to sit on your ship with you and you also never really know when you're "done" memorizing the route because you're not looking after each pass. This technique works great when you're just starting a route and you know it's going to take a full 5-6 passes to get it memmed. When you're down to a handful of league points, this method loses its effectiveness, because you're going to want to leave the station anyway, just to check your progress.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Memorization: How to Get Routes Charted
In order to nav a course, you need to first get that course charted. You have two options here - you can either chart it yourself (meaning that you must own the chart for that route) or you can get someone else to do it for you.
Step 1: Use the Navy
Memorization of the ocean may be the single best use of the navy (well, maybe except for the "Defeat Brigands" missions which are never run by the folks that need it most, but that's a different story). Once you have Broad experience in bilge, sailing, carpentry, and gunnery, you can take navigation missions from the navy.
What's so great about navigating with the navy?
1. The navy will automatically chart a random course for you within the arch you're in (including interarch routes). You need no chart and you need no one to come chart it for you.
2. You don't need to worry about being attacked on the high seas because no one can attack a navy vessel.
3. You get paid to mem! Sure, it's not a lot, but you're still getting paid, and that's something.
What's not so great about navigating with the navy?
1. The routes it gives you are random. That means that, even if you already have Spring-Epsilon memorized, it may still show you that route...over and over and over again. You just need to be patient and keep checking the mission list for a different route. They change periodically. This becomes more and more of a problem as you successfully memorize more and more of the arch in question.
2. Not all routes are available. You can get a whole lot of routes by navving with the navy (I think you can get all the interarchs, but I'm not quite certain). Nonetheless, the navy covers nearly any route you'd ever want to sail. Most routes not offered are routes that go to uninhabited islands. Unless you're big on foraging, those routes probably aren't a big deal.
Step 2: Find Charts
Once you've memorized everything the navy will allow you to memorize, you're going to have to go out on your own and start memming. This can be a bit of a pain because you're now open for attack (don't carry much - just some rum will do) and it'll cost you PoE to go memming, as you need to stock the ship.
Of course, now you need to chart the courses yourself, because the navy won't do it for you. That means you need to either have the chart for the route in question or you have to have a mate that knows the route and can chart it for you.
If you're looking for a specific route, there are a number of places you might check for charts. For one, check with mates in your crew and/or flag. They may very well have the chart lying around somewhere. If it's a particularly troublesome route, check out the Buying/Selling Charts thread in your ocean's bazaar forums. (That link is for Midnight.) You may be able to find someone selling the chart you're after. You can also sell the charts you no longer need out there, getting you a little PoE back and, more importantly, helping others accomplish just what you're trying to do: memorize the ocean.
Another place to find charts, which may seem a little odd, at first, is at skellie fights. Quite often, people bring extra charts with them to skellie fights to use as their wager items. Whether you take part in the fight or are just watching, you can see the list of items won by folks when the fight is over. Scan through that list and see if you spot some charts that you need. Quite often, you won't find any charts in there that you can't already buy elsewhere, but occasionally you hit the jackpot. If you find a chart you need, send the winner of that chart a polite tell asking if you can buy it. Often, they won't want it, anyway, and just hand it over. And, if they'd rather sell it, 100 PoE is usually enough to get it in your pocket. It may not be the greatest place to find charts, but I found a few that way.
Step 3: Watch for Helpful Charters
There are quite a few folks out there that have the entire ocean memorized. Most likely, all of those folks had some help getting it done, from others that would chart routes for them so they could memorize them. Many of these people look to "give back" by simply helping the next group of folks memorize routes.
Maybe you have someone like this in your own crew or flag. Ask around.
Once in a while, you can find "events" like this one (which is coming up soon) in which you'll have a whole crew of folks willing to help you memorize the ocean. Events like this are a spectacular way to memorize large chunks of the ocean. I memorized nearly all of Sapphire in a single morning thanks to a similar event.
Step 1: Use the Navy
Memorization of the ocean may be the single best use of the navy (well, maybe except for the "Defeat Brigands" missions which are never run by the folks that need it most, but that's a different story). Once you have Broad experience in bilge, sailing, carpentry, and gunnery, you can take navigation missions from the navy.
What's so great about navigating with the navy?
1. The navy will automatically chart a random course for you within the arch you're in (including interarch routes). You need no chart and you need no one to come chart it for you.
2. You don't need to worry about being attacked on the high seas because no one can attack a navy vessel.
3. You get paid to mem! Sure, it's not a lot, but you're still getting paid, and that's something.
What's not so great about navigating with the navy?
1. The routes it gives you are random. That means that, even if you already have Spring-Epsilon memorized, it may still show you that route...over and over and over again. You just need to be patient and keep checking the mission list for a different route. They change periodically. This becomes more and more of a problem as you successfully memorize more and more of the arch in question.
2. Not all routes are available. You can get a whole lot of routes by navving with the navy (I think you can get all the interarchs, but I'm not quite certain). Nonetheless, the navy covers nearly any route you'd ever want to sail. Most routes not offered are routes that go to uninhabited islands. Unless you're big on foraging, those routes probably aren't a big deal.
Step 2: Find Charts
Once you've memorized everything the navy will allow you to memorize, you're going to have to go out on your own and start memming. This can be a bit of a pain because you're now open for attack (don't carry much - just some rum will do) and it'll cost you PoE to go memming, as you need to stock the ship.
Of course, now you need to chart the courses yourself, because the navy won't do it for you. That means you need to either have the chart for the route in question or you have to have a mate that knows the route and can chart it for you.
