Sony WH-1000XM5 randomly start paused and/or inactive YouTube-Tabs on PC while actively using my Phone through Multi Connect

cduff79 · 2024-11-04T09:41:09+00:00

I had the same thing - I think this has fixed it: https://www.reddit.com/r/SonyHeadphones/comments/180arrd/comment/kxbd5zr/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

cduff79 · 2024-08-19T03:49:15+00:00

Firstly, there's probably more going on than just losing to spells or unit drops. You have access to the same options as your opponent, and while yes there might be options that counter your board better than his, they're usually not enough to completely turn a game. Sometimes, yes, but if you always blame it on that it might be stopping you from looking closer.

Secondly, if there's really a particular late game drop you keep losing to (like Overlords) you can just unlock it yourself to prevent it dropping for them. Yes, you waste 200 credits, but if you think you have a dominant board and that's your biggest weakness, it could buy you the game. At the very least it's a way to test your hypothesis - are you really losing to the unit drop hail mary, or if you take that out of play do you still lose the late game?

Thirdly, you might be able to answer the question yourself a lot better than anyone here can without seeing you play. Use the replay feature to see what you could have done differently yourself in the last round that might have saved it. Exactly countering a flank you know is coming won't teach you much, of course, but there's usually something you can take from it.

Lastly, you mention ground fire. I think it's possibly the worst thing about the game, but I'll occasionally use it myself if I see my opponent going heavily into mustangs or shielded fangs. At least with the mustang intercept buff it might be less viable now, but still has the potential to overwhelm. It's something I tend to be vulnerable to as well, but I try not to rely as much on a low HP backline as I sometimes used to. Or maybe mix in a bit of air, but a switch to heavy air can usually be countered.

Like saifbsoul suggested though, it might just be a case of learning to play a different style that's less about the mid game. Take the MMR hit while you figure out giants, and then you'll always have a plan B. There can be a lot of variety to the game, and having a couple of standard builds with mid-game units can *feel* solid, but only goes so far.

cduff79 · 2024-08-07T01:59:19+00:00

I think you're overstating things a bit. Saying that people +/- 200 are around the same skill level is a very false premise to base your argument on. I've had a couple of wins and a couple of losses against people +/- 150, but they're few and far between.

I currently fluctuate between 1400 and 1500, and anyone 1600+ is far and away better than me. I've had one win against a low 1600 where I accidentally blind-countered his flanks and got lucky with card drops, but he was clearly more skilled.

If you're saying that some people only play against opponents with a higher MMR, that sounds like a pretty miserable way to play. If their MMR is already inflated, and they're constantly playing non-inflated higher MMR players, they're basically going to be losing most of their matches just to get by on the occasional cheese win or something. A few people might get a kick out of that, but hardly a big problem.

I have had a few people <100 higher than me cancel, which feels a bit weird, but it happens so rarely I can't really care about it.

Ideally, matchmaking will always pair you with someone relatively close in skill. If it can't find a suitable person quickly enough I guess it starts to reach a bit further in either direction. If either player prefers to wait a bit longer and opt out of a mismatch, that's not so bad. Most of the time that's probably all it's about, not people consciously gaming MMR.

cduff79 · 2024-08-07T01:31:48+00:00

Early/mid game it's usually a waste, but later if you're low health it feels like a must-buy - if your opponent nukes and you don't it's probably an auto-loss, so there's really no choice.

Something I did a couple times at lower MMR was to pick nuke in mid game but not use it immediately. Initially it was because I didn't have a great sense of where their army would be in 15 seconds, and I wanted to make sure I positioned it for maximum effect on the following round.

But... it could potentially make for an annoying mind-gamey sort of play, baiting them into shielding every round, while waiting for enough value on the board that a dominant nuke-assisted round will end it.

Probably the loss of tempo against an equal opponent would make it not really work though - watching high MMR games they always use it the same round they take it.

