STGT08 Week 4: Thoughts

Aquas · Post by **Aquas** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:26 am

EAT THEM!! UNRESOLVED BULLETS

Nomltest.

This game actually grew on me a little past halfway through the week. I wasn't playing a whole lot at the beginning because having the game end so fast gave me the illusion of sucking and losing my patience.

But it's a nice feeling when you haven't lost a life for a long time and have accumulated a couple of extends, and when the patterns are in your favor for a while... untill! NO! Bombarded from all sides because you neglected one side of the screen for too long. I didn't get over a million but I was beginning to discover some good tactics for eating, and eating is so worth it when those dot points are at 500. If you get a good gobble it's like shaving off 20 patterns of the run.

Pretty cool doujin, getting to fight the space invaders in bullet hell!

OR DOES THIS SHIT JUST SUCK!?!?!?!?!

How'd it go? What are the tricks to survival, those who got top scores? I found it hard at first to remember to watch the area around my ship, and when I did, my survival increased tenfold. I found I could get away with slipping by some dangerous patterns just by paying attention to the immediate area and dodging. Also, I thought it was important to learn that moving without firing is the fastest way to move, and helpful for crossing the screen quickly at times.

Ozymandiaz1260 · Post by **Ozymandiaz1260** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:00 am

I downloaded the game and gave it a try, but it made me want to punch my monitor within less than a minute. I played it probably for about an accumulated hour and forty five minutes over the week, and it felt like I didn't get anywhere at all. It's mostly just because I suck at the game, but I found it to be really, really frustrating.

shiftace · Post by **shiftace** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:16 am

I admit that I watched this with interest. It was tempting to jump in and say things near the beginning, but better to let people judge things for themselves. I do think that eating aggressively is the rightest way to play, though it may take more than a week of practice and memorizing to get good results. I also think that my 2.5M is very improvable; it has as much of mistakes as it has of good luck. I should have done better, but instead I stopped playing. The laptop I have now makes all games painful but roguelikes... I'll be trying again someday.

For reference, 2,567,820 - 305 - 4,783 in 12:03, 1 Apr 08.

Concerning PMs: I only log in about once a week lately, didn't even see them until now. Sorry.

spineshark · Post by **spineshark** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 6:38 am

I liked this game because I didn't really have to memorize anything. I also found that focusing on the enemies rather than the bullets was crucial to survival, which I liked.

I think the scoring is pretty messed up, though. It doesn't feel to me like it scales in proportion to the wildly increasing difficulty, especially once you start chain-dying as you reach your max and suddenly it's impossible to score any more points from anything.

Also, those green guys who drop straight down to the bottom of the screen are so annoying.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:24 am

This game knocked out the "Cho Ren Sha 68K is too many stages" argument (you know who you are).

It's going to feel so good to delete this thing from my drive

Post by **spadgy** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:02 am

Well - I was certainly a little vocal about my dissatisfaction at the choice of Doujin games that weren't easy for everybody to play due to format issues, yet while I wasn't too keen on nomltest, I do realise that in some ways I was wrong (surprise surprise!) to criticise the inclusion of Doujin.

The STGT, after all, is as much about focusing your playing efforts on games you might not normally dedicate time to or even notice as it is about competing, and this week past certainly did the former for me.

I had to get on a train, sneak access to a PC I wasn't allowed to use, overcome my incompetence with WinZip, play for 30 mins at the very most, and look over my shoulder constantly throughout to check I wasn't caught - but - I did discover a new game, realise how easy non-flash doujins can be to access, realise what getting a basic PC could bring to my gaming life, and learn there's more out there to download than Kenta Cho games for my GP2X.

So yeah - I'm glad there was a week that made me go for games I would never normally touch; a week that made me put the effort in. Better than a week of games I play all the bloody time!

Danbo · Post by **Danbo** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 7:49 pm

The game just wasn't interesting or enjoyable for me. That's about the best I can put it.

Doujin week is probably a bad idea if only for the amount of people on non-Windows operating systems. It's a shame...

