Restarting because you messed up early on

gs68 · Post by **gs68** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 5:01 am

Ever start up a game, try to perform as well as possible on the first stage, then quit and start over because you messed up a single part, thus ruining your score, getting you killed, or having some other penalty inflicted on you?

I do that a lot and sometimes to the point of frustration. I play DDP:DOJ and I give up if I interrupt my combo before I get to the huge gun thingy, or else I finish with under 3 million points, and I like getting off to a good start. (Going from the first medium-sized battleship to the wave of helicopters that accompany the first bee spot without seeing a yellow "110HIT" on the screen is a real pain.) Sometimes I just give up altogether and slam my controller into the carpet, despite the possibility of breaking it and attracting the attention of a family member.

flux · Post by **flux** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 5:13 am

I do that, but not because of score. For most games, if I die in the first level, or second level in some, I start over. If I really botch the score early on, I turn it into a try-to-get-through-without-bombs play.

shiftace · Post by **shiftace** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 5:17 am

I do this a lot, and I think it's a bad habit. If I grew up around an arcade, I think I would have more respect for individual credits, I'd learn to play through my mistakes, and I'd ultimately be a better player. But I don't have the simple willpower to make myself play on, and I'm not paying money to play, so I restart a lot.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 5:28 am

Nah, if I do badly early on I'll most always keep playing anyway and see how far I can get regardless...every little bit of experience helps.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:22 am

shiftace wrote:I do this a lot, and I think it's a bad habit. If I grew up around an arcade, I think I would have more respect for individual credits, I'd learn to play through my mistakes, and I'd ultimately be a better player. But I don't have the simple willpower to make myself play on, and I'm not paying money to play, so I restart a lot.

this is me exactly (if i may hijack your words shiftace).

edit: it also interesting, some of the things you said. i forced myself to play through some stupid deaths these past couple deaths and it is incredible the kind of rabbits i can pull from my hat.

BUHA · Post by **BUHA** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:23 am

I'm glad I'm not the only one who does this.

It's usually only on the games I play for score, like DDP or Mars Matrix, or some of freeware games like Parsec 47 and Nomltest. But sometimes I restart over and over and over and over again and never get anywhere, and other times I beat my hi score on the first try. Go figure. Sometimes I'm just not feeling it.

kidneythief · Post by **kidneythief** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:26 am

This is slightly different, but most console shooters don't offer unlimited continues, and though in many you can unlock additional ones, it's usually some very small amount (3-4). If you're playing an emulated game in mame or on a supergun or whatever you like, just punch in 4 credits and Don't let yourself feed anymore until you've completely game over'd.

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:32 am

I do restart in Trizeal when I miss one of the little ships in the first attack wave after the clouds have dissolved or when I don't manage to clear the break out scene (which both would make getting the 100% in that stage impossible). I also restart when I die anywhere earlier than stage 4.

I used to restart in Ikaruga as soon as I messed up my chain. Because of that habit I stopped playing Iky eventually.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:37 am

On my cabs I cannot restart without waiting 2 mins for the rest of the lives to die. So I just resume as normal. However, I don't play for chaining just survival so that helps.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:26 pm

I used to do that in the past.

I stopped doing it some time ago, and I begun to play better, and having more fun with my games .

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 4:42 pm

WEll some games, you die and you might as well restart (laugh) but if the game allows for re covery, it's generally a better idea to play on.

UnscathedFlyingObject · Mon Jul 11, 2005 5:08 pm

I can't deal with dying on the first level of Gradius Gaiden, so I start over and call it "warm up." No guilt involved.

Edit: It doesn't happen to me on the other levels, though, even in second loop difficulty. I've pulled "miraculous" recoveries in the later levels without weapon edit.

chtimi-CLA · Post by **chtimi-CLA** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:44 pm

i should take my own advice and do it less, but i can't help if i die in stage 1.
and i was raised in the arcades.
i find that DOJ is the worst in that regard, eg. when i break my chain before the second half i always reset. it's not surprising since i can't think of another game that punishes you so pitylessly for a 10 milliseconds mistake.

Skyline · Post by **Skyline** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 9:09 pm

For games like GigaWing, screwing up on the first stage absolutely RAPES your score. So even at the arcade, I suicide my remaining lives and start over if I die on the first stage,

kidneythief · Post by **kidneythief** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 9:49 pm

that's what the arcade operators like

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:19 pm

Yeah, I do this... and I don't know why. It just adds to the frustration.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 12:58 am

A few months ago when my Batsugun playing was really feverish, I refused to go any further if I missed the 60,000 point bonus on stage 2 (when you shoot the enemy ship before it leaves the runway) Or if I died when fighting Madzella. Getting killed by scrub tank fire at the beginning of stage 3 made me really angry too. I always tried my best to get to stage 4 on one credit which eventually helped me 1CC the game.

freddiebamboo · Post by **freddiebamboo** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 1:24 am

The first level of esprade is an absolute minefield of ridiculous deaths for me

I always restart if I mess up at the start. On the rare occasion I keep going it just feels hollow and pointless

Zayon · Post by **Zayon** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 2:14 am

freddiebamboo wrote:The first level of esprade is an absolute minefield of ridiculous deaths for me

I always restart if I mess up at the start. On the rare occasion I keep going it just feels hollow and pointless

I hear you. However for some reason, when I mess up early and decide to continue I sort of tend to do pretty well. Like today, I died twice on stage 1 which of course made me mad, but I kept on going.

