I was checking my old phone earlier today for any remaining files before hard resetting it as family backup phone.
I checked all the pictures and downloads, whatsapp backups, as well as all the abandoned apps. I then came across to a particular app: the tentacle wars. That is the ported version of the old kongregate game that I spent so much time on. I played the custom levels on toilet, before bed or simply all the time back in the days. That's the screenshot I took today:
That means 3349 total (auto generated) random levels solved. Taking levels deemed too easy to spend time on into consideration the actual number is easily above 5000, and that's only on this particular phone. On previous phones the counts are all 5 digits.
The total score is the sum of scores across all non-random levels, and the score is essentially a measure of remaining time -- or equivalently the time you used. The higher the score, the lower overall time you used to clear all stages in the game.
That reminds me of the various speedrun categories where players care about time spent on independent stages separately. It might sound less exciting than non-stop categories but they also provide all sorts of fun plus extra technicalities since you can study every detail to the finest bit. Examples include punch-out, Mario Kart 64 and Smash Melee break the targets -- when you know these are all games mentioned by Summoning Salt you know these categories must be spicy!
Fortunate for me, a framerule (cue the bus analogy here) system applies here where the clock/score ticks only every second, so optimization is much easier. I once thought 110k+ was impossible but then proceeded to reach that, and I am quite confident that this is very very close to perfect now.
I found myself so addicted to such simple game. Or rather, I found myself so addicted to a whole genre of games. Referred to "cell games" on Kongregate, it's a branch of RTS that is almost extinct since the discontinuation of flash.
Simply speaking it's a type of RTS around cells which are preset immovable architecture, and the goal is to conquer all cells on the map. Assault is usually done by connecting two cells where units are sent from one to conquer the other or boosting self's architecture. Health of the cell is usually the only measurement -- it represents both health (it flips when HP reaches zero) and strength (how many units you can send/how powerful your attacks are) at the same time.
Most cell games separate from each other by permutation of the above rules, but that leads to completely different strategy. Just to give a few examples:
Tentacle wars
Architecture: Power = HP, upgrade/downgrade automatically with HP
Attacking means: by extending straight line tentacles (that costs HP) that attacks, power depends on attacker level, no collision
Strategy: fully connected network, overloading (tentacles output much more if it has grown to size limit and consecutively receives from other tentacles)
Cloud wars
Architecture: Power = HP, no upgrade, homogeneous structures (with variations from 2nd game)
Attacking means: send half of its own HP towards others on straight line, with collision
Strategy: Aggressive, concentrated attack, make use of collision to defend
Little stars for Little Wars
Architecture: Power = HP, predetermined production power for each star
Attacking means: consume ALL of its own HP to attack on designated straight line (graph structure), with collision (only when path cross over each other which is rare)
Strategy: create chain of power transportation, create line of defense/min-cut analysis
Solarmax:
Architecture: Power = HP, predetermined production power for each star
Attacking means: consume part (adjustable) of its HP to attack, do not collide
Strategy: swift, concentrated attack, high precision high frequency control, game theory
Auralux
Architecture: Power = HP, spend fixed amount of HP to upgrade (for higher HP and production) for some stars, reverts to lowest level 1 if conquered
Attacking means: consume part (adjustable) of its HP to attack, do collide
Strategy: swift, concentrated attack, rely on chaotic randomness on multiplayer field\
I really how such simple rules lead to different optimization approaches. They are complex, but not complicated enough so that near full optimization is possible. It also matches my interest on investigating the "ultimate meta" of a game.
Sadly the tentacle wars app is no longer compatible on my new phones and with the upcoming hard reset it would be gone forever on my phone. But for whoever interested in the game you can still find that in Kong (using ruffle). Alternatively, Little Stars for Little Wars and Auralux (2) are both on app store that you can give it a try.