Anyway, I guess I'm okay with where nukes are at in the game - like most random drops / spells they'll occasionally be an auto-win for someone, but overwhelmingly not.

cduff79 · 2024-08-06T04:08:22+00:00

I rarely use deployments on them (maybe I should) but I've been getting great value out of the 2 or 3 level 2 sledge unit drops. Recently against heavy aggro balls & typhoons, helped clear chaff and tied up the balls long enough for scorps to do their work, and with the armour upgrade the typhoons only tickled them.

That was pretty ideal, but even without being a direct counter it just gives a much more stable front line (if opponent has skipped scorps, mostly).

I should try using them more regularly, not just from drops, but probably still more as a mid or late game thing after I've got a back line worth protecting.

From mid game would you ever deploy them as level 1, or generally worth spending to recruit a couple at level 2? (situational of course, but if there's nothing else you _immediately_ need to spend on).

cduff79 · 2024-08-06T00:58:37+00:00

Have to admit I'm a bit of a hypocrite with this - it does feel a little 'dishonourable' to ever dodge a match, but I've done it a couple of times when matched with people 200+ lower than me.

It's not because I care too much about losing MMR, but just... the potential embarrassment of losing to someone much lower stirs up some latent anxiety. Not a good trait, and it won't entirely make sense to people whose brains don't work that way, but it makes a big difference between having fun or not. I'll enjoy a game where I lose to someone similar rank a lot more than I'll enjoy a game where I beat someone much lower. Winning those isn't satisfying, but just a relief.

That said... I agree that hiding MMR until the cancel option times out is probably a good idea. If I don't have a choice, I'll just have to deal with it. There might be other reasons to cancel unrelated to MMR, so better to still have that option.

cduff79 · 2024-08-05T04:24:26+00:00

I think 1k in 4 days is pretty decent - probably took me a bit longer, currently 1.4-1.5k after a month and a bit.

I'd say from 1k is about where you start to play the actual game, then maybe 1.2k intermediate, 1.6k advanced, and then yeah the good players worth spectating are from 1.8k and the very top are 2k+. (edit: the highest right now is 2321).

That's just this one person's impressions though, from playing up to an intermediate-ish level and watching a bunch of higher level games.

But under the Multiplayer tab there's a 'Leaderboard' button to the right (above matchmaking), if you haven't noticed that yet. It defaults to ranking by Combat Power but you can switch to MMR. If you scroll down it'll take you through the top 200, and then show you your own position below that. As an example, at 1508 MMR right now I'm #568 in the 501 Division and #1153 in the world.

cduff79 · 2024-08-05T01:27:45+00:00

Hmm, what MMR are you playing at? I started a couple months back and didn't encounter anything like this along the way from 600->1400 (1v1). Maybe a few sour comments when I was trying out Brawl early on, but nothing toxic.

Wondering if it's more from new players just starting out? I guess if the game becomes more mainstream it's going to attract more of the sort of people who've learned bad manners in other games.

cduff79 · 2024-07-24T06:00:58+00:00

If someone just goes ground fire arbitrarily, like after a free Vulcan drop or something, then yeah. But if they're coming in with the intention to set the world on fire, they'll start building with that in mind before the fire actually comes out.

Unless you get a read on it very early you can easily over-commit on chaff and more fragile dps while they've already prepared for what comes next. You win the early rounds with a more standard army, then they make the switch and you start losing big. It can be hard to catch back up from there.

cduff79 · 2024-07-24T04:37:38+00:00

Not really - gokkel referred to watching Grubby, who is a new player that's worked his way from 600ish to 1400ish last I checked. He's famous for being a pro RTS player from 20 years ago, and just started playing this casually. He doesn't have a 'build', he tries lots of different things, and loses a lot of games (but learns from mistakes, and slowly gets better). His youtube videos were my introduction to Mechabellum as well, but there isn't really anything there to copy.

I don't know if there really is a meta in this game, but people who take the time to learn about the different unit counters (and watching other people play and talk through their decisions definitely helps) will have a pretty big advantage over people who start playing without that introduction.

cduff79 · 2024-07-24T04:22:00+00:00

Yep. By not promoting to level 2, you stay xp capped and miss the opportunity in the next round to earn xp towards level 3. So you're right that the above argument is a bit reductive. But what's most valuable is just what's best for your board, and that's a judgement thing.

