Cultris 2 open Beta

[caffeine]

Anyone given any thought as to what is the best thing to do when you don't have any garbage? You could leave a 3 or 4 wide pit open for comboing I guess. A more "organic" method could be to just stack like normal but create gaps and holes as you go. It could be messy as you want.

[Red_Star]

Anyone given any thought as to what is the best thing to do when you don't have any garbage? You could leave a 3 or 4 wide pit open for comboing I guess. A more "organic" method could be to just stack like normal but create gaps and holes as you go. It could be messy as you want.

I think 2 wide gap is the norm. I stack high and with a two wide gap, it is the easiest way in my opinion to get godlikes consistently. That is how I start a lot of my matches, if I think I can win in speed then I stack high, then go for the godlike as an opening combo, it can win matches.



That is usually what I aim for. Something along those lines. Given the nature of combos you don't have to worry too much if there is a hole in one of your lines.

[caffeine]

The manual doesn't go too much into specifics. It says for individual clears, it adds 0/1/2/3 for single/double/..., and then it says there's a bonus for combos. Does anyone know exactly how combo bonuses work?
Do certain line clears add more time?

[Achille]

Opening by a tetris gives more time

But I prefer open with 3 or 4 blocks quickly dropped in the side hole...

[Red_Star]

An example: Your combo-counter is 0 you delete 4 lines. Now you will send 3 lines to an opponent and you get some Combo-Time and your Combo-Counter becomes 1. If you delete now 3 lines before your Combo-Time runs out you will send 3 lines to the opponent (2 from normal line deletion and 1 from the Combo).

Copied from the manual on Cultris's website. It seems to give 1 for 1 according the manual. I can't say I personally know for sure, since I can't really play myself and record how many lines I sent and cleared and the combos. But it seems about that way.

As Achille said, starting with a tetris gives more time. I think starting with 3 clear gives more than 2 clear for time. And clearing lines in the middle of combo adds a little bit more time to the combo timer.

I wish I could give you concrete numbers, but I don't have them.

[caffeine]

From testing I can tell it gives more time, but I don't think it gives more time per line (four singles add up to same time as one tetris). You get more time at the beginning than at the end of the combo, but tetrises get less throughput than combos (75% convert to garbage opposed to 100% for only singles combos). But it shouldn't matter what type of line you clear so long as it is within a combo because of the 0/1/2/3 system. I predict optimal play is likely something like "clear as many rows as possible, including as much garbage as possible within a combo."

[Red_Star]

I predict optimal play is likely something like "clear as many rows as possible, including as much garbage as possible within a combo."

From my experience I would say that sounds about right. In 1v1 big combos are essentially a win. There has been very few times where a 13 combo hasn't equated to a win. Nor is there many time where a godlike has completely wrecked me. It is hard to play defensively, except in multiplayer rooms. It is hard to dig fast enough when some combos can send you 10-20 lines. Also if they don't have a combo to block lines then sending over 20 lines is basically a win, though usually people's field isn't clear so less than that.

I try not to send combos less than 7 unless I am just trying to fix a mistake or just trying to stay alive. Small garbage sent can often setup the other player with even larger combos which is the last thing you want to do.

A tip for going against a player that is faster than you. If he stacks for a big combo at the beginning of a round hit him with a quick 5 or 6 combo. You can usually sneak in the small combo to kill him as he is stacking up. It has given me a few wins against faster players.I can't think of a time where the player didn't immediately catch on and start stacking lower, but if they keep stacking high, then keep going for it. If they stop stacking high, then it has saved you slightly. Opening godlikes can be tough to counter, so stopping them from stacking high at least gives you some breathing room.

[Nik]

Before you waste too much time to figure out the exact numbers, it goes something like this:
The time you get on your combotime depends on your current combocounter and on the number of lines you cleared.
So when you start a combo a single gives you exactly 1/4 the time you get for a Tetris but because with 4 singles you rise your combocounter and the next 3 singles give you less than 1/4 of a Tetris you better start with a tetris if you want to go big.

There is no point to give you the exact caluculations, because we are constantly tweaking them by analyzing games of fast and slow KI's and players playing the beta.
What i can say, is that the comboCounter is a divisor in the calculation, and it is squared... so the added time becomes considerably less pretty fast.

Sent lines are allways one line less than you deleted as a base. Then we add bonus lines. The bonus line calculation depends on the duration of the current round. The longer the round runs the more bonus lines you get  for a combo.
It starts at base + combocounter/3 (rounded up)
and ends at base + combocounter + magicnumber

The transition from min to max starts at 10 seconds and ends at 110 seconds and is linear.

But those numbers aren't carved in stone, so don't start calculating some strategies...  

[Achille]

From testing I can tell it gives more time, but I don't think it gives more time per line (four singles add up to same time as one tetris). You get more time at the beginning than at the end of the combo, but tetrises get less throughput than combos (75% convert to garbage opposed to 100% for only singles combos). But it shouldn't matter what type of line you clear so long as it is within a combo because of the 0/1/2/3 system. I predict optimal play is likely something like "clear as many rows as possible, including as much garbage as possible within a combo."

Optimal play is a balance between sending big combos and downstacking... Some players prefer to block combos and counter attack. For example R.Poopmore rarely dies with a 13... Other players are big sender, gigolo can make a 15 every 2 games...

Sometimes a combo 11 is less powerful than a 10. I remember a game where R.Poopmore sent me a 16, I blocked it with a 13, and won !

Everything is possible...

[meow]

can you tell us how many lines each type of line clear at each stage of the combo sends?

[Nik]

Didn't I just do that?

[!--quoteo--][div class=\\\'quotetop\\\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\\\'quotemain\\\'][!--quotec--]Sent lines are allways one line less than you deleted as a base. Then we add bonus lines. The bonus line calculation depends on the duration of the current round. The longer the round runs the more bonus lines you get for a combo.
It starts at base + combocounter/3 (rounded up)
and ends at base + combocounter + magicnumber[/quote]

[meow]

oops my bad

[Wojtek]

i heard that new update is coming out soon, and also cultris1 willl get update.