Scanning the top 1000, seems like a lot more Americans than Canadians to me lol. We have some nice Canadian reppin' in the top 10 though No worries, I'm pretty terrible at getting back into the ST stacking build too to be honest. Best I've done is stack to 80 lines, break, then for another 20 lines or so. I can't do recoveries very well at the speeds of the higher levels. I don't think I'll be playing anymore Marathon before the deadline with finals and stuff, so I think I'll be leaving my score at 593k, unless I crack, which I probably will =P I might do some experimenting with all clears later today though. As far as combos go, I don't think they're a reliable way to get points. From my understanding of their scoring chart, each combo just adds a point bonus to your line clear that depends on the level you're on, and how long the combo is. The multiplier effect that they're talking about is multiplying the bonus points only. It doesn't touch the points you get from the t-spin/tetris itself. Otherwise, a b2b tsd at lvl 10 with a 5x combo would give like 90k points. If you were to do a b2b tsd and then 5 more consecutive single line clears, it would give (1800 + 50 + 100 + 150 + 200 + 250) x Level = 2550 x Level for 7 lines, whereas 3 b2b tsd in ST stacking would give (3 x 1800) x Level = 5400 x Level for 6 lines. So unless I'm misinterpreting, or just being really stupid, looks like ST stacking is the way to go.
Since we are giving updates on what we find is working... I've been practicing the variation of ST stacking called LT stacking... For me, it was easier to learn the patters and recover from... It was also easier (again for me) to start building t-spin double combos. I'm finding though that when it comes down to busting through the highscore board, it seems to be all about how many tspins you can get in the last 20 lines... Those are what put you over the top (at least, from my point of view), and if you can combo them, even better. And while I'm at it, Tetribot is back in the TetrisChat room... He's capable of looking up the rankings from the tournament.
Yeah I agree... 5 tsd's through level 15 will net you 135k alone. Although with the scores on the leaderboard being fairly spread out, I wouldn't worry too much about trying for combos. 750 points won't make too much of a difference. For me I find that LT requires more thinking >_> With ST, you have the I, O and L block fitting nicely in the last four columns if you use the ZJ notch. With LT, you need to find a place for the S blocks. Maybe it's easier than I imagine it...I'll try it out tonight.
I did some experimenting with all clears, but I was never able to figure out how the score was calculated. I tried to avoid doing any drops and keep track if there was a combo bonus to be able to calculate what the line clear should be worth vs what points I was awarded. I always received about 7 times the points I was expecting or more, so apparently they're very profitable. I was only getting all clears with singles and doubles, so I don't know if that would continue to hold true for tetrises, but you would think it should. Just as an example: an all clear off a single +1 combo on level 8 gave me 8550 points vs the 1200 I was expecting. If you do LT stacking, isn't there a risk of your L getting stuck down in columns 2/3 and not being able to rotate it up on top of your stubs in the outside column when the speed increases at the higher levels?
That's a weird relation... looks like we're gonna need a few more trials before we can find anything. I probably won't have time to test anything today, but I will tomorrow. As for LT stacking, I don't think the idea was necessarily to stack at lvl 14/15. jjdb said he did it because he could restart the stacking easier after it broke, so I assume it's more to stack to around 100 lines. Although the L-block does spawn on its side IIRC...maybe it won't happen if you only rotate after it's in the leftmost columns?
Yeah, gravity will be processed before rotation so the L will not be able to reach over under ~20G conditions. Talking about ST variations though, have you ever tried the 3 columns wide bases? I'm very interested in seeing someone perform it on the same level as a 2 columns wide ST. The modular aspect of the base would almost guarantee any string of tetrominoes dished out by the 7-Bag randomizer. It's really up to the player's skill to determine how effective it will be though but the window of opportunities is there.
There's no 20G in Tetris Party, but I sometimes have problems getting a piece to the edge of the play field if I'm not holding that direction before the piece comes. Sometimes when I'm I stacking to alternate T-spins and tetrises in column 2 or 9, and I try to stack my I in column 1 or 10, it ends up stuck in column 2 or 9 and thwarts my plans. Maybe I'm rotating too late, so I can only rotate off the wall, but I don't think I can rotate any earlier without just getting stuck in the middle.
The I has two vertical orientations. You might have rotated the wrong way and thus the I ended up in the wrong columns. And did you mean columns 1 vs. 3 and 8 vs. 10 by the way?
No, columns 2 and 9. I always hit counter on the left side and clockwise on the right side to get the I closer to the wall. Sometimes I have had weird experiences where I wound up in column 8 instead of 9 though, and I'm not sure if it's because I was still holding against the wall when I rotated or because of what was under the piece that I got some kind of weird kick off the rotation, because I definitely rotated right.
