GD: Battle Traverse

For posting and requesting strategic gameplay tips on shmups!
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Zaarock
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GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Zaarock »

Might make this into an ST, but way too early for that.

Here are some system details and secrets figured out from testing & machine translation of the dev blog.

links:
homepage
DLsite (worldwide digital release, ~10usd)

Main system

TBA

Shot type / Character details

Albert T Neider

Mobility: D

Shot type: Wide
Shot power (range): A
Shot power (point blank): B

Lock-on speed: B
Lock-on power without laser: B

Shot formation: four pods arc to his sides
Lock-on formation: four lock-on pods form a vertical line covering his sides

Normal shot is very spread out. Highest damage output with both shots, but the normal shot is too spread out to fully connect to a single target unless it is very large. It's hard to precisely target enemies because of his shot formation, and can be dangerous in the second loop because of suicide bullets. Low movement speed makes point blanking difficult and patterns can be harder to dodge on higher difficulties.

Pros:
- Excellent damage output against bosses and large enemies
- Very good screen control because of the spread out shot combined with high damage

Cons:
- Low mobility makes many bullet patterns more difficult to dodge, and it's harder to get to close range for higher value items
- It's difficult to focus the normal shot on intended targets because of how spread out it is. Makes scoring and modes with suicide bullets more difficult.
- Normal shot cannot be focused on small targets
- The lock-on pods extend to the sides a fair bit, it's easy to accidentally hit enemies and lose item value

Tomour Terloz

Mobility: A

Shot type: Straight
Shot power (range): B
Shot power (point blank): D

Lock-on speed: C
Lock-on power without laser: C

Shot formation: two pods diagonally behind him
Lock-on formation: two pods on the sides

Shot type is straight but fairly wide. Very agile & can dodge many patterns while lock-shotting that other types cannot. Normal shot covers his side and rear very well, allowing you to get up close to weaker enemies without much risk & easily get high value items from the side. As a straight shot his shot does the best damage at long range. Even though he doesn't gain damage from point blanking the precision of his shot and the high mobility make it viable. His lock-on damage suffers a fair bit if the laser does not connect.

Pros:
- High mobility allows for easier dodging and aggressive play
- Because his shot is good at range it's very effective against heavy targets and bosses
- Can dodge patterns while remaining in lock-on where other characters would need to switch to normal shot
- Shot formation covers his hitbox very well allowing aggressive play

Cons:
- Lowest max damage output. Point blanking with the shot or lock-on shot does not add any significant damage
- Slowest lock-on speed
- A lot of movement is required to control the screen
- Normal shot cannot be fully focused on small targets
- Lock-on pods prioritize targets behind tomo as they are closer

Lily Rardz

Mobility: B

Shot type: Medium
Shot power (range): C
Shot power (point blank): A

Lock-on speed: A
Lock-on power without laser: B

Shot formation: a spread shot comes out from a single point in front of her
Lock-on formation: three lock-on pods spin in a circle in front of her

Character made for point blanking and empty locking. Unlike the other characters her shot and lock-on both fire from some distance to the front of her hitbox. At close range her normal shot can be focused on small targets. Unlike the other characters point blanking with her normal or lock-on shot adds very significant damage. Because of this and fast lock-on speed (?) she is the best character for making use of the empty/quick lock technique to get high value items.

She can't hit enemies close up from the side because of no shot coverage to the sides of her hitbox, making getting high value items a bit harder. It's also harder to seal bullets since her shot starts just outside of bullet seal range. Can be good for scoring but dangerous for survival.

Pros:
- Normal shot and lock-on shot do high damage if point blanked. On par with Neider, maybe even above on ground targets
- Normal shot can be focused on very small targets at close range
- Fastest lock-on speed. Also, transitioning from point blank shot to lock-on is very fast.

Cons:
- Normal shot and lock-on shot are the weakest of all characters at long range. As such she is ineffective against bosses and large flying type enemies unless you figure out point-blank routes.
- Normal shot does not gain much spread even at full screen length
- Neither shot type has any coverage to the sides of her hitbox or behind her
- As shot comes out far away from the player hitbox it's difficult to seal suicide bullets (in Hard 2nd loop)


Menus, etc.

Pause menu
! Using the Retry option through the pause menu will make you unable to save a replay for the following credit.

Training
Can practice any stages and bosses you have reached in the main game. There is also a 'Run-through' mode where you can practice one-credit runs with custom settings.

Life, Bomb and powerup stock can be changed in the config, along with autobomb and some additional unlocks.

Additional options in the config are unlocked as you unlock difficulties or reach the second loop.
Very Hard difficulty with return bullets activated is equivalent to the second loop of Hard mode.

Ranking

High score list. You can switch difficulties or view the replay menu by inputting left or right.

