We’re through the looking glass here, people
Ever wondered what it would feel like to scoop your brain into an ice cream cone and lick it? Tingly, I guess. Like the tingles I get from reading @MysterySpin
Wash your hands 
, wear a mask as appropriate 
and stay at home 
.
Remember to #PlayApartTogether
If you missed them, you can find previous interviews below:
Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your trays in the locked position and assume the brace position…
Millions of voices then cried out in terror
I can’t say exactly as the month I joined not only did I get the HOTM but received duplicates of it and in my novice ignorance of “well I not gonna need duplicates of them” fed them to the first copy (also by biggest in game mistake). Now wouldn’t be so bad if it was someone like Margaret but alas the hero in question still has an A+ grade in Anchor’s guide today. As such with the power of self-hypnosis I have blurred out my recollections of when I started but generally speaking I’ve been roughly playing for around 2 years.
Dr. Robotnik. The alliance is currently in the process of some alliance wars experimentation for which I’ve orchestrated the methodology. As I joined the alliance originally to assist with the first Path of Valor my role would be that of Mad Scientist with questionable allegiances – or Dr. Robotnik for short. Oooh damn that blue hedgehog…
I’m stingy in game and always want to try squeeze the most out of my resources so I always colour feed instead of power level so I always have 5 heroes being levelled at any one time. Currently levelling: Sif to 3/70, Heimdall, Frida, Seshat and Marjana to 4/80.
They’re all going to be re-enforcing various alliance wars teams (whilst Frida already does Titans but is being fattened up to take more hits) though there’s a possibility Heimdall might get promoted onto my “I’m feeling lazy today I’m just going to use my mono green,” raid team.
Tied between Alberich and Merlin.
Merlin because he’s a bit of a chaotic trickster in that just when an enemy hero has finally charged themselves up (especially if they’re in a corner) they slap a friend instead and lose all their mana… Given that Alfrike is gonna do the same to multiple heroes I’m expecting good things from Loki!!!
Alberich because anyone that wants to offer you four turns of free mana when all your helpful board tiles have dried up is certainly a Seelie Champion. Even if they removed his reviving tomorrow I’d use him for just his mana regeneration and healing alone. #bringbackmanaregeneration.
Not since Pandora lifted the lid on her box has such a big ol’e can of crazy been so casually opened…
So many moments of madness to take my pick from: building a gunge tank and terrorising a university campus with it for charitable reasons; attempting to produce an amateur adventure game show with 2 cameras and a £50 budget (it looked terrible); fundraising whilst dressed as Marilyn Monroe (if shoes could speak they would be doing their best Admiral Ackbar impression, “we can propel weights of that magnitude – before anyone asks the one alliance that wanted to see the pictures are now in therapy); breaking up a late night brawl whilst in a Sonic the Hedgehog costume (OK I’ve got questionable allegiances in that franchise too) which I couldn’t see a thing out of but fortunately turns out if drunk people see a 6 ft blue hedgehog running across the street at them they flee rather than fight; setting up a satirical newspaper in a recession… Oh wait you mean in game! Nah it’s been pretty bland in there… Getting all the Sand Empire heroes with just free tokens is about it and that just sounds anti-climactic.
Right about now I expect the interviewer is making a note to self that “MysterySpin can and will exploit any loophole or ambiguity in a question put to him”… Perhaps I should have been a lawyer?
One of the ones they currently already have (and so my answer would vary based on the player’s roster and change over time as it grows). You can complete everything in the game with just free heroes. If you can enjoy the game and not spend anything then you’re on a winner as you’ve got extra cash in the bank for a holiday or something that 20 years from now you’ll probably remember more. Best way to do that is to appreciate the heroes you’ve got than wish for what you haven’t. The trouble with wanting something you haven’t got is that once you get you then want something else.
And now the interviewer is scratching out the note of exploiting ambiguity and replacing it with “MysterySpin can and will totally ignore a question in favour of answering something else”… Perhaps I should have been a politician?
