Been half a year so just a mix of updates on the things I tend to blog about here...
Music
Bought many new records and CDs.
I'm buying a mix of things... Stuff I've listened to a lot, stuff I've listened to once. Music in any genres. Obscure music, well known music. But I still have a preference for buying prog rock and related.
Here are some of the highlights to me:
Photography
While I've slacked a lot on StB and DS in general, I've had a month-long resurrection thanks to something me and Kirbycomment organized called Shoot the Spoiler.
Shoot the Spoiler is basically a tournament in the vein of the arcade tournaments like Calice Cup, but it's only for StB and DS. This is the second time we do one, and the whole point is the very difficult task of getting new players and giving them the best environment to get into the games. At the very least, having new players dip their toes in scoring is paramount. Of course, it gives me and the few other experienced players an excuse to play, too, but it's meaningless if it's just us.
While there's a couple of new players trying out scoring through STS 2, I'm not sure there are enough people to do this a third time. STS 2 had slightly fewer participants than STS 1 (not even 20) and that is not what I wanted. If there is a third time, and third time's the charm isn't coming into effect, then that would definitely be my final attempt. I want to see a good number of participants, and I want to see more than 1 or 2 of them really try, if possible. I know as well as anyone that it's hard, but STS gives the entire community the easiest possibly opportunity to get into it.
Nonetheless, the most important thing to me are the scores I set myself, so, in chronological order so far this year
In Double Spoiler:
8-6 (Hatate) 1,094,904
I completed the optimal strategy around 100 times. That is the so-called triple sun strategy, which gains almost nothing, but makes the run at least 20 times harder (particularly due to the final shot). I think I added around 70 or so to the count, and then assumed that I had done at least around 30 before I started counting. So, 100+ times on such a difficult strategy
Unfortunately, even doing the optimal strat and not making mistakes, is still extremely unlikely to reach 1.1 million because of a lack of luck with score.
I've had a couple of rather lucky scores, but it's never truly "fantastic" yet.
At the same time, it feels a bit insane to keep up with this luck grind on a scene where the strategy is so difficult to survive to begin with... I didn't feel obstinate enough to continue anymore. So maybe I will leave this score at that.
Only one time ever did I get a really outrageous pace into the final picture, but I think I died that time. As expected (the final picture is insane...)
It's one of the most fun dodging-oriented scenes, though. The scoring strategy is pretty simplistic and easy to understand how to perfect. This scene is more about moving aggressively through shitstorms and coming out unscathed. If that's your thing, this is one of the best.
5-4 (Aya) 719,908
This was set during STS, after Kirbycomment found a better strategy. The better strategy can get 4 more anchors on photos 1-3 and 3 more anchors on photos 4-5 than what was previously the optimum. The idea is to stack anchors very close together on both left and right sides, and then hitting Murasa at exactly the right angle, at the exact middle pixel of the screen. While I've never managed to get 4 extra anchors this way so far, I have managed to get 3 extra anchors once or twice, and 2 extra anchors a good number of times. Basically, the strategy isn't TAS only, even if only a TAS could get the maximum number of anchors on all photos now. Previously I had a 700k score with an ordinary strategy, capping out the anchor number, and getting an average photo score of 140k. Well, now, the scene is a totally different beast. You don't need to reset on average photos anymore to score over 700k, since a single photo getting +1 or +2 anchors shoots the score up considerably (I don't remember the exact base value of an anchor, but assuming maxed multipliers, an extra anchor should be like, 17k maybe?)
You can see how ridiculous this is...
I got a run that got 2 extra anchors on 2 photos, iirc. But I missed an anchor on photos 4 and 5 (previously the so-called extra anchor strat, which is very tight and luck dependant on photo 4, but more resembling consistent on photo 5, despite me missing it that time.)
2 Extra anchors twice in the same run was quite a stroke of luck to happen so suddenly. It's a shame the run was otherwise sloppy.
Anyway, the future for this scene is filled with insanity now. There is no telling what might happen. What if you get, in total, +6 anchors compared to what was previously the max? Suddenly the WR could be 800k. My sum of best with the old strategy was something around 730~735k only...
