Season 3 / Week 2 ~ The New HSC ~ Defender (Game 1)

[Season 3 / Week 2 ~ The New HSC ~ Defender (Game 1)]

I decided I should sit through the tediousness, and 180+ waves later.

Defender...Rollage

 

Some tips for those who haven't rolled it yet.

Always fire, the aliens can't hit your ship if it isn't there.

Fly left, the aliens tend to shoot to the left so you won't get shot at too much.

Juke Right when tailed, when the mutants, swarmers, or discs are tailing you if you change direction suddenly they can't follow you.

[Season 3 / Week 2 ~ The New HSC ~ Defender (Game 1)]

Trying to determine if it is worth it to make further improvements to my scores. Wall Defender is buggy and results in cheap deaths, Defender is tedious.

Defender - 205,450

Wall Defender - 520,934

[Season 3 / Week 2 ~ The New HSC ~ Defender (Game 1)]

 

really! and couldn't they have made it so when your wall gets destroyed, the game continues right there, as long as you get back into the next wall. I always feel kind of ripped off when this happens and I can't move around in the next wall and no more aliens come 'til it restarts! not a very smooth transition... but I keep craving to play again the next day, and so I'm enjoying Wall Defender, and then -- CRAP! what a rip off! I shot that bastard!! I got robbed! game over, no fair & I'm once again temporarily finished for good with Wall Defender.

 

I was trippin' about the aliens too... and I just got robbed at about 480K

Totally agree here. I actually thought I was doing well and thought I could roll this, but constantly when I hit 200k+ my shots go right through the big aliens and it is game over because there isn't enough time to fire again (they go through the small ones too, but those don't instantly destroy a wall).

 

I also experienced the bug where you no longer get big aliens, but also the enemies just stop coming.

[Season 3 / Week 2 ~ The New HSC ~ Defender (Game 1)]

I was kinda getting annoyed that I would get stuck for a sec turning the corners

It is rather annoying when a developer doesn't allow you to hold diagonally to continue moving in the direction you are going, and instantly rounding the corner when you get there. I don't think the 2600 version of Pac-man did this properly either (although the Arcade and the 2600 version of Ms.Pac-man do implement this properly)

[Season 3 / Week 2 ~ The New HSC ~ Defender (Game 1)]

I suck at Defender in the arcade. I never could get used to buttons for directional control. I know I can beat these scores, so these are just preliminary

Defender - 97,250

 

Wall Defender keeps getting cheap kills on me. It seems that the hit detection on the lower giant attacking bug misses a lot.

Wall Defender - 296,994

[Season 3 ~ The New HSC ~ Phoenix (Game 1)]

I have made several attempts at rolling the score, but keep making dumb mistakes. I have pretty good patterns for the Blue/Red waves, and can wipe them out within 10-15 seconds. If I fail the pattern, usually it doesn't leave the Phoenix in a bad state that are hard to kill without dying.

 

The mother ship pattern that I use is pretty good, but I have been making mistakes on it too. I think it is best to get 2-3 holes while in the center, that way if you need to dodge on the edge, you can hopefully still get a two block side-to-side gap.

 

I may make another attempt at rolling, but when I fail I take 45 minutes or so to not beat my score.

[Season 3 ~ The New HSC ~ Phoenix (Game 1)]

I have been trying a new pattern that I like better. The phoenix will hover directly above your cannon on the right/left side, so I now prefer to kill the blues 4th, 1st, then hang to the right of the screen to kill the rest.

 

The reds are hold right and fire 7th, right edge 2nd, head left to dodge a little but then strafe right with the stack of 3rd/4th/5th and hit the right edge. Then bounce out a little from the edge to kill the 1st, and then the final phoenix.

[Season 3 ~ The New HSC ~ Phoenix (Game 1)]

Well, it is March 8, so I can post this.

 

I think I can roll the score next time. I will also keep a clock running to see how long. I finally figured out a good pattern to (somewhat) quickly get rid of the blue phoenix. Start by heading Right. Take out 4th.

Head Left. Take out 1st. juke right to dodge.

Keep Left. Take out 2nd. juke right. Head right (if you keep to near the right of the screen, you can safely ignore the 3rd.

Take out the remaining phoenix, possibly taking out the 3rd second to last.

[Season 3 ~ The New HSC ~ Phoenix (Game 1)]

Just a couple of calculations to let you know what you are in for if you want to roll the score.

 

Wave 1&2) You score phoneix 20 pts. or diving phoenix 80 pts.

Minimum score 8*20 = 160, 8*80 = 640. Average= 180 per wave (I figure you score one diving phoenix every other rack by accident using standard tactics).

 

Wave 3&4) 20 pts. for wing shots, 500 pts. for a phoenix that is at ground level (possibly close to ground), 100 pts. for a phoenix at the highest position. I think this varies a little bit because the birds sway up and down a little, but I haven't verified). On average, I think you will get 1750-2000 pts / wave

7th 100 pts.

6th 150 pts.

5th 200 pts.

4th 250 pts.

3rd 300 pts.

2nd 400 pts.

1st 450 pts.

 

Mother-ship)The maximum is 9,000, but I think it starts ticking down immediately. I assumed 8,000 points, but didn't do any real testing for this.