Just kidding… We look out onto a complex of flats that is the answer to a housing developer’s question of “what if we made student accommodation but for young professional?” (of which a good deal are empty thanks to what was an overcooked property market and people just buying places for portfolios and not letting them out) and beyond that the streets South East London. One person is jogging on their balcony that looks to be wobbling more than one would want a balcony to do, another person having a smoke and the reason there isn’t a proper picture to accompany me from more than a decade ago in front of the apocalypse above is that in one of the windows opposite and below us is that there is a woman who has been standing with her back to her window for a long time who is wearing on her bottom half would if seen at eye level I would guess reveals a slight butt cleavage that from this elevated angle would not be appropriate for the forum…
I would suspect given my well-known reputation for long posts that the only way anyone from this forum would be occupying the same vehicle as me would be if I were on my way to dispose of their body. In which case snacks are also sorted as there would be a fresh human leg on the back seat…
However for the sake of argument let’s say it was voluntary and the road trip started from the Small Giant offices. Well one of my other hobbies is playing mini-golf (as the sport is officially known) or crazy golf (as it’s called here in UK) and Sweden is responsible for felt style championship courses which are the hardest courses you will come across (typically they can have ways to modify the holes for beginners to make the easier as on hard mode they will break the spirit and mind of newbies and amateurs) of which there are plenty of these style courses through-out Scandinavia (meanwhile in UK we have none of these courses as they’re too difficult for average Joe) and so if I’m doing a road trip around Scandinavia it would be a mixture of sightseeing and fiendishly difficult mini-golf courses.
Now if I could conjure the snacks out of mid air I’d be conjuring the various unhealthy pizzas I’ve come up with (including my infamous Gutbuster and Chicago-style deep dish breakfast pizza) and other cookie dough and cake concoctions but magically food summoning abilities not withstanding my previous sightseeing/mini-golf expeditions to Malmo and Stockholm were sustained largely by Bacon and Ost Hot Dogs (hot dogs with liquid cheese inside the frankfurter) and blue bag Polly sweets. Dunno how far they both travel within Scandinavia as whilst pretty much every corner shop had the Bacon and Ost hot dogs in Sweden I struggled to find that particular style of wiener in Copenhagen… .
Now that I read this back I realise I’ve just designed my perfect trip around Scandinavia regardless of the interests of the person going with me so whether the trip is voluntary or in the boot (or as said across the pond trunk) of my car is immaterial.
Hmm that’s a tricky one as one of the things I love to do most in the forums is propose totally off the wall ideas that actually could be achieved.
Now I could try re-plugging my solution for how I would implement the Hero Academy (which a few posts further down also has pseudocode on how it could actually be done for those of that background): Hero Academy! Can we please have more information? - #603 by MysterySpin
Or I could and will shamelessly plug a post on how Alchemy Lab could be revamped with recipes: 3 New Years Solutions
I should probably have put them both in the ideas section instead oh well… But rather than visit some greatest (or not so greatest) hits lets go with something else. I would introduce Jousts. A player may either send an invite to a specific or random player for a joust. Before they send the joust request the player is shown what the starting board will be (both players will be presented with the same opening board and both will have the same list of lets say 500 replacement tiles in the joust) and they will then need to select the team they will use – this team will be both your offensive team and your defensive team for the joust – as well as the defensive formation those heroes will be in. The other player receives the joust request and either accepts the request in which case they too set a jousting team. It is important to note at this point neither side knows what team the other player has selected, you don’t find out until you are in battle, you only get to see the opening board both of you will receive and try to plan accordingly. Or they can decline it or the request can expire after 24 hours.
Once the second player has accepted the invite they joust their team against your team with the set board to see how many turns it took them to defeat your selected team, after this joust the first player then have 24 hours to joust against the second player’s team and see how many turns it takes them to beat the other player’s team. The player that wins their joust in the fewest number of turns (or if that is a draw fastest time) wins the joust and takes additional loot on top of loot from winning the battle.
