Author Topic: Touhou Replay Showcase  (Read 60858 times)

Chill Observer

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Touhou Replay Showcase
« on: September 14, 2016, 01:38:14 AM »
Note: We have began broadcasting again, but this forum will no longer be updated. The following thread is preserved here for archival purposes.

Stream Link Here: Touhou Replay Showcase

For ALL intents and purposes, please visit Maribel Hearn's Touhou Replay Showcase page on his Github.


Credits to ZM, Pearl, Permafrost Wolf and others for contributions, as well as Yu-miya's replay party stream for the original idea.

Greetings, Touhou fans of all varieties of backgrounds! As a way of showing the diversity of the western Touhou community, we have decided to start a weekly stream in which we present and commentate on your Touhou player-made replays. We aim to demonstrate how different kinds of players approach the Touhou games at various skill levels, in addition to broadening gameplay perspectives. Whether your run is a survival or score attack run, from easy to lunatic difficulty, all submissions are welcome and we encourage you to showcase yourself to the gameplay community.

Before submitting your replay, however, here are some general guidelines.

  • You may submit runs of any difficulty, survival or scoring. Main game, stage practice and spell card practice are all accepted.
  • Replays MUST be of your own. If we find out you stole a replay, you will be banned from having any and all future replays showcased.
  • We accept no-shooting/pacifist replays, but we will fast forward through them.
  • For obvious reasons, no runs that involve the use of TAS or cheats. The only exception is runs that go faster than the regular speed of 60 frames per second.
  • For survival: Any kind of submission is acceptable. Make sure you specify them.
  • For scoring: Make sure to include significant scoring strategies. Don't submit a survival run as a score run.
    Check the hiscores page for reference.

The stream itself will take place on Saturday and Sunday, 3PM EST every week.
Each player is restricted to one submission per month.

For all related Touhou game replay uploads, please use Lunarcast, credits to Tom for making the site. Make sure to link your uploaded replay in the submission form!

For fangames, upload via video (YouTube, etc. it can be unlisted don't worry).

Looking forward to seeing your replays! :)   

If this garners enough steam this will become regular for sure. w
Also I totally did not copy the exact post as I wrote on Reddit and Eientei

Stream highlights with the entries
« Last Edit: December 13, 2018, 06:02:34 AM by Railgun »
Retired Touhou player. Not involved with anything Touhou anymore.

RB

Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #1 on: September 14, 2016, 02:38:05 AM »
Are runs with Ultra patches acceptable?

Chill Observer

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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2016, 04:52:22 AM »
Are runs with Ultra patches acceptable?
They are... although that requires me installing the ultra patches in the first place. :p
Just make sure you state that the run is ultra somewhere in your submission.

Also if your submission doesn't get shown this week then it'll simply be saved for the next. I'll log the ones that have already been shown.
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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2016, 01:37:27 PM »
This sounds great, and I'd love to take part and have the professionals pick apart some of my replays. I just have a query about one of your guidelines:

For scoring: Your score run must be at a considerably different level than a survival run. In other words, don't submit a survival run as a score run.

You see, I'm the kind of player for whom survival and scoring are not separate goals. I always try to score, even if it's a category I haven't cleared yet. I try to learn scoring techniques a little at a time and incorporate them into my runs. I'm nowhere near professional scoring level yet -- but I'd still prefer my runs to be treated as scoring runs and for you to tell me what's good and what needs improvement. Is that okay? Or maybe I should mark my runs as both survival and scoring to show that I'm kind of a bit of both?

Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2016, 02:20:15 PM »
I just made a submission (IN Hard, Alice Solo); thanks for this initiative! I was wondering if you could provide instructions on how to view this weekly stream, as I have no background on streaming in general and would like to watch.

