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Edit history:
moozooh: 2008-05-08 10:52:20 pm
Hail Discordia!
A few more tips for interested:

1. Don't accept less than 750-800k on stage 1. Ensure that you have a good chain going by the boss fight. Milk the boss by destroying the money tanks with aura and collect the money. Whenever it's shooting missiles, just stand still or move very slowly, and the aura will destroy them all safely. Milking this boss that way is worth over 200k points. It's a good headstart for getting an extend in stage 3.

2. Use Sky High as your second stage. The reason is simple: you need to maximize the medal chain before the end of the stage. Considering the enemies there are sparse and there are no medal vaults, it is easy. If everything went as planned, you will get an extend during the first half of stage 3.

3. I choose Sewage System as my 3rd stage because I have to bomb a lot on it due to hidden medals and whatnot, and there's a high probability I will lose a life either on Boredom just before it or somewhere in the first half of the stage, so the extend comes in handy. You may have to suicide right before getting an extend if you've run out of bombs, to be able to bomb when needed later into the stage.

4. There are many, many hidden metal vaults in sewers and the airport. Learn 'em, bomb 'em. Thus, it is mandatory that you have a full chain through either. This is a LOT of points right there. As such, it is equally mandatory that you collect bomb fragments as much as possible to have enough bombs for everything.

5. Download Icarus's Strawman superplay and learn where the profitable places and medal vaults are. I've been studying it very carefully, and it helped a lot.

6. Stage 5: It is possible to hit the tank you encounter in the beginning when the highway goes to the right. If you scroll the screen to just enough, you'll be able to deal damage to it with Strawman's homing options without having to dodge all of its bullets. You can destroy one of the turrets in this manner and wait until the tank goes offscreen (to get a secret extend from it later on; having to kill both turrets will make it harder to do in time). Also, Blunt is pretty easy if you make effort to stream his V-shaped volleys (i.e., move as little as possible, then jerk to make a room to get back and repeat). Only the last phase becomes hard then, but you can just bomb through it. One good bomb is enough.

7. Scoring helps survival. Getting 1.5 millions is not too hard if you have a full chain going, and there are also other extends lying around. Moreover, medal vaults are often located in busy parts of the levels, so by bombing you both clear a way and uncover the medals.

8. Remember to detach your options more often (so stop shooting from time to time). It's good both because you can locate them where they do more damage, and because your main shot becomes stronger while they're detached.

9. Zenovia City is more intimidating than it is hard (to be honest, I didn't find it particularly harder than Highway, apart from the boss). There are two or three parts I know I can't pass without bombing, but I usually don't care, because the boss &#8212; Grubby &#8212; owns me anyway (I credit-fed to him a couple times to practice, and found myself totally unable to do anything after he starts the mass arm attack), and also because bombing in those places is good for score, anyway. So I just collect everything indiscriminantly (big shot levelups = 5k each!) until I die.


Also, I'm going to be out of town for the holidays, and I have no idea if I'll be able to put some time into playing on Sunday evening, so expect a good score from me tomorrow.
I have no solution, but i admire the problem.
Rockets seem to kill you when you're only using aura with Maria. At least when you're very near at the boss ( milking it ). Also, what are the money tanks?
4,300 - soteos - Stage 1 - Carpet (A)

This one took some effort.
astral guard
Moozooh: the charge shot looks the same as max powered shots, but does it do more damage than that?

Quote:
Rockets seem to kill you when you're only using aura with Maria. At least when you're very near at the boss ( milking it ). Also, what are the money tanks?


Conflict has two big safes sitting on its front left and right, which prevent it from using the cannons on its arms.  Maybe you noticed stuff spraying from them while you're fighting him?
If you do enough damage to either box, it blows open and starts dropping money - the little "clink" noise you hear is the collection sound, and you get some points for it.  After opening a box it will eventually explode on its own, and then Conflict will extend that arm to shoot at you.
Edit history:
Enhasa: 2008-05-09 02:42:18 am
everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music
moozooh has very good points. I'll just try to add some of my own suggestions and clarify things.

Just to clarify, you need to break open the safes (I definitely suggest tickling with aura) but not destroy them, or you will destroy all the money too. CHING CHING CHING

Make sure when you suicide that you can do it without dropping a medal. This is why certain parts of bosses are fine times. Just plan ahead, better than waiting until you are out of bombs to suicide.