The challenge of the joust is that with both players receiving the same board, and that the team they select has to both defend and attack on that board it becomes a challenge of hero selection and board playing strategy.
This one is gonna be totally fantasy land stuff so I’m gonna hide it in a details drop down so those who don’t care about impossible hypotheticals can skip it whilst those bored at home that fancy a trip even further down the rabbit hole can jump on in.
Before you jump down said hole firstly this is would have all been alongside the Challenge Events that would have continued to rotate monthly as normal and secondly this gets really long but I’m kind of hoping it entertains as well during this time.
So as we know by now when the developers revamped the Challenge Events they brought 10 new 5* heroes into the game – the exact number of new 5* heroes that came with Atlantis – such that a season’s worth of heroes could easily have been fleshed out with a few more 3* and 4* heroes in the mix as well. But it isn’t just heroes that make a season, it’s the stages, special stages and storyline that make a season so it is that I’m gonna focus on.
Player must have crafted their first battle item using Titan Parts. Naturally this would mean the player must have got far enough to at least have unlocked Hunters Lodge Lv. 2
Richard, Elena and Vivica arrive in Corellia ready to take part in the regular Challenge Event but instead of the usual tournament celebrations there is total carnage and devastation. Working their way through Corellia they eventually find Lady Locke who tells them that only hours before a Titan had attacked but that it was no ordinary Titan as it could change form and it had swooped in and eaten the assorted Ascension Materials that had been gathered on the event’s prize table before fleeing.
Our heroes then take off in pursuit of the Titan in an effort to retrieve the stolen AMs. They catch up with the Titan and appear to defeat it as it slowly disappears (though unfortunately the AMs are nowhere to be seen). Shrugging it off the heroes return to Corellia and a makeshift tournament goes ahead.
Then a month later when the Mysterious Titan returns and devastates that event the heroes decide they have to try and stop it and get to the bottom of the mystery. The season then takes the heroes through the lands of Corellia, Wonderland, Grimforest, Teltoc, Avalon, Springvale, Sand Empire, North Pole, Morlovia, Shiloh, Frostmarch, Shrikewood, Umber and Farholme in pursuit of what they later dub the Gelatinous Chimera that keeps getting stronger from the ascension materials it eats until their pursuit brings them to an old ruined Stronghold lost to time that looks a lot like our own Stronghold but MUCH MUCH larger (30x as big) with centuries of decay after what looked like its final battle.
They head to the throne room where besides a rusted crown Vivica finds an incantation that summons the five elementals (Hel, Athena, Zeline and two other HOTM as elementals of Fire and Holy would have sneakily been released as HOTM at different points during the season) who begin to tell the story of what happened at this vast fortress.
The fortress once belonged to a benevolent king renowned throughout the land. The citizens of this land were well fed, housed and lived in relative peace. One day however the royal blacksmith devised a way of using the spare parts of Titans to craft greater weapons for the court to use on their Royal Hunts. Soon after the kingdom came under assault by terrible beast that couldn’t be vanquished. The war on the beast took its toll on both the king and the kingdom. Subjects that once lived in lavish houses found them crammed with recruits creating slum-like conditions and later the children produced in those houses would be taken to train or become soldiers in the king’s army. Those that failed became meat to feed the heroes of the empire. (Insert a load of other ‘crimes’ that give a hefty nod to the ‘Are we the baddies?’ forum thread). As the beast kept getting stronger the deeper into insanity the king sunk and the worse the tyranny in the name of the emergency war effort the land descended into until finally the great beast attacked the great fortress and during the terrible battle the beast killed the king. But the king’s torment would not allow him to crossover to the other side. The undead king would then witness the final destruction of his empire and the hands of the beast and vowed to retake them.
And which point in the story Richard asks, “so who was this king then,” as he goes to pick up the rusty crown to look at it but when he touches the crown smoke and shadows billow from the crown. When the smoke clears there stands the Dark Lord resurrected.
