I don't think the blocking mechanic would make it too easy because you would still be highly vulnerable in the latter stages of the game, and the blocking wouldn't come in until a little later. Also, the blocking mechanic can be lost by taking damage. In my mind, the beam wouldn't be as unpredictable as you might think. Like the Raiden games, you could feel where the beam was going to go, and it would auto-lock on to enemies within the nearest proximity. In terms of Phoenix, it would auto-lock onto the turrets. You would only be able to attack one turret at a time, but you would be able to move off of that turret and onto a turret next to it by moving the ship left to right accordingly. So the laser would target a turret based on a combination of the auto-lock/seeking AND your position on the screen. A turret on the far left of one of the larger enemy vessels would not be targeted if your ship is on the far right of the screen, UNLESS the turrets directly in front of you have already been disposed of. Similarly, if there is a turret in front and a turret directly behind it, the laser would target the turret in the front first. Really, I don't see the targeting mechanism as being any different in concept than how the Mirage targets turrets, or how the heat seeking missiles of the Corsair attack turrets. Keep in mind too that my vision of the Sumo laser would not be nearly as spastic as the Raiden laser. It would be similar in terms of how it would be able to jump around, but it would be smoother, more controlled and cleaner. I like the laser of the ship on the left too in the screen shot, but you already have that base covered with the Phantom's laser. They're similar. I also don't think you like the toothpaste laser as much as I do, which is fine. But like I said, done the Firi way it would be WAY more streamlined and tailored to fit the game. And all of this is just food for thought. Shooters are by far my favorite genre in gaming. My brain just clicks with them. So, I think of ideas all the time and you happen to be the victim of my ramblings But at least you have some extra ideas that may be outside of your mindset and may be interesting to experiment with.
Don't worry, I can handle it . It's always nice to hear input/suggestions/comments/criticism from an other direction than your own. Very much appreciated
I read that there have been a few requests for a 'pro' gameplay video, I'll try my best to get a good recording of me playing phantom with and without IAP's, anyone got any good trchniques for screen recording WITHOUT a jailbroken iPod?
Oh yeah, now this isn't as long and as detailed as your post Sumo but I like the idea of a ship that deflects bullets, and I have another idea for a ship type; flamethrower bullets. The bullets would start out large and get smaller as they travel the screen, not hitting the enemies from the usual range, and gain damage the closet to the enemy they are. The largest bullets could also engulf enemy bullets, preventing them from hitting you; this could mean for gameplay where you have to get close to your opponent to damage and dip in and out to survive, sounds messy but it's just a brainwave
Mirage fanboyism. Coz lately i've been playing a lot with it and find it's actually got pretty deep mechanics.
I think I might have an idea based on this toothpaste laser that everyone has been talking about. I think it might even make a pretty great ship with totally unique mechanics! Well, I guess we won't know until El reads all my madness and decides. You use the touch screen to control the toothpaste laser. Touch a specific spot and the laser bends to that spot and continues straight ahead thereafter. That way you can target the turret you want. But this ability to bend lasers comes at a cost. Since the touch screen is already used for bending the laser, then you can't control your ship! That means your ship only stays in one sweet spot at the bottom middle of the screen for the entire game! Won't you die too quickly due to bullet hell? That's where the defense mechanic comes in. You could use a gesture (I think circling around the ship once or twice sounds good) to activate a brief shield that lasts a short time, maybe 2 seconds? You must perform the gesture again to re-activate the shield. That way you must balance between attacking turrets and defending your ship. All other mechanics, such as picking up green health particles and activating/storing alpha strikes remain the same. The suggestion sounds pretty interesting in theory as I think it through, but in theory I've got no idea how fun might it be. Anyone wants to give it a try?
