Shooting Game Tournament 2006

[mulletgeezer]

We are a small Country and we have to take on the Might of the USA and Mainland Europe etc. - WE should be the ones under pressure, not them!

So I looked at the totals for the top 3 US players for the first 2 weeks and they'd still be nowhere near us on points. In fact we could include Canadian players too. To put it more simply:


Namako Team >>>>> North America

[Herr Schatten]

I don't really like the randomness of this game, you can end up with really hard patterns at the 80k bonus spot, or almost nothing at all..

Actually, the only things that are really random in the game seem to be the positions of the bonus lives hidden beneath the question mark tiles (unless that's determined by something I don't know) and the number of enemies per individual wave. The background is one continuous map and the enemy waves follow a set pattern. If you get hard patterns at the 80K bonus spot, it's because you brought them there. Of course it would require a lot of experimenting (possibly with the two types of square enemies you can keep on screen for quite some time by leading them around) in order to make sure that you get an easy pattern at the bonus spot, but at least theoretically, it's all in your hands.

Its also way slower than Icarus's autofire in his latest replay (set at 5).

Icarus is making replays? I hope he releases one of them after the playing week is over. I greatly enjoyed his Blazing Star and Batrider videos.

[Icarus]

The background is one continuous map and the enemy waves follow a set pattern. If you get hard patterns at the 80K bonus spot, it's because you brought them there. Of course it would require a lot of experimenting (possibly with the two types of square enemies you can keep on screen for quite some time by leading them around) in order to make sure that you get an easy pattern at the bonus spot, but at least theoretically, it's all in your hands.

The one thing I've noticed is that while you get skipped to the nearest checkpoint when you die (either forward or backward), you are always moved forward in the enemy formation, which is a baffling design flaw. Thats mainly because to be moved forward in the enemy formation is making the game harder, not easier.

Icarus is making replays? I hope he releases one of them after the playing week is over. I greatly enjoyed his Blazing Star and Batrider videos.

I always make it a habit to record runs, for my benefit, for my team's use, and for score verification. I'm not sure if I'll release the Star Force replay for my score, since the game is quite boring to watch. ^_-

[Nemo]

We are a small Country and we have to take on the Might of the USA and Mainland Europe etc. - WE should be the ones under pressure, not them!

So I looked at the totals for the top 3 US players for the first 2 weeks and they'd still be nowhere near us on points. In fact we could include Canadian players too. To put it more simply:


Namako Team >>>>> North America

Namako Team is a good team so you may very well being #1 at the end, but it's a 6-week competition, not a 2-week.

[Icarus]

Them's fightin' words where I come from, mister.
Howsabout we setting this outside, the old-fashioned way, with a duel?
I'll let you head out first. If I'm not out in five minutes, you can start without me. ^_-

[mulletgeezer]

We are a small Country and we have to take on the Might of the USA and Mainland Europe etc. - WE should be the ones under pressure, not them!

So I looked at the totals for the top 3 US players for the first 2 weeks and they'd still be nowhere near us on points. In fact we could include Canadian players too. To put it more simply:


Namako Team >>>>> North America

Namako Team is a good team so you may very well being #1 at the end, but it's a 6-week competition, not a 2-week.

True, but we're so massively far ahead of the scores being posted on Starforce that we already know how the positions will shape up at the end of the third week, and at that point the only team that will be able to beat us is yours - If you can take the top spots each week and some of our members get bored and stop playing. The only thing we're not sure of yet is if we can prove that:


Namako Team >>>>> Everybody else in the whole world put together

[Rob]

Namako Team >>>>> North America

Many US players are not trying very hard, which confirms the stereotype that we're lazy.

[mulletgeezer]

Namako Team >>>>> North America

Many US players are not trying very hard, which confirms the stereotype that we're lazy.

That makes a lot of sense, but i imagine shmuppers are less lazy than most. Shmups definitely take some effort to play, lazy people would surely rather watch TV or maybe play Final Fantasy or something. I guess 1 week contests don't really agree with everyone as it requires some sustained effort and some thought on how to improve quickly without too much of the usual trial-and-error time wasting. If you can whip your team into a seriously motivated state we could still make this a worthwhile contest.

[Rob]

I guess 1 week contests don't really agree with everyone as it requires some sustained effort

At the start of the week I was thinking "hey, this should be two weeks!" Now by Friday I think I'm burnt out and I should probably accept that and play some Final Fantasy. The last few weeks I kept pushing to Sunday and didn't improve (despite playing the most hours), so eh.

I think FEKA is doing good considering it's basically just been four of us from a small non-shooter message board (R.I.P.).