If you're looking for a specific route, there are a number of places you might check for charts. For one, check with mates in your crew and/or flag. They may very well have the chart lying around somewhere. If it's a particularly troublesome route, check out the Buying/Selling Charts thread in your ocean's bazaar forums. (That link is for Midnight.) You may be able to find someone selling the chart you're after. You can also sell the charts you no longer need out there, getting you a little PoE back and, more importantly, helping others accomplish just what you're trying to do: memorize the ocean.
Another place to find charts, which may seem a little odd, at first, is at skellie fights. Quite often, people bring extra charts with them to skellie fights to use as their wager items. Whether you take part in the fight or are just watching, you can see the list of items won by folks when the fight is over. Scan through that list and see if you spot some charts that you need. Quite often, you won't find any charts in there that you can't already buy elsewhere, but occasionally you hit the jackpot. If you find a chart you need, send the winner of that chart a polite tell asking if you can buy it. Often, they won't want it, anyway, and just hand it over. And, if they'd rather sell it, 100 PoE is usually enough to get it in your pocket. It may not be the greatest place to find charts, but I found a few that way.
Step 3: Watch for Helpful Charters
There are quite a few folks out there that have the entire ocean memorized. Most likely, all of those folks had some help getting it done, from others that would chart routes for them so they could memorize them. Many of these people look to "give back" by simply helping the next group of folks memorize routes.
Maybe you have someone like this in your own crew or flag. Ask around.
Once in a while, you can find "events" like this one (which is coming up soon) in which you'll have a whole crew of folks willing to help you memorize the ocean. Events like this are a spectacular way to memorize large chunks of the ocean. I memorized nearly all of Sapphire in a single morning thanks to a similar event.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Memorization: Required Reading
Memorization is the process of navigating over a league point so many times that you get to know it "by heart." Once a route is fully memorized (or memmed, for short), you never need a chart to sail that route again. Some things you should read to get the basics down regarding memorizing routes:
YPPedia Article
Also, as memming routes is primarily about duty navigation, you should read this, too.
I'll post more tips as time goes on, but this is a great place to start.
YPPedia Article
Also, as memming routes is primarily about duty navigation, you should read this, too.
I'll post more tips as time goes on, but this is a great place to start.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Rumble: Accessing Trigger Groups
An FU Student Asks:
Good question. There are a couple ways to keep your first group (often referred to as the "trigger") available. One option is to simply not build on that side of the board, like this:
In this case, the trigger is the red group on the far right. Notice that I have a red ball in my right hand just waiting to trigger the combo. It's important to have that triggering ball available (and in a hand that can reach the trigger). To build this, I basically started my combo by charging a red ball and attaching it to the right side. At that point, I continued to build my combo primarily from the right hand. I do this until my right hand has the color I need to trigger the combo - in this case, red. Once I have my trigger ball ready, I go to my left hand and build only from there. I don't want to lose that red ball in my right hand because I have no idea when I'll get another.
One problem with this approach is that you end up "wasting" some space on your board. Notice the large gray triangle I created. That shaded area shows the part of the board that is difficult to build in, if using your left hand.
Is this really a problem? I don't think so. I think you have plenty of room to build a big enough combo to insta someone without having to worry about that bit of wasted space. Nonetheless, you want to ensure that you're using as much space as possible and packing in your combo as tightly as you can.
Now, you can try to use up more of that space by placing some strategic shots and perhaps using some back shots. What you want to avoid, though, is getting cut off from your trigger group, like this:
In this situation, the charged yellow group on the left side is my trigger. I even have my yellow ball in my left hand so I'm ready to go. Unfortunately, I can no longer get to it. Note the charged red group on the left side - that's where the problem happens. I built too far out to the left and that charged red group started catching sprinkles. It caught so many, in fact, that I can no longer trigger my combo.
So, if you use the open side technique, try to use as much space as you can, but don't build too large or you may find yourself cut off.
A second option is to build a "fuse" to keep your trigger open. Here's an example:
In this case, the charged orange group in the center is the trigger. Notice a couple things here. First of all, I built up this combo on both sides (although the left side is built up a bit more because I was holding that orange in my right). Also, the orange group has a number of charged balls in it, extending it downward. By occasionally attaching additional charged orange balls to the bottom of my trigger group, I keep it from getting buried.
The downside, of course, is that you end up spending extra time charging balls to attach to an already charged group. If you count the charged orange balls in that picture, you'll see that I have 8 charged balls in that group. That's enough to have two more complete charged groups, had I only kept one charged ball on the orange group.
So, which method is better? Personally, I like starting a combo on the side and then keeping that side open. It's faster and there's less waste. Also, you don't sacrifice much by giving up a little real estate in terms of how large your strike can be. Note that both the open side combo (15 steps) and the fuse combo (17 steps) were enough to send a strike large enough to reach the bottom of the opponent's board. The fuse method works, but I think you waste far too much time charging balls.
Building strikes like this has a time and a place. When you're fighting one on one, you're generally not going to have time to build strikes like this unless you're fighting a far inferior opponent. Anyone decent will be sending occasional strikes that will interrupt your combo building process.
If, however, you're certain that your opponent isn't going to send you any more strikes, you can use their sprinkle pattern against them. This works well against folks that like to turbo sprinkle or against opponents that give up striking and go to sprinkles as their board fills (lots of players have this tendency).
Here's an example:
In this case, I used the "Open Side" technique, but I intentionally started my combo using available yellows on the left. That charged yellow group on the far left is my trigger. Notice, however, that it has uncharged yellow balls attached to the bottom. How did those get there? Those are my opponent's sprinkles, of course. I knew that my opponent was sending yellow balls up the left side, so I intentionally stated my combo to match that sprinkle pattern. Then, I'd continue building my combo as usual, but, whenever the opponent would send sprinkles, those sprinkles would act as a "fuse" for my trigger group. Notice how much of the board I'm able to use with little-to-no waste because I'm using my opponent's sprinkle pattern against them.
