what is the latest game youre playing

that just sounds like borderlands with extra steps

I started a megaman legends playthrough last week I should keep going

new character for power ranger battle for the grid but they goofed up and you cant prepurchase the whole season yet!!! 😠

looks very fun though

i love a projectile that just sits there for a second

gunfire is fun

From: meepches and pentell at 2020-07-16 03:19:14
i love a projectile that just sits there for a second

same

play SYNTHETIK

From: Kuru Seed at 2020-07-16 03:38:21
gunfire is fun

I bought it expecting to play it for a few hours and set it aside, but I’m playing it consistently for at least an hour a night at this point - just turn off the music, start Spotify with some nice music, and do a couple of runs.

Starting to play more Halo from the Halo: Master Chief Collection on PC.

Halo 3 dropped two days ago, so the three Halo games I care about (and Reach) are now available and let me play online with some people on Steam, which is really nice and reminds me of high school/college when I used to play a bunch with people IRL.

i’m training for the 2020 US e-Go Congress, it’s been moved online due to the pandemic

i’m entering the US Open and the DDK tournaments, both as a 10kyu which i think is probably about right

also playing a fuckload of Don’t Starve for some reason

From: iforgotnmyname at 2020-06-19 05:47:08
Gunfire Reborn

Early access roguelite looter-shooter with cute furry characters

Pretty fun so far, I can see some potential here

Look at this adorable mf you play as

This and pso2

From: Applebaps at 2020-07-16 17:15:41
i’m entering the US Open and the DDK tournaments, both as a 10kyu which i think is probably about right

i didn’t learn nothin

X to doubt from a very crappy Go player (me)

oh lol yeah i’m learnin

feels like i’m right on the cusp of breaking through into SDK

i can occasionally peel a 3 or 4 handicap game off of 1k/1d amateurs but my OGS rank begs to differ

What are you studying/reading to help you along the way?

lotta stuff lol. especially when i was trying to make a breakthrough in the low DDKs i read a LOT. these days i’m more focused on playing lots and lots of games to let the theory settle in

i think the book that woke me up the most was actually not a go book, it was sirlin’s “play to win”

kageyama’s “fundamentals” was hugely influential on my play. it’s like my little yellow bible

“rescue and capture” is an excellent book of problems that helps me get stones out of bad situations a lot once i started internalizing the situations

“fighting fundamentals” by jasiek is also great though it’s a bit technical / mathematical for my current playstyle

i also train occasionally with a leela zero setup on my pc. it’s important not to play against AI too much or they can actually just crush your desire to play at all. if you just do like an opening and midgame against one and then review their recommendations afterwards you can get a lot out of it in a short time tho, usually with minimal feelings of puny mortality lol

i really can’t emphasize enough though the importance of match experience. more than anything else the thing that’s helped me get stronger has been little doses of theory coupled with LOTS of matches to let it cook into something i can use. after a while you start to recognize good and bad shape, potential places to go, forcing moves, situations where you’re in danger, where you’re alive, etc. but you really can’t fake it

I remember on the go server I used to play on a long time ago they had a chat channel for game reviews/analysis? Have you found that useful?

I haven’t played Go in quite some time due to personal time limits, but yes, I’ve always found that playing was equally (if not slightly more) important to my improvement as reading/studying.

I still try to do some daily tsumego though.

YES. reviewing games is crucial. just like watching your own replays in a fighting game, or anything else like this imo. there’s two ways to do reviews i think, with their own merits and flaws

you can review right then and there after a game so it’s fresh, and do it with your opponent so you get their perspective too. this is basically impossible to do right now because of the pandemic. this improves your reading and memory though which are important skills for playing on a real board

the other way is to take an electronic game record in SGF format and feed it to an AI after you let your mind rest for a while. like a day or two later go over it with the bot and see what they think. bot reviewing gets to the heart of things but can be tough to understand at first since all you see is winrates and stuff.

