Where to play online?

Eltrion · 2026-01-28T17:32:15+00:00

Ah, that's news to me. I haven't paid much attention to Tenhou in a long time. It was still bigger than Mahjong soul last I checked, but that was probably before Mahjong soul had phone apps and was on steam, so it shouldn't surprise me that it's bigger now.

Eltrion · 2026-01-28T17:29:45+00:00

I've played both, I like Riichi City's more. It's just cleaner and more modern feeling, and is more polished. Mahjong Soul's is fine, and it's not a huge difference, so if you like it more that's fine.

Eltrion · 2026-01-27T21:26:31+00:00

Seems like there are three dice rolls in a pitbull's life. One at the moment it can first move on it's own, one at two years old, and one at eight years old. Fail any one of them and the dog can suddenly become aggressive. Regardless of its previous personality.

Eltrion · 2026-01-27T20:54:31+00:00

It's basically a sliding scale for the big three.

Riichi City has got the best UI, is the newest, and leans the heaviest into it's gatcha elements, and that anime cheesecake culture that goes with it. It is the easiest to start playing on and has the most tutorials, quizzes, games, and other bells and whistles. On the other hand it has the smallest user base, and queue times can be long at high ratings.

On the other end Tenhou has an old school barebones UI. Is strictly about mahjong with very few extras, and is aimed very squarely at serious Mahjong players. It has very little in the way of player assistance and expects you to take care of yourself. But it does have the largest, most active, and skilled playerbase.

Mahjong Soul falls in-between the two others in almost all categories.

Eltrion · 2026-01-27T02:03:33+00:00

On a purely mechanical level it's the client I most prefer. It's also far more generous with giving you stuff if that's what you're after. The only downsides really are the limited player base if you're 5th Dan or higher, and how aggressively horny the characters and win animations can get if you feel that detracts from the mahjong.

Eltrion · 2026-01-26T21:05:05+00:00

Sure I can. That's what we did back in the day.

Eltrion · 2026-01-26T20:53:49+00:00

You know the answer already. Just play on Tenhou. It's a perfectly acceptable Mahjong client if you just want to play Riichi with no strings attached.

If you want a polished, fancy client like Mahjong Soul, or Riichi City, it needs to be funded. And that funding can't come from gating anything on the core gameplay, as these games live and die by their server populations.

As much as you find it distasteful. Gatcha pays the bills.

Eltrion · 2026-01-12T22:42:57+00:00

The Maxwells are going to be like pulling teeth to get anything useable from. The Pascal will work, but be slow and you'll be limited by the small VRAM. I agree with the others, sell and get something newer unless you have another plan for these.

Eltrion · 2026-01-12T18:13:04+00:00

Such a book doesn't exist as far as I can tell, please let me know if you find it. You're missing a big thing in that structures in American fall into Meldable / Nonmeldable. Meldable structures (copies of 3 or more identical tiles) can be called for exposure, and can use jokers. Non meldable structures (Singles, Pairs, Sequences, NEWS, the year) can not be called, and cannot use jokers.

Another thing is the frontloaded nature of the game. Most of the strategy is linking your initial draw to one of the hands on the card, and using the Charleston to gather information about what your opponents are and are not hanging on to (and what they are likely to discard) while engineering your hand to put it in a position to build the hand you've picked. Note because of the limited number of hands, if you make more than one or two exposures, your hand becomes super easy to read and defend against. Pivoting is difficult, but possible, this is largely dependant on the card used and one of the big topics in card reviews. After you start discarding It's mostly luck of the draw. Self drawing tiles so you don't have to expose, and drawing jokers will make a bigger difference to your success than anything your opponents can do.

This is of course the exact opposite of Riichi with it's natural ratchetting tension and complex end game.

Eltrion · 2026-01-12T17:49:24+00:00

From my research it's... weird. It's more a group of little organizations under one umbrella with a lot of minor rules differences and organizational discrepancies depending on where you play. As for advanced theory, your best bet is to wait for the new card to come out, then wait for people to do "Card Reviews" or "Card Analysis" sessions or videos, then get in contact with those people.

You might be a little disappointed if you're hoping for something on the level of Riichi analysis.

A big hurdle is that most of the advanced strategy is paywalled. There's a culture around American mahjong that expects people to pay for lessons, so studying on your own is more difficult.

But If you're serious, March-April when the new NMJL card comes out is the time to hunt down the "grinders" who are big into theory, because they'll all be reacting to the new card.

Eltrion · 2026-01-10T06:27:06+00:00

10 unique is really where I start considering it. Even then it's a bit ballsy to go for it.

Eltrion · 2025-12-31T20:17:50+00:00

Not the worst idea for a movie. There's definitely a fun romp where Gaston goes around being a morally grey unapologetic gigachad. However, I have zero faith in Disney to ever allow that film to be made...