@necrocat219: For our recordings we have actually purchased the Elgato Game Capture HD, an external capture device. We couldn't find a suitable software solution, though this situation might have changed by now. The whole thing is quite expensive (device + ipad->hdmi adapter), but we could justify it for the tutorial video's. Thanks for you ship suggestions and don't worry, they don't have to be as elaborate as Sumo's. All feedback is more then welcome. We have also considered the 'deflection' of bullets a couple of times, but weren't able to get to an appealing gameplay concept yet. I love the idea of a flamethrower (for our next unannounced project I'm actually working with flames a lot )! I'm not sure about bullet absorbing and limited range gameplay but it's definitely a concept I'm writing down, if only for the visual experience @EP: Glad you're enjoying the Mirage, the ship looks great on that shirt @FBI Light Rock: The concept of targeting weapons via touch instead of piloting the craft is great and very interesting. I will share that we had this same exact idea years ago and have been saving it for a new title some time in the future. I hope you understand I won't go into details of our concept any further This offense-centric idea is such a departure from the concept of Phoenix HD that we never really considered implementing it for a ship. The primary gameplay of Phoenix HD is to avoid being hit, this is true for all the ships! To play Phoenix HD you only have to avoid bullets, enemies will always die eventually (only the Shogun skirts this concept). The offensive capabilities always come in second place and basically add more depth to the game and more room for improvement. The offensive capabilities generally make up for the unique gameplay (/flavor) of the ships, they all share the defensive part. It's funny to see most of your (@all of you ) concepts revolve around avoiding bullets hitting your ship either by deflecting or absorbing them. Less about destroying enemy ships. Now we definitely also have defensive abilities (Teleport / Ghost Mode), but usually our emphasis is on (unique) offense (Lock On, Nightfury, Grazing, Teleporting, Overdrive). Again great feedback, we got a nice discussion going on here <3
Love the shirt, would buy it in a Nightfury stage 4 second. I too am glad you are seeing the light with the Mirage. The Mirage is the visage of Phoenix HD, baby! Good advice. Do not dare walk the slippery slope of insanity that is my obsession.
I just thought of an idea to give the toothpaste laser more offense: a pulse attack that could travel through the laser as it is locked onto a turret, like a 'pocket' of electric energy. Not exactly sure how this would work, so, I'll have to get back to you
Oh my that is pretty pricey, good if its your career but I think a little too expensive for me! I'll try to come up with another solution or see if I can rent one
Mirage, mirage... I get greedy to deal that much beam damage and it makes me eat a bullet or 2. Sometimes turn everything black and white.
Yay! First time i hit 4 million! And it's with the corsair! Any advanced tips for Mirage? I cant break 2M consistently. Sometimes i hit 2M, but most times i get caught somewhere between 1-1.5M. For one, i know i still need to work on not being greedy with high level jesus beams.
The new ship is quite hard to keep alive compared to the other ships. Seem to die much quicker with it since it is so fragile.
-Keep the Jesus beam going as much as possible. Don't be afraid to sacrifice a hit or two if it means extending the duration of the laser. -Use the Shogun/electricity Alpha Strike and then launch the Jesus beam right after. This strike is slow moving and gives a buffer to allow extra time to get the beam going. -Keep the Mirage centered in the middle of the screen as much as possible while using the Jesus beam, where you will have the greatest chance of hitting enemies as they enter. -When using the lock-on lasers, keep the ship to one side of the screen, get the ships to fire at you and then move out of the way. Try to repeat this as much as possible. This also applies to all of the ships. -When using the lock-on lasers, don't be afraid to circle in front of the enemy ships.
My god, I got back into second place with the Mirage again with 12m points, really happy but I still can't fulfill my vow to get no.1! *w*
I guess I'll leave the expert to give their own better tips. I'm kind of a noob still because I play casually. Neither am I consistent at getting 4 million+ to be frank. But there's some pretty valid tips I can give. - Even while firing the Nightfury beam, there's actually a very small acceptable margin of movement. That may help in dodging a bit. - For all ships, it's best to sweep left to right and then back slowly. Homing turrets won't get their chances on hitting you. That's why ships with purely homing turrets are generally not difficult. It's only when you combine them with turrets shooting patternized bullets when things get pretty deadly. - Don't get obsessed with the Nightfury beam. Beyond 2 million, it's very difficult to get one going while concurrently battling a enemy ship. But you can activate the beam before an enemy comes, though you must be careful to get the timing right due to "Nightfury cannon overload" (Beyond stage 3 the cannon must cool down and that disrupts the beam). Break the beam when inbound enemies are scouts (The smallest ships that come in a pretty large herd) because Nightfury beam can't kill them all.
