Are the best days of the competition over?

Vega:
-> You haven't submitted in like 12 years.
-> It's quite obvious that you have an evil plan in OS.
-> But I have perfected another level there and I'm very close to submitting a wicked score.
-> So you had better speed things up with your plan.

Me:
-> I haven't made much progress in the last month.
-> I just found out my school has WiFi, so I'll be playing even less.

It started as a planned massive submit, but I really haven't been successful at the game lately.
Because of this and school, I have been playing even less.
I had 13 of the 15 records in Old School before Vega started playing them again; now I have maybe 10.
Those are my only un-submitted medals.
I figure since I am not doing so well at this game, and there are other competitions, there isn't much reason to continue attempting the #1 spot.
Cirenco probably left for the same reasons.
It seems like a lot of other players are playing less now, too.
We have reached a stalemate anyway, or at least, the results are predictable whether I keep competing aggressively or not.
So, why keep trying?
I'll probably keep playing until all my hardware fails, but I'm not focused on the competition anymore.
Being #2 is quite good considering I just wanted to be in the Top 50, and then the Top 10.

45 comments on 3 pages: 1 2 3 >>>>

Lee

I am pretty worried about my T3. literally the ONLY reason I keep it instead of begging to move to an internet-capable device is because I would move to windows and lose the ability to play BoD... I'm THAT addicted.

As for the level of the competition... I'm going back through old levels at the moment and I can see maybe 15 levels that might benefit from my more recent skills, but yes... I am playing it less and less as I have pretty decent times for most of my levels now, and it's only so much fun playing your own ghost when you realise you can't beat it.

When the radial gravity came out, I had a blast with those 3 levels, and I really hoped a level pack would come out with the quality of level design that Sz had managed on those 3... but no joy.
I know I should probably just have a go myself, but I am, alas, not that creative.

I don't really get much fun playing the level packs that aren't enterable on-line, so I find myself at a bit of a natural hiatus there too.

Basically, we have been lucky that there has been a new level pack every 6 months...
we're spoiled, but it gets to be a bigger and bigger job to decide on the value of each level pack, as the number of features is huge now.

Honestly, I can't believe that I have only paid once for this game, and 2 voluntary donations.... ANY other developer would be charging through the teeth - especially for additional level packs to compete in... if you want a view of the extremes of re-pay on some software, just check out the Documents to Go upgrade path... now THATS a stinger.

For those of you in the top ten, it must be especially difficult to improve rank.... I just like watching the way guys try... it's a nuts spectator sport.

love the game, love the website, love my T3 (but not THAT much) love Sz (in a platonic, thankful way - I'm a 90s kind of guy, so I'm fine with that)

mike flips

Well now that you admitted it Kris, just submit. Prove it

Spence

Ive found myself not playing much lately and when my contract runs up in a few months on my treo im getting a new phone and unless it's another treo i wont be playing much...

Vega

It's ok... I am gaining 5 golden club points on him for every day that he waits to submit.

mike flips

Tis true

PMD

Kristopher, in my opinion all that is needed is a new level pack to re-energize the competition. We all seem to be pushing the older levels to close to their limits. If you are just happy to be top 10, just stop "competing aggressively" for a while and you will be passed by 2 people and dropped to 4th.

It has been months since Supernatural and I have gone back through the levels that I feel like I want to go through at the moment. That has always been the way it seemed to work in the past for me. The Time Trial Champion level packs seemed to always come at the right time to get me going again.

Why don't we start putting together the next pack, so when SZ is ready for 2.0 we will have a new pack that everyone is happy with and the new version and new levels will rev things up again? I like what we did a while ago where we divided up the nominated levels and played them and submitted a recording of a completed run. This helped me see if it even looked like a fun level and was worthy of TTC.

Here are my suggestions for a new level pack (at least what would make it interesting for me):

1) Incorporate new features--like the new gravity feature of 1.6. Possibly new 2.0 features as well.
2) Recordings of all proposed levels published to be voted on.
2) Voted on by anyone that plays and wants to participate
3) About 10-12 levels long.

