Stella Vanity V0.2 & 0.21

[O. Van Bruce]

How can I build Levels on the counter? I ussually only get level 1

I can score about 70-75m on Normal and 45m on Easy, 50m might be doable with some luck... can anyone do much better than that? Hard is pretty tough for me already so not much scoring there, and definitely nothing like his 160m!

I only get 50 Million on normal on my first clean attempt (no deaths, no "deaths" on ethereal shift, though i bombed 2 times...)

Still need to know some aspects of the scoring system.

[Aliquantic]

Counter rises when you shoot things, it's easy to get to level 3 on the stages but on the boss you need to fill up the Delayed gauge more... I need to experiment more with that though to figure out if level 2 is much better than 1 or not. And yes I'm missing a few things on the scoring system like when it's better to go ES or DS or what's the use of the combo multiplier, but we can probably write a summary soon!

I don't think TRIS-GRAM ever uses Delayed and Ethereal together, and it seems fairly counterproductive overall. Patterns where you can pointblank are best for ES, but you want more bullets for DS so ideally at different times. ES gives you more DS refill during "overtime" so you can use it more, and you also get a firepower boost with DS for faster boss kills and higher time bonuses (Overdrive may come in handy for that too if time bonuses get higher in later stages).

[Observer]

Indeed, I've never used both during the stage but, during the bosses, it kind of acts like a "last spell" from Touhou where the boss pattern goes crazy and you can keep milking it for points until the timer runs out and it goes to the next pattern.

Also, damn I'm glad the boss sprite is big enough that you can actually see it. But I'm hoping TRIS-GRAM will implement more magitech machines stuff for later stages... I really didn't like the old stage 3. Don't ask me why, it just didn't do it for me. Stage 2 was awesome and, by the looks of this trial, it could become glorious in caps.

[Aliquantic]

The "last spell" effect is from Ethereal Shift for overkill opportunities and I cannot see any difference between ES alone and ES+DS on the boss patterns... have you tried them both and seen something else?

I can't get Counter to level 3 on the boss and don't see any difference between level 1 and 2 either since it clears all the bullets either way, but that could still be wrong since it seems odd not to reward you for the trouble of raising the counter :s

[Observer]

The "last spell" effect is from Ethereal Shift for overkill opportunities and I cannot see any difference between ES alone and ES+DS on the boss patterns... have you tried them both and seen something else?

I can't get Counter to level 3 on the boss and don't see any difference between level 1 and 2 either since it clears all the bullets either way, but that could still be wrong since it seems odd not to reward you for the trouble of raising the counter :s

Yep, my thoughts exactly. Since this is still a trial and he's testing so much complex stuff, I wouldn't be surprised if something went missing, wrong or just works in a buggy way.

I feel there should really be some sort of incentive/bonus for triggering both modes at the same time at least in certain moments since they make things way harder. However, I would also like some sort of "choose your own play style" thing where you aren't demanded mandatory use of a specific thing at a specific time... Kind of a clashing concept but, for example, would love to see people scoring well by relying on the blade and the increased bullets of delayed or people scoring like crazy by Ethereal shifting half the screen while employing assault. With a single character one is getting so many options I wonder how a second character (the one present in the previous version) will fare. Or what mechanics will have.

As a whole, I really love this new version of Stella Vanity!

[RNGmaster]

Where the hell can I find the new patches? They're nowhere to be found on TrisGram's blog.

[STGnoob]

At the very top of the blog, it's not in posts anymore.

[RNGmaster]

Well then, I'm going to switch to the new version, since getting my data repeatedly erased is not very fun.

[Aliquantic]

The Combo meter is applied to most sources of points and is built up when you start a new Overkill chain, but doing so applies a x0.4 multiplier to the old value so there is a soft cap in effect, and big Raid enemies seem to be the only way to get it past 100k. The Combo multiplier is built up with Overkill and applies to the Combo meter only, and it seems to be better to deliberately break Overkill chains early on when the meter is still low.

I'm still not really sure how coins and jewels interact with each other though, but they're definitely affected by the Combo meter and are the main source of points... the rest of the scoring system seems fairly straightforward, if extremely difficult to actually implement and survive!

Oh, speaking of characters, TRIS-GRAM said that Lise from 0.22 will be back and he's planning to add a third character, a male (yay, all-female casts are getting old!) who doesn't use Shift at all! Apparently he relies on another source of power instead, but I'm not sure if that will translate to new game mechanics... TRIS-GRAM said it may be cruel, though

[S20-TBL]

Is it me or is the Replay function broken? I recorded a Normal Rule Mode run last night and tried to replay it for Camstudio, but the Replay kept going wrong and the character kept dying. I then tried to replay it again and got different results, but the character still kept doing the wrong things and dying.

At first I thought I just had a corrupted file, but then I tried replaying another saved file and the character inexplicably stopped firing at the midboss, sat in one place and lost all her lives. Has anybody else experienced this?

Also, anybody here use Overdrive (tap Bomb twice with a ~0.5 second delay between taps)? I find it helps keep your Overkill counter up much longer and allows you to get green coins early on before the midboss.

