ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

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Mero
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Re: GD: Caladrius

Post by Mero »

I reckon the values of the sols is probably random to be honest, I swear I could never predict what value they were going to give me.
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ACSeraph
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Re: GD: Caladrius

Post by ACSeraph »

I guess I'm just in denial...

Making it random is just such a massive design flaw with regards to competitive scoring.
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adversity1
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Re: GD: Caladrius

Post by adversity1 »

Post 46 in this 2ch thread claims the Sol values are random:

http://kohada.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/gam ... 530394/l50

I'm inclined to agree given the testing in this thread.

Super dumb!
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ACSeraph
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Re: GD: Caladrius

Post by ACSeraph »

Indeed it does :( . Well, like you said my research also points to it being random, so I guess we can go ahead and call this case closed. That is really incredibly stupid design though, especially given that 200,000 is quite a lot of points to be giving out randomly. I wonder if the values are still random in AC...
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Re: GD: Caladrius

Post by spadgy »

Random huh? Seems a shame. I want to believe there's some distribution that evens it out, but maybe not. Two players of a very similar ranking could get separated quite some way if some lucky devil got lots of 200,000s while the rival hit lower scoring sold. Ballbags to random scoring.
ACSeraph wrote:I wonder if the values are still random in AC...
You're referring to the arcade release, right? How tweaked are we expecting it to be?
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Re: GD: Caladrius

Post by ACSeraph »

Based on what I saw at the location test, it's pretty significantly tweaked. I mean it's the same game at a basic level, but there are a lot of less obvious differences. Sounds like the characters are going to be better balanced this time, and I'm really looking forward to that.

I'll probly get up to the arcade to spend a good amount of time with it soon, and when I do I'll post my findings in detail here.
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Re: GD: Caladrius

Post by spadgy »

Wicked! Thanks mate (I've been so busy this past week, I've got no idea what's going on in the world!).
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ACSeraph
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by ACSeraph »

Massive, massive update to evolve the old GD into an ST covering all versions and modes is complete! Thanks to everyone for all your contributions to the original guide, and if you have anything to add to this one or corrections please let me know.

The information here is extremely thorough, so hopefully anyone can use this to get anything from a basic clear to a god tier score. I hope you guys enjoy it :)
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by Kollision »

That's awesome, tks ACS! :D

I just skimmed through it but will read it later, kinda gives me the itch to play Blaze as soon as the game arrives...
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denpanosekai
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by denpanosekai »

Thanks for the guide, just got Blaze today!
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Mero
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by Mero »

Only just seen this, nice work :)

I will definitely grab Blaze at some point soon.
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by soupbones »

Thanks for this! Just got Blaze and loving it! All these buttons!
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by Noid »

Just got my platinum trophy on Caladrius Blaze! Took a while to figure out the 100% Gallery trophy, and farming Ether Chips took a while, but SO worth it for that sweet sweet trophy! I planned it out so that the platinum for the game would be my 13,000th trophy overall, so it's a milestone trophy! :D
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by GhostGK »

This is awesome.. Thanks, ACSeraph!

I've been thinking of getting Caladrius Blaze cuz I know & love Suzuhito Yasuda's character design!
But, didn't know if the game would be good.
A read through of this post got me interested.

I'm definitely getting it! :o
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by Uncle Taco »

I've been doing scoring runs of Blaze on Steam for a few weeks now, and I noticed something important that hasn't been mentioned here: different characters have different amounts of max MP. I did some experimenting and there seem to be three tiers of MP usage:

High MP Usage: Alex, Lilith, Kei, and Layis.

Average MP Usage: Maria, Caladrius, and Noah.

Low MP Usage: Sophia.

So, Sophia can get the most attacks out before her stock of MP gets depleted, while Alex or Kei can't get as many.
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ACSeraph
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by ACSeraph »

Really great info there, thank you for sharing it. I've had suspicions about that for a while so it's great to have solid data. Unfortunately though that means Sophia is almost assuredly best for custom play, so we can expect even less variety in the future.

