Daily Dare [Split 1]

[Rakumel]

I am so completely utterly MAD at this game right now. All the time I had to "practice" on it today was maybe an hour. Within that hour, the highest score I managed to achieve was exactly 500 points. It KILLS me that I had to settle for Abigail's score when I know, I JUST FREAKING KNOW that if I had a little more time, I could have beaten AAA's.

*deep breath* But, I guess it could be worse. They could trot out Snowbeast Snackrifice as one of the games. *puke*

[B55B55]

The game for today (Wednesday March 12, 2008) is: Sophie's Stew

AAA: 400
Sophies Hut Background (wearable)


Abigail: 75
Dancing Meowclops Music Box

[gingernut]

Pretty easy one today then. I had to go and buy that meowclops music box though- that thing is cute!

[Jerch]

Pretty easy one today then. I had to go and buy that meowclops music box though- that thing is cute!

Agreed.

Just try to hit everything on the right side of the cane, so that it bounces faster to the other side....

You can ignore the two petpets altogether, you don't really need them at this stage.

Just for the record, if the food is eaten by the meowclops, you will only receive a fraction of the points you would get if you were to bring it to the cauldron.

The only exceptions are the gummy rat and the fish pop; for which you will receive the same amount of points either way.

[munduses]

I love Sophie's Stew! Got 412 on my first try, and for the first time I wish I hadn't, as I'd like to play it mooore (yes I could continue playing, but there's no goal anymore).

Remember to use the 'hungrymeowclops' cheat. It gives you an extra life.

[Siniri]

Still struggling with KMII, but Sophie's Stew was pretty easy. The game only allows you to have 6 lives, so I save "hungrymeowclops" for the end. If you hit the flying petpet with an ingredient, he'll drop either a red, blue, or green thing. Catch the green thing for extra lives (avoid the others as they change the size of your staff). Then, when you lose your last life, Sophie will stop shooting off more ingredients, but if you still have one bouncing along, you can bounce it off the wall by the stewpot while you type "hungrymeowclops." As soon as you type it, she'll start throwing out more stuff, but you can let the one you have drop into the pot and rush back and catch the new one. I usually get 400+ first try when it's the game-of-the-day, but for some reason today I had to play 4 times before getting that high. Still easier than KMII, though.

[Pickles]

Then, when you lose your last life, Sophie will stop shooting off more ingredients, but if you still have one bouncing along, you can bounce it off the wall by the stewpot while you type "hungrymeowclops." As soon as you type it, she'll start throwing out more stuff, but you can let the one you have drop into the pot and rush back and catch the new one.

That's SNEAKY! But quite clever.

Thankfully, this one will be easy again - same score needed for AAA as last year, and I know I didn't have any trouble with it then, either.

[Siniri]

Then, when you lose your last life, Sophie will stop shooting off more ingredients, but if you still have one bouncing along, you can bounce it off the wall by the stewpot while you type "hungrymeowclops." As soon as you type it, she'll start throwing out more stuff, but you can let the one you have drop into the pot and rush back and catch the new one.

That's SNEAKY! But quite clever.

Yes, it is clever -- but I'm not the one who came up with it. I found it on a help site; I thought it was to boost my score up to get the avatar, but apparently there is no avatar for this game... Maybe it was to get my score high enough last year? That's funny, because now I think 400 is a piece of cake (this game went on my favorites because last year it was an easy 1000NP). I guess practice really does make these games easier.

On an unrelated note, I finally beat the last level of KMII -- with a score of only 409. And I had more than 20 seconds left on that last round. How can I possibly get 700? My highest score is 497 -- the game was very laggy then, so I had a lot more time left in the early rounds than I usually do. I have actually developed a blister on my wrist over the last three days playing KMII so much. Aarrgh! I refuse to settle for Abby until 3/31 -- I could have gotten her challenges done on time every day if I hadn't held out for AAA.

[Pickles]

On an unrelated note, I finally beat the last level of KMII -- with a score of only 409. And I had more than 20 seconds left on that last round. How can I possibly get 700?

{scratches head} Okay, here's the best tips I can recommend for anyone still trying:
1.) Use the "small" game size. Less distance to have to move your mouse = less time lost on the clock = more bonus points.
Turn OFF the animations. You will have to do this every time you restart the game.

2.) Minimize any other windows you have. You will be working in a very small window, and the LAST thing you want is to accidentally click out of the window and have to go find it again. If you click out and onto your desktop, your window will still be up and you won't lose as much time. (BTW, this is recommended for any "clicking" games)

3.) Get through the first couple levels as fast as you can. From what I can recall, I have 8 seconds left on level 1, and 16 left on level 3. (I think level two is 12, but I'm not sure ATM). If you can't do level 3 fast enough to get 15-16 seconds left, restart and keep practicing these. This will speed up your response time drastically, and gives you a good start.

