Ibara impressions (yay, it's finally out!)

Post by **Icarus** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 12:04 am

I'm guessing that the "how many scores you scored" thing is a typo, or just poor Englishification (hah). My guess is he means regular Medals collected, Rose Medals collected, or both.

I'm sort of leaning towards the Rose Medals as being tied to the rank system, something to balance the strength of the napalm/hadou bombs, maybe. It would certainly fit in with the "using bombs increases rank" thing that Garegga has. </speculation>

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 12:50 am

Yeah, I'm guessing he's referring to the medals... they raised your rank in Garegga too, so that wouldn't be surprising. I have no idea if the rose icons increase your rank or not - but my guess is yes.

The burner gun he mentions is the flamethrower - you can several burner options on level 2 (maybe 3? I forget), and while they're -really- powerful, you can practically see the number of bullets onscreen raising as you fire. They're almost worthless due to how much they drive your rank up.

Post by **Icarus** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:01 am

Cthulhu wrote:The burner gun he mentions is the flamethrower - you can several burner options on level 2 (maybe 3? I forget), and while they're -really- powerful, you can practically see the number of bullets onscreen raising as you fire. They're almost worthless due to how much they drive your rank up.

I'm also guessing that weapon selection is important to the game. In one of your previous posts, you stated that the Machine Gun option is near worthless after stage 2, but it's my view that the weaker weapons are important to both scoring and rank control. Think of it as the Option management and pointmilking techniques in Garegga

If getting Burner or Napalm drives the rank up, then it'll only be useful in some sections, while FiveWay and Machine Gun (and maybe Gatling) are better for more considered rank control. Plus, you get "tickle" points for damaging higher resilience enemies with your shots, so they could add more points. I'm not sure how much Rocket and Homing affect the rank though, but if the increase is minimal, then using these weapons might be recommended in all cases (stage and boss).

The one problem that this weapon strategy has is that both stages and bosses become tougher, due to the weakness of your attacks. Maybe smart napalm/hadou usage is key to balancing that.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:17 am

Icarus wrote: I'm also guessing that weapon selection is important to the game. In one of your previous posts, you stated that the Machine Gun option is near worthless after stage 2, but it's my view that the weaker weapons are important to both scoring and rank control. Think of it as the Option management and pointmilking techniques in Garegga

If getting Burner or Napalm drives the rank up, then it'll only be useful in some sections, while FiveWay and Machine Gun (and maybe Gatling) are better for more considered rank control.

...

The one problem that this weapon strategy has is that both stages and bosses become tougher, due to the weakness of your attacks. Maybe smart napalm/hadou usage is key to balancing that.

Yeah, I hereby rescind my comment about the machine guns. They're awesome. I love them. I love them because they don't blow my rank into the stratosphere.

You're right, you do need to know what weapons are available at what time, and when you should get them and replace them. Unfortunately, that just adds even more memorization to the game.

Post by **Icarus** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:23 am

Hey, I'm just speculating here

My thoughts could be totally wrong, since I have no way of testing out my theories. You're the one that gets to play it

In any case, try giving a bit of priority to FiveWay, Machine Gun, Rocket and Gatling, as from replay observation, they seem to be the best at dealing with stages - FiveWay and Rocket especially, wide shot and piercing missiles are a lethal combination in any game. If the theory about weaker weapons affecting rank is correct, then they should help a bit.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:29 am

Icarus wrote:Hey, I'm just speculating here My thoughts could be totally wrong, since I have no way of testing out my theories. You're the one that gets to play it

...

If the theory about weaker weapons affecting rank is correct, then they should help a bit.

I'm borrowing your Garegga know-how and trying to implement it myself. It's not working too well yet.

The weapons do have an effect on the rank (even the first boss changes drastically depending on what weapons you used in throughout the level), so that's not just a theory... how much each one affects it, however, I have no idea.

Post by **Icarus** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:49 am

Cthulhu wrote:I'm borrowing your Garegga know-how and trying to implement it myself. It's not working too well yet.

