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VGS NES Weekly Contest - M.U.S.C.L.E


BeaIank

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415496

Well, unlike @0xDEAFC0DE, I have NOT figured out the scoring, but I seem to land around 40K every round, so I'm okay with this score.

(old picture was here)

I know I could improve though...this run was absolute shit, especially with this shit PC controller, due in part to the random ring selections.  Went like this:

Normal: Round 1, 7
Ice: Round 2, 4, 5, 8, 10
Electric: Round 3, 6, 9

If @Dr. Morbis is free tomorrow, I'd love to knock this out at his place where I can play it properly.  If not, I'll just keep trying to get better at the game.  I know speed seems to be irrelevant, so maybe it's the moves used that affects it?  It's weird, but even losing a round (and thus 5K) doesn't seem to make much difference, as I seem to score the same regardless.  I'm not sure if match type factors in either, but I would assume not, as I didn't have any noticeable score changes between them, just more frustration having to deal with the absolute worst match type 5 goddamn times!

EDIT: Decided to play out the rest of the run.  Got over 1.1 million points by Round 26 before dying.  Oddly, I only saw the electric round twice more (including the round I died), and roughly two thirds of what was left was ice rings.  For whatever reason, this run hates me.  But yeah, not sure why we didn't just go to game over on this one, since it actually displays scores over 1 million, and the difficulty does seem to ramp up significantly - on later levels it's actually pretty tough to hit anything!  I seem to have bumped my average score up a bit too, but that may be because it took me a LOT longer to actually win rounds (time was in the mid teens rather than 24+), so scoring may have something to do with moves, move variety, total damage dealt, or something that isn't clear because the score is hidden during the match.

SCORE EDIT: Yeah, it does seem like beating down the opponents is the way to maximize the score, but after around round 5 it gets a bit tricky.  This run I only lost one round as well, so only lost 5K points...not sure if working three round matches is the way to go point-wise though, but I'd hate to ruin a run by intentionally losing one match and getting beat legitimately in the third.  I did have a couple close ones though...two matches ended with >0.5 on the clock, and since I had one round that awarded the decision to the other team despite me having higher health AND a special ball when time ran out, I'm glad I didn't have to rely on the computer's decision 😛

SCORE EDIT 2: BOO YA!  Cracked the 500K plateau!

Edited by the_wizard_666
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Events Team · Posted
6 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

But yeah, not sure why we didn't just go to game over on this one, since it actually displays scores over 1 million, and the difficulty does seem to ramp up significantly - on later levels it's actually pretty tough to hit anything!

While it would be doable to play till game over, that could make the runs much more time consuming. And we are like, old, so we don't have as much free time to play as we did 10 years ago, so I try to make the rules in such way that doing a score run won't take a whole night of game play.
But next time this shows up we can up the ante till round 20.

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11 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

415496

Well, unlike @0xDEAFC0DE, I have NOT figured out the scoring, but I seem to land around 40K every round, so I'm okay with this score.

IMG_20210903_234859698.thumb.jpg.8c92fca0f99a28e919183de934ba5f23.jpg

I know I could improve though...this run was absolute shit, especially with this shit PC controller, due in part to the random ring selections.  Went like this:

Normal: Round 1, 7
Ice: Round 2, 4, 5, 8, 10
Electric: Round 3, 6, 9

If @Dr. Morbis is free tomorrow, I'd love to knock this out at his place where I can play it properly.  If not, I'll just keep trying to get better at the game.  I know speed seems to be irrelevant, so maybe it's the moves used that affects it?  It's weird, but even losing a round (and thus 5K) doesn't seem to make much difference, as I seem to score the same regardless.  I'm not sure if match type factors in either, but I would assume not, as I didn't have any noticeable score changes between them, just more frustration having to deal with the absolute worst match type 5 goddamn times!

EDIT: Decided to play out the rest of the run.  Got over 1.1 million points by Round 26 before dying.  Oddly, I only saw the electric round twice more (including the round I died), and roughly two thirds of what was left was ice rings.  For whatever reason, this run hates me.  But yeah, not sure why we didn't just go to game over on this one, since it actually displays scores over 1 million, and the difficulty does seem to ramp up significantly - on later levels it's actually pretty tough to hit anything!  I seem to have bumped my average score up a bit too, but that may be because it took me a LOT longer to actually win rounds (time was in the mid teens rather than 24+), so scoring may have something to do with moves, move variety, total damage dealt, or something that isn't clear because the score is hidden during the match.

I got 59k round 1 doing this. Maybe its the same as @0xDEAFC0DEstrat.

