Season 9 Discussion Post: Week 87

[waterfall8484]

Tango's back and so is Decked Out! Halloween is getting very close, and despite all the extra gaming going on (now including Hermit dwarves rebuilding the Mines of Moria, apparently) some Hermits are still finding time to build on the server. In this time of abundance, how do you choose what to watch? Anything you've had to put on the back burner for now?

Watch on YouTube

If you want to talk about what's happening on the server without making your own post this is the place to do it, but beware spoilers in the comments.

Comments

[schneefink]

I love the ravager Halloween costumes :D

I've long given up on watching all DO videos/streams, but they're still fun. Really looking forward to Etho's phase 5 runs, and to the reveal of who won the phase.

[melannen]

Etho had a legendary run this week! I'm looking forward to his POV on it a lot.

[schneefink]

Yes! It was amazing. There is no way he includes the whole 54 minutes, I am very curious how he edits it xD

[melannen]

Apparently his solution was another 2-hour episode! (My free time, nooo!) *And* there's a new Team Canada series, what is he doing??

[schneefink]

"Only" two hours - he did quite well editing it down but I was a little sad he didn't include Tango punching him while he was waiting in the magma pit ^^
Etho visiting Rusty and promising to save him from Tango is now my favorite DO sideplot.

I'm excited about the new Team Canada series! I'm not surprised that he's not posting any videos for it though, considering all the other series he is doing. And I can't resist watching all the runs he does on Tango's stream, that's always a lot of fun too. Bonus whenever another hermit joins in on the heckling, something logging in just for that. I was very amused yesterday when Scar and Joe, who both haven't been to level 3 yet afaik, demanded more wardens.

[melannen]

If there isn't fanfic about Etho rescuing Rusty within a week I will be horribly disappointed in fandom.

I watched the last Team Canada series and he didn't do videos for that either! I think he's just along for the ride.

I think Scar is currently claiming he's never going to level 3, which doesn't seem like a *great* long-term strategy, but on the other hand, he's got a pretty good Level 2 deck and if he just wants to farm embers on level 2 and buy nothing but tomes, it might actually work out for him...

[schneefink]

Same.

I'm rooting for Scar to stay in third place. I don't think he will, I think Gem will overtake him soon and I'm happy for her too, but it would be funny. I do hope he at least tries level 3 at some point, maybe off-stream for a start, though chatting about Disney etc. also helps calm him down sometimes so idk.

[melannen]

I am actually finding myself not overloaded this week! Possibly because I was home sick doing nothing but watching youtube for half of it, but hey.

But the Vault Hunters stuff tends to go very fast/background for me, they're pleasant but I don't really need to concentrate on them because there's not much story or drama (at least so far) and there's been a lot less actual Hermitcraft, so once I binged Secret Life all that was really left was a bunch of Decked Out runs, and I've given up on keeping up on those.

I have had to backburner most of my catching up on previous seasons for now, though.

[strikeslip]

I think my favorite videos this week were actually Vintage Beef doing Vault Hunters! He has a ton of modded experience, but doesn't know the pack the way Iskall or other vault hunter SMP folks do, and he has found an amazing mesa feature to build a base on. I'm enjoying the mix of confusion and enthusiasm, like the old Life In the Woods modpack days.

[basilstardust]

imo that moment where the warden charges pearl but then veers off for a bat was so anti climactic. everyone knows the warden AI kinda sucks and its takes the mystique out of it for me, even though i dont think anyones survived a deadly run at all this week so far with the new changes, idk if anyone else agrees.

[melannen]

I think the meta most of the players are using for Deadly is wrong - they're thinking that if they sneak the whole time, the Wardens won't get them, and therefore it's easy. But they're taking so long sneaking around the Black Mines that they come out on Level 2 with all the hazard closed and no cards left and die there instead. (Hazard kills!) If people stop sneaking all the time for speed, the Wardens will do better at finding them. I'm hoping people other than Etho will start to figure out that taking more risks in the Mines pays off, or nobody else will make it down to Level 4.

[basilstardust]

ooh yeah. i havent seen ethos runs since i dont watch tangos streams until end of phase so it doesnt ruin the surprise. i really cringe whenever i see hypnos runs cause he got hit in the face twice with sonic blasts and didnt even like run away either time. he just stood still in crouch and was apparently surprised that he died. hoping tango doesnt overnerf next phase.

[melannen]

Etho's having hazard problems too! But he's at least starting taking some more risks in the Mines. I think Cub has, too, that's the real difference with the top players. And yeah. Etho's real advantage is that when he's in real trouble he doesn't get knocked off kilter! Hypno tends to freeze and Cub sometimes starts taking stupid risks and Doc overthinks it and Pearl occasionally just stops even trying to get out, but Etho just keeps going (sometimes for a, uh, very long time.)

[schneefink]

I would have agreed with you a week ago, but now that Pancakes is in the dungeon I think the risk that there is a warden near enough to hear you when you don't sneak in the Black Mines is so high that sneaking seems like the smart thing to do even when short on time. Basically the question is what is easier to survive, escaping from level three at max clank or attracting warden aggro. Though that might change again with Tango adding more evokers.

[melannen]

Yeah, a third Warden will change things somewhat! And he made another fix yesterday on stream that might help. But they are still SO stupid, and the Hermits are still feeling way more threatened by them than actual threat that seems to exist - I probably have a different view of things because I'm mostly watching Tango POV where you get to see exactly how bad at tracking Hermits they really are. Someone makes noise three blocks away and they go off to kill a slime. And if you know the layout you can usually outrun them as easily as the vex, as long as you don't get cornered.

(honestly if I was Tango I would now be thinking very hard about how to stop slimes from spawning, but that might be really hard to do without a total level redesign or a mob switch that would mess up other people's builds.)

[schneefink]

On Tango's stream you don't get the Darkness effect and you know where the wardens are. The Black Mines are much scarier from the players' perspective, and they're still learning the layout. I think the addition of the pressure plates was also detrimental to encouraging less sneaking. And I wonder how much Tango wants to make the existing levels more difficult before seeing how things go on level four, which will hopefully open soon. He said he thinks it will be less deadly than level three but if it takes time and then people have to go through level three with max clank and max hazard that will be very dangerous. And balancing becomes harder in general the greater the disparity between decks.

I would love it if Grian made a warden training area too so the hermits can learn how dangerous they are(n't)! Sadly I don't think it's possible in the existing training area because of the Darkness (maybe up in a tower of the citadel?, or elsewhere), and from what I've seen few hermits used the training area at all.

[melannen]

Oh yeah, I think the main thing Tango miscalculated is how scared of the Wardens people would be! (But then, Mr. Rancher's Revenge has never been the normal amount scared of Wardens.) I don't blame them for overestimating the threat, and it makes sense that people who make it through level 3 and then die to hazard on level 2 are blaming level 2 being dangerous, instead of being to slow and cautious on 3. But if they ever figure out that Tango isn't kidding when he calls the Wardens useless, the game will really change.

I would really love to see Tango do a level 3 run alone and see how scared *he* is when it's him with Darkness, but I haven't seen a Tango run in ages.

[schneefink]

(But then, Mr. Rancher's Revenge has never been the normal amount scared of Wardens.)
Great point ^^

I'd love to see Tango run level 3! Maybe once he is done with level 4 redstone?