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Forum: High scores - Homelands

     seb disturbs the rankings.
     
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Australia (WA)Wil

Single Player
wilamristar.com.au

Fri Apr 15, 2005 7:46 am   Post subject: seb disturbs the rankings. Not logged in.

Well, Homelands has been pretty quiet for some time but seb's just gone and stirred it up again : . After Thozz went and suprised us with a clear number one seb has beaten that score and claimed numerous other clear number ones, some 1000 pointers and other top 5 places. All in all these levels seem far from beaten! Along the way he's stayed in 5th rank but bridged the gap somewhat and seems destined to increase his ranking.

To make it more scary for Wil, asarkila and DREAM he seems to have some levels out there on his own and a number still in the bag (there's no way I can beat level 78 for example).

So, there you go. I'm worried what I'm going to find in the other level sets after this latest ticket check in. It was on the cards..... now it's happened. Hmm, a sneak at the combined ranking suggests Homelands was targetted this week.

Finlandasarkila

Single Player
ari.sarkilahtigmail.com

Fri Apr 15, 2005 11:00 am   Post subject: Not logged in.

Yep, Homelands has been pretty quiet and has easily the hardest highscores of all the levelsets. I don't think I've seriously played Homelands for a looooong time, the reason being that I've played those levels so much that other levelsets are just more fun. Of course the easier highscores don't hurt either. However, nice to see that the scores are still beatable. Good job, seb and Thozz.
Franceseb

Single Player
drsebfree.fr

Fri Apr 15, 2005 12:17 pm   Post subject: Not logged in.

Hi folks,
Maybe I had played Tropical a bit too long, and not been in Homelands for too long. So I had a run on the reference levelset : Those high scores are damn hard to get. I only got 3 clear ones, and joined the crew on the top score for relatively easy runs. It was also a way to apply a few new techniques I discovered on Tropical :

I have a few personal challenges I'll try to get: achieve all possible 1000 pointers on Homelands is the first one. Then, I'll try to progress in Jungle. And achieve 100 1000 pointers on the only 4 levelsets I've ever played. And why not gain one or two places in the combined rankings, only playing those 4 levelsets??
Finlandasarkila

Single Player
ari.sarkilahtigmail.com

Sat Apr 16, 2005 2:37 am   Post subject: Not logged in.

Quote (seb):
And achieve 100 1000 pointers on the only 4 levelsets I've ever played. And why not gain one or two places in the combined rankings, only playing those 4 levelsets??
Why not play all the levelsets? :
Australia (WA)Wil

Single Player
wilamristar.com.au

Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:17 am   Post subject: Not logged in.

Quote (asarkila):
Why not play all the levelsets? :

Stop dreaming asarkila. You just want to dilute seb's efforts! Obviously you (like me) are worried about losing our top rankings on Homelands. :

Quote (seb):
I have a few personal challenges I'll try to get: achieve all possible 1000 pointers on Homelands is the first one. Then, I'll try to progress in Jungle.

Looks like you'll have to solve level 5 then. I had some trouble with that one. I'm sure it'll be easier for you to get that one than for me to get level 55 and level 78. If it was only 55 I'd give it a serious go but bother of those levels are extremely difficult to crack. But serious, for me, level 55 is looking an easier 1000 pointer than most other levels/level sets.

As for Jungle progression... that is always fun and very challenging. It's a pity Anyone hasn't quuite got through level 46 since I think the next 5 levels are a little easier. And if asarkila got through 43-46 he'd be pushing me in the combined rankings. Personally I'm still trying to get level 30 - this morning's good game left me a tick or two short of the 1000 pointer. :

Of course the other challenge is to be the first to complete Reef. I'm still suck on level 80. But you wouldn't know anything about that :::

Finlandasarkila

Single Player
ari.sarkilahtigmail.com

Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:54 am   Post subject: Not logged in.

Quote (Wil):
Quote (asarkila):
Why not play all the levelsets? :

Stop dreaming asarkila. You just want to dilute seb's efforts! Obviously you (like me) are worried about losing our top rankings on Homelands. :

Heh, funny idea but maybe not. I'm just saying that why would you try to run a 100 meter race with one foot only to finish 4th ? Maybe it's easier to concentrate on one levelset at a time. And those scores of seb are absolutely brilliant and it wouldn't suprise me if he cracked the top 3 and beyond. Good luck dude.
Quote (Wil):
Personally I'm still trying to get level 30 - this morning's good game left me a tick or two short of the 1000 pointer. :
I took a few cracks at it and loved the fact that it's so heavily dependent on the random rock pushing, which you know I love. Somehow I can live and even like the fact that yam movement is randomized, but the rock pushing ... oh well, maybe the game would be too perfect otherwise :
Franceseb

Single Player
drsebfree.fr

Sun Apr 24, 2005 12:12 pm   Post subject: Indeed, I disturbed it !! Not logged in.

