The RGF Shmup League - Season #3 Game #2: Hellfire

[gmintyfresh]

360800>Stage 4>LordBritish>Manual>Saturn

Found a cool point milking spot on level 3! Broke my PB about 3 times last night, normally don't have too much trouble with Medusa but last night my brain wasn't working properly with her. That leaderboard has gone crazy!!

[AmidstStorm]

Damn you Gminty.. i took your spot for all of a matter of minutes

But...

i had the urge for a few more credits and....



AmidstStorm - AMS - 408,800 - Stage 5 - Mambo - Auto - Saturn

back up to 5th!

Rankings Updated

[gmintyfresh]

Damn you Gminty.. i took your spot for all of a matter of minutes

But...

i had the urge for a few more credits and....



AmidstStorm - AMS - 408,800 - Stage 5 - Mambo - Auto - Saturn

back up to 5th!

Rankings Updated

Bugger!!!

[Fightersmegamix]

Competition is hotting up, this is good fun There are big points to be had on level 5 if you can make it that far.

[weakboson]

Yeah it's good to see it all kicking off, looks like my score won't be safe for long. As for stage 5 I think it's mostly just a few fiddly bits that make it difficult but once you've got those down it's doable, so keep pushing ahead. I wish I had managed to save some decent replays as I found I was able to pass the American eagle in the boss rush fairly regularly. It helps a lot if you've still got the extra speed up from stage 2.

FWIW. Retroleague over on zetaboards.

Everyone nominates 2 games that allow for both a score of some description and easy emulation. Eg Sexy Parodius, high score; Jet Set Willy, number of items. Games like Xybots would probably be discounted. Nominations can be changed at any time during the Season. A Season lasts for 10 games with the League Winner having the choice of game for a non-competitive Champions Choice Game Week.

A 'randomizer' selects one of the chosen games. The game is played for ONE WEEK, from Sunday lunch until Sunday lunch when the Game Week closes and a new one immediately opens. The first game is a random choice of ALL nominations. However, unless the gamer posts a score during the Game Week, only nominations from those taking part during that Game Week will have their nominations up for selection. Points for the week are scored a la Twin Galaxies (I could not begin to explain this!). Everyone involved each week earns points, regardless of position; 1st place is always 100% (100 points), last place could be anything small (there have been instances of 2% and 5 points or so awarded). Previous Game Weeks have an effect on the %. Retroleague games are anything at all on any format.

This season has seen Robotron 2084 (I had to play using keyboard - 4 keys per hand), Side Arms, and Mystic Warrior among others. Games in the past have included Hovver Bovver, Paradroid, Twin Cobra, and Chuckie Egg.

Despite the short gametime per game, there are usually some very decent scores posted.

Granted, I expect many gamers here would prefer longer than a week of play per game and a simpler scoring method. Choosing a game, though....

I'm for keeping it at one game a month since it seems to be working out so far. I had a look at the scoring system, though. You can read it here, if anyone's interested. It seems pretty clever, half of the points you get are awarded based on your position in the table and the other half on what percentage of the highest score yours is. So if you get 50% of the highest score and were ranked precisely in the middle of the league you would get 50/100 points. The good thing about it is that it encourages people to beat their personal bests, as any increase in score will increase the number of league points you get. The thing that worries me is that it relies on what the top score is. With Parodius I think the scores will be fairly evenly spread but if we played a game with an exponential scoring system then it wouldn't be unreasonable for the top score to be, say, twice that of some of the ones just bellow it. That would make the gap in points people receive bigger than what the actual difference in skill level or achievement might be. This is mitigated somewhat by the other half of the system, of course, so it's probably not that big of a deal. Worth considering, I think, as the extra incentive to beat your PB would be really welcome.

[DigitalDuck]

Oh, people are posting decent scores now? Guess it's time I posted this, then:



DigitalDuck - QWK - 767300 - 1-2-3A-X-4B-5 - Mambo - Semi-Auto - MAME JAA

I think I'm the only one using Semi-Auto, but it works for me. Copying weakboson's choice of character seems to have worked for me too.

[weakboson]

Nice job, DigitalDuck, so close to the second extend. For me the only downside to auto mode is that you're stuck on a slower speed if you die after stage 2. In the end I decided having checkpoints would make me more stuck.

[DigitalDuck]

Nice job, DigitalDuck, so close to the second extend. For me the only downside to auto mode is that you're stuck on a slower speed if you die after stage 2. In the end I decided having checkpoints would make me more stuck.

Well, I'm the kind of player who pretty much ramps the speed up to full as soon as possible, before whizzing about all over the place and trying not to die. I've gotten the hang of recovering from a death now (just about), so I'm definitely sticking to it.

