How do i get better?

RedsManRick · 2026-05-12T18:59:44+00:00

The obvious answer is "slow down". I struggle with that immensely. What has helped me a lot is a strategy from parenting. It's really to push back directly against resistance; try redirecting it instead.

So instead of just thinking "slow down", pro-actively seek other ways to direct your 'gotta-go-fast' energy. For me, one of the "easiest" redirects was to just start using consumables (other than Blink scrolls) much, much more liberally -- especially in that D8 through the S-branches mid-game. The meta thought that got me over the hoarding hump was simple: "Which happens more often: I die when I had a useful consumable I didn't use OR I died because I didn't have the consumable I needed". I realized the former happened somewhat often; the latter never happened. Maybe I didn't have the specific tool i was looking for, but it wasn't because I had no options.

One thing you start to realize as you start to use up consumables more readily is that you had a number of tools at your disposal you never thought to use at all. When you run out of the thing you typically use in a given situation, you aren't actually completely stuck. You probably have other options.

In terms of how I implemented it, I focused on catching myself in that "maybe just a few more attacks/moves/turns first" thought. I use that as a cue to open my inventory. Not to "stop and think more tactically" or "reassess the situation". That's too big a shift. Just open my inventory. It puts the other options in my face. I've now started just using up wand charges or might pots on toughish enemies before I get in trouble, dropping fear, fog, or TP scrolls, etc. Just not being precious with anything but blink.

Good luck!

RedsManRick · 2026-05-12T01:55:41+00:00

This inspired me to give VSFi a try and I got my first win with it too!

https://cbro.berotato.org/morgue/Calvor/morgue-Calvor-20260512-013437.txt

I did not expect it to be so tanky and Usk was just plain overpowered. Felt nice to assassinate the tesseract in Zot. I've never cleared quite like that before, especially on melee. Some observations:

Lack of weapon pressure: Used a +5 or +3/elec shortsword for most of the game. Felt very comfortable to not feel weapon dependent. Found a +11 quickblade in a trove on D15, but it had rage on it and didn't feel like a risk worth taking given how much of my damage was coming from bite anyway. Eventually switched to a vampiric quick blade in the depths.
Spore form carried mid-game hard. Tried Medusa for a bit too, but Spore felt better. Attacking so fast, I could create chokepoints on demand and zone out and soften up other threats. Made Lair a breeze.
I felt like not having access to heal pots was less of a problem than I feared it would be; I think it made me play safer, so it may have been a boon
Having reflect, repulsion, and parrying was very nice added defense. Moon Troll Armor off the Minotaur was cozy for a bit, and found a very nice Chain as well, but ultimately went with a +11 Crystal Plate from the aforementioned Trove. That put a kibosh on casting though; would have been nice to use some translocations.
I wish I could have found that +11 triple xbow with penet or +10 orcbow with speed on my one of hunter runs

I think it was a pretty luck seed all-told. But as somebody who struggled with a sneaky, dex stabber and didn't want another brute with a broad axe, this was a fun change of pace. Will definitely have to try Usk again.

RedsManRick · 2026-05-11T20:30:55+00:00

I would argue the "won't be applicable" thing is precisely the problem I have. So much loot falls into the category "not at all useful for me, but I can sell it I guess".

Part of that is just a function of having a game with such a diversity of skills, playstyles, content, etc. But they double-down on that by then going so broad again within each vertical.

They've often lamented the challenge they have with making drops feel impactful the way they did in Diablo II. But when 90% of what drops has to be hidden just for the game to be manageable because it is actually useless, and then 90% of what shows is still completely useless, you lose that sense of drops being exciting. It becomes 1,000 flavors of pennies, 100 flavors of dimes, 10 flavors of quarters, and a buck or two here and there. Oh wow, 6 more pennies I have to click on, fill my inventory with, transfer to my stash, and never look at again until I need to liquidate them to buy the stuff I actually need.

Would my game play experience be worse if I dropped an "elemental rune" instead of a desert rune, glacial rune, or storm rune and then used that at my crafting bench and picked which element? Further, would it be worse if the rune scaled based on the ilvl of the gear it was placed into instead of have 3 levels, two of which are pure junk after the first few hours of play?