Complete madness. Also, as the cherry on top, if you attempt the new strategy, you are likely to lose EVERYTHING just for trying it. Most of the time, you don't get all the anchors on one side, and no anchors on the other side, meaning that the run is over, over, over... The scene has evolved from Surfing to Satanic Surfing.
Hatate cannot do the new strategy. Probably for the best that there's still a category that is the old-school optimization way.
6-4 (Aya) 937,698
Another new high score for STS. It was quite sudden!
Well, the strategy is a bit outdated now. Kirbycomment's method for photo 2 and (arguably) photo 3 is superior. If you could somehow combine that strategy which relies on speed to get old Suikas included (Old suikas have more base value) with the optimum to take pictures from above (difficult without using defensives, and requires movement RNG too) I wonder what could happen... If I come back to this, I'll try to adapt, and make that million possibly somehow. It's a fun one, but the RNG is definitely bullshit here.
10-7 (Aya) 3,628,767
I abandoned this one early in the past, without even hitting 3.6M (despite being on pace for more many times), thinking that I'll be back anyways, and it's easy enough to remember the optimization...
And the derust was quick and painless, and I reached over 3.6m several times.
The score isn't consistent at all, there is plenty of RNG to go around, but a good consistent optimization goes a long way and I think I can take the score up to 3.65m or more with some luck. It's a fun one to me.
3.7M seems unreasonable based on the flow of my attempts, but not impossible by any means.
In Shoot the Bullet:
10-8. 7,198,380
Came quicker than I expected. I got over 2.1 million on two of the photos, but only 2 million on the 8th. Phase 1 was okay (I don't really care, as long as it isnt far below average, since it's worth so little). Phase 2 was okay, and I updated my strategy to Ia's method, which is a slight score increase. At the end of the day, it's mostly about the last 3 pics, but the first 6 being good does add a significant amount when you're scoring this close to the max.
I have no ideas of improving this because the scene isn't really my cup of tea; I'm satisfied with that score
2-5. 365,720
My best score so far this year, I think... although I guess the 8-6 one is comparable depending on dodging ability
Basically, this scene is ridiculously optimizable. And 3 of my photos (out of 5) were close to my best. What are the odds! The other 2 photos didn't lag behind a great deal, meaning I PBed by a huge amount (about 15k, when previously my top-10 of scores were all very close together). My sum of best is about 386k. I lost like 9k on the 4th photo, which was the bigget score loss, but the rest was just so unreasonably perfect that I can't complain (besides, most of the time I lose much more than 9k on that photo, because like I said, the scene is so damn optimizable, as well as luck dependant). The amount of perfectionism that can go into this is high for STB early levels, making this probably the hardest scene in the early levels of STB
9-5. 915,850
It's only slightly less optimized than my old 890k~ score, but the route has been updated to Ia's newest route and the score potential is at least like 30k, maybe even 40k higher.
The route is also far more difficult. I die constantly doing this route, and timings have gotten harder, and various things have increased in difficulty (defensives, charge routes). I have a lot of trouble timing the 4th photo on this route which was not the case on the old one. The dodging difficulty goes through the roof before the 3rd photo, and is also high before the 4th, 5th and 6th, whereas with the old route the hardest dodging part was about a 50/50 for me. Essentially, I am at least 10 times more likely to die to a survival mistake with this new route. That's how hard it is...
this is why I couldn't quite get a score as optimized as my old run, so I did try for a bit more (925-930k would be my goal) and failed.
It's okay, because I honestly enjoyed the old route more. I don't care that much.
The routing for the scene is extremely interesting. But the dodging on the new route, relies too much on luck to be feasible. It's just a bit much to go through some of the walls.
It's pretty brutal to take the first 2 pics, where you have to dodge almost 0 bullets, and then suddenly only have like a 1/3 chance of survival just to get to the 3rd photo, all because the walls are too enclosed. So I probably won't come back to this.
6-8 570,980
I'll probably come back to this, aiming for 580k.
The colorful shot bonus is quite random, and there's only so much you can do to perfect this scene. The rest is up to fate.
When you finally win all the coin flips and get 4 colorful bonuses, most likely the score will not be much more than 320k (and it could very well be less). That isn't enough to get 580k even with the most godlike luck on the final shot.