[AmidstStorm]

I don't mind the Auto pace on this game. Unlike the Otomedius series where speed ruined the games for me. My biggest annoyance with Sexy P is it feels like such a grind just playing this, the score takes forever, Stage 1 is bland as hell, and pointless for scoring. 80k range is about tops at the very most, unless i've missed a prime milking location? Stage 2 has become my biggest nightmare. Only passing it once even with Alex's gobby techniques. That run ended up terribly but seemed to cover more stages but less score. 1-2-3A-4B-5 - Definitely think 3A is better for score as it's a longer level it seems. Still hating the harshness of the power up system when you die. Though if that was gone, we'd probably all be nearing 1CC's by now.. so perhaps it is good for challenge and I just can't accept it.

Rankings Updated

[Sel Feena]

It does feel like if you die once during later stages, you're in for a tough time. Still, looks like it's all suddenly on like Tron!

[AmidstStorm]

In regards to the Retro League scoring. Ive just woken up and may be sleepy, but it isn't written in simple form. not for my dumbass anyhow. Can someone dumb it down for me? The percentage thing i get, but it looks like it matters how many players submit etc. how would we incoporate something similar into out league if that what people want to do. I really want to keep the bonus points for 1CC's and the 30 day game time. Other than that i'm open to change and anything if majority permits it, but we need to get it nailed and confirmed before the end of game #1 being 24th Feb.

[DigitalDuck]

In regards to the Retro League scoring. Ive just woken up and may be sleepy, but it isn't written in simple form. not for my dumbass anyhow. Can someone dumb it down for me? The percentage thing i get, but it looks like it matters how many players submit etc. how would we incoporate something similar into out league if that what people want to do. I really want to keep the bonus points for 1CC's and the 30 day game time. Other than that i'm open to change and anything if majority permits it, but we need to get it nailed and confirmed before the end of game #1 being 24th Feb.

Basically, your score is two parts: how well you scored in relation to the top scorer, and how well you placed in relation to everyone else. Each part is worth 50 points.

The first part is a straight ratio comparing score; if you scored half of the amount the top scorer, you'll get 25 points (half of 50). If you scored 80%, you'll get 40.

The second part is straight ratio comparing position, except your distance from the bottom of the table is counted; if you came 3rd out of 10 people, you'll score 8 (distance from bottom; 10th is 1, 9th is 2, 8th is 3 etc.) divided by 10 (number of players) times 50 (points for part) = 40 points. If you came 9th out of 20 people, you'll score 30 ((20 - 9 + 1) / 20 * 50).

I'd prefer the simple league + bonus system we have at the moment, personally, if only because it's much easier to work out at a glance.

[weakboson]

To be honest thinking about it it does seem unecessarily complicated considering that it might not actually be that much fairer. The system we currently have will probably do.

[AmidstStorm]

In regards to the Retro League scoring. Ive just woken up and may be sleepy, but it isn't written in simple form. not for my dumbass anyhow. Can someone dumb it down for me? The percentage thing i get, but it looks like it matters how many players submit etc. how would we incoporate something similar into out league if that what people want to do. I really want to keep the bonus points for 1CC's and the 30 day game time. Other than that i'm open to change and anything if majority permits it, but we need to get it nailed and confirmed before the end of game #1 being 24th Feb.

Basically, your score is two parts: how well you scored in relation to the top scorer, and how well you placed in relation to everyone else. Each part is worth 50 points.

The first part is a straight ratio comparing score; if you scored half of the amount the top scorer, you'll get 25 points (half of 50). If you scored 80%, you'll get 40.

The second part is straight ratio comparing position, except your distance from the bottom of the table is counted; if you came 3rd out of 10 people, you'll score 8 (distance from bottom; 10th is 1, 9th is 2, 8th is 3 etc.) divided by 10 (number of players) times 50 (points for part) = 40 points. If you came 9th out of 20 people, you'll score 30 ((20 - 9 + 1) / 20 * 50).

I'd prefer the simple league + bonus system we have at the moment, personally, if only because it's much easier to work out at a glance.

Ah thanks, Yeah it's a good system based on scoring, though i don't think i could be arsed to do all the calculations at the end of each game. Giga Wing is one game you will definitely need a calculator for. Although i don't mind doing it all, I agree with sir boson. There may be perhaps be moment's where i wouldn't have that sort of time too. Im hoping it's not going to be difficult getting all the nominations and votes in quick enough to start the next game. I'm excited by what we're going to be playing already, and I don't have a clue what it will be yet

[Fightersmegamix]

I just had my third session on the game and went backwards I can get through to the medusa boss without losing a life no problem but because of the rank system the boss is suddenly way harder. If I die then stage 4 is a nightmare to get going on without weapons. Can't decide weather to keep going to get better or try and work out where the best place to die is. Thinking a suicide halfway through 3 gives me chance to collect weapons and beat the boss.

The game is fun but when and where you die makes too much difference. The game loves to give you the 'big' power up too, which then stops you picking up anything else Agree with Amidstorm about the first level, god it's a chore.

The game does have that 'one more go' feeling, maybe thats the league though