Mahjong Mornings group?

Has anyone else been motivated to start playing Mahjong by the newest addition to Ben and Jan's resume? I learned a couple decades ago and have dabbled here and there over the years... just enough to hold my own in Yakuza. I did get an account on Mahjong Soul, though, and was wondering if anyone else had done the same. As a side note, some of the comments on the videos are great help for beginners or if you just need to brush up on the basics. Maybe duders could share some friend codes if they are looking for some chill games. Mine is 919 nine 908 two.

Mods: I apologize for putting this in the General Discussion forum, but there didn't seem to be a game forum or a feature forum for this. Feel free to move it if I missed one.

I also started playing; I'm garbage at it, but I'm keeping at it. I added ya on Mahjong Soul.

My id on it is: 89527274

I've also just started playing, and I've only played one ranked match, but I got a Mangan (which is good?) in it.

ID: 78503914

Edit: Free name idea for anyone starting an account - TheDoraExplora

I play far too much MahjongSoul and definitely down for some friendlies.

85084906

Mahjong is a dope game for cool people, and my ID is 110762085

Just started also! Been having fun and kind of figuring out stuff now!

79537002

I tinkered with Mahjong years ago when Yakuza 4 came out, this has made me pick it back up. I have remembers the basics and also that I am terrible at this game. Its fun though, my ID is 80715242.

I don't play too frequently right now but I am very much willing to play with others: 90377066

It'd be cool if we could get a discord going if it's popular enough.

I'd be up for some mahjong. My ID is 121749477

Yep, I'm playing way too much (and I still suck at it)
Happy to play with some duders!
85673450

Hell yeah, Mahjong is great! Still don't really know what I'm doing and the scoring system is a complete mystery to me. But it's still fun.

My ID: 86454122

I'm all the way down the mahjong hole and would love more people to join me down here.

126921582

@runehawke: The scoring in Mahjong is absolutely something you let the robots figure out. You start to pick up and remember how much Han a specific yaku is and start to get an idea from that but I still have no real idea how to calculate Fu other than some tiles and waits are worth more than others.

Besides it's exciting at first for the scoring to be a mystery cause if you win and blow someone else up you're gonna be almost as surprised as they are.

92036330

I have, also, downloaded the game, by learning along with the stream. I managed to claw my way to Novice 3, which I think is amazing for me, but now I'm getting shredded by Asian premium users, so I'd like to have a more beginner friendly lobby.

Sure, count me in: 82580970

So, I don't really want to get in to the gatcha aspects of this game, but I wouldn't mind maybe getting a new character besides cat girl or hentai mom. However, I cannon parse any bit of how the currencies work, or where I would even go to get a character draw. If I did want to get a character, how would I go about doing it, and is it at all possible without putting money into the game?

Also, just won a 4-hand South match with 50K+ points, and man did that feel good.

I spend more time playing this than I ever expected to. Absolutely would love some friendlies! I'm 86212330

@redwing42: Unfortunately while Mahjong Soul is a great way to play some Mahjong it's a pretty miserable Gacha. The premium currency is Jade and there is no way to get it at all outside of paying money.

It is technically possible though rather unlikely to get characters without spending money. Once you get to Adept rank you can play in Silver rooms. Silver Rooms award loot boxes after so many games that have gifts in them. You can donate gifts to get Stardust and every 50 Stardust you can buy a Summon Scroll to make 1 pull on the gacha. 50 stardust is a lot of gifts to donate and you can only get so many of those scrolls a month through this method. The rates for getting a character is only 5%.

If you do intend on paying into the Gacha my advice is to pick one of the first time bonuses that get you a couple of 10 pulls and no more than that. The log in every day option will also get you enough for a 10 pull every month..if you remember to claim it every single day.

So the Gacha pretty much sucks, but as far as I know they don't place any limits on just playin' some Mahjong.

@redwing42: yeah I'm a fan of gacha, so I wouldn't mind paying, but even I struggle to find what the hell that economy is. Outside of the "Fortune Charm" in Event, I can't figure out what has value or how to even obtain some of the currency. Shame, because I'd totally be down to have like a cute cat paw or a different board.

I added some of y'all. Hope to meet you in the Bronze Room, where I'll permanently reside. Some white haired girl just kicked my teeth in on pull 3. That was rough.

Oh and don't buy any gifts with the baseline currency. All of room types after Novice require a small ante of copper to play in.

I don't think I'll be getting there any time soon.

These players are just a tad better than me...

@daavpuke: Nah, you'll get there. The way to avoid being blown up like that just comes with practice. Still happens sometimes cause luck swings hard in Mahjong but you get a sense of what's dangerous to discard after a while.

