Shimatora's Challenges - March

[Shimatora]

Welcome to Shimatora's monthly tournament!

Decided to try my hand at these challenge threads throwing in some of my own quirky ideas. These challenges will run from the 1st day of each month to the last going by the GMT (UTC) time zone. Runs submitted any later than 11:59PM GMT will not be accepted!! Don't worry though, I'll try my best to make it obvious what time it is in GMT so people don't get too confused.

Each month there will be a total of three challenges to participate in: Survival, Scoring and a Short Challenge for the busy people.

Your participation (MAY!) not go unrewarded! I have some rewards which come in the shape of badges, like the ones below my avatar "Staff Member" and "Angeling". Once the challenges end for that month, the winners get to join these groups and flaunt their scoring/survival/short challenge prowess to the rest of the forum until the next challenges are completed. Here are the badges:




Tournament Archives

Challenge Leaderboard

Here's what I teased last month - an ongoing leaderboard for my challenges! Every submission counts towards an overall point system that I will try and set up rewards for. Suggestions are open for the reward, could be another badge, or something else entirely. In the future, I will probably host the leaderboard on Pastebin to prevent clutter. We'll see how it goes here, first.

Point System Explained:
 
Easy: People below you (including yourself) x1
Normal: x2
Hard: x3
Lunatic: x4
Extra: x3
Phantasm: x3
 
Quick Challenge: x2
 
Every month, before adding points, total points are halved.
 
Current Standings: (Huge thanks to Emerald!)
[monospace]
 1. SomeGuy712x             60
 2. Aeteas                  46
 3. L3PiK                   30
 4. Emerald                 28
 5. Karisa                  23
 6. Mino                    23
 7. ARF                     18
 8. Mero                    18
 9. fish                    16
10. Nwodatek                11
[/monospace]
Full Leaderboard

Touhou Challenges - Month 4

Come chat about strategies on #pc-99 on irc.ppirc.net!

Deadline: 1st of April 2015.

Ten Desires ARRANGE - Scoring Challenge
Your goal is to get the highest score you can in Ten Desires using Nereid's Arrange mod! All difficulties are supported.

Challenge Name - Difficulty
Name - Score - Stage - Shot type - Slowdown - Replay

Easy
1. ARF - 758,530,650 - C - Youmu - 0.0% - Replay
2. Emerald - 725,594,070 - C - Marisa - 0.210% - Replay

Normal
1.

Hard
1.

Lunatic
1.

Extra
1.

For the Busy People - Quick Challenge
Get the highest score you can in DDC Spellcard 95 and 117 using ReimuA!

Challenge Name - Spellcard Number
Name - Score - Slowdown - Replay

Spellcard No. 95
1. Mero - 19,188,760 - 0.0% - Replay
2. ARF - 19,115,100 - 0.5% - Replay
3. Nwodatek - 18,613,750 - 0.0% - Replay
4. Mino - 18,589,160 - 0.700% - Replay
5. KirbyComment - 18,509,810 - 0,00% - Replay
6. Emerald - 18,387,810 - 0.000% - Replay
7. Mr Jovial - 18,044,320 - 0.000% - Replay

Spellcard No. 117
1. ARF - 23,591,450 - 1.0% - Replay
2. Mero - 23,528,640 - 2.1% - Replay
3. Funen1 - 23,335,120 - 0.0% - Replay
4. Emerald - 23,306,200 - 0.000% - Replay
5. Nwodatek - 23,291,130 - 0.0% - Replay
6. Mr Jovial - 23,240,910 - 0.000% - Replay
7. Mino - 23,096,630 - 0.000% - Replay
8. KirbyComment - 23,031,410 - 1,75% - Replay

Imperishable Night - Survival Challenge
Survive in IN without using bombs AND starting with 1 life! To change what lives you start with, go to Option and set Player to 1. You should now start the game with zero life stars. Scores will be ranked by Stage achieved then score. All difficulties other than Extra are supported.

Challenge Name - Difficulty
Name - Score - Stage - Shot type - Slowdown - Replay

Easy
1. Emerald - 2,153,892,590 - C - Yuyuko & Youmu - 0.0% - Replay
2. Funen1 - 1,577,540,280 - C - Border Team - 0.041% - Replay
3. Luna - 1,361,011,060 - C - Border Team - 0.039% - Replay

Normal
1.

Hard
1.

Lunatic
1.  Emerald - 261,168,340 - 2 - Border Team - 0.244% - Replay

[Failure McFailFace]

Art is fine.

