London Casino Crew meets (RIP the Arcade)

[spadgy]

Cool - I'll only be there until about 9.30pm - but I'll cherish that half hour!

[Mills]

nice... i'll be down from tomorrow (late) onwards

Cool - see you then mate!

Will

Captain Spadgy: i'll be there around 9ish... hmm, Mills should be around these couple of nights

shame that MBL can't stay any longer due to the STGT'09
but many thanks to Chi_Ryu and Skykid for the board

I may not come down till sat due to no money, plus to see if either Arc or Arm come down to try out Deathsmiles. It plays alright, just dont try Level999 as myself and DEL found out tuesday.

[mr_m0nks]

nice... i'll be down from tomorrow (late) onwards

Cool - see you then mate!

Will

Captain Spadgy: i'll be there around 9ish... hmm, Mills should be around these couple of nights

shame that MBL can't stay any longer due to the STGT'09
but many thanks to Chi_Ryu and Skykid for the board

how come Spadgy is now a captain?


I demand a nickname of equal or better rank!

[CHI]

I may not come down till sat due to no money, plus to see if either Arc or Arm come down to try out Deathsmiles. It plays alright, just dont try Level999 as myself and DEL found out tuesday.

no worries Mills, i'll see you on saturday evening... hopefully with ARC and ARM

how come Spadgy is now a captain?


I demand a nickname of equal or better rank!

LMAO... he's my Team Royale captain for this years STGT'09...
well... what rank would you like to be called mr_m0nks

[Arc]

I'll be down friday about 6.30 -7pm after work to check out Deathsmiles, maybe early saturday afternoon as well.

[dan76]

Hi everone,
I'm new(ish) to the forum - met a few of you guys tonight on Deathsmiles MBL before the machine stopped taking money (hope this gets fixed...). Good to put faces to names etc. This is probably the wrong place to post this, but as requested - the route I use for getting life refills in MBL (it also works in "vanilla" Deathsmiles):

Lakeside (lv3) > Volcano (lv3) > Forest (lv3) > Graveyard (lv3 - half refill) > Halloween town (lv3 - two half refills) > Swamp ( lv2 - half refill).

If you do Swamp on level 3 you get a bomb. If Volcano is done last at level 3 you get a full life refill, but with suicide bullets it's beyond me. If I was better at the game I'd probably go a different route for better scoring - hopefully I'll pick up some tips over the next month at Casino.

[spadgy]

Hey durango76. Pleasure to meet you tonight mate. And thanks for posting your MBL route here. It was good for me and Rupert to see the route you had for the game and I would have forgotten it without it being in this thread.

So the coin mechanism didn't get fixed after I left? What a turd. So poor old CHI didn't get a credit?

I was quite surprised to realise my first ever (non-EX/Rosa) MBL credit was the high score of the night, but I can also see how an 'All Level 3, Canyon, Ice Caves with Sakura' is the way to really score big. Shame my credit attempting that was useless.

So - I'll put up our scores tomorrow at work.

I'm not sure if I'm going to make Friday night, but sometime soon. Del - when are you about? I'd like to see your handiwork with MBL.

EDIT: mr_m0nks! You have to get down to play MBL - then you get a nickname!

And Del, Mills - how did you score? I hit about 270,000,000 somehow...

[Taylor]

A friend of mine said she was having trouble with the coin slot, is it fixed now? I should be down tomorrow about 6pm for MBL and BB action. Providing I can get up nice and early, anyway.

It's really worth learning Graveyard at level 999 because it boosts your counter to stupid and isn't too difficult. And doing Volcano last, of course, though if you made a mistake before that point your run is garbage. MBL makes Progear look forgiving.

Edit: Yep, into work early. So I'll be down. I tried playing this last night to see if I remembered any of it, answer was no.
Edit 2: Is 270,000,000 before or after the second extend? I never know how high these scores are!

[spadgy]

I think I met your friend at Leipzig once. Would that make sense?

And yes - the coin mech is screwed but I think a fix is underway.

My score was on what I'll call a 'Vanilla Death Smiles approach/No EX' run, on my first credit.

Watched durango76 play All at lvl 3 to Ice Caves with Sukura, which made me realised that's the way to play, but I don't think I even got a chance to try the EX stages. Going to take a while to learn absorbing suicide bullets and dodging normal bullets.

Time for me to download MBL to the 360!

[DEL]

I'll see if I can get down there tonight.
spadgy - I've only ever played 2 credits on this game, so don't look to me for any performance .
I'll try that level: 999 that Taylor is talking about.

[Chi_Ryu]

Glad to hear it's in - enjoy it y'all! I'll post in a week or two when I've had a think about how to get it back when it's time...

I hit about 270,000,000 somehow...