Garegga and Ibara might share characterisics, but they might require totally different playing methods, so take what I speculate with a pinch of salt

Here's a thought to take with you next time you go and have a shot at the game: weapon strength correlates to rate of rank increase.

My guess is that, from lowest to highest:

Machine Gun
Homing [weak, but rapid and seeking]
Five Way [higher in power due to five shots, great at point blank(?)]
Rocket [piercing]
Gatling [faster Machine Gun, think Juno in Einhander]
Burner [slower to fire, high powered]
Napalm [slow firing, explosive missile, high power, residual damage]

If you're going to go with weaker weapons, you might need to raise your Shot level up a bit to compensate. You seem to be able to get a lot of Machine Gun, Rocket and FiveWay in the game, so I don't think that waiting for these weapons to appear is going to be a problem.

Speculative thoughts based on replay observations:

Grab FiveWay and Rocket as soon as you can in stage 1, try to keep them.

Ignore both Burner powerups in stage 2 and the two dropped by the boss, but try for the Gatling in the stage. Grab at least one Napalm from the third form of the stage 2 boss to make stage 3 navigation easier (you can get them off the boxes at the back of the third form tank, destroy the flamers on the sides first before going to destroy the boxes).

Don't bother saving up for the hadou in stage 3, just use up bomb fragments as and when required. Keep at least one Napalm to give yourself weapon strength to pass the stage. Try to store one full bomb for the three tanks at the end - looks like it's very easy to get trapped by all the attacks.

You need a bit of weapon power for most of stage 4, especially when all the flying platforms appear before the boss, and the big group of mechs after the midboss. If you still have one Napalm, keep it. If not, use FiveWay and either Homing or Rocket.

Speaking of stage 4, Shasta has a nice milkable attack. Those missiles that explode into a starburst of sword bullets when destroyed give you 5,000pts each

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:36 pm

Cthulhu wrote:Yeah, I'm guessing he's referring to the medals... they raised your rank in Garegga too, so that wouldn't be surprising.

Do medals raise rank in that? The ST lists "collecting items" as one of the things that does, do medals count as "items," or does that term only refer to power-up stuff? Do bigger medals increase rank more, or what? If so, the bugger's even nastier than I thought...

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:45 pm

i don't think medals are a significant part of rank in garegga. rank is completely independent of score in that game. that's why extend and suicide works. Collecting powerups provides a much bigger rank boost anyway, and collecting extra powerups jacks it up horrly an dis not worth it score wise.

Post by **Icarus** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 10:43 pm

Medals are classed as "items" in Garegga and thus affect rank in some way. However, as they are an integral part of scoring, they are classed as "lesser items" and as such do not affect your rank as badly as other items would.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 2:26 am

I wonder if you can miss the 10k point medals in Ibara to lower your rank a little... hrm. The extra points they give you are probably more important than a tiny rank hit though.

Post by **Icarus** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 2:34 pm

Cthulhu wrote:I wonder if you can miss the 10k point medals in Ibara to lower your rank a little... hrm. The extra points they give you are probably more important than a tiny rank hit though.

In theory that could work. You can make up the lost points quite easily from Rose Medals and other bonuses. I can guess that there are only a few good locations to attempt this, mainly places where Medals appear in abundance, same as in Garegga.

zlk · Post by **zlk** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 5:49 pm

Icarus wrote: You can make up the lost points quite easily from Rose Medals and other bonuses.

Are you sure? I don't think so.....

BER · Post by **BER** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 5:55 pm

Maybe these videos will help:

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~fw9a-ootk/mkn/movie.html

There's one video of the stage 1 trip (ending with a score of 1,039,x00) and another of the stage 2 trip (ending score of 3,x99,900). zlk posted these a few times in the #shmups IRC chat.

(I'm having trouble reading the scores...)

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 10:03 pm

Thanks BER for the video link. It looks like basic Batrider style scoring with the hadou cannon or whatever as an added option for getting lots of medals at specific points. I don't quite understand the rose medals- they were at a much lower value (200 pts?) while regular medals had reached the standard 10k. The player seemed to be ignoring a good deal of them too.