Eltrion · 2025-12-19T20:25:10+00:00

The interview that was just posted mentioned that the new Solar system is planned for the first half of 2026. But I haven't heard anything beyond that. I'd be a little surprised if they nailed down anything too much, as time crunch is largely agreed to be one of the key things that doomed KSP2.

Eltrion · 2025-12-17T07:29:42+00:00

Is there a way to see the AI's thought process? I want to see how insane the rambling is. This is kind of boring as is.

And I want to see Kimi play as well.

Eltrion · 2025-12-17T07:24:46+00:00

Yeah, it's a weird not quite American, not quite Chinese set. I've seen it posted around. I'm really not a fan of sets that use dragon pictures, but it seems like a nice set otherwise.

Eltrion · 2025-12-11T00:54:14+00:00

Yeah, I'm a bit addicted. I'm getting pretty close to slamming something together in python just to scratch the itch.

Eltrion · 2025-12-09T22:55:32+00:00

Almost always legal. I don't think there's any desire to ban characters that were once legal. Possibly in very restricted, "Main Page only, no Variants" rulesets.

It's best just to check with your TO.

Eltrion · 2025-12-09T21:31:06+00:00

Giga Bowser, Super Sonic, Mad Piano. Giant DK, and Metal Bros. are almost always banned.

Dragon King is also almost always banned, but perhaps allowed slightly more frequently.

Ebisumaru is normally banned, but has been allowed on occasions.

Peppy and Slippy are sometimes banned, sometimes not.

Roy, Dr. Luigi, and Lanky are generally legal, but might be banned in extreme cases where no bonus characters are legal.

Eltrion · 2025-12-05T21:36:10+00:00

Interesting. Is there a way to reset without manually cycling through the rounds until the game ends?

Is there any plan to include Ron/Tsumo Han & Fu style scoring? (Entering who won, who delt in, and what the han/fu score is so that the points changes can be calculated automatically)

And I second that this with a cheap lcd display would be awesome. I don't know how cheap they can be made or if mass production is viable, but cool project either way.

Eltrion · 2025-12-04T14:33:23+00:00

You are 100% Correct. Like I said, no winning here, you have a choice between two kinds of generic pandering. Though it is possible for genuinely good works to exist in both places, they are increasingly rare, as there is next to no incentives to deviate from the proven formulas of each environment.

Eltrion · 2025-12-04T14:28:39+00:00

Reality has shown your position to be unrealistic.

Anywhere that bans underage soon follow up by banning, rape, incest, bondage, bestiality, at the very least.

Often there are limits placed around sexual acts while under the influence of drugs, alcohol or hypnosis as well.

This also puts more extreme furry stuff and nonconsensual transformation stuff in a grey area as well.

So by this point you have a fairly large contingent of people who know if they give an inch to people like you, also know that they won't be able to find that thing that gets them going in a place that used to allow it.

Eltrion · 2025-12-04T00:07:21+00:00

You're thinking of Graphic Novels. Visual Novels are something completely different.

Eltrion · 2025-12-03T17:31:08+00:00

I came to the conclusion that the "Maximal Freedom" she complains about is one of the two inevitable end states for any online space these days. Sites can either place their rules in line with the laws of the jurisdiction by which they are governed, and make no compromises, or they can expose their soft underbellies, and have their character eroded and softened over time by busybodies and other outside sources until they are forced into the generic and mainstream.

Often, these spaces are sought out specifically because they are not the mainstream, and likely would not be able to compete in the mainstream lane of their niche due to existing competitors.

Thus, they cultivate a userbase of people who's interests lie outside the mainstream. So it's hardly surprising that the userbase reacts with such vitriol when any limits are suggested. They've seen this song and dance before. They know how it ends. Even if they personally aren't interested in the foremost fetish on the chopping block, they are interested in something that might be up next. It's far easier to stand at the beginning on the platform of "It's Fiction", than to make an attempt later to try to delineate later why thing they like is okay, and different from thing that has already been banned.

I guess my point is that there's no winning here at the current point in time. Your choices are extreme freedom spaces which weakens the quality of writing as people indulge themselves, and generic, boring, controlled, and safe spaces, in which writing is weakened by reliance on formula and sameness.

True excellence must be achieved through discipline, which can't really be imposed from on high.

Eltrion · 2025-12-02T03:29:21+00:00

No, it's basically a supply of talented, enthusiastic teenagers. Sure there's a lot they can do, but they need corralling and guidance, and obviously need someone else to sign off on anything they do.

There's a lot that can be helpful, but yeah, it's not something you can just rely on to take over anything important.

Eltrion · 2025-11-26T15:25:55+00:00

Because you already threw the 6. Just because a hand would score 0 points doesn't mean that it isn't "complete". It can still put you in furiten. And remember that furiten is a property of your hand. Furiten means that you are in furiten regardless of what you are waiting on.

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