Maple Story - Archive (4/4/2006)

mlugia
Posted 4/4/2006 9:43:34 AM
$8k, wow, you must be one hell of a casual player. I played once with my friends (although we were playing pennies) and I went all in on the first hand and got eliminated. Heh. All in good fun.

I'll probably get the green one, since instead of adding dex to my stats, I could put them into STR instead unless I really need the accuracy, which is good. I'm still not used to not having mastery, the 150-150-20 hits are sometimes whacky.

Being a Jays fan is even better this year since we could possibly get into the postseason with our improved lineup. My friend and I are gonna go to the Thursday game, and tickets are like 12 bucks for the 500 level seats. Pretty sweet deal in my opinion.

TelinArtho
Posted 4/4/2006 10:05:13 AM
Well, I don't think I could have called myself "casual" - I wasn't a professional mind you, but I certainly was serious about my play. For January through June, I averaged 100 actual-hours online per month. This is in addition to my full time job and my family. In other words - I was playing a fair amount. Also, with online poker, you can play multiple tables at once - so I was getting in the vicinity of 300-400 table-hours per month.

I can't say I really enjoy playing poker "casually." Some people don't care about their money. I do. I've been kicked out of a local homegame, and the reason I was given was that I was "too" serious. It could've been the fact that of the 3 times I went, I walked away a winner each time (to the tune of 5 times the amount I brought each time...). I am not going to play the game if I don't feel like I can win. That being said, I've invested a lot into being a good player.

To anyone who might want to play poker in the future - read. Read, learn as much as you can. This really applies to anything - but for poker - if you don't know what you're doing - you will lose. Even if you do know - you can lose over the short term in ways to lose your confidence.
(Sorry about that - poker is a passion of mine...)

As to the difference in the bamboo hats - its not really a big deal either way you go. If you pick up the dex one, I would keep your dex as you plan and benefit from the extra accuracy. Also, its a little known thing that Dex actually helps your minimum damage more than Str does (still not as good - but we're talking very small differences here).

$12 for a baseball ticket... wow. Cheap seats at Fenway, last I checked, were $35... I know in some stadiums (Atlanta for instance), they can go as cheap as $1 - standing areas. Since my wife has family down there - that is a distinct possibility for the future.

---MS TelinArtho2 (windia) 40 Fighter

mlugia
Posted 4/4/2006 10:35:09 AM
Wow, $1 tickets on a winning team, that's unbelievable! Ha ha, but yeah, the Jays are great value, and being Canada's only team helps attendence a bit too.

By reading, did you mean reading guidebooks a lot? (ie Poker for Dummies) Man, a hundred hours a month... That's... like 2-3 hours a day O_O

TelinArtho
Posted 4/4/2006 11:01:05 AM
Yeah - tickets for some of the bigger stadiums (like Atlanta) can get pretty cheap if you are willing to watch the game from half a mile away... A lot of Boston fans take trips to the other stadiums because they can't get the tickets locally and adding in the price of the bus/plane/gas sometimes is cheaper than the price scalpers set... Fenway's just too small for the fan-base. Of course the fans don't want Fenway torn down - so we're self-defeating...

For poker, I recommend reading 2 or 3 good books for the game you want (and Poker for Dummies does not qualify as a good book...). If you're doing Hold'em - Small Stakes Hold'em, Hold'em for Advanced Players, and Super System/Super System 2 (has much more than just hold'em) are all solid recommendations. For the "beginner" - I recommend only playing one variation (just Hold'em, just 7-stud, etc) and I recommend reviewing your play extensively. I have been a member at 2 forums for poker and both had the same focus - Improvement.
Poker becomes less of a game when you start looking at it analytically, and the only enjoyment I get out of it is from playing well (win or lose). Last night, I played reasonably well - so I'm happy with that.

The only other thing I can say about poker is knowing your limits. When I started I had little money to spend, so $100 was a fair bit of money to invest in it. After a month, I had cashed out that initial bankroll - and kept only my winnings online. I have not deposited since and that was 3 years ago. Had I gone bust with that initial deposit - I doubt I would've continued just on a lack of funds. Poker can have wide fluctuations though - so keep that in mind. When I was playing at my height, my worst losing streak was 15 days where I averaged $100/day (which worked out to 25 big bets/day - I was playing $2/$4 Omaha Hi/Lo). That's a $1500 swing at a game where the most you can bet at a single moment is $4.

Oh - and 2-3 hours per day is about right. That's about how much I am playing Maple Story - so the number is equivalent. One thing to keep in mind is I used to play according to tournament shcedules - which if I did well could be in excess of 5 hours. One tournament - I finished 5th and that was 8 hours in... finished at 6:30am...

Of course, 8 hours for 2500 profit - I'll take that any day of the week - and twice on sundays.

---MS TelinArtho2 (windia) 40 Fighter

SeiGe Nihon
Posted 4/4/2006 12:00:44 PM
I catch just about every single Sox game, but for the casual fan with a limited budget, I would suggest the beginning of the year, nationals series or going the tail end of the season. Excluding opening day, marathon monday, NY series, labor day (CWS) and summer games in general.
ATL, NY @ Yankee stadium and Baltimore are fairly inexpensive as well. Baltimore is like a mini-fenway when the Sox are there ^_^

---broa - seigejet 7X priest

TelinArtho
Posted 4/5/2006 8:03:16 AM
I had a productive night last night. With 30% to go to level 41, I trained lightly on the various terraces for an hour or so before SwiftBacon logged in. Looking to train - we partied up and decided to try to get into PQ. I was leader and managed to gather up no less than 10 people (because people kept leaving) while Swift went searching for tracks. Unfortunately, after two successful tracks turned into unsuccessful entries into the PQ, Swift and I just said screw it and went back to the toy factory to train on Chronos.

One thing about Chronos - they definitely aren't my favorite opponent. Although not really that tough, for some reason, I burned through potions on them like no tomorrow. It could've been that slash blasting wasn't very useful on them (required 4+) and power strike was either just too weak (to take down in 2), or for some reason I'd miss - which is just strange... (no "miss" - just apparently I wasn't close enough. I was hitting lag so that might've been the issue).

I did get one drop, a pair of Red Pierre Shoes - level 40 bowman shoes. I know the wdef is average on them, but not sure about the rest. Aerythn or PJ (if you even take a look here) - if you want them let me know. Oh - I also got my first DEX crystal - not that that's a big deal or anything.

I still made a decent profit from them last night and I think I'm close to a million again - which considering I was bleeding my money away on scrolls for the top and bottom wear - that's a good thing.

Anyways, I've made it to level 41. It took a while - so I'm really not sure if Chronos are worth training on - but at least I made it. Put my first 5 points into Dex, which will continue for the next 3 levels - then all strength for a while. I've put an offer in for 2 Dex Glove scrolls (10%) and if it comes through and one of them works - I may adjust my Dex plan - we'll see how that goes though. I'm now up to level 15 Final Attack which is coming into its own as well - now that the slash blast portion is able to still knockback creatures (with a 100hp KB value).

I've put my baseball bat and fan up for sale on Sleepywood (now that I can access it again), so hopefully they'll sell soon as well. They should since they're both above average - but you never know I guess.

After advancing, I called it a night on Maple, loaded up some poker and won another $14 by just making it into the money in 2 small tournaments (9 players and 18 players). Certainly not bad - but it could've been much better.

---MS TelinArtho2 (windia) 41 Fighter