And that looked like a possible strategic suicide on stage 2. Shame we don't get to see the boss fights.

edit- Anyone know if there are loop requirements, or do you get it simply by clearing the game?

Finally, zlk: Does Ibara have several game modes like Batrider? (training, normal, advance, boss rush)

Valgar · Post by **Valgar** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 10:27 pm

Ibara normally doesn't have a loop, but you can play EXTENDED mode by using a certain input when starting. There are other various modes...

A + start: Decrease of speed of machine
A+B + start: Increase of speed of machine
└1P: The direction that the option strikes cannot be fixed. (The option inclines at the moved direction. )
└2P: The direction that the option strikes cannot be fixed. (The option inclines at the moved opposite direction. )
↑ + start: HARDER mode(There are the second times. ) ..the mode..
↓ + start: EXTEND mode(Start by the second times from the beginning. )

Post by **Icarus** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 11:11 pm

Thanks for the link to the clips, BER.

There is a LOT of partial bomb usage in those clips, which is unsurprising given the amount of destroyable scenery. Very Garegga/Batrider-esque.

What interests me are the non-scenery secrets - for example, there is a line of flying drones that appear where the two large flamethrowers are in stage 2. These drones dive under a rock bridge, reappearing at the top of the screen. If they are destroyed after they fly under the rock bridge, each one of them drops a Medal - lots of points!

I wonder if there are more of these kinds of secrets?

What I'd like to know is the estimated maximum score for this game. Given the amount of secrets, I would only guesstimate that the score reaches into the F,xxx,xxx range (15mil) or higher. The player in the clips BER posted has a top score of A,308,490 (10.3mil), while a player posted a stage 2 boss clip at hameko.net, and his displayed top score was in the 9mil range. And this is few weeks after release! (Which raises the question about what the game's true difficulty is...)

cigsthecat wrote: I don't quite understand the rose medals- they were at a much lower value (200 pts?) while regular medals had reached the standard 10k. The player seemed to be ignoring a good deal of them too.

From what I understand, Rose Medals are created by nullifying bullets, either by use of the wave/hadou, or by "cancelling" - powering up/switching weapons, so the aura flash created by the ship cancels bullets that are close to the ship - and their values are never constant. I think the values range from 100pts, 200pts, 400pts and 800pts, and I think their values are determined by size of the bullet nullified - the larger the bullet, the more points you get.

That would make certain patterns more lucrative to cancel, such as the first boss' large sword bullet waves, or the fifth boss's first form.

---------------------------------------------------------

EDIT: Right now, I'm having fun deciphering all the funny machine transration for this page at arcadeita, which has a massive wealth of information for the game - weapon comparisons, ship types (A, B and AB selection), snippets on rank systems, tricks etc. What's interesting is that they reckon a good stage 1 score should be in the 1.8 to 2mil range (!).

zlk · Post by **zlk** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 1:21 am

Icarus wrote:The player in the clips BER posted has a top score of A,308,490 (10.3mil), while a player posted a stage 2 boss clip at hameko.net, and his displayed top score was in the 9mil range. And this is few weeks after release! (Which raises the question about what the game's true difficulty is...)

Try to poke around that guys webpage to see how good he and his friends are at shmups.

Perhaps the fact that he or someone he knows can score 9M, may not be a good indicator of how difficult or easy the game is.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 2:00 am

Icarus wrote:
cigsthecat wrote: I don't quite understand the rose medals- they were at a much lower value (200 pts?) while regular medals had reached the standard 10k. The player seemed to be ignoring a good deal of them too.
From what I understand, Rose Medals are created by nullifying bullets, either by use of the wave/hadou, or by "cancelling" - powering up/switching weapons, so the aura flash created by the ship cancels bullets that are close to the ship - and their values are never constant. I think the values range from 100pts, 200pts, 400pts and 800pts, and I think their values are determined by size of the bullet nullified - the larger the bullet, the more points you get.

Correct. The "flash" that can create rose medals when you pick up a powerup is very brief and has a very short range, however, so it's pretty tricky to use.

Post by **Icarus** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 2:15 am

Cthulhu wrote:Correct. The "flash" that can create rose medals when you pick up a powerup is very brief and has a very short range, however, so it's pretty tricky to use.