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Tue Oct 14, 2008 7:08 am

I actually enjoyed playing the game, but I had really big difficulties doing so.

My main computer is a Mac and my GF uses a Macbook. The only Windows machines we have are old laptops from bronze age. My own one wouldn't run the game with sound, so I had to use my girlfriend's notebook. Unfortunately, it has a very tiny screen and the game would only run smoothly if I played it in a small window. In fullscreen mode, it would start skipping frames, lots of them. From level 70 onward the game looked like I played it by strobe light. Either way, I often just couldn't see what killed me.

spineshark · Post by **spineshark** » Tue Oct 14, 2008 7:22 am

Herr Schatten wrote:My own one wouldn't run the game with sound,

DID YOU KNOW:

You really wouldn't have missed anything. Just a really repetitive track that plays for about 7 1/2 minutes and then an alternate thing that only lasts a few seconds before reverting to the main one.

I didn't hate this game, and I have absolutely no reason for this fact. There was nothing about it I really liked, except not having to memorize anything in particular, and that even my really good credits would end after only ten minutes or so. I was still kind of addicted though, once I started playing.

Plus once I quit and played Mountain of Faith, and I felt really focused and clear for a bit. It didn't even last through stage 2 though =( That could've been a really awesome run if everything felt slow the whole game.

Anyway, I'd rate this above DF time attack, since I would actually consider playing this occasionally. Plus SDA kicked a lot of ass this week. I'm pretty happy about that, even if it was no thanks to me.

MR_Soren · Post by **MR_Soren** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 5:36 pm

The game was enjoyable despite my lack of skill. I can't say it was a bad choice, but I do think it was unfair to feature a week that requires Windows in contest that is supposed to be platform agnostic.

lgb · Post by **lgb** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 11:20 pm

MR_Soren wrote:but I do think it was unfair to feature a week that requires Windows in contest that is supposed to be platform agnostic.

Considering there's about 5 people that are in this situation, I see little problem.

MR_Soren · Post by **MR_Soren** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 3:31 am

lgb wrote:
MR_Soren wrote:but I do think it was unfair to feature a week that requires Windows in contest that is supposed to be platform agnostic.
Considering there's about 5 people that are in this situation, I see little problem.

So those people don't matter?

If the contest is supposed to be platform agnostic, that should be 100% true, or it should not be promoted as such. What's next, a PS2 game in the 2009 contest? Oh, sorry, the five people who don't have a PS2 cannot play that week. Sorry.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 4:02 am

By 2009 I should have a PS2.

moozooh · Post by **moozooh** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 9:46 am

MR_Soren wrote:So those people don't matter?

If the contest is supposed to be platform agnostic, that should be 100% true, or it should not be promoted as such. What's next, a PS2 game in the 2009 contest? Oh, sorry, the five people who don't have a PS2 cannot play that week. Sorry.

STGT has always accounted for such a situation. If you remember the registration process, there are questions such as this:

Game Participation Type: MAME & Console-PCB / Console-PCB Only
MAME & Console-PCB = I can and will run MAME. Any shmups I own may also be used to participate. (or if you can only use MAME and don't own shmups, select this option)
Console-PCB Only = I CANNOT or WILL NOT run MAME.

This rather clearly illustrates that there will be people who won't (be able to) play certain games. Do you feel sorry for them? I don't, because I know STGT is a voluntary event where no-one forces you to participate, and that its theme weeks have been discussed beforehand, making everyone aware of the possible problems that may or may not arise. Similarly, this time around you've been asked for an operating system for that reason.

MR_Soren · Post by **MR_Soren** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 2:56 pm

They ask what systems you have access to and then pick games you can't play anyway. How does that account for anything? Everybody in the contest said they could run MAME, but they still chose to make a week where some people could not play any of the available games.

Why bother asking people their operating system if it doesn't matter?

Regardless, I entered the contest knowing this could happen, but that doesn't mean I don't think it's stupid.

Were previous contests all MAME compatible games?

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:06 pm

MR_Soren wrote:Were previous contests all MAME compatible games?

As far as I know.