STGT Gaiden - Week 2 discussion thread (Xed)

[nasty_wolverine]

Unless there's anything I'm missing, scoring seems pretty simple and un-intrusive in this one. I guess just reflect as much as possible and focus on no missing stages for the extend bonuses?

yeah, it sounds about right. however, some bonus enemies drop sheilds. I got one in the 3rd stage.

[KennyMan666]

-Killing enemies recharges reflect bar. Can it be charged fast - point blank kills? grazing? speed kills?

Getting hit recharges it to full instantly, that's about all I've been able to find there. But you might not want to get hit.

Beating the game with continues does not unlock the third ship on the select screen, at any rate. Just tested that.

[Emuser]

Whoever made the 4th and 5th bosses is confirmed to be an asshole.

[Prinny]

If you are curious, the stage 1 boss can't be milked for points. It seems like it only goes through the part where it drops enemies (to recharge the reflect bar) only once while repeating its other patterns in the first phase. I'm kind of curious if it is possible to milk any of the bosses after looking at this small detail. Feel free to double check. (Not participating in the tournament, but just stating observations if it helps anyone. Actually more accurate to say I would be placed in the guest participants).

[Aleksei]

Bosses time out but no pattern isn't aimed

[Emuser]

So it seems like there is nothing that can be done to unlock a hard mode or a 3rd ship...I've done a perfect run of a no miss and it's still not giving me anything. I'm honestly kind of let down about it.

[Prinny]

Is it safe to assume that the omake is inaccessible? I was kind of hoping something there would be some reward given that its an option in the menu.

[Emuser]

I suppose so? I guess that this game will forever remain a mystery to me since there seems to be no actual unlock for a hard mode or 3rd ship. I just wouldn't understand why the developer would put in the effort for those things to show if there's no way to access them or no actual content for those?

[Lord Satori]

I don't suppose you guys know about the TLB/6th stage (not sure which), do you?

[Prinny]

From what I saw on Emuser's twitch stream, the game just ends after defeating the stage 5 boss. Given what he has done so far, it seems like the omake, the hard mode scores, and what appears to be a third ship seems to be all for show. Unless someone goes out of there way to confirm or deny that these remain inaccessible, that is pretty much the most information we have on XED at the moment.

[Lord Satori]

Wondering if anyone played these games more than once before voting.

[nasty_wolverine]

Wondering if anyone played these games more than once before voting.

Wondering if you have proof of what you are talking about.

[Yazphier]

Found myself a windows PC to try this on,
find this utterly crap.

but for the general public; Saving of replays do work
If you create a folder called 'replay' in the games folder, the game will stop to crash when attempting to save a replay

[Squire Grooktook]

Wondering if anyone played these games more than once before voting.

Played each game at least two or three times.

But my vote wasn't counted so it doesn't matter lol.

Found myself a windows PC to try this on,
find this utterly crap.

It's alright. The level design is kind of lacking imo. Bit repetitive and most of the enemy placement and patterns are generally unimpressive. It really makes you appreciate the depth, strategy, and variety in something like Ketsui if you come to it after this.

Some of the boss patterns are quite fun though. Sadly that seems to be all the game really has going for it with the non descript scoring and otherwise standard issue shooting.

Decent little game, but a bit underwhelming after something like Kaikan.

[Emuser]

Well I'll be trying to record a replay I suppose now that there's a known way to save a replay. Pretty cool that it apparently keeps an average FPS throughout the replay as well. Pretty messed up that it couldn't include a replay folder by default. Would anyone happen to have any way to read the text in the game readme file? I'm kind of curious as to what the version changes are.

[Aleksei]

Decent little game, but a bit underwhelming after something like Kaikan.

Thats why I voted for SSS.

[BPzeBanshee]

but for the general public; Saving of replays do work
If you create a folder called 'replay' in the games folder, the game will stop to crash when attempting to save a replay

Thanks for the heads-up. I can confirm after following Yazphier's advice the game will stall for about 30 seconds and then proceed to the highscore screen like normal.

If we're going to bitch about this game though I think we have the teams that didn't put a vote in to blame for complaints about how this week was handled to be honest: the onus is on all those that have involvement in the game being chosen to ensure that said game is a stable working product. That means the organisers and every team captain. Nasty Wolverine and KennyMan failed to spot the obvious replay crash with non-obvious fix, but between Captain's distracting shennanigans and everyone else not putting in a vote apart from Tyrian Defense Force and one other group we've ended up with a game that everyone loves to hate so really I think it's unfair to point fingers.

I was a bit pissed myself initially but have come to realise this game really isn't so bad once you get used to it. I still believe Solid State Survivor would've been the better choice though (that's what I and Tyrian Defense Force voted for), perhaps next year. Promise I'll try to submit a score soon when I'm not busy.