So when do you use strikes like this? Well, there are a few situations that come to mind. Sometimes, I do it just for fun, when I'm fighting someone without as much skill as me (read "Able"). Against turbo sprinklers, combos like this can be powerful, but you need to keep pressure on them and adding bruises to the combos can also be very potent (of course, you can always use their sprinkle pattern to add bruises, making your attacks faster and nastier). Most good turbo sprinklers will fill your board so quickly that you won't be able to build a combo large enough to insta-kill them. Nonetheless, you can, and should, use their attacks against them.
Another time to use strikes like this would be when rumbling in groups, against barbarians, for instance. One technique that works well against barbarians is for an untargeted player (or a defended player) to build insta-kill combos and pick off bots one at a time. With rumbling (especially against barbarians), creating insta-kill combos doesn't even involve that much skill - it just takes time. The more skillful players can do it faster, but it's not difficult to build a 10+ step combo in rumble, if you're unmolested.
Another note about your question - you point out that you sometimes break only part of your combo. Sometimes, that's not a bad thing. Let's say you have an 8 stage combo. You break half of it, add a charged group and then break the rest. What does your opponent see? Back to back nasty strikes. It can be a little difficult to work out, but pulling occasional strikes like this can be a great way to keep your opponents guessing.
You see, most opponents have a definite pattern to their strikes. After fighting people a few times, you just get a feel for when their next strike will come. As such, you can time your own strikes to counter that. Doing things like turning a single combo into two smaller, rapid fire combos, is a great way to keep your opponent guessing.
I hope that helps answer your question!
Since it's important to hit the original charged group to set off your chain... what is the best way to build so that you have access to it? Everytime I set my chains up, I almost never hit my original group so it leaves 2-3 sets of charged groups up.
Good question. There are a couple ways to keep your first group (often referred to as the "trigger") available. One option is to simply not build on that side of the board, like this:
In this case, the trigger is the red group on the far right. Notice that I have a red ball in my right hand just waiting to trigger the combo. It's important to have that triggering ball available (and in a hand that can reach the trigger). To build this, I basically started my combo by charging a red ball and attaching it to the right side. At that point, I continued to build my combo primarily from the right hand. I do this until my right hand has the color I need to trigger the combo - in this case, red. Once I have my trigger ball ready, I go to my left hand and build only from there. I don't want to lose that red ball in my right hand because I have no idea when I'll get another.
One problem with this approach is that you end up "wasting" some space on your board. Notice the large gray triangle I created. That shaded area shows the part of the board that is difficult to build in, if using your left hand.
Is this really a problem? I don't think so. I think you have plenty of room to build a big enough combo to insta someone without having to worry about that bit of wasted space. Nonetheless, you want to ensure that you're using as much space as possible and packing in your combo as tightly as you can.
Now, you can try to use up more of that space by placing some strategic shots and perhaps using some back shots. What you want to avoid, though, is getting cut off from your trigger group, like this:
In this situation, the charged yellow group on the left side is my trigger. I even have my yellow ball in my left hand so I'm ready to go. Unfortunately, I can no longer get to it. Note the charged red group on the left side - that's where the problem happens. I built too far out to the left and that charged red group started catching sprinkles. It caught so many, in fact, that I can no longer trigger my combo.
So, if you use the open side technique, try to use as much space as you can, but don't build too large or you may find yourself cut off.
A second option is to build a "fuse" to keep your trigger open. Here's an example:
In this case, the charged orange group in the center is the trigger. Notice a couple things here. First of all, I built up this combo on both sides (although the left side is built up a bit more because I was holding that orange in my right). Also, the orange group has a number of charged balls in it, extending it downward. By occasionally attaching additional charged orange balls to the bottom of my trigger group, I keep it from getting buried.
The downside, of course, is that you end up spending extra time charging balls to attach to an already charged group. If you count the charged orange balls in that picture, you'll see that I have 8 charged balls in that group. That's enough to have two more complete charged groups, had I only kept one charged ball on the orange group.
So, which method is better? Personally, I like starting a combo on the side and then keeping that side open. It's faster and there's less waste. Also, you don't sacrifice much by giving up a little real estate in terms of how large your strike can be. Note that both the open side combo (15 steps) and the fuse combo (17 steps) were enough to send a strike large enough to reach the bottom of the opponent's board. The fuse method works, but I think you waste far too much time charging balls.
Building strikes like this has a time and a place. When you're fighting one on one, you're generally not going to have time to build strikes like this unless you're fighting a far inferior opponent. Anyone decent will be sending occasional strikes that will interrupt your combo building process.
If, however, you're certain that your opponent isn't going to send you any more strikes, you can use their sprinkle pattern against them. This works well against folks that like to turbo sprinkle or against opponents that give up striking and go to sprinkles as their board fills (lots of players have this tendency).
Here's an example:
In this case, I used the "Open Side" technique, but I intentionally started my combo using available yellows on the left. That charged yellow group on the far left is my trigger. Notice, however, that it has uncharged yellow balls attached to the bottom. How did those get there? Those are my opponent's sprinkles, of course. I knew that my opponent was sending yellow balls up the left side, so I intentionally stated my combo to match that sprinkle pattern. Then, I'd continue building my combo as usual, but, whenever the opponent would send sprinkles, those sprinkles would act as a "fuse" for my trigger group. Notice how much of the board I'm able to use with little-to-no waste because I'm using my opponent's sprinkle pattern against them.
