How Does the Upcoming AC Make You Feel?

[Secre]

Personally, I have the same sense of low key dread that I got coming into it last year mixed with the excitement of possibly getting another Yooyu for my gallery. The dread is always there because playing the same games hundreds of time is never going to fill me with glee...

This year though, I don't have the feeling of missing out on neopoints by not playing my usual flash games for 50-100k a day... as there are so very few Flash games.

However, I also have this growing dread that of the flash games that they have converted, very few of them actually work. And even the ones that do work are glitchy as hell - I'm looking at you, Turmac Roll. So are we going to be met with a game that is all but unplayable creating the kind of chaos that we haven't seen since the year they revamped the game and it was met with outright shock, hatred and serious rage??

[jellysundae]

7 minutes ago, Secre said:

So are we going to be met with a game that is all but unplayable creating the kind of chaos that we haven't seen since the year they revamped the game and it was met with outright shock, hatred and serious rage??

I'm very afraid that the answer to this is a resounding yes. But my persistently optimistic side holds out hope that the AC games will have been done better. We were meant to get time to practice on the new games, according to Aesop I think? But I don't imagine that actually happening.

Turmac Roll's awful, isn't it. But to share out the ire: Ice cream Machine's gameplay is upside down... and Hasee Bounce doesn't have the doughnutfruit time bonus any more...

[Secre]

14 minutes ago, jellysundae said:

I'm very afraid that the answer to this is a resounding yes. But my persistently optimistic side holds out hope that the AC games will have been done better. We were meant to get time to practice on the new games, according to Aesop I think? But I don't imagine that actually happening.

Turmac Roll's awful, isn't it. But to share out the ire: Ice cream Machine's gameplay is upside down... and Hasee Bounce doesn't have the doughnutfruit time bonus any more...

Yeah, that's my exact fear. I recall an editorial or something saying the games would be released as a 'trial run' for practice and feedback... I'd have expected that to happen by now if it was going to happen at all. Let's be honest, how much feedback do they really hope to implement change on in less than a month!?

The thing is that people are annoyed by the poor implementation of the currently converted games, but they don't form a big part of the site. However when you have an event like the AC where people have to play the same game hundreds/thousands of times through a month in order to get the decent prizes... that game needs to be up to scratch. And you forgot Igloo Garage with its 'suspicious score', Pink Runner not carrying scores over across levels and Fashion Fever that now requires you to dress up the pet to get a measley 300np.

I can still to this day recall the hoo-hah when they changed the YYB from the simplistic format to what was until this year the current format. And yes, they fixed some of the really obnoxious things like originally you couldn't skip through the goal scoring animation, but in reality they said like it or lump it and the player base eventually settled down.

I'd like to say that was about 7 years ago? I may be horribly wrong about that. But it was when I was working in my current place of employment for the first time... I spent three years or so in two other universities and have been back there for ... nearly three years. I'm fairly confident it was relatively late in my time in the A Team, but not in my last six-twelve months. So that puts it around 7-8 years ago...

And let's be honest... it's not as though TNT have hugely improved their communication skills since then... *cough* Charity Corner *cough*. Or their organisation skills, *cough* three years to prepare for the demise of Flash *cough*. Ot put more attention into the non-NC aspects of the site... *cough* three retired mystery capsules in as many months but no new converted games *coughs*. I really ought to get this throat tickle looked at...

So what I fear we're going to see is a perfectly presented NC site to the tournament, but at a slight mark up from last years prices. A reasonable staff tournament because let's be honest, it would be difficult to screw that up. And an absolute hot mess of a main event with barely working games, glitches galore and possibly missing side games because they forgot to convert them...

Call me a pessimist.

[jaydeed]

I worry that it will be flawed for the reasons above, or those awful captchas to stop the cheaters slowing it down terribly. I dread the hours of slogging away too. I usually do more than double All Star and that is a lot of work.

 

But mostly, I think it's going to be a disaster like the last CC and I'm so tired of them making silly mistakes then trying to fix them and making it worse.