At some point, you have to go all in and power up your shot and option to max since you'll need it (early on I power up option but not shot), and when you're on your last legs you might as well start picking up everything for points.

Zenovia City isn't tremendously hard to survive, but I have no idea how to play it well. I only have 1-2 lives and I'm out of bombs, and there is a lot to bomb, and my chain is typically shot, so really it's just too ugly to comprehend.


Quote:
This one took some effort.

I know you said you credit fed through the other games, so how was this one? Wink
Edit history:
soteos: 2008-05-09 08:22:53 am
Quote:
I know you said you credit fed through the other games, so how was this one? Wink

Shmups aren’t my cup of tea, so I didn’t like this game much. I hate most arcade games, so two for three is pretty good so far. 8)
With me going back home now, finishing this tourney might not be possible, but I’ll try. Heh, I might get out of last place by virtue of having participated enough. Tongue
welcome to the machine
2,705,920 - VorpalEdge - 4 - Miyamoto (C)
Edit history:
moozooh: 2008-05-09 04:41:04 pm
Hail Discordia!
More info for lazy people. Smiley

Quote:
Also, it turns out changing the fire rate doesn't affect the value as much as it used to in Garegga. All that influences the rank from there is the bullets you fire.

Some values of note:

Grazing raises the numerical rank value, but I don't know exactly how much, but it's a tiny bit.
Picking up the cash lowers the numerical rank value (increasing rank, basically) by 1024
Discharging your bomb lowers numerical rank by ~32768

[...]

Dropping Extends doesn't lower rank, sorry to disappoint you guys.

Please note that these values are for Advanced Course and may be different in Normal Course. However, rank control in Normal Course isn't very important, as the game doesn't last nearly as long as to make it difficult later on.

Also, rank by shooting and survival time is very minor--the survival time rank starts at 4 per frame and "firing blanks" does not increase rank at all, which means you can safely jack the fire rate up to 60. Also, shooting doesn't do much to the rank either.

Rank Reduction methods:
Grazing: I'm inclined to say reduces 128 rank per bullet per frame but I can't make MAME move on frame by frame. I wouldn't do it myself -- the grazing hitbox is only very slightly bigger than the actual player hitbox.
Dying at 3 stock - ~262144 rank reduction
Dying at 2 stock - ~1048576 rank reduction
Dying at 1 stock - ~4194304 rank reduction and a game over

Dropping extends, and dropping 10k medals does absolutely nothing.

Rank modifiers by collecting extends:
Collecting extend at stock 1 - ~560000 rank increase
Collecting extend at stock 2 - ~1100000 rank increase
Collecting extend at stock 3 - ~2200000 rank increase
Collecting Special Extend - ~1100000 rank increase


[EDIT]
Bad news (for me): I'm staying home for the weekend.

Bad news (for you): I'm gonna play a lot of buttrider. Cheesy
astral guard
Quote:
3,665,370 - Cromarty - Stage 5 - Miyamoto (A)

3,915,720 - Cromarty - Stage 5 - Miyamoto (A)

Skipped knocking over the sign in stage 1 to avoid Bashinet mk2, so I lost uh.. 50k there in exchange for getting to the highway stage.
Only had one life left so I just bombed the blue hovercraft when it was weak rather than deal with its two rotating guns.  The stage is pretty boring if you kill that hovercraft early.
Died when the two blue copters came up, of course.
Edit history:
BDA: 2008-05-09 11:52:53 pm
Let's fight to computer!
bsidwell - 1,987,450 - Level 3 - Maria (C)
These are the skills that got me voted Least Valuable Player on Team SDA.

EDIT: bsidwell - 2,370,380 - Level 4 - Maria (C)
I'm actually starting to kinda like this game.
HA! IN YOUR FACE, ENHASA!
Edit history:
Breakdown: 2008-05-10 03:19:05 am
Haters gonna hate


4,162,290- Breakdown - Stage 5 - Maria (C)

Survival-wise, good run.  Scoring-wise, not so hot.  Had a great first 2 stages, then lost my medal chain at the end of 3, got it up to 2k again in 4, lost it in 5 and didn't bother from there.  But actually made it to the stage 5 bosses, so there's a plus.