Just some thoughts anyway. I'm willing to contribute by playing and recording some proposed levels or with anything else that needs to be done to put it together.

Thoughts?

Cody

If anyone wants a recording for one of my levels, just ask.

Mr.pickle.

I like the idea pmd

also just the coming out of version 2.0 will boost spirits.

but what I think would boost players spirits more than anything else would be if mike had a little compitition,of cource no one persoone can curently cach him,meaning kris who is pa pretty close mach in my opinion but mike has such a lead that it would be really hard to cach.
nowif every one would take all his golds........
no ofence to mike(this time

)
there are 3 players I have seen with potential to beat mike alone and that is kris(hes got a lot of ground to cach up tho)also vega(who it would take a long time with because of his playing style)and the other would be laser(as much as I hate to admit it)because laser got pst cirinco soo quickly it seems he has potential to beet pmd and shane and cach up to kris and posibly after like 6 months cach up to mike,he seems to have a talent for quick golds just like mike does(mayby canada has magic soil?),but at the very least if all the top ten players started taking mikes golds you could at least bring him down enuf to make it an evan playing feild agian....
I know am going to be critisised greatly for this coment but oh well...............

Mr.pickle.

come ta think of it did laser quit?I havent seen him gain any points in the last few weeks....

Spence

i think he said he wasn't playing until the next pack...
Im thinking we should hold a small BOD tournament where we a set number of new levels and a set amount of time to get as many point as we can acquire and be ranked accordingly. it wont count toward TTC but maybe a different category. i know almost the same thing happens when a new level pack comes out but theres no time limit there and i think this would be fun.
BTW when did the profiles change?

the new levelpack is a must! a lot of nice levels appeared recently (and earlier... eg. the kristopher's inside-out levels

yeah... i had to implement a special handling in my pseudo-3D code to make them playable in 3D

)

as for v2.0, all enhancements are designed to be 100% compatible with previous versions, you can take any levelpack and add beautiful texture layers and it is still the same level, so it's perfectly possible to make a future levelpack NOW and just add the textures later, not affecting the gameplay.

Kristopher

OK, I submitted some. Happy now?

BTW, I don't think I made the first inside-out levels.

mike flips

I'm not happy. I know 110% that you have some golds of mine so I can guarentee that you still have more to submit.

Also, I think you have more to submit in Old School regardless of whose golds they are.

Kristopher

Of course I have beat some of your Golds, but I'm trying to beat Vega's Golds first.

mike flips

So what should i do for now Kris?

Vega

Don't waste your time Kris

Vega

I haven't downloaded anything from BoD since I downloaded the official NxGen pack..... meaning whatever version I have is super outdated. I think the last BoD version I downloaded was just after the ghostbike feature became available and I wanted to try it on Vanilla Sky! So.... what do you guys recommend I do? Sz says that even the old versions will work with the new Bod/BoD design or something??

Basically what I am asking is what should I download? or should I just wait til BoD 2.0 is released?

Lee

Vega, are you saying that you are still doing your levels on close-in view? - if so, you will be blown away by the zoom-out function.
I am so jealous of you. You have some fantastic levels to explore. I would actually love to be this fresh in the game again.
In terms of compatability, I know I personally have not had any difficulty migrating up the versions. I also think that there have been some stability improvements if anything... at least I attribute some of my improvements to earlier levels to what feels like a higher frame rate on my T3.

What level pack to have a go at next? - If I was you, I'd look hard at You Qi, cos I loved that level pack... then I think probably supernatural....

But, you should have a look at the Gravity fun mini test pack that Sz did too... it's an interesting experiment and quite a fun one to get your head around.

Vega

Are other players currently playing with zoom out feature? I am playing with whatever version I downloaded in mid 2006.

Lee

playing zoomed out has had the single most influential effect upon my times. seeing more of the level, and coming obstacles.