Challenge Idea:

ISC:
Snap-shooter vs Snap-shooter:
Use Camera-Camera on 6-2.

Survival: Kill the boss as fast as possible. Winner is determined by time left, then score.
Score: Person with highest score wins

[Shimatora]

Posted the first set of challenges earlier than planned! Enjoy!

[Sakurei]

Stayin' Alive - Easy
Sakurei - 1,289,227,870 - C - 8 - 0.201 - Replay

Not very good. I'll do the scoring thing later today.

[Karisa]

Scoring challenge - Easy
Karisa - 660,842,270
PCB - 323,744,770 - ReimuB - 0.119% - Replay
IN - 256,714,620 - Youmu - 4B - 0.057% - Replay
DDC - 80,382,880 - SakuyaB - 0.0% - Replay

Experiment with the scoring challenge-- I tested out each game's stage 4 on Easy to see what kind of score it gave.

PCB and IN are worth so much more than the other games (PCB due to having the highest starting PIV of 300,000, IN because it's IN) that including them is a given. They aren't among my better games though. I'm sure Sakurei, or Seppo if he happens to show up here, could do better.

As for the third, it's not as clear-cut (and the optimal game may vary by difficulty), but I reached 80m in DDC and only 70m in UFO and TD. Not sure if DDC is actually the best choice for Easy or if it's just my own experience with it.

Interesting concept, anyway.

[t_prinny]

Quick Challenge
Prinny - 675 - 0.000% - Replay

I don't spend enough time in spell practice mode. Decided to be a bit reckless with my grazing and I doubt I'll get an attempt that got as much graze as this any time soon. Used Youmu solo because her gauge is smaller, which makes it easier to get it into the human side before I start grazing.

I'll probably do some practice runs with SakuyaB before I submit something. Sort of died on Yuyuko more than I expected on easy.

[Sakurei]

Touhou Mix and Match - Easy
Sakurei - 672,691,720
Perfect Cherry Blossom - 335,453,040 - ReimuB - 0.183% - Replay
Imperishable Night - 268,627,490 - Youmu - 0.105% - Replay
Ten Desires - 68,611,190 - Youmu - 0.100% - Replay

Touhou Mix and Match - Normal
Sakurei - 794,041,670
Perfect Cherry Blossom - 335,907,530 - ReimuB - 0.124% - Replay
Imperishable Night - 370,612,370 - Youmu - 0.051% - Replay
Ten Desires - 87,521,770 - Youmu - 0.090% - Replay

4A should be worth a lot more than 4B, but I don't feel like learning Reimu for this, only to never play her again. By how much Reimu is worth more I don't know, but it's a notable amount. Other than that the rust really shows (or maybe it doesn't? I was pretty bad when I stopped easy mode, same for normal). They're not very polished runs, so another Youmu can beat them even if they chose to play Marisa, I'm pretty sure.
Perfect Cherry Blossom was not very good either. I didn't do the second to last Prismriver spell, since I haven't practice the graze for a few months, also failed Merlin border in both runs. With proper routing, it could go up by quite a lot, I reckon.
Ten Desires in "what am I even doing" kind of thing. Going by pure points, DDC is probably the better choice, but I don't think I played it enough to have stage 4 unlocked for that game on SakuyaB. Not to mention that I'll be damned before I play DDC w. Anyway, All of my scores are very beatable, and shouldn't pose too many problems for a player experienced in any of the categories.

[SomeGuy712x]

I decided to give the Quick Challenge a try, and after 76 attempts at this spell card, I pulled this off:

Quick Challenge
SomeGuy712x - 885 - 1.031% - Replay

For this challenge, should we also mention which character/team we used? (I used Youmu solo.)

[LepLep]

Stayin' Alive - Easy
L3PiK - 1,281,102,080 - C - 8 - 0.151% - Replay

Also not very good.

[Shimatora]

I decided to give the Quick Challenge a try, and after 76 attempts at this spell card, I pulled this off:

Quick Challenge
SomeGuy712x - 885 - 1.031% - Replay

For this challenge, should we also mention which character/team we used? (I used Youmu solo.)

