Why I still don't understand TA for ep1...

[Sharkyland]

For those who don't know what TA is... it stands for Time Attack. Basically you can see this on the Japanese Challenge Mode server. The trick of TA is to know EXACTLY what you are doing. Attacking enemies that no one is attacking (or helping them quickly kill an enemy while avoiding double canceling). Know exactly who goes where to open locked doors and avoiding treasure boxes.

Okay, unlike Episode II challenge mode, Episode I has a random amount of enemies you can face in each room. Some rooms you can face up to like 1 enemy before the door opens or face an "endless nightmare" like of enemies. Sometimes people with great times probably have had it lucky with the enemy count.

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Though for me, I really don't care about TA because of this. I am not perfect to do TA as well 'cause I miss a lot and mess up a lot sometimes though I will try my best to help you guys get good times for your runs.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Sharkyland on 2004-06-28 15:40 ]</font>

[Sitka]

I love doing TA, but I'm not real good at it yet because I'm not quite experienced enough.

TA guides on this site are awesome and I would recommend all players trying TA to get them, keep them handy and use them.

The way I see it, try and grab a helpful veteran who has some patience for new guys and just keep running. You have to be able to take criticism, because the vets will call you out on your mistakes, but you will improve and eventually you'll be the vet helping other out.

Great TA times are usually the result of a good team, good experience on the team, a generous map and some luck - actually, quite a bit of luck.

But TA is hella fun!

[Mixfortune]

Keep in mind that for TA there are also some tactics involving purposely failing the stage in order to get graves at the boss. On top of that, some TA players will try for the best map, restarting numerous times. TAing a stage does not always have to be in the first run through. Even with a low time, the TA players most likely actually spent more time than that setting up that final timed run.

On another note, I only really feel confident in TAing C1. I feel I am quite experienced in CMode, but I'm by far not among the top, so I'm always a bit worried in trying a TA on longer stages... gives me more places to worry about, and small parts where the time really adds up.

Currently my best E1C1 time is 9 09. Not sure if that's necessarily TA or not...

[Sharkyland]

Of course, there are some places where you can use the glitch to move past closed pillars (e1c4), rocks (e1c4, e1c7).

[Sitka]

Wow - just over 9 min seems pretty good to me.

So far, mine is 14 min, but the guy I play with is 10 min and is pretty sure if we do it right we'll get under 10.

So, 9 looks pretty good to me.

[SLON]

Sitka, your C1 time is quite slow (lol). I think you need to be more direct in your gameplay and get to the Dragon asap.
In one game I played we got to the Dragon in 5 minutes, and managed to keep him on the floor too. Only problem was our Hucast was too keen and got killed in the excitement! Then someone dropped out - nooooo! That could have been an 8 minuter!

[Sitka]

Yes, I know my C1 time is bad. But, it was only the third time I had run the stage. First time, our force died, second time we got lost, wandered and finally completed in around 30 min.

So, 14 min for my third time through was relatively decent.

I will be looking for multiple runs with good teammates on all stages until I can blitz some decent times.

[Sharkyland]

Playing as a HUne, I know that if the dragon falls on top of me, I die. Unless I get one HP mat when I'm on lvl 3.

[lain2k3]

Some JP people go insane with TA.

There is a white hucast several people have seen around with a total Ep.1 cmode time of 1 hour and 53 minutes X.x

[Deus-Irae]

dam thats nuts!

thats some serious dedication right there.

TA takes tons of practice and many many do-overs. you gotta love your cmode.

[Capricornus]

On 2004-06-30 01:48, Deus-Irae wrote:
dam thats nuts!

thats some serious dedication right there.

TA takes tons of practice and many many do-overs. you gotta love your cmode.



Hmmm, I personally wouldnt go on as to congratulate that player on it.

I've been playing Cmode a lot and last time I played with Ponjuice (probably the most dediacated TA cmode player) had a time of 2h41, which is prolly one of the best times you can score for a TA on ep1.
Getting below 2h sure smells fishy (read lvl 200 cheat code)

[Sharkyland]

Heh, anything below 7 hours for Episode 1 or 5 hours for Episode 2 is good enough for me.

[lain2k3]

On 2004-06-30 08:42, Sharkyland wrote:
Heh, anything below 7 hours for Episode 1 or 5 hours for Episode 2 is good enough for me.



XD yeah, same here. my only full time for ep.1 before corruption was like 5 and a half hours with no do-overs. ep.1 is easy.