[Aliquantic]

Replays should work if you start them and then use the Restart option in game (second option in the pause menu). Someone says there may be a problem if you're using Shot/Tap and/or a single Shift button, though, but as far as we know restarting should make replays work.

You can get into Overdrive if you just hold the bomb button too, which should be easier than a double tap, but I hadn't thought about using it on the stage to keep up a chain! I'll have to experiment with that...

[Aisha]

I'm still not really sure how coins and jewels interact with each other though, but they're definitely affected by the Combo meter and are the main source of points... the rest of the scoring system seems fairly straightforward, if extremely difficult to actually implement and survive!

Yeah, this is one aspect that I don't really understand. TRIS-GRAM wrote that you have to keep coins and jewels in balance, but he did not elaborate. In his Hard video, he alternates between Delayed Shift and Ethereal Shift, so he collects jewels in one go, and coins in the next. That's probably what he meant by "balance", but I'm not really seeing the benefit to it. He also said that a high combo bonus will result in higher jewels and coins, and that higher jewels will enable you to get higher coins and vice versa. Both coins and jewels are correlated somehow. One thing that confuses me is the definition of "higher" he is using here; he could be referring to amount or value, for instance. (Maybe I'm just overthinking.) Outside of the Jewel Bonus at the end of the stage, the impact coins and jewels have on your score, nor how they are affected by the Combo Bonus (if at all), is also not clear.

Again looking at the Hard video, jewels seem to change from amethyst to ruby, to emerald, and finally to diamond when you've collected 500, 2000, and 6000 jewels in total, respectively. I haven't had a chance to verify those numbers, and I probably can't anyway since I haven't had the opportunity to play much. It might depend on game difficulty as well. The color of coins seems to change depending on how many you collect in one instance. The color doesn't change during a Delayed Shift, since you're collecting nothing but jewels, and it resets to yellow once it's over; it also resets after an Ethereal Shift. I have no idea what the coin color signifies (value?).

Unless something changed in the updates, Counter Shift level seems to affect the size of the circular wave you emit, and only the bullets that touch it get converted into jewels. It also might affect the type of jewels cancelled bullets turn into, but I'm not too sure: In the video, he released a level 3 Counter Shift and received diamonds while his jewel level was at ruby still.

He didn't seem too overly concerned with Overkill chaining either.

[Aliquantic]

Did you see a level 3 counter on the boss incidentally? As far as I can tell level counter doesn't matter on the boss, but we were wondering about that.

500/2000 is definitely right for Normal, and coins don't seem to go any higher than Blue in one go, with a high combo meter making it much faster to get there... it's pretty hard to raise Jewels though and I suspect they're the key to scoring, with coins helping you get them at a higher value (which TRIS-GRAM has confirmed), and the usual delay thing to raise the rank.

At least there's no reason not to use both ES and DS since they don't really interfere with each other, even if we don't really know what's going on My current route is ES after the first big crystal, DS after another one, ES right after the midboss, DS a bit later on, and then optional ES and one last DS. I'm sure you can do better than that though.

[Aisha]

Did you see a level 3 counter on the boss incidentally? As far as I can tell level counter doesn't matter on the boss, but we were wondering about that.

Yeah, he uses a level 1 Counter Shift against the boss on two occasions. It clears the whole screen and returns diamonds, which is noticeably different from when he uses a level 1 Counter Shift on this occasion.

When you finish a mid-boss or boss phase, the bullets on the screen get converted into jewels, and the type of jewels you get back don't seem to necessarily match your jewel level: during the mid-boss in the video, he finished a phase and the bullets were converted into rubies, even though his jewel level at the time was emerald. So I noticed that during the boss, on the two occasions in which he did not finish a phase in Counter Burst Mode, he made sure to clear the screen of bullets using by using a level 1 Counter Shift just before finishing the phase off. These bullets were converted into diamonds. Presumably he did this because he would have gotten a lesser type of jewel had he simply finished the phase off. Maybe this is one of those advanced strategies he mentioned.

500/2000 is definitely right for Normal, and coins don't seem to go any higher than Blue in one go, with a high combo meter making it much faster to get there... it's pretty hard to raise Jewels though and I suspect they're the key to scoring, with coins helping you get them at a higher value (which TRIS-GRAM has confirmed), and the usual delay thing to raise the rank.

Did he mention what it is about coins that helps you get jewels at a higher value--color or amount? Both color and amount freeze during a Delayed Shift, so it could be either, or both even..

At least there's no reason not to use both ES and DS since they don't really interfere with each other, even if we don't really know what's going on My current route is ES after the first big crystal, DS after another one, ES right after the midboss, DS a bit later on, and then optional ES and one last DS. I'm sure you can do better than that though.

Yeah.. But he did say that Delayed Shift + Ethereal Shift gives the player higher firepower, so maybe that might come in handy in a later stage.

[SFKhoa]

I don't even know if it's just me but for some strange reason, my character keeps dying in the boss' last phase for absolutely no reason.
Has it been happening to anyone else? I can't even beat Rule Mode because of it.