Normally, I consider myself an insular and stubborn Touhou player when it comes to outside advice - that's just a result of really enjoying the process of trying to work things out by myself and not being exposed to too many 'spoilers', even when I'm having difficulty. But I also would like to share my Touhou playing with others, and see what strategies others have come up with. I also think the goal of "showing the diversity of the western Touhou community" is a good one, and I hope it encourages more community participation in Touhou playing :)

This sounds great, and I'd love to take part and have the professionals pick apart some of my replays. I just have a query about one of your guidelines:

You see, I'm the kind of player for whom survival and scoring are not separate goals. I always try to score, even if it's a category I haven't cleared yet. I try to learn scoring techniques a little at a time and incorporate them into my runs. I'm nowhere near professional scoring level yet -- but I'd still prefer my runs to be treated as scoring runs and for you to tell me what's good and what needs improvement. Is that okay? Or maybe I should mark my runs as both survival and scoring to show that I'm kind of a bit of both?
I think this is a good point to raise - in my opinion whilst there are obviously 'pure' score runs and 'pure' survival runs, there are definitely runs that are on a continuum between the two. Would the threshold for inclusion as a 'scoring run' be something above what a 'defensive/conservative' NMNB could achieve? Also, there's a distinction between intent and result - somebody could be trying to do a scoring run but not do very well and get a lower score, but the replay could still indicate a preference towards scoring-based play rather than survival-based play. For example, suppose I play SA, and I try some of the easier scoring strategies (increasing graze via timing out attacks, using bombs as ReimuA, positioning my character in riskier positions). I could still end up with a score lower than that achieved by a No Miss run, simply from dying due to the added risks I'm taking.

On the other hand, to a relatively average player like me, the scoring runs at a significant percentage of World Record scores are obviously on a whole other level of gameplay to what most of us can achieve. It's almost like watching a different game mode being played, and I think it is important to maintain this distinction. My personal preference in this case would be to allow ticking both 'scoring' and 'survival' in the online submission form for replays like the ones Mikuru is suggesting. A run that uses a few scoring techniques but nothing really crazy (e.g. significant usage of point-blank safespots) can be still commented on like it's a survival run, but the individual scoring techniques deserve to be commented on too (for example, manipulation of the human/youkai meter in IN to get time orbs). I'm not sure how discussion of replays is planned or structured (obviously), but I'm assuming each replay will be viewed at least once prior to the stream, and so issues like these can be addressed if relatively minor. 

Maybe the bit in the original post that says 'Check the hiscores page for reference' could be a little more specific? E.g., for a 'pure' scoring run, your score should be around X% of the MotK top score/World Record, or similar?

ZM

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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #5 on: September 14, 2016, 08:24:03 PM »
This sounds great, and I'd love to take part and have the professionals pick apart some of my replays. I just have a query about one of your guidelines:

You see, I'm the kind of player for whom survival and scoring are not separate goals. I always try to score, even if it's a category I haven't cleared yet. I try to learn scoring techniques a little at a time and incorporate them into my runs. I'm nowhere near professional scoring level yet -- but I'd still prefer my runs to be treated as scoring runs and for you to tell me what's good and what needs improvement. Is that okay? Or maybe I should mark my runs as both survival and scoring to show that I'm kind of a bit of both?

I mean, I GUESS you can call your runs scoring runs if you're main goal is trying to get as high of a score as you can.

Chill Observer

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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #6 on: September 14, 2016, 09:10:18 PM »
I just made a submission (IN Hard, Alice Solo); thanks for this initiative! I was wondering if you could provide instructions on how to view this weekly stream, as I have no background on streaming in general and would like to watch.

Normally, I consider myself an insular and stubborn Touhou player when it comes to outside advice - that's just a result of really enjoying the process of trying to work things out by myself and not being exposed to too many 'spoilers', even when I'm having difficulty. But I also would like to share my Touhou playing with others, and see what strategies others have come up with. I also think the goal of "showing the diversity of the western Touhou community" is a good one, and I hope it encourages more community participation in Touhou playing :)
The stream will most likely be hosted on Twitch. We'll be making a stream account exclusively for the replay stream itself. Once I do so and then make some test streams then I'll give instructions and guidelines about the stream itself. Also I'd say in general that exposing yourself to "spoilers", especially in a shooting game series, is actually pretty good practice, because you'll have an idea how patterns in-game work beforehand.