i have a tsumego app on my phone and i’ll do some in my downtime too yeah

i love the game so i tend to be thinking about it a lot, going over stuff in my head with spare brain power in my downtime, or wanting to play it a lot lol. i think the game you try to get really good at should be like that, personally, because it’s going to take so much of your time, you’ll want it to be something you’re naturally inclined to want to do anyway. obsession is a plus

i go through phases of development where tsumego will help me more or reading books will help me more or playing will, etc

i also like goproyeonwoo on youtube, she’s a pretty strong korean pro who does very helpful videos in the post-AI era, i’ve found her analysis really invaluable for learning from the bots https://www.youtube.com/user/goingceo which is key to being strong now

you can definitely play too much, also

go in particular is very taxing mentally. i’ve overtrained and gotten to a point where it felt like i couldn’t make moves with any meaning

then i had to take a longer rest from the game, sometimes as long as a month where i have to just ban myself from thinking about the game or playing at all until i recover

it’s tough to know where your line is sometimes but it’s important to know so you don’t overtrain or overplay

The two different review styles appeal to me as a former high school and collegiate chess player as they are very similar to how I would review and learn from my chess games.

The choices when I bought my go set were specifically geared towards this with single convex stones - then I moved half way across the country and away from my go playing friends so I haven’t been able to play in person in some time.

Good luck in the open!

yeah our local club here hasn’t met since the pandemic really started hitting us in March. 4 months without touching the stones, ugh. i actually just broke out my set this morning to do some research and just to like, hold and feel the stones again. i really miss it

you play chess, eh? i’ve heard that chess and go have both been seeing record numbers of people streaming and watching online lately. like 50k+ for chess on twitch which is unheard of and awesome

and thanks! this will actually be my first major tournament so i’m really looking forward to having my ass handed to me lmao. it’ll be valuable experience either way

I’m a weird one and I love spending time holding the stones in front of the board and, for more in depth problems, will lay out the board and place/remove stones.

For some reason that helps my memory.

you said you have single convex stones, what material are they? i have yunzi stones myself. love the feel, the weight, and the way they glow in the light

From: MasterOfMagic at 2020-07-16 18:18:53
I’m a weird one and I love spending time holding the stones in front of the board and, for more in depth problems, will lay out the board and place/remove stones.

For some reason that helps my memory.

not weird at all! or if it is, i’m also weird. the physicality of go is a big part of what attracted me to the game in the first place

From: Applebaps at 2020-07-16 18:19:52
you said you have single convex stones, what material are they? i have yunzi stones myself. love the feel, the weight, and the way they glow in the light

From: MasterOfMagic at 2020-07-16 18:18:53
I’m a weird one and I love spending time holding the stones in front of the board and, for more in depth problems, will lay out the board and place/remove stones.

For some reason that helps my memory.

not weird at all! or if it is, i’m also weird. the physicality of go is a big part of what attracted me to the game in the first place

They’re yunzi and I adore them.

think i’m probably 4 or 5 stones stronger on a real board than online

aren’t they awesome? i won’t settle for any other material at this point. i’ve played with shell and slate japanese stones even and i prefer the yunzi tbh

I would eventually like to get a nice set of shell and slate stones, but that’s for when I’m retired and can spend all of my time drinking coffee/tea and playing go.

yeah like, those are THE stones for a super serious retirement set just because of the history

but they tend to be quite fragile stones, they chip really easily and they’re also harvested endangered species lol

I probably wouldn’t get new ones - I’d buy a pre-owned set.

yeah

for one thing that’d be the only way to actually afford them lol

It’s kind of like yunzi - you can clean them but they change their appearance from just being handled, and I think that’s cool.

yeah definitely. same sort of appeal there

what kind of board and bowl material do you have? bamboo and ….. shit i forgot what kind of bowls i have. maple? idk. nothing special. i got a yellow mountain imports set a long time ago lol

If you got it from YMI then we probably have the same set. Bamboo table board and turned jujube bowls: https://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Mountain-Imports-Jujube-Carrying/dp/B000JX6WPU

haha almost! these are my bowls: https://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Mountain-Imports-Bamboo-Stones/dp/B0058LTQ1A/

so i guess they’re bamboo

Yeah. I bought mine as a set which they no longer offer as I think they stopped offering yunzi stones over the lead scare.