The final shot is sometimes very high for me, to the point where I could get 580k if I get an incredible lucky first 4 photos (combined), and also an incredibly lucky 5th photo.
But probabilities...
Survival is also a concern on the final picture. It's a bit of a coin flip if I can survive it or not, this is simply what happens when you lead Youmu optimally, there is almost no room for freedom. You can't really deal with some of the RNG that appears.
Still, I think it's fun, and I don't mind the luck so much yet. My current PB only gets average Base Value on the first 4 pics, but wins all the coin flips for colorful shots (that's a must) and then proceeds to get a monster 5th photo. Every time I have a monster pace going into the 5th photo, I sadly don't get a high one. The high ones don't come very often even when I do it more or less correct.
Not a lot of scores... Probably there will be some more in the 2nd half of the year.
I want to come back to 9-6 (StB) project. I know I can get a better run there!
I should also complete some of the categories I don't have replays for in DS, I just never got around to some of the scenes at all like 1-6, 9-5, some Spoiler scenes...
Well, there's always something to do in these games. I can still improve pretty much every category at least a little bit after all these years.
Even the rare godruns aren't unbeatable and I do think my 7-6 StB score is probably my best score in that game and I still know I can beat it. not only that but I know I can beat it by a lot, even after having spent 150 hours on it. It's crazy!
Arcade tournaments
I joined Calice Cup Arcade variety. It's been almost half a year already, but better late than never. I wrote up the usual back then after it finished so I can just copy and paste it here:
This tournament took place from January 20th to February 28th, 2021. We played 15 arcade games in different genres. We voted between 3 games per group for 13 groups, then the last 2 games were decided randomly on a mystery wheel. The games chosen by the organizer were for the most part more on the obscure and esoteric side, resulting in a rather odd mix. 77 Participants with 7 Teams, each drafted by a Captain. Out of the 77 participants, there was only 1 no-show. The submission rate ranged from 91% to 99% per team.
My team, Moebuta Farmers, got 1st place by a significant amount. I also won individually, a first for me!
Specific rules:
More or less the same as previous Calice Cups. Although since it's no longer a shmup tournament, I think Autofire was prohibited in various titles.
Tournament Games:
19XX - The War Against Destiny
My score: 11,583,090 vs highest score 18,314,700
Ranking: 4/74
The shmup of the tournament.
One guy went all out on this game and scored at a pretty high level, and ignored all the other games for the entire tournament duration...
But for the rest of us, clearing/almost clearing with some basic scoring was good enough for top 10 placements.
I S ranked every boss, no-missed up to stage 6, and didn't really do much else of note. My survival and medaling was really bad and my worst stage Shot-rate was 95%.
This is a pretty chill and fun casual game, but the scoring system doesn't appeal to me; too slow and stale and too much boring safespot gameplay.
A.B. Cop
My score: 71,125,970 vs highest score 72,058,220
Ranking: 3/75
The driving game of the tournament.
This game doesn't focus on good driving through stages. No, this is a "crash into enemies and bosses" type of game. The driving is trivial, the point of the game is to speedkill everything as fast as possible.
The game isn't great, but it had a good suitable braindead grinding energy for Calice cup. It was easy to learn to play near-optimally and hit a wall in. The World record is about 73 million, and a couple of people got 70+ million due to the low skill ceiling in the game.
Burning Force
My score: 4,402,410
Ranking: 1/74
Rail shooter/3rd person view shooter type of the tournament. It switches type of gameplay between stages.
To be honest, it feels a bit weird to have won in this game because I didn't particularly like it very much...
It does have its fair share of good qualities, but overall the gameplay is a mixed bag. It is lackluster in many areas, resulting in unsatisfying shooting and dodging. The music kicks ass, though.
What I did was nothing too out of the ordinary. I simply cleared the game with 2 spare lives and got the 3 hidden score multipliers. This game is not weird to play and score in, it's just kind of a hard game to clear and not game over in, basically. Only 2 players 1cced and most people agreed that the game is frustratingly difficult. I think most people gave up pretty fast on this game due to frustration and lack of satisfaction from playing.
Cleopatra Fortune
My score: 163,990,730 vs highest score 168,531,470
Ranking: 3/72
The block puzzle game.