Well I'll be trying to record a replay I suppose now that there's a known way to save a replay. Pretty cool that it apparently keeps an average FPS throughout the replay as well. Pretty messed up that it couldn't include a replay folder by default. Would anyone happen to have any way to read the text in the game readme file? I'm kind of curious as to what the version changes are.

Try opening it up via Google Translate or possibly Notepad++. Using Notepad more often than not results in squares and garbage even with the Japanese fonts installed.

[Aleksei]

Wait, my group was that other group and I voted for SSS so obviously more than 2 teams voted.

[Yazphier]

Wait, my group was that other group and I voted for SSS so obviously more than 2 teams voted.

... the vote ends with a tie between Solid State Survivor and Xed....

Also, fun fact: When the first four votes for this week were in, four games had gotten one vote each.

I'm concluding that there's at least 6 votes submitted by this

[KennyMan666]

Xed was a game I was responsible for getting into the tournament, so that's all on me. I hadn't tried saving a replay before, so I wasn't aware of that issue, but I had never had any problems just getting the game to run on any computer I had tried it on.

The problem with doujin games is that there is no real way for us to ensure the game is a stable working product on the hardware/software configuration of every participant. Apparently Xed doesn't work on Windows 8, but none of me or nasty_wolverine use Windows 8 so there was no way we could know that. This is why it's extra important for each player to actually try all of the games during the voting period and report any such issues immediately. If we hear of enough issues with a game while voting's still going on, we can make a decision to pull the game - hearing about them when voting's already closed and the scoring thread has been posted, not so much.

And yes, there were six votes. Two each for Xed and Solid State Survivor, and one each for Dotonpachi Maximum and Sonic Ironstorm.

[BPzeBanshee]

Okay, clearly I misread. Towards end of voting period I distinctly saw a post saying only two teams had put in a submission and I must've missed the update somewhere along the line. My apologies.

Still, in the end, all of us really managed to miss a simple crashing bug until it all ended. Now that we've blown off our steam and hopefully kissed and made up, may I suggest extending the voting time somewhat past score submission time, to allow for folks focusing on this week's game to be able to also test these games after the score submission time ends? Clearly relying on a single group to find bugs in these games is not working and I think this may help alleviate some of the gear-grinding that's been happening lately.

[KennyMan666]

Four of the six votes were sent to me during the last 12 hours, so, yeah.

Maybe so.

[nasty_wolverine]

To be honest, we did play it, and not notice the obvious bug.

But this game has so little in terms documentation or literature about. All google turns up is how this is a shmup, shmups farm tourney from 2008 mentioning a score glitch that happens when you get the same score twice, something about the game being broken with no further information about it, and a two stage video. I couldnt find anything else with my google fuu skills.

And the game isnt really a unplayable piece of crap, and yes it is a step down from kaikan. I wanted this tournament to be more about getting people to know how much good and great doujin freeware games are out there. Last weeks tie ended up with the better game, this weeks not so much.

We will do our part of the testing with each game in the voting thread, but we have to rely on you guys to catch things we might miss. So, umm, lets work together and make this tournament a success (sounded like one of those management types right there).

And we do have good things waiting for next week. Trust us on this one.

[nasty_wolverine]

Also, other stuff i found:

stage 1 scoring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWBDJWb6PcE

stage 2 scoring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6lag0V5ae8
stage 2 boss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S9MAKi4RPY

stage 3 scoring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivGzzeQ4RAY
stage 3 boss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L2zzMWG-B0

stage 4 1up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHmPsq4JKvY
stage 4 boss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdkGjupzSsA



lolplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1XRM1u6898

[Yazphier]

Four of the six votes were sent to me during the last 12 hours, so, yeah.

Well, It does take some time to listen out on your teammembers on what they think etc.. so, that is not strange at all,
I sent in my vote as soon as i had a clear winner (3 votes on the same game), and then It didn't get any votes from any other teams

And the game isnt really a unplayable piece of crap, and yes it is a step down from kaikan. I wanted this tournament to be more about getting people to know how much good and great doujin freeware games are out there. Last weeks tie ended up with the better game, this weeks not so much.

How can we have a STGT without people complaining about how crap the games are...

Trust us on this one.

[Yazphier]

Stage 2 demo (by the maker?), roughly the same score as the "scoring path" above

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgLR1b24CcQ

[Aleksei]

wow, first time I ever figure out the scoring routes without looking at a replay.

[Squire Grooktook]

And the game isnt really a unplayable piece of crap

It's a good game, I definitely don't want people getting down on it. I do like the boss fights.

[nasty_wolverine]

12 hours till score deadlines.