[landshark]

To the Hisa autofire thing, I can only find this thread about it at the moment, and that video clearly shows that he is shooting faster than Auto 5, but you can tap with two fingers at a faster rate than Auto 5 too.

I don't really like the randomness of this game, you can end up with really hard patterns at the 80k bonus spot, or almost nothing at all.. and then when you get lucky on that spot, you mess up getting the 1 million bonus, even though you have played so well in the whole run.

I don't like the randomness either.

As for autofire, I can achieve what seems like autofire-2 with 2 fingers on a single button. But I cannot rapid fire for long periods of time. I've *almost* gotten 2 80k bonuses on that strip, but I was about 5 arrows short of the 2nd 16. It's just too hard to keep up rapid fire that long.

I still call BS on that video if the entire thing has him firing at that rate. Isn't the entire replay like 4 hours?

[oxtsu]

I think it is absolutely justified to point at players who just play at their favorite games and skip all other weeks.

Name some names and/or forget about it.

BUT if in the end we have a couple of players who just showed up in less than 50% of the playing weeks. I am seriously considering to ban them for the next STGT.

That won't help anything.

EDIT:
Offcourse I am not talking about people who don't have enough time or no access to the games.

Good, since that accounts for the majority of those with low participation thus far.

[freddiebamboo]

I don't think anyone should get banned from these competitions. Mame is a factor for many players and if they don't want to use emulation thats fine.

Maybe a PS2 shooter tournament could be an option in the future.

[Rob]

BUT if in the end we have a couple of players who just showed up in less than 50% of the playing weeks. I am seriously considering to ban them for the next STGT.

That won't help anything.

It'd help people not get stuck on teams with non-participants.

[freddiebamboo]

It'd help people not get stuck on teams with non-participants.

-5 Team Morale

[oxtsu]

BUT if in the end we have a couple of players who just showed up in less than 50% of the playing weeks. I am seriously considering to ban them for the next STGT.

That won't help anything.

It'd help people not get stuck on teams with non-participants.

And how would you know beforehand?

+ what do you think 'top 3 scores per team' rule is for?

[Rob]

+ what do you think 'top 3 scores per team' rule is for?

Surely not so people can skip out on every week.

[oxtsu]

'A mountain out of a molehill' comes to mind.

[Rob]

Says non-participant.

[oxtsu]

Sorry, Mom!

edit: I don't have access to MAME, for the record here. In Raizing week I could have played Bakraid or Dimahoo, but no Batrider. What luck.

[Rob]

Sorry, Mom!

No Nintendo for the rest of the year.

[oxtsu]

Ahhh shoots. :(

[Nemo]

To those citing time issues, I find it hard to believe so many people don't have time when I work at least 48 hours a week, plus I nurture other hobbies and interests, yet I can offer at least a few hours to play the game of the week (plus it's 1 week out of 2). Obviously those who have the most free time to play will have an advantage but it's nice to at least participate. And I realize the first 3 weeks have been pretty bad in terms of game selection, but if we just played Cave games every week it would be a pointless tournament.

[Edge]

Name some names and/or forget about it.

Hmmm... how about oxtsu.

+ what do you think 'top 3 scores per team' rule is for?

You know, if everyone thinks like that you get 0 paticipants. Yeah, why should I bother with this game, I've enough teammates.
Have a look at the Star Force week, once again it is difficult to get 3 players joining on each team, this seems the result of this kind of thinking.

And how would you know beforehand?

You can't know before who will play most weeks and who not. That's the whole idea what the ban for future tournaments is for. Because we know who played this time and who actually helped their team out. It is to avoid ego players, hurting the team morale with their behavior.

If you have good reasons to stay out of a game, then go and tell at least your team mates. It ain't fair to let your team down and just showing up when you are in the mood for. Therefore I'd suggest we try to avoid people who are doing that, i.e. banning them from future competitions.

[oxtsu]

Name some names and/or forget about it.

Hmmm... how about oxtsu. ;) :P

Right-oh! I meant players who you think are not playing because of some egotistical or selfish reason (your first rant).

+ what do you think 'top 3 scores per team' rule is for?

You know, if everyone thinks like that you get 0 paticipants. Yeah, why should I bother with this game, I've enough teammates.
Have a look at the Star Force week, once again it is difficult to get 3 players joining on each team, this seems the result of this kind of thinking.

