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Solitaire

localthunk.com

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Re: Solitaire

#141

Post by Cthulhu_ »

havblue wrote: post #21

"To force players to get out of their comfort zone and explore the design of the game in a way they might not if this were a fully unguided gaming experience." It's great how rogue like/lite games such as slay the spire and Hades have riffed on that concept. Guess what, you won't have the same power ups this time. You're going to have to learn to play the same game in a different way. So in Balatro you're playing dra…

While true, it still feels like there's only a handful (ha!) of viable strategies, and / or a few "must-haves".

I'm playing on mobile so no Steam mods, but I do hope the developer will add additional game modes, cards, modifiers, etc to change things up a bit. Or I should just get out of my comfort zone and take a chance lol.

Re: Solitaire

#142

Post by 7thaccount »

bombcar wrote: post #125
7thaccount wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol. I tried. Went to several classes and somehow still never learned to play. I can't tell if all the structure and complexity is worth the extra headache compared to games like Spades or other bidding/trick games. I have heard that it's supposedly by far the best there is though, so perhaps I should try again. I do play Texas 42, which is kind of like bridge with dominos. It's wildly popular in Texas, but hasn't re…

The best is often to have one player who knows some of the conventions, and the rest know nothing, and all learn to play together. Whist is basically no-bid bridge, which can be fun, too.

Good recommendation thanks. With whist, I wonder if taking out the bidding takes away some of the fun. Spades still has the bidding, it just doesn't allow for the selection of the trump suit.

Some of the conventions in Bridge seem weird too. Why not just say 8 club instead of 2 club. I get that there is a 6 trick minimum, but the convention doesn't seem necessary. There might be a good reason though.

Re: Solitaire

#143

Post by mexicocitinluez »

ronyeh wrote: post #114
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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.

It took me a bit too, but now I'm up to 15 (it starts getting exponentially harder around 12). And finally started seeing "e"s in my scores (highest is 2.799e15)

At first, I used the deck taht would give doubles when you skipped a blind. I'd save those up until yuo can get a negative joker when skipped and would end up with like 12 jokers.

Now, I use the plasma deck for high scoring. It's weird since you focus on points instead of mult, but the scores get higher much quicker.

Another tip is to try and shape your deck as early as possible. Going for a deck of Kings and Queens is good because of the rare joker gives that 2x for them.

Re: Solitaire

#144

Post by mexicocitinluez »

bombcar wrote: post #96
7thaccount wrote: post #91

Interesting to see this here. I've commented a few times on HN about recently getting into card games (e.g. various solitaire games, gin rummy, presidents, spades, trash...etc) and domino games. It's a lot of fun, social (even solitaire as we teach each other new versions), and mentally engaging. There's no screen and it all just feels less wasteful in some weird way. Board game night would do the same thing, but the…

What you're looking for is Bridge. THAT is a card game you can teach someone the basics of in an evening, and still be learning more 3 decades later.

Seriously the Cadillac of card games. I love spades and euchre, finally got around to bridge and didn't want to go back.

My only complaint is the bidding systems and how difficult it is to learn even as a person who loves to play cards. Like, knowing how to play spades sorta gets you there. But the bidding system takes it a thousand steps further.

Re: Solitaire

#145

Post by throwawayben »

palsecam wrote: post #75
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…

Using a lightweight PWA (progressive web app) is also an option: https://FreeSolitaire.win (self-plug). Doesn’t generate unwinnable games[1] & detects dead-ends. Works offline after the first visit. No ads until game over, and they aren’t obtrusive. Often lauded on HN, e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41972075 or https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42031052 . 1: The probability that a random deal is unwinna…

Very nice but I keep losing my progress on a game with swipe gestures on android accidentally triggering back functionality when I pull a card from right to left, even with installed PWA version

Re: Solitaire

#146

Post by palsecam »

throwawayben wrote: post #145
palsecam wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a lightweight PWA (progressive web app) is also an option: https://FreeSolitaire.win (self-plug). Doesn’t generate unwinnable games[1] & detects dead-ends. Works offline after the first visit. No ads until game over, and they aren’t obtrusive. Often lauded on HN, e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41972075 or https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42031052 . 1: The probability that a random deal is unwinna…

Very nice but I keep losing my progress on a game with swipe gestures on android accidentally triggering back functionality when I pull a card from right to left, even with installed PWA version

Ah, thanks for letting me know!

I may have found a fix. I previously applied CSS `overscroll-behavior: contain` on , it seems it also needs to be set on (see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/overscroll-... and https://stackoverflow.com/a/60565197).

I pushed that (supposed) fix, please let me know if that solves the issue for you (you may need to “refresh” by launching-quitting-relaunching the app.)

If not, please tell me what Android version and browser you are using, so that I can investigate more.

Re: Solitaire

#147

Post by bombcar »

mexicocitinluez wrote: post #144
bombcar wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're looking for is Bridge. THAT is a card game you can teach someone the basics of in an evening, and still be learning more 3 decades later.

Seriously the Cadillac of card games. I love spades and euchre, finally got around to bridge and didn't want to go back. My only complaint is the bidding systems and how difficult it is to learn even as a person who loves to play cards. Like, knowing how to play spades sorta gets you there. But the bidding system takes it a thousand steps further.

The bidding is the complicated part, especially if you're solo trying to join existing players.

We always had fun because we learned together, got the basics down for normal hands, and anytime someone was in a slam situation, we'd basically "open bid" and ask for advice amongst everyone.

Sure, it's not tournament-style, but it's fun.

Re: Solitaire

#148

Post by 7thaccount »

Jach wrote: post #115
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 imple…

I was horrified to find Microsoft removed a simple Solitaire with a junk app full of ads (I hadn't looked at Solitaire in years). Perfect example of enshitification.

It did have the benefit of me deciding I'll never purchase another Windows computer ever again and my family just doing physical card games.

Re: Solitaire

#149

Post by jjice »

saint_yossarian wrote: post #80
jjice wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TLDR: Balatro is a roguelike card game where in you make poker hands to score points. You can enhance cards and get jokers that have more effects. It wont a ton of awards this past year (it's just about a year old) and was incredibly well received. Localthunk is the developer. I believe he did everything for the PC version himself (except maybe a single joker's art). He has a publisher that helped port to pretty much…

The soundtrack was also commissioned.

Oh that's good to know - I thought he had done it as well. What a fantastic soundtrack.

Re: Solitaire

#150

Post by rc5150 »

ronyeh wrote: post #70
superultra wrote: post #3

I love this post a lot. Our entire world is perpetuated by platforms that are desperately begging us for engagement. It feels to me at least that I'm being pulled in a hundred directions, for all my time for all time. My engagement with Balatro is not quite the same as localthunks. I go in phases where I play a lot and then put it down and walk away, and then weeks later I get back into it. But that also feels like i…

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.

For me it was Battleship Solitaire (https://lukerissacher.com/battleships), which I found via hackernews. For the first few weeks I played it every day at every opportunity, and since then I fire it up at least every couple days and burn through it. Its a less involved Sudoku logic puzzle that is mind-bogglingly satisfying to complete.
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