STGT 2008 - Week #4 Voting (Doujin Week)

Post by **nZero** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:35 am

I agree with Arvandor

The game is slow for the first 70~80 levels or so though

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:35 am

Icarus wrote:I'm having Retro Week flashbacks as I play this game. -_-;;

You make it sound like a bad thing.

Arvandor · Post by **Arvandor** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 12:35 am

bsidwell wrote:
Arvandor wrote:Ah, but it's a FUN barely even a game.
If your definition of "fun" is "the same five goddamn patterns over and over and over and over and over and over and over"
If that's your definition of fun then you're fucking weird.

Space invaders? Galaga in all its iterations? Pac Man?

Lots of old-school arcade games are the same shit, only faster. Nomltest may be the same dozen patterns over and over again, but they're randomized, and shit gets INTENSE after only a few minutes of play.

And besides the patterns, bullet eating in general is fun. A very nice balance of risk vs reward (I've died so many times trying to bullet eat huge clouds of bullets it's not even funny).

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 5:52 am

I think this game would be somewhat funner if my laptop's keyboard wasn't fucked up.

Here's the controls I have available:

KEYBOARD - only two diagonals work (dunno why, but two of the diagonals simply won't take if I'm pressing any key anywhere on the keyboard).
CAN'T MOVE AT ALL while doing the Z + X shot.

360 controller is just too floaty (also the weird ship shape / hitbox combination is getting me killed) to be a real replacement, though I try.

Of course I can move slowly while Z+Xing it up on the 360.

Also nomltest_fw_vga.exe is messed up when I press the buttan quickliek and it tries to load multiple copies, gg @ failing

Arvandor · Post by **Arvandor** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 12:46 am

Most keyboards have issues with certain button combinations and not accepting all the keys. Has something to do with which circuits the keys go through I think.

For example, on my PC in WoW, if I'm straffing and running forward, I can't cast corruption =P Or when I'm playing Super Mario RPG on an emulator on my laptop, if I'm B-running down+right, I can't jump.

Post by **Icarus** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 12:50 am

Arvandor wrote:For example, on my PC in WoW, if I'm straffing and running forward, I can't cast corruption =P

Oh my god, a 'lock.
GTFO.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 12:53 am

haha world of warcraft players

Arvandor · Post by **Arvandor** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 3:56 am

Icarus wrote:
Arvandor wrote:For example, on my PC in WoW, if I'm straffing and running forward, I can't cast corruption =P
Oh my god, a 'lock.
GTFO.

Actually my main is a druid (feral). My 'lock is still a lowbie that I'm just messing around with while waiting for the expansion =/ They're fun to level, if anything.

Twiddle wrote:haha world of warcraft players

I know... I never thought I would be one, but... Enough of my friends had started playing it that I figured I may as well join them. Especially since a couple of them moved away and it's really the only time I get to "hang out" with them.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 4:02 am

in b4 the warlock

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 4:59 am

friends who get into world of warcraft eventually end up doing nothing else so quit

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:31 am

PROBLEMS WITH DIS GAEM:

- you need to press two keys (or buttons, in my case) for precision movement + large target. The button 1 / Z shot would be good for emergency maneuvering. The button 2 / X shot is pretty much useless because it doesn't take out enemies at a reasonable rate and your aura becomes ridiculously small. I would prefer to have the game auto-shoot type 3 shot and pressing a button change it to type 1.

- shit graphics options that can be turned off in a menu. FANTASTIC

- having the same type of color shot when a completely different pattern starts on the screen while you're dealing with another (also: perhaps not a flaw, but I hate the green dropping shots and the fast red laser shots; I don't think you can eat those)

- restarting the game is relatively painless EXCEPT I use the nomltest_fw_vga.exe SO for no reason you have to press Enter twice (unless u liek tiny window, what a fantastic option to have to choose every damn time). The problem with that is the game sometimes won't load immediately from Windows; sometimes it'll instead launch the Nomltest Message Window twice (the window asking if you want, surprise, fullscreen, and of fucking course you do). So, no problem rite, you just play as normal and hit Escape when you want to restart, then just press Enter to launch that second instance - oh wait, when you were playing that second instance lost focus in Windows so you have to click in its window to get it to go. Now are we through?! Nope, because before all this shit started happening we could just hit Enter from Nomltest's folder to launch the program, but since we've gone and lost focus we probably need to click the Nomltest folder.

Sure, not the worst game ever, but it could really use another update or ten.

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:52 am

Yeah, I'm more or less crippled with this game. I can't use the Z+X combo shot, as the game won't let me hit three+ keys at once. If I do the big shot that slows you down, I can't move my ship. Makes scoring noticeably tougher.

