Carol vs. The World 2015 Championship

[+Darrin9999]

When you updating?

[+DZ-Jay]

Sorry for the delay, but the new year started and so it has taken my time.

 

I aim to have the final announcement this week-end.

[TestaOn]

I've finally crested 1000! I shifted my focus from clearing every board of all candy to general survival. I guess my dream of being perfect didn't pan out.

[+grips03]

I've finally crested 1000! I shifted my focus from clearing every board of all candy to general survival. I guess my dream of being perfect didn't pan out.image.jpeg

As you keep playing you will find a balance in that. Some levels go for candy and some just survive. 1053 is a really good score.

[Opry99er]

Agreed.... Well done!!

[TestaOn]

As you keep playing you will find a balance in that. Some levels go for candy and some just survive. 1053 is a really good score.

 

I just finally went back and actually read through this thread as well as the previous thread that DZ linked with the Tips & Tricks. Wow! I needed to do my homework - and I regret falling off Atari Age for those holiday weeks. All of you guys that gave tips and screenshots and videos, thank you. I can't wait to try some of this stuff out. Long live Carol!

Edited January 28, 2016 by TestaOn

[+DZ-Jay]

I've finally crested 1000! I shifted my focus from clearing every board of all candy to general survival. I guess my dream of being perfect didn't pan out.image.jpeg

 

That's great! I find it hard to just play for survival, it's against my OCD tendencies. However, I do know that it is the best strategy to get ahead with lots of points.

[+DZ-Jay]

For everybody wondering, I have not forgotten about the contest winners and the prizes. I am just running a bit behind due to some complications with real life and work. I have compiled the final list of winners and I am in the process of validating everything with the other judges.

 

I will announce the final winners and their prizes very soon. I will then start contacting everybody to get their shipping details. Please stay tuned, and thank you all for your patience!

 

-dZ.

[Opry99er]

Thanks DZ-Jay.... And thank you again for hosting this score competition. Truly made my December awesome!

[+DZ-Jay]

I finally managed to caught up with life and posted the official winners. I will start working on the prizes this weekend, so I will be contacting all the winners very soon.

 

I apologize again for the delay, but I finally caught up with Real Life so I am back on track, though severely delayed on everything. I never forgot about you, nor did I ever intend for this to take so long. Please accept my sincere apologies.

 

You can check out the Official Winners here:

• CvW: The Official 2015 Winners

 

I've also updated the Official Leaderboard with the latest achievements and final scores.

 

Congratulations to the winners and thank you all for participating!

 

-dZ.

[Opry99er]

Thanks again for hosting this excellent tournament.

 

It was fun, and I look forward to playing again in December.

[First Spear]

Playa, you make this awesome every year. Here's to you!

 

 

I finally managed to caug[snip]

[+DZ-Jay]

Calling on users Opry99er, Iwantgames:), gamer1867, atariron82, and BuckoBrand: Please check your PM. Your prizes await...

[+Darrin9999]

My Goodies have arrived! Thanks! DZ

[+DZ-Jay]

Awesome sauce! Enjoy!

 

You know, those mugs and hot cocoa mix are not just for show on your shelf, they are made to be used.

 

This year, I got the Hot Cocoa in lots of different flavours, some of which I haven't tried yet (like Butterscotch! Yum!). I hope everyone enjoys them.

-dZ.

[+stupus]

I got my box of Christmas cheer last night too! Thanks so much DZ! So many cool goodies Your the best!!!

[pimpmaul69]

Got mine too. Awesome contest. See you all again in december.

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

I also received my box-'O-fun yesterday afternoon as well. I just now got a chance to finally open it and take in all the cool goodies inside. Hard work pays off.

Thanks so much, dZ! See you fellas at the next one.

[First Spear]

My Novice Elves received their certificates + magnets.

 

dZ, you make this special every year and really go above-and-beyond. The kids especially like the cut scenes in the game, they give something for them to look forward to as they beat the levels.

