MTGNexus

Hermes_ wrote: ↑

4 years ago

toctheyounger wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Hermes_ wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I've never seen The Dark Tower,i do however want to read it or at least the book that ties The Stand into it. If you REALLY want to watch it (the Stand) it's on youtube all parts.

The Dark Tower is worth a read. More or less the whole series of 7 tie into The Stand at least to some degree. As well as Insomnia, The Talisman and Black House, Hearts in Atlantis (Low men in Yellow Coats story) directly, maybe others too (edit: possibly Desperation and the Regulators), I can't remember though. It's considered King's magnum opus to some degree, insofar as most of it is pretty well written and it has overarching themes that tie a lot of his stories into the wider story arc.

Don't see the movie. Even if you haven't read the books the movie is pretty awful. Which is interesting considering how bad some of King's adaptations have been.

edit: I've seen the Stand. It's not bad. I prefer the book though.

I hope the Cornavirus hasn't screwed over the new miniseries they are working on for CBS all access.

It's closed down the LOTR prequel series Amazon was doing in West Auckland. I'm not sure how good that was going to be, but yeah for now it's in hiatus. As a Middle Earth fan I hope it continues/is good once it's complete.

toctheyounger wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Hermes_ wrote: ↑

4 years ago

toctheyounger wrote: ↑

4 years ago

The Dark Tower is worth a read. More or less the whole series of 7 tie into The Stand at least to some degree. As well as Insomnia, The Talisman and Black House, Hearts in Atlantis (Low men in Yellow Coats story) directly, maybe others too (edit: possibly Desperation and the Regulators), I can't remember though. It's considered King's magnum opus to some degree, insofar as most of it is pretty well written and it has overarching themes that tie a lot of his stories into the wider story arc.

Don't see the movie. Even if you haven't read the books the movie is pretty awful. Which is interesting considering how bad some of King's adaptations have been.

edit: I've seen the Stand. It's not bad. I prefer the book though.

I hope the Cornavirus hasn't screwed over the new miniseries they are working on for CBS all access.

It's closed down the LOTR prequel series Amazon was doing in West Auckland. I'm not sure how good that was going to be, but yeah for now it's in hiatus. As a Middle Earth fan I hope it continues/is good once it's complete.

That's one that will be resumed as soon as it's safe,but The Stand given it's subject matter, who knows.

Hermes_ wrote: ↑

4 years ago

toctheyounger wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Hermes_ wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I hope the Cornavirus hasn't screwed over the new miniseries they are working on for CBS all access.

It's closed down the LOTR prequel series Amazon was doing in West Auckland. I'm not sure how good that was going to be, but yeah for now it's in hiatus. As a Middle Earth fan I hope it continues/is good once it's complete.

That's one that will be resumed as soon as it's safe,but The Stand given it's subject matter, who knows.

Oh I didn't even think of that. People are pretty impressionable.

so,this is what i've been working since I got home from the hospital and during my lockdown it's a WWII German Hanomag 1/35 scale

Ok, I have finally broken down and downloaded Cockatrice. Anyone patient want to play a game while I learn how it all works?

I tried Untap.in today with some buddies, it was a truly awful experience. Two of us cast lim-dul's vault which might be the most annoying spell to resolve on there, of course. From my recollection it was just about as awful as cockatrice.

Stickin to MTGO myself, but I did order some video stuff for streaming games with my friends around here.

I imagine it would be better with Skype/Voice, where you can just treat it as regular card play.

Either way, after playing a private 1player goldfish to learn some of the controls, I attempted to play my first game, and joined a promising looking "Casual Low to Mid" titled game.



That 6 mana was used to cast Ugin, the ineffable. On turn 2. Yay.

wow....

Did they even try to explain, like it was an honest mistake, or just nothing and/or didn't care?

Sounds about right.

I've been doing webcam games over Discord. Still figuring it out, but I'm hoping to start streaming games as well.

Segrus wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Did they even try to explain, like it was an honest mistake, or just nothing and/or didn't care?

Seems like they didn't care. One person scooped. I stayed in for the hell of it, and he kept talking, saying things like "You guys are already dead..."