MX7 · Post by **MX7** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 10:41 am

I don't think shot 2 is all that useless. A lot of the enemies have only scant health and a judicial strafe can net you an easy bonus where bullet munching would be impractical anyway. What really gets my goat is the nonsensical scoring system. There's really no scoring potential until the dot eating value gets up to 500, and even then, after eating about 1000000 bullets the score has gone up by fuck all. Reminds me of PaRappa the Rapper

Also, yeah, the graphics are shit, but if you just change 'shit' to 'good' on the options menu, you'll be fine.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 8:51 pm

MX7 wrote:A lot of the enemies have only scant health and a judicial strafe can net you an easy bonus where bullet munching would be impractical anyway.

Does that make any scoring sense in a long play, really? I've gotten to the point where individual bullets are netting me over 500 points, and I can't tell if regular enemies are giving up more points. The 2K and 3K bonuses aren't increasing though.

Danbo · Post by **Danbo** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 1:18 am

official boycotting of this game on behalf of all of us hardworking shmuppers (lil word i thought up) at mango sentinal. see y'all for progear in a fortnight, lads

szycag · Post by **szycag** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 1:30 am

Post by **Icarus** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 1:32 am

Bit late for a boycott isn't it chappie? It's Friday. :p

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 2:59 am

i want to join mango sentinal now

but I still love team feelings

fuuuuuuuuuuck soooo conflicted

Zebra Airforce · Post by **Zebra Airforce** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 5:34 am

if i love you, i have to set you free

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 12:59 pm

Zebra Airforce wrote:if i love you, i have to set you free

!

MX7 · Post by **MX7** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 1:08 pm

Ed Oscuro wrote:
MX7 wrote:A lot of the enemies have only scant health and a judicial strafe can net you an easy bonus where bullet munching would be impractical anyway.
Does that make any scoring sense in a long play, really? I've gotten to the point where individual bullets are netting me over 500 points, and I can't tell if regular enemies are giving up more points. The 2K and 3K bonuses aren't increasing though.

Initially, bullets are worth fuck all, so yeah, it's worth using shot 2 early on to net those 2k bonus's from the green lines of enemies. Post lv100, and when the bullets are worth 500 points, you basically only need to shoot just to bring up your 'eat box', because you'll be getting so many points from bullets.

I wish the rank started at lv100

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 1:41 pm

I actually ended up answering that question for myself. It seems I have gotten more points with less bullets eaten, overall; dunno why that is because eating bullets even early on will probably help get the max bullet eating value earlier (but I'm not sure how that affects rank...sheesh). I wish the rank started at least at lv.50 - I eventually unlocked that so yeah.

Post by **Icarus** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 4:05 am

It is the randomness of this game that is annoying me at the moment. Both survival and scoring seem very dependant on a huge slice of luck - as in praying to god you don't get any of the really annoying enemies such as that big green invader that moves side to side, or the small green ones that zoom onto the bottom of the screen, then sit there for a few seconds spewing bullets.

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:26 am

Icarus wrote:It is the randomness of this game that is annoying me at the moment. Both survival and scoring seem very dependant on a huge slice of luck - as in praying to god you don't get any of the really annoying enemies such as that big green invader that moves side to side, or the small green ones that zoom onto the bottom of the screen, then sit there for a few seconds spewing bullets.

Or the single small green guys whose bullets can quickly turn harmless patterns into undodgeable crap...

Arvandor · Post by **Arvandor** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 1:09 am

The patterns from the big green sweepers are so easily eaten that you don't have to worry about them TOO much.

The line that zips to the bottom and sprays out green shit though... Those guys suck. Especially when you get 2-3 waves of them in a row at level 100+ followed by basically anything >_<

Post by **spadgy** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:36 am

EDIT: Moved to 'Week 4 Thoughts' thread

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 10:50 pm

Icarus wrote:It is the randomness of this game that is annoying me at the moment. Both survival and scoring seem very dependant on a huge slice of luck - as in praying to god you don't get any of the really annoying enemies such as that big green invader that moves side to side, or the small green ones that zoom onto the bottom of the screen, then sit there for a few seconds spewing bullets.

Actually, starting a new game and having the bullets be worth 80 points, and then only 20 next time, drives be crazy.

@ MX7: I got nearly 600K at level 82; I think it's worthwhile to start getting bullets ASAP (before rank goes crazy and destroys me), partly because you're getting 100-200 point bullets fairly early and you can pick up a wave of them from many enemies which is worth more than the shoot-down bonus. Maybe I should play with that.

I use shot 2 rarely to get annoying dangerous little zoomer enemies on the sides of the screen. Oftentimes it just seems like a better idea (also more predictable / safer) to stick to shot 3 and just mop up the bullets though.

Again, I really wish shot 3 was the default...