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Solitaire

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Re: Solitaire

#111

Post by twright »

themadturk wrote: post #108

I bought Belatro and Zachtronics solitaire a few weeks ago, more or less on impulse. The Zachtronics was disappointing primarily because the UI is too small on my iPhone, and I have old eyes. Belatro is great. I'm something of a Solitaire addict. In addition to Belatro, the Microsoft Solitaire Collection is the only game on my iPhone, and I happily pay Microsoft $10 a year because the design is the most comfortable f…

You should try out FlipFlop solitaire by Zach Gage if you haven't already, definitely a fun spin on the solitaire concept and the game plays very smoothly.

Re: Solitaire

#112

Post by [deleted] »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #103
cwizou wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a comfort game. A pasttime rather than an addiction. Balatro is a stress reliever for me and I can jump in, play, and jump out and it's fine. Exactly. To me there are two specific things that gives it that stress reliever, jump in/out spirit of Solitaire : - You know from the start you may not win every round. - Things can instantly and dramatically turn one way or another. I think both are perfectly captured…

I think Balatro is way too hard to be a good stress reliever. Unlike solitaire, I can barely win a run in Balatro and there's no indication as to what I could do better. I actually find it stressful more than stress relieving, if anything.

[deleted]

Re: Solitaire

#113

Post by ronyeh »

bombcar wrote: post #95
ronyeh wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it’s a comfort game for you. But it’s an addiction for me. I need to stop, so I can find something else to get addicted to.

Hello, it's me, Factorio.

I have known about this game for a while. I have never bought it because I fear for my productivity.

Re: Solitaire

#114

Post by ronyeh »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #103
cwizou wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a comfort game. A pasttime rather than an addiction. Balatro is a stress reliever for me and I can jump in, play, and jump out and it's fine. Exactly. To me there are two specific things that gives it that stress reliever, jump in/out spirit of Solitaire : - You know from the start you may not win every round. - Things can instantly and dramatically turn one way or another. I think both are perfectly captured…

I think Balatro is way too hard to be a good stress reliever. Unlike solitaire, I can barely win a run in Balatro and there's no indication as to what I could do better. I actually find it stressful more than stress relieving, if anything.

Hey! I've played it for a while now (and haven't even followed any Reddit / YouTube guides yet).

Early game: Get a joker that gives you a big mult (e.g., Half Joker w/ +20 Mult for small hands). This will allow you to survive while you build out your points engine. (You can survive with flushes in the early game, but it can get harder to win with flush later, due to Bosses, unless you have flush friendly Jokers and a large hand size.)

Mid game: Generate $$$ so you can buy planets and tarot cards. Once you're happy with your jokers, you want to level up the hands that work well with those Jokers. Try easier hands like Two Pair or Pair or High Card. (Assuming you can generate enough cash to level up those hands.)

Tip: Blue Seals are helpful!

To Win: Look for jokers that get you increasingly higher +mult or xmult for things you'll do anyways. There are jokers that increase mult for using tarot cards, or jokers that increase xmult for adding new cards to your deck.

Tip: Steel cards are also awesome.

Tip: If you have an xmult joker, move it to the right side, as jokers trigger from left to right. You want to multiply after you add!

Disclaimer: I have not beaten ante 11 yet. I can get a couple million points with my strategy, but 7+ million is too difficult. I don't see an easy path to naneinf (not a typo). I guess I'll need to give up and watch some YouTube guides as some point.

I feel like I win about 50% or more of my games on regular white stake difficulty. I've won some red stakes, but I don't really feel a need to make the game much harder. I think if I played it safe I could win 75% or more of my games on white stake. The reason my win rate on base difficulty is lower is because I like to try weird strategies with different jokers.

The amazing thing about Balatro is.... there are many many different paths to a victory. Everyone has their own favorite joker, and it might all be different.

For a long time, I liked two pair hands the most. Now most of my games use pair or high card. I find it too difficult to get to ante 9+ with a 5-card strategy. (4-card flushes are OK.)

Re: Solitaire

#115

Post by Jach »

bbkane wrote: post #14

I love Solitaire - it's such a nice way to kill a few minutes while waiting for something else. Unfortunately, many solitaire phone apps are filled with ads, slow, or have clunky controls. A few years ago, however, I found https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.tobiasbielefeld.solitaire... . Its free and open source, and quite fast with nice shortcuts to move the cards. I love this app and have played multiple Klondike/S…

That's long been my favorite Android version of klondike too.