===

Now, to be fair, I'm not looking to learn cockatrice to play in these random pickups. I'm trying to learn it, to see if it's something that my playgroup might be able to try. Some of us have discussed webcam over some sort of group call system. Skype and Zoom have been tossed out there.

But I fear that webcam quality might not be great at representing boardstate, and that a digital medium might be effective at that, if paired with voice conferencing, because then everyone can view any boardstate more easily, they can mouse over cards, etc.

This all sounds pretty symptomatic of games online in general tbh. Untap is notorious for folk just leaving midgame or being awful versions of themselves, and then there's the pubstomping.

In other news, New Zealand has just shut down all non-essential services.

I have been absolutely thrilled with mtgo. Wish I had people to discord chat with while we played but all my friends are reluctant to buy cards online. Meanwhile I made a hundred bucks on the ones I bought heh.

cryogen wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Sounds about right.

I've been doing webcam games over Discord. Still figuring it out, but I'm hoping to start streaming games as well.

Yea please ping me next time I should be able to help get it running on Twitch.

Playing via webcam isn't too bad, especially if folks are using good resolution and it's close enough to the mat. You just have to ask questions and somewhat remember stuff like you would in person anyway. The biggest hurdle is stuff that causes players to control things they don't own. Zero risk of accidentally shuffling up somebody else's cards, though.

I've been on the same server Cryogen is (Olivia Gobert-Hicks's) -- played a couple games last night and the same tonight. I like the tactile aspect of using the physical cards. I'm going to have to tweak some of my decks for this and build a couple more that suit the style well.

It should also be possible to do a passworded room on Cockatrice, though, so that you can play with known people. I also remember from an old reddit thread about Cockatrice advice that there's an up/down rating for other users and you just uptick them by one if you had a good game with them and downtick by one if they aren't the kind of person you want to play with. Starting from neutral on everybody you start filtering people into friends and "won't play with".

toctheyounger wrote: ↑

4 years ago

This all sounds pretty symptomatic of games online in general tbh. Untap is notorious for folk just leaving midgame or being awful versions of themselves, and then there's the pubstomping.

In other news, New Zealand has just shut down all non-essential services.

Not just non-essential services, but also LGSs are closed.

ba-dum tssh.

And I just built 2 new decks too. Blerg.

toctheyounger wrote: ↑

4 years ago

In other news, New Zealand has just shut down all non-essential services.

Australia did the same today. I'm most bummed about gyms being shut down. Mine was already way quieter and I was enjoying the more relaxed atmosphere.

My indefinite working from home also begins Wednesday, so I'll need some online way to satisfy the EDH cravings. Fortunately work was kind enough to give me a computer to tide me over until my new one arrives (both my desktop and laptop broke last weekend) so I'm sure I'll be able to figure something out.

Yeah, Cockatrice is like that. I got smashed recently by a blatant Urza netdecker. The guy had no idea what he was doing, played a sorcery speed Mystical Tutor for zero benefit of doing so, Force of Willed something absolutely idiotic and irrelevant, then chased out the Hilarious And Original TM Monolith + Rings combo out a couple turns later, but didn't have enough mana to make it come online immediately. So it just sat there for a whole go of turns around the table as he sat there, shields down, ready to have it removed. But nobody had an answer. So yeah, we lost, but it didn't feel like a deserved loss. We didn't get outplayed, the guy just had a deck multiple weight classes above the rest of the table, which was enough to carry him to victory in spite of absolutely woeful execution and threat assessment. Blech. And yet I keep periodically running the risk of exposing myself to this sort of experience recently as it's something to fill the void. Still, it's good for buddy games. You can just buddy all the people you want to play with, and then put up a "buddies only" room. No password faff, easy times.

