70 replies to this topic

[DoubleThink]

You have no idea what I went through to get this looking good (at least for CS Dark ) because IP Board does something horrific to column spacing both in and out of code tags, but here's the team:
Team Name|||||||||||||||Location|||||Busy Weeks||||Team Position
DavidThink||||||||||||||Australia||||None||||||||||Flies south for the DESTROY
Professor Dave||||||||||Canada|||||||4|||||||||||||Davey told me to DESTROY you
Davegoose|||||||||||||||USA||||||||||4|||||||||||||Orange traffic DESTROY
DavidTiger||||||||||||||USA||||||||||None||||||||||Lustrous ThoriumDESTROY
Wedge of Dave|||||||||||USA||||||||||4|||||||||||||Soft texture with a full-bodied DESTROY
Dave2403||||||||||||||||Canada|||||||1, 3||||||||||DESTROY in two dimensions
DAVEXPERT|||||||||||||||???||||||||||???|||||||||||Wonderful wizard of DESTROY
Dave9|||||||||||||||||||Canada|||||||None||||||||||That wasn't very DESTROY

Let me know if you are happy with that name, and then
READ THIS BEFORE DOING ANYTHING ELSE
I won't be signing up the team in one go this year, and there are a few things you all need to have prepared beforehand. Firstly, you must have a user account on shmups forum; join this with your regular user name or whatever variation of that you wish. Then, after reading the rules, make your way to the tourney registration thread, where you will need to fill out the participation form. It goes something like this:

Spoiler

Username: [Your team name, not your forum username]
Desired Team: Team DAVE DESTROY [get the capitalisation right]
Team Captain Vote: DavidThink [This part is mostly a formality, I don't think it has ever made a difference]
Desired Team Registration Status: Closed [This means the team is pre-planned and not just anyone can join]
Region: [Your country; I guess you can leave this blank if you really want to]
Expected # Week Participation: [Now, I know I've outlined your busy weeks above, but unless you think you're going to completely skip a week you can still say that you expect to play all of them. By the way, you get an award at the end for playing all weeks :momo:)

For example, this is what mine will look like:
Username: DavidThink
Desired Team: Team DAVE DESTROY
Team Captain Vote: DavidThink
Desired Team Registration Status: Closed
Region: Australia
Expected # Week Participation: 5

Finally, remember that to be on Team DAVE you need to have a person or character named Dave as your avatar on shmups forum (or from now on, a Daveatar)

This years' team banner (this will go in your signature on shmups forum, but isn't mandatory):

If you want to make something different, you're welcome to (though it must be 200x50 pixels or smaller), or you can make your own edit of the original (but remember to D that C)

This years' team theme song (this goes inside your heart):

Spoiler

5aLfCslnRr4

The team stream, where I will provide video assistance, eat food and possibly air drum. I will post in this thread when I intend to do one the following day and at what time. Everything important garnered from that will be repeated here, so if you miss it you won't miss out; if you have timezone difficulties and still feel you need the help, I'll be more than happy to arrange a separate stream for you, provided we can find a time that won't ruin my sleep schedule :pignon2:

Remember, confirm you are happy with your name before you sign up, and if you have still any uncertainties please let me know.

Edited by DoubleThink, 04 September 2012 - 01:09 AM.

[DoubleThink]

Getting the team into gearakacheezer
The first two weeks of STGT are always the hardest, as they have the highest participation and it takes a while to for one's fingers to warm up. From week 3 on it gets easier, so provided we start off fairly strong we can make up a lot of ground by the end of the tournament. Hopefully the busy dip in week 4 won't cut into that too much

Barring another slew of injuries, this time we should be able to function as a proper team, not only able to help each other improve but also to have some friendly inter-team competition to see who can get into the top three each week (to the new guys, remember that this is what makes up the team score). This will make it much easier to build on our own results and set targets, two very important parts of playing in this competition. Steady progress is the key to good scores, and also the key to keeping me from spending the whole tournament worried to bits

To encourage everyone to that end and get an idea of where we stand, I am announcing Week 0: Rapid Hero! Rapid Hero is an awesome game by the same developer that made last years' P-47 Aces, wherein you chase a robot that is also a ninja through space and shoot things until they die. By shmup standards it's easier than average, making it an excellent starting point. Scoring basically involves collecting everything (medals mainly, but also powerups) and not-dying, so bomb whenever you need to. You also get the full MAME experience, as the music doesn't work properly yet and the layers are messed up so that medals will disappear behind large enemies! MAME Plus may also crash when trying to load state, so watch out for that. (Here's an OST rip I found, if you want to know what it's meant to sound like.)

Normal STGT rules will apply; you can practice with save states, but you can only submit scores made on a clean run using a single credit. Submit scores like this:
Davename - Score - Stage Reached
(e.g. DavidThink - 1,234,500 - 5)
Go for it
______________________________________________________________________
Pre-Tourney Scores
DavidThink - 1,793,130 - 5
DavidTiger - 670,940 - 4
Professor Dave - 650,500 - 3
Wedge of Dave - 546,940 - 3

Edited by DoubleThink, 28 July 2012 - 01:41 AM.

[Wedge of Cheese]

Can I be called Wedge of Dave instead?

Also, for the actual contest, is there anything to enforce that you actually got the score you say you got (i.e. replay data)? The shmups thread doesn't seem to say one way or the other on that...

[DoubleThink]

I thought it more important to keep the "cheese" part than the "wedge" part, but it's your call. The scores are submitted on an honour basis, so no proof is necessary, although personally I post a screenshot with my final score submission. Cheating for something like this is really a waste of time more than anything, and it's not a problem for us anyway because we aren't going to cheat now are we?

Important extra note: Shmups forum is currently having trouble with a highly tenacious spammer, so if you are a new member that hasn't been approved yet it might take awhile for that to happen.

Other important extra note: Dunc has now used up the "Google search for a Dave" option, so I expect proper Daves out of the rest of you >:[

Edited by DoubleThink, 17 July 2012 - 12:30 PM.

[Noxid]

I played your practice game a bit; I got as far as about Stage 3 (236k) on my best run but there's lots of room for improvement
I just wish the ship wasn't so slow :/

[DoubleThink]

You can't rely on speed to solve all your problems If I happen to catch most of you in IRC sometime I'll stream a bit.

[MMXPERT]

My services are required elsewhere for the STGT, sorry.

[Noxid]

My services are required elsewhere for the STGT, sorry.

classy. It takes a real great guy to sign up for something with a limited number of spots and then bail before contributing even a tiny bit.

[DoubleThink]

Noxid :/ At least he's letting me know now rather than when I don't have time to change it

Edit: Replacement in place... ment

Edit2: On impulse, I re-recorded what I did earlier for anyone who wasn't there. Hope that will be enough for the time being. Still pretty streaky but we're going to have to live with it for now :<

Edit3: The weeks have just been announced, and the game choices range from decent to complete shit I'm mostly confident the team captains will come through and make some good picks most weeks, but be prepared

Edited by DoubleThink, 20 July 2012 - 01:46 AM.

[Wedge of Cheese]

Wedge of Dave - 327,840 - 3
Wedge of Dave - 546,940 - 3

Edited by Wedge of Cheese, 20 July 2012 - 01:57 PM.