Yessssss !!!! Finally managed to double my ranking points in Homeland within a month, and ended just a tick above Wil... :
I think I will now take a little time off the game, but I guess there will be severe reactions from you top 5 guys, and I expect my ranking points to melt like finnish snow under the australian Sun :

The top 4 are quite close, and I think the ranking graph will not be that quiet in the coming weeks. : Sorry asarkila, you falled under DREAM because of me - that was not targetted :

And Wil, that was not any revenge of this 7-years old level 80 competition... I tried it again, but can't improve much on this one --- sigh :
Finlandasarkila

Single Player
ari.sarkilahtigmail.com

Mon Apr 25, 2005 6:18 am   Post subject: Not logged in.

What a great job!! Congrats seb. I might take a look at the Homelands levels but propably can't do much better. And DREAM passing me is just fair, since he has much stronger scores than me and is hurt a LOT by the introduction ticks. Atm, I'm fourth and that is propably the right place for me, or maybe fifth behind ari.
Germany (Mainz)Dirkimops

Single Player
dirkimopsgmx.de

Mon Apr 25, 2005 1:24 pm   Post subject: Not logged in.

*CHRRRRZZZZ* ... eh ... pardon? Just had a little nap and ... hey, what's happened? Congratulations, seb! That was really impressive.
And it seems JohnS is about to overtake me without doing anything at all. I suppose I have to return to Homelands, but of course this won't affect the top 5 positions.
Australia (Vic)Thozz

Single Player
thoz.jaynebigpond.com

Tue Apr 26, 2005 10:18 am   Post subject: Tres Bien ! Not logged in.

In one week, Seb has managed to accomplish what no other has in the last four years; Dethrone "Wil" from the number 1 position in Homelands. There are some excellent scores, that I'm sure will endure the test of time. But it may also unleash some highly competitive interest in the Homelands arena, which has been fairly static for a while, except of course for Ruben. So congratulations to Seb. Salut! :
Franceseb

Single Player
drsebfree.fr

Tue Apr 26, 2005 10:05 pm   Post subject: Not logged in.

Yes, I'm quite sure there'll be several reactions in Homeland. By the way, Wil has not yet commented on this. Either he's actively playing offline : or he's on holidays and he'll be surprised when he comes back :
I've bee thinking for quite a while that 1st place in Homelands was strictly impossible for me to get. I sort of required lot of time and determination, but that was fun to go through all those old levels. Having kept recordings of the ol'times helped a lot in avoiding many mistakes, and remembering tricks.
ari still holds several levels, with scores that seem incredible to me. I guess that's why he has over 40,000 games played, and I have less that 10,000. Sometimes you need to try again and again until you get the perfect random seed and have a clear path all the way through, with yams not bothering you and rocks rolling fast :
And you Thozz also triggered some activity on level 6 - and ruben took the challenge. So things can evolve quite fast! Seb.
Australia (WA)Wil

Single Player
wilamristar.com.au

Wed Apr 27, 2005 8:56 am   Post subject: Not logged in.

I have been meaning to reponse, but wanted to address all the scores you got while I was there.

Quote (Dirkimops):
And it seems JohnS is about to overtake me without doing anything at all. I suppose I have to return to Homelands, but of course this won't affect the top 5 positions.

Hehe, that's always good fun. DREAM managed to "gain" a position from 4th to 3rd. Obviously he was already 3rd before seb came along. This kind of movement shows the difference between really strong long lasting scores and those that give lots of ranking points but are not so good.

It's an interesting point since I have always been very wary of seb due to his amazingly good scores across a relatively small set of levels. I have named in The king of chaos, but from more recent results it appears that the all round performances are pretty damn special, particularly those more static, reliable thoughful, route/method planning levels.

Quote (Thozz):
In one week, Seb has managed to accomplish what no other has in the last four years; Dethrone "Wil" from the number 1 position in Homelands. There are some excellent scores, that I'm sure will endure the test of time. But it may also unleash some highly competitive interest in the Homelands arena, which has been fairly static for a while, except of course for Ruben. So congratulations to Seb. Salut! :

Yes, in one week or two, via a couple of massive tickets. It was not that suprising that he was able to improve strongly due to his set of scores (some brilliant and other levels more or less unplayed).

Quote (seb):
Yes, I'm quite sure there'll be several reactions in Homeland. By the way, Wil has not yet commented on this. Either he's actively playing offline : or he's on holidays and he'll be surprised when he comes back :

I have been quite busy. I had my second rogaine win (2/2 for the year, both badge events, and this one more convincing). I'm still training hard for the nationals in three weeks, followed by the state champs the full moon weekend after that. Of course a rogaine weekend leaves me with a slab of time to recover (since the events after more than 12 hours and pretty tough). Recovery involes much bd4 playing. So, I have been playing and playing hard and playing offline, but not playing Homelands - not yet. I now have 399 1000 pointers and hope to make Reef level 69 my 400ths and the teams 410th 1000 pointer. It has not been easy (see other posts, later).