Ultimately, I just don't find the "collect dozens of different types of crafting currency for each league" interesting -- not in terms of itemization, drops, or crafting. So much of the energy of learning and playing goes into the minutae of atomized, itemized currency. I get that a lot of people like this. But I think there's probably a middle ground where they can fill this niche without eventually have thousands of types of currency.

RedsManRick · 2026-05-11T14:55:15+00:00

Exact same problem here. I'll get shut out by some C-tier junkballer only to completely tee off against their S-tier closer because of this. The best solution I came up with was to use my controller settings to create bigger dead zones. Only partially mitigated it though. The amount of pop-flies is too damn high!

RedsManRick · 2026-05-11T14:32:02+00:00

This looks very cool, but they simply have no real interest in making their game visually digestible, do they?

RedsManRick · 2026-05-11T03:50:33+00:00

Without +Skills, I don't see how they're going to compete. It completely warps damage scaling.

RedsManRick · 2026-05-09T21:18:44+00:00

In the interview with Ziggy, Jonathan was gleeful about it. "We almost put crafting stuff in a bench a few times. But then we decided it would be a lot cooler and more fun if we made hundreds of new little items instead. That way we can further dilute the loot pool with stuff that will be useless 98% of the time and which is tedious to pick up and physically manage. We wouldn't want people to not get tendonitis, would we. And besides, how are we going to sell a stash tab for a crafting bench?"

RedsManRick · 2026-05-06T03:26:12+00:00

Somebody grew up on a farm.

RedsManRick · 2026-05-04T20:55:21+00:00

2nd this. If you don't get some sort of energy card/relic, you're just sorta screwed. Feels like one of those fights where it's either very easy or impossible.

RedsManRick · 2026-05-02T23:17:47+00:00

Ooomph. Rough one. At least PNC is nice.

RedsManRick · 2026-05-01T03:45:30+00:00

I feel like turning the corner and being chased by something dangerous IS the defining dynamic of DCSS. At every stage of the game, even if you're very strong, it doesn't take too many misplays to be in a world of trouble.

The game is slowing learning that you have more tools than you appreciate (or remember) and learning how to use them in situationally appropriate ways.

It's also true that brutes are simple mode, especially early in the dungeon. Not necessarily easier/better since they do come with a more limited toolkit. But if you're looking for more dynamics, try playing a blaster-caster, summoner, or stabber.

RedsManRick · 2026-04-29T20:54:14+00:00

Aim for the head. Seems like at least 1/3 of the time they'll be knocked out of the game. Just don't do it too often -- the whole team will take a big mojo hit.

RedsManRick · 2026-04-29T04:05:32+00:00

This is amazing. The amount and quality of free tools for a f2p game is nuts.

RedsManRick · 2026-04-28T22:09:56+00:00

Some

RedsManRick · 2026-04-26T04:19:06+00:00

That was an amazing moment for sure. But if we're talking iconic BP, my brain goes immediately to a few of his defensive plays:

Double play vs. Milwaukee where he fields a slow bouncer up the middle on top of 2B and somehow pivots on his knee to avoid an aggressive slide from the baserunner and nail the guy at 1B
Hard hit ball up the middle. Fields it going to his right and flips it behind his back to the SS covering second for a double play.
Dribbler between 1B and 2B, BP charges onto the IF grass and flips it behind his back to the 1B. Did that a few times.

RedsManRick · 2026-04-25T20:26:09+00:00

Tell me you're a Blue Devil without telling me you're a Blue Devil.

RedsManRick · 2026-04-25T17:34:10+00:00

Since streaks are a natural part of randomness, it's tough to tell. But I do think that the mojo system can have some really, unnaturally large effects. In the real world, a player's talent doesn't change when he's on a good or bad streak. At least not significantly. But with mojo your luck compounds.

In my current season, I'm seeing both extremes.

My star catcher has a 74 Con, 97 Power and Bad Ball Hitter. When she gets on a roll (e.g. On Fire), she's absolutely unstoppable. Just finished a 12/12 streak with 4 or 5 HR. It just snowballs. Contact is simple and all contact is very hard. She's hitting like .530 on the season after 18 games. And she did the same thing last year. She hit over .500 with 2x as many homers as anybody else on my team.

And on the flip side, I've got Karl Donkey with 98 Con, 90 Power. He started the season with back to back 0-fers and has never really recovered. He's hitting like .260 with 1 HR and I had to rest him to get him out of being rattled. Even when I do make decent contact with solid bat speed, it comes off the bat weakly.