[Secre]

27 minutes ago, jaydeed said:

I worry that it will be flawed for the reasons above, or those awful captchas to stop the cheaters slowing it down terribly. I dread the hours of slogging away too. I usually do more than double All Star and that is a lot of work.

 

But mostly, I think it's going to be a disaster like the last CC and I'm so tired of them making silly mistakes then trying to fix them and making it worse.

Oh I'd forgotten about the CAPTCHAS. How did I forget about the bleeding CAPCTHA's??? They drove me barmy last year. I barely played SS and MSN because of them and was almost ready to throw my computer out the window with SOSD!

I managed just over All-Star last year and I was cursing the limit on YYB as that was the only game without the bleeding CAPCHAS... I mean, it's awesome that they lowered the requirements for All Star since my last experience with the AC, but having to find parking meters every three games was seriously aggravating!

[jaydeed]

They were the worst. And you'd do it, but miss a square and have to do it again.... AAAAAAAAAH, the irritation! And still not over them banning you multitasking and letting a YYB game play while you did SOSD in another tab; that made it so much faster.

[Secre]

22 minutes ago, jaydeed said:

They were the worst. And you'd do it, but miss a square and have to do it again.... AAAAAAAAAH, the irritation! And still not over them banning you multitasking and letting a YYB game play while you did SOSD in another tab; that made it so much faster.

Yeah, I was doing that whenever a faerie or darigan yooyu came in at the start of the tournament as I can't play those balls for the life of me. Then I discovered it wasn't permitted, swore silently and started reading my book when those balls came in instead.

[Aranel]

I remember when they changed Yooyuball and it was SO different and felt SO unplayable. I was so irritated that I actually made my own AC-themed stationery and hand wrote a letter and mailed it to them. They never replied, but I felt better.

I am preparing myself for the upcoming AC by having the lowest standards I can possibly have. It's going to be a broken mess and everyone's going to be angry and complain incessantly...  but we'll get through it like we always do and have a decent amount of fun and forget about how grumpy we are after a while... until the next disaster!

[acorah]

A bit like going to the dentist, really.

[Secre]

On 5/7/2021 at 10:48 PM, Aranel said:

I remember when they changed Yooyuball and it was SO different and felt SO unplayable. I was so irritated that I actually made my own AC-themed stationery and hand wrote a letter and mailed it to them. They never replied, but I felt better.

I am preparing myself for the upcoming AC by having the lowest standards I can possibly have. It's going to be a broken mess and everyone's going to be angry and complain incessantly...  but we'll get through it like we always do and have a decent amount of fun and forget about how grumpy we are after a while... until the next disaster!

Oh, I jpined the movement to send them a ton of faxes a day that was going on at the time. And joined a guild for the first time. I was outraged! I think I stopped playing for a long time shortly afterwards in honesty!

But yes, I really want this years event to go well and be of a decent standard... unfortunately, I don't want to set my hopes too high as they are destined to be dashed!

On 5/8/2021 at 7:41 PM, acorah said:

A bit like going to the dentist, really.

Hah! That sums it up nicely!

[Mayetra]

I've never done AC because I suck so badly at the games.  I bet they are going to try and jam out as many games as possible - which means even more bugs.

 

[jennoying_sparkle]

I think I have the same fear, that the main event is going to be a hot mess, but everything else seems like it would be okay.

[Secre]

On 5/14/2021 at 9:19 PM, Mayetra said:

I've never done AC because I suck so badly at the games.  I bet they are going to try and jam out as many games as possible - which means even more bugs.

 

I just about got the hang of YYB last year and made All Star... I am dreading the potential changes as when they changed it all those years ago I lost any small amount of skill I had to begin with!

On 5/18/2021 at 8:26 AM, jennoying_sparkle said:

I think I have the same fear, that the main event is going to be a hot mess, but everything else seems like it would be okay.

My NC fears are being realised as they have already released a lot of new AC items for this years event. Hopefully, hopefully the games are actually up to scratch!

