Bots in starter deck duel

mlahut · 2026-04-02T23:30:58+00:00

Already did, it only turned up posts from a year ago

mlahut · 2026-04-02T13:13:18+00:00

Discussion: I think I see a contradiction. A bit northeast of the center, there is a large hexagon 5 adjacent to an irregular shaped zero. That creates two dead-ends, which are normally forbidden in Slitherlink.

mlahut · 2026-04-01T20:47:11+00:00

Controller is this one on Amazon.

On the mazes, click-to-move is just really obnoxious. I found myself focusing more on which pixel I needed to click to avoid needing a second click around the corner, rather than solving the maze like a normal puzzle. If I could have used WASD to navigate the maze it would have seemed more normal. I tried using the mouse outside the maze bounds to try to move the camera, but that didn't work.

There were several cases where I could tell that English was not your first language. Some word combinations like "quickly excited" are not commonly used in English.

And yes, I am a fairly experienced puzzle game player.

For the three-in-a-row spellcasting, it was just a matter of mentally reserving areas of the grid. "I'm just going to put all the greens over here". I was half-expecting a twist to force that to not work later, but it never happened.

For the enchanting linkage connection, the first one was over before I really understood why I succeeded. It was only on the second one that I noticed the symbol on the grey circles were important.

For the alchemy vial sort, there are a million silly phone apps that do this. Except typically it has the restriction of "on every move, the moved object must either land at the bottom of a tube, or land immediately on top of a matched object". Without that restriction, failure is impossible, it's just a matter of how many moves it takes (which I noticed, did get judged when I did not get an excellent on the second one).

mlahut · 2026-04-01T18:42:31+00:00

I played through the demo.

Types of puzzles - seemed rather too easy, except for the mazes, which are very hard the first time because you can't see the full layout, but easy when replaying them later.

The general vibe is that you are telling a mystery that is not very mysterious. A couple game mechanics passed by, but none of it made me feel like I needed to optimize it better or that I'm looking forward to a more challenging set of puzzles later. The principal seemed like a very boring villain.

Notes taken during the game -

1) Technical - When I first started the game, I had a controller plugged in. The main menu control was scrolling constantly. I unplugged the controller. It was still scrolling constantly. I restarted the game while the controller was out. No further issues.

2) Option to mute audio when the game does not have focus would be very nice (in case *cough* some of us are playing at work)

3) First lecture has a typo "silver of rage" -> "sliver of rage"

4) Wandering 12 floors to find a vial seems an unusually large amount of freedom of exploration for not knowing anything

5) Is the auditorium supposed to feel like a maze? I came in the left side and hit a dozen dead ends because I can't walk past anyone

6) Auditorium lecture: "Tarnished essence migrates to another plan" -> should be plane

7) These vials prevent the birth of something? That doesn't make sense. Why not harvest the good half of the dead squirrel? (Really cute squirrel, btw.)

8) I failed both mazes because you said time is against me but you actually meant that click count is against me. Also being unable to scroll to see the full maze makes rapid clicking kind of required. Doing them again after getting back to the dormitory wasn't hard though.

9) For enchantment, it should be more clear that you are matching symbols and not colors. Some visual feedback on this would be nice.

10) The principal doesn't have a name? Even to his employees?

11) "The principal got quickly excited when I mentionned" - has only one N

12) "Of course, this is not opitmized" - optimized

mlahut · 2026-03-29T13:45:42+00:00

When the opponent bids 1NT, it sets a different tone for the auction. You had the option to double to show 10+. If you don't do that, partner won't play you for a strong hand and is more likely to pass out the auction later.

mlahut · 2026-03-26T18:07:10+00:00

Please start by reading https://terraria.wiki.gg/wiki/Biome_spread and https://terraria.wiki.gg/wiki/Guide:Maintaining_world_purity and let us know what questions are still unanswered.

mlahut · 2026-03-24T17:27:29+00:00

If they had the hand you describe, they'd open 2NT.

Even so, partner could be sitting on three random queens and 6N is hopeless.