It's not an exciting way to play but one of the better lessons early on is when to recognize that it's no longer wise to keep building your hand. Even if its an amazing hand in progress if it's more than a couple tiles away and it seems clear that other players are closer than you it's probably smart to just dismantle what you're doing and discard dead tiles. Someone else will probably step on that mine and you'll be one step closer to the top.

Not sure how much I'll play, but I've been inspired by the series to give it a shot.

93663594

I ended up starting playing a little because of them and found it really fun, even though i keep losing to easy AI.

My ID is: 86879978 on MahjongSoul if anyone feel like adding me.

Wish I had seen this earlier.

Throwing my hat in the mahjong ring (rong?) 117296238

This is the meanest thing I've done in this game.

Mostly european times, but who cares: Have my ID: 121925093

Not really active but eager to deepen my knowledge about strategies and perception.

Nevermind I Riichi'd for 13 orphans and lost Mahjong is trash.

Was it a 13 way riichi, or were you looking for a single tile? I'm with you if it was the former. I know you are joking anyway, but I'd certainly quit for the day if that happened to me.

@redwing42: It was a riichi for a S wind.

I lost to someone who had a 1 han hand.

Started playing two weeks ago and I'm now starting to learn tile efficiency. This game is rattling a part of my brain that not enough games do. It's really great. If anyone is looking for something to read once you've got an handle on the overall basics of the game; I'd recommend looking online for Riichi Book 1 by Daina Chiba. It's freely available on his github and it's greatly helping me building up my game.

My ID: 78405994

I just experienced my first rage quit in Mahjong. I got a Haneman (12k) off this person and they just instantly bounced. Never came back. Apparently, the AI never calls for chii/pon/kan, which seems like a flaw, because they do in friendly lobbies. We played 4 more rounds after that one and didn't call once. Felt like playing just two others. (and of course I still didn't win because I'm terrible at this)

@daavpuke: Timing out like that just turns on auto draw/discard so that if you do reconnect you won’t come back to an AI having made decisions about your hand.

@efesell: Thanks for the info! That doesn't seem ideal in every situation, but I can see why that would be the decision, given I've had several disconnects happen that lasted <1min. I guess accounting for a force quit isn't worth it.

@daavpuke: Yeah I find that it mostly works as they intend although sometimes people do just start to bounce. Usually see it in games where dealer gets a huge early win and then just keeps prolonging the game with small hands to run up the score.

A valid and important strategy that can also feel like you are holding people hostage at a table.

Losing the Orphans has been a career ending injury.

@efesell: Well I've been orphaned twice now, so I have little sympathy 😤

I didn't know you had a profile that shows your luck! Now I'm anxious that everyone will see that I'm a fraud.

I think it's based on winning with lots of Dora and I'll go out of my way to make a hand with Dora even if its a long shot.

@daavpuke: My guess is since this is a ranked game they cripple the AI in order to avoid fucking up the ranking for the remaining players. No one wants to lose rank points to an AI.

So I was planning on throwing the game a few bucks; not for the gacha but because that's what I do when I'm enjoying a free game. Am I understanding right though that it costs $30 (!!) to get enough premium currency to just do a single 10-wish transaction? What kind of insane whale pricing is that?

@fezrock: Technically. But, since it's your first purchase, you'll see there's fine text at the top that says you'll get double, so you can also get the 15 bucks version (€17 for EU)

Alternatively, from what I understand, the Fortune Charm in your Event tab is like a Season Pass that will give you premium currency for logging on for 30 days. That only costs 5, but obviously takes more time.

@fezrock: Assuming no first time bonuses, yeah. Its 30 per 10.

It's not a good gacha. Don't spend past the firs time bonuses.

Rough night at the tables. Had three or four big ready hands stolen, lost basically all my progress to the next rank. But hey, we made the Community Spotlight, so that's something.

I've been watching a few of you who sent a friend request play. It's been really interesting, because sometimes they'll throw away a tile where I'm like: "oh that's such a huge mistake. Why would you do that?" Only to get a richii I totally didn't see. Really cool to see different playstyles and what tiles people prioritize. It made me be a little less rigid with hoarding honor tiles until the bitter end, which I think opened up my play a bit.

A single honor tile gets more dangerous every turn that it's in your hand. Generally if my opening hand doesn't have a pair of them OR one of each I start throwing them away.

Had too many games where I've just ended up with this one tile paralyzing my hand because it's impossible to discard now.

I've been doing better recently; won 4 of my last 6 games I think. So far I find that its almost always a mistake to open my hand, but I think that's mostly because I haven't memorized enough of the Yaku that actually give you decent points.

Also, I've noticed myself too often falling into the trap of trying to go for 13 orphans when I have 7 or 8 of them in my starting hand. The odds of actually getting all of them are probably way too low for that to make sense.

@fezrock: Yeah 13 Orphans is a beautiful dream (see above) but even going for it on a 9 terminal redraw is risky let alone anything lower than that.