I just don’t let children handle the stones and wash my hands after I’m done/don’t eat/drink around my go board and stones.

If there’s interest I have previously created https://baduk.thread.zone/.

i had no idea yunzi stones had lead in them, holy shit

i’m looking around now to get more information

From: MasterOfMagic at 2020-07-16 18:28:11
If there’s interest I have previously created https://baduk.thread.zone/.

it says not authorized! is the zone private?

From: Applebaps at 2020-07-16 18:29:09
i had no idea yunzi stones had lead in them, holy shit

i’m looking around now to get more information

Some of them do. It’s not every batch. There was a scare and people were ordering lead test kits and chasing up YMI for exchanges.

From: Applebaps at 2020-07-16 18:29:22

From: MasterOfMagic at 2020-07-16 18:28:11
If there’s interest I have previously created https://baduk.thread.zone/.

it says not authorized! is the zone private?

Fixed - I set it to private after creating it because I was thinking about the structure I wanted to open it with and then just sort of forgot about it.

From: MasterOfMagic at 2020-07-16 18:30:25

From: Applebaps at 2020-07-16 18:29:09
i had no idea yunzi stones had lead in them, holy shit

i’m looking around now to get more information

Some of them do. It’s not every batch. There was a scare and people were ordering lead test kits and chasing up YMI for exchanges.

jeez. well, i mean, if there’s lead in my stones… i’ve routinely snacked while playing, i’m drinking coffee even right now as i play with my set at home, i’ve played with older people on this set

i think i’d like to test my set and see. thanks for mentioning that! no matter how nice they feel or look, if they’re a health risk i’m going to take that seriously

From: Applebaps at 2020-07-16 18:29:22

From: MasterOfMagic at 2020-07-16 18:28:11
If there’s interest I have previously created https://baduk.thread.zone/.

it says not authorized! is the zone private?

Fixed - I set it to private after creating it because I was thinking about the structure I wanted to open it with and then just sort of forgot about it.

cool, thanks! lemme just pop in there rq

From: Applebaps at 2020-07-16 18:32:58

jeez. well, i mean, if there’s lead in my stones… i’ve routinely snacked while playing, i’m drinking coffee even right now as i play with my set at home, i’ve played with older people on this set

i think i’d like to test my set and see. thanks for mentioning that! no matter how nice they feel or look, if they’re a health risk i’m going to take that seriously

https://www.usgo.org/news/2014/02/yunzi-stones-and-lead-an-update/

https://www.amazon.com/3M-717834209102DUPE-LeadCheck-Swabs-8-Pack/dp/B008BK15PU is what many people used to test.

From: MasterOfMagic at 2020-07-16 18:33:42

From: Applebaps at 2020-07-16 18:32:58

jeez. well, i mean, if there’s lead in my stones… i’ve routinely snacked while playing, i’m drinking coffee even right now as i play with my set at home, i’ve played with older people on this set

i think i’d like to test my set and see. thanks for mentioning that! no matter how nice they feel or look, if they’re a health risk i’m going to take that seriously

https://www.usgo.org/news/2014/02/yunzi-stones-and-lead-an-update/

sadly, i don’t know if we can really trust test results from a chinese factory tbh. they’re at grave risk of losing face if it gets out that they still have lead contamination so they have a strong incentive to lie

i think i’ll get a home testing kit and find out if my particular stones have lead in them or not

Always good to test for yourself.

for anyone reading this who’s not in the baduk zone: i tested my stones, it came back negative

been playing Death Stranding and the new super hot