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I'm a bit put out with this hard badge. Seems to luck dependent, even once you've got the hang of the game. Levels 9 and 10 will just ground you even if you go in with full multiplier. Thunder clouds appear in ways that are unavoidable. By level 10, even if you are hitting each hill right and getting "Perfect" and "Awesome" from the launches it doesn't increase your speed so you still fail!
We tried out rockets, but they had disastrous side effects. http://fexlabs.com/SSS/100/rocket.gif How about a cyclone instead? That seems nice and safe. http://fexlabs.com/SSS/96/cyclone.gif
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I just achieved 411k and I got one tip: Pay attention to getting many points in early stages (1st - 33k, 2nd - 76k, 5th - 215k...), in the last stage I got only 20k, because of small speed.
GAME ENDS AFTER 10th STAGE, so don't end up beating the game with less than 400k. Diamonds aren't that important, above all - don't fail - speed is everything!
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It would be helpful if the game told you that you could glide by pressing the up arrow/top half of screen at the beginning, rather than at the end of zone 2. Incidentally, I left the game running to type this, and won the easy badge without pressing any keys. Go figure!
You get more points from perfect landings, bird and mushroom bounces, crystals collected, and bonus time at the end of each level. Also, every point you earn is multiplied based on your happiness. 400k isn't easy, though!
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Tips for getting the Hard Badge:
1- Max out every stat.
2- Concentrate on getting "smooth" landings on a downward slope from which you can then get very high and quick launches. (Click on the lowest part of the screen, then release when you're on the highest part of the upward slope)
3- Ignore the gems; your goal is to avoid "Ouch" landings at all costs.
4- Land on birds if you can, but for the most part, concentrate on the slopes when you're in the air.
5- Don't alter your path in the air until you're about midway to the ground from your apex. Trying to judge your landing too early is virtually impossible.
That's it. Try to maintain a X5 multiplier at the end of every level, finish the levels as quickly as possibly by going fast and high while avoiding "Ouch" landings, and ignore gems. It still takes a decent amount of practice (took me four days from the time I got the Medium Badge to get the Hard one), but it's doable.
Yeah, one of the things I don't like about this game is the happiness system, especially the way it's affected by the "wind" on levels 9 and 10. Even with perfect gameplay, it's hard to outrun the wind without upgrades.
It also sucks that the "wind" isn't really visible or noticeable except for the fact that it slows you down a bunch.
We've removed the happiness system for the sequel, and there's no more stupid invisible wind. :D
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Becomes very fun after you learn to land correctly. The challenges and the shop keep the game interesting for a while, but more features would be welcome. The music is also very good. I hope to see badges on this one. A good impossible one would be to not leave a dildo comment.
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Generally on Kongregate if you hear about a wingless animal that wants to fly you can count on yet another "Launch" game. Most of them identical. Thank you fexLabs for being different. ...and good.
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Huh...you'd think that carrying all those diamonds would make him heavier, therefore making him slower. Then again, when it comes to making a game, who needs logic? :P
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Constant zooming and unzooming is annoyng as hell. I's rather see small animal and a lot of landscape then details, which I can't pay attention to anyway. Also it makes timing of drops much harder than i has to be.
Completely agree. This is one of the things we've fixed for the sequel: the camera is a lot less nauseous / zoomy, the characters are a bit smaller in comparison to the terrain, and you have more time/vision to plan out your dives.
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TIPS FOR HARD BADGE: 1. Animals do not have any differences, neither do hats 2. Gems do not give more points, only happiness 3. You should be 240-250k or more by the END of Zone Six 4. Points are accumulated based on distance and multiplier, not speed- always have x5! 5. Zone Nine is the deal breaker- you should definitely go in to it with the highest multiplier, because it takes a lot to keep your multiplier during 9&10. 6. Don't go crazy with your gliding- it slows you down, and thus wastes Happiness. I found that going with the flow, or rather, rolling down whichever hill you happen to land on was best. You only need to glide a few pixels, at most to ensure you land on the hill properly. [+] to help ensure others of this badge! :) Thanks!
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Maybe instead of counting only horizontal velocity for happiness, count total velocity but a little stricter? The rule about horizontal velocity having to be higher than a certain point in order for happiness to not drop kills me in zones 9 and 10, where the jumps provide more vertical velocity than horizontal.
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For people who are going for the hard badge, note that restarting the game will usually disable the bonus timer in zone 1. So to get those additional points, make sure that you go to the main menu to start a new game so that you can get bonus points.
