XOP Black Ultra

[Plasmo]

You can download this great game here:

http://rydia.net/udder/prog/xopblack/index.html


Post score following this form:

Name - Score - Stage - Course (Arcade/EX)

Please specify mode and difficulty aswell!


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ARCADE

ORIGINAL

Medium

1. Plasmo - 235,222,735 - ALL - Replay
2. Battletoad - 215,202,674 - ALL - Replay
3. tinotormed - 125,441,167 - ALL - Replay
4. thySEus - 115,095,558 - ALL
5. Pteriforever - 104,111,143 - ALL
6. Kaiser - 97,266,681 - ALL
7. KitesAreFun - 72,394,493 - ALL

Advanced

1. KitesAreFun - 30,776,748 - Stage 3

Expert

Master

1. Sasupoika - 80,202,170 - Stage 3

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MANIAC

Medium

1. Plasmo - 100,784,327 - Stage 5
2. tinotormed - 70,880,916 - ALL - Replay

Advanced

Expert

Master

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MASSACRE

Medium

1. Plasmo - 171,207,499 - ALL - Replay
2. tinotormed - 139,045,431 - ALL - Replay
3. Battletoad - 130,015,214 - ALL

Advanced

1. Battletoad - 134,878,979 - Stage 5
2. KitesAreFun - 71,026,334 - Stage 3

Expert

Master

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CANCEL

Medium

1. tinotormed - 114,467,746 - ALL - Replay

Advanced

Expert

Master

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RANK

Medium

1. Plasmo - 559,661,419 - ALL
2. tinotormed - 400,823,571 - ALL - Replay
3. TheSoundofRed - 332,215,958 - Stage 5

Advanced

Expert

Master

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DOOM

Medium

1. Plasmo - 141,742,887 - ALL
2. Aru-san - 132,499,893 - ALL
3. tinotormed - 122,463,573 - ALL - Replay
4. damakable - 101,665,967 - ALL
5. TheSoundofRed - 100,045,238 - Stage 5
6. Moniker - 77,133,933 - Stage 5

Advanced

Expert

Master

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EX COURSE

ORIGINAL

Medium

1. udd - 176,615,723 - ALL - Replay

Advanced

Expert

Master

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MANIAC

Medium

Advanced

Expert

Master

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MASSACRE

Medium

1. Battletoad - 124,428,558 - ALL

Advanced

Expert

Master

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CANCEL

Medium

Advanced

Expert

Master

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RANK

Medium

Advanced

Expert

Master

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DOOM

Medium

Advanced

Expert

Master

GET IT ON!

[Kaiser]

It's been months since I tried to compete and post a score. I'll go first.

Normal Course - Original Mode - Medium Dfficulty
Kaiser - ALL - 97,266,681

100 mil+ is definitely possible, I need to FIND the secret wrap on stage 4 and try some more pointblanking.

[Battletoad]

Assuming there were scores inserted everywhere, this could be the sickest high score board on this forum. xD
Can't wait to play it, hopefully I'll be able to start until next weekend at least. XOP Ultra will have to wait, I think.

[Sasupoika]

Normal Course - Original Mode - Master
Sasupoika - Stage 3 boss - 80,202,170

Second proper run. Managed to waste 4 bombs by dying.
Man, patterns are so new and everything is so new. I have to learn everything again.
This will take some time to 1cc. :V

yo Plasmo let's fight again

[tinotormed]

100 mil+ is definitely possible, I need to FIND the secret wrap on stage 4 and try some more pointblanking.

It's very simple. You just have to remember every route you have learned from XOP Black (the original release) and you'll really get there!

[Plasmo]

Nope, you can't remember anything from the original XOP Black because this here is a whole new game. Only very few enemy formations stayed the same.

[Plasmo]

Normal Course - Original Mode - Normal
Plasmo - 105,911,658 - Stage 3

50mill on stage 1. It went downhill from there.


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Normal Course - Massacre Mode - Normal
Plasmo - 120,847,646 - ALL

Including the obligatory dumb death.