But my favorite favorite remains the old Windows 95 Solitaire. I keep a copy around even on Linux through wine to play sometimes on PC. The main reason? I still love the ending animation of all the cards springing down without clearing the background. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uev21NTzom8 I don't understand why no other version seems to want to implement this ending animation, it's the best one of all time.

Re: Solitaire

#116

Post by khalladay »

endgame wrote: post #94
sdwr wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how you can say that with a straight face. Balatro is building on 50 years of addiction-seeking game design. Everything from the sound effects, to the random round rewards, to the pacing of unlocks is optimized to be as attention-grabbing and dopamine-releasing as possible. It's like praising Coca-Cola for not tasting as sweet as Pepsi

What's interesting to me is that despite all that (the escalating lights and noise as your score ticks up, and the hypnotic effect of the sound slowing down and speeding up when you fail/restart the run, are two big examples), I seem to be the only person who hit a wall with Balatro. I enjoyed it for a few days, saw what grinding out all of the jokers/stickers would be like, and put it down. Not in an insulted way, b…

I was this way too, until I bought it again on my phone. Now its my commute game and I have clocked in a huge number of hours. But in small, 1-2 run sessions

Re: Solitaire

#117

Post by mh- »

joemi wrote: post #86
sl3dge78 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly recommend the Zachtronics Solitaire Collection. Greatly designed solitaire games. I play them every day on my commute to work.

I absolutely love the Zachtronics solitaires. I play at least one a day on my phone. That said, I wish they were slightly better designed for phones, since the text/images and touch targets can be a little small. It's too bad Zachtronics is no more -- it'd be nice if they were able to do some UI updates.

I have the same gripe about Balatro. Tons of hours on computer, was super stoked for it on phones. Too small for my old eyes.

Re: Solitaire

#118

Post by mikrasya »

bbkane wrote: post #14

I love Solitaire - it's such a nice way to kill a few minutes while waiting for something else. Unfortunately, many solitaire phone apps are filled with ads, slow, or have clunky controls. A few years ago, however, I found https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.tobiasbielefeld.solitaire... . Its free and open source, and quite fast with nice shortcuts to move the cards. I love this app and have played multiple Klondike/S…

If anyone is using iOS, please consider our app [0]. It only has banner ads at the bottom that does not block game play.

Other features include history of all your plays, statistics, and ability to play older hands again.

Another detail that might be relevant to HN audience is that it is built using 100% SwiftUI.

[0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-solitaire-app/id1613070030...

Re: Solitaire

#119

Post by sepositus »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #103
cwizou wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a comfort game. A pasttime rather than an addiction. Balatro is a stress reliever for me and I can jump in, play, and jump out and it's fine. Exactly. To me there are two specific things that gives it that stress reliever, jump in/out spirit of Solitaire : - You know from the start you may not win every round. - Things can instantly and dramatically turn one way or another. I think both are perfectly captured…

I think Balatro is way too hard to be a good stress reliever. Unlike solitaire, I can barely win a run in Balatro and there's no indication as to what I could do better. I actually find it stressful more than stress relieving, if anything.

It can turn into a brain burner very quickly. Tracking the interactions from five jokers (in order) can be a mental gymnastic session in some instances :) I find I enjoy it more when I've not just ended a taxing day (writing/troubleshooting software).

Re: Solitaire

#120

Post by yoz »

rezmason wrote: post #46
sl3dge78 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly recommend the Zachtronics Solitaire Collection. Greatly designed solitaire games. I play them every day on my commute to work.

Zachtronics Solitaire Collection inspired me to begin experimenting with Solitaire variants, and hopefully Balatro's well-deserved success will stoke people's curiosity in similar titles. For now, my web prototype lets you choose the numbers of suits, colors, ranks, columns, and multiples of cards drawn from the deck. It's a start. I invite HN to explore the Klondike Extended Universe: https://rezmason.github.io/pati…

I LOVE that you let the player tweak those variables in the mechanics. Many of us want to be able to relax with a nice comfy game for half an hour, and "comfy" means setting the difficulty just right.

My partner used to relax with Flipflop Solitaire[1], which lets you choose how many suits there are in the deck. These days they play lots of Balatro with the checkered deck[2].

[1] http://www.flipflopsolitaire.com/

[2] https://balatrogame.fandom.com/wiki/Checkered_Deck

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