riadsala

https://www.idlethumbs.net/3ma/episodes/classic-game-analysis-age-of-mythology And, good points, I agree. This is perhaps why I really like the episodes Bruce is on (even though i'm not a wargammer). He's nearly always extremely knowledgeable, articulate and passionate. Similarly, Michael is always interesting. And whenever the regular panel do a EU/paradox themed show, although it's always a shame that we don't get Troy's opinion in these conversations.

I'd be all for the podcast coming out less often, but with higher quality content. The reason I started listening was that 3MA's coverage was way stronger than anywhere else. Now, I'm not so sure. This episode felt really pointless. Like a band putting out a lacklustre third album due to "contractual obligations." I don't play multi-player RTSs myself, but if you're going to revisit an old RTS, then don't you kind of need to play some pvp to get a better idea of how the system and design hold up? I hope that when the Endless Legend show finally happens, you spend enough time playing to offer some good critical analysis. How broken is the late-middle game? How hard a difficulty level can you win by blindly following a more-or-less preset build order? Is the multi-player actually fun? To what extent to the differentiated faction differences rail-road the player into following a narrow race-specific strategy?

Would be a pretty simply AI tweak. Just increase priory to regions that share several borders. It could be even added to the set up screen.

?

I decided not to pick up Conclave in the end, but I think I'll be starting a new campaign this evening now that my ciV playthrough is complete. Has anybody tried this yet: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/09/12/crusader-kings-2-random-map-mod/

I pretty much only ever play one mission of XCOM2 at a time. Fits in well over lunch

Sounds like you have a real love-hate relationship with the game. I'm surprised there aren't any mods that would fix these problems?

Cool, I will give that a try on my next game (which I'll probably start soon, once I've got this game if CiV and XCOM done!). On a similar note, there's a publisher sale on this weekend on steam (I've been picking up the DLC for CK2 in a piecemeal fashion when it's cheap in sales). I now have everything up to and including Sons of Abraham, along with Way of Life. Is there any real good reason for me to get any of the more recent DLC before I start my new game?

Both would be interested in your ideas for both, and what the differences are! I'm probably half way in-between. I've sunk a reasonable number of hours into the game (150 hours! But I've avoided reading up many hints and tips, lets plays etc, unless I'm really confused by a mechanic (so it took my ages to work out how raiding worked properly with vikings). I've been slowly picking up DLC every now and then during steam sales. I wonder if I should roll back to an earlier version of the game though as I don't have the latest few DLCs.

i would love for a power user such as yourself to do some suggested settings for what you consider a good set-up. I think it's about time I returned to CK2

Howdy, not that I need any new games... and I'm usually not one to get excited about new releases, but I was wondering if there are any headline (I suppose AAA would be the usual phrase?) strategy games currently in development? I know there are loads of great smaller titles in development (Clockwork Empires, At the Gates, Offworld Trading Company, anything and everything by Arcen). There's Creative Assembly's Warhammer:Total War game which might be fun or might be a broken mess. GalCiv3 by all accounts is just an updated version of GalCiv2, I've not heard of any new features or mechanics to get really excited about, and given Stardocks track record, it will take a few years before the game reaches its potential. We're surely unlikely to see a new Civ game anytime soon? I'm surprised there hasn't been any noise about a follow-up to XCOM. I'd love to see a XCOM2 that adds a touch more complexity and with a slightly less linear campaign trajectory. I'd be surprised to see a CK3 anytime soon from Paradox. Does Relic exist post-THQ? Personally, i'd be happy if there were no new game release at all for a good while, as then I could get on enjoying what I already have. But still, it's interesting to think about on a slow Monday afternoon :-)

If anybody is interested in Go, I think the best place for a complete beginner is still http://playgo.to/iwtg/ Michael - go chat to Batt!

Not at all, I'm here with you (would you like a game on DGS or OGS?). Great show, and I'd like to +1 about Michal being one of best panelists (guests?) on Three Moves Ahead. Please have him on more regularly! If you are ever thinking about doing a show on "Go in 2016" (and there's a LOT to talk about just now given the huge AI developments), then I can suggest a couple of people who would make great guests (Dwyrin, who streams on twitch/youtube and also does Let's Play of Civ and TW games, so would dovetail with 3MA's core audience) and Haylee (a professional Korean who has her own youtube channel too). [Andrew Jackson and Nick Sibicky would also be great]. This episode did make me want to go play some chess. Sadly, I first need to get to 1dan with Go before I can consider learning another deep game, and that's taking a while! More shows like this please!

