Bombing attitudes

[burgerkingdiamond]

I'm wondering what people's attitudes are on bombing. I find myself dying with bombs in stock all the time. And I know that ideally you should never die while you have any bombs in stock (speaking about most danmaku games, in Raiden a bomb will not nescesarily save your ass). But on the other hand, I am always stingy with my bombs, and I know that my runs suffer from it. I guess my attitude is that IF your good enough you shouldn't need to bomb. Also, I'm afraid of crossing the line into bombing every time I'm intimidated, but I think I overcompensate and be too stingy. The thing about CAVE games that I really like is that every time I die I blame myself, not the game. There is always a way out IF you're good enough.

Anyway, what do you think? What is your bombing strategy?

[nZero]

Not actually strategy related, so moved to Shmups Chat. There's probably another thread on this somewhere but I can't seem to find it right now.

[RNGmaster]

The one thing worse than dying is chain-dying. Especially in Cave games where death replenishes bomb stock. So if you die with no bombs (and you really ought to be bombing whenever things look dangerous, at least to start out) and respawn in another perilous situation, don't hesitate to bomb again. Better than the alternative.

This very situation has probably killed me a cumulative 20 times in DDP alone.

[hashiriya1]

They sure as hell aren't there to decorate your ship, use em up!

[legztec]

Really depends on the game. some games you get punished in score and some reward them.
Most games I forget to bomb except for dodonpachi and Ibara because its rewarding in those games.

[Demetori]

I bomb in ESP Ra.De almost on instinct, pixels before a bomb hits me. Usually do it when I get forced to one of the bottom corners as I find if i'm there unintentionally it's because I messed up really bad. Therefore a bomb is in order...

[Edwards80]

I really need to start using them more. I got through to stage 7 of GUNHED/Blazing Lazers last night without using a bomb or a losing a life - then ran out of my limited talent and died. I forget they are even there sometimes :S

[pooch]

I am absolutely terrible at bombing. I think it stems from an unreasonable expectation along the lines of "I've done this level before without bombing, so why should I bomb now?" When that applies to nearly every level, the logical consequence is never to bomb.

Furthermore, in games like Mushi Futari, where you are given full bombs after dying and thus should be using them more often, my stubbornness still prevents me. Here the rationale is "Well I'm already doing worse than I should be, having just died, so I'm not going to make it even worse by using my bombs as well."

[neorichieb1971]

If you die with bombs in stock its because your testing your confidence. Which I must admit often fails me. I think "yeah yeah, come to me baby" and 2 seconds later i'm trapped and dead with 3 bombs in stock.

Sometimes I find myself dying quite often in the same place, so I use a bomb to suppress the threat at that point everytime.

Bosses are quite often my weakness, especially levels 4 onwards. I will bomb the fuck out of it just to see level 5 in certain games. Sometimes fatigue on the eyes causes me to die by level 4 or 5 if i'm on my 3rd or 4th play.

[burgerkingdiamond]

Yeah pooch, that pretty much sums up my attitude when I play. It's pretty counter productive though. I need to work on it.

[ShmupSamurai]

I am absolutely terrible at bombing. I think it stems from an unreasonable expectation along the lines of "I've done this level before without bombing, so why should I bomb now?" When that applies to nearly every level, the logical consequence is never to bomb.

I have that same problem on the first levels of Donpachi and Zen Ichi, which gets mekilled more often than not.

[Aliquantic]

Haha, there seems to be a lot of us "I'm too good for bombing" types in here... I also have that feeling bombs are somehow cheap Which leads to moments like dying three times with full bomb stock in less than 30 seconds on Mushihimesama Original...

Planning bombs beforehand helps a lot with that, though (not to the same extend as BER, but something like "I probably want to bomb on the last phase of that boss here")... or playing DOJ and DFK with their bomb-challenged types

[njiska]

Count me as another guy who forgets they're there. This isn't generally a big deal with the Cave games I'm playing right now as I generally try to dodge rather than bomb, but it's a major issue when playing games like Raiden Fighters where not only is the bomb an important part of play for defense, it's also needed for some of the bonuses. Took me a good 4 days in the STGT before I was able to bomb correctly.

Haha, there seems to be a lot of us "I'm too good for bombing" types in here... I also have that feeling bombs are somehow cheap Which leads to moments like dying three times with full bomb stock in less than 30 seconds on Mushihimesama Original...

That's been happening to me lately with Futari. I only seem to remember that they're there when I'm on my last credit and close to a new high score.