I think this is a good point to raise - in my opinion whilst there are obviously 'pure' score runs and 'pure' survival runs, there are definitely runs that are on a continuum between the two. Would the threshold for inclusion as a 'scoring run' be something above what a 'defensive/conservative' NMNB could achieve? Also, there's a distinction between intent and result - somebody could be trying to do a scoring run but not do very well and get a lower score, but the replay could still indicate a preference towards scoring-based play rather than survival-based play. For example, suppose I play SA, and I try some of the easier scoring strategies (increasing graze via timing out attacks, using bombs as ReimuA, positioning my character in riskier positions). I could still end up with a score lower than that achieved by a No Miss run, simply from dying due to the added risks I'm taking.

On the other hand, to a relatively average player like me, the scoring runs at a significant percentage of World Record scores are obviously on a whole other level of gameplay to what most of us can achieve. It's almost like watching a different game mode being played, and I think it is important to maintain this distinction. My personal preference in this case would be to allow ticking both 'scoring' and 'survival' in the online submission form for replays like the ones Mikuru is suggesting. A run that uses a few scoring techniques but nothing really crazy (e.g. significant usage of point-blank safespots) can be still commented on like it's a survival run, but the individual scoring techniques deserve to be commented on too (for example, manipulation of the human/youkai meter in IN to get time orbs). I'm not sure how discussion of replays is planned or structured (obviously), but I'm assuming each replay will be viewed at least once prior to the stream, and so issues like these can be addressed if relatively minor. 

Maybe the bit in the original post that says 'Check the hiscores page for reference' could be a little more specific? E.g., for a 'pure' scoring run, your score should be around X% of the MotK top score/World Record, or similar?
What ZM said: if your goal is to get a highscore you can consider your run a scoring one, but obviously it needs to do a little more than a regular 1cc (are specific routes or graze strats used? are point items frequently collected? are you using resources to get higher PIV or saving them for a massive clear bonus?).

Some games (IN and MoF for instance) give you quite a high score myself if you no-miss and no-bomb. Extra stages in particular are also like this in general. So, it is not uncommon for a scoring run to also incorporate strats to not die, get spell bonuses and generally only use resources to prevent a death. (Max lives finish in extra stages are usually worth a LOT of points.)

I will be skimming through the replays a few days before the stream starts, to ensure three things: that the replay is genuine, that there are no desyncs, and strategies/approaches the player took in their run. Replay order during the stream will be generally randomized and if there are many submissions we might enforce some limitations (e.g. max 1 full run per player each week).

The highscores page for world records is just a general guideline. Each game is too different to explicitly state whether or not "a score must be within this % of the THWiki/MotK/Eientei/Royalflare/etc. top score or world record".

Thanks for the feedback, by the way!
Retired Touhou player. Not involved with anything Touhou anymore.

Zigzagwolf

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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #7 on: September 14, 2016, 09:32:31 PM »
Ended up submitting one of the DDC Extra replays I had, please take note that I got bad internet so that when the stream will happen I might not be able to view it. (maybe the archive is an option?)
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Chill Observer

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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #8 on: September 14, 2016, 11:55:41 PM »
Ended up submitting one of the DDC Extra replays I had, please take note that I got bad internet so that when the stream will happen I might not be able to view it. (maybe the archive is an option?)
We'll be archiving broadcasts as well as providing a list of replays showcased during the stream on this topic.

Oh, I forgot to mention an important rule that I'll add (but is implied in the no TAS/cheating rule anyway):
ALL REPLAYS MUST BE AT OR BELOW 5% SLOWDOWN.
Any percentage greater than this will not be shown.
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ZoomyTsugumi

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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #9 on: September 15, 2016, 12:32:16 AM »
Other games allowed? Mostly asking about Len'en here.

Chill Observer

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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2016, 01:44:13 AM »
Other games allowed? Mostly asking about Len'en here.
For now, this will be limited to just Windows Touhou shmups, sorry!
We may think about adding specific fangames and/or related series later on.
Retired Touhou player. Not involved with anything Touhou anymore.

Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #11 on: September 15, 2016, 02:05:58 AM »
Decided to submit my MoF and TD Normal clears. I'm planning to submit an IN replay but I want to ask a probably dumb question first: my replay is not saved under my username, it is in fact named '15th' to commemorate my 15th 1cc attempt. Is this acceptable format or will I need to clear IN again and save another replay using my name?

I look forward to seeing the stream, although I probably won't be able to watch it live due to differing timezones. I'm excited about more experienced players analysing my playstyle!

Chill Observer

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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #12 on: September 15, 2016, 02:29:40 AM »
Decided to submit my MoF and TD Normal clears. I'm planning to submit an IN replay but I want to ask a probably dumb question first: my replay is not saved under my username, it is in fact named '15th' to commemorate my 15th 1cc attempt. Is this acceptable format or will I need to clear IN again and save another replay using my name?

I look forward to seeing the stream, although I probably won't be able to watch it live due to differing timezones. I'm excited about more experienced players analysing my playstyle!
That is fine. As long as you submit replays under the same username using the form we will accept it.

By the way, the showcase consensus at the moment is that the first 3 stages (or first 5 for PoFV) will be fast-forwarded in the maingame, unless otherwise stated.
Retired Touhou player. Not involved with anything Touhou anymore.

Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #13 on: September 15, 2016, 02:51:45 AM »
Thanks, gonna submit my IN replay now. I'll also submit my PoFV clear as I just remembered I 1cc'ed it a few months back. I hope I'm not making too many submissions :ohdear:

Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #14 on: September 15, 2016, 04:08:34 AM »
I like this concept...sounds interesting.

I'll add my UFO SanaeA run where I nearly perfected Nue to the mix.

Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #15 on: September 15, 2016, 05:41:30 AM »
Well, I was thinking of submitting the replay of Remilia's Fitful Nightmare we were talking about on the other thread, Satorical, but it doesn't have my username, but "Remilia" on it. Because all my replays in ISC have the name of the character in the spell card  :D Is there any problem with that?

If not, I've a Koishi-perfect and a Suwako-perfect run (you know, no deaths, no bombs).

Chill Observer

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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #16 on: September 15, 2016, 05:47:55 AM »
Well, I was thinking of submitting the replay of Remilia's Fitful Nightmare we were talking about on the other thread, Satorical, but it doesn't have my username, but "Remilia" on it. Because all my replays in ISC have the name of the character in the spell card  :D Is there any problem with that?

If not, I've a Koishi-perfect and a Suwako-perfect run (you know, no deaths, no bombs).
As I've said before, that's fine. The field "Player Name" should be who you want to be known as (I am assuming Yukari's Glove).
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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #17 on: September 15, 2016, 09:09:00 AM »
By the way, the showcase consensus at the moment is that the first 3 stages (or first 5 for PoFV) will be fast-forwarded in the maingame, unless otherwise stated.

Does that apply for scoring runs aswell? If so that doesn't make sense

Chill Observer

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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #18 on: September 15, 2016, 09:13:51 AM »
Does that apply for scoring runs aswell? If so that doesn't make sense
Oh yeah. For score runs, tell us which parts you'd like to be skipped, so if you want to include the first three stages, they will be.
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Chill Observer

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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #19 on: September 15, 2016, 10:16:54 AM »
The stream design is done!

This will be included in the front page shortly. (Sorry for double posting!)
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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #20 on: September 15, 2016, 10:54:40 AM »
Followed, and good luck with this project. This is hopefully something that'll be well appreciated by the community. You guys just might want to keep in mind to brush up a bit on your general basic knowledge of each game or relevant commentary could become a real struggle and stray away from the replay completely. Just something to keep in mind. I wouldn't mind some banter, but people sending in their replays might get disappointed if you end up talking about something else for its entire duration.

I'll try to send in a photography game replay or two (or three?) every week, those games are always short on recognition. Is there any kind of cap of how much "shorter" replays (scenes or spell practice stuff) you can send in, by the way? 2 or 3 sounds reasonable to me, assuming that for a full game, 2 replays is too many.