So when do you use strikes like this? Well, there are a few situations that come to mind. Sometimes, I do it just for fun, when I'm fighting someone without as much skill as me (read "Able"). Against turbo sprinklers, combos like this can be powerful, but you need to keep pressure on them and adding bruises to the combos can also be very potent (of course, you can always use their sprinkle pattern to add bruises, making your attacks faster and nastier). Most good turbo sprinklers will fill your board so quickly that you won't be able to build a combo large enough to insta-kill them. Nonetheless, you can, and should, use their attacks against them.
Another time to use strikes like this would be when rumbling in groups, against barbarians, for instance. One technique that works well against barbarians is for an untargeted player (or a defended player) to build insta-kill combos and pick off bots one at a time. With rumbling (especially against barbarians), creating insta-kill combos doesn't even involve that much skill - it just takes time. The more skillful players can do it faster, but it's not difficult to build a 10+ step combo in rumble, if you're unmolested.
Another note about your question - you point out that you sometimes break only part of your combo. Sometimes, that's not a bad thing. Let's say you have an 8 stage combo. You break half of it, add a charged group and then break the rest. What does your opponent see? Back to back nasty strikes. It can be a little difficult to work out, but pulling occasional strikes like this can be a great way to keep your opponents guessing.
You see, most opponents have a definite pattern to their strikes. After fighting people a few times, you just get a feel for when their next strike will come. As such, you can time your own strikes to counter that. Doing things like turning a single combo into two smaller, rapid fire combos, is a great way to keep your opponent guessing.
I hope that helps answer your question!
Quick Tip: Constant Pressure
When rumbling, it's essential that you constantly keep your opponent under pressure. That means sending either major or minor strikes periodically. That may mean that the attacks you send aren't the best attacks you could possibly send. Sometimes, you just have to make that sacrifice. The trick is to keep pressure on your opponent and force them to do themselves in. Force them to make a mistake and, whatever you do, don't let up and allow them to recover. Once they make that mistake, constant pressure can compound that mistake and make it even harder to recover.
Too many folks like to build monster combos and insta-kill with them. The problem with this technique is that you'll never beat the best rumblers out there because they won't allow this to happen. The top rumblers are constantly sending either major strikes or groups of sprinkles to disrupt your ability to build a huge combo.
It is possible to build huge strikes and keep pressure on your opponent - it's just difficult to do. While you're building your main combo, drop a few minor strikes on your opponent. Or, perhaps, take a quick break from your main combo and send a quick three group combo off to the side.
The payoff is that you can keep pressure on your opponent and prevent them from clearing their screen. Then, when you're ready, you unleash your big combo and they're done for. The risk is that it takes a long time to pull that off and you're going to have plenty of charged groups that can get separated by a striking opponent.
Unless I know my opponent won't strike me, I try not to build any combos larger than 5 or 6 groups. Depending on the bludgeons/opponent/colors, I might go a little bigger, but not in general. I know I could send nastier strikes, but like I said, it's more important to consistently attack your opponent than to send nasty strikes only occasionally.
Too many folks like to build monster combos and insta-kill with them. The problem with this technique is that you'll never beat the best rumblers out there because they won't allow this to happen. The top rumblers are constantly sending either major strikes or groups of sprinkles to disrupt your ability to build a huge combo.
It is possible to build huge strikes and keep pressure on your opponent - it's just difficult to do. While you're building your main combo, drop a few minor strikes on your opponent. Or, perhaps, take a quick break from your main combo and send a quick three group combo off to the side.
The payoff is that you can keep pressure on your opponent and prevent them from clearing their screen. Then, when you're ready, you unleash your big combo and they're done for. The risk is that it takes a long time to pull that off and you're going to have plenty of charged groups that can get separated by a striking opponent.
Unless I know my opponent won't strike me, I try not to build any combos larger than 5 or 6 groups. Depending on the bludgeons/opponent/colors, I might go a little bigger, but not in general. I know I could send nastier strikes, but like I said, it's more important to consistently attack your opponent than to send nasty strikes only occasionally.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Bludgeons and Strategies
I'm just going to write a bit about a handful of the bludgeons out there and how I use them. I'm no expert on bludgeons as I've really only used a couple. I tend to stick to the rope coils and (just recently) the blackjack. A few others that I have some experience with include the chain, the skull rings, and the hammer. I'm just going to give you my impressions of these bludgeons, so what you're about to read is very opinionated - others with different playstyles may have very different outlooks, but here are mine. For reference, you can find a listing of all bludgeons and their strike patterns here. I'd suggest having that page open so that you can refer to it throughout this discussion.
Reading a bludgeon chart can actually be rather confusing, but this is how you should interpret them (I think):
*Note: Not all bludgeons have strike patterns the same size. I'm going to assume a 5 row strike pattern such as the belaying pin or the rope coils. It's similar for other bludgeons.
The top 5 rows (just above the gap) are the "strike" pattern. This is what you'll send to your opponent if you trigger a major strike. If you send a 2 row strike, you'll get the bottom two (of the top) rows. If you send a 5 row strike, you'll send all five. If you send an 8 row strike, you'll send all 5 and then the bottom three over again.
The bottom two rows are the sprinkle pattern and, unlike the strike pattern, they're sent from top to bottom, not bottom to top. So, if you send a single row of sprinkles, you send the row that is second from the bottom. If you send multiple rows in a single sprinkle attack, you'll send both rows (and it repeats to fill enough rows).