On the subject of the level 5 bosses, I've read differing accounts on what triggers which ones you fight.  How does it work really, because while Blunt and Sobut are pansies (relatively speaking), Envy is a dirty bastard.
Edit history:
Cromarty: 2008-05-10 03:28:53 am
astral guard
Either you did airport in stage 2, or you got a special level up corresponding to whenever you did airport.

copypasta
Quote:
* Highway Stage: Sobut, Blunt, Envy

Listed in increasing order of difficulty, these three are the "default" bosses of the Highway stage. You'll always fight at least one of them; which one(s) you meet and how many will depend on your actions during the game.

To begin with, each boss corresponds with a different stage:

* Sobut (green) - Sewer System

* Blunt (yellow) - Sky High

* Envy (red) - Airport

At the end of the Highway stage, you will fight the boss corresponding with whatever stage you played as level 2, as determined by "stage edit". Because Envy is extremely difficult, it's a bad idea to play the Airport stage first if you're shooting for survival.

To fight more than one of these bosses, you must have a surviving Batrider character in your team, and fulfill the following conditions:

* Bosses for levels 2 & 3 - Get a shot Special Level Up

* Bosses for levels 2 & 4 - Get an option Special Level Up

* Bosses for levels 2, 3, & 4 - Get both option and shot Special Level Ups


Naturally, if you're trying to survive, avoid special level ups like the plague! The opposite is true if you're aiming for a high score.

Notice how only a Batrider character or a team with a Batrider character can trigger multiple bosses with special level ups.

Quote:
Shot Special Level Up

Dropping three shot power up icons and picking up a fourth will get you a Special Power Up, which boosts your shot level to maximum. This can be done with either large or small shot icons - these are tallied independently of each other.
...
Option Special Level Up

Drop 3 option items and collect a fourth to get an Option Special Level Up, which will boost your options to max level.
4,303,010 - Normand - Stage 5 - Adam (C)

I'd need to revise most of my strategies or to get past level 5 in order to get a significantly better score so I think I'll leave it at that. 
Silver Hawk!
I've had little time to play this week.  Still managed to get an OK score, I think I can do better.  I'll try if I get a chance.  I took a screenshot, got as far as Stage 2 on one credit so far.

everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music
I got a whopping 30k improvement earlier today, but I'll still post I guess.

6,576,830 - Enhasa - Stage 7 - Carpet (S)


To complement what moozooh said again: a lower number means higher rank for Raizing games. Max rank is 0. "Max" that you start out with is ~12.2 million. "Min" that you start out with (which you should get if you follow the instructions and exit service mode with the start button) is ~16.2 million. This will put those other numbers in context.

Cromarty, you lose more than 50k though, since you can bomb the birds. For what you pasted later, I personally think Blunt is the easiest, but Blunt and Sobut are both much easier than Envy, at any rate. Very well just could be I've faced Blunt the most though.


Quote:
I'm actually starting to kinda like this game.
HA! IN YOUR FACE, ENHASA!

[announcer]noooooooooooo[/announcer]

I will make sure you hate week 4's game twice as much.
Edit history:
Cromarty: 2008-05-11 02:24:04 pm
astral guard
^Maybe it's just knocking the sign over that's worth 50k?  I dunno.
I'd probably find Blunt to be easiest if I fought him a million times, too, but I haven't gotten that far in stage 5. Tongue

I don't understand what exactly rank does in this game.  The only boss where I've seen a noticeable difference is Deviate - his initial pattern gets really fast.

Quote:
3,915,720 - Cromarty - Stage 5 - Miyamoto (A)

3,953,450 - Cromarty - Stage 5 - Miyamoto (A)
4,274,530 - Cromarty - Stage 5 - Miyamoto (A)
4,779,250 - Cromarty - Stage 7 - Miyamoto (A)
If I'd kept my chain through stage 5 I could've bombed stuff for medals in stage 7, but even getting that far is pretty cool.  (Where's stage 6?  I beat highway, and it put me in stage 7.  Maybe the coliseum where you fight Bashinet mk2 counts as a stage.. weird.)
Killed Bashinet mk2 on this run. Cheesy  Still don't know how to make him use the laser after blowing his extra arms off.. he used it enough this time that I didn't have to bomb.
2,511,140 - scaryice - Stage 5 - Strawman (A)
Let's fight to computer!
Oh shit yeah.
bsidwell - 3,340,050 - Stage 5 - Maria (C)

I changed my order from Sewers - Airport - Sky High to Sky High - Sewers - Airport and it made a huge difference in my medaling.
Hitting those big green boxes in Sewers with max medal value = oh, baby.
Hail Discordia!
Bah, I've been trying to do something better for some time, but am evidently unable to. :\



5,766,470 - moozooh - Stage 6 - Strawman (B)

Details of the run, as far as I remember them.