[Secre]

It looks like at least some of my fears have come to pass. There are obvious issues in the games, even if there are work arounds for them. TNT have released an absolute ton of NC items and we haven't even hit the Luxury Lounge yet - I'm debating over whether I want all those Yooyuballs for my Yooyu gallery. My side doesn't have NC so I'd have to buy cards to make it happen and I'm not sure I want to.

I've now tried all but SS on a laptop and I can make it work I think. I'll have to give it a shot on my mobile though as that may well be a completely different matter!!

[jellysundae]

A ninja mentioned "strong data usage" when loading any of the games on mobile, that's not good.

[Aquamentis12]

Haven't tried any of the converted games yet. TNT should partner with one of those independent groups/people making flash emulators that play flash content, like Ruffle for example. I have the nightly build downloaded for a couple of games some old friends made ages ago. Non-neopets stuff. Can't use it for everything because it's still in development, but I can view some of my old friends' works, which rocks because I lost touch with them awhile back.

I always have a sense of DREAD about the AC. The prize points awarded are so LOW, imho. I mean sure, some people can get Multiple All-Star, somehow. I usually only get a little over halfway there, but have a very nice average of about 11-12 points per game of YYB. And the points I get are rarely enough to barely get the stamp!

My YYB stats from last year. Rank 13

Goals Scored	4,996
Goals by Elon "The Black Hole" Hughlis	4,286
Goals by Oten Runeu	224
Goals by Lamelle Turow	227
Goals by Barit Jowes	259
Saves by Tonie Plessix	307
Number of Wins	390
Number of Draws	0
Number of Losses	0

A PPG average of 12.8 goals per game and I only got around 4400 prize points! I Couldn't even get the books from last year's AC! I wish we at least got something for higher point games, not just wins. I only got 390 games in last year, but things were busy, despite there being a pandemic and I couldn't play as much as I would've liked. Plus the stupid rule removing games on the weekends from counting toward our personal records still ticks me off! What's the point of playing against the practice team? 3 games for 3k? Not worth it! >( I relied on those off-days to shore up my game numbers because they fit into my schedule! I'm still angry with TNT about nixing them from counting! >(

Playing YYB does take a fair bit of time. But, MSN, I can only play for a bit before my wrists get super tired and sore. SS, Starts off slow and the "sweet spot" for playing doesn't last too long, plus it takes too long, imho to get to that part of the game where the speed is not too slow. SOSD, Meh. Gets old/boring too quickly. Plus it has the least best conversion toward rank points. I prefer playing YYB because it's more consistently active from start to finish. Maybe this year I see if a "perfect score" of 18 is legitimately achievable. 17-0 is still my best score for YYB. The more you score in YYB the faster the game can go too, if you skip the between goal cutscenes.

[Secre]

10 hours ago, Aquamentis12 said:

Haven't tried any of the converted games yet. TNT should partner with one of those independent groups/people making flash emulators that play flash content, like Ruffle for example. I have the nightly build downloaded for a couple of games some old friends made ages ago. Non-neopets stuff. Can't use it for everything because it's still in development, but I can view some of my old friends' works, which rocks because I lost touch with them awhile back.

I always have a sense of DREAD about the AC. The prize points awarded are so LOW, imho. I mean sure, some people can get Multiple All-Star, somehow. I usually only get a little over halfway there, but have a very nice average of about 11-12 points per game of YYB. And the points I get are rarely enough to barely get the stamp!

My YYB stats from last year. Rank 13

Goals Scored	4,996
Goals by Elon "The Black Hole" Hughlis	4,286
Goals by Oten Runeu	224
Goals by Lamelle Turow	227
Goals by Barit Jowes	259
Saves by Tonie Plessix	307
Number of Wins	390
Number of Draws	0
Number of Losses	0