Options

Key config:
There's a separate lock-on button you can map. It focuses movement instantly and makes lock-shot come out significantly faster than holding 'Shot'. In general you want to swap between lock-on and rapid fire instead of using the 'Shot' button. Only benefit of Shot button is a couple additional bullets in the transition between rapid and lock-on.
Last edited by Zaarock on Mon Dec 11, 2017 1:46 am, edited 27 times in total.
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Zaarock
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Zaarock »

Scoring system

Enemy destruction value
Normal shot:
enemy value x 1

Lock-on shot:
Image
enemy value x (1 + number of bullets cancelled by kill)
visualized by the large blue multiplier


Bullet cancels
Image
Bullet cancel multiplier: Multiplier displayed in gold. Determined by amount of simultaneous bullet cancels. Tresholds to raise this multiplier increase on higher difficulties.

Bullet cancel value:
Number of bullets x cancel multiplier x item value

According to the developer this is the main method of scoring. It generally makes up much more score than enemy values.

Item value
Image
Acts as a multiplier for bullet cancels. Minimum value is 100, max is 1000.

Raising item value:
- Items are gained from destroying enemies with the normal shot. Point blanking will give you +3 increase items while staying back will only give +1. Bullet cancels also award +1 items.

- 'Empty locking': The proximity range for higher value items becomes much larger just as you start locking on. This means finishing off larger enemies with the lock-on at the right time can give you much more item value.

Item value drop:
- when destroying an enemy with lock-on: 1 + number of bullets cancelled by kill (same value as the kill multiplier) update: drops more on higher difficulties than hard. not sure about the formula
- drops by over 100 upon player death
- drops over time in boss fights

Full Lock Bonus
If an enemy is defeated with lock-on while all parts of the lock shot are hitting it, a special bonus is awarded & displayed as LOCK BONUS +X.

The value of the bonus depends on enemy type & amount of bullets cancelled:
(+X) x cancel multiplier x item value

For example midbosses usually have a full lock bonus of +4, while weak enemies have +1. This bonus does not drop item value.
Usually only a small score bonus.

General strategy
Keep the item value high by pointblanking weak enemies, or bullet cancelling with the normal shot off of medium enemies.
Cash in on the multiplier by getting huge bullet cancels using lock-on. High value enemies help too but the size the bullet cancel generally makes up for way more points than the enemy.


Secrets

Stage 3 1up
Destroy all parts of the stage 3 midboss before finishing it off for a 1up item.

Stage 5 1up - demonstration
In the downwards scrolling section near the beginning of stage 5 there are two large helicopters carrying white boats. Destroy the boats before the helicopters for a 1up.


Second loop (hard diffculty only):
Clear all five stages without continuing and a score of over 65 million. Second loop is the same as Very Hard with suicide bullets activated. (can be practiced in training with those settings)

Stage 1 boss secret form (hard only) - demonstration
Requirements: 1 million score upon death of midboss, 3.5 million before the boss fight begins.
Always appears in the second loop.
The additional form gives a large bullet cancel, recommended to have high item value to cash in on it.

True Last Boss - Village Northward (hard difficulty second loop) - video
Appears in an extra stage after 2-5. No requirement apart from entering the loop. Final attack is a bit ridiculous..

True Last Boss - Village Northward (extreme difficulty)
Always appears after stage 5 if not using stage select. Completely different patterns from the hard version.


Videos/demonstration

Hard:
Stage 1 - 8 million (first score extend) - Lily

Extreme:
Tutorial (official)
Last edited by Zaarock on Sat Jul 16, 2016 11:07 pm, edited 9 times in total.
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Zaarock
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Zaarock »

Stages

Image

Story synopsis
A new rebel faction inside the United Nations military have taken control of a secret island base with the dedicated UN weapons factory. They plan to mobilize the weapons there. A surprise attack with UN special forces 'TDJ' is launched immediately before things go out of control. As the UN needs to keep face an open attack is not an option. Objective: annihilation of all weaponry on the island.

destroy attack ability.

STAGE 1: Operation Eagle Edge - Island approach & West Beach

STAGE 2: Scramble - Radar Observation Buildings

Gas canisters near the end have +5 lock-on bonus

STAGE 3: Sunset Raider - Central Air Base

STAGE 4: Restless Night - Great Valley

Big helicopters that cover the top of the screen have +5 lock-on bonus

STAGE 5: Daybreak of Fire - Underground Development Facilities
Last edited by Zaarock on Tue Jun 09, 2015 1:50 am, edited 21 times in total.
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Zaarock
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Zaarock »

Added character details and info on TLB to the post. Some things might be a bit off & I don't have much experience with the spread shot type yet.
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SFKhoa
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by SFKhoa »

Image
So you already know the options on the left half of this window are the exact same as the in-game options.
The right half is a little different so for someone who's wondering what they are, the rough translations are as follows (courtesy of a local friend):
[ ] Don't save any replays
[ ] Show FPS
[ ] Remove boss intro (presumably the red font before each boss fight showing the name/pilot of the boss)
[ ] Sync refresh rate to display
[ ] Something regarding not showing some sort of display when enemies get it (presumably multiplier text?)
[ ] Fully load the game data on startup (requires 2GB of VRAM)
[ ] Disable 2P simultaneous play (edited mistake)
Last edited by SFKhoa on Mon Mar 09, 2020 4:48 am, edited 2 times in total.
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cave hermit
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by cave hermit »