The predictable counterstop pattern (20 hits chain) was banned. You can do it by timing out the menu and getting the same block order every time, so that you can simply copy the pattern. We played with random seeds instead.
This game was divisive. Some people hated it, some people loved it, and a lot of people (like me) think it's a good game with a pretty unbalanced and unfun (to grind) scoring system.
Basically, the chaining is busted in terms of numbers. Once you get around 11 or 12 hits in the chain, the score value skyrockets and it almost double each hit after that. We found a way to get 17 hits in the chain and any more than that got borderline impossible. 5 people got 17 hits in the chain, 2 people stopped at 16 hits, and a lot more at 15 hits etc. In my opinion, the 15 hit chain is the last one that is pretty consistently doable without great luck. 16 and 17 hits requires too much luck to be fun to do.
To make it clear, getting 17 hits on the first chain and doing the tile clears correctly gives you 156 million points, and your options from that point onward to get score are very limited. Getting a small chain of 5 or 6 hits can yield 500-600k. You can squeeze in some of those. At some point though, chains are worth less than perfects. A perfect is when the clear you do empties the screen. Perfects are an incredibly boring feature that does require some luck to get, but a lot of the remaining score comes down to perfects. The value of a perfect is multiplied by which level you are on (unlike chains). So late-game perfects are a good way to fill up your score and score more than someone who got the same amount of hits on the first chain.
I have a lot against this system, because clearing the game does almost nothing. Some people got high hits on their first chain, but they never even learned how to clear the game. It's just busted. People just reset on the first 1 minute of the game and if they finally after hours of trying get it right, they sometimes just game over and don't even play the rest of the half hour long game.
Fishin' Frenzy
My score: 50,357,500 vs highest score 55,876,400
Ranking: 3/72
The weird and wacky fishing game.
This game was on a mystery wheel and it got immediately obvious that it was going to be busted, although when I got my 50 million score (which was a 7.5 hour long credit) people were surprised... which surprised me!
Well, the game is about fishing. It has a chaining system which you can use to rack up a lot of score. Every time you get 100,000 points, you get another life. Every time you beat the final stage, the game loops. Loops are identical, they don't add any difficulty. Logically, the game is infinite if you score good enough to get more lives than you lose. So I played for 7.5 hours and then quit. 2 players decided to outlast me with I think 8 and 9 hour long runs. It's not really a matter of skill because it's too easy to score lives at a fast enough rate to never game over. I killed around 200 lives on purpose in my run just to be able to quit. Nonetheless, it seems that only about 15~ (?) people cleared the first loop, so I guess the game isn't entirely trivial; it is a weird game that you do have to learn at least a little bit before you can marathon. Still, pretty trivial and the easiest score to achieve for me in the tournament (Simply playing longer isn't a skill, that's just a matter of having the time and energy available at that time...)
Garou: Mark of the Wolves
My score: 1,869,800 vs highest score 2,372,800
Ranking: 3/72
The fighting game of the tournament.
This is a really great game! But, fighting games for score will always be a bit objectionable. It takes a lot of the fun out of it to play vs computers and try to abuse the computer. Nonetheless, as far as fighters go, this was okay. My form of scoring was very basic, where I ignored racking up JDs in favor of trying to beat the computer quickly and without losing health, while using high score moves in the process. In general, TOP moves gives a lot of score, so trying to stick to those is the way to go. So that's what I did. I'd reset if I ever lost a round because Losing a round kills your "winning chain" score (+20k for each opponent, resulting in +160k after defeating Kain, for never losing a round.)
The way I was playing could only score so high. I kept getting 1.8 million over and over. If you want to score significantly more than that, you needa different character and also the JD method.
If you are scoring at high level, you'll want to lose rounds on purpose to milk JDs from the opponent. This is too much to learn under such a time constraint, but it is cool to look at a run that plays like this (You can score over 4 million with some characters!)
Go Go Mr. Yamaguchi
My score: 233,090 vs highest score 701,610
Ranking: 7/74
The kusoge of the tournament.
This game is terrible. You run around and jump and shoot. You have to beat the stages fast enough to avoid death birds. The obstacles in this game are mostly poor controls and hitboxes as well as a few instances of horrible RNG (alligator in particular).