Before Richard can swing a hammer the Gelatinous Chimera crashes through the front of the stronghold ready to attack, ready to resume an age-old feud. The Dark Lord filled with hate screams out that he watched his kingdom destroyed first by that beast and then by you and that now it is time for you to watch that beast destroy your kingdom before fleeing towards your stronghold with the Gelatinous Chimera pursuing him.
The heroes use a summon portal the Dark Lord’s former castle to return to your stronghold to prepare for the battle when the Dark Lord and Gelatinous Chimera arrive. During the preparations Vivica realises that if the Dark Lord’s torment meant he was unable to find peace to crossover to the afterlife whether using the body parts of Titans to make weapons and prevent them from being laid to rest meant the Titans they’ve been slaying have also been unable to crossover and that the Gelatinous Chimera is the combined tormented souls of deceased Titans. As such it cannot be defeated by battling it.
The heroes decide that the empires strongest heroes will stay to defend the stronghold as best they can from the on coming onslaught whilst the Derricks and the Laylas of the empire will be sent back out across the lands to find all the discarded used weapons made from Titan parts and bury them properly.
Player has to fight first a protracted endurance battle against the Gelatinous Chimera and then defeat the Dark Lord again who is put to rest with the Gelatinous Chimera also gone.
Final scene is then of our heroes talking as they look down at the Dark Lord’s former fortress contemplating how close they came to repeating the Dark Lord’s mistakes and that with repairs on your stronghold near complete whether they could potentially restore the fortress below as well now the Dark Lord gone for good followed by a brief tease of Season 4 Valhalla…
Each season has its special stage rules and this would be no different. In this season the special stages would have had a sixth black tile (re-using the shape and colour of the Farholme Pass shield). This tile would be a class tile and would carry the class symbol of the chosen class for that special stage (so all black tiles in the stage would be of the same class and you would know what class it was from the stage select screen). Any heroes matching the class on the class tiles would gain mana from those class tiles and would contribute their attack stat to tile attacks from that class tile.
Naturally when visiting Corellia, Wonderland, Grimforest, Teltoc, Avalon, Springvale, Sand Empire, North Pole and Morlovia you would come across heroes from their various areas but also in some special stages that have elite enemies in Corellia, Wonderland, Grimforest, Teltoc and Avalon the elemental barriers would return just as Egg Bombs, Pumpkin Bombs and Frozen Tiles would in the special elite stages of Springvale, Morlovia and North Pole. Would also had sand blowing over and obscuring some tiles that you need to try remember for a few turns to Sand Empire levels given they have no gimmick.
Just as Level 10 in the Season 1 provinces had raids instead of levels in this season the Level 10 would be your own personal Titan battle against the Gelatinous Chimera. It would still take world energy rather than Titan energy to hit it and unlike Ursena where you were expected to take her Titan form down in one attempt your attempts at the Gelatinous Chimera remain timed like normal Titans and that you do as much damage as you can to it in that time until you are able to take it down however the Titan regains health at a rate of 5% health regained every hour.
During the Titan battle itself the Gelatinous Chimera will shift form from one Titan to another every three turns. In early provinces the Gelatinous Chimera shifts between the various baby titans but as you progress and it eats more AMs it shifts between more powerful forms until near the final battle it is just switching between Rare Titan Forms and its own max colourless Titan form.
Now the Gelatinous Chimera is at full strength and the clock rather than giving you 90 seconds to do as much damage as you can now wants you to survive 15 minutes of onslaught from it (whilst the final Titan parts are buried). The forms and the strength of those forms the Gelatinous Chimera is able to cycle through depend on its health bar with it cycling between 15* Rare Titan forms at max health and say 5* Baby Titans at 10% health. The Titan removes health at 10% health per second and if you kill it there is a 5 second delay in which it revives and then a further 10 second delay as it heals back to full health and the board resumes (but crucially your timer continues during the delay). Whenever a hero of yours dies you can replace them with another hero that hasn’t been used yet (countdown freezes as you select a replacement) to continue the fight either until you used the maximum number of heroes (let’s say 50) in which case you lose or your heroes endure the full 15 minutes by continually weakening it to survive its attacks at which point the 5 heroes that are still standing then face off against the Dark Lord.