Quote (seb):
I've been thinking for quite a while that 1st place in Homelands was strictly impossible for me to get. I sort of required lot of time and determination, but that was fun to go through all those old levels. Having kept recordings of the ol'times helped a lot in avoiding many mistakes, and remembering tricks.

I must say I was a little disappointed some years ago when you and Sophie departed from the competition and fun of the game. I still clearly remember the ruthless challenge for going for number one on level 80. I was lucky to come up with a great method.

As for the idea of 1st place ... it always looks a lot further away than it is, although I've never bridged a gap more than about 10000 points (DREAM had me for a while).

Most interestingly I still suprise myself at the ability to continually improve at bd4.... experience has a lot to play. I've probably played well over 50000 games (including level development and the old Amiga version) and still find I can improve over the period of a couple of weeks. I've discovered two new tricks this month, mainly to do with timing, one to do with grenade work. Thoughtful play has a lot to do with it and it seems you play much better when aiming to do the seemingly impossible (e.g. get a new 1000 pointer or beat a good high score). A good example is level 64 of Mountains which I achieved 1000 points on this morning. For a whle I was stunned by the high score and thought 1000 points was close to impossible. Of course Thozz had it so it was possible. By the time I got it I was on schedule (heinsight) to get about 1060 ... hte game I got 1000 on I was 6 time behind schedule (1-2 typical) and played it out for practice at the end.... I slipped in with 1000 points exactly. That was enough! Still, the point is that what at first seems impossible often turns out doable and sometimes easy in reflection.

Quote (asarkila):
What a great job!! Congrats seb. I might take a look at the Homelands levels but propably can't do much better. And DREAM passing me is just fair, since he has much stronger scores than me and is hurt a LOT by the introduction ticks. Atm, I'm fourth and that is propably the right place for me, or maybe fifth behind ari.

As follows from above ... asarkila is too modest and and doesn't give himself enough credit. Experience shows and improvements continue. You still have half a dozen 1000 pointers that I am in awe of. And trust me I do play a lot of bd4!

Quote (seb):
ari still holds several levels, with scores that seem incredible to me. I guess that's why he has over 40,000 games played, and I have less that 10,000. Sometimes you need to try again and again until you get the perfect random seed and have a clear path all the way through, with yams not bothering you and rocks rolling fast :

Games played can be deceptive. I've play some three hour sessions after which the ticket only contained 20 games. On the other hand since the Homelands levels had been played under a different engine on the Amiga (which I was a kid) I has a major challenge to beat all of the high scores. One level I remember getting on the Amiga was level 54 which I basically jumped up and down and was stoked thinking that game was perfect - it will never be beaten. I beat it in November 1997. I played probably 20 hours worth one weekend determined to get it. In that time I played over 8000 games, many times logging about 3-4 games per second as I prayed for the perfect set of yams. After a day at work (well PhD) on Monday I played a session Monday night at got the score (I'm not sure if I equalled or beat it.... the original game could possibly have been a tick faster). As you can see there are many games here that are close, DREAM having the current top score, but without the ticks.

I generally avoid playing levels that involve a lot of luck. The high scores can be good ones to have but in the long term someone will beat it and it will be frustrating to get back. That said I'm impressed by seb's score on level 31 which exceeds whatI thought was an optimal performance. More about that in the other post (addressing the major performance).

Quote (seb):
And you Thozz also triggered some activity on level 6 - and ruben took the challenge. So things can evolve quite fast! Seb.

They sure can. ruben's been active and Homelands looks like breaking out really soon. The major reason is that asarkila and I will have recently increased our skills playing other level sets and chasing 1000 pointers. Revisiting Homelands with these new skills, our old recorded games (very very very very useful) and a fresh look will yield results. That said some levels still seem impossible to beat. Of course some of us still have levels where the ticks have not been counted. DREAM could easily improve, probably to number one (just by old games with ticks). I have also noticed that I have levels without the ticks!

So, where's Wil.... don't worry while I love to see someone else at number one history shows I will be back and probably sooner rather than later. Still, there's no immediate rush. Hopefully when I get competitive it won't be too late. seb may in fact maintain the number one raking until someone else beats him. We'll see. History shows asarkila, ari, DREAM, seb and Wil have held number one. It is quite an achievement. Unfortunately since the ranking system has changed (previously the most recent score got the 1000 points rather than the sharing that happens now) not all of these are seen on the graphs.

I will also regenerate the ranking histories for Homelands soon to smoothen then out (since seb played lots offline on tickets). Still, a fabulous and very hard core effort.

Wil

: And the bottom line.... congratulations seb :