Rope Coils
This is the bludgeon that I really have the most experience with. Pretty much everything about the rope coils screams "average" except for two very important aspects: excellent color separation on sprinkles and an excellent price.
The strike pattern is pretty ho-hum. Large strikes are too easily cleared. Small strikes aren't bad as long as you have three rows in the strike. Three rows will help keep you from getting really large groups of colored balls. Whatever you do, do not send two-row strikes. The first two rows in the strike pattern offer no differentiation so, if you were to constantly send 2-deep strikes, they'd simply all mesh together and could be cleared way too easily. Go 3-deep, at least. Beyond that, it's a bit of a crap shoot - large strikes from rope coils are easily cleared. Just don't make it easier than it already is.
The strength of the rope coils is it's sprinkle pattern. It's not horribly exciting - large groups of 3 colors, but, if you pay attention, it's actually rather impressive. Only three colors means less to work on for those strikers out there - they're going to have lots of wasted colors. The real strength, though, is the color separation. Notice the same color appears on both the left and right side of the sprinkle pattern. If you can get your opponent low on the board, go for turbo sprinkles - the goal is to run them out of whatever colored ball is on the outside. For every sprinkle attack you send, they're going to need two balls of that single color to keep up. Hopefully, you can keep it up long enough for them to not get it. Getting into this situtation often involves "weathering the storm" of initial strikes and getting off a decent sized strike late in the game. Once they're down low, push the attack.
And, of course, I mentioned the price. Rope takes 2 units of paint, 2 units of hemp, and 15 hours of basic labor. Cheap, cheap, cheap. I'd consider it to be one of the best bludgeons in the game (perhaps not the best, but I've made it to number 2 in Midnight using only rope coils, so they're certainly usable) and you can always find one for less than 1,000 PoE. I consider the rope coils to be an excellent bludgeon choice for the new rumbler. Cheap and effective.
Blackjack
The bludgeon that seems to be taking over Midnight, the blackjack is very powerful, if used properly.
The sprinkle pattern is simply not good. The sprinkle pattern on a blackjack is really no better than bare fists. Three colors straight across. Not impressive.
Opposite the rope coils, the power of the blackjack lies in its strikes, specifically, it's small strikes. The first few rows of the blackjack strike pattern are a total mess. The top few rows offer some large clusters, but those bottom few rows are brutal. The technique that seems to be sweeping the ocean is the "speed strike" attack. It's a simple technique, which I feel is overpowered and unbearably difficult to counter. In fact, there's a whole thread about it on the forums, here. I don't necessarily agree with everything Boothook has said, but I tend to agree with him that the blackjack is just too strong. Anyway, that's another story...
The speed strike attack is disgustingly simple. Create three charged groups and pop 'em. Rinse. Repeat. Ad Nauseum. It's a brutal attack for a couple reasons. For one, you can keep constant pressure on your opponent. The bad part of building large strikes is that, when you're setting up, you often stop attacking your opponent, allowing them time to clear and set up counters. With the speed strike attack, you offer no such luxury. You're using the most effective part of your bludgeon - those bottom three rows in the strike pattern. It's dang hard to interrupt. With only three charged groups, you can very quickly create a group and pop it - you just don't run the high risk of someone sending a strike in the middle of your prep and screwing up a huge combo. And what if they do send a strike that screws you up a bit? You lose what? One, two charged groups. Make two more and continue on. Big deal. It's not like you lost a 9-stage combo.
I just recently bought my first blackjack (this came out of frustration as I reached the semi-finals of a familiar tourney and then lost to someone that I can normally beat because she had a blackjack and I had ropes). Since purchasing my blackjack, I find my fights infinitely easier to win. The strategy is simple to understand and easy to execute. The results are devastating. I may not like it, but I can't argue with the results. Until someone finds a solid counter (which I have not yet found), I think the top of the rumbling charts is going to consist of a whole lot of blackjack using speed strikers.
So what's the down side of the blackjack? Is there one? Well, there are a couple I can think of. For one, it really only shines when you use the strategy I explained. It's certainly usable outside that strategy, but not overly impressive. It makes most blackjack rumblers one dimensional - it's just that even that one dimension can be almost impossible to defeat. Another downside is that it takes speed and discipline to use properly. You must avoid the temptation to sprinkle and stick to your game plan. Easier said than done. Trust me. Also, the price can be prohibitive. Average sale price on Midnight is about 18,000 PoE for a blackjack. Compare that to < 1,000 PoE for a set of rope coils and you may question whether or not the blackjack is worth the investment. However, for something that is showing itself to be as dominant as the blackjack, it had better be damn expensive.
For elite rumblers, the blackjack seems to be the way to go. This is just my opinion, based largely on the fact that I haven't found a good, consistent working counter against the blackjack speed strike, but it's still the way I feel. It's just that good. I fight Springheel very often. He's better than I am - we both know that, but we have good fights. When he uses a blackjack and I use my ropes, he virtually always wins. Since I got my blackjack, we fought 3 or 4 times with the roles reversed (him with ropes, me with a blackjack) - I've won every fight.
Chain
I don't know a ton about the chain - I've never used one. It's a medium priced bludgeon and seems to be pretty middle of the road in most regards.
Most folks consider the chain to be a sprinkling weapon and, indeed, the sprinkle pattern does look marginally better than the strike pattern. It has some minor color separation in the first row and some much more impressive color separation in the second row. If you want to be a good chain user, learn to send large sprinkle attacks.
Chains can be especially mean if your opponents board is uneven. In such a case, your sprinkles stick all over the place, rather than in small groups. Of course, leaving your opponent with an uneven board means avoiding strikes (they tend to flatten your opponent's board), which can be dangerous business.