[Plasmo]

Normal Course - Original Mode - Normal
Plasmo - 146,318,999 - Stage 4

I have the bsic strats for stages 1 and 2 now. Had 110mill after stage 2. 200mill is easily possible, maybe a lot more.

[Plasmo]

Normal Course - Doom Mode - Normal
Plasmo - 141,742,887 - ALL

[thyseus]

My very first 1cc of this beautiful game.

did not concentrate on score too much on stage >2 though, there is much to improve, since ~70.xxx.xxx.xxx was my score at end of stage2!


thySEus - 115,095,558 - ALL
Standard course - Normal Skill

p.s. it "should" be a No Miss run - my only death was because of my up-key did not release properly. Not sure if it was hardware or software fault since i run under Linux with wine.

Oh and he did not ask me to save the replay after the run!?!

[Battletoad]

First couple credits:

Arcade Course - Original Mode - Medium Skill
Battletoad - 108,756,284 - ALL

I think I had 3 deaths in the first 2 stages. Blame it on getting used to the new keyboard and some very bad reactions. But hey this is really a whole new game, I wasn't expecting so many new enemies, formations and patterns. Somehow still made it to the end on my last life.

[Battletoad]

Cool, a temporary first place!

Arcade Course - Original Mode - Medium Skill
Battletoad - 148,349,201 - ALL

No miss no bomb and 72 million in the first two stages, then three misses (and no bomb ) in stage 3. So I had just over 100 million entering the final stage, but with a little luck I got a good run there.

[Tigershark]

"saved" my score except I didn't for some reason. Bah. 49,999, and something. Level 4. Bugger.

[Battletoad]

Arcade Course - Original Mode - Medium Skill
Battletoad - 164,316,720 - ALL

One bomb in stage 4 and one death in early stage 5. Decent point blanking in first 2 stages, half-assed through the later ones. Also half-assed bullet scratching with lots of potential. Yet that's it for now, I'll try some of the other modes, difficulties etc. I would have posted a replay, but the game didn't ask me to save it. :/

I think my impression of the bosses now being harder was wrong. They have more patterns, but they seem easier than before, I rarely bombed or died at them. The stages got a lot harder though, there's tons of bullets now even on medium difficulty and your ship almost seems to be underpowered.

[Battletoad]

Arcade Course - Massacre Mode - Medium Skill
Battletoad - 121,753,883 - ALL

Good play in the first 4 stages, then a few dumb deaths...

Arcade Course - Massacre Mode - Advanced Skill
Battletoad - 134,878,979 - Stage 5

EX Course - Massacre Mode - Medium Skill
Battletoad - 124,428,558 - ALL

Massacre seems to be my favourite mode. Cancel is nice, too, but the suicide bullets are somewhat annoying when there are certain enemies that just don't want to shoot out bullets (on lower skills at least). Or you accidentally shoot some enemies too early which is not really avoidable.

[Udderdude]

I think my impression of the bosses now being harder was wrong. They have more patterns, but they seem easier than before, I rarely bombed or died at them. The stages got a lot harder though, there's tons of bullets now even on medium difficulty and your ship almost seems to be underpowered.

Keep in mind that to score well on the bosses, you have to be shooting them point blank the entire fight. So they're harder in that respect.

[Battletoad]

Oh I didn't know about that. New score with boss point blanking, stupid death on stage 2 midboss included:

Arcade Course - Original Mode - Medium Skill
Battletoad - 183,233,361 - ALL

[Moniker]

Arcade - Doom - Medium

Moniker - 77,133,933 - 5


Not a fan of scraping, but Doom mode seems to scratch my itch pretty well. Kinda like Crimzon Clover lite.

[Plasmo]

Alright, let's destroy this game!

Here's a first demo showing the more or less perferct route for stage 1 netting 51,2mill points:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DMKQ70RH

My current theoretical max for this game is around 250mill, so I guess 200mill is a good goal to aim at.

[Plasmo]

Arcade Course - Original Mode - Medium Skill
Plasmo - 235,222,735 - ALL - Replay

Two miss (both dumb as fuck) but still managed to get a respectable score. The deaths actually weren't that bad for scoring, I don't think I would've reached much more than 240mill with this credit, even if it were a no miss.

