Focus priority (Vertical/Danmaku)

[Demetori]

I want to know what people focus on and when to. I'm always caught by a stray bullet because I've been to focused on the enemies flak in front of me. And is it just down to repeating the stage over and over and finding the right priority for which enemy to kill first?

I've yet to clear this barrier and I'm too weak to submit any high scores because I'm simply faulting from these tiny things.

BASICALLY. What is a good focus priority for danmaku shmups?

[Ghegs]

Moving this to Shmups Chat, the Strategy section is mainly for game-specific material.

There are also few older threads that sort of talk about this.

[pooch]

I've started to experience some success with going into a state of de-focus, like some sort of face spastic.

[Sapz]

I find that (at least vaguely) planning a route through difficult stages or segments helps prevent this quite a lot since you'll generally be facing a similar sort of barrage and as such won't have much in the way of unexpected bullets. If you're dying repeatedly in the same section, practice it until you find a consistent way of doing it (savestates help a lot with this if you're playing something in MAME) and you should be able to progress past it soon enough.

[emphatic]

Point blanking larger enemies helps a lot if your goal is a clear. This is also somewhat helpful when scoring. Depends on the game. In most CAVE games, standing too close to the bottom of the screen is not only cowardly, but stupid as that's where the most of the enemy fire ends up.

[dan76]

If I'm playing for survival my eyes are usually focused about an inch or two in front of my ship. With Cave, because there are so many bullets I try and concentrate on the clear paths that the bullet patterns create rather than the bullets themselves. The goal then becomes moving into space rather than getting out of the way of bullets. On one level it's the same thing.... but it isn't... really.

Don't see the bullets - see the path! And stay on that damn path!

I usually play better if I manage to key in to this way of thinking. The basic priority is keeping the area in front of the ship clear - anything else is secondary. Also, depending on the game you're playing you should try and remember which enemies (if any) cancel bullets when destroyed.

Eventually when you start learning levels it will become more clear which enemies to take down first to stop the screen filling up with death. I've noticed this on Ketsui. When I play I'm barely staying on top of the situation, but with a good player the screen doesn't get the chance to fill up with bullets.

[Demetori]

If I'm playing for survival my eyes are usually focused about an inch or two in front of my ship. With Cave, because there are so many bullets I try and concentrate on the clear paths that the bullet patterns create rather than the bullets themselves. The goal then becomes moving into space rather than getting out of the way of bullets. On one level it's the same thing.... but it isn't... really.

Don't see the bullets - see the path! And stay on that damn path!

I usually play better if I manage to key in to this way of thinking. The basic priority is keeping the area in front of the ship clear - anything else is secondary. Also, depending on the game you're playing you should try and remember which enemies (if any) cancel bullets when destroyed.

Eventually when you start learning levels it will become more clear which enemies to take down first to stop the screen filling up with death. I've noticed this on Ketsui. When I play I'm barely staying on top of the situation, but with a good player the screen doesn't get the chance to fill up with bullets.

Well depending on the game as well, if it's something like Progear the more bullets the merrier for a good player.
But yeah, I see what you mean and will give it some practice.

Lately I've been alternating between the three characters in ESP Ra.De, that games been learning heaven for me. The different styles of the characters and the fact that they all start in different zones which you end up playing with every character anyway, bar the mildly increased difficulty. But that game was super fun and easy to learn because of that. For me anyway.

I played ESP Ra.De a few years ago and was terrible at it, could never finish the first level. But now that I've come back to shmups with a new mind set, it's been by far the best training game for me.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Genrally when i can ill move up the screen as much as i can safely, since it allows me to point black enemies to kill em quick before they can spam the screen with bullets, plus it reduces the area of screen i need to look at thus helping me to react faster.

Speaking of looking at various parts of the screen I have an annoying habit when playing DDP or mars matrix of staring at my chain counter to make sure i havnt broken it. Suffice to say i can die allot
(Im not doing it nowhere near as much as i did in the past but its a bigger problem for me then restartitus ever was)

[ebarrett]

I played ESP Ra.De a few years ago and was terrible at it, could never finish the first level.

1CC List

• ESP Ra.De. (Arcade, 2003)

*headscratch*

[esreveR]

I played ESP Ra.De a few years ago and was terrible at it, could never finish the first level.

1CC List

• ESP Ra.De. (Arcade, 2003)

*headscratch*

Did you know that people learn?

[mjclark]

Focus Priority would be an excellent name for a danmaku shmup,eh?