STGT 2011 Conclusion thread

[Aquas]

Hey all. Well t'was another successful STGT and on behalf of the forum I'd like to thank dex for running it and diligently updating the score boards and any others who were involved behind the scenes.

I may not have tried my hardest this year, well, shit, I never do. However, there is always at least one game that I do try hard on and consequentially rather enjoy during every STGT. This year that game was Daioh for me. Last year was Xexex. If anything I'm glad I can appreciate at least one new game in a special way.

I thought I would like Gokujou Parodious more being a big Gradius fan but Parodious games just aren't the same type of game play that I love in Gradius games. I think it has something to do with the silly powers and how hectic the game gets during some of the stages that irks me. Perhaps I'd like the game more outside of a competitive setting.

Guess that's all I have to say. Looking forward to next years STGT, untill then, more shmuppin'! Personally I might get back into Ketsui or Raiden III or TwinBee.

Any lingering thoughts or discussion about the tournament can go here. It was cool to see a tie between the top 2 teams.

[Deca]

Thanks Dex! I really appreciate the effort you put into this for all of us. I enjoyed myself, I think this is a really good way to get introduced to new games/developers/etc that you might otherwise not play. I'm definitely looking forward to checking out some of NMKs other games. Blade Buster was quite the pleasant surprise, as I'd really been wanting to get some active caravan competition for some time

39th overall in the individual rankings doesn't seem to bad for my first year competing. I'm a little disappointed because I know that especially on the last two games I could have bumped my score up if I'd just devoted more time to it, but no point feeling bad about that now!

[Iori Branford]

Had lots of fun, glad to have a majority of the games conveniently playable on PSP, though the wobbly subway didn't help much.

Regret not participating in past years when the real greats were played. Might go back to Blade Buster but all that's left to do there is hair-splitting optimization, whereas I'm more of a crazy techniques and clever secrets person.

Of course with the recent CAVE releases in the west along with PGM emulation, I can't wait to challenge those with everyone in the coming years.

[tinotormed]

People, since I entered this forum last year, I am the first Filipino in this forum to enter this tournament for my people! And it was a lot of fun being with Team Oldschoolers as my first team to join with.

And should you know... I can also possibly create suprise posts, while following the appropriate rules.

Thanks to dex, our very own captain 'The Coop', and to all you guys in the 'Shmup Universe' for bringing me the first time into this tournament! Tnk u so much! Sadly, our country is already struck with heavy winds, landslides, and a heavy storm known as 'Mina', compared to the Americans who got hurricanes (currently 'Irene' struck their country), so I bring their sympathy to those who live in the country that was struck by that ravaging event. This even goes to our man The Coop who lives at his own home.

Anyways, gotta go back to my scheme of near-domination for decent scores!

See ya all.

[Plasmo]

Hey Deca, I'm 39th, too!

That are two ties for me, individual and team ranking. Best STGT ever.

[Tigershark]

Yes, thanks for organising it once again.

This is the third year running I've done this and by far the worst experience of the three. I think the main reason was that I just did not get into it as much because I missed the first two weeks due to holiday. I know there are a lot of people who liked the fact it was played earlier this year but I am not one of them. Kids, holidays and STGT's do not mix! I also didn't think much of the games this year compared to the previous years. That showed in my scores. I am at best an average player (I know) but the games I did play this year were a struggle to get into - more so than in previous years.

Until next year!

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I only managed to take part in 2 of the 5 games this year because of flu my attention been on other things. However I really enjoyed playing Daiho & 1944, they were titles I would have never bothered picking up due to been outside my comfort zone but were enjoyable once I got into them.

Thank you Dex for running the show, Hopefully I can be more involved next year

[Treasurance]

fucking sucked and made me quit shmups

well sorta

[MX7]

Every game was amazing, except for 1944 with was pretty average, and Blade Buster, which was shit. But then I hate pretty much every caravan mode apart from Pink Sweets and Dangun.

I really appreciated spending some time with Daioh, which I always suspected was awesome, but never had the inclination to really buckle down and learn it. Ditto with Parodius, of which I had played a bit of Da! on the Snes, but honestly didn't know it had a scoring system

p45 Aces or whatever it was called was just amazing, but far too hard for me to convincingly play. Beating stage 4 was MUCH harder than getting to 2.3 on Daioh, for example

Altogether, it was an awesome tournament. Can't wait for next year. Well done to everyone in both Casino teams! I think we did pretty well!

[Battletoad]

I didn't enjoy this year's tourney and the games as much as last year. Less time, less games I like, less competitive scores, but it was fun either way. Only game I really adored was Daioh which ended up in my top 25 list. Blade Buster was great fun, too, except for the fact that I sucked. Parodius and P-47 Aces were kind of ok/good, but with annoying flaws and 1944, well... Soon all of my week's conclusions and thoughts should also be up on my blog (week 3 and 4 hopefully to be added today). Too busy with work and actually playing the games so far.