Hmm, I thought you were referring to ST, hence 1 vs. 3 and 8 vs. 10. If the piece directly lands on 3 or 8, I'm sure it's due to rotating in the wrong direction. Otherwise, the I will land on 2 or 9, which you would then need to shift to columns 1 or 10 (often done while holding left or right).
Yeah, I wasn't talking about ST stacking, but just stacking I's up the wall and doing T-spins on top of them flush against the wall, so call it IT stacking I guess. It works well enough until the last couple levels when it's hard to get the I on top of the outermost column without just having it automatically go down column 2/9 when you rotate it. I can just imagine the same thing would happen with the L in LT stacking where you wouldn't necessarily be able to get it to the wall before it fell down and got stuck in columns 2 and 3. Maybe it would let you rotate it up out of there, but on the higher levels, I think it might just automatically fall back down in columns 2 and 3 as soon as you tried to rotate it into the proper orientation again, and there's no infinite spin so there's no telling where it could end up while you struggled trying to get it there. I'm still not totally sure what's happening with the anomalous I rotations I occasionally get, but it always throws me off so much that I do check my thumb is resting on the right button, so I think it's just because I was already against the stack when I rotated. There are a lot of bizarre rotations that can happen against the stack, so maybe it shouldn't surprise me.
I'm not sure exactly that I'm following the scenario you are describing. Can you perhaps diagram the situation where you try to perform the rotation?
i'm not sure if you know about this, but there's a way to get the I vertical to column 10 when column 9 is open, even with instant gravity. the key is the relative heights of columns 7, 8, and 10. i made a couple example situations where the same thing happens in TDS level 20 and Tetris Zone master mode: link i think that column 7 can be no more than 1 block higher than column 8, and column 8 has to be at least 2 blocks (maybe only 1) higher than column 10. then you shift the I to the wall and rotate counter-intuitively. i'm not totally sure either, but i think i know what he means because i've practiced making T-spins in the way he seems to be describing.
I don't really remember an exact example unfortunately. The last time it happened I seem to remember I had a tower about 2 blocks high in column 8 or 9, and I had the I horizontal on top of this tower and against the wall, hit the clockwise button, and the piece actually went to the left of the tower and wound up in column 7 or 8. I just remember that I was trying to get to the right of the tower, but I can't remember whether I was planning to put the piece down column 9 or slide it over to column 10 once I rotated, so that's why I can't remember whether the tower was in column 8 or 9, but based on my memory of how the I was resting on the tower, I think the tower was in column 8, which would mean the I actually went into column 7. I may have still been holding right when I rotated if that makes any difference.
well, i know it doesn't make sense, but it sounds like you rotated the wrong way. rotate left to go right, and right to go left. if the shape of your stack is correct then you don't even need to move the piece right while rotating; the kick will do all the work.
How do you know when to rotate left to go right instead of right to go right? I guess I understand now that by hitting clockwise, it rotated my piece clockwise about the left side instead of the center, so that's why it went left, but it just doesn't seem intuitive to me when I picture what should physically happen. For instance, in your example of getting into column 10, if the piece is going to rotate about one of the ends instead of the center, shouldn't it be forced to rotate about the left side and end up standing in column 7 instead of rotating around the right side (which is supported by nothing) and the left side magically being able to rotate through the stack? The same thing bothers me with T-spins, especially T-spin triples, because they just look so unphysical. I guess I just have to accept that in the world of Tetris the pieces just somehow rotate without ever undergoing any actual motion, but I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around it, because I'm too heavily biased by my real world experience.
you've stepped into the world of SRS yeah i know what you mean. there are things that really bug me too (what the hell is this? stand up in columns 8-9!). but this particular kick with the I seems interesting to me because it's like a reward for studying the kicks. you would never think to rotate it like that, so it's kind of a secret thing that you can take advantage of to get an edge, and it's actually really useful and not hard to do. i wonder if the I behavior was intended.
Jeez, that J looks like it got sucked up by the wall. I guess I should be thankful for the oddities of SRS, because at least you can rotate off the wall and don't get paralyzed like in NES Tetris. Thanks, for helping me figure this out.
oh, no problem. hope it helps you with your scores. I/T stacking won't score as high as S/T of course, but i find it to be a lot easier, and it's at least better than making only tetrises.
Yeah, ST stacking is better, but IT stacking is handy for multi-player when that's the kind of garbage you're faced with. With foresight you can find ways to get a few T-spins before you have to take a Tetris if you temporarily cover up your Tetris column, so IT stacking isn't necessarily too bad for obtaining high scores, but it's harder to consistently get a lot of T-spins than it would be to just follow the ST stacking method. I really haven't found one method I swear by for high scores, but it seems like the more ways I've learned to do T-spins, the more I've been able to adapt to different situations (er, um, screwups) in a game and improve my score.