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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by NeoStrayCat »

ACSeraph wrote:Default is king!
No, its not, to me it isn't, you'd barely get any hi-score using default shots, unless you know the game's layout in and out, so...Custom FTW!
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ACSeraph
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by ACSeraph »

NeoStrayCat wrote:
ACSeraph wrote:Default is king!
No, its not, to me it isn't, you'd barely get any hi-score using default shots, unless you know the game's layout in and out, so...Custom FTW!
Is that not the point of score play? Probably what you dislike about it is exactly what I do like, that is that you have to really think creatively to score well on default. That's a huge part of the game's lure for me. Just seems to me everyone is missing out on so much interesting content by following the path of least resistance. I think it's worth trying both styles given that our score boards are separate. (I got no problem with your custom love though, I'm just lonely :lol: )
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by NeoStrayCat »

I know, its just that...if I'm going for score and survival, I might as well do it custom wise, barely using any other characters weapon's and defenses that are not Kei's or Noah's or even Sophia's too, lol. Its kinda tough to use the other weapons, because the main shot gets used too, and that screws up the multiplier rate, lol. (Mostly in Vanilla Caladrius or Blaze's Original Mode. AC/Evo mode has a cap rate, so that's exempt.)
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by Uncle Taco »

I've seen some amazing scores with default Lilith, so custom isn't necessarily superior in every situation.

Here are some random things I've noticed while playing that haven't been mentioned above:

Noah's S2 attack does practically no damage against the stage 1 and 5 bosses. It seems to do normal damage to the bosses in 2, 3, 4, and 6, though.

Kei's S3 can recharge itself if it absorbs enough bullets: try waving it around some of the dense bullet patterns against the stage 4 boss, or the stage 6 boss's phase 2 bullet spam. I haven't tested other S3 abilities to see if they recharge as well, but I'll play around with it when I get some free time.

None of the homing attacks will lock onto the obnoxious blue sniper bits in Stage 6... except for Caladrius's main shot. Interestingly, if you destroy one of these bits with an elemental attack, you won't get any points or increase your multiplier, but if you use your main shot, you'll get a somewhat negligible amount of score (something like 20 points each... yay...)
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BIL
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by BIL »

Sorry to bump with a non-strategy question, but I thought this might be the best place to ask. Could someone please tell me if the PS4 version is solid? Completely missed out on this one and want to catch up, sounds like my thing. Just wary of getting nailed with a bad port. Thanks!
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by Aquas »

Seemed fine to me BIL in my limited testing. There is a couple audio issues in the non-ps3 versions like sound effects overlapping and some music repeating instead of properly looping (the stage clear fanfare) but gameplay wise I noticed no issues. The sound effect issue is pretty minor but it does sound weird in some cases, especially if you know it doesn't sound like that in the PS3 Blaze.

I really only did a few runs on Evolution mode though, my preferred go to. Please enjoy the game though! I recommend trying all of the characters. Once you get serious, get into stage select and boss rush and learn the recharge crystal locations, that's a great place to start if you're interested in scoring. Which you should. More score = more bombs = more survival = more fun. Then try Very Hard! 8)
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by BIL »

Thanks bud, sounds like I should be ok! I figure I can always move to one of the older revs in the future, if need be.
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Re: GD: Caladrius

Post by DoctaMario »

ACSeraph wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2013 1:42 am I guess I'm just in denial...

Making it random is just such a massive design flaw with regards to competitive scoring.
My guess is that the point values are randomized per level but that only one tower will give you 200k, 50k etc. So if you get all of them, they would all add up to the same amount of points regardless of which level in the game you get each point value. Because I never get the same point value on two different towers during the same run. Just a guess though. (EDIT: I'm wrong about this. I did some testing today and now believe the value might have something to do with how quickly you're able to destroy the tower after you kill an enemy or raise the Rate gauge, but I can't say for sure. I'm pretty sure that the value of the tower isn't random though and is tied to some event.)