Once the final season has been released the following changes would take place:
Gelatinous Chimera would be added to the permanent rotation of Rare Titans with a bonus chance of dropping Damascus Blade and Tome of Tactics.
The vast fortress that once belonged to the Dark Lord when he was mortal would become an alliance fortress in which you rebuild it along with your alliance. The fortress is split into 30 segments assigned to each alliance member that they can build in. Before they can build in the alliance fortress they must complete the season in regular mode and before they can build advanced buildings in there segments they must complete hard mode.
Players that build buildings in their segments of the alliance fortress receive the amount of benefits as they would receive if it had been built in their private stronghold + a bonus amount based on the total levels of the buildings of the same class the rest of the alliance has built across the fortress. For things like Advanced Production Buildings such as like a non-sucky Alchemy Lab, if the Alchemy Lab in the alliance fortress produces an item for a player there is a 2% chance that everyone in the alliance will all receive a copy of that item also.
If a player leaves an alliance and has built on their segment of the alliance fortress the dragon that regular flies over will swoop down and destroy the buildings in that segment.
In Farholme the Gelatinous Chimera’s strongest native colourless form has increased chance of appearing and there is a small chance of receiving a Compass, Fine Gloves, Tome or DBlade.
In Frostmarch, Avalon and North Pole the chance of Thunder Unicorn form appearing each roll in battle is increased and there is a small chance of receiving a Warm Cape or Farsight Telescope.
In Umber, Grimforest and North Pole the chance of Ancient Tiger form appearing each roll in battle is increased and there is a small chance of receiving a Hidden Blade or Mystic Rings.
Anyway I think you get the point and don’t need me to spell out the rest.
In game or in real life?
If in game then I’d blow it chasing some really low odd hero I fancy but wouldn’t bring myself to pull for because of the odds… Here’s looking at Lady of the Lake (Nimue would be so much easier to type and less likely to be confused with Locke).
If in real life it depends on whether I have to disclose what I spent it on. If I did need to disclose or make public what I did with the money then screw it after the pandemic is over I’m buying as many rubber ducks as possible and racing the lot of them down either the Thames (or if I could transport my Kayak to a more interesting river) – I would then require additional funds for bail for having been polluting the Thames and disrupting its eco-system of rat pee and leptospirosis.
If in real life but I was able to remain private. I would split half the money between various animal charities I’m supporting (lots of happy dogs, elephants etc etc) and the other half I’d blow on some replacement cricket gear. Incidentally it is from cricket (where I bowl leg and off spin) that my MysterySpin username comes from.
The first thing the alliance has been doing for the entire Empires and Puzzles forum community, and I think most of y’all will be eminently grateful for this, is to soak up and consume the brunt of my verbal diarrhoea and distract me from producing more in the forum. You all have a great deal to thank FrenziedEye and co at The Beacons Are Lit who are now probably cursing the fact that I’ve revealed that I’m currently hiding there as hidden baggage that’d scare everyone from joining but really please don’t let me scare you off they are a great bunch both in and out of a crisis point.
Now previously I’ve been a leader of one alliance, the organiser of twice weekly Pokemon Raid gatherings and run various voluntary organisations in the past and from all that one thing that I’ve learnt is that even in a relatively small group like an alliance at any one time you’ve got some of the people in that group in which life is going great and then there can be others also in the same group in which no fault of their own life has taken a massive dump on their head. Though unfortunately most are too busy to notice or even care.
What is unusual about the situation now is that life as taken such a gigantic dump that everyone’s been covered. And just as how if this metaphor were to occur not everyone would have been affected the same way – some people who have some stuck in their eye, others might have accidentally ingested some and others just want a change of clothes – this whole thing whilst not affecting everyone in the same way (some essential workers still working in stressful environments with the added risks, other at home who’ve suddenly lost all the income etc etc) it is a rare occasion when we’re all up to our necks in $£%&.