In general, chain users don't give me much trouble.
Hammer
The hammer seems like it should hold a lot of promise. Unfortunately, I've never seen anyone really able to capitalize on that potential. The first thing you'll notice about the strike pattern is the presence of lots of bruises in the strike pattern. The problem with the strike pattern is everything else. Around those bruises are huge groups of like-colored balls. That means that your opponent can simply knock those groups out and your bruises fall harmlessly off the board.
If you want to strike effectively with a hammer, you need to be able to add even more bruises to your strikes. This can certainly be a bit dangerous because not only do you have to build the strike, but you also have to spam some excess balls to the bottom of the strike to add bruises. That extra time does a couple negative things: it makes your strike easier to interrupt and it gives your opponent more time to clear.
What's worse is that the sprinkle pattern, while not bad in and of itself, matches up almost perfectly with the strike pattern (except for the left side). If you send a 4 row strike and then some sprinkles, a single ball on the right side of the board can clear all the way up through your strike. Blech. The same can be said for the middle of the board. The middle of the board is where you want your bludgeon to be strongest, as it's harder to clear than the sides. The hammer is at it's weakest near the middle of the board.
Considering the price of the hammer (15,000+ PoE on Midnight), I consider this bludgeon to be overpriced and underachieving. Perhaps an expert rumbler could use it effectively, but I've just never been able to get it to live up to what I think it should be capable of, considering the price. For that price, I'd certainly either buy a blackjack or save myself 15,000 PoE and buy some rope coils.
Gauntlets
Not a bad bludgeon, but also not one that normally gives me much trouble, either. The strength of the gauntlets are the large strikes. It has a 6 row strike pattern and the last 4 rows are markedly nastier than the first 2. The sprinkle pattern lines up with the strike pattern perfectly, making the two attacks, in unison, more detrimental than useful.
The gauntlet seems to be that it would be a good bludgeon for folks that want to "go big" with their combos. Constant 6-deep strikes could be effective, but it might be too slow to really be a strong attack.
I've never used gauntlets and fought against very few, so I do not have a great feel for them. Most of what I'm spouting here is theory.
Skull Rings
I've never understood the excitement around Skull Rings. They look okay when you see the strike pattern, but I find them entirely too easy to counter. The sprinkle pattern matches up with the strike pattern on both sides, making it easy to clear long gashes up either side. The center is somewhat stronger in that the sprinkle pattern doesn't mesh with the strike pattern, but the strike pattern is largely monochrimatic all the way up the middle, making it easy to clear.
However, the thing that I usually exploit with the skull rings is the 5-wide color group in the middle of the sprinkle pattern. I almost always start my combos there. By placing a charge ball into the middle of that large group, I'm almost ensured that I won't lose that group due to a strike. In fact, in most cases, your opponent will send a few more rows of sprinkles, leading my trigger group to be a huge cluster of balls with my charged ball nestled happily in the middle.
Moderately priced. Too easily countered. I'm not a fan.
Skeleton Bone
This can be a rather wicked weapon. Color separation in the sprinkle pattern is decent. The strike pattern is a bit of a mess, especially if you stick with strikes of depth in multiples of 2 (2-deep, 4-deep, 6-deep, etc.) Even if you get outside 2's, the strike pattern is pretty solid.
Of course, the only way to get a skeleton bone is from defeating skeletons. I don't believe you need to be alive at the end to get the bludgeon - it's just randomly given out to some pirates that were alive at the end of the fight. Nonetheless, it's not something often awarded. It also has a decay rate of 30 days, which is among the shortest of all bludgeons. So, don't expect this to be a consistent weapon (unless you're an avid skeleton hunter, perhaps, or willing to pay well for them).
All the Rest
I'm just simply not going to comment on the other bludgeons. Either I don't have enough experience with them or they're not worth using or some of both. (Or perhaps I'm just tired of typing as this has gotten very long.)
Remember that what I've discussed here is almost all a matter of opinion. I'm sure you'll find others with very different outlooks on the various bludgeons. Hopefully, though, you've learned how to read a bludgeon pattern and can make some of your own decisions on what is and is not good.
Reading a bludgeon chart can actually be rather confusing, but this is how you should interpret them (I think):
*Note: Not all bludgeons have strike patterns the same size. I'm going to assume a 5 row strike pattern such as the belaying pin or the rope coils. It's similar for other bludgeons.
The top 5 rows (just above the gap) are the "strike" pattern. This is what you'll send to your opponent if you trigger a major strike. If you send a 2 row strike, you'll get the bottom two (of the top) rows. If you send a 5 row strike, you'll send all five. If you send an 8 row strike, you'll send all 5 and then the bottom three over again.
The bottom two rows are the sprinkle pattern and, unlike the strike pattern, they're sent from top to bottom, not bottom to top. So, if you send a single row of sprinkles, you send the row that is second from the bottom. If you send multiple rows in a single sprinkle attack, you'll send both rows (and it repeats to fill enough rows).
Rope Coils
This is the bludgeon that I really have the most experience with. Pretty much everything about the rope coils screams "average" except for two very important aspects: excellent color separation on sprinkles and an excellent price.
The strike pattern is pretty ho-hum. Large strikes are too easily cleared. Small strikes aren't bad as long as you have three rows in the strike. Three rows will help keep you from getting really large groups of colored balls. Whatever you do, do not send two-row strikes. The first two rows in the strike pattern offer no differentiation so, if you were to constantly send 2-deep strikes, they'd simply all mesh together and could be cleared way too easily. Go 3-deep, at least. Beyond that, it's a bit of a crap shoot - large strikes from rope coils are easily cleared. Just don't make it easier than it already is.