[Aquas]

Go play Flying Shark, 'll teach ya to bomb. Hell, the game fills your bomb stock back up at the end of each stage. It really is a nice feature for an old school survival shmup... THAT EVERYONE SHOULD PLAY! (Obligatory play Flying Shark post)

Yeah, I'm definitely too good for bombing when it comes to Futari's Original mode. SIGN ME UP! D: I-I'm saving them for the last boss. :/

[Thjodbjorn]

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one with this problem. It seems super stupid, because in fighting games, I CONSTANTLY waste supers.

[cools]

Play Raizing games.

[LtC]

Play Raizing games.

He asked about bombing, not suiciding methods

[burgerkingdiamond]

I have played Raizing games, Battle Garegga, Batrider, Bakraid. I like them alot, but for whatever reason they don't capture my attention like CAVE games. One thing in particular I don't like is the suicide bombing and the rank control methods that it takes to score well. It's just way too much to think about while I'm trying to play. I like bakraid the most of those, because I can just play for survival and get pretty far on one credit.

[Dave_K.]

1. Play more non-Cave based games which don't reward you in score for bomb hording.
2. Play initially for the 1CC and not score, and you'll value your bombs more.

[Marurun]

It really depends on the game. If I'm playing Progear you have bombs, but using them means you're too stupid to avoid a bullet pattern and if you use more than two(I believe it's two) before beating the game once you can't get the second loop mode where using bombs makes more sense.

If I'm playing a Raizing game though, such as Battle Backraid, Police Batrider, or Battle Garegga I use bombs every chance I get since they're used for revealing badges and you acquire more bombing supplies from enemies - I guess it's more like a puzzle game to me in that respect.

[cools]

Play Raizing games.

He asked about bombing, not suiciding methods

Real men play Raizing for survival.

[Ganelon]

Beginner: bomb
Stage practice: no bomb
1CCer: bomb
High scorer: depends on game (no bombs, select bombing, or bomb milking)

[gamingjustin]

If they're the standard screen-clearing kind, I generally view bombs as carefully timed extra lives.

[xris]

I've been a little sloppy about using bombs lately.. Absolutely needed for survival play. I really try to use bombs defensively, but try to avoid panic bombing. It's best that if you see it coming to just up and use a bomb to save your ass. Would've, could've, should've..
I'll use bombs against trouble bosses without hesitation. Got bombs on a final boss? Blast away! Yeah, sure some of you are holding on to them for clear bonuses, but sometimes you just gotta do it.
I would absolutely agree that one of the best uses for bombs is to get yourself back into play once you have died later on in the game. A surprise death can shake your playing sometimes, it's well worth it to blast off a quick bomb if you don't feel like you have gotten back into the groove just yet. This alone really, really helped even out some of my survival play. It is an absolute strategy for me when working on a 1CC.
Sometimes it's worth it to use a bomb to clear the screen so you can get to that item grab that is floating out of reach, tempting your fate. That shiny power up can be a little too distracting some times, forcing you to play sloppy just to get to it.

[burgerkingdiamond]

I think I need to decide on what I'm trying to do in a run. Score or 1CC, because right now I'm trying to do both at the same time. I recently got 3/4 of the way through LV 5 on Futari, with about 175 mil points. I bet that if I hadn't been concerned with score so much, and had used bombs more I could have got the 1CC. One thing that get's me is that in order to 1CC you need to score well somewhat, because of the extends... I think I'm just gonna play Futari for score until 100 mil and then just concentrate on the 1CC.

[xris]

Yes, reaching point based extends is completely vital to clearing most games.

[captpain]

I bomb whenever I need to or even think I need to regardless of impact on score. I'd rather keep a ship.

[Nick420]

I am absolutely terrible at bombing. I think it stems from an unreasonable expectation along the lines of "I've done this level before without bombing, so why should I bomb now?" When that applies to nearly every level, the logical consequence is never to bomb.

Furthermore, in games like Mushi Futari, where you are given full bombs after dying and thus should be using them more often, my stubbornness still prevents me. Here the rationale is "Well I'm already doing worse than I should be, having just died, so I'm not going to make it even worse by using my bombs as well."

Exact same as this 4 me^^^ Well said pooch

[njiska]

Beginner: bomb
Stage practice: no bomb
1CCer: bomb
High scorer: depends on game (no bombs, select bombing, or bomb milking)

Sums things up quite nicely.

[Taylor]

I have two bomb points in Progear: The stage 5 midboss and the last pattern of the first phase of the final boss (the oval of doom). Anymore bombs than these and I won’t access the loop so I restrict myself, but because everywhere else is a no bomb zone I will not bomb even if I’m trapped and going to die. This actually makes no sense, because if I’m going to die then it would be better to just try and dodge these hard patterns where I might not.