In the middle of stage 3 I got the extra life for 4mil and on stage 4 I picked up that life as well. I ended up getting from the middle of stage 1 to the last part of the stage 4 boss with that third life. For some that might not be so special, but for me it's one hell of an achivement.

Oh, and when I lost my last life in the middle of stage 5 I got myself a new personal best at 6,5mil. I've only been to that stage about 4 or 5 times so I haven't gotten alot of training there yet. If only I hadn't messed up in the beginning...

DeBurgo · Post by **DeBurgo** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 6:43 am

I used to do this a lot, but I eased up on it since found that doing it too much actually breaks my focus and concentration, and turns the first level into a counter-productive timesink when I'm just trying to 1cc a shooter. Mostly because it seems that as soon I think I got one part of the level set aside, I keep seeing more scoring oppurtunities and I can't stop myself

, and partially because it just gets plain repetitive.

With a few exceptions, the first level is usually going to be the level you play the most, so even if you mess up on it it's not like you aren't going to get enough practice on the level.

If you're going for a high score, though, I don't think this is necissarily a bad practice, since you probably have that part of the run all planned out and want to execute it perfectly.

SAM · Post by **SAM** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:45 am

I do that quite frequent when I play Strategy (SLG) game... like Fire Emblem... Call me a cheater if you like. But strangely I rarely restart in shmups. But may be that is due to the fact that I cannot 1cc any game yet.

On the other hand, I play pratice mode a lots. I guess there is no point restarting if you mess up badly in the beginning. But that really help me in getting pass the later stages. I can now reach as far as the last boss in ESP galuda. I guess I can 1cc it within this year.

I think I might restart more when I start to play for scores.

I would consider restarting if I mess up in the beginning when
(1) the game which does not got pratice mode,
(2) a game least quite a while (Gradius series)
(3) I can reach the later stages

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Recently I have been playing a lots MushiHime Sama in the Acrade. What am I doing? I can play it comfortable at home within a week. Why am I keep pouring my quarters into the meachine? I cannot help myself. HELP!!!

SFKhoa · Post by **SFKhoa** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 1:36 pm

Skyline wrote:For games like GigaWing, screwing up on the first stage absolutely RAPES your score. So even at the arcade, I suicide my remaining lives and start over if I die on the first stage,

Holy crap, I do the exact same thing when I KNOW I've screwed up and missed a bonus or two on Giga Wing 2.

But in general terms, I ALWAYS have this habit whenever I'm playing shmups. Always. But that's only in terms of scoring, and in the case that you can CONSISTENTLY "ace" the first sets of levels like no problem.

Leviathean · Post by **Leviathean** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:33 pm

For moments like early deaths, I like to remember the sage advice of Clover-TAC:

ARCADIA: What do you pay attention to when aiming for a high score?

TAC: Basically trying not to play any "throwaway games" and trying as hard as I can not to play the same way twice.

ARCADIA: Why is that?

TAC: Even if you lose a life in the middle of the game, you can still continue playing and practice the patterns. You also get the chance to try out some new patterns. Every play you hope to obtain some kind of harvest, but in order to do this I think you have to consider a miss as just a miss and not end the game. Well, that gets harder to do the more you play, but...

ARCADIA: You're saying it doesn't look very skillful to just stop playing like that?

TAC: Yes, I also had a mistaken period like that. (Laughs) Even now, when the deadline was approaching, I had no other choice but to keep restarting if I made a mistake... Even though you should keep restarting when trying to get a good score, I still think that a lot of people don't notice that they are taking the long way round when you look at the results.

Even though TAC is refering specifically to ESPGaluda, I feel that the underlying message rings true, that continuing on from a miss and playing through/practicing the later levels with the chance for experimentation will yield results faster than restarting from scratch as soon as you make a mistake. At least, that is what I believe.

Post by **Icarus** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:41 pm

Yeah, I have the bad habit of restarting a credit if I botch the run early. I'm trying to break the habit, but it's a very difficult habit to break. Especially when I get frustrated from making elementary mistakes, and restart without thinking.

ArrogantBastard · Post by **ArrogantBastard** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 1:25 am

I'm guilty of this when it comes to playing Ikaruga. Fucking up my 60-80 chains on something absurdly stupid and simple section? You bet. Pause, quit the game, and start a new one.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 2:33 am

I think often restarting/suiciding from early deaths, and bomb pride are the biggest my biggest stumbling blocks to 1CCing. Tough habbits to break indeed.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 4:10 am

If I butcher the first stage in Ketsui (i.e. lose one or more lives), I'll go devil-may-care with the rest of the credit and start trying to milk the boss. If you lose a life, you're gonna pay for it when the stage results screen comes up because of your multiplier and reserve lives being factors in the EOL bonus.

[quote=Clover-TAC]
I think you have to consider a miss as just a miss and not end the game. Well, that gets harder to do the more you play, but... [/quote]

So true. Yet sometimes it's hard to resist hitting the reset button or suiciding all remaining ships if I really screw up.