The strength of the rope coils is it's sprinkle pattern. It's not horribly exciting - large groups of 3 colors, but, if you pay attention, it's actually rather impressive. Only three colors means less to work on for those strikers out there - they're going to have lots of wasted colors. The real strength, though, is the color separation. Notice the same color appears on both the left and right side of the sprinkle pattern. If you can get your opponent low on the board, go for turbo sprinkles - the goal is to run them out of whatever colored ball is on the outside. For every sprinkle attack you send, they're going to need two balls of that single color to keep up. Hopefully, you can keep it up long enough for them to not get it. Getting into this situtation often involves "weathering the storm" of initial strikes and getting off a decent sized strike late in the game. Once they're down low, push the attack.
And, of course, I mentioned the price. Rope takes 2 units of paint, 2 units of hemp, and 15 hours of basic labor. Cheap, cheap, cheap. I'd consider it to be one of the best bludgeons in the game (perhaps not the best, but I've made it to number 2 in Midnight using only rope coils, so they're certainly usable) and you can always find one for less than 1,000 PoE. I consider the rope coils to be an excellent bludgeon choice for the new rumbler. Cheap and effective.
Blackjack
The bludgeon that seems to be taking over Midnight, the blackjack is very powerful, if used properly.
The sprinkle pattern is simply not good. The sprinkle pattern on a blackjack is really no better than bare fists. Three colors straight across. Not impressive.
Opposite the rope coils, the power of the blackjack lies in its strikes, specifically, it's small strikes. The first few rows of the blackjack strike pattern are a total mess. The top few rows offer some large clusters, but those bottom few rows are brutal. The technique that seems to be sweeping the ocean is the "speed strike" attack. It's a simple technique, which I feel is overpowered and unbearably difficult to counter. In fact, there's a whole thread about it on the forums, here. I don't necessarily agree with everything Boothook has said, but I tend to agree with him that the blackjack is just too strong. Anyway, that's another story...
The speed strike attack is disgustingly simple. Create three charged groups and pop 'em. Rinse. Repeat. Ad Nauseum. It's a brutal attack for a couple reasons. For one, you can keep constant pressure on your opponent. The bad part of building large strikes is that, when you're setting up, you often stop attacking your opponent, allowing them time to clear and set up counters. With the speed strike attack, you offer no such luxury. You're using the most effective part of your bludgeon - those bottom three rows in the strike pattern. It's dang hard to interrupt. With only three charged groups, you can very quickly create a group and pop it - you just don't run the high risk of someone sending a strike in the middle of your prep and screwing up a huge combo. And what if they do send a strike that screws you up a bit? You lose what? One, two charged groups. Make two more and continue on. Big deal. It's not like you lost a 9-stage combo.
I just recently bought my first blackjack (this came out of frustration as I reached the semi-finals of a familiar tourney and then lost to someone that I can normally beat because she had a blackjack and I had ropes). Since purchasing my blackjack, I find my fights infinitely easier to win. The strategy is simple to understand and easy to execute. The results are devastating. I may not like it, but I can't argue with the results. Until someone finds a solid counter (which I have not yet found), I think the top of the rumbling charts is going to consist of a whole lot of blackjack using speed strikers.
So what's the down side of the blackjack? Is there one? Well, there are a couple I can think of. For one, it really only shines when you use the strategy I explained. It's certainly usable outside that strategy, but not overly impressive. It makes most blackjack rumblers one dimensional - it's just that even that one dimension can be almost impossible to defeat. Another downside is that it takes speed and discipline to use properly. You must avoid the temptation to sprinkle and stick to your game plan. Easier said than done. Trust me. Also, the price can be prohibitive. Average sale price on Midnight is about 18,000 PoE for a blackjack. Compare that to < 1,000 PoE for a set of rope coils and you may question whether or not the blackjack is worth the investment. However, for something that is showing itself to be as dominant as the blackjack, it had better be damn expensive.
For elite rumblers, the blackjack seems to be the way to go. This is just my opinion, based largely on the fact that I haven't found a good, consistent working counter against the blackjack speed strike, but it's still the way I feel. It's just that good. I fight Springheel very often. He's better than I am - we both know that, but we have good fights. When he uses a blackjack and I use my ropes, he virtually always wins. Since I got my blackjack, we fought 3 or 4 times with the roles reversed (him with ropes, me with a blackjack) - I've won every fight.
Chain
I don't know a ton about the chain - I've never used one. It's a medium priced bludgeon and seems to be pretty middle of the road in most regards.
Most folks consider the chain to be a sprinkling weapon and, indeed, the sprinkle pattern does look marginally better than the strike pattern. It has some minor color separation in the first row and some much more impressive color separation in the second row. If you want to be a good chain user, learn to send large sprinkle attacks.
Chains can be especially mean if your opponents board is uneven. In such a case, your sprinkles stick all over the place, rather than in small groups. Of course, leaving your opponent with an uneven board means avoiding strikes (they tend to flatten your opponent's board), which can be dangerous business.
In general, chain users don't give me much trouble.
Hammer
The hammer seems like it should hold a lot of promise. Unfortunately, I've never seen anyone really able to capitalize on that potential. The first thing you'll notice about the strike pattern is the presence of lots of bruises in the strike pattern. The problem with the strike pattern is everything else. Around those bruises are huge groups of like-colored balls. That means that your opponent can simply knock those groups out and your bruises fall harmlessly off the board.