My efforts were average I guess. Very good score in Daioh, rather bad in Parodius and Blade Buster and ok in 1944 and P-47 Aces. Still 21st place in final ranking somehow (15th in 2010). At least now I'm not as burnt out as last year, so I'll probably head directly into the next challenges. Be it ESPGaluda, Mushihimesama, Dragon Blaze, XOP Black Ultra, Rendering Ranger, Axelay (in original 60 Hz speed this time) or the 2-ALL in Zero Gunner 2, I absolutely do not know.

A huge thanks goes to dex, my team and everyone else who was involved. It was still fun this year, I just hope 2012's game choices will match my taste better.

[dpful]

Thanks for the comp!!!! I loved the games and loved my team.

So lucky for the PSP action as I was out of town for 2 of the weeks.

[Plasmo]

At least now I'm not as burnt out as last year, so I'll probably head directly into the next challenges. Be it ESPGaluda, Mushihimesama, Dragon Blaze, XOP Black Ultra, Rendering Ranger, Axelay (in original 60 Hz speed this time) or the 2-ALL in Zero Gunner 2, I absolutely do not know.

Same for me. I feel full of energy and ready for the next big thing. Let's meet at XOP Black Ultra, shall we?

Eventhough 2-ALLing Zero Gunner 2 would be a milestone... I couldn't encourage you more to try, but this won't be my game.

[DMC]

Thanks, Dex and all others involved!
Many good players this year! I would like more players to put up their replays at the end of the week though.

Our team missed Javel this year, but it was fun nonetheless. Personally, I appreciated playing the last three weeks, especially 1944 which was in my taste.

Some suggestions for next year:

Keep team names in the score-submission-formula so it is easier to see which player belongs to which team. If it wasn't for all the sig's, the hi score threads would be more like 100 anonymous scores you don't care about. I for one, like to see how the different teams are doing during the weeks, especially those close to mine. That is much easier to see with team names included, or if the scoreboard is updated more.

Bring back public voting (voting campaign 2012, who's with me?!). More drama, more trolling, more strategy, more representative games. I consider all of them pros. I think it makes the whole thing more personal and interacting than just the very short and concise hi score posts. Of course we got these important discussion threads but I think voting threads adds another dimension.

More scoreboard updates. The more the scoreboard is updated, the more interesting it is to look at it, and the more you come back to the forum. I think the job could be distributed to one head who's doing the final update, and maybe one or two (mods?) who update in the weeks.

[Plasmo]

Good points DMC! I'm especially approving one (team names) and three (scoreboard updates).

[burgerkingdiamond]

was not a fan of game selection besides Parodius and Daioh, and therefore quit playing...

I'm glad that Daioh made it because I grew to really like it.

[Erppo]

Usual thanks to all the people involved go here.

First time taking part in this and I must say it was pretty fun. Last year I decided not to join, because I sucked so much back then and I was initially hesitant if I could be of any use this year either with so many awesome players in our team. I'm glad we ended up doing so well. Looking through the history of the tournament, this seems to have been the only year besides 2008, that had any real competition for the first place.

Game selection was mostly good, but I see some genuine flaws in Daioh and P-47 Aces. In Daioh, almost all the scoring is in the end game bonuses and those depend heavily on the special item drops that have completely randomized intervals. In P-47 Aces, to get a good score you need to do some heavy bug abuse to milk out points from the bosses, and executing that requires positioning your ship in the exact right pixel in a really short time window. Because the ship moves several pixels per frame and most of these spots have no room for diagonal correcting movements, this also requires either getting lucky, or working out elaborate movement plans to get your ship moving in the right "phase". No complaints of the other games, they worked really well for this.

I would like more players to put up their replays at the end of the week though.

As requested, here are my inputs for all the MAME games: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?1oh7r38duvh42db

[dex]

DMC: As for 1, I would say that number 1 wouldn't be that important if scoreboard updates happened more often, which I tried to keep at a steady pace but had several periods where it was impossible due to rl happenings. Next year, I will either write some autoupdate gizmo (not likely, since many people misspell the submissions), or give the access to update tools to multiple people and have a script update the thread at set periods (much more feasible).

Warming up to 2 a little, myself. I can see a vote between Ketsui/DOJ/Galuda being feasible for next year if I decide on that.

Already elaborated on 3.

Thanks to everyone who participated, hope you had your fun. And continue with the suggestions, they are bound to come in handy.

[Battletoad]

At least now I'm not as burnt out as last year, so I'll probably head directly into the next challenges. Be it ESPGaluda, Mushihimesama, Dragon Blaze, XOP Black Ultra, Rendering Ranger, Axelay (in original 60 Hz speed this time) or the 2-ALL in Zero Gunner 2, I absolutely do not know.

Same for me. I feel full of energy and ready for the next big thing. Let's meet at XOP Black Ultra, shall we?

Eventhough 2-ALLing Zero Gunner 2 would be a milestone... I couldn't encourage you more to try, but this won't be my game.

