Yeah, this is just my topic to brag about the accomplishments of Me and my friend Sam. He wishes me to point out that we occupy most of the top 40, and places 4 through 12.
Wooo!
Oh, and he wants me to say that #5 was taken by him controlling both ships by same keys.
Woo!
Note that no meanness is intended.
I've been watching that too, and when I get a decent internet connection again, I'll need to knock you guys back off of the 2p list.
Meanwhile, I'll just continue with some odd single-player tricks, like beating the game on a single life (I've made it to the final boss so far, albeit in normal mode).
Edwards
@pisketch, on Jan 6 2007, 10:20 PM, said in <Brag Topic>:
@ Eds(Yes, i'm going to call you Eds): Worried look
ONE LIFE!? Good lord! That's insane, even on normal! Hey, good luck, man.
Thanks. Of course, if you really want an interesting feat, I've also made it into the Factory a couple times on the "no replenishing shields" challenge, which is exactly what it sounds like. :ninja:
Edwards
@pisketch, on Jan 7 2007, 12:00 AM, said in <Brag Topic>:
@Eds: Bug-Eyed You know, that could be pretty fun, actually... Can you get shield upgrades, which restore your shields to maximum when you get them?
Only if you then pound the upgrade right back out by ramming a wall or enemy. The same goes for accidentally picking up a shield recharge, and getting the two ship upgrades. The point, after all, is to see how far you can get on 100 shield points.
Edwards
@edwards, on Jan 7 2007, 07:52 AM, said in <Brag Topic>:
Only if you then pound the upgrade right back out by ramming a wall or enemy. The same goes for accidentally picking up a shield recharge, and getting the two ship upgrades. The point, after all, is to see how far you can get on 100 shield points.
Edwards
Hmmm - I think this topic rather shows my feeling that the game is a little too easy 
I downloaded it yesterday, registered it a couple of hours later (wasted a lot of time trying to do as much as possible without registering) and beat it about 2 hours after that. (sniff) I expected it would be a fair bit longer. Most of that time was trying to beat the final boss! (too much luck involved there, methinks) It is a cool game though.
Then, I was also a little disappointed with 'hard' mode - that took about an hour to beat (or an hour on the game clock, probably 2 in real life).
However, I don't think I could compete on these ridiculous times! 
Personally, I think that the game ought to have a 'fast time penalty' for dying (say 2 minutes?) - or not fully completing (1 min per skipped upgrade?). It would be nice if it separated the normal and hard mode times too.
My weird little challenge of my own (on hard mode and without saving, hence no lives/retries), was how far I could get in 3 minutes. Currently I know I can beat the first boss, flick the first red switch on the volcano level and get back to the first (volcano) save point in 1m38. I can then go on to kill the mini-boss to grab the beam and then onto the main boss - but I think 3m has expired by then.
Presumably you can beat him in under 3mins?
I just find it a shame that the game is so small, and that people had to come up with these insane challenges to keep it going (a bit like just using your fist on total carnage in Marathon if anyone here remembers that!)
Crono: just wait until our custom levels reach the "completion and posting on the add-on files" stage of the pipeline...
@edwards, on Jan 7 2007, 02:25 AM, said in <Brag Topic>:
Meanwhile, I'll just continue with some odd single-player tricks, like beating the game on a single life (I've made it to the final boss so far, albeit in normal mode).
I hereby declare that this mode shall be named "Iron Man" mode.
@edwards, on Jan 7 2007, 06:37 AM, said in <Brag Topic>:
Thanks. Of course, if you really want an interesting feat, I've also made it into the Factory a couple times on the "no replenishing shields" challenge, which is exactly what it sounds like. :ninja:
I hereby declare that this mode shall be named "survival" mode.
There are plenty of other interesting challenges: don't use the down key, for instance. And you can combine them!
@zacha-pedro, on Jan 8 2007, 12:14 AM, said in <Brag Topic>:
There are plenty of other interesting challenges: don't use the down key, for instance. And you can combine them!
Hey, I did so until the first final candidates got released!
And @crono: There'll be some big custom levels (it'll be easier to complete a big one in 1.0.1), and maybe even some Multiplayer custom ones, though don't expect this to happen within the next few months, in the future, just be patient!
@freq245, on Jan 8 2007, 05:11 PM, said in <Brag Topic>:
Hey, I did so until the first final candidates got released!
And @crono: There'll be some big custom levels (it'll be easier to complete a big one in 1.0.1), and maybe even some Multiplayer custom ones, though don't expect this to happen within the next few months, in the future, just be patient!
Thanks (also @Zacha Pedro) - I was going to suggest the 'not using 'down' key yesterday as I tried it that way accidentally on my first life before realising there was a down key. Has anyone ever played Oids? That's also a quite cute little game similar to this in gameplay (if not graphics) xavagus which when registered has a very nice level editor. I used to play it a lot back in OS 7 days on a b/w Classic II (and later in colour on a performa 630).
However, I was going to say that I'm a software engineer by trade and had a look at the SF's level editor. It looks like something that I would call 'alpha' quality really -exposes far too much of the game's internals. Things like 'extra1/2' ought to be dynamic pop-up lists (like solid-type), not to mention pulling the whole toolbar off the top of the screen and making it a separate floating window. Then there's the issue that it really ought to be only allowing you to choose the 'first' sprite in each animation loop to place. Personally I'd prefer just a binary extractor of the map files and then I'd code something up in perl and BBEdit - but then, I'm a unix guy at heart. I don't feel GUI's are worth the time unless they really add something. It is odd that the map file is in XML, but that the actual data is a binary blob in the middle Also, the lack of a 'paint bucket' type tool for backgrounds, rectangular selection tools and s on is a bit of a shame.
