UFO v0.02a is out

[Sodium]

Shot Power
MarisA - piercing
ReimuA
SanAe - horiz homing
MarisaB
SanaeB - splash
ReimuB - omni homing

Bomb Power
SanaeB - area damage
ReimuA - vert damage
MarisA - wide spread damage
MarisaB - total damage
SanAe - total damage
ReimuB - homing damage

...Actually, the shot type power was a lot closer to this:
SanaeB Shotgun - SHOTGUN FROGS YEAH
RaymooA - Pew Pew Rapid Fire
MarisaB Shotgun - MIMAAAAAAAA SHOTGUN
SanaeB Far - The shotgun only adds 2 Frogs =3
MarisaA - PENETRATION LASERS
SanaeA - Sliding Snakes (tie with below, if I remember correctly)
MarisaB - MIMAAAAAA lol (tie with above, if I remember correctly)
RaymooB - Pew Pew Homing

Yeah... Also, Fantasy Seal is more powerful then you think. It's fourth in total damage(lol), but it's still pretty much a 1HKO like the other three POWER bombs(Master Spark, Frog Nuke, Amulet Chaingun), without some of the setup required(MS and AC benefit from being in front, and FN gets its max damage by placing it close to the boss).

[Garlyle]

Tried this last night.

...Is it my imagination, or did Marisa's speed go up a bit?  I can also really feel the difference from more UFOs being released.

Also, given that lives now take four fragments, I have a feeling that UFO survival-for-1cc strategy will focus more on getting bombs, as you get them more often, and the penalty for letting yourself die is... really harsh.

[LHCling]

SanaeB shotgun is impractical in most cases without bomb assistance. The only times I could do this were when the Spell Cards were starting up, or for anything Hard or under.
MarisaA's laser does its job too well for me. UFO's prematurely exploding on me while I'm trying to shoot down other enemies is becoming a pain. Stupid random movement.

"Kogasa Train" is weird.

Also, I noticed that there are alterations to the base Point Item values. Not that it really matters to the majority.
Marisa's speed has always been like that I believe.

[Drake]

UFOs only wave around a good 20 pixels or so. After about five seconds they zoom towards your horizontal position.

[LHCling]

UFOs only wave around a good 20 pixels or so. After about five seconds they zoom towards your horizontal position.

Hm, going to have to check that once I run through a few more times.

MarisaA Hard run. Manipulating UFOs is difficult with MarisaA. I believe I messed up in several areas.

[Slaves]

okay so i've been trying to download the demo for a while now and i can't figure out how the hell i'm supposed to do it. i download it and select the folder it's supposed to go in and then i get an error message with "Abort", "Try again" and "Ignore" as the options, and i end up having to abort because nothing happens with the other two options.

can someone help me? is there a guide that i'm not seeing somewhere? ;w;

[Drake]

You have to download v0.01 first, then give v0.02 the folder where the original is.

[Slaves]

that's what i'm doing. :|

i'll try downloading v0.01 again.

EDIT: made a new folder and reinstalled everything, still nothing.

come to think of it, i'm not even sure if i'm downloading the right file. could someone link to it?

nevermind. works now.

[Sen]

I like the new demo. I'm disappointed that MarisaA is still so ungodly slow during MASUTA SUPAKU though. D:

As for difficulty, can't say much, since I can only barely get to midboss Kogasa on Hard Mode. Got a no-deaths run in Normal with SanaeA, though.

Does anyone know how SanaeA's homing shots work? I've had too many UFOs break prematurely when I'm trying to kill enemies and her homing shots kill the UFO instead. ;-;

Also Amulet Chaingun is an amazing name.

SanaeB is best overall (splash, spread). If you can get over the ridiculous focus movement speed.

Is Sanae's focused speed fast, like Sakuya? I never noticed. o.o

[Drake]

It isn't Saukya fast, but it's enough that you can mistakenly tap too much and die. I'm fine with it, though.

[LHCling]

...I take back my statement about Sanae focus speed being faster. It seems that Sanae's awkward hitbox position is the cause of my clipdeaths. Not sure if the whole "Reimu has a smaller hitbox for UFO" still exists or not though.
I *did* find a shot-ranking list at a lower Power Ranking [2.00 I believe], along with times.