A PPG average of 12.8 goals per game and I only got around 4400 prize points! I Couldn't even get the books from last year's AC! I wish we at least got something for higher point games, not just wins. I only got 390 games in last year, but things were busy, despite there being a pandemic and I couldn't play as much as I would've liked. Plus the stupid rule removing games on the weekends from counting toward our personal records still ticks me off! What's the point of playing against the practice team? 3 games for 3k? Not worth it! >( I relied on those off-days to shore up my game numbers because they fit into my schedule! I'm still angry with TNT about nixing them from counting! >(

Playing YYB does take a fair bit of time. But, MSN, I can only play for a bit before my wrists get super tired and sore. SS, Starts off slow and the "sweet spot" for playing doesn't last too long, plus it takes too long, imho to get to that part of the game where the speed is not too slow. SOSD, Meh. Gets old/boring too quickly. Plus it has the least best conversion toward rank points. I prefer playing YYB because it's more consistently active from start to finish. Maybe this year I see if a "perfect score" of 18 is legitimately achievable. 17-0 is still my best score for YYB. The more you score in YYB the faster the game can go too, if you skip the between goal cutscenes.

I got All Star last year by seriously bolstering my YYB with SOSD and to a lesser degree MSN. So my YYB alone would have got me to rank 19 last year, but my SOSD alone would have got me to rank 13, so easily pushed me over the All Star ranking. I don't think it would have been possible just doing YYB though as I get so frustrated with that game that I inevitably need a cool down period!! MSN and SS had the aggravating CAPCHA's last year as well - so did SOSD but I powered through them as the game at least is so quick and easy.

MSN and SOSD both have the same points value (1, I believe). But for me at least SOSD is so mindless and quick that I could rack up the points relatively quickly. MSN hurts my wrists as you've said and takes more concentration and time to get the minimum score - the amount of time it takes me to get the min score on it is the same it takes me to complete SOSD! SS is my nemesis. It's long, slow and gives half the points of YYB. I only played it on the rare occasion I had maxed both YYB and SOSD AND had extra free time before the end of the day and I'd split that between SS and MSN depending on which was annoying me more at the time.

I ended up with enough points to get the stamp, the yooyu and some of the books which was me sorted. I was so very keen to get the yooyu prize - it's like what drove me all the way through the competition. 

Yooyuball

Goals Scored	7,130
Goals by Layton Vickles	748
Goals by Tormo "The Terror" Frein	2,895
Goals by Kep Bonnefie	2,858
Goals by Tandrak Shaye	629
Saves by Reshar Collifey	981
Number of Wins	727
Number of Draws	1
Number of Losses	0

Slushie Slinger

Games Played	30
Top Score	665

Make Some Noise

Games Played	436
Top Score	5,678

Shootout Showdown

Games Played	4,800
Top Score	1,200

18 hours ago, jellysundae said:

A ninja mentioned "strong data usage" when loading any of the games on mobile, that's not good.

I still haven't tried booting it up on my mobile. But lots of mobile data will limit that as I can't currently access my work wifi on my phone as the stupid thing thinks it knows the password but it's been changed since. Can I figure out how to delete the data without wiping every password from my phone? Can I hell. If it was a simply regular router it would be fine. But because it's a big server and you have to go to an external page to put the password in, the phone isn't recognising it as saved. It is however saved because it keeps trying to connect and then locking me out of my actual work account. I've ended up literally just turning the wifi off as I step into the building!!

[Aquamentis12]

Interesting Secre. To me, it doesn't seem like it'd be possible with just support games, but I know people do it, as you've done it, and more. Thanks for posting your stats. Nice going!

I tried several practice games of YYB, it's pretty darn glitchy. I gotta wonder just what TNT spent the whole last year since the end of the last AC doing.... Plus that new power-up that seems to slow everyone down, I haven't seen that one before. It seems more annoying so far. More power-ups showing up is ok, the opponent-goalie seems more on the ball when it comes to stopping my shots, pardon the pun. Tackling/stealing is spotty, at best, and it takes very little effort now for ANY player, even the opposing goalies, to send the yooyu flying more than 3/4 of the way across the field, if nobody intercepts it that is. In the old flash version, for the goalie to do that, or score a goal, you'd need a Fire Yooyu AND the Enlargement power-up. Now just a Fire Yooyu would be enough. I do like that the movements are a bit more articlulated and smooth. But really, that's about all. Even the clock seems a little glitchy. I hit the goal with time left, and the whistle blows. Or, I hit the goal with no time left, and I still get the goal, and the game ends normally. Though when I send my scores, they've got the scores reversed graphically. It says the Practice team scored, x and I scored y, when it should be the other way around. Fortunately, score-sending still gives me the goals I actually scored.