Alright, let's XOP!
Zero Gunner 2, let's say it will be a tremendous and long-lasting task with absolutely no guarantee of success. With all these unplayed or barely played shmups in the shelf, I think I'll at least play one Cave and some Xylophone of Pain before continuing with the awesomest shmup ever.

Some suggestions for next year:
team names
public voting
scoreboard updates

Yeah I also totally missed the team names to get an idea of how the respective opponent teams are doing.
Regarding public voting, I don't know and have never expierenced it... But doesn't that take out the excitement a bit since it sometimes might be obvious which game has been chosen? Nevertheless I'd at least like to have titles for each week back again, for some sense- and mindless guessing. If I have time for that anyway.

[Aguraki]

thx for STGT 2011.
I would have liked a week break after week 3.
Didn't like last 2 games for different reasons but overall good choices.
Also,leaving cause you don't like the game is screwing your team,it's just one week)

Looking forward next STGT already,this is a lot of fun.

[Herr Schatten]

Best STGT ever.

I agree. This was the most fun I ever had in an STGT. I was especially happy about the game selection. All games were sufficiently underplayed, so it felt like there was real fierce competition going on each week. In past years, when more popular games were played, it always felt like there were 5-10 guys showing off, and the rest just sort of trailing along.

I don't think I'd ever really tried Daioh, P-47 Aces, or 1944 if it wasn't for STGT11. Now, I'm really glad I've been introduced to them. I also don't think I'd ever have tried playing Gokujou Parodius for score. That was an awesome experience, too.

So, thanks to dex and all involved. And thanks to Team Oldschoolers. It's been a pleasure being part of the team.

[Tigershark]

I'm with the updating on the scores points already made.

One other suggestion: I had two players in "my Team" that did not submit a score in any of the 5 weeks. I'm pretty sure these 2 were put in my team as I did not have enough for the quorum and they had not been allied to any other teams. It would be good if it was possible to demote those players who were not playing and had not contacted the team captain to explain why and to include others who missed the registration but wanted to play in a team. Not sure how that would work in practice though.

[RNGmaster]

Nice competition. I'd like to see more focus on doujins next time around, though.

And fuck yeah FORKS.

[moozooh]

I'm rather sad I've been away pretty much the entire tournament, as the game selection seems especially interesting and unexpected this year. Oh well. Thankfully my team did well anyway. Congratulations to everybody, especially Touhou is Harder — you guys are the bomb!

fucking sucked and made me quit shmups

well sorta

Awesome! Needs finishing the job though.

[dinosaurjerk]

i liked weeks 1, 3, and 5, but hated weeks 2 and 4 enough that now i hate smhups in general

[Kyper]

My free agents team beat the other free agents team! Yay for minor victories!

For some reason I believe this to be the worst STGT for me. Maybe I shouldn't be playing games instead of studying for exams and then worrying about it later I guess. Or maybe it was the game selection...I didn't really put in so much time into P-47 Aces and 1944, although I got relatively decent results. According to MAME, I put in 25 hours for Parodius and scored HORRIBLY (hurr let's try special stage when you can't even get to it!). But I did 27 hours for Daioh and am somewhat satisfied with what I got, although I feel like I could've hit that 2-ALL. At least our team managed a strong finish with Blade Buster, good job guys.

Also my first time upping videos in order to help my team. Felt compelled to do so 'cause I'm pretty useless when it comes to discussing/figuring out scoring systems, but at least I can attempt to demo crappy tactics and stuff. I think my Daioh stage 3 boss vid helped someone, that's nice. Also thanks to the people openly discussing strats and tidbits and IRC!

[emphatic]

Last STGT for me. Next year, I'll just have a quick go of each game featured to see if it appeals to me. I really love P-47 Aces, but the humping kinda takes the stuff I liked about the game and butt-fucks it.

[spadgy]

[quote="MX7" Well done to everyone in both Casino teams! I think we did pretty well![/quote]

And, of course, there was that agreement between the two Casino teams that the one with the lesser overall score would carry the other team aloft down the road in central London on which Casino Arcade is based!

Seriously though, big thanks to dex and the team that picked the games. I fell for Daioh big time, and really enjoyed most of the games. It's great as ever to have my shmuppin' horizons broadened by STG!

[RNGmaster]

Sucked at all the STGT games, but oddly enough I find my skill has improved a lot coming back to my normal shmups.

[dunpeal2064]

I really need to get into the pcb collecting. I can't stand playing games on my computer, and 4 out of 5 of those were pcb/pc only, and the version of Gokujou I had wasn't allowed.

Either way, was nice to discover some new games, although I can't say I'd be buying any of these, even if I had a cab

[Plasmo]

Last STGT for me. Next year, I'll just have a quick go of each game featured to see if it appeals to me. I really love P-47 Aces, but the humping kinda takes the stuff I liked about the game and butt-fucks it.

Sell me your PCB!