I doubt that it's used as a main scoring technique since the Rose Medals themselves are very low in value. The only way to utilise the aura flash for scoring purposes to my mind is to herd bullets towards a powerup that'll create an aura flash when you pick it up, snatch the powerup, and then very quickly "ram" the bullets to convert them (and maybe grab the Medals immediately). If anything it could be used as more of a defensive technique, kind of like in Mars Matrix where a player flashes the mosquito shield to throw bullets away from the ship, and uses the brief invincibility to pass through clouds of bullets. The invincibility doesn't last long in Ibara though...

That kind of technique is very advanced though, and would require very detailed knowledge of the stages: the kind of technique that seperates those who score mainly from Medals and secrets, and those who really weed the maximum possible points from a stage. I shudder to think of the kind of shmupping maniac that can do that (a player from the Clover/T3 clans maybe? I bet TAC and Kamui are having a field day with this game).

Stormowl · Post by **Stormowl** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 3:07 am

wow...this game looks smokin'. thanks to those who provided the vids.

Geezer · Post by **Geezer** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 2:49 pm

It's down to $1968 at ECL, is this kind of devaluation normal for a shmup PCB? It's gone down over $300 in a few weeks!

Post by **Icarus** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 3:05 pm

Well, I won the Ibara PCB that was on Yahoo Auctions for 140,000Y, which is roughly £700, give or take a tenner. I don't know about the devaluation rate of PCBs though, especially this one - perhaps with it being in the shadow of Mushi, it's turned off a lot of Cave fans (but reawoken a lot of Raizing ones?).

Geezer · Post by **Geezer** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 4:16 pm

Icarus wrote:Well, I won the Ibara PCB that was on Yahoo Auctions for 140,000Y, which is roughly £700, give or take a tenner. I don't know about the devaluation rate of PCBs though, especially this one - perhaps with it being in the shadow of Mushi, it's turned off a lot of Cave fans (but reawoken a lot of Raizing ones?).

Well done man, being a Garegga fan like me, I'm sure you'll enjoy it

My plan is to pick up an Aero City from Killercabs and Ibara when it's around the £500 mark as it really doesn't look like this one will get ported

zlk · Post by **zlk** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 6:17 pm

It is amazing to see a PCB drop $1000 in price in about 2 weeks. Ibara must not be doing too well.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 6:50 pm

It's very strange to see this one go down so low so quick. Icarus was apparently the only bidder in the auction, and the same one went for 180,000 w/ no bidders a week before. Mushihime-sama was going for a similar price just a month or two before it was announced for the PS2.... some 6 months after it's release. Ibara's not been out a month yet.

FYI, the latest Arcadia has some strats in it, including how to control rank.

Post by **Icarus** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 11:18 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:It's very strange to see this one go down so low so quick. Icarus was apparently the only bidder in the auction, and the same one went for 180,000 w/ no bidders a week before.

Actually, I had my eye on the auction since the first time the seller posted it up.

It was originally going to go for 180,000Y, but the day the auction was due to end, the staff at shoppingmalljapan.com took vacation for a week

The second time the seller posted the PCB for sale, still for 180,000Y, SMJ.com was still away on vacation, and the third time it was reposted, when it was for 140,000Y, SMJ.com was back from vacation, but their bidding system suffered a software failure, so I had to request a manual bid put in, three hours before the auction was due to end

.

I got lucky though, unusually no one went after the PCB which was nearly half the release price. Even better was that I got it for such a low price. I was considering waiting a bit longer to see if he dropped his price even lower, but I don't think he would have relisted after the third time failing, and instead he might have sold it privately. So I didn't take the risk.

Now to work out what I'm going to sell, to pay for it

Post by **Icarus** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 2:47 am

GaijinPunch wrote:FYI, the latest Arcadia has some strats in it, including how to control rank.

There's just a couple of things I need to know from the past two issues of Arcadia (62 and 63) regarding Ibara strategy.

There s a lot of numerical scoring data set up in tables, similar to the Garegga Handbook's boss data lists. I know that they are different points values for specific attacks, but which attacks are they?