4.) Once you get a few levels in, you'll start seeing backgrounds of red in addition to the blues. I will VERY QUICKLY run through the whole set until I've matched out the red backgrounds first. Remember, even if the two you just flipped haven't quite turned back over, you CAN already be clicking the next two.
What I mean by run through the whole set is this: I start at the top left, and take the top-most two and flip them, then move down to the next two, etc until I get to the bottom - then I come up using the 3rd and 4th over. Pattern ends up looking something like this:
1-2-16-15
4-3-13-14
5-6-12-11
8-7-9-10
Searching in a pattern similar to this reduces the amount of time you spend moving around on the board, and is easy to keep track of where you are/where you've been.

5.) At this point, you will start having a larger number of matches to make. Pick somewhere between 2 and 5 cards close together (I'll usually start in the top left corner) and run through the rest of the cards until you match them up. Once you've finished those, select a next set, etc, etc.

6.) When you get to the point where you start seeing yellow backgrounds, do the same thing as with the reds: get rid of them first. Out of habit, I then go through and try to get rid of the reds, but I usually find myself doing a mix of that, and step 5. Same thing when you start hitting green backgrounds.

7.) Sometimes, you'll run into a clump of guys that are the same, but with different backgrounds. (Ex: the yellow smiley kiko, with blue, red, and yellow backgrounds are sitting next to each other). Try to remember where you saw the clump of them - even if you're not primarily looking for them, it's sure easy to get back to them.

8.) If you're having trouble remembering where things are take a break. Seriously. I've discovered that if I play any matching games for too long - or any memory games for that matter - I start mixing up the current game and a previous game. Take breaks after every 3 times you get into the upper levels, or so, and either go play another game or leave the computer or something. This'll help you clear your brain of the temporary memory from the games and give you a fresh start.

I will go ahead and try (even though shapu said it wasn't necessary) to get a score over 700 again and post my round scores. Might not happen today, but I'll try to get it done as soon as possible.

Hopefully this will help! Good luck to y'all still trying!

[Siniri]

Pickles,
The small window does help, even though it hurts my eyes. I've been turning off the animations all along -- it definitely takes 1-2 seconds off in the earlier rounds, which is only amplified in later rounds (so probably an extra 100 points right there). I can only average 14 seconds for levels 3 and 4, but I get the same as you for levels 1 and 2. I've also been taking a break between rounds -- that's why I'm posting here. I have my own system for going through that works better with my brain (straight across one row at a time, then backwards across the next row), though your way is just as efficient.

What's really helped is to just look at the yellow backgrounds (or red or green). I just finished level 12 with 83 seconds left -- it took a bit of practice on levels 10 and 11 to get the system down, but now I feel like I can really improve my time. I'm working on some suggested times per level based on the allotted times and my current attempts, so please don't torture yourself by trying again -- I'm already playing anyway, so I might as well write some stuff down between rounds! I'll post my suggested times once I figure them out.

Thanks for all your suggestions -- they've given me hope again!

ETA: Just finished the game -- new high score of 633! Definitely try the smaller window and the matching the weird backgrounds first, for those still struggling. Will post my recommended times soon... Thanks again, Pickles!

Last edited by Siniri on Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Byakuya San]

Yes, Sophie-related prizes! I actually like the wind-up Meowclops better than the background, but oh well.

[Siniri]

Kiko Match 2 Suggested points per round
While I haven't gotten the needed score yet, I'm getting closer. Here's the most recent game I played. "Seconds" means how many seconds each round lasts. "Finish Pts" reflects the 10 points you get for finishing each round. "Time Left Pts" equals the time I had left at the end of each round. "Round" is the total score I got for that round, while "total" is the total score I had after completing that round. The columns of most interest to those who are still trying are the last two columns: "rec round" is the number of seconds I recommend you try for at the end of each round; "rec total" is the total amount of points I recommend having at the end of each round. Note these are guidelines only; I built in an 11 point buffer in case you don't make it for a particular round. I typed in the "ineedmoretime" code at the beginning of round 14 (I figured I could type it in less than 15 seconds) since every second counts. I hope this, combined with Pickles's great hints above, will help those of us still struggling to knock this one out of the park.

P.S. For those interested in why I picked the recommended numbers, they're stretch goals of ~5-7 seconds/round faster than my current best at that round (for later rounds where I feel I can actually improve), with the exception of round 11 -- you can see I already managed to surpass the stretch goal this time through! My poor scores on some of the later rounds were due to me not waiting long enough between rounds...

[Pickles]

Heh, glad it's helping, Siniri!
And you got the scores up before I could even leave work to go home and give it a try.

Good luck!!!!

[Rubywinged]

Yay my AAA & My AB scores are the same now that makes me happy

Sophies stew took me a few to get in the grove of again tho I dont think i had played it in like a year.


*edit*

Anyone want to tell me what the lil neovision thing said. I hate neovision and cannot see it because i have DIAL UP! So recap for the NV impaired?

[shapu]

siniri and pickles, I love and loathe you both. Love, right now, is the overriding emotion, so congratulations on that.

Thanks so much.