 

Thanks!

 

[Shmeg]

Received my stuff, thanks a bunch!

[+intellivotion]

My special present for Christmas has crossed the ocean and has been delivered today

 

Thank you, bro!!!

 

(from a man who is not often enough where he should be. You know what I mean)

[Illtiger1]

Wow! Just received my patch and certificates in the mail the other week. Amazing stuff and excellent quality. Huge thank you to DZ for the great game and prizes. Proudly going up in my game room. Too damn cool!

[+DZ-Jay]

 

It's part illusion, part real fact. When the game starts again from Haunted Hollow, the difficulty is adjusted by 12.5% upwards. While making the game, I thought it would be appropriate to make the enemies faster and carol slower, which would make the game more challenging. In retrospect it is just a bit weird.

 

The illusion part is that, throughout the eight stages, all parameters are slightly increased on every level, making Carol go faster as well as her enemies, by different amounts. By the time you reach Twisted Toyland, the speed is much higher than the first level. So, by the time you pass it and roll around back to Haunted Hollow, even with the 12.5% increase, it is still slower. Add to that a 6.25% speed penalty on Carol, and you can really tell the difference.

 

If I had to do it all over again, I'll probably increase Carol's speed by 6.25% instead of decreasing it on every rank. Oh well. Live and learn.

 

Just to give you an idea, Christmas Carol speed goes from 27 (~16 pps) on the first level, to 36 (~22 pps) on the last one.

 

 

Christmas Carol Fun Fact: The speed in Christmas Carol is measured as a percentage of maximum frame-rate. The frame rate of the game is 60 Hz, so the fastest any sprite could go would be 60 pixels per second (pps)*. This corresponds to a value of 100% in the Level Parameters Table. The parameters table includes the values to use for the speed of the sprites, the length of the Snowflake effects and how many times to flash the Ghost while stunned, the number of tiles the Ghost runs through before stopping to "look around," the time delay before the Snowman's first and second attack, and the number of presents that triggers the Snowman attack. It defines individual values for each of the 16 levels.

 

For example, here's the table for the first level:

        ;                   SPEED                                     SNOWMAN ATTACK                         OTHER
        ;         +--------------+-------+                +------------------+------------------+ +---------------+--------+
        ;         |      Elf     | Ghost |                |     Attack #1    |     Attack #2    | |   Stun Time   | V-Tile |
        ;         +-------+------+-------+ +-------+------+---------+--------|---------+--------+ +-------+-------+--------+
        ;         |  Nrm  | Stun |  Nrm  | | Gifts | Warn | Timeout | Speed  | Timeout | Speed  | |  Qsec | Flash | Tiles  |
        ;         +-------+------+-------+ +-------+------+---------+--------+---------+--------+ +-------+-------+--------+
@@1:    LVL_DATA_REC  27,    30,     42,       4,      3,      10,       27,       8,       33,       8,      3,      24    ; Level: # 1

For the first level, notice that Carol starts with a "normal" speed of 27% (about 16 pps), which gets bumped temporarily to 30% (18 pps) when she eats a Snowflake (stun). The Ghost normal speed is 42% (25 pps).

 

The Snowman attack will be triggered after 4 presents are picked up, and his howl will serve as warning for 3 seconds before he enters. There is also an idle timeout which will trigger the Snowman if Carol doesn't do anything for 10 seconds. The Snowman himself will run at 27% speed (16 pps).

 

A second timer of 8 seconds starts when the Snowman comes out to trigger the "cruising elroy" or Snowman's angrier second attack. At that point, he will run at 33% (20 pps) speed.

 

When Carol eats a Snowflake, along with going a bit faster temporarily, it will stun her enemies for 8 quarter-seconds (2 seconds), of which the Ghost will flash three times, for three-quarters of a second.