There are only two seperate values listed, so I'm assuming that one is for Shot/Option, and the other is for Bomb?
What specifically does Arcadia say about the rank system and managing it?

I can provide the scans for them if required (I'm in the middle of doing them now, finished issue 62, halfway through 63, while bouncing away to Cream - Future Trance. Mmmm... trance...)

Post by **Icarus** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 11:44 pm

In [url=http://forum.shmups.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4127]this thread[/url], Ord wrote:I think this game is fantastic, HOWEVER if you don't like Raizing's games, then I don't think I can really recommend it. Ibara is brutal, deep and hugely rewarding, but it is very Raizing and not like your typical Cave game at all.

I have to second that comment. Even though it has Cave's logo on it, the game is so far removed from anything Cave have ever done in their history that it feels like a whole new company has created it. I used to say that Guwange was Cave at their most experimental, but this takes that title by miles.

So, my impressions:

PRESENTATION AND GRAPHICS:
The game is impressively detailed, just what you'd expect from games running on Cave's current hardware. They really took the theme of roses and thorns and made everything from the propellors on enemy planes and wheels on tanks, to the ornate - and destroyable - decorations on bosses and larger enemies look like sharp spikes and scimitar-like blades. It gives all the enemy technology a unique kind of flavour. These enemies and bosses take up a lot of screenspace as well, and look impressive on larger monitors.

There is A LOT of shrapnel and Raizing-like circular explosions flying around the screen, which can sometimes obscure the action. But Cave took this into considerationa nd tinted the bullets with a blue or purple hue, making them visible even under blankets of flying metal. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it looks damned nice when you see it running at full 60fps.

There is a bit of slowdown as well, especially when there is a lot of stuff going on, which is what you'd expect from a game with a high amount of stuff on screen. The slowdown is often quite helpful though, and isn't of the sudden jumping kind.
MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS:
The music is good, heavy rock stuff, and fits the theme of the game well, but there is nothing instantly memorable or hummable. It serves as good background noise for the veritable orgy of loud explosions and sounds of gunfire that occur in the game though, and the sound effects are very good. If you have a subwoofer of some kind, then hook it up and turn it up, and feel the bass as you blow stuff up
GAMEPLAY:
Well, to start, there are two selectable ships - Bond and Dyne - and they both have differing characteristics. What some players won't know is that there are actually four different subtypes to Bond and Dyne's ships, all selectable by just pressing Start, or by holding down Shot, Bomb or both when pressing Start. So in effect, you are actually getting eight selectable ships, each with their own set of characteristics.

For example the default Bond has a forward firing napalm wave as the bomb weapon, but one of his alternatives gives you a directional napalm wave similar to Garegga's Silver Sword. Another subtype changes the napalm wave to a short distance area blast like Gain's, and another changes it to a homing bomb like Flying Baron's. These subtypes also have different Shot characteristics - like bigger Shot bullets, piercing bullets, wider range etc - as well as changes to movement speed, and which of the three Options can be fixed in place when holding down Shot. This adds quite a bit of replay to the game: master one subtype, and you have the choice of seven more to try.

The stages are short compared to Cave and Raizing standards, but they are laden with scoring secrets, and it is in the acquisition of these secrets that wil present the biggest challenge outside of rank control methods. Many secrets involve bombing targets, some involve leaving enemies to complete a movement route before destroying them (like a chain of enemies that fly under a rock "bridge" in stage 2), while others involve careful midboss and boss destruction strategies.

Oh, and there is the dreaded rank system as well. They seem to have lifted a lot of aspects from Raizing's previous games with regards to the rank system, in that the system itself is controllable if you limit yourself in some way. In Souky for example, you are limited to using your web; in Bakraid, your bomb; in Brave Blade, your mech form. In every Raizing game, this was to force the player to learn to play for score, using a weapon that was integral to scoring, and in Ibara, it is no different.

Like Garegga, by utilising your bomb on some key targets and Shot on others, you will get masses of points, and from that comes Extends. These can be used in a similar fashion, by suiciding to get bomb fragments to further aid scoring, and as an added bonus, to surpress the rank system. Many players no doubt will now be put off by this fact.