But really the qualities we need now to support each other through this such as not being quick to judge, trying to be more understanding and more forgiving are the same qualities that really, we should strive to possess even outside of this ordeal. And as such trying to strive to reach those ideals has not been changed by this. So the second way in which the alliance is helping is continuing to be as understanding and fostering a good team atmosphere as they always have been.
And so whilst in some ways I’m glad SGG has shown a willingness to promote what alliances can do to help each other during the pandemic I hope when it has ended the concern for the welfare for the player base continues on especially with regards for safeguards for vulnerable users. There’s no need for me to elaborate on that lot here. Whilst I am quite willing to discuss the issue further with devs but I suspect this is already something being discussed in the industry after Epic Game’s Tim Sweeney’s Dice summit comments, “We have to ask ourselves as an industry, what do we want to be when we grow up?”
Stay safe everyone and whoever you’ve been locked down with be slow to judge and quick to forgive…
And those heavy looking fellas look like security have come to wrestle the mic off me!
News today: A full public enquiry has been launched into the Empires and Puzzles moderating team to see who thought it would be a good idea to let MysterySpin near a microphone…
I really like the idea of Jousts. Two players, same teams for attacking and defending, same board for both players, 1 round attacking and 1 defending. I’d love to see that implemented
That was an extremely entertaining read, you have some interesting ideas here! and an interesting sense of humor too 
(I like the whole "I purged the memory of when I started because I fed away a very useful HOTM…)
I also like the idea of Jousts. And even better, I like the philosophy that the best heroes ARE the ones you have… it’s so easy to pine for a certain hero, but it takes creativity and skill to make the most of a limited roster.
Well there’s a euphemism if I ever heard one 
I’d replace ‘interesting’ with ‘Whack-tacular’.
I sense a new name a-brewin’.
@MysterySpin, thank you.
I have long been a fan of yours. I really appreciate all the time and effort you put into your posts; I always read the whole thing and I think that those who don’t are really missing out.
Jousts are a great idea and would be a neat next step in the assessing player skill experiment that Jonah and others recently did. Between that and other game suggestions I’ve seen you offer, I can offer no great compliment than this: if I were in charge of the game I would hire you to the a special design team unit and ask that even 10% of what you think get implemented, knowing the game would be much, much better for it.
How do you use Merlin? Is he emblemed? I used to use him a lot and really enjoyed him, but really don’t at all anymore (except for the rare yellow tank wars) because I’m deep in purple and Wizards (Kiril and Proteus are maxed with Isarnia, Victor, Onatel, and Anzogh all vying for the rest).
Another great interview…which merits a wall of text response.
Check out the edit b̷y̷ ̷e̷n̷d̷ ̷o̷f̷ ̷d̷a̷y̷ eventually for an homage reply in appreciation.
Edit: Life happened so I haven’t been able to get on this & other forum shenanigans.
CRAP!!! I completely forgot we were supposed to be continuing that this month!
Damn this guy’s gone off the deep end… Oh hang on a moment…
Thanks all for the kind words. Would like to start with an extra special thanks to @JonahTheBard for choosing to include me in this series as at the very least I entertained myself responding (I will quite happily and shamelessly be the only person in the room laughing at my own jokes) but hoped that in the process I would produce something that people who like my usual posts or share my humour would find interesting or amusing during these times. And I should probably apologise a little to Jonah as well as despite a plea not to overload the memory on people’s phones as I kinda felt that with so many people locked up at home for extended periods that if people enjoy it they’re better off having more to enjoy (if at the very least to find an excuse to avoid whoever they’ve been isolated with for a little longer) which in part explains why y’all got my rather long winded alternative take for Season 3 and 4 hidden in there. And given my recent “go shove it up your summons gate” post in beta (a response to the devs having introduced yet another feature instead of showing any work on Hero Academy despite it being near 480 days since it was first teased and the 0.1% odds of the new secret hero) if you had to double check my response in case I hadn’t slipped anything naughty in again apologies.