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With only 470 hard badges awarded out of 21,889 medium badges awarded, something is wrong here. The problem with Dillo Hills is that the supposed player has very little control over the outcome. I am tired of unavoidable thunderclouds and vast expanses of gently rising slopes. If you can avoid landing on a gentle slope, launching off of one can give you such a low and flat trajectory that it becomes impossible to grab a downhill roll. If you do wipe out, it is difficult to start back up because you will both overshoot the next valley and undershoot the next peak. In zones 9 and 10, the final zones, you will constantly lose speed and happiness to an invisible wind, so you need to start with 5x happiness and race through to the end before you run out of steam. Contrary to some advice, crystals are helpful in the final zones, because they give you that "crystal boost" you've been upgrading. The longer I was played by this game, the lower the rating became. 1/5.
Good feedback, and I agree with pretty much everything you said. I also think 400k is a bit too high for a hard badge (something in the ballpark of 350k or even just reaching the end might have been more appropriate), but alas, I don't pick those numbers. We've definitely tried to remove a lot of the other frustrations you mentioned for the sequel, especially unavoidable obstacles, the weird difficulty curve (1-8 are boring, then 9 and 10 are unforgiving), and how difficult it is to regain momentum after a crash.
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Could I suggest having the prices/challenges visible with a mouse-over on the shop screen? Clicking through to each one individually isn't really necessary.
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My only complaint is that it tells me "Awesome!" and "Perfect!" and then takes away my happiness. If you are doing the jumps that well, why doesn't happiness increase?
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Playing this game, I've learned an important life lesson. Happiness isn't about getting the most money you can earn, or getting your greedy paws on some crystals. Happiness is about learning to fly, even when you've been given no wings. Sure, life has it's ups and down, but come rain or shine, you just have to brush it off or keep moving, or you'll find yourself miserable and stuck in rut.
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Finished it twice with like 370k points. How do you even get points? Hitting Birds? Perfect Landings? Maintaining Happyness? A little explanation would be helpful.
You get points for distance traveled, perfect jumps, high jumps (but not how long you stay up there), bird bounces (more points for double and triple stomps), mushroom bounces, and bonus time left at the end of the level. And all of the points you earn are multiplied by your current happiness (up to 5x). The method I've had the most luck with is doing a very sharp zig-zag pattern: go up to get the high jump bonus, then go straight back down to land a perfect jump again. Keep up this zig zag pattern and try to get as many perfect and high jumps as you can without letting your multiplier fall below 5x and without sacrificing too much bonus time. Levels 9 and 10 are very difficult and poorly balanced: do your best to maintain your speed and hit birds, don't worry as much about zig-zagging on those levels.
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I feel like making players be a specific character to unlock hats is a little counter-productive. A completionist is going to want to unlock all the hats and while playing as the squirrel they may end up hitting three birds on zone two by accident and not earn the hat. Kind of seems like it would just imbue rage to me.
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*at level 10, with only 2 happiness, finally see the steep* YESOMGYES I MADE IT NOW I HAVE A WHOLE LEVEL TO GET THE LAST 10K... *game ends* FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
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The game could use an "oh crap" button for those times when you know you're about to hit a wall or a hill peak dead on. Maybe a quick hop back into the air and give it a cooldown so it doesn't get abused.
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I always seem to miss gems at the start and end of each zone? The visual clutter in this game is amazing (which is a bad thing). You really don't have a lot of agency. Even the softest landings are devastating, mitigation doesn't work. Overall I don't like it but it's OK. 3/5
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Some tips for the hard badge (credits go to 123aaa789, and fricknmaniac and me); first of all get all upgrades. This can be done simply by choosing for zen mode at the main menu and leaving the game for a couple of hours without playing. The game will automatically get gems for you. For the 400k you'd need to get perfect landings on 80-90% of your jumps, and you'll need to have 4x or 5x hapiness. Crystals only improve your speed, not your score, so don't focus on the crystals. Mushrooms and birds do improve your score, so try to fall on them; they will bounce you up. And of course, go for the distance and get some time bonusses; those will improve your score. Practice makes perfect - good luck! 400k will be tough to get. Cheers!
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Tip to get the hard badge: Always get 5x mutiplier, don't mind about getting all diamonds, if you go fast, without many mistakes and getting few diamonds, you can get the hard badge. And max all updgrades, the "time bonus" one helps a lot!
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The biggest problem with the game is that the environment doesn't adapt to the speed of the armadillo. The slopes should become wider and more gentle as you go faster, making it easier to travel at high speed, instead of getting up there, and then hitting a pair of slopes that you can't dive on or glide over without a Jedi-like ability to know they would come at you before you see them. 3/5