Beat fighter down to 1 health bar. Let him walk over to ropes and tag in the other guy. I then beat the other guy. But I think they gain health back when sitting out. So theoretically you could let them tag back again and keep racking. I dont think there is any bonus for time left on the clock, so deaf is probably running it down every round. 

I dont know if I have the patience or enjoy the game enough to grind like that. Id call this game good not great. If it were karate champ (similar grinding strats) id make time and grind it out hard. 

Edited by NESfiend
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48 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

I got 59k round 1 doing this. Maybe its the same as @0xDEAFC0DEstrat.

Beat fighter down to 1 health bar. Let him walk over to ropes and tag in the other guy. I then beat the other guy. But I think they gain health back when sitting out. So theoretically you could let them tag back again and keep racking. I dont think there is any bonus for time left on the clock, so deaf is probably running it down every round. 

I dont know if I have the patience or enjoy the game enough to grind like that. Id call this game good not great. If it were karate champ (similar grinding strats) id make time and grind it out hard. 

That was my guess - that it's a matter of hitting more moves and that time doesn't matter.  That's something I'd probably only want to do (intentionally anyway) on the regular levels though...the ice and electric ones I'd want to just get past ASAP. 

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2 hours ago, NESfiend said:

I got 59k round 1 doing this. Maybe its the same as @0xDEAFC0DEstrat.

Beat fighter down to 1 health bar. Let him walk over to ropes and tag in the other guy. I then beat the other guy. But I think they gain health back when sitting out. So theoretically you could let them tag back again and keep racking. I dont think there is any bonus for time left on the clock, so deaf is probably running it down every round. 

I dont know if I have the patience or enjoy the game enough to grind like that. Id call this game good not great. If it were karate champ (similar grinding strats) id make time and grind it out hard. 

This might be the only place on the internet where NES Karate Champ gets any sort of praise.

 

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17 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

the random ring selections. 

Normal: Round 1, 7
Ice: Round 2, 4, 5, 8, 10
Electric: Round 3, 6, 9

If @Dr. Morbis   

I just played trying scoring strat and got 4 electric and an ice through round 7. Rage quit at the start of round 7. Thats some hot garbage.

Edited by NESfiend
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3 hours ago, NESfiend said:

I just played trying scoring strat and got 4 electric and an ice through round 7. Rage quit at the start of round 7. Thats some hot garbage.

Ugh, that's some BS right there.  I don't mind the electric rings so much, although it does kill my strategy of "let the guy get the ball and bounce off the ropes repeatedly to kick his face in" 😛  The ice rings are the ones I truly hate due to pretty much not being able to land anything and being an utter crapshoot unless you have the power up ball.

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7 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said:

Ugh, that's some BS right there.  I don't mind the electric rings so much, although it does kill my strategy of "let the guy get the ball and bounce off the ropes repeatedly to kick his face in" 😛  The ice rings are the ones I truly hate due to pretty much not being able to land anything and being an utter crapshoot unless you have the power up ball.

Thats funny. I find the ice stages easier to rack points because of the very strategy you alluded to. Rope bounces are where its at. Thats why I hate the electric ones. You cant use the ropes at all and if one of them gets the ball, shit can go downhill fast. 

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29 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said:

Also, I think @Dr. Morbis may be out of town for the long weekend...if that's the case, I think I've made me another $20 😛

You won another twenty bucks the moment I realized that I only had a small window to take a picture after winning a round.  Since I can't play any of Round 11 to kill myself after Round 10, or even pause right at the start of Round 11, because it only shows your score between rounds, the only way to take a picture without a short time window is on the Game Over screen, so I knew then and there that my Monday run would include purposely killing myself during Round 10 (and no, I do not like this game enough to risk the frustration of potentially missing my photo op numerous times with my shitty-ass fourteen year old digital camera that takes 5+ tries to get a clean shot every time I point it at my TV).

On the other hand, since you're emulating, you don't have this disadvantage and thus can freeze the game at your leisure to take a picture after winning Round 10, giving yourself one more round to score the 10k bonus.  So you had me beat on Monday, you just didn't know it yet 😉    And since you're a poor student, I figure the money's going to a good cause anyway 🙂

Edited by Dr. Morbis
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2 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

You won another twenty bucks the moment I realized that I only had a small window to take a picture after winning a round.  Since I can't play any of Round 11 to kill myself after Round 10, or even pause right at the start of Round 11, because it only shows your score between rounds, the only way to take a picture without a short time window is on the Game Over screen, so I knew then and there that my Monday run would include purposely killing myself during Round 10 (and no, I do not like this game enough to risk the frustration of potentially missing my photo op numerous times with my shitty-ass fourteen year old digital camera that takes 5+ tries to get a clean shot every time I point it at my TV).