Nonetheless, the game isn't all that hard and several people did multiple loops. You get only 1 extra life in this game, so unless you can avoid dying alltogether you won't be able to play infinitely. The loops don't get harder, however, so the top score did manage to endure a lot of Yamaguchi in his run (probably around 10 loops?)
I think I game overed on loop 3 or 4 and I didn't play this one too much because It's really really bad...
Magic Sword
My score: 1,685,628 vs highest score 7,997,902
Ranking: 5/73
The Jump n slash.
This game looks like a simple slash the enemies game on the surface, but in reality it's a truly mystifying experience with one hell of a scoring system. People were joking about needing a PHD to score in this game. 3 people were really good at this game and for everyone else it was a match to see who could catch up to them the closest. My run only got about halfway through the whole tower, so not only is the game weird and hard for scoring, but it's definitely the hardest 1cc in the tournament too, IMO. The starvation system where you lose health on a timer and have to constantly eat food to avoid being on your last hit is insane. You get no extra lives, and it's almost impossible to keep your health high. Just taking a few hits over the course of 10 minutes of playing is enough to keep your health low the entire time.
Fun game though; I wish I'd played it more but it was too much to commit to to try to get top 3.
Pig Newton
My score: 7,895,150 vs highest score 9,165,050
Ranking: 2/74
I've always liked Pig Newton but Calice cup gave me a new appreciation for it. When I started playing I could only score a couple of hundred thousand.
This is a truly fantastic game and easily my favorite in the cup. Predictably then, It was also the game I got best at. 7.8 million does not come easily. I love this game because it is so well balanced and there's a lot to pay attention to and it feels great to play. If you don't know what you're doing, understand the rules or how to read the board properly, you might mistake this for a bad game. And what a massive mistake this would be because this is the best game I have ever played from this period of arcade games.
Pitfall II
My score: 1,469,390 vs highest score 1,559,860
Ranking: 7/74
A game supposedly about exploring, but the exploring is rather rudimentary (It's really more of a basic platformer, although 2 of the levels have somewhat labyrinth-like design). Not a fan. I think I played this one the least of all the games. Learned a route that gets the clock and beats the game. To get the clock, you have to collect a couple of other items. It's kinda like a chain. First you get some secret moneybags on level 1, which spawns another item later, which you collect to spawn yet another item etc... until finally you can spawn the 1 million point Clock in level 4. I did this and 1cced the game and not much else of note.
Purikura Daisakusen
My score: 9,499,300 vs highest score 12,276,500
Ranking: 3/72
Scoring in this is completely insane and not many people took it very far...
The perspective doesn't help matters. What an awkward, crazy game.
Did 2 main big chains in my run for 8 and 7 diamonds respectively. Didn't even manage to beat the game which wouldn't have added much score anyway since I learned no chains on stage 4 and 5. The funny thing is that for 1cc purposes, it's honestly harder just to beat stage 3 than it is to afterwards beat 4 and 5. That's cause you start with only 1 extra life and the extends are in stage 4 and 5... and the stage 3 boss is the hardest boss IMO (since you can quite easily collect bombs and use them on the final boss to win).
This game would've driven me mad if I tried learning and adding even more tricks. I didn't really have fun playing this and grinding out these chains, it was pure work ethic.
Rally Bike
My score: 213,850 vs highest score 222,900
Ranking: 2/74
Fun game! I had a great time with it albeit the scoring mechanics, specifically those related to item RNG and the awkwardness of the programming (spawning/despawning racers for you to pass) resulted in unnecessary tedium and resets. This game feels great to play when you're just going fast and collecting point items on the way, but don't expect that to be enough for a great score. There is black magic going on here, too! And you'll succumb to it if you try to score more than basic 1cc level (Let's say, more than 200k).
Nonetheless, a very fun little game with some great level designs and interesting enemy movements as an attempt to prevent your quick driving. Level 5 is fun to get consistent at, level 4 is just exciting overall, and level 2 is simply carefree. Fun!!!