Overall, with the glitches, YYB is definitely more difficult than the flash version! Oh right, almost forgot to mention the walls. You can't hug the wall and bounce the yooyu off and have it go forward anymore. If I hug the wall tightly, and fire a ricochet shot, it bounces off the wall and back behind me, toward my own goal! Another glitch to have to try and adjust for!

I should probably mention that I'm playing on a PC, Windows 10, with the game forced into Fullscreen as it says it will be for Practice week.

[Secre]

10 hours ago, Aquamentis12 said:

I tried several practice games of YYB, it's pretty darn glitchy. I gotta wonder just what TNT spent the whole last year since the end of the last AC doing.... Plus that new power-up that seems to slow everyone down, I haven't seen that one before. It seems more annoying so far. More power-ups showing up is ok, the opponent-goalie seems more on the ball when it comes to stopping my shots, pardon the pun. Tackling/stealing is spotty, at best, and it takes very little effort now for ANY player, even the opposing goalies, to send the yooyu flying more than 3/4 of the way across the field, if nobody intercepts it that is. In the old flash version, for the goalie to do that, or score a goal, you'd need a Fire Yooyu AND the Enlargement power-up. Now just a Fire Yooyu would be enough. I do like that the movements are a bit more articlulated and smooth. But really, that's about all. Even the clock seems a little glitchy. I hit the goal with time left, and the whistle blows. Or, I hit the goal with no time left, and I still get the goal, and the game ends normally. Though when I send my scores, they've got the scores reversed graphically. It says the Practice team scored, x and I scored y, when it should be the other way around. Fortunately, score-sending still gives me the goals I actually scored.

Overall, with the glitches, YYB is definitely more difficult than the flash version! Oh right, almost forgot to mention the walls. You can't hug the wall and bounce the yooyu off and have it go forward anymore. If I hug the wall tightly, and fire a ricochet shot, it bounces off the wall and back behind me, toward my own goal! Another glitch to have to try and adjust for!

I should probably mention that I'm playing on a PC, Windows 10, with the game forced into Fullscreen as it says it will be for Practice week.

I found several minor issues with YYB, but nothing massive. My main issue was the Darigan ball, but I always had trouble with that! And the fact that now any player can pick up bonuses; I like to save them for when I need them which now doesn't work. The auto player switch is still as annoying as it was last year as well. Personally, if I'm using one player, let me bleeding use them! I have a plan and I don't need the game deciding to switch to a closer player who then hares off in the wrong direction!!

SOSD's goalie is annoyingly fast in comparison to last year. Slushie Slinger's controls are glitchy, requiring double clicks, and there is a huge predominance of green slushies for some random reason. MSN was about normal.

Of course, this was all on Desktop. I haven't tried YYB and SS on mobile yet, but I wasn't too impressed with SOSD and MSN is a complete and utter catastrophe! SOSD doesn't want to move the ball, so I have to shoot from the middle. MSN top score was under 800 despite tapping for all I'm worth. It is not good. 

I will have to garner the motivation to try SS and YYB at some point... but I really don't wanna!!

 

10 hours ago, Aquamentis12 said:

Interesting Secre. To me, it doesn't seem like it'd be possible with just support games, but I know people do it, as you've done it, and more. Thanks for posting your stats. Nice going!

I know several members of this group don't play YYB at all and managed to All-Star last year. I think if you max any single game for the entire tournament, you can All-Star. But remember, All-Star doesn't get you the top, top prizes. All-Star alone may get you the Yooyu. But to get the top (usually clothing) items, you will need to double AS or above!!