Yes, actually! I completely forgot this. Thanks~

[Mero]

Touhou Mix and Match - Lunatic
Mero - 1,015,401,800
PCB - 332,310,700 - ReimuB - 0.578% - Replay
IN (4B) - 394,012,710 - Border Team - 0.298% - Replay
SA - 289,078,390 - ReimuA - 0.77% - Replay

PCB was mostly my usual survival run with bombs to not let point items drop. IN should have been 400M, but apparently I thought doing Starlight Typhoon unfocused was a good idea. Dying to FIN actually cost me a PB on the stage in SA, but I guess it balances to capping DBDB

[LepLep]

Stayin' Alive - Normal
L3PiK - 1,444,948,640 - C - 8 - 0.113% - Replay

[Mr Jovial]

Quick Challenge
Mr Jovial - 1231 - Netherworld Team - 0.000% - Replay

Completely forgot to stop shooting so it doesn't last very long. Also I don't know how to do a proper reversal so my strategy gets messed up after that. Lots of room for improvement tbh.

edit: K maybe not much more I can get out of this, the pattern gets really messy after about 1200 graze. Did get to 1366 graze but got hit so :C

[ARF]

Touhou Mix and Match - Lunatic
ARF - 1,074,650,900
PCB - 390,771,240 - ReimuB - 0.0% - Replay
IN (4B) - 401,851,960 - Border Team - 0.0% - Replay
SA - 282,027,700 - ReimuA - 0.0% - Replay

(?・ω・`) I've been watching all the WR's so I'm simply copying every single detail.

Bonus
DDC - 217,839,440 - MarisaB - 1.0% - Replay
Bad stage execution, but all spells capped! Recliner-chan a cute!

Great initiative Shimatora! These are fun challenges!

[SomeGuy712x]

Quick Challenge
SomeGuy712x - 1296 - Youmu solo - 1.124% - Replay

My attempt count on this spell card with Youmu solo is now at 241.

[Choco Beam]

Quick Challenge
Nal Yoo - 1969 - Reimu solo - 0.687% - Replay

I died because I looked at the timer :V Might go for a timeout but I really want to go back to Sakuya solo scoring. I'll do it if someone else does tho.

[Shimatora]

To clarify: not clearing Spellcard 218 is allowed. Will update the OP when I get up.

[Choco Beam]

Quick Challenge
Nal Yoo - 2251 - 0.515% - Replay

Okay. I'll try again next week.

P.S Easy 3K w/ Youmu

[Mr Jovial]

Quick Challenge
Mr Jovial - 1995 - Netherworld Team - 0.000% - Replay

More optimal grazing method, improved reversal technique and amazing luck on the later waves. This is quite fun

EDIT:
Quick Challenge
Mr Jovial - 2137 - Netherworld Team - 0.000% - Replay

[Mino ☆]

Might as well participate! Since challenges and such are fun!

Touhou Mix and Match - Lunatic
Mino - 1,123,162,560
PCB - 431,585,940 - ReimuB - Stage 4 -  0.137% - Replay
SA - 292,808,530 - ReimuA - Stage 4 - 0.050% - Replay
IN - 398,768,090 - Border Team - Stage 4 - 0.051% - Replay

PCB was fun, but weird to do without SpoilerAL. Borders take longer to get and no beginning stage grazes. But I am satisfied with it as of now. Maybe improve it.
In SA I was very rusty, and I'm not that practiced with this stage, so I will go back to improve it.
IN I really couldn't care less about. Perhaps I should try to improve it, but I don't even know how to score this game and I don't even feel like learning how to do so. I only did it because IN is pretty much required to do well in the Lunatic category of this challenge.

Shame I couldn't do DDC for this one. Given the nature of the challenge, DDC wouldn't really contribute much to the total score.

[Inadequate]

Playing three games might be too much for me, but I suppose there's the other thing.

Survival - Easy
Inadequate - 1,376,674,510 - C - 8 - 0.089% - Replay

-Bad decision making
-Deaths
-Ending spells early since I forgot to stop shooting
-Bad grazing


1.5 at the very least if I was to look into improving it.

-

Nevermind. As long as I don't have to dodge bullets.

Scoring - Easy
Inadequate - 764,597,730
PCB - 356,195,700 - ReimuB - Stage 4 - 0.169% - Replay
IN - 318,974,350 - Youmu - Stage 4A - 0.000% - Replay
TD - 89,427,680 - Youmu - Stage 4 - 0.000% - Replay

800M would seem like a good goal.

PCB: Bad border management cost me some cherry, in addition to the few missing tricks I never bothered to learn. 380-ish.
IN: I don't remember how the fairy stuff works for Youmu so I just did something. Missed midboss PoC, didn't milk first boss spell, ended last non with a deathbomb. No clue but let's say 350. It might be way overstated, though.
TD: I forgot this game existed. UFO can score about as high, but I played this since there's less execution. Bad game, too reliant on glowball spawn RNG, bomb damage RNG and whatnot. Damaged the last spell with the first trance too much and then she died from the bomb. Didn't feel like playing another credit. No clue of score potentials.