I would gladly accept either “Whack-tacular Windbag” or “20 million character poster” if either are available.
Thanks, given the reception of Jousts I should probably stuff a post on it in the Ideas section - who knows it might get implemented around 2030… I think I might even got halfway through mocking up some concept art for the idea, will see if I can dig it out. Anyways having pondered on the idea of Jousts for awhile I think the thing that would be most interesting is just what sort of heroes might thrive in that environment given you need to both attack and defend against the known board. If I had to guess I reckon some of those heroes that heal through damage they deal such as the likes of Anzogh, Musashi and Elkanen would suddenly find an avenue in the game that plays to their strengths. I’d definitely reckon we’d see some interesting strategies deployed (especially as you would be allowed to choose different formations).
Yeah it’s kind of the reason why I never produced a hero guide of my own. I did give it a lot of thought after my power creep thread awhile back (Analysis of Power Creep of Hero Stats - Long Read Warning - PS. for those wanting an update about how that stats power creep is going well if I thought the stats jump for the new Challenge Event heroes back then was alarming recent trends would suggest running for your nearest civil defence shelter were it not for you know that virus - stay at home folks) but honestly the big thing that stopped me was that if for instance I gave a particular hero a top grade given how the odds and costs in this game work just how many people would I be tempting to overspend to get a hero that in all likelihood would have seen 4 new counters introduced within 9 months and another hero that obsoletes it another 6 months later. I did think about trying to add a measure for such a guide that quantified the average cost to get a 50% chance of getting the hero in terms of a package holidays to various destinations (so that you could put it in terms of for the same price that you could visit this tropical island you can get yourself a coin flip’s chance of getting this hero) but naturally in a global game everyone’s distance from each location would vary significantly and therefore the prices of their flights.
But anyway the philosophy of “the best heroes ARE the ones you have” I’ve really come to learn not from the game but from life in general from the more generalised principle of “if you can’t be happy with what you already have, then getting X won’t make you happy either as whilst you will temporarily get a hit from getting it you will just then return to your emotional baseline and now that you have X you’ll then crave Y for your next hit,” it’s sort of the reason why you get these stories of really successful people who seem to have it all and yet are depressed or something. Culturally people expect if I have X, Y and Z then they’ll be happy but if they get it it doesn’t take long for them to return to their previous feelings. I’m in danger of going into a massively deep deep dive into the issue of the let’s call it the “pursuit of happiness” but out of interest to cut the length of this post down I’ll hold myself back on that one and only go for it if requested.
Thanks I’m quite humbled by this response. Will just say in the very unlikely event someone at SG is reading it with a similar mindset I’d quite happily accept… Um yeah OK so apparently they saw my summon gate comments oh well. Probably for the best as I come up with my best ideas soaking in the bath and whilst many tech companies may have some fun filled offices I reckon I’d be crossing a line if I put a bath in my office… Though it does now make me wonder if I can find a waterproof tablet, if so the next work related Zoom meeting will be interesting! But anyway yeah I do quite enjoy coming up with and playing around with ideas for games and whilst a number of them I can probably have a decent enough stab at programming ironically given that I was a print designer before I went into software and web development I am totally rubbish at drawing (blame my dyspraxia and fine motor issues) I can move other people’s stuff and around and mash things up to look good but for the life of me I couldn’t draw a decent looking hero…
I still get some use out of my Merlin but I will confess since classes were introduced the high-emblemed Clerics and Monks have taken a toll on his use. I do have him emblemed as I emblem my 4* to give me more options to use along my 5* without the cost of 4* AMs. My Merlin is now of my 2nd Dark mono team for wars (I have 2 mono teams in each colour - well green technically has a 3rd team now that I use for wars which is more than the 30 minimum heroes but it means I can use roster depth to work around colour co-ordinated tank defences as I never have to take a weak colour hero into battle against them) whilst Merlin often accompanies my Proteus in tournaments so that they can either shut down heroes on different sides of the board. Granted 2 Proteus could do that as well but I prefer to have Merlin there as if there is a particularly dangerous hero close to or at fully charged then that mana cut especially if triggered in the final turn of the status will buy me more than the three turns of mana freeze and prevent the special going off which mana freeze can’t prevent if they happened to be charged already. Merlin also comes out for certain events in which I want the extra insurance policy to stop a problematic healer going off. Having faced Mother North in two sets of Christmas Events I’m happy to say thanks to Merlin she has never once got her special off against me ever in those events and didn’t need to resort to Time Stops either. Merlin and Gretel between them carried me through pretty much most of Atlantis Hard Mode alternating between each other to shut down the boss specials.
