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Posted: 7/28/2007 12:22 PM
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Halamantariel
Player (105)
Joined: 1/30/2005
Posts: 564
Location: Québec, Canada
Xebra, you really should record your attemps for all of us to see :) I suggest using Camstudio, which is totally free and does the job pretty well. I'm really curious to see how you manage to get that much money!
Posted: 7/28/2007 1:34 PM
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nesrocks
He/Him
Player (246)
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
He's one of the highest IQ to hit tasvideos.
aka Nesrocks http://www.youtube.com/user/UoBtExFODA https://nesrocks.com https://twitter.com/bitinkstudios
Posted: 7/28/2007 2:58 PM
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Halamantariel
Player (105)
Joined: 1/30/2005
Posts: 564
Location: Québec, Canada
That explains why he's able to do it, not how he did it :)
Posted: 7/29/2007 12:09 AM
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xebra
Joined: 5/3/2004
Posts: 1203
I'll write down what I'm doing the next time I play, but a video would be quite long. I don't usually play through all of the levels all at once, and even if I did I think the video would be over an hour long! (I also "multitable" when I play so I can correct mistakes without starting over. My mistake at level 45 last time was so catastrophic because it was my last remaining board.)
Posted: 7/29/2007 11:08 AM
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xebra
Joined: 5/3/2004
Posts: 1203
This score isn't perfect, but it's as close as I care to get. I'm getting a little sick of this game and my mistakes this time around were really minor. I'll post a tutorial in a bit.
Posted: 7/29/2007 12:30 PM
(Edited: 7/31/2007 2:06 AM)
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xebra
Joined: 5/3/2004
Posts: 1203
Here's the first 28 waves of a strategy that is definitively superior to the one I used to achieve my high score. (At wave 29 you can transform it into my high score game, only with 0.65% more money.) Finishing a game is so boring, though, I doubt I'll finish this off any time soon. 1: Red1. 4: Upgrade Red1 to level 2. 10: Upgrade Red1 to level 3, -1 life minimum. 12: Blue1, -4 lives minimum. 14: Upgrade Red1 to level 7. 19: 2x Blue1, sell the Red1 at the end of the level. 20: Purple2. 21: Blue1. 22: Blue1. 23: Blue1. 25: Purple2 where the Red1 used to be. 27: -2 lives minimum. 29-50: On your own! Just keep adding Blue1 towers in strategic spots and slowly upgrade your firepower where it is cost effective. - Turn target locking off for all towers, and initially, set targeting to hard. - Change tower targeting as needed so that you don't target a creep that requires only one hit with two towers. - Towards the end of a wave, use close tower targeting to focus firepower on creeps that are about to escape. - It's not cost effective to get Red3 towers until wave 42, at the very earliest. You might be able to wait until wave 44, I'm not sure. - Always buy towers after hitting the "send next" button!
Posted: 7/30/2007 1:37 AM
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anubis
Joined: 5/29/2006
Posts: 138
That 1 level 1 red can make it through level 4 and even level 5 with only a boss leak - it's not til level six that you need to upgrade it. There's a bit more optimization for the early game too. Check the forums over at vectortd.com for a good strategy guide - looks to me like it could get through the first 19 levels or so with a better start.
Posted: 7/30/2007 2:49 AM
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xebra
Joined: 5/3/2004
Posts: 1203
Upgrading Red1 to level 2 on wave 6 instead of 4 is good for a 0.76% improvement, you're right. I forgot I'd been buying early there only for an outdated strategy I needed the life on. If you don't have concrete examples of further improvements in the first 19 waves I'd tend to doubt they exist. I did a pretty detailed analysis of waves 9-19, and I do have the highest legitimate score on the scoreboards. (One possibility is to buy a level 2 Red1 instead of upgrading the level 3 one to 7, but I think that leaves you with too few lives.) Anyway, feel free to try to beat my score, we now know it can be beaten by at least 1.3%.
Posted: 7/30/2007 12:45 PM
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anubis
Joined: 5/29/2006
Posts: 138
http://novelconcepts.informe.com/switchback-highscores-dt895.html Levels 16, 17, and 18 can be beaten with the R1 at level 6 - if you have the extra lives to get through 14 and 15, this should net some more money. This strategy also doesn't build the 2nd and 3rd blues until level 20, with a loss in 19 (although I did make it through 19 once with no loss). EDIT: I found a great way of minimizing lives lost by switching the target method. Level 12, for example, can be fixed to only losing 1 life - possibly even 0 lives. Start off with the red set to Hard, and just as the last couple creeps are about to enter the range the first time, switch the method to weak. Before the creeps enter the range a second time, switch it back to hard until they all pass through - now switch it back to weak before they come through the third and final time. The point of doing the switching is that the red tower can do the most damage when it is hitting in the middle of the pack instead of the end - by keeping it set to hard, it will pound away at the last couple creeps only hitting 2 or 3 with each shot, when it could be hitting as many as 10. Now time to find a good place to use these lives. EDIT 2: This got me through 14 with a level 6 red 1 instead of a level 7 without losing any lives. It should be possible to get through level 18 with a level 6 red 1 and a level 1 blue 1, and 16 lives.
Posted: 7/31/2007 2:30 AM
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xebra
Joined: 5/3/2004
Posts: 1203
Good insights! I'll see if I can refine the first 20-22 levels some more.
Posted: 8/3/2007 4:39 AM
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xebra
Joined: 5/3/2004
Posts: 1203
Here's a score that's a little better than before, but I screwed up in level 32, so this can be improved by several percent, maybe? Using the same placement guidelines as before, here's the best start so far, incorporating anubis' suggestions: 1. Red. 2,3,4,5. -1 life. 6. Upgrade red (2). 7,8,9,10. Upgrade red (3), -1 life. 11,12. Blue, -1 life. 13,14. Upgrade red (6). 15,16,17,18,19. Upgrade red (7). 20. 2x blue, -1 life. 21. Sell red. 22. Purple, -1 life. 23. -3 lives. 24,25. Purple. 26,27. 2x blue. 28,29. 2x blue. 30. Blue. You could theoretically have 12 lives at the end of that, though it's not very likely. You have to target well and get lucky. I think that can be improved with some purple upgrades as well, but I haven't worked it all out yet.
Posted: 3/22/2009 7:15 PM
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nesrocks
He/Him
Player (246)
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
I got back to vector TD. After trying really hard to beat any of the extreme maps without success, I tried to do a high score on any of the other maps and I got a score of 30 million points. I didn't remember what was xebra's highscore, but I did remember that it was something I couldn't get close to. I'm gonna play again and get a screenshot of the highscore later, but I'm more interested in beating one of the extreme maps now. The farthest I've got was level 35 on the frog and 31 on no left turns. edit: looking at the scores and cash remaining, maybe I did 3 million instead of 30? Well, I'm playing to find out.. Ok I guess I was daydreaming. Just did 14,000,000 with 5,000,000 on the bank. Back to extreme maps.
xebra wrote:
I'll write down what I'm doing the next time I play, but a video would be quite long. I don't usually play through all of the levels all at once, and even if I did I think the video would be over an hour long! (I also "multitable" when I play so I can correct mistakes without starting over. My mistake at level 45 last time was so catastrophic because it was my last remaining board.)
Whoa by multitable does this mean you play several games at once copying one from the other so you can get as many "undos" as game instances you have? clever.
aka Nesrocks http://www.youtube.com/user/UoBtExFODA https://nesrocks.com https://twitter.com/bitinkstudios
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