If you want to strike effectively with a hammer, you need to be able to add even more bruises to your strikes. This can certainly be a bit dangerous because not only do you have to build the strike, but you also have to spam some excess balls to the bottom of the strike to add bruises. That extra time does a couple negative things: it makes your strike easier to interrupt and it gives your opponent more time to clear.
What's worse is that the sprinkle pattern, while not bad in and of itself, matches up almost perfectly with the strike pattern (except for the left side). If you send a 4 row strike and then some sprinkles, a single ball on the right side of the board can clear all the way up through your strike. Blech. The same can be said for the middle of the board. The middle of the board is where you want your bludgeon to be strongest, as it's harder to clear than the sides. The hammer is at it's weakest near the middle of the board.
Considering the price of the hammer (15,000+ PoE on Midnight), I consider this bludgeon to be overpriced and underachieving. Perhaps an expert rumbler could use it effectively, but I've just never been able to get it to live up to what I think it should be capable of, considering the price. For that price, I'd certainly either buy a blackjack or save myself 15,000 PoE and buy some rope coils.
Gauntlets
Not a bad bludgeon, but also not one that normally gives me much trouble, either. The strength of the gauntlets are the large strikes. It has a 6 row strike pattern and the last 4 rows are markedly nastier than the first 2. The sprinkle pattern lines up with the strike pattern perfectly, making the two attacks, in unison, more detrimental than useful.
The gauntlet seems to be that it would be a good bludgeon for folks that want to "go big" with their combos. Constant 6-deep strikes could be effective, but it might be too slow to really be a strong attack.
I've never used gauntlets and fought against very few, so I do not have a great feel for them. Most of what I'm spouting here is theory.
Skull Rings
I've never understood the excitement around Skull Rings. They look okay when you see the strike pattern, but I find them entirely too easy to counter. The sprinkle pattern matches up with the strike pattern on both sides, making it easy to clear long gashes up either side. The center is somewhat stronger in that the sprinkle pattern doesn't mesh with the strike pattern, but the strike pattern is largely monochrimatic all the way up the middle, making it easy to clear.
However, the thing that I usually exploit with the skull rings is the 5-wide color group in the middle of the sprinkle pattern. I almost always start my combos there. By placing a charge ball into the middle of that large group, I'm almost ensured that I won't lose that group due to a strike. In fact, in most cases, your opponent will send a few more rows of sprinkles, leading my trigger group to be a huge cluster of balls with my charged ball nestled happily in the middle.
Moderately priced. Too easily countered. I'm not a fan.
Skeleton Bone
This can be a rather wicked weapon. Color separation in the sprinkle pattern is decent. The strike pattern is a bit of a mess, especially if you stick with strikes of depth in multiples of 2 (2-deep, 4-deep, 6-deep, etc.) Even if you get outside 2's, the strike pattern is pretty solid.
Of course, the only way to get a skeleton bone is from defeating skeletons. I don't believe you need to be alive at the end to get the bludgeon - it's just randomly given out to some pirates that were alive at the end of the fight. Nonetheless, it's not something often awarded. It also has a decay rate of 30 days, which is among the shortest of all bludgeons. So, don't expect this to be a consistent weapon (unless you're an avid skeleton hunter, perhaps, or willing to pay well for them).
All the Rest
I'm just simply not going to comment on the other bludgeons. Either I don't have enough experience with them or they're not worth using or some of both. (Or perhaps I'm just tired of typing as this has gotten very long.)
Remember that what I've discussed here is almost all a matter of opinion. I'm sure you'll find others with very different outlooks on the various bludgeons. Hopefully, though, you've learned how to read a bludgeon pattern and can make some of your own decisions on what is and is not good.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Rumbling: Required Reading
I'm going to get things started by talking about rumbling. The first thing everyone should do is take in some of the "required reading" that's out there for Rumbling.
First off is the YPPedia entry for rumbling. This is a short read but describes the basics of the game. In particular, make sure you understand the differences between major and minor strikes (aka striking vs. sprinkling), how to create combos, and defending teammates.
Next up is Boothook's Rumbling Guide. It's got some amazing information in there, but it's also stiflingly long. Take it in small doses, but most questions about rumbling can be found there. If you really want to be one of the "best of the best", I suggest reading this guide...a few times.
Also, check out this thread on the Y!PP forums about fighting barbarians. After all, not everyone wants to stand in the Inn and fight in the rumble pits. However, if you like to pillage, you're going to run across barbarians, and you're going to want to know how to fight them. There's not a lot there, but there is some basic info about barbarians.
First off is the YPPedia entry for rumbling. This is a short read but describes the basics of the game. In particular, make sure you understand the differences between major and minor strikes (aka striking vs. sprinkling), how to create combos, and defending teammates.
Next up is Boothook's Rumbling Guide. It's got some amazing information in there, but it's also stiflingly long. Take it in small doses, but most questions about rumbling can be found there. If you really want to be one of the "best of the best", I suggest reading this guide...a few times.
Also, check out this thread on the Y!PP forums about fighting barbarians. After all, not everyone wants to stand in the Inn and fight in the rumble pits. However, if you like to pillage, you're going to run across barbarians, and you're going to want to know how to fight them. There's not a lot there, but there is some basic info about barbarians.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Welcome to Fullbeard University!
Welcome, mates, to Fullbeard University. This is a blog to help me train my fellow Y!PP players about various aspects of the game. Over time, I'll be adding posts here with training materials to help folks be the very best Y!PP players they can be.
This blog is open for discussion so, if you have questions, be sure to post them in the comments. I'll respond as best I can.
Hope to see you around!
- Fullbeard
This blog is open for discussion so, if you have questions, be sure to post them in the comments. I'll respond as best I can.
Hope to see you around!
- Fullbeard
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