At this point I've kind of accepted that the window to stop the worst of the virus has passed to inaction. I actually almost laughed when I saw a photo of a crowded pub with Boris Johnson's two-weeks-too-late "we're shutting down a bunch of stuff" live speech airing on the telly. Rather than act sensibly, just buy up all the toilet paper and go about your day as normal as MUH FREEDOMS. It will take a few weeks for the current restrictions to kick into effect over here, and I'm not even sure if those are sufficient. The MUH FREEDOMS crowd reacts with panic to fake news about the army taking to the streets and enforcing a lockdown, which frankly wouldn't necessarily even be the worst idea. Get people to stay indoors, still allow acquisition of food, slow down the infection rate and hopefully extinguish the worst of it. Then stall for time with some more minor sanctions, just enough to get it to not explode again, as science properly catches up. But no.

bobthefunny wrote: ↑

4 years ago

God, i completely forgot how awefully ugly Cockatrice is.
Eff that Atraxa player btw. I'd say every 10th to 15th game on Xmage (> Cockatrice) looks comparably. Yesterday i played a lobby that said "focused 5-6 decks" and one of my opponents showed up with all out The Gitrog Monster dredge combos. We had to team up real bad and once he lost board control quit instantly. The remaining 3 player pod was nice though. In the end i won with Gonti, Lord of Luxury and Commander Damage thanks to Shade's Form.

bobthefunny wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Segrus wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Did they even try to explain, like it was an honest mistake, or just nothing and/or didn't care?

Seems like they didn't care. One person scooped. I stayed in for the hell of it, and he kept talking, saying things like "You guys are already dead..."

Awesome. Great. Wonderful. Completely emotionally detached from their fellow human beings.

lyonhaert wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Playing via webcam isn't too bad, especially if folks are using good resolution and it's close enough to the mat. You just have to ask questions and somewhat remember stuff like you would in person anyway. The biggest hurdle is stuff that causes players to control things they don't own. Zero risk of accidentally shuffling up somebody else's cards, though.

With the few times I've done either games by forum post or games over Skype, the hardest effects to resolve were anything involving having to look through your opponent's deck, like with Thada Adel, Acquisitor. I stopped running any effect which involved that after the second time it came up.

@cryogen n what's your camera set up for streaming a desktop with a field of view large enough for cards?

Most of the cameras I'm seeing either don't seem to have the field of view, or the resolution.

bobthefunny wrote: ↑

4 years ago

cryogen n what's your camera set up for streaming a desktop with a field of view large enough for cards?

Most of the cameras I'm seeing either don't seem to have the field of view, or the resolution.

A cellphone camera is what I'm looking at trying myself. My 720p webcam does work decently however, if you can get it positioned over the area -- going to try a clamp arm rig thing for that. Got one that should support either phone or webcam.

Unfortunately there's been a frigging run on webcams like on TP so I can't get one of the nice 110 degree 1080p webcams

Ulka wrote: ↑

4 years ago

cryogen wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Sounds about right.

I've been doing webcam games over Discord. Still figuring it out, but I'm hoping to start streaming games as well.

Yea please ping me next time I should be able to help get it running on Twitch.

Definitely.

bobthefunny wrote: ↑

4 years ago

cryogen n what's your camera set up for streaming a desktop with a field of view large enough for cards?

Most of the cameras I'm seeing either don't seem to have the field of view, or the resolution.

I've got a Logitech c922x mounted to a 1x2 over my playmat, Blue Yeti mic, Corsair headset, and a pair of 32" 1920x1080p monitors. We play over Discord chat. All that isn't necessary, but the larger screen helps me see the cards. Lighting is most important, and trying to avoid glare.

pokken wrote: ↑

4 years ago

bobthefunny wrote: ↑

4 years ago

cryogen n what's your camera set up for streaming a desktop with a field of view large enough for cards?

Most of the cameras I'm seeing either don't seem to have the field of view, or the resolution.

A cellphone camera is what I'm looking at trying myself. My 720p webcam does work decently however, if you can get it positioned over the area -- going to try a clamp arm rig thing for that. Got one that should support either phone or webcam.

Unfortunately there's been a frigging run on webcams like on TP so I can't get one of the nice 110 degree 1080p webcams

Yeah, I was noticing that... all the popular webcams are gone.

Yep, they trying to get 150 for the c922x which is years old and was going for 50 bucks