I've done 712mill before, and that's small fry compared to people who are good at the game

Level 999 is great - I can only pass (at most) 1 stage on that level

I'm down in town next week - I'll have to pop by and pay to play my own PCB

[spadgy]

I'm down in town next week - I'll have to pop by and pay to play my own PCB

Do let us know when, so I can try and thank you in person and see how it's done.

I got my 270m on my first credit - I know I can get better than that!

[Taylor]

Was good fun today, totally messed up the first time but did okay the second time after a false start. DEL asked for my route so:

1. Train (far right): Level 3 (3)
2. Graveyard (far left): Level 999 (999)
3. Port Town (far left): Level 3 (2)
4. Swamp (middle): Level 2 (3)
5. Forest (middle): Level 2 (999)
6. Volcano (far right): Level 3 (999)
7. Ice Palace (far right): N/A
8. Canyon (far left): N/A
9. Castle: N/A

The numbers in brackets are the player I'm basically copying. The reason I do two level 2's is because I'm a coward and this means less suicide bullets. To answer another question that was brought up but not answered: There is a level 999 version of Ice Palace and probably the Castle and Canyon maps, which you will automatically get if you unlock them. I would assume it takes four stages on 999 but it might be something else, the guy must do Port Town at Level 2 for a reason...

I did have a lot of guff here about the graveyard before but to be honest it's probably better to learn these stages at level 3 and then worry about making it harder, as knowing the stage is vital.

[Ravid]

There's no shame about doing two level 2s, I still do it. The last stage is ridiculous on death mode 2 anyways (esp. tyrannosatan). For anyone who's interested, my current route (with 'ideal' scores at each point) is

1. Lakeside (3) ~25m
2. Swamp (2) ~55m
3. Port Town (2) ~155m
4. Graveyard (3) ~450m
5. Forest (999) ~1b
6. Volcano (3) ~1.9b
7. Canyon ~2.7b
8. Ice Palace ~4.2b
9. uh final i guess ~


To get level 999 on the first extra stage, you do four of the first six stages at 999. You then have to no miss to remain on rank 999, that is, die and the next stage will be on plain old death mode. Strangely, the Ice Palace isn't actually that hard on 999.

Finally, the guy does port town at rank 2 presumably so that he loses less counter on the boss (it's shorter and the counter goes down slower).

I won't be able to make it to Casino for two weeks, unfortunately. Well, perhaps next weekend if my car makes it out of the shop.

[Taylor]

Yeah that makes sense, I guess Deathscythe drops fast but you need to wait for his respawn animation and you're dropping counter all the time. Forest 999 was the next one I was going to learn... then I saw the boss...

Edit: Talking about routes and stuff, I just watched the 2nd best Windia run on XBL (4 or 5th overall) and he does it very differently. He (JUM) plays very technically, he pretty much never leaves power up mode, taps lock shot a split second before anything dies and does something weird to get gold crowns in the swamp. But he does nothing on level 999, avoids death mode and hits a lot of stuff. Route was:

1. Forest (3): 76m (0.5 death)
2. Swamp (2): 266m!
3. Lakeshore (3): 655m (max counter...)
4. Volcano (3): 2.026b!
5. Port Town (2): 2.447b
6. Graveyard (3): 3.228b
7. Ice Palace: 5.543b (2 deaths)
8. Canyon: 6.511b (0.5 deaths)
9. Castle: 8.285 (game over on tyrannosatan)

He misses a few restocks on Castle and actually bombs Jitterbug. First time seems like a mistake, like he wanted to use power instead, but during Jitterbugs final pattern he just bombs it until it goes away. It's an impressive run, though.

Edit 2: Might go down tomorrow but I can't be sure.

Edit 3: Sakura WR is 2b higher than the others. Maybe she is the best at everything after all D:

[CHI]

And yes - the coin mech is screwed but I think a fix is underway.

fixed

[Skykid]

Anyone going to Super vs Battle later this month?

Not technically a shmup meet unless all the guys who play shmups turn up to meet.

http://supervsbattle.com/

Kicks off on a Friday for a 3 day battle-fest, would be cool to see some of you there.

[Ravid]

Yeah that makes sense, I guess Deathscythe drops fast but you need to wait for his respawn animation and you're dropping counter all the time. Forest 999 was the next one I was going to learn... then I saw the boss...

Also Port Town on rank 3 is worth barely any more than on rank 2. The forest boss isn't too bad except for that last attack (which you can just bomb through). In particular, it's quite easy to refill the counter during his 'fill the screen with apples' attack.

taps lock shot a split second before anything dies

Do you know why people do this? I've been doing it on some enemies, including (obviously) the ones you need to kill with lock shot, but I've never figured out why they always do it on the train carriages, for example, as I'm almost certain that in that case you get the same number of crowns.