I look forward to it. If you can max out Jonah’s phone’s memory with it there might be a prize in it as well…
I must have missed this. Is this in a part of the forum I’m less active in or is someone screwing with me and moving that from one part of the forum each time I switch to a different part so I don’t find it.
I’ll see if I can tag you in the thread
Thanks.
(A rare 20 characters…)
Intriguing ideas! I hope those in the know take a look, I know a lot of hard core players would welcome these changes.
Completely agree with this. From my psychology background I’ve come across this decision-making theory:
And it relates to a lot of ideas on this forum that I agree with (e.g. Your Defense Team is Good Enough by @Raghadorn - sometimes “good enough” makes us happier than always searching for THE EXTREME BEST.
also - kudos for thinking of the impact on others, i.e. encouraging people to spend crazy amounts to chase the best hero very thoughtful.
Congrats @MysterySpin on being selected for an exclusive interview, and thank you for the wordiness! I haven’t read all of it yet, but I feel better knowing that I’m not the one here who is prone to posting “TL;DR” posts. 
Just a quick browse through this thread and saw the part about success and happiness and “best heroes” and psychology etc.
I, too, have noticed how many seemingly wealthy, successful people, still seem to be entirely unhappy with their lives. And I just don’t get it? You guys have everything I’ve ever wanted, and more, what’s the problem? Like you see these wealthy people nowadays with the pandemic, and they’re “stuck at home”. Stuck in a 12 bedroom mansion with a pool, tennis courts, billiard tables, in-house movie theater, etc. What? I thought that was the whole point of being rich in the first place…? Why did you buy all of that @#$% in the first place if you aren’t even willing to take a month off from your busy pursuit of making even more money to be able to properly enjoy all the @#$% you already have???
I’ve always dreamed that some day I would be wealthy. So that I could buy a bunch of cool toys and permanently retire and spend all day playing with them. Maybe that’s why I’ve never been particularly successful, because I’m not hungry / ambitious enough. Because I’m lazy and perfectly content to settle for “good enough”. Do I want better heroes? Yup. Do I want a nicer car? Yup. Do I want a fancy house? Yup. Am I willing to go kill myself working 100+ hours a week and screwing over anyone else who dares get in my way to get these things? Nope.
For me, happiness is all about being able to enjoy the things I do have, not the endless futile pursuit to try to obtain all the things that I don’t.
Still waiting and only 2 hrs remain…
Aah, thanks @TGW for pointing me here. I always enjoy reading @MysterySpin’s posts here and this is absolutely no exception.
I too like the idea of jousts. It is an interesting thought experiment coming up with a team that is good for both attack and defense (although I do remember reading somewhere here that your defense should be built around attack too as that’s also what it does each turn). Plus I do tend to build my attack teams with defense as well in mind to offset the need to wait out turning around a bad board. Ironically I tend to use more healers on attack.
I personally have always been quite happy with the heroes I have in the game. Are they the best available? Not hardly, they are overwhelmingly S1. Do they keep me in diamond and allow me to defeat most opponents? Definitely. The key to this game really is board control. Synergy between heroes is important but if you can’t properly manipulate the board it really doesn’t matter. And yes, there are plenty of times when the boards just refuse to cooperate. Those are the times I hope my walls are thick enough in my apartment.
So, good read. It makes me think about different things and that is always a good thing. Thanks.
