??????
You are not logged in.
Pages: 1
A huge part of the game is about "reading" your opponent. Presumably, you want to use their past behavior to predict what they'll do next. This is fairly straightforward for the green row, the selection your opponent gives to you. You see the previous selection after each round. You can make a quick mental note and move on.
The part that bugs me is that I can't practically do that for the red rows. Obviously, I only see my opponent's selections in the last two rounds of betting. I only get the complete picture if I make it to very end (which provides an interesting incentive to keep raising until the finish). When I get the opponent's reveal, I don't have the concentration to examine it in the context of what was going on before. I'm too busy strategizing about betting and I'm looking mainly at the possible scores.
I eventually get all three numbers, but I don't have time to review them. And even if I try to grab a quick glance, I've forgotten what happened earlier: I don't remember the order of the red columns selected and everything is painted out.
Practically speaking, I'm never able to use this information and it seems like a lot of potential is being lost there. The information is there. Ostensibly I'm being awarded that knowledge, but I just can't use it.
Does anyone else share this concern or am I missing something? I don't know what the solution would be. I thought about a post-game review, but it makes little difference with anonymous opponents unless you're just picking up on general trends. Maybe a quick replay after every finished round?
Canto Delirium: a Twitter bot for CM. Also check out my strategy guide!
Offline
I agree, it's quite difficult to take note of the choices the opponent made and I've never really managed it, though I expect that the best players do. It's even more difficult because rows on the board get progressively darker and eventually blacked out - e.g. for artificial reasons, which does also concern me. Maybe the paint strokes could be made a little more transparent? Funny that turning up the brightness of your monitor is an advantage (just like in TCD). Also, it would be very nice if you could stop and look at the board at the end rather than it disappearing quickly. I think that playing with paper and pencil to keep notes would be quite helpful and I might start doing that. The game showing symbols to track order in which columns/rows were picked is another option.
Offline
Thanks for chiming in. I was worried that I was just slow or something.
Having a few seconds to look at the board (as long as pick order was somehow illustrated) would be a good step forward. A replay would be a lot easier to understand though and wouldn't require adding extra labels.
Then it's a question of pacing. It adds more time to each round. Unless you fit it in between the animated payout and the next round: you watch it while your first round clock is ticking and can escape at any time.
Last edited by jere (2014-12-01 12:35:48)
Canto Delirium: a Twitter bot for CM. Also check out my strategy guide!
Offline
Yeah, this concerns me too.
The squares that get darker and darker (the green squares that you don't score yourself) are actually the wrong ones in the current implementation. It should be showing you something about your opponent's perspective (with possible won squares for you being more visible), but with the way that the darkening works, the ones that are possible for you from your opponent's perspective get the darkest, while ones that are clearly not possible for you (intersected by red) are still visible by the end of the round, before the reveal.
There will always be a pacing element to this game that prevents very close study post-round, except at very high levels of play.
But, the information should at least be visible on the board!
Offline
I changed it (for v10, not out yet) to NOT paint black masks over your rows when you win them. It still paints them over your column though (to show which square you won, even after other rows come in later and intersect with your first column).
This leaves "my possible squares from my opponent's perspective" still visible.
During reveal, only a row black mask is added for your square now. Thus, it doesn't further darken squares in your opponent's rows.
During your opponent's reveal, their column is black-masked, but their row is only faintly black-masked, leaving the row that they picked for themselves totally readable.
During final reveal, only their columns are black-masked.
Furthermore, the black mask brush strokes have been lighted overall.
The board at the end certainly doesn't look as striking, but it contains a lot more useful information, and it provides more information along the way (you can learn to read the board to see what your opponent is seeing about your numbers along the way).
Offline
Pages: 1