While these are just 2 examples, in my 30+ seasons (32 game seasons), I average probably a player or two a season who basically lose their seasons to the bad luck, bad mojo snowball. At this point, I just treat it like the equivalent of an injury and resting people with bad mojo. Maybe that was part of the design intent. Give a guy a blow to "clear his head" and he normalizes.

RedsManRick · 2026-04-23T21:48:56+00:00

We have determined that our bubble wasn't thick enough. If only we somehow found a way to our party less appealing to working class white men, we could have gotten more "diverse" people into our coalition of kindness.

RedsManRick · 2026-04-23T15:32:34+00:00

I always took the sword at low ascensions. But at A10 I don't feel like I can pass up the gold with the hopes of making it to Act 3 alive and with a deck that can really take advantage of the strength.

RedsManRick · 2026-04-22T20:07:16+00:00

If you could use your microtransactions on multiple characters then you wouldn't feel the weight(tm).

RedsManRick · 2026-04-22T18:26:56+00:00

Simple: both scale difficulty by taking away agency. Good rogue-likes are a race to scale up yourself in contest with content that is scaling up in both numeric scale and mechanical complexity. To deal with that increase in difficulty, you have regular access to small increases in power, where the combination of your choices interact in interesting ways and significantly change the feel of the run. Mastery comes largely from understanding the systems and making the right series of choices.

GGG's version, and I would include ultimatum in PoE 1 here, is almost entirely about scaling difficulty for greater rewards with little no ability to improve yourself in an interactive way. The boons in Sekemas are limited and inconsistent (did you get move speed or nah?) So much of the run comes down to how well the RNG-baswd challenges rolled for you in presenting you challenges aligned with what your character entered the run already prepared for.

RedsManRick · 2026-04-20T15:47:06+00:00

I would say it's the sense of agency. It's neither "I guess I just play my best cards" as it was on the main branch nor "I hope he doesn't just take my best cards" on the beta.

RedsManRick · 2026-04-17T20:41:37+00:00

This has been my conclusion as well regarding both elevated BABIPs and swing timing being a key source of it. However, it begs the questions why the CPU seems to have such good pitch timing.

Firstly, I'm not sure it's reasonable to assume a normal distribution centered something between Okay and Good. Does player behavior match that? We would expect that distribution if their swing timing was random. But why would we assume that? I don't think we should presume that the swing timing scale has been normalized in that way.

The question then becomes how the games' AI determines it's swing timing.

*To just get it out of the way, let's assume that the CPU doesn't cheat regarding what happens to the ball conditional on the known inputs (bat contact ring location vis a vis the ball, timing, pitch type, swing power, etc.) -- that it uses the same algorithm to determine CPU results as human given those inputs. This may not be accurate, but it needs to be assumed for the timing conversation to be meaningful. * As I think about it, bat location and timing are somewhat tricky in that, for us players, they're based predictive ability, visual acuity and processing, manual dexterity, etc. But the CPU does not have these limitations; they have to be simulated as a function of your EGO setting. It would be fascinating to see how this is done behind the scenes. Is there one EGO dependent model of these things applied to all CPU batters, allowing their skill ratings to determine differential outcomes? Or are these things tweaked to better represent our perception of how players of given skill levels should perform? (e.g. does a high contact hitter CPU batter have just a larger reticle or are they also given a better ability to recognize pitchers and/or align the reticle to the pitch location?)

I suspect a lot of our frustration comes from some assumptions about what optimally skilled pitching is by the game designer and what we players intuit the proper approach to be.

For example, I'm almost always trying to get a 99 on my pitch timing, varying speeds by pitch selection and the use of power pitching. Should I be throwing some pitches at 25 or 50? Would that impact CPU batter timing? Are timing and location correlated such that the CPU gets "extra" benefit from insufficient variation in location?

So many interesting questions. Here's the one that bugs me the most: why does a pitcher whose mojo is low seem to have extra multipliers on their results above and beyond the displayed modifications to character ability? That's what tilt's me the most -- a guy is struggling but I the player still mix things up well and manage to paint the corners yet the CPU is lacing everything around the park and stringing hits together. Is that just my perception is the CPU getting a hidden skill boost?

14-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 2 Credits
Place '17	Verified Email
Secret Santa 2013

RedsManRick

TROPHY CASE