November 2018 Shmup Club - Steel Empire

[Dingo]

Better late than never. Let's see if I can get the clear within a week.

[Golem]

Landed a hard clear using all planes (video here):
[img width=317 height=222]https://i.imgur.com/ivdnEd0.png[/img]
5,978,800

Fro, to your question about scoring--couldn't you (in theory) counterstop at one of the battleships? They spawn enemies infinitely which give you points.

Key lessons that went into this clear:
-When you pass the turrets on the first train boss, stay to its right as much as possible. This makes dodges cleaner (weaving between fewer diagonal bullets) and lets you do more damage. Only move up if you absolutely have to, but when you do, zipping over such a large area will make it easier to dodge the fire from any remaining turrets.
-The ceiling in the opening of stage 2 and the floor during the midboss and boss of stage 2 are both decoration. They don't hurt you. It helped me so much when I realized I could ignore how close I was to them. (It's also misleading that they would put ceiling and floor graphics in--just leave those elements out if I can't collide with them.)
-When you fight battleships, you blow open a hatch to reveal a weak point. It creates a little indent for you to fly into. The bottom right lip of that indent is decoration. It won't damage you.  Now obviously you can get damaged if you fly into other parts of the battleship hull, but you can fly fine right over this one patch. Another case of graphics lying to you about hitboxes, but this time it's worse, given the close quarters you're in. Those few inches on the battleship are precious.
-The stage 4 midboss can't touch you if you stay at the bottom of the screen. Rather than fly over top, where all of the gooey weak spots are, you want to fly under and poke up from either side. The right side of the boss in particular is safe for long periods of time. Bullets can get you there, but I'm not sure the ship itself can fly into you there.
-During the entirety of the stage 4 boss' flying phase, the bottom left corner of the screen is a safe spot.
-Something I realized long ago, but worth mentioning: bomb the UFOs on stage 5. They give you tons of stuff. One of them gives you a 1UP in stage 6.
-I hate the electrical barrier on the underside of the stage 5 boss' weak point.
-During the inside portion of stage 6, the turrets on the underside of structures are a pain. Wait for them to shoot, then zip past. (Do a macro dodge instead of a micro dodge, if you will.) It's tight, but I really can't dodge them if I'm up next to them.
-When the stage 7 blimp extents two long branches, one above and one below, stay at either the top edge or the bottom edge of the screen. Bullets from the closer branch will be more direct, making it easier to gauge and dodge. Bullets from the farther branch will be further spread apart.
-When the stage 7 blimp loses both branches and opens its afterburner in the back, stay lined up with the fire. The blimp will shoot a spread that will not line up with you this way. Occasionally, he will shoot a long pulse of bullets directly at you. I try to micro-dodge by staying in place as long as possible, then weaving between the aimed bullets and the inner bullets of the pre-baked spread shot.
-If anyone has figured out the giant fireballs on the final boss, I'm all ears.

And one thing that bugged me: I'm pretty sure homing missiles only sustain one hit, but shooting them doesn't always kill them. I feel like my bullets must move so fast that their hitboxes skip over some homing missiles--as if there's a safe spot between my shot on one frame and the next frame.

[MetalFRO]

@Dingo - I'll be curious to see how you progress in the last few days of the month, and whether or not you get the clear!

@Golem - great points here, and thanks for some very detailed strats that people can use to help shore up as we finish out November! To your question about  the counterstop on the battleships, I suppose you could, for a kind of boss milking. That's probably one way to push the score above 6 million, which I've seen elsewhere. Seems like a waste of time, though, and ultimately, the better strategy would be to just improve your overall approach so achieve a no-miss, and also to try and end each level with as much HP as possible, so you get all the bonuses. I wasn't aware of the safe spots, though I had an inkling, so thanks for that. I also didn't realize about the ceiling on Stage 2, since the floor and ceiling during the downward diagonal sections definitely damages you, just like the speed trap section. As for the fireballs on the final boss, this is where I just use my entire bomb stock, because the final form is actually pretty easy, once you know how to avoid the flame walls. In the Steam version, it's easier to avoid the fireballs, because of the slight increase in space to maneuver, and the widescreen aspect ratio, but otherwise, it's still pretty cheap.

And one thing that bugged me: I'm pretty sure homing missiles only sustain one hit, but shooting them doesn't always kill them. I feel like my bullets must move so fast that their hitboxes skip over some homing missiles--as if there's a safe spot between my shot on one frame and the next frame.

This is a good way of explaining it, and I think you're right. I found that my shots didn't always connect with the slow moving homing missiles, but they seemed to be taken out with a single hit once they did connect. I'm not sure if that's because of the small size of the missiles, or the slight gap between your shots, but it's a curious thing nonetheless. This is one of the nice quality of life things that was changed for the later revisions - all missiles can be destroyed by your shots, even the fast moving ones, which is one reason the later versions are easier. Rather than concentrating on dodging those, you can concentrate on other types of bullets/hazards, and just take out missiles with your own bullets. After playing the Steam release, it seems like potentially an obvious oversight that HOT*B made, but that could also have been part of the original design philosophy. I'm not sure if there's been an interview to shed light on that or not.

[Dingo]

Some speed bumps along the way but managed to get through on 1 credit with the good old blimp. I think I recorded each stage when they prompted me to though I can't recall the prompt for the end of game. Regardless feel pretty good about it considering it was on my first real attempt. I played stage 1 with each of the ships to see how I felt about them (though I was leaning towards the zeppelin and I think it worked out for me, also I know it doesn't always attack the ground but once you get bombs you essentially are ). I think the ground attack is a touch overstated in the select screen nonetheless it was a fun game.

If is pretty straightforward, but played well on a stick. It may be a touch on the forgiving side but seeing as my previous 1 credit clear probably took me easily a final fantasy's worth length of time. Its nice to play something that while still keeping you on your toes and requiring some skillful play, isn't a brutal grind to success for a change.


I think they did a solid job with the graphical bump. It doesn't do anything drastic to alter the games aesthetic and leaves the appearance a few special effects not withstanding that your playing an original version with the way they managed to keep the sprites clean but still pixelated as they were.

 

[Dingo]

final score

Damn, I just noticed how close all our scores on normal were regarding the steam version. Pretty interesting.

[MetalFRO]

Congrats on the clear, Dingo! I will have more to say about the differences between the original and the later revisions in the podcast, but it’s safe to say, there are some significant changes to the game that make the later iterations even easier than the original.