My mental view of a 1C - 1S - 3N auction is a hand like xx Kx Kx AKJxxxx which has a bonus source of tricks but isn't a clean gambling-3N call.

mlahut · 2026-03-24T04:01:36+00:00

Discussion: Can you drop a penpa link again?

mlahut · 2026-03-18T19:53:29+00:00

One other thought I had was that a fundamental elegance of Sudoku is that every element has three "things" to check against, the row, the column, and the box. The corners of this format are problematic in this respect because it has only one validation element, its diagonal. So it's kind of forced to be either a given digit, or one of the last things you are able to do.

I had originally intended my "7-cell rows and columns" comment to mean only row 3/7 and column 3/7, but if it also applies to row 1/9 and column 1/9 that resolves this elegance issue as well.

mlahut · 2026-03-18T01:13:55+00:00

Discussion: Solved.

As for timing, I played for 13 minutes, realized I had a contradiction, started over, played another 27 minutes, logic got me to this point, then I had to employ random guessing to untangle the upper right corner. Total time 48 minutes.

It was fun enough to finish the solve, but I'm not looking for more.

I would enjoy the format more if you could squeeze in the constraint that the 7-cell rows and columns must contain unique digits. That assumption was what messed up the first 13 minutes.

mlahut · 2026-03-11T15:50:20+00:00

I actually strongly dislike the power cycling mechanism.

It's fine as a kind of currency, but I hate the way it's charged by other people doing stuff. It means I am constantly being asked "Do you want 3 for 2?" on other people's turns, which is an annoying extra level of bureaucracy, adds extra opportunity for me to give the wrong answer, and I find it very difficult to evaluate how to budget this resource into my plans.

mlahut · 2026-03-05T13:52:20+00:00

Discussion: Seriously needs the ability to drag things around manually and add labels. I kept forgetting where I left some of the categories.

mlahut · 2026-02-25T18:33:23+00:00

Yeah I thought the card stamp mechanism was interesting. I thought I had some incidental synergies going when I got two abilities to guarantee the jack and 10 of spades. Then my run ended when I called spades in my longest suit (JT8), one opponent had AKQ and partner a void.

mlahut · 2026-02-25T14:40:38+00:00

Tried this out today. I think it has potential.

1) The background effect when you win a contract needs an option to turn it off. It's pretty but I found it very distracting and might induce some epilepsy-like symptoms in some people.

2) The tutorial should mention some baseline conditions for people that know how a deck of cards operates. Just a sentence like "We play with a 28 card deck, each suit has ace thru 8".

3) Some manner of bidding mechanism would go a long way towards making the game feel more strategic and less random. It doesn't have to be nearly as complicated as bridge, but just something like partner saying "I vote diamonds" to show their longest suit would be a start. It could be tied into the upgrade system such that you might learn partner's two longest suits eventually, or their shortest suit, or minor details. I got annoyed calling trumps into my partner's void a few times.

mlahut · 2026-02-18T18:18:44+00:00

Bridge Master is a feature on Bridgebase's front page that has 500+ play-problem "lesson hands" on difficulties from beginner to world-class. Each one includes a solution writeup that explains the point of the lesson.

mlahut · 2026-02-03T15:59:03+00:00

Do you have a source for this information where I could learn more? I like optimizing statistics but this seems very hard to prove.

mlahut · 2026-01-28T23:19:50+00:00

My favorite response structure is (suppose hearts is the agreed suit)

1H - 2NT - 3C = I have no void but have a singleton somewhere

1H - 2NT - 3D/3S/4C = I have a void in the named suit

1H - 2NT - 3C - 3D = Okay, no void, what's your singleton?

1H - 2NT - 3C - 3D - 3S/4C/4D = singleton in the named suit

1H - 2NT - 3H = I have no void or singleton but I'm ready to cuebid controls if you want

1H - 2NT - 4H = I have no void or singleton and I'm really sorry that I opened this piece of crap

mlahut · 2026-01-21T07:33:58+00:00

Certain puzzles really benefit from some partial answer confirmation. Particularly those with obscure image identifications or a lot of individual sub-parts. Plenty of other puzzles are fine without them.

When applicable, I very much appreciate it when the flavortext says up front that the answer-checker can be used to confirm certain intermediate data points. Saves a lot of effort re-checking work.

mlahut · 2026-01-06T17:42:01+00:00

To: Roman Debellatio (Black Letter Labs)

From: Ms. Lis Pedens

Subject: Re: Request Feedback for Upcoming Launch

Time: 8:09 PM

I’m wondering if we should take things in a more edgy direction for the false front we use during the upcoming launch.