Back to you Mr. Battletoad.

[Battletoad]

Damn that's heavy. Must watch that replay.

[Plasmo]

Arcade Course - Massacre Mode - Medium Skill
Plasmo - 134,256,158 - ALL

Finished the game with no lives left, just a test run.
Massacre mode is interesting to score in, eventhough there's close to no room for improvement and it's easily maxed out. Let's see where the maximum is in this mode.


EDIT:

Arcade Course - Massacre Mode - Medium Skill
Plasmo - 151,863,663 - ALL

A bit better but still had at least one death in a crucial scoring spot. If I get the no miss, I'll release the replay.

[Plasmo]

Arcade Course - Massacre Mode - Medium Skill
Plasmo - 171,207,499 - ALL - Replay

No miss, no bomb and good scoring throughout all stages. Not much can be improved here, pretty much the perfect credit. I'm very satisfied with how it turned out and won't play this mode again.

Scoring is very tight in massacre mode. You often have to tap the shot key in a certain beat to get a shot that's not too powerful and keep bigger enemies alive. Kinda reminds me of Mushihimesama scoring. The most important bits are before and after midbosses/bosses. You can lose lots of points here if you don't get the transition well.
The only place where I had problems and lost points is the transition to the stage 4 boss. I'm sure there is a better way to deal with the last enemy and keep him on screen longer. Nevertheless, I don't think anbyone goes through the hassle of beating my score, so I don't give a damn anyway. Hope you enjoy the replay.

So what's next? A different mode, a higher difficulty? Who knows!

[Battletoad]

Just played it and thought I got closer to your score.
Congrats!

Arcade Course - Massacre Mode - Medium Skill
Battletoad - 130,015,214 - ALL

I did mostly well, just without any tap-shot techniques and that's probably where most of the difference comes from. One death in stage 4, but this is the most unimportant one for score anyway. I'll have a look at your replay to get a better idea how to score. Don't think I can beat it though.

Plasmo, try Cancel mode and tell me if you also find the suicide bullets a bit annoying and unpredictable. (Stage 2 popcorn enemies will shoot suicide bullets on medium difficulty anyway since they don't shoot normal bullets at all.) I loved this mode in old XOP Black because of its simple, intuitive nature, now there seems to be much more planning involved. Doesn't have to be bad, don't know.

I'll much rather try to exploit Original, Massacre, Doom and Rank for now.

[Plasmo]

I did mostly well, just without any tap-shot techniques and that's probably where most of the difference comes from. One death in stage 4, but this is the most unimportant one for score anyway. I'll have a look at your replay to get a better idea how to score. Don't think I can beat it though.

You really need to watch the replay to get an idea of how most of the tap shooting works. There are some bits that get very interesting. The second half of stage 4 is probably the most difficult part of the whole game if you want to keep a high multiplier. I did semi-well in the replay.
IMO the tapping adds a whole different dimension to this mode and makes it more rewarding as if you would just plainly destroy everything. It takes some time to get used to, but it's really fun.

I'll check out Cancel next.

[Plasmo]

Arcade Course - Rank Mode - Medium Skill
Plasmo - 559,661,419 - ALL

Had a go at Rank mode. Very interesting mode, requires lots of planning though. This is just a preliminary score.

Oh yeah and Cancel is kinda broken or at least no fun at all...

[tinotormed]

Mind if I tag along? I'll be posting scores tomorrow.

[Plasmo]

New challenger approaching!

Have fun joining this very small group of XOP Black Ultra enthusiasts. In this topic we all like each other and have some friendly competition. You will stumble upon the nicest people you've ever met. This is the outpost of the highscore forum. Can't wait to up your scores!

[Battletoad]

Yes come on in. I still don't have as much time as I'd wish and won't shoot out the scores so fast, so you might not even have to catch up too much.

More people need to play this anyway. And for score, too.

[Plasmo]

Arcade Course - Maniac Mode - Medium Skill
Plasmo - 88,273,324 - Stage 5

One of the more diffcult modes even on Medium diff. Died stupidly on the TLB. At least it's a first score.