• SanaeB (Unfocused; 4 Frogs Hitting) - 4.9 - Shotgun
• ReimuA (Focused; 4 Needles Hitting) - 9.2
• SanaeB (Focused; 2 Frogs Hitting) - 10.2
• SanaeB (Focused; 2 Frogs Hitting) - 10.2 - Shotgun
• MarisaA (Unfocused; 2 Lasers Hitting) - 10.3
• MarisaA (Focused; 2 Lasers Hitting - 10.3
• MarisaB (Focused; 4 Waves Hitting) - 10.3 - Shotgun
• MarisaB (Unfocused; 4 Waves Hitting) - 10.4 - Shotgun
• ReimuA (Unfocused; 2 Needles Hitting) - 10.7
• SanaeA (Focused; 4 Snakes Hitting) - 11.2
• ReimuB (Focused; 2 Amulets Hitting) - 12.0
• ReimuB (Unfocused; 2 Amulets Hitting) - 12.1
• MarisaB (Unfocused; 2 Waves Hitting) - 12.1
• MarisaB (Focused; 2 Waves Hitting) - 12.1
• SanaeA (Unfocused; 4 Snakes Hitting) - 12.1
• SanaeB (Unfocused; no Frogs Hitting) - 15.4

...it would be somewhat appropriate to say that the ranking would remain the same at higher Power Levels. This was measured by individual frames.
Then I found an image of damage dealt in total amounts. Measured i.e. inaccurate, but a good approximation. Note that they didn't include SanaeB shotgun because it did waaaaay more than even ReimuA. Instead that got replaced with SanaeB at long range.

If you want to compare SanaeB shotgun to this, here are the values that were estimated:

192, 192, 185, 240

I believe that the strange progression has something to do with the options moving as different Power Levels are obtained.
Homing / Penetration ranking:

I even found "Bomb Slowdown" data, with the following:

ReimuA slows down to 50%.
MarisaA slows down to 20%.
Everything else remains at full speed.
Sanae and Reimu have unfocus speeds of 4.5 pixels / frame, and Marisa has 5.0 pixels / frame.
When focused; they all have a speed of 2.0 pixels / frame.

Strangely enough, Reimu and Marisa (un)focus movement speeds can also be applied to MoF / SA (with the exception of SA ReimuC; who has a speed of 9.0 pixels / frame).

[Sen]

So...everyone is the same speed when focused? Oo

[LHCling]

So...everyone is the same speed when focused? Oo

Yep.

[Drake]

9 pixels per frame? Couldn't you theoretically completely skip an entire small bullet that way?

[LHCling]

9 pixels per frame? Couldn't you theoretically completely skip an entire small bullet that way?

If you can precisely time 0.0183 seconds, then sure.

Also: "Tengu Macro Burst" is fun. Aya's ability certainly makes switch-streaming a lot easier than I thought. Further notes in the description.
Kogasa still destroys me, particularly with that last Spell Card. Lunatic's one is like that, while Hard's is quite manageable.

[Drake]

lol you know who you're talking to right


I'll have it up on Youtube shortly. Can't just give the replay because you need Drake vision.

In the morning. I decided to go the extra mile and do some editing, so it's 2:30 right now.

[Naut]

Oh this is gonna be good

[Drayen]

almost 1 week until ufo comes out zomg

[Drake]

This is probably the Comiket I've been anticipating the most. There's much more things than UFO that I'm waiting for.

[nintendonut888]

*sigh* Unzan ruins everything. Until I get a new computer there's no way I can even call a normal 1cc legitimate.

[LHCling]

Hrm. Uploading some parts of runs.

Very... interesting.

EDIT: Oh wow, looks like HD is definitely a no-no for me.
...
...just have a replay instead. I was going to show my insight for Stage 2 perfection, but I forgot to save that replay, and got a really horrible video instead.

S3 Replay

See description.

Also, I'm writing up a somewhat detailed analysis of Spell Cards for Hard / Lunatic. Even if it's only the trial. I'm willing to bet that only a select few Spell Cards will be changed. I'll probably include that into the analysis.
Sleep. Will post after morning lecture (that is, 8-9am).

[homing curvy laser]

*sigh* Unzan ruins everything. Until I get a new computer there's no way I can even call a normal 1cc legitimate.

At least you can still play it, unlike me when SA (and its demo) were released.
;_;

Funnily, I tried playing UFO Normal today as ReimuA, after a long time without UFOing, and Ichirin didn't seem impossible. I managed to get a 1cc with two lives left, and only dying once against CloudMan (at the last second - seeing both girls explode at the same time was hilarious).
Still, trying to pay attention to all bullets, points, UFOs, enemies and summoned UFOs is hard. Damn ADHD I guess.