Recalhorn
My score: 5,044,060 vs highest score 7,093,530
Ranking: 4/75
A mediocre platformer with terrible physics. This prototype feels like it belonged on a SNES, not in the arcade and certainly not in a score tournament. For score, there is a lot of RNG. Random groups of items everywhere. Plus, the main score method is to collect as many lives as you can, and then lose them all on purpose on the final stage in order to repeatedly kill secret Musclemen. Then on your final life you can go and kill the final boss. I managed to avoid losing any lives on the way to the final stage, but I missed some of my Musclemen kills (they fly away!) and lost a lot of score as a result.
Zero Team 2000
My score: 11,916,630 vs highest score 11,963,440
Ranking: 2/74
The beat em up of the tournament, and it was a very fun one! It was the hardest game I managed to 1cc (The actual hardest game to 1cc would have to be Magic Sword, which I didn't even get close in.)
Spin is the way to go. For points specifically, I didn't do much of note. I got relatively fast bonus stages (+50k points per second remaining) is the main thing. Other than that It's a mix of luck and possibly attack value stuff I have no idea about, as well as clearing no-miss (I died once in my run...)
Fun game but my interest sunk after the 1cc and I pretty quickly gave up on no-miss attempts to pursue the other games further.
Zupapa!
My score: 14,087,100 vs highest score 17,484,200
Ranking: 3/72
Excellent tournament game. The scoring system is exactly right for something like this. You can learn so many chains in so little time and they are pretty consistent to pull off, fun to do, and speedrun-y in their nature. The game does have too much downtime but I think the fun chaining makes up for it! Fantastic soundtrack too.
The top 2 players truly went beyond what should be expected in such a competition. The top player even incorporated a lot of milking into the run, making it take even longer and the mistakes be even more punishing.
Overall rank: 1 (2,749 points)
Personal thoughts:
This calice cup was slightly less competitive than the previous calice at the top, I think. Which is expected because there were fewer players. Higher scores on average, but fewer players, and fewer players fighting for top spots in every game. Teams were smaller this time, but we still shared strats and had some team spirit in our team. Our team did truly fantastic.
The game selection had a lot of variety and was overall fairly agreeable, albeit not entirely. There were many games I had serious issues with enjoyment-wise. Still, there were also ~4 games that I'd say were pretty consistently great fun to play, at least up to a point where there is only so much more I can do and upon reaching said point I wouldn't really play them much more. (Pig Newton, Zupapa, Zero Team, Rally Bike). Then there was Magic Sword which I would almost put in that group but I just didn't manage to crack because there's so god damn much to learn. And then there was Garou which is a brilliant game but which just was kinda "ok" to play for score at my meager level. And then there was Cleopatra, which is a great game but where I didn't care for the grind (yet grinded more than I should've). I really wanted Pipe Dream to win in that category because that was clearly the superior choice for score.
Some of the not so great games were still pretty easy to grind without disliking the endeavour. AB Cop was one such game. AB Cop is a pretty braindead game and for all its flaws I didn't exactly dislike grinding it. It was suitable.
Overall, I'd say this was a tournament that carried a lot of flavor. It wasn't always great, it wasn't always terrible, it was a variety of things, and what else could you ask for from a variety cup? This time around I think I put more effort into it than ever before, I think even more time than into the 2020 Yolympics. At least 150 hours of play for this Calice cup, no regrets.
https://calice.snowcrash.fun/tournaments/6 Is the link to the tournament page.
I saved videos for all my scores, top 3 or otherwise, because I think it is ethical of the winner to do so. Don't want there to be any doubts of foul play. Here is a playlist of all my scores. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6KbbgiZiiag4P7qMXxZ3sHC5u9VXkLoN
^That's what I had written back then... never made a blogpost about it, since I can just put a bunch of things into more sparse blogposts instead. Not months later I can think back to what I wrote, and I can definitely say that I really raelly like Rally Bike, despite its... unfortunate scoring quirks.
That should be about it. I'll probably update the blog again around the end of the year.
Right now I'm participating in Yolympics, again. The game selection is iffy, but at least we've got Sailor Moon in there.
I've already put out some nice scores (mainly 1.6 million in Sailor Moon, and some other hit or miss things)
But the tournament is open for another month. So I'll probably do the writeup when it's finished. Idk if I'll post it alongside other stuff at the end of the year or just post it on its own after it's over.
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