Hi, Necrocat219 here! As I can't make a video on gameplay I though it would help players if I made a guide for using the phantom ship and share some the ways that you can improve your scores, whether you don't understand the ship or are stuck at particular score: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liymJM5WIvw A brief overview of my set up for my 12m score Spoiler >Extra Power-ups >Vulcan Drone >Point Defense Drone >Phoenix Revive - activated at a score of 8m Died when I was swarmed by a variety of bullets and had just enough charge to do a small EMP, I clicked for a short time to see what I could do and found I hadn't got enough charge to EMP and died. Basics First things first, I want to go over some of the simple things that you can do to improve your score quite a bit in case you haven't played the game long enough to figure them out. When you are equipped with a power up on any ship, if you take a hit that would kill you the power up is used up instead and gives you a split second of invulnerability. This is what will help you reliably get scores in the range of 3m; when equipped with a power up you never want to use it up unless you spot a better power up or you are faced with a ship that you hate. Many of the ships will fire their bullets directly at you or around you, based on your position For these sorts of bullets, you can make small sidewards movements in order to dodge them, making their next shots easier to predict and to help dodge bullets. For the start of a wave, position yourself either to the far left and right and make your way to the other side slowly to make it a bit easier. The bullets from the small, easy-to-kill 'scout ships' won't dissapear when you kill them. These are the most evil bullets in the game, they are what can often catch me out, especially on the Phantom; the Phantom aims to kill ships fast enough so that you don't have to dodge many, but with these ships that's not possible so always be wary of them. The Point Defence Drone is your best friend against these little blighters! How to use the Ghost Beam The Ghost Beam will recharge slowly on it's own and with health boosts and particles; when at max power, it deals much greater damage. When you let go of the Phantom, your Ghost Beam charge gets drained, in exchange for giving you a short amount of invulnerability that you can end at any time. If you use it up fully an EMP is released, converting enemy bullets into score. The range of the EMP depends on how fully charged the Ghost Beam was. Right, the most important points about the ghost beam is that: -Greatly increases damage -temporary invulnerability -EMP at end What you should aim for is keeping the Ghost Beam fully charged for as long as possible, the faster you kill enemies, the less time you have to survive their bullets as they disappear, and the more points they each give you, Despite the above, you shouldn't be afraid to go into Ghost Mode often for short bursts to guarantee you won't get hit; most waves I have one moment where I lift my finger off when I'm not confident I can fit through a particular gap, so I lift my finger to give a quick look over what I can do and aim for a spot with the least bullets or a predictable path I can follow. It usually takes about 5 or so seconds to get back to full power so it doesn't deal too much of a blow. Sometimes you will find yourself in an impossible situation where you see the ship combination and go 'Oh damn, my worst nightmare, I'm unlikely to survive this'. Don't panic, and follow these steps (It will take practice to get it right): >Position yourself under the turret you hate the most >Attack that turret until the last possible moment, then go into ghost mode >Release an EMP and continue attacking until that turret/ship dies >Quickly gather the particles so you have another short ghost and EMP This allows you to tackle some of the toughest situations, and is where the EMP really shines as more of a last resort or to save your power-up. Single use boosts First things first, that '1 perfect run' that you expect when you buy everything won't happen. Most likely you have a high-score which blasts every other attempt you made at that ship, and it's very unlikely you would have bought a Phoenix revive then. Sometimes you just know when you're in the right mood to play and you feel confident. Other times, play it safe and spend a reasonable amount. Quick recommendations Extra Powerups > Always For a 40% increase in boosts that grant you a free Phoenix Revive at that cost, you can't skip this. Extra Health > Never On the Phantom your regeneration rate is mostly not through absorbing green particles, so I would have to say this is a no due to it being very situational. Vulcan Drone > If you feel confident Ah, the Vulcan Drone. I wasn't so sure of it, but now I quite like it; it kills enemies and turrets slightly faster than without, giving you a small boost to your score for and slightly shortening the time you have to dodge bullets. It's only because of it's mediocre damage and high cost I don't