Then there are other issues which make the game look a little less modular than it might have been. For example, having to call the Boss 'Boss'. What about Boss.1 so you can have more than one boss and mini-boss per map? (Especially since custom scenarios don't seem to allow more than one map anyway!) The colour pallette should also have a quick-drop for the main map colours (e.g. door/gun colours). Yes people can manually put it in the system colour picker but....
That's not to say I don't think it is a great start, and it's all very easy for me to harp on when I haven't had to put any work into its design... It's just that it was very clear from the briefest of perusals of the manual and editor itself that generating a large, complex level with it would take a long time. I wait with baited breath to see what others with more free time than I do come up with though 
Or alternatively (as you say) that an update comes out and fixes a few of the niggles.
Finally, regarding multi-player - I haven't seen anyone else online when I've looked so far, but since I've only had the game for 2.5 days now, I suppose that isn't too surprising. It would be a shame though if it went the way of pop-pop and died out due to lack of net players.
Enough wibbling though
@Edwards - is your 'no shield recharge' on normal or hard mode, and is that getting to the factory or beating the boss or...?
@edwards, on Jan 7 2007, 05:37 AM, said in <Brag Topic>:
Thanks. Of course, if you really want an interesting feat, I've also made it into the Factory a couple times on the "no replenishing shields" challenge, which is exactly what it sounds like. :ninja:
Edwards
Okay, on Normal mode, I can beat the factory boss and be back in the volcano level with 58% shields after ramming off the recharge got with ship 2.(Which I guess means that having lost 42, I would have lost 84 on hard, giving me 16% left). I then proceeded to get myself nuked embarrassingly by
Spoiler
the big beetle mini-boss trying to get the beam gun!
Guess I was just nervous having beaten the factory boss - or that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Without saving, it's a long ways back to the start again after that though
p.s. I was allowing myself to pick up missile recharges - presumably this is okay - otherwise I think you would run out of missiles breaking walls.
@crono, on Jan 8 2007, 04:29 PM, said in <Brag Topic>:
Okay, on Normal mode, I can beat the factory boss and be back in the volcano level with 58% shields after ramming off the recharge got with ship 2.
Nice! My best so far was about 35% shields before I made a wrong turn down one of the corridors in the Factory and got Flickered.
@crono, on Jan 8 2007, 04:29 PM, said in <Brag Topic>:
Without saving, it's a long ways back to the start again after that though
Yup! You should have seen me sweating by the time I reached the Forest Boss in my Iron Man run- after all, I was doing it on one life, so why should I save?
@crono, on Jan 8 2007, 04:29 PM, said in <Brag Topic>:
p.s. I was allowing myself to pick up missile recharges - presumably this is okay - otherwise I think you would run out of missiles breaking walls.
That's correct- the only restrictions are on things that affect your shields.
@crono, on Jan 8 2007, 03:01 PM, said in <Brag Topic>:
Finally, regarding multi-player - I haven't seen anyone else online when I've looked so far, but since I've only had the game for 2.5 days now, I suppose that isn't too surprising.
It helps if you just leave the lobby running in a window for long periods when you have nothing you really need to concentrate on, and leave the sound on so you can hear the scritching noise when someone else arrives.
Edwards
@edwards, on Jan 9 2007, 01:46 AM, said in <Brag Topic>:
Yup! You should have seen me sweating by the time I reached the Forest Boss in my Iron Man run- after all, I was doing it on one life, so why should I save?
Bah - I was going to say I'd finally beaten the skull tank before screwing up in the ice-caves. I have managed to get to the factory still with 100% shields though - but sadly I was being careless and only left again with 97.
Perhaps there should be a new challenge. How far can you get without losing any shields?
Do you think they could add a new mode in 1.0.1 which actually disables the shield drops? Sometimes when you bust a wall you can't get through without picking one up and then having to bash it out again
Actually, I think some neat 'advanced' features (say only when you've completed hard) should allow you to turn on and off the following individually
)I think it would also be quite useful for authors to be able to enforce a set of these on custom maps (although the game has already stopped you saving on them!)
ZP: A new challenge -- finish the game with the fewest number of shots fired. I can't think of a good name for it, so I shall leave it in your more than capable hands. I also move that this be combined with the minimalist challenge and the survival challenge to create the VidBoi Challenge -- finish the game with a minimum number of shots fired, no deaths, and the minimum amount of equipment. It should be nearly impossible, but I would be willing to bet that someone does it
xander
This post has been edited by darwinian : 11 January 2007 - 11:46 AM
Reason for edit: Moved the post to the appropriate topic
Then it shall be... the (firing) restraint challenge/mode!
Also, the challenge where you don't use the down key shall be known as the "always forward" challenge/mode.
By the way, I would like to inform you all that "Zacha" comes from my membership of the mercenary force known as the Zachit, funded by the Miranu to keep North Tip renegades at bay in the EV: Override scenario. There are also Zacha Verane, Zacha Cho-na, Zacha Yjdo, Zacha Antoine, etc... and many others who unfortunately didn't get their përs and are anonymous; Zacha is an indicator and honorary title of my membership of this group, like "Doctor", nothing more. So I believe it is not entirely correct to refer to me by merely "Zacha" (especially as there have been a few other members with this title as well, though none of them are active nowadays :(), Pedro is more correct (it was my game name then), ZP is too if you're in a hurry.