So, how would one go about getting this game?
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trap15
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by trap15 »

Ask rancor?
@trap0xf | daifukkat.su/blog | scores | FIRE LANCER
<S.Yagawa> I like the challenge of "doing the impossible" with older hardware, and pushing it as far as it can go.
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cave hermit
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by cave hermit »

Apparently Rancor literally just ordered his first batch of copies :)

Wonder what the pricing is going to be though...
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Zaarock
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Zaarock »

It's being sold for 1,200 yen which is less than 10 USD, so maybe 15-20 from rancor? Nanapo/7-iro doesn't have this stocked either. Wrong forum for this discussion though
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Zaarock
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Zaarock »

Scoring system demo (hard):
Stage 1 - 8 million (first score extend) - Lily

The developer put up a tutorial video for Extreme, even has english translation!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtlXfjOU1PM
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Zaarock
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Zaarock »

picked this up again a couple days ago

Scoring system demo (very hard):
Stage1 - 16 million(extend+) - Tomo

-Higher difficulties have higher tresholds for bullet cancel multiplier
-Item value drops more from cancels on Very Hard (over 2x that of hard)
-Player 2 side can have a small scoring advantage: if enemies are killed on the right side of the screen items are collected faster.
-A true empty lock (for item value only) seems possible
-You can quick lock items being spawned by exploding enemies (such as midbosses) for significantly more value
-Quick locking enemies can be more worthwhile than going for full lock bonus depending on how many items they spawn (Lily may be able to full quicklock because of fast lock-on speed)

Might make an enemy value list someday. Though on veryhard enemy value is less than a tenth of total score, so maybe not
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Shepardus
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Shepardus »

Do you have a translation of the config program? When I launch it, it looks like this:

Image

Launching it through Locale Emulator doesn't help.
Image
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CloudyMusic
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by CloudyMusic »

Hopefully this should all be right.

Image
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Shepardus
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Shepardus »

Exactly what I wanted, thanks! Is there any way to change the keyboard controls? None of the boxes in the key config section seem to do anything, nor does the in-game option.
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by CloudyMusic »

Interesting question! The in-game help text for the Key Config option says that the keyboard controls can't be changed, which is...odd.
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Shepardus
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Shepardus »

Darn, I was hoping to switch the lock shot (V) and shot (Z) buttons but I guess it works well enough as it is.
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Bananamatic
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Bananamatic »

the shot button is useless, use lock+rapid instead
shot is the cave A button behavior that leads to accidental shot kills when you need to lock something on low hp
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Shepardus
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Shepardus »

Well if you have a way to bind the lock button to Z then I'm all ears.
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Zaarock
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Zaarock »

Only benefit of having Shot mapped is no break in shooting when switching between unfocus/focus.
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BareKnuckleRoo
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Shepardus wrote:Well if you have a way to bind the lock button to Z then I'm all ears.
AutoHotKey should easily be able to get the job done. It's my go-to program for keyboard play on games that don't support fully custom key mappings.
Dalton88
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Dalton88 »

Hi all, just got this.

If I try to use my Logitech F310 (xinput), the game starts in simultaneous 2 player mode even though I do not have that option checked in the config.

Anyone else run into this?

Sorry if this is not the right place to ask this. Thanks.
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Zaarock
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Zaarock »

Dalton88 wrote:Hi all, just got this.

If I try to use my Logitech F310 (xinput), the game starts in simultaneous 2 player mode even though I do not have that option checked in the config.

Anyone else run into this?

Sorry if this is not the right place to ask this. Thanks.
Hey and welcome to this forum,

According to Cloudymusic's post that option is actually "Disable simultaneous 2 player mode", not what KOA said earlier. How does it work with the option enabled? Maybe the game is detecting your pad as two controllers.
Dalton88
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Dalton88 »

That fixed it Zaarock. When I check that option to disable 2 player play, my controller works just fine. It seems to detect my pad as two controllers when it is not checked.

Thank you. :D
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autoNamed
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by autoNamed »

Anyone know how to get the game to display in full screen 4:3? For me it's launching full screen 16:9 with stretched image
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Zaarock
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Re: GD: Battle Traverse

Post by Zaarock »

autoNamed wrote:Anyone know how to get the game to display in full screen 4:3? For me it's launching full screen 16:9 with stretched image
Check your graphics card / display card settings. They are probably defaulted to stretch content to your display's aspect ratio. There's always another setting to 'maintain aspect ratio' or similar.

This game only outputs 640x480 and the rest is up to your PC settings.
fgshtg
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The battle traverse's website has disappered

Post by fgshtg »

What happened exactly?

Also Naut Mark's website and whole blog have disappered too!
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