[Aliquantic]

I can't say I've ever had this happen to me or anyone else I know, or hear anything like that on TRIS-GRAM's Twitter or blog I'm going to assume you are using the latest version, 0.30d? (Though 0.30c should do the trick too since d only fixed a couple accessories in Story Mode) Yeah, I know, that was a pretty useless post...

[Nasirosuchus]

I don't even know if it's just me but for some strange reason, my character keeps dying in the boss' last phase for absolutely no reason.
Has it been happening to anyone else? I can't even beat Rule Mode because of it.

Same here.

[SFKhoa]

TRIS-GRAM gave me a reply on Twitter. This bug only happens when bullet graphic is set to 'DARK'. He's going to fix it later on.
http://twitter.com/#!/TRIS_GRAM/statuse ... 7083083776

[Aliquantic]

That's good to hear I'm very curious to see the sort of scores you can pull off KOA, I'm still on a plateau

Can anyone read his latest blog post? I *think* he's talking about game distribution and worrying about the specifics of physical distribution, but I'm finding it extremely hard to understand the context.

[Aliquantic]

Okay, I can hit around 65m on Easy now with no mistakes, maybe a little bit higher with better play, but it seems to be pretty good since TRIS-GRAM was at 60m for Easy in his tests... I've got 79m on Normal too, replay is here if anyone cares, I'll be happy with that for now (I can't milk Delayed Shift enough really).

I've just found out you can bomb right before Raiding to increase the combo meter by a lot... it seems to lead to a definite score increase, though I've yet to accomplish a perfect run like that so Overdrive obviously helps for that too, and using both Shifts together on the boss in "extra time" should also make some sense when possible... I think TRIS-GRAM also switches to Delayed Shift right as he finishes off an enemy with Blade for extra overkill, like right at the start of his Hard video when his meter suddenly climbs to 140k. I wonder if those sorts of shenanigans are what he had in mind by "advanced tactics"...

Oh, and it's probably old news, but cancelling Ethereal Shift gives you some Blade gauge, as opposed to letting it run out naturally (which empties it altogether)... it's pretty handy to Raid something immediately afterwards. I'm not sure if you *have* to cancel Delayed Shift manually to get full benefits from it though, it seems to work just as well automatically for me.

[Aliquantic]

112m on Normal video here, I've finally worked out that the scoring system is heavily based on chaining to keep the combo meter up, and the occasional use of bombs to make it skyrocket. I had a very poor start in that video and still didn't really use Delayed Shift to its fullest, and there are obviously better routes to use, but I'm happy to have broken one oku and understand how scoring works now (The score breakdown by category really helps with that too!)

I've hit 45m on Hard but it feels a lot harder than Normal with a much bigger difficulty gap than between Easy and Normal... I can do better still, no excuses

[SFKhoa]

Damn, those are some pretty insane scores there. I haven't been making an optimal score run yet, since every run I've made in the game were coin-grinding runs (man oh man, how fun it is to be able to keep a consistent chain of blue coins).

[RNGmaster]

New blog post! Translation would be nice.

Apparently TrisGram is working on making version 0.22 into a full game, and after that's done he'll finish the 0.30 version (which is insanely ambitious on any timeframe).

[O. Van Bruce]

New blog post! Translation would be nice.

Apparently TrisGram is working on making version 0.22 into a full game, and after that's done he'll finish the 0.30 version (which is insanely ambitious on any timeframe).

LOL... this guy has gone nuts on development, he posts almost everyday about how he's allways working on this... and now he puts more working load...

[Aliquantic]

As far as I know, he'll be finishing up 0.22 for retail at C81 only (he's already got all the stages so it shouldn't be that much work), and make a trial for 0.30 for C81 and through a download website, with 0.30 having three stages and some tweaks to the game mechanics.

The most noticeable thing I remember is there may be carry over of at least one counter between stages, and I wonder if he'll alter the way the chain value works (it feels a little bit too random at present and incredibly critical to scoring, with bomb/raid/lockshot tricks)... I'm hoping for a slightly more manageable difficulty too, that game is pretty painful already

[Aisha]

Stellavanity Seq.1 will be based on version 0.23 and will be sold at Comiket 81. It will be put on sale at DLSite at a later point in time. He will also be selling a soundtrack at C81, but I believe it will be convention-only.

It was always his plan to finish up the old branch of the game, since a lot was already complete. He just wasn't planning on doing it so soon, but since the new game systems were taking longer than expected, he decided to put them on hold and return to the old branch rather than release nothing at C81.

Stellavanity Seq.1R will be released at a later date, possibly C82, but there is no definite timeframe now. I couldn't really make out if he is planning on merging the two games somehow (e.g. Normal Mode and Arrange Mode).

[O. Van Bruce]

New blog entry:



Daifukkatsu, anyone?

Also, I don't get anything from the new blog entry

[O. Van Bruce]

The guy seems to have given some details about the realease on this 31... Maybe a kind soul can translate those moon runes and give us some info?

[Aliquantic]

The C81 release seems to have gone fine (with more preorders than copies available too, which is probably a good sign for the guy), and he's planning to release it through DLsite.com in the next few weeks... yay!

[O. Van Bruce]

If it had such a good reception... I find odd that I haven't met with any web to download it....