I've been getting pretty into this game and really enjoying the scoring in it. I got pretty close to a 1cc today on Very Easy but those damn bug sniper things in Stage 6 are tough. Noah's S2 doesn't catch them and they're so fast I've defaulted to using my normal.shot or even a bomb if too many of them get onscreen.
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by DoctaMario »

Ended with a score of 91,000,000 off a Practice mode 1cc, which isn't terribly impressive but it's a start. I've been playing with extra lives added for training purposes but I stopped that since I'm getting better.
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by DoctaMario »

Got a Very Easy 1cc and a final score of about 112,000,000 this morning! Feels like I'm making some good progress here.

I doubled dipped on this game on PS and Switch and it's pretty wild how much more competitive the scoring seems to be on PS, at least for Evolution mode. 112,000,000 won't even get me into the top 30 on PS whereas I think I'd be in the top 10 on Switch.
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Re: GD: Caladrius

Post by ACSeraph »

DoctaMario wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2025 3:07 am
ACSeraph wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2013 1:42 am I guess I'm just in denial...

Making it random is just such a massive design flaw with regards to competitive scoring.
My guess is that the point values are randomized per level but that only one tower will give you 200k, 50k etc. So if you get all of them, they would all add up to the same amount of points regardless of which level in the game you get each point value. Because I never get the same point value on two different towers during the same run. Just a guess though. (EDIT: I'm wrong about this. I did some testing today and now believe the value might have something to do with how quickly you're able to destroy the tower after you kill an enemy or raise the Rate gauge, but I can't say for sure. I'm pretty sure that the value of the tower isn't random though and is tied to some event.)

I've been getting pretty into this game and really enjoying the scoring in it. I got pretty close to a 1cc today on Very Easy but those damn bug sniper things in Stage 6 are tough. Noah's S2 doesn't catch them and they're so fast I've defaulted to using my normal.shot or even a bomb if too many of them get onscreen.
I've spent an ungodly amount of time trying to figure this out over the years, and I really do believe it's random. But if you ever do manage to solve the mystery I'd love to hear about it

Congrats on your 1cc 8)
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DoctaMario
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Re: GD: Caladrius

Post by DoctaMario »

ACSeraph wrote: Tue Feb 04, 2025 12:26 am
DoctaMario wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2025 3:07 am
ACSeraph wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2013 1:42 am I guess I'm just in denial...

Making it random is just such a massive design flaw with regards to competitive scoring.
My guess is that the point values are randomized per level but that only one tower will give you 200k, 50k etc. So if you get all of them, they would all add up to the same amount of points regardless of which level in the game you get each point value. Because I never get the same point value on two different towers during the same run. Just a guess though. (EDIT: I'm wrong about this. I did some testing today and now believe the value might have something to do with how quickly you're able to destroy the tower after you kill an enemy or raise the Rate gauge, but I can't say for sure. I'm pretty sure that the value of the tower isn't random though and is tied to some event.)

I've been getting pretty into this game and really enjoying the scoring in it. I got pretty close to a 1cc today on Very Easy but those damn bug sniper things in Stage 6 are tough. Noah's S2 doesn't catch them and they're so fast I've defaulted to using my normal.shot or even a bomb if too many of them get onscreen.
I've spent an ungodly amount of time trying to figure this out over the years, and I really do believe it's random. But if you ever do manage to solve the mystery I'd love to hear about it

Congrats on your 1cc 8)
Thanks man! I was hoping you'd still be around. Do you play this much these days?

The thing that makes me think the tower values aren't random is that when I did the testing on Lv1, if I killed everything with nothing but normal shot, I got 50k every time. So my working theory is that it has to do with the Rate counter, killing a certain enemy with a certain weapon, or just using a certain weapon a lot. I haven't done any more testing though.
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Re: ST: Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

Post by ACSeraph »

Not a lot of time for STGs these days sadly, but I still clear this about once a year just so I don't completely forget how to play it :oops:
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