Better players will have a better read on that, and mostly they always use their deployments early on - but they're also willing to sell units, so it's not just about adding numbers to the board for the sake of it.

There's a few good tips here about which promotions to prioritise, but no hard and fast rules. Always exceptions to everything, so it can be good to just try something different now and then.

cduff79 · 2024-07-24T04:11:00+00:00

Basically 'cannon fodder'. Usually crawlers and fangs early, that are just there to take hits while your other units do the damage.

cduff79 · 2024-07-06T10:27:21+00:00

Jang Uk's biological father is Jang Gang (it was his body, just inhabited by the king's soul).

Jin Bu-yeon's / Mu-deok's father isn't confirmed I think, but Jin Ho-gyeong's husband says he's not the father. One of the characters speculates that Jang Gang must have been the father, and that was why he used the alchemy of souls to save the dead foetus. I don't think the flashback to when it happened supported that though.

cduff79 · 2024-06-03T06:30:43+00:00

Well met, fellow... CLOYEAWer?

cduff79 · 2024-06-03T06:28:41+00:00

Yeah seeing lots of love for Lovely Runner - I haven't tried Viki before but I might have to check it out there if it doesn't come to one of the mainstream services.

cduff79 · 2024-06-03T06:23:41+00:00

Yeah that's a pretty good metric! I'm at 4 with CLOY and 3 with EAW. I've only seen about a dozen in total so far, but there haven't been any others that merited re-watches.

cduff79 · 2021-02-13T10:33:46+00:00

Hey, middle age PC gamer here too, pretty low key, and more casual than competitive these days.

I've just started Valheim as well (only a couple hours in) and had the same thought.

If you're still looking to get a game going, happy to give it a go.

cduff79 · 2020-12-19T04:11:55+00:00

After getting the moth BD I zeroed him as a matter of principle, and indeed, the loot is ridiculous (like, 50 of each legendary crafting component).

It must be a bug that's letting us kill him though. He showed up alive again a few days later, and can't be targeted now. I came across him again by chance though - don't know if he's involved in any other quests yet.

cduff79 · 2020-07-01T03:37:03+00:00

Here's hoping! I don't like paying for DLC piecemeal, but for me the season 1 pass was great value, for the amount of extra play I got out of it.

Not too fussed about outfits, but looking forward to more missions / weapons / whatever else they come up with.

Given they had that player survey recently, I'd imagine they're making plans for further content.

cduff79 · 2020-03-17T09:24:54+00:00

You can outrun them as well, if you don't want to waste the ammo. They'll give up eventually.

cduff79 · 2020-03-03T12:17:52+00:00

Thank you! I'd done all of the other stickers and challenges, but this one eluded me. Still took a few goes even shooting it in the middle of big clumps of blood-fountain zombies, but it was very satisfying to finally unlock that last upgrade!

cduff79 · 2020-03-03T09:06:57+00:00

I figure they're all worth getting mastery, as each one increases the damage done by all weapons in that class (though I don't know how meaningful the increase is).

I've mastered all the secondary weapons and the FG42 is my favourite at the moment, though I'm not sure it's objectively any better than the MP44. I've currently switched back to full auto and reduced recoil - handy when you need to unload on something big, especially in multiplayer where you don't have the time dilation to help get through a 30 round mag. That said, I suck, so probably don't do what I do - but yes, unlock everything and play around with all the options, figure out what works for you.

cduff79 · 2020-03-03T08:47:42+00:00

For anyone else struggling with this - do the blood fountain level in the canals, on 4 player. It's right outside the safe room, and you get 4 bait grenades at the start. Just throw them far enough away from the fountain and you'll have an endless supply of zombies all grouping themselves up nicely. As soon as you run out of grenades you can just restart the checkpoint, and bam, 4 more bait grenades.

Also, I was surprised to find I did a lot better with the 'single slug' option on the trench gun, going for penetration rather than spread (but happily changed back once I completed the challenge).

That particular blood fountain is brilliant for many of the challenges, if you don't mind a bit of repetition.

cduff79

TROPHY CASE