However, there is enough of Cave in Ibara to make it more accessible to those who aren't proficient at/despise the rank control game. The most noticeable influence is in the balance of the game system. There are two ways you can play this game:
- treat Extends like items to aid your scoring. Since the game is very bomb-happy, like Garegga/Bakraid/Batrider, using tactical suicides to get bomb fragments to use for scoring becomes a necessity, as well as using small amounts of bomb fragments at a time. In this way, the hadou bomb is rarely used, weapons are kept only sparingly, and rank can be kept to a minimum, for a high-scoring ALL
- play conservatively and carefully, hoarding bomb fragments to fuel hadou bomb attacks on bosses, score from Medals and a small amount of secrets only. It is possible - as RFK has proved - to come out with a low-scoring ALL, with careful play and weapon management.
In both cases, a bit of knowledge of the game system is required, and those who are familiar with Raizing and their games will no doubt have an idea of what to expect. Once you get an idea of what affects the rank system, you can start to build a good strategy to tackle stages and bosses with minimum fuss.
OVERALL:
I have a feeling that this will leave a lot of Cave fans cold, as it doesn't play like a Cave game: no bullet-hell; a controllable rank system; restrictions on weapons; emphasis on using bombs; a multi-layered scoring system; bosses that must be taken apart piece by piece; heavy point-milking (last seen in Guwange and Esprade); emphasis on suicidal play.

If you're the kind of player that subscribes to the survivalist style of play, as most Cave games will expect you to do, then Ibara may be a challenge that will be very difficult to overcome. If however you are the kind of player that enjoys a new challenge, and enjoys unconventional methods of play, then Ibara is the freshest thing to appear on the scene for years.

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 1:28 am

Icarus wrote: Oh, and there is the dreaded rank system as well. They seem to have lifted a lot of aspects from Raizing's previous games with regards to the rank system, in that the system itself is controllable if you limit yourself in some way. In Souky for example, you are limited to using your web; in Bakraid, your bomb; in Brave Blade, your mech form. In every Raizing game, this was to force the player to learn to play for score, using a weapon that was integral to scoring, and in Ibara, it is no different.

Congratulations. you put your finger on exactly what bothers people about Raizing rank systems.

Normal rank systems exist for the following purpose.
Primary purpose:make the game more accessible to novices by making it easier on them, while at the same time, making the game difficult for god players. A rank system is supposed to shorten the games of good players, and lengthen the games of bad players, but not enough so that bad players last longer than good ones. This increases the profits of the arcade owner. Novices play more often beecause they feel they got their money's worth out of the game. Back in tthe old days, bfore rank, games like Defender wer just BRUTAL. Without wizards showing off at the game, to prove they could be mastered, peopel wouldn't play them. They had to give good players a challenge so people couldnt' monopolize the game, but to do so, they had to be mercilless to peopel learning the game. Rank changed all that. Games could start off easier, and as the player got better, continue to provide a challenge by ramping up the difficulty at a fair rate.

Now if the rank system is unbalanced, then we have problems with expert players doing novice stuff so they get much farther. The classic example of this is Varth. Smart pods are designed to help the beginner out, and it's assumed that experts will used fixed pods. So they went ahead and disabled the rank system for people who use smart pods! and there is no scoring penalty for smart pods either. So this means that all experts use smart pods to avoid triggering the rank system. See the problem?

Secondary purpose: to give good players more scoring opportunities. May games do this, and this is considered a good thing. Bonus formations, more bullets to cancel, and score multipliers (Border down, anyone?) are good examples of this. Gunroar handles this brilliantly.

But the purpose of rank is a Raizing game is totally different. It's to encourage you to play the game a certain way. By making the difficulty ramp up insanely if you play it wrong, the primary purpose of rank is totally corrupted! There's the problem. regardless of skill, you take the wrong apprach, the game pwns you. Additionally, most balanced rank sstems make it so palying for score and for survivability are different. But it's opposite with raizing rank. playin gfor score is essential to rank control. it's totally against everything you know.