I'll just copy+paste what you set down yourself --

"Rules

Players and their Teams

To handle all the joining players, they will be divided into teams. Every team consists of a minimum of 4 players to a maximum of 7 players. Each week every team member can play, but only the best 3 scores of a team will count for the overall rankings. (a ranking independent highscoretable will be displayed as well) So the teamsize is esspecially good in cases where a player skips a game because he don't own / can't emulate it or is just busy with real life. So in a team consisting of 5 players, even if 2 players skip a game the team can still get it's full 3 ranking slots and don't lose on points. "

Now you are making the negative assumption about people's reasoning and turning it into a bigger deal than it is. There's been good paticipation so far, I think. As for Retro Week, your decision to make it pre-1986 didn't do any favors, but that's neither here nor there at the moment.

And how would you know beforehand?

You can't know before who will play most weeks and who not. That's the whole idea what the ban for future tournaments is for. Because we know who played this time and who actually helped their team out. It is to avoid ego players, hurting the team morale with their behavior.

If you have good reasons to stay out of a game, then go and tell at least your team mates. It ain't fair to let your team down and just showing up when you are in the mood for. Therefore I'd suggest we try to avoid people who are doing that, i.e. banning them from future competitions.

Too defensive and too attached to -your baby-. I don't think low participation is a reason to ban anyone from future comps, but if you did, there's just going to be less people playing overall, and just as likely the same pattern with any new members who fill the slots.

I've talked with some of my teamates already, I'm sure others have too. As for telling in public, that's not truly necessary is it? At least we should stop worrying about everybody else and have fun with the competition. If there was like 10-20% participation only (not the case here), then maybe I could understand being snoopy and setting up stakes at the bonfires.

[mulletgeezer]

crikey, this is all getting a bit serious. i don't think we should actually ban people from further contests (yes, i did say BAN REQUEST before, but that's just a joke phrase, right?) because this is just a friendly competition, and of course some people have good reasons for not playing. hopefully all we need to do for the next tournament is ask that people only take part if they're willing to properly enter into the spirit of this competition, and play in as many weeks as possible.

[Edge]

Yeah ok, maybe public banning is really a bit overreacting.

But some people aren't joining weeks out of protest. I even got PMs like "the poll X was retarded and has broken the competition thus I won't contribute any more scores to the competition."

The participation so far was good, really. But I am afraid that it may not stay the same throughout the whole tournament.

Anyway... I'd suggest to make the STGT an annual event, so that the next one would be set in one year. So we have still a lot of time to consider future team organisation. It may be a good idea if everyone who enters will have to clarify some things like if he uses emulation (to avoid getting a team of only console players = possible problems getting 3 slots). Also assigning team captains might be a good idea and the whole way of organizing and forming the teams should be thouht through one more time. We can use the data of this competition when forming teams, esspecially in the case where players have a high joining rate...

Well, there's a lot of time till the next compo. But I guess you are right banning is no good solution. Still I think players who are only concerned about their personal dislikes and likes are hurting the team morale... also the morale of the entire competition.

[professor ganson]

. I even got PMs like "the poll X was retarded and has broken the competition thus I won't contribute any more scores to the competition."

That's rude and ungrateful. I'm very happy to have given Star Force a chance-- I don't see what all the complaining is about. Yeah, I'm not crazy about how slow the autofire rate is on the XBOX and I absolutely suck at button mashing. At the same time I'm really happy that I was able to participate this week, even if I've done a poor job so far.

Just know that for everyone who is complaining, there are at least five others who are very happy with how the competition is going.

[Icarus]

Anyway... I'd suggest to make the STGT an annual event, so that the next one would be set in one year. So we have still a lot of time to consider future team organisation. It may be a good idea if everyone who enters will have to clarify some things like if he uses emulation (to avoid getting a team of only console players = possible problems getting 3 slots). Also assigning team captains might be a good idea and the whole way of organizing and forming the teams should be thouht through one more time. We can use the data of this competition when forming teams, esspecially in the case where players have a high joining rate...

I like namakoteam as it is right now, and I'm considering keeping it together as a fully-fledged gaming team. I'll have to discuss the possibility closer to the end of the tournament with my team mates, but its a nice thought, especially if we can stay together for the next compo if it happens.

And Edge, you get no complaints from me. You've done a great job keeping things organised, and those people who have been complaining in such a manner deserve no respect at all for their actions.

[Ghegs]

Earlier this week I had a lovely 10-hour school day. I was planning on dedicating few hours this weekend to Star Force, but something came up and I haven't even been at home most of the Saturday. On Sunday I gotta study for an exam, but hopefully I can squeeze some gaming in there as well. Assuming the thing that's eating up my time today doesn't carry over too much to Sunday...

[CIT]

Namako Team >>>>> Everybody else in the whole world put together

Next year I'm going to recruit a "Team Dai-Nippon-STG-Teikoku"* from 2chan and then we'll see if this holds true.





*The Japanese will be the players, I'll be the "manager".