Also, assuming there's no requirement for the replay to be recent? I'm not playing much at the moment, but I have no shortage of replays.

Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #21 on: September 15, 2016, 01:58:19 PM »
Already submitted. Thank you for taking your time with this  :)

Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #22 on: September 15, 2016, 02:43:25 PM »
For the MoF replay I've submitted, I'm fine with you fast-forwarding the first three stages. There really isn't very much to be said about them.

Chill Observer

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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #23 on: September 15, 2016, 05:16:19 PM »
Followed, and good luck with this project. This is hopefully something that'll be well appreciated by the community. You guys just might want to keep in mind to brush up a bit on your general basic knowledge of each game or relevant commentary could become a real struggle and stray away from the replay completely. Just something to keep in mind. I wouldn't mind some banter, but people sending in their replays might get disappointed if you end up talking about something else for its entire duration.

I'll try to send in a photography game replay or two (or three?) every week, those games are always short on recognition. Is there any kind of cap of how much "shorter" replays (scenes or spell practice stuff) you can send in, by the way? 2 or 3 sounds reasonable to me, assuming that for a full game, 2 replays is too many.

Also, assuming there's no requirement for the replay to be recent? I'm not playing much at the moment, but I have no shortage of replays.
I've played all of the games in the above list on at least hard and extra difficulty (including all 4 sidegames) and the others have done the same on lunatic (and score a couple of games), so Touhou game knowledge isn't particularly an issue for us. This is also something I'll have to be careful with however, this is a showcase, not a criticism-case. Of course, there might be some criticism here and there, but that is not the main purpose of the stream. I'm the only one who doesn't score, but I still have a basic grasp on how scoring in each game works.

For "shorter" replays, I'll say that 3 scenes is a reasonable cap. Obviously for the full game and extra, we must cap it to 1 submission per person.

There's no requirement for the replay to be recent (although it is preferable). You just need to make sure the replay doesn't desync, so good luck submitting a DS 12-6 replay lol.
Retired Touhou player. Not involved with anything Touhou anymore.

Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #24 on: September 15, 2016, 05:53:26 PM »
Submitted mine. This seems like a really good idea, I'm looking forward to the stream  :D

Chill Observer

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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #25 on: September 15, 2016, 09:54:53 PM »
Due to the massive number of submissions we have been getting thus far, we will have to cap the number of runs shown on stream per week.

As of now, only 10 full run submissions (by different users) per week will be shown. The actual stream length will be approximated to sometime between 2-3 hours.

You may still submit runs, but they will be moved to a later week.
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Chill Observer

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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #26 on: September 17, 2016, 04:18:13 PM »
The first stream will be starting less than 3 hours from now!

Here is the list of replays that will be shown this week.

Week 1:

  • DSK UFO Normal SanaeA 1cc
  • Cuppy SA Normal ReimuA NB
  • Extruderx PoFV Hard Cirno Scoring
  • Granpapa777 IN Normal BorderTeam 1cc Final A
  • RedBloony LoLK Ex Marisa 1cc
  • Vex EoSD Hard ReimuB NB
  • Morth TD Ex Marisa Scoring WR
  • Wlad PCB Ex MarisaA NB
  • Novice259 TD Normal Reimu 1cc
  • Pearl PCB Lunatic MarisaA NB
Retired Touhou player. Not involved with anything Touhou anymore.

Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #27 on: September 17, 2016, 07:00:15 PM »
Aww, I see I did not make it in time :(

I suppose it's one hour from now, right? I ask just to be sure, since I'm not from the EST zone  :V

Zigzagwolf

  • Kuruminist Touhou Player
Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #28 on: September 17, 2016, 07:03:00 PM »
Aww, I see I did not make it in time :(

I suppose it's one hour from now, right? I ask just to be sure, since I'm not from the EST zone  :V
It just began to stream.
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Re: Touhou Replay Showcase
« Reply #29 on: September 17, 2016, 08:31:08 PM »
I was there for a bit. Nice to see so much T?h? players together. But the resolution of the stream was low. Maybe I had to set up something? It was actually my first time seeing a stream from Twitch.