DoDonPachi Saga Part 5 : Stage 4 payback time !! ermm I mean analysis and process of routing stage 4 (...and uhm bikini's)
DoDonPachi Saga Part 5 : Stage 4 payback time !! ermm I mean analysis and process of routing stage 4 (...and uhm bikini's)
Previously, on the DoDonPachi Saga...
After I managed to totally own stage 5 I did a full run to see how I would do there. Stage 5 went pretty good, very consistent with my practice sessions and because of that I managed to somehow save the run which went terrible, by scoring a survival and score pb (personal best) making it to stage 6 and almost hitting the 20m (which gives another extend)
By that time I hadn't done any runs for like 3 weeks and stage 4 in particular was rusty with 3 misses. So before doing any more runs I wanted to take some time to relearn the route and at the same time optimize it for consistency by pre assigning 2 bombs at the last section just for good measure.
Stage 4 took my clothes, what now ?
Should I just "practice" or just keep grinding runs and hope for the best ? That is not my style. The most logical thing to do is analysing what went wrong, changing my approach and then testing my new approach and performance of it with back to back stage runs and measure the consistency
I just need to know that my consistency is where it should be, or else i wont have fun doing runs. I'm not the just play and see how it goes person I guess, I like to prepare everything into the tiniest details. I want to have hard proof that my battleplan for stage 4 is solid *and* that I have the ability to do it under pressure in a run. I want to mold my weakest points into my strongest assets, and no stage 4 pwns me and gets away with it 🤕😈😇
Let's look at stage 4 and compare it with 5
Okay let's get serious for a moment. Stage 4 is structured very differently. It likes to employ big enemies with static patterns instead of massively filling the screen with bullets from tons of smaller enemies from all angles that fire pure aimed shots ( see stage 5)
The approach is therefore very different.
(Blue bullets are static, while red bullets are aimed, stage 4)
(Stage 5 has almost only red bullets)
Stage 4 isn't nearly as crazy as stage 5 but it is tricky in 2 ways, first it has this thing going on where it likes to set ambushes very low on the screen where you'll get caught with no time to react (even MarkMSX fell to this for example in his earlier run) basically forcing you to route it out. Second it has a big enemy that has a unique and very specific attack pattern screen filling pattern that is quite tricky to deal with and puts a ton of pressure on you, and another big enemy that uses the almost same pattern as the boss of the stage. Both of these exert a ton of pressure, but because they're static and predictable, allow to be routed (in contrast to stage 5 where you either read the patterns and improvise or lose your shoes and are forced to walk home on bare feet). Because it allows to be routed, the way to get the most consistency is to hard route the exact path pixel by pixel through the stage.
Talking about MarkMSX, I looked at his 2-ALL run for ideas and inspiration
I then came across something very interesting, at 8m54s MarkMSX is saying :
"When you are playing for one year, the first loop kinda becomes a formality up to a point in stage 4"
And also :
"I used to struggle relatively alot with stage 4"
And the section in the stage that he's pointing out is exactly the part I described earlier that's making stage 4 tricky. So we can now better understand what it is, he was talking about and it gave him issues.
(Sidenote : the common factor in all these patterns is that moving horizontally through them is a way to be able to really deal with it, and this is ofc something you don't come across often in CAVE however it is much more common in Touhou. will totally explore this more later)
Routing stage 5 (alot of reading and improvising due to the routing consisting mostly of general principles) is alot of fun but routing stage 4 is much more like rote learning of an exact path. Stage 4 is ofcourse alot easier than stage 5. but not necessarily in a good way, if that makes sense.A hard strict route like an exact path can be less fun if there is no serious payoff like a high score bonus or making progress on a 2nd loop. A hard strict path route needs to have some kind of payoff.
Therefore, my demands are simple : I want high consistency in stage 4 *and* in a fun way.
I'm going to find a way !
Designing the new war plan (but this time in a bikini)
Nooo ! I'm not literally wearing a bikini, I meant it should be as much fun as uuuh uuhm... never mind...
Where was I ? Oh right, stage 4, so I went to work and after 2 days of just focussing purely on stage 4 I wanted to try it out and see some hard action.
I tried 2 attempts and they both went perfectly, obviously this wasn't enough of a test. I then went full Animegirl (My realname is Julia btw) and did a series of 6 more stage 4 runs. I nomissed the 1st attempt, messed up the 2nd, then no missed the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th for a total of 5 out of 6 no miss and 2 bombs. F yeah, this is totally run approved now !
Woohoo !! I finally found a route/strat (totally original and no copy pasting) for stage 4 that is consistent and also fun to do ! Before, i did a alot of freestyling (fun !) but it costed me an emergency bomb (honestly not a bad deal, saving on routing memo + fun vs a single bomb).
However...I wanted to assign 2 bombs at the end section so I just felt I had to sacrifice that.
"there is no actual route like a path, it's more or less randomly generated by following principles/rules consisting of techniques"
Designing the new plan
I first tried to do it with general principles/ rules (this would mean that the routing is light,less strict and easily remembered, there is no actual route like a path, it's more or less randomly generate it by following principles/rules consisting of techniques). For example in this case the first half of the stage just making sweeps with the Shot. It wasn't consistent enough, it would get me into hairy situations that demanded a super hard dodge to get out of or a bomb.
I tried to use my routing by general principles approach from stage 5 ( also sweeping by means of an elliptical path from the left to the right wall and back, but very high up on the screen, very aggressive) but that also didn't answer the matingcall of stage 4. In the end I adjusted it to a deep V shape and made it a mixed route consisting of general rule with 2 strict hard path route sections and i could hear stage 4 moan ! It was at least a bit like stage 5 now (the early part) and alot more fun (because thlthe most boring part became freestyle reading instead of strict routing ) *and* more consistent at the same time !
As a result i could now make the end section alot less stressing and unpredictable by just assigning 2 bombs there. (ofcourse I can do it without but I just want the most consistency to reduce any nerves at this point in the game).
"there are meaningful different ways in how to shape the sweep and it totally can change per stage or even in the stage itself and a U, V or C sweep is totally distinct from each other in terms of it's applicability."
So it turns out there are meaningful different ways in how to shape the sweep and it totally can change per stage or even in the stage itself and a U, V or C sweep is totally distinct from each other in terms of it's applicability.
In conclusion
After having so much fun with stage 5, especially in regards to how much freestyling there is possible in the stage by just purely reading the bulletchaos, I wanted to have a strategy for stage 4 that was going to be as much fun as possible. Stage 4 is structured very differently
I managed to do that by changing the route a bit from hard coded pixel movement to the general rule of reading and sweeping, but it had to be modified. In stage 5 it was the standard elliptical shaped sweep (high up on the screen) but that wouldn't work here, so I had to change it geographically (wrong word) to a V shape, like an exact V shape diving down to the exact centre mid bottom of the screen. So it turns out there are meaningful different ways in how to shape the sweep and it totally can change per stage or even in the stage itself and a U, V or C sweep is totally distinct from each other in terms of it's applicability.
Final thoughts
Yes I realize that my approach is a horrible inefficient way to "sickgrab clears" (in proper shmup elite jargon), but I hope it's clear by now that at this point I don't give a buttcheek about that, I'm in for the long run
Thank you for reading this post, bye !!
About me :
"Hi, i'm Animegirl, i heart shooty shooty pew pew games !"
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