Somebody else like me! Also, when you don't really know what's going on, the game feels so much larger, expansive and full of possibilities.

Yeah but in 6months - 1 year, you'll be able to buy it for peanuts will all DLC included That's my usual take on CA games. it takes me so long to get round to playing them properly anyway...

Pre-ordering a CA game? You're braver than I am!

OGS is a pretty terrible place in terms of ranks and whatnot (it's a nice interface and I'm sure things will settle down in the future). It does allow for community groups to be made though, so we could set up an Idle club there anytime we like. Just now, I'm mainly playing on DGS. As for coming across people running bots... this is pretty similar to playing against people who consult josekipedia and walthari's database during games. I've made my peace with it... my aim is to play well and winning or losing shouldn't really be a big deal. If some people decide to "cheat" to get a better rank, they're only really cheating themselves, as their game will suffer without their crutches. I believe that AI is already more or less at the top level for poker (I'd expect a big showdown game to happen as soon as somebody stumps up a big enough prize pool.

Yes! you and your opponent need to click to mark the agreed dead stones and then it will tell you points from territory, prisoners and komi.

The best advice I can suggest is to log onto KGS or online-go and play some real people it's likely that there are loads of new players just now, so it shouldn't be a problem finding other beginners. Then you also get the fun of working your way up and established rating system (30kyu is a new player). And, remember the proverb - lose your first 50 games as fast as possible. you won't learn much at this stage from trying to figure out the right move (as you'll be thinking about the wrong things anyway!). So just play for fun, don't spend too longer thinking, and your brain will pick up some patterns on its own

I think you more or less understand. Also, don't worry TOO much about understanding everything like this. Its very simple, but can be a little tricky to explain! The concept of "dead" stones (but not actually captured) often confuses new players.

Really enjoyed this show! Was up there with some of the best episodes. Could you please do another on the same topic? I'm another one of those people who love the idea of DF, but doesn't really have time to play it myself (I figured out the basics in the interface and made a few workshops etc, but never quite figured out how to do the more complex stuff that unlocks the next level of amazingness). But I love hearing people discuss it. So, more please

You should. It is a beautiful game. And it can be as simple of as deep as you choose (or rather, it depends on how strong an opponent you want to be able to play!). But it is an incredibly simple ruleset. Please don't hesitate to ask me anything. Best way to learn the absolute basics is here: http://playgo.to/iwtg/ If you have a local club, I'm sure they'd love to see you. Otherwise, there's KGS, OGS, and a load of other servers.

Agree 100%. There was some very interesting behaviour from the bot in the last game (not to mention a beautiful tesuji from Lee that will no doubt go down in Go history). It's a shame they aren't playing a full 10 game jubungo. It would be interesting to see if Lee could figure out how to play to the bots strengths over a longer series of games (the AI has no ability to learn game to game).

Fascinating that Lee has note that AlphaGo plays more strongly when taking white stones (and hence requested to take Black for the final game so he can try and beat it when it's playing to its strengths). A lovely example of how two seemingly identical symmetric sides can still lead to asymmetric play (thanks to first move advantage being balanced out with komi). This simple different leads to several differences in strategy (if white wants to take sente during the fuseki, white has to pass up the chance to take the final corner, and black favours high scoring games where white favours low scoring games). I've always thought this is a nicer way to do asymmetry than the type of hard coded rulesets in many computer games. It's just so elegant.

You spoke too soon. What a win. Lee Sedol found some magic. How he found that wedge, I will never know. Stunning sucess, and demonstrated the the AI isn't quite yet supreme (it broke down in a weird way towards the end once it was losing) And, so much fun to see this story shoot straight up to the front story on the Asian press again. The fact that this boring turn based abstract strategy game can keep the media's attention for over a week of games is amazing. [and aww. he looks so happy in the Press Conference].