On the other hand, since you're emulating, you don't have this disadvantage and thus can freeze the game at your leisure to take a picture after winning Round 10, giving yourself one more round to score the 10k bonus.  So you had me beat on Monday, you just didn't know it yet 😉    And since you're a poor student, I figure the money's going to a good cause anyway 🙂

Dude, I didn't do that at all.  I literally just paused at the end of the match, before the score came up, got the camera ready, and unpaused it.  Did you seriously figure that since you couldn't wait at the high score screen that you were screwed?  Jeez dude, that was a grave misstep for ya 😛 Also, my first score's picture was blurry too.  As long as it's legible, being blurry isn't an issue.  But seriously, unless you consider pausing the game as "emulation shenanigans," there was none of that here.  But I will say, you admitted I had you beat on Saturday when I ran through it at your place 😛

Oh, and while you're reading this, I know you had questions about where the game "actually" ends.  I'll say I don't recall seeing repeated tag teams until near the end of my run.  Doing the math, with 6 characters remaining after you choose them, there should be 21 unique matches, so that fits with my experience.  The rings have no discernable pattern after the third match, so shouldn't be considered.  You can make your "AdamL" requirement to beat all 21 unique opposing teams.

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11 hours ago, NESfiend said:

I just played trying scoring strat and got 4 electric and an ice through round 7. Rage quit at the start of round 7. Thats some hot garbage.

I take it the ring selection is random. I played another quick game last night and I got the normal ring for round 1, but the electric ring for rounds 2, 3, 4 and 5. The top 8 will probably be round 10 scores by tonight so I might try again today to see if I can get there.

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3 hours ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

I take it the ring selection is random. I played another quick game last night and I got the normal ring for round 1, but the electric ring for rounds 2, 3, 4 and 5. The top 8 will probably be round 10 scores by tonight so I might try again today to see if I can get there.

Yeah, round 1 is always normal. From there its luck of rhe draw. And 4 electrics in a row is as shitty a result as you can ask for. I probably would have reset round 4 in your shoes. If you are jusr wanting to progress, not as big of an issue, but point racking on the electric is really frustrating/difficult.

Edit; Wow, getting up at the crack of dawn pays dividends. Nice score, Doug!

Edited by NESfiend
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6 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

Yeah, round 1 is always normal. From there its luck of rhe draw. And 4 electrics in a row is as shitty a result as you can ask for. I probably would have reset round 4 in your shoes. If you are jusr wanting to progress, not as big of an issue, but point racking on the electric is really frustrating/difficult.

Edit; Wow, getting up at the crack of dawn pays dividends. Nice score, Doug!

I got a lucky draw on the rings this time. I got the electric ring for round 3 and the ice ring for rounds 9 and 10, but all the rest were the normal ring. I still have no idea how the scoring works, but at least I made it the distance. 

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On 9/4/2021 at 8:02 AM, BeaIank said:

While it would be doable to play till game over, that could make the runs much more time consuming. And we are like, old, so we don't have as much free time to play as we did 10 years ago, so I try to make the rules in such way that doing a score run won't take a whole night of game play.
But next time this shows up we can up the ante till round 20.

I can confirm this. I'm not @bertsampson old, but I'm old enough.

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2 hours ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

I got a lucky draw on the rings this time. I got the electric ring for round 3 and the ice ring for rounds 9 and 10, but all the rest were the normal ring. I still have no idea how the scoring works, but at least I made it the distance. 

You sure round 2 wasnt ice? Thinking more about it, seems like every game I played yesterday 1, 2, 3 was normal, ice, electric, then random from there. Either way, that's a really good draw for the game

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6 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

You sure round 2 wasnt ice? Thinking more about it, seems like every game I played yesterday 1, 2, 3 was normal, ice, electric, then random from there. Either way, that's a really good draw for the game

It could have been. That would make sense when I've gotten the electric ring on round 3 each time as well.

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Per @the_wizard_666 and @BeaIank earlier discussion about future rules, Id say if you want more levels, it would need to go to a straight progress competition with no level cap. You could run through them if points were not a factor, but point pressing 20 of them would take a lot more time than the majority of us have

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11 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

 Did you seriously figure that since you couldn't wait at the high score screen that you were screwed?  Jeez dude, that was a grave misstep for ya 😛

Screwed?  Grave misstep?  Heh, maybe you're miss-reading the tone of my post.  I played two games on Monday, died on Round 8 in the first game (damn electric fence, lesson learned), and then killed myself in Round 10 of the second game and photographed my score.  That's it!  I'm done with the game!  I can't win the Sports category because Deafcode's got it locked, I don't need the points for the overall scoreboard, and I don't need the twenty bucks!  When I say I was done on Monday, I literally meant that I was done with this game on Monday; enjoy the extra funds 🙂

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