 

And finally, the Ghost will count 24 virtual board tiles before stopping to look around. This counter gets reset every time Carol picks up a present and the Ghost runs towards it. This means that if he is far enough, he has a chance to stop and "forget" about the present before he reaches it. On higher levels, this gets increased significantly, making the Ghost more menacing.

 

On each difficulty rank, the parameters above are scaled like this:

• Elf Normal Speed: -6.25%
• Elf Stunned Speed: -6.25%
• Ghost/Bad Toy Speed: +12.5%
• Attack Trigger Present Counter: -12.5%
• Early Attack Warning Timer: -12.5%
• Snowman Attack #1 Timeout: -12.5%
• Snowman Attack #1 Speed: +12.5%
• Snowman Attack #2 Timeout: -12.5%
• Snowman Attack #2 Speed: +12.5%
• Stunned Mode Duration: -12.5%
• Stunned Ghost Flash Counter: -12.5%
• Ghost Virtual Tile Counter: +12.5%

 

And there you have it. That's the Christmas Carol Level Parameters Table.

 

I hope this illustrates to you that the difficulty and level parameters are actually quite nuanced in the game, and that difficulty is increased by scaling all values by appropriate factors rather than a blanket doubling of speed. This, to me, gives the game more depth and re-play value.

 

-dZ.

 

 

 

* This is not strictly true. The fastest a sprite can go is actually 120 pps. Although speeds are measured in fractions of the frame-rate, there is a special allowance for enemies to move two pixels on a single frame if they go faster than 100% speed (60 pps). This allows the Snowman, for example, to go at 45 pps speed (75%) on Twisted Toyland on the first rank, and at about 113 pps (+12.5% x 4 = 50% increase in speed) on the Master Rank!

 

 

While taking a break from some other task, I took some time to confirm my comments above and I discovered that it is mostly true, except for a slight inaccuracy.

 

It is true that when you finish all eight stages and the game starts again on a higher rank, all level parameters and adjusted. What is not true is that the Elf speed is scaled down. It is actually scaled up, but by half the factor of the other parameters. That is, on each difficulty rank, the parameters are scaled like this:

 

• Elf Normal Speed: +6.25%
• Elf Stunned Speed: +6.25%
• Ghost/Bad Toy Speed: +12.5%
• Attack Trigger Present Counter: -12.5%
• Early Attack Warning Timer: -12.5%
• Snowman Attack #1 Timeout: -12.5%
• Snowman Attack #1 Speed: +12.5%
• Snowman Attack #2 Timeout: -12.5%
• Snowman Attack #2 Speed: +12.5%
• Stunned Mode Duration: -12.5%
• Stunned Ghost Flash Counter: -12.5%
• Ghost Virtual Tile Counter: +12.5%

Like explained above, the perceived slow down of Carol is actually an illusion: According to the parameters table, at the end of Stage #8, on the 16th level, Carol is configured to go at 36% (percent of max speed). For the first level, Carol is configured to go at 27%. This means that even after increasing the speed by 6.25%, the player goes from a speedy 36% to a brisk 29% (27 + 6.25% = 27 x 1.0625 = 29)!

Compare that to, say, the Ghost which goes from 39% on level #16, to 47% (42 + 12.50% = 42 x 1.1250 = 47) on the first level at second rank.

By design, this was intended to provide a respite after completing the eight stage tour, while the difficulty ramps up progressively on each level. The sprites are slightly faster on each rank, but considerably slower than in the last levels of the previous rank. In practice, I can appreciate how the slowdown can feel strange.

-dZ.

Edited July 23, 2016 by DZ-Jay

[Eric7100]

My head is spinning.

[Rev]

In case anyone is interested in Eric7100's recent homebrew sales.

 

Here's the final stats of the money that he made from his third round of sales:

 

$778.08 (total money from sales) - $154.23 (packing/shipping expenses & PayPal/eBay fees) = $623.85 (total money left over)

 

Once again, Eric and Salt thank all of you who bought from them!