usually use it. Point Defence Drone > Always It fires bullets out of the sky at quite a fast rate, getting rid of scout bullets without you having to worry about them (That's the solution to scouts guys!), removes exploding bullets and very importantly it means most of the time you don't have to go into Ghost Mode when you are faced with a line of bullets; the PDD will create an alternate route for you, allowing you to conserve your Ghost Laser. Yes, you can tell I love this power-up, and you should try practicing with it. 1250g seems like a steep price, but it grants a solution to many of the hardest and seemingly impossible waves and protects from stray scouts. Oh and also the PDD will help you survive the first few waves by firing almost all the bullets away, giving enough time to pick up a power-up, meaning you don't have those moments where you use the Phoenix Revive in the first wave and rage. Phoenix Wake > Never This adds a fixed amount of score to the first 20 waves, for 2000g it's not worth it. Phoenix Revive > If you feel confident This is the trickiest one for me to recommend as it's ability is certainly good, and if it was affordable regularly it could allow for much more consistent high scores, but 2500g is a very steep cost along with the other power-ups you may buy with it. I personally would recommend not buying it; I prefer to make many runs with healthy amounts of boosts without the pressure of conserving it. Minimum boost runs >Extra Powerups, 250g >Point Defence Drone, 1250g Total cost: 1500g This is my standard set that I use on the Phantom, the Extra Power-ups and PDD is quite pricey, but you should be able to recover a fair portion of that. throughout the game. Extra boosts means that the time not having any powerups is greatly decreased, and the PDD means you have more options to tackle each wave with and helps prevent deaths to scouts too. Maximum boost runs >Extra Powerups, 250g >Vulcan Drone, 900g >Point Defence Drone, 1250g >Phoenix Revive, 2500g Total cost: 4900g A very expensive run, I only recommend that you take this run when you are in a particularly good mood. I also suggest you don't do a practice run with no boosts before hand, it's best to get the most out of your concentration beforehand; the first few levels are there to ease you in and warm you up and should be enough. Equip Power-ups Heres a quick list in order of which power-ups you should should be happy to see and keep; the one anomaly is EMP so just make a note of that: 1) EMP: Activating the EMP at the perfect time can yield about 250-400 coins at a time; while it isn't the best power-up for the highest score possible, it really helps in carrying out repeat runs. Don't store this when spending 4900g in the armory though, store the next boost first instead. 2) Dark Purple Alpha strike: This is the one that lasts for 2 seconds and deals a great deal of damage. The reason I list this first is because it can get you out of the most situations, always killing all enemies on screen, and the green particles from fallen enemies acts as a nice safety net. The only wave it is bad against is scouts, but the PDD sorts this problem. 3) Light Blue Alpha Strike: The electricity bullets that can take out a few waves in one go. I really do love this, it usually leaves a trail of green that really fills the Phantom up quite nicely and is even better for other ships. The only disadvantage is it takes a few seconds for it to first deal damage which often isn't enough for the Phantom when 1 hit could kill it (or any other ship for that matter). You should save a small amount of Ghost charge before using this so that you can survive those few seconds. 4) Shield: The shield gives you about 8 seconds of invulnerability and can absorb bullets too and is definitely a very good power-up for the Phantom; usually with no ghost charge this is enough time in order to kill specific turrets and the wave whilst absorbing green particles and sometimes it's a good idea to go commando with full Ghost laser, risking the shield but keeping the Ghost laser. The rest) Whats remaining is mediocre: you should avoid storing them and the rest that I haven't mentioned when any of the top 4 power-ups turn up. And that brings us to the end of my guide! I hope this guide gives you a good overview on how you can improve with the Phantom and hopefully with other ships too! Good luck! Necrocat219
Woah that's one fantastic post Necrocat219! Great tips and I was nodding my head while reading it all the way through Good to see you like the mechanics of the Phantom so much, it's unbelievably rewarding for me to see players write these kinds of posts and appreciate gameplay on this level. Bravo. Hat tip. etc. ps I personally prefer the yellow (missile) Alpha Strike over the purple etc (all except the light blue (Tesla)), because it is so powerful. It has the same downside as the light blue though, it takes a second to start dealing damage. It's not so good against scouts as the purple one though, but it has a higher chance of destroying the enemy at higher level.