 

I think this works out to about 12,000 points or so per mother-ship. I was completing each mother-ship destruction in about 1.5 (+/- 0.5 minutes), so it will take somewhere between 2-2.5 hours to roll the score.

[Season 3 ~ The New HSC ~ Phoenix (Game 1)]

Just wondering why we aren't supposed to post a score of 250,000+ points before March 8?

 

Is the idea is that we are supposed to show improvement on the very last day of the tournament (because we are practicing so much, just on that day?) Or;

 

Is it not to discourage newcomers who see super high scores and figure there isn't a point in attempting a better one?

 

(I have a snapshot on my desk that I won't be posting until March 8. If I happen to score 999,000+ points though I am going to post it before the weekend.)

[Season 3 ~ The New HSC ~ Phoenix (Game 1)]

Some observations that I have made.

- Your cannon shrinks and grows in size as you straff left and right.

- The flight paths of the phoenix are basically the same for the 3rd/4th wave (possibly all 4, but haven't thoroughly tested this theory yet).

- A phoenix will not fire at you, unless it is nearly above you (I haven't figured out exactly how many pixels, but usually it will be less than a small cannon away)

- There can only be 4 enemy bullets on the screen at once.

- The phoenix that is highest vertically above you will always shoot. This usually means that diving phoenix will not be firing at you (unless the phoenix above them are far to the left/right). (You can use this and the previous two observation to get a high phoenix firing at you before you attempt to move under a low flying phoenix to kill it).

 

Wave 1) Only the current bottom row of Phoenix dive at you. If you are quick, you can kill off a phoenix on the bottom row before it dives. Then clean up the same side of the 'O' formation. Pick off the rest of the other side, and probably only need to kill 2 "diving" phoenix. The best way to kill the diving phoenix is to wait until it flies back up into its formation.

 

Wave 2) Is much the same tactics, but the formation is an upside down 'V'. For some reason, if you hold down your button, you have continuous fire (why is that? I know it is in the rule book, but I don't understand the design decision.) Use the same tactics you did to take out this wave, starting from one side and moving to the other, staying clear of the diving phoenix.

 

Wave 3&4) As previously stated by others, keeping any of the bottom 3 phoenix alive prevents them from swooping down to ground-level to crash into your ship.

 

Wave 3) The bottom 3 phoenix head left, the top 4 head right. I personally head right, and squeeze off a shot at the 4th phoenix at the edge of the board. Then I head back the other way, to hopefully destroy the bottom phoenix who is heading right now (the 2nd/3rd phoenix will change direction slightly before mid-screen). Then I try to take out the 2nd.

 

Wave 4) If you hold right immediately, then fire, you get a sure-fire hit against the highest 7th phoenix. Then I hit the 2nd phoenix who is usually on the right side of the screen. Then head left and take out the bottom phoenix and 6th phoenix. You should be left with a tight 3rd/4th/5th phoenix stack, which is slightly dangerous. I have just been firing into it, to take out whatever I happen to hit. You can always activate your shields to kill a diving phoenix and nab 500 points.

 

Mother-ship) Start out by tapping left to take out the center-left bricks. You have a second or two to do this, so you should be able to remove 4-5 blocks. (there are a total of 7 non-blue ones. Then you will need to dodge some incoming shots. Take out the remaining 2-3 red bricks, and then get a single hit on the moving blue bricks. Now head Left, and take out the 1,2, and possibly 3 outer most red brick columns. By the time you remove the red bricks, the blue one you hit in the center earlier will swing around. Now slowly follow the opening (or rush slightly ahead), activate your shields, and shoot in the hole you just made. The shield should keep you safe long enough for your shot to connect with the alien. The quicker you take out the mother-ship, the more points you earn. At the bottom level, not only is it hard to dodge missile fire, but you only earn a measly 1000 points. At the top, you earn 4,000 points, but this amount increases up to 9,000 points on successive levels.

 

(you can also just clear out the left two columns after making a hole in the center. A quick shot on the left most column, followed by a quick shot in column 2 will remove the 2 blue bricks, which you can follow to the center and blast the alien.)

[Season 3 ~ The New HSC ~ Phoenix (Game 1)]

-In the Flappy Bird waves, get the bottom two birds first because they are too close to effectively dodge fire from. But leave number three: while it is still alive the birds can't swoop down to ground level. They keep a good distance. So aim for the ones above number three and save that one for last.

Thanks for this tip. It was very helpful. I assume that what you mean by "swooping" is that the phoenix can actually touch your turret. The formations seem to move up and down a little, even with the 3rd phoenix unkilled.

[Season 3 ~ The New HSC ~ Phoenix (Game 1)]

First attempt at the HSC. I actually own a copy of Phoenix, and a Flashback 2, but I haven't modified the system to accept carts. So Stella 3.9.3 it is. Didn't realize you can shield in the game, off to read the manual

Shields really help.

Slight Improvement. Had to shrink the size of the snapshot using paint, since i didn't like having to use google's preview snapshot (wrong aspect ratio). Need to look into Stella's options so I won't need to correct this in the future.

Getting Better. 2014/03/02