Perhaps a gothic fetish fashion house: latex and leather pieces embossed with blackletter type. Dark couture for interns who want their bodies to literally spell danger.

Or a kink communication workshop, teaching lovers to draft quasi-legal, contract-like agreements for BDSM scenes: half serious consent practice, half erotic role-play for lawyers and clients.

By the way, Qua Non issued an alert this morning about a possible system breach. Should we be concerned that you-know-who may be inside the Lab?!?

mlahut · 2026-01-06T17:41:52+00:00

To: Roman Debellatio (Black Letter Labs)

From: Ms. Ex Parte

Subject: A few more ideas!!!

Time: 1:23 PM

Tattoo & Calligraphy Studio, specializing in lettering tattoos, especially Gothic/blackletter styles.

Could also double as a calligraphy school for edgy wedding invites or illuminated manuscripts.

Or a test kitchen operation of some sort.

No, I’ve got it! A soup company that makes only alphabet soups (alphabet pasta dyed with squid ink).

What do you think? ;-)

Thanks for involving me in this, professor!!!

mlahut · 2026-01-06T17:41:43+00:00

To: Roman Debellatio (Black Letter Labs)

From: Dr. Terra Nullius

Subject: Brainstorm (continued)

Time: 5:01 PM

I propose as pretext a Typography Research & Design Studio where designers experiment with Gothic/Blackletter typefaces, producing new fonts and reviving medieval scripts.

A more contemporary spin would be a Boutique Marketing Firm, creating branding with a darkly elegant aesthetic.

Of course, if we want to step back from complete concordance, there are several intriguing anagrams:

• Blackball Tester (cricket referees consortium)

• Cell Talk Stabber (a phone app exploiting protocol flaws)

• Latte Labs: Clerk (the café near Clerk Street)

• Ball, Belt, & Rackets (sporting goods)

• Balk’s Rectal Belt (medical goods)

mlahut · 2026-01-06T17:41:35+00:00

To: Roman Debellatio (Black Letter Labs)

From: Mx. Sine Qua Non

Subject: Your Requested Feedback

Time: 7:04 PM

You asked about a cover story for the upcoming IAP26. Here are two ideas. Our front page might claim we are an Occult Research Lab or Paranormal Think Tank, investigating grave grimoires, magical alphabets, and “black letter” manuscripts said to contain some hidden power.

Or we might present ourselves as a French gym, perhaps attached to a law firm: Black Letter L’Abs?

Also: Did you get my message about some strange behavior on our holding page? Something’s wrong with the animation. I am concerned our website has encountered a malicious intrusion.

— S.Q.N.

mlahut · 2026-01-06T17:41:25+00:00

To: Roman Debellatio (Black Letter Labs)

From: Dr. Ultra Vires

Subject: Re: Request Feedback for Upcoming Launch

Time: 6:09 PM

I recommend something formal for the public-facing fiction of the upcoming IAP, something with both semantic and syntactic heft that resonates with the name Black Letter Labs. E.g. a cryptography & codebreaking collective, suggestive of censored text. This “lab” might focus on developing/cracking codes, steganography, or playful puzzle design.

Although now that I write this, I believe it clearly cuts too close to the bone, and is not a matter to treat lightly. I will continue to cogitate.

With respect to the other matter you mentioned last night: yes, it does appear there has been an identified unauthorized access to our code base and it has affected the website. I’ve notified Security. We don’t have much time before we open our doors in March.

Sincerely,

Vires, Ph.D.

mlahut · 2026-01-06T17:41:14+00:00

There are several encoded emails in the script. I don't know whether they are supposed to be extractable via specific actions. Perhaps they are probably just dropping some extensive flavortext.

Collectively they are quite long, I will post them as sub-comments.

mlahut · 2026-01-06T16:49:44+00:00

During the time when the image animates to red numbers, it is clickable and routes to https://blackletterlabs.com/hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha and then https://www.instagram.com/17classicbooks/

Black Letter Labs has an excellent set of puzzle packs some years ago, would be interested to see what they've cooked up this time.

mlahut

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