[Drayen]

Damn ADHD I guess.

lol seriously, I would be so much better at this game if i wasnt trying to rush everything and end up dieing dumb deaths while trying to do an epic move to grab an UFO for exemple.

[LHCling]

Note to self (and maybe others):

Here's (probably) the best spot for "Spare Umbrella Express Night Carnival" (Lunatic).

Any higher or lower would most likely be making the Spell Card harder to capture.

I've accounted for dodging abilities for amulets going up and down the screen, so this is basically a compromise. If you're proficient in dodging amulets going up the screen, then I recommend raising the box higher.
I've been trying to get a perfect Kogasa battle, but it's certainly not going very well  >_>

[c l e a r]

Note to self (and maybe others):

Here's (probably) the best spot for "Spare Umbrella Express Night Carnival" (Lunatic).

Any higher or lower would most likely be making the Spell Card harder to capture.

I've accounted for dodging abilities for amulets going up and down the screen, so this is basically a compromise. If you're proficient in dodging amulets going up the screen, then I recommend raising the box higher.
I've been trying to get a perfect Kogasa battle, but it's certainly not going very well  >_>

Hmmm, are you suggesting that we should just camp around there and micro dodge everything?  Is this area good for Normal too (yeah, I suck that bad)?  Cause I always wind up running around, and capture it.  Lately however, I have somehow lost the ability to catch this card at all.  =/

I really hope ZUN tones down Parasol Star Memories Lunatic for full version, that card will make 1cc hard when you actually want to reserve bombs and go for a point run.

[LHCling]

Hmmm, are you suggesting that we should just camp around there and micro dodge everything?  Is this area good for Normal too (yeah, I suck that bad)?  Cause I always wind up running around, and capture it.  Lately however, I have somehow lost the ability to catch this card at all.  =/

I really hope ZUN tones down Parasol Star Memories Lunatic for full version, that card will make 1cc hard when you actually want to reserve bombs and go for a point run.

Around there, but certainly not micrododging. I haven't exactly run into any problems for anything Hard or lower though.

Adding, now that I've just seen it.

• From around the "designated" position (probably a bit lower for most people now that I think about it), start on the right-hand side
• "Stream" left. Watch for amulets
• When the two columns of umbrella trains rise up, start to (carefully)...
• "Stream" right. Watch for amulets
• etc.

...why didn't I see this sooner?  >_>

[Zengeku]

Note to self (and maybe others):

Here's (probably) the best spot for "Spare Umbrella Express Night Carnival" (Lunatic).

Any higher or lower would most likely be making the Spell Card harder to capture.

I've accounted for dodging abilities for amulets going up and down the screen, so this is basically a compromise. If you're proficient in dodging amulets going up the screen, then I recommend raising the box higher.
I've been trying to get a perfect Kogasa battle, but it's certainly not going very well  >_>

Hmmm, are you suggesting that we should just camp around there and micro dodge everything?  Is this area good for Normal too (yeah, I suck that bad)?  Cause I always wind up running around, and capture it.  Lately however, I have somehow lost the ability to catch this card at all.  =/

I really hope ZUN tones down Parasol Star Memories Lunatic for full version, that card will make 1cc hard when you actually want to reserve bombs and go for a point run.

I don't even know how you can have problems with the Normal version. It almost feels as if the amulets are thrown anywhere but where you are. However, if you do have problems with it you might want to practice a little against the easy version which for some reason is harder than the Normal version and arguably harder than the Hard version.

[Drake]

One thing I really wish for is that the UFO clears the screen when you summon it, not when it explodes. That would be such a life-saver. Trying to grab it to get an extra life, or score, or whatever, and just dying anyways... Terrible.

[Arcengal]

Just watched a video of UFO (demo) Lunatic for the first time.

...Honestly, I know I usually play hard, but it looks ****ing impossible. Even Kogasa would smash me.

Or should I just stop whining and d/l the demo?

[homing curvy laser]

Do it and play a bit before this weekend. Except for your time (and maybe a bit of sanity), you don't have anything to lose.

As for UMBRELLA TRAIN Normal, I think I just go near the trains themselves and try paying attention to the amulets - there's always a gap somewhere. Personally, the angled spell card is harder than it for me, at least at the "OH GOD I KNOW I'LL DIE IF I SCREW UP A BIT" factor.