Edit 3: Sakura WR is 2b higher than the others. Maybe she is the best at everything after all D:

She can absorb more suicide bullets and kill bosses quicker. Plus her directed attack probably allows for some strats the others can't do. Her record is only 1.2b higher than Windia, though.

perhaps this should go in the strategy thread

[Taylor]

taps lock shot a split second before anything dies

Do you know why people do this? I've been doing it on some enemies, including (obviously) the ones you need to kill with lock shot, but I've never figured out why they always do it on the train carriages, for example, as I'm almost certain that in that case you get the same number of crowns.

As far as I'm aware you do get more crowns from killing the trains with lock-shot but only in power mode. The forest vines also have something weird like this.

Edit: Man, I'm loving my edits today: http://www48.tok2.com/home/stgup2/stgup ... p20095.jpg
This seems helpful. The sections are split into shot (ショット) laser (レーサー) and lock (ロック) to show you what to kill certain enemies for and how many items they'll produce. But some enemies have a green "lock" written under them, if this is in the middle row they'll give more items killed with the lock shot at max counter*, or if it's in the bottom row they give more in fever mode. I don't know if these stack. It's worth noting this is for DS, not DS:MBL, but everything I've seen suggests this is still the case. There's bound to be something different, just to be annoying.
* I assume! The middle row is "power up" and the bottom "fever."

Edit 3: Sakura WR is 2b higher than the others. Maybe she is the best at everything after all D:

She can absorb more suicide bullets and kill bosses quicker. Plus her directed attack probably allows for some strats the others can't do. Her record is only 1.2b higher than Windia, though.

perhaps this should go in the strategy thread

Ah, sure. I was rounding down :)
And yeah, you're probably right.

[spadgy]

A pigture paints a thousands words:

[mr_m0nks]

My god, I leave London for 2 months and you all go mad! (that'll be the swine flu then!)


Anyway by the sounds of things Death Smiles seems a bit complicated. Is there any hope for arank amateur like myself?

[spadgy]

It's a really easy 1CC m0nks. Scoring is like learning a new language...

[Taylor]

Deathsmiles is the easiest Cave game by far unless you piss it off. Pick Rosa/Sakura, do everything at the lowest level settings, and avoid the extra stages for an easy 1cc.

[Pointman]

I second the easy 1CC on MBL. Even I managed to 1CC it in Casino on Saturday afternoon (didn't get nowhere near the highscores on it though)

I gotta say that I like the way that the arcades fortunes have changed. It actually has some good games in there now I love the SF4 cabs and Bloodline Rebellion in there and had a quiet squeal of glee when I saw Tatsujin Oh, really nice. All I can say is keep up the good work guys, it looks like a decent place to hang out now.

[Smraedis]

Hey, I've booked train tickets for the weekend of the 26/27th of September, but now I have nowhere where I can stay at, on that Saturday.
So I have to ask if anyone would be able to let me stay at their place on Saturday the 26th, then that would be very helpful.

am looking forward to maybe playing MBL there, and actually seeing other people play the game well.

[Taylor]

I know you guys are keen on Truxton but after DS:MBL comes out I can do a similar loan with DFK. Will need 4 buttons and a vert'.

[DEL]

Ok that's it. Mini-Meet arranged around Smraedis's second coming - 26th-27th Sept.

Thanks for the DFK offer Taylor.

Pointman wrote;

I gotta say that I like the way that the arcades fortunes have changed. It actually has some good games in there now I love the SF4 cabs and Bloodline Rebellion in there and had a quiet squeal of glee when I saw Tatsujin Oh, really nice. All I can say is keep up the good work guys, it looks like a decent place to hang out now.

I was liaising with the Arcade Owner John over the last year, emailing him lists of games to get for the arcade, in order to revitalize the place. John is like a Stage 7 Boss Tough to deal with, but all of a sudden he went on one big buying spree and got the SF II HDs, Tekken 6 BR, Kof 12, Blazbleu and we added Muchi Muchi Pork, Tatsujin Oh and now Mega Black Label. AVP was added by Garf.
The place has been busy ever since.

[Smraedis]

I'll need somewhere to stay first, before I can actually come I'd like to make it a good meet.

Got a J360 now, don't expect me to be too great at MBL just yet

[spadgy]

I'll need somewhere to stay first, before I can actually come I'd like to make it a good meet.

Got a J360 now, don't expect me to be too great at MBL just yet

This is all my fault. I told smraedis he could stay at mine and then my Best Man set the date for his 30th for that day. Too, late - smraedis had already bought the ticket. So, I'm really sorry smraedis.

Somebody give this guy a sofa to stay on for the night!

[DEL]

I'll check with the Ball n'Chain. Ordinarily it would be easy for me to put Smraedis up, but the new Stork arrival has changed things a bit. I'll Czech and get back to you.