-

Had some issues with ghosting and having to reboot the game ever so often, probably some files corrupted. Hope it didn't desynch the replays. (I have screenshots of all the scores in case it did)

4A should be worth a lot more than 4B

The score gap in between the two stages should differ depending on the difficulty level. Two grazes from Easy become impossible on higher levels, while the latter difficulties add two new grazing attacks, although not as fruitful as the Easy ones. Marisa's nonspells are more milkable than Reimu's. Capturing and grazing Reimu's Last Spell on higher difficulties is demoralizing reset hell, same with the midboss PoC. (although assuming you play with Youmu, it isn't that bad)

General assessment is correct: 4A is worth more than 4B.

[Karisa]

Scoring challenge - Easy
Karisa - 686,895,170
PCB - 330,039,810 - ReimuB - 0.080% - Replay
IN - 256,714,620 - Youmu - 4B - 0.057% - Replay
TD - 100,140,740 - Youmu - 0.0% - Replay

26m improvement. Thanks to Emerald for showing how TD is worth much more than DDC. Also improved my PCB run by not dying. IN is unchanged; I may or may not try out 4A sometime.

[LepLep]

Stayin' Alive - Extra
L3PiK - 968,000,380 - C - 7 - 0.046% - Replay

One border break. :<

[Shimatora]

Time left until deadline.

Do submit even if you don't place first! Every score will contribute to a leaderboard of sorts, the details of which I will reveal on the 1st of January 2015. These challenges have certainly been a fantastic test run so far, and I'm very keen on trying new things to encourage any and all players to give it a shot. If you have any ideas about that you'd like to share, feel free to post it here.

[Mero]

Oh right, I forgot about this.

Stayin' Alive - Lunatic
Mero - 1,021,114,910 - C - 3 - 0.603% - Replay

Included a screenshot because the link says the run didn't clear for some reason

[SomeGuy712x]

Oh, yeah. I'd forgotten about this too. I guess I should post this improvement that I got a couple weeks ago. (I was hoping to hit at least 2000 graze before posting again, but who knows if I'll make any more attempts at this.)

Quick Challenge:
SomeGuy712x - 1666 - Youmu solo - 0.741% - Replay

BTW, my total attempt count on that spell card is 331 right now.

[Inadequate]

Sorry for the late reply, but I didn't manage to find time to play any sooner.

Scoring - Normal
Inadequate - 839,338,420
PCB - 381,884,750 - ReimuB - 0.074% - Replay
IN - 360,945,760 - Youmu - 4B - 0.000% - Replay
TD - 96,507,910 - Youmu - 0.000% - Replay

PCB: Death on the pre-boss fairy, mistakes with borders and some missing stuff. 410M might be too generous, but it's up there somewhere.
IN: Played 4B since I didn't want to grind restarts on Reimu's last spell, plus the boss is generally easier and has less stuff to do. Still don't know what Youmu should do during the stage so just did something. 400M+ if you go 4A, I'm not exactly sure of the potentials since I don't remember how much you can get from fully grazing the first spell in the stage.
TD: Following the earlier strategy I played two credits and picked the better one. No idea how far this could go, but I'm starting to think that UFO would score higher on Normal. (But I'm biased towards UFO since I know it better)

900M wouldn't look like a very hard goal to hit.

[Star King]

Quick Challenge
Star King - 2409 - Youmu - 0.000% - replay

Easily beatable but I am pretty bad at staying alive in the late stages of this spellcard

[Inadequate]

And an even later reply, but again, I didn't play until tonight. Four and one credits respectively for Extra and Normal.

Survival - Extra
Inadequate - 1,060,354,060 - C - 7 - 0.023% - Replay

Survival - Normal
Inadequate - 1,642,957,190 - C - 8 - 0.070% - Replay


I haven't played either mode for a good while, especially on SakuyaB, so my movements were rather sloppy. I also prioritized getting something done quick over quality, so I basically left out all of the harder stuff/didn't restart if I did something stupid. Extra run has a couple of border breaks and missed borders, Normal run has a lot of border breaks and several deaths.

1.2B and 1.8B are still my goals for the no-bomb runs for the respective categories, but I don't think I'll ever end up hitting them, considering I would seem to play them once per year.

I'm not going to play the lunatic categories, I think.

[Shimatora]

Just under 17 hours left to submit. ANY score goes towards my scoreboard idea, so even if it doesn't get first place, submit it anyway!