First, I pick Strawman with enhanced options because it's easier for me to get used to their quirks than have to rely on frontal shot predominantly. It helps survival a lot, because in busy moments, I can focus on dodging and still do at least 2/3 of my full damage to the enemies.

Stage 1: bombed the train, the parking lot, the birds, and the glass thingie. Scored a lot, so I decided not to milk Confrict extensively. Finished the stage with around 800k and 800p medal chain (up to 1k is possible, though!).

Stage 2 (Sky High): Bombed the midboss, managed to keep the chain throughout. Died once while milking Boredom (fortunately, it was before it started spawning the kamikaze ships, as soon as it started doing that I made sure to kill it as fast as possible). Finished the stage with over 1.3m.

Stage 3 (Sewers): Bombed the laser turrets, received the extend, bombed some more, died once on Deviate. Chained throughout to the net gain of about a million.

Stage 4 (Airport): didn't bother with tickling, forgot to open at least two major medal vaults, but at least managed to keep the chain and get the 3m extend. Destroyed Bazzcok's tail with the aura and proceeded to milk the small planes. Near the end a laser turret got me by surprise, killing me just as the 10k medal was falling by.

Stage 5: was going fine in the first half, got the secret extend from the blue tank (but barely escaped death from a yellow hovercraft which started spraying bullets in the place where a bridge conceals the character, that was mean), ran out of bombs before Blunt and died during the last pattern.

Stage 6: started bombing for survival (luckily, opening medal vaults at the same time), got an extend, died to the sideshooting missile launchers, again started bombing and collecting stuff indiscriminantly (having a lot of available bomb fragments helps; I didn't even have to get a full bomb to get through to the next few pieces), died for the last time on the asshole needle shot part depicted in the screenshot (had I pressed F12 like 5 seconds earlier, there would have been about 4x the bullets on screen).

That about covers it.

Since then I've been having better runs (~850k stage 1 with 1k chain without collecting cash, ~1.45m after Boredom), but I've never managed to keep the chains through stages 1-4 anymore since that run. Having spent around 20 hours on the game this week, I say it's enough.
give me your eyes!!!
It's almost over... can't get my head around this game at all, but those details were quite interesting (hadn't considered using the bomb that much).

Yet I still can't get a score much more than 400k stage 1; moozooh, would it be possible to have a recording showing just the first stage? I'd be happy if I can break 1 million at the moment and I'm clearly doing it all wrong, so some visual aid would be a huge help for a final stab at this game.
Hail Discordia!
Well, MAME/MAMEppk/MAMEPlus desync, WolfMAME I have no patience to figure out, and FBA doesn't let me enter the service menu for some reason, so I guess it'll have to wait until morning (almost 3 AM here). Meanwhile, you can download Icarus's superplay here, he gets over 1.1m in first stage alone, so I think it will be enough for your needs.
1,381,410 - Carcinogen - Stage 3 - Shorty (A), Maria (A), Birthday (A)

This game is fun. =D
Quote:
2,511,140 - scaryice - Stage 5 - Strawman (A)


2,736,800 - scaryice - Stage 4 - Strawman (A)
Edit history:
VorpalEdge: 2008-05-11 04:43:23 pm
welcome to the machine
3,507,720 - VorpalEdge - Stage 4.5 - Miyamoto (C)

I think I trigged one of the secret stages.  I beat all four initial stages but I didn't get to the highway.  Instead, I got this one boss who kept throwing balls that trailed blue fire at me.  I didn't catch the name, sorry.

[edt] ok, that would be the secret stage with Bashinet MkII.
1,196,880 - Xaggoth - stage 3 - Strawman (A)

I didn't spend a lot of time on this weeks game, I guess I'm not much of a shmup fan.  I didn't end up playing past Wednesday, I wasn't enjoying play very much and I couldn't find any motivation to get a high score.