Best Zone

[Sven]

What's the best Zone anyone's gotten to on any track? What was your top speed and score?

[perfecide]

For the longest time on the first track I had 23 as my best zone even if I got to a higher zone (zone 30) it wouldn't record it because my score was so high. Then I noticed I was using the air brakes too often to get to the higher zones. I don't have my psp on hand so I don't remember at the moment. But I haven't got to 35 on any of them yet I don't think.

more later.

[Sven]

What, do you airbrake your way around the track so you don't wreck?

I've gotten as high as Zone 36...

[eLhabib]

41

[perfecide]

What, do you airbrake your way around the track so you don't wreck?

I've gotten as high as Zone 36...

Yeah, I've only played for about 6 hours total game time so far...

[xunling]

41 is good ill'beat it. wait a day or two (for the first track)

...what is your best for the fourth and what do you think was your best round @ chencov phantom?

greats - kNa :twisted:

[eLhabib]

I'd have too look what my best time on the 4th zone track is, but it's just sightly above the gold medal requirements, I'm not really that big of a fan of zone mode. Probably 36 or 38 something.

as for my best time on chenghou, check out this site http://defaulted.ath.cx/ghost/, you may find this interesting.

[KingTalo]

So far all my zones are 35/36. I got 30+ on all of them before i started playing tournaments, so i got 144 medals just playing with zone team (I hope that's not a bad thing, i just really love zone, esp fusions zone). I started practicing with some of the other teams once i got purist though.

[Dimension]

I can't imagine there'll be much of a problem with using the Zone ship, maybe the guys who have the game will be a bit against it in TT, seeing as they seem to like using their own fav. team, but when I get pure, i'll be using the Zone ship for everything probs, closest thing to a super ship (said without knowing the stats of the remaining downloadable ships (of course))

[eLhabib]

It doesn't really matter in TT either, since the zone ship isn't really THAT superior. On curvey tracks like citta nuova other ships are much better.

As for using the zone ship for everything because it has the best stats: I don't mean to be rude to anyone, but I just can't stand the way of though many pilots have of just choosing the best team because it's easiest to win then. WHAT IS THE POINT? I was playing through the whole game in my Assegai, even though I did have the zone ship already. I know it would have been easier using the zone ship, but what the heck? The reason for me to choose a specific team is their color scheme, their logo, their IDENTITY. I don't care what team is BEST, I pick the one that looks and feel coolest do me, the one I can identify with. That's the whole point of having different teams! I really hate it that most people just go pick the best, I don't care how it looks and how it feels to drive. C'MON PEOPLE; SHOW SOME COLOR! The zone ship doesn't even have a logo or color scheme! :roll:

I guess people who are choosing the zone ship immediately just because it has the best stats, those are the exact same people who always join the winning teams on team based multiplayer games, just because they care so much about winning that they forgot to enjoy the game itself :brickwall

end of rant.

[Dimension]

In case you didn't know, until not long ago, I never used the Icaras on W3O, i competed in all of the Phantom time trials in the Qirex, even got a couple of second places, but at the end of the day, I figured, if your lap record could be faster, why not?

You can still use the other ships, in the way that those tied into the W3O SE Stick2trax challenge are setting amazing times/have set amazing times with the Goteki45 for example, but in all fairness there's *always* going to be a sea of difference in ships, so that might as well be a different league completely.

I'll get loads of fun out of playing WOP, i'm sure, but since for me it's not about SR (never liked SR TBH, to many random "brought to a skidding halt"s and last corner wayward missile arse rapings,) i'll be rushing through those as quick as I can.

BTW, you're right, those who pick the fast teams do so because the faster team gets the best time, makes the game faster, adds challenge (generally, thanks to the common terrible steering) and when everyone's using it, it ensures an equal playing field, means it's, at the end of the day, all down to pilotting skills; not this ship's missing 50kph at the end of the straight, or that ship's inability to actually get going until the dawn of the next Ice age, this might be exactly what you're doing with the ghost uploady site, just in miniaturised form on certain tracks, with slower ships.

Sure many will probs change their mind when playing the game, the shield problem'll be very apparent, at least in SR, but it's just a loose plan for what I think ill be doing, besides I like the Pirhana most, it looks pretty in all the best ways and it's stats look a-pretty-pretty good, so I might not use the Zone ship if there's, as you say, not much to tell :)

[eLhabib]

if you don't enjoy the SR much, which I personally cannot really understand, for I love it, then I understand that you will take the zone ship to finish it as quickly as possible. And in TT, as I said, I don't care much about the zone ship, for there are only few tracks where it can show its advantage in end speed.
That's all fine with me, don't get me wrong.
What I don't like is the attitude of some people to play through a game not to enjoy doing so, but to have done so. You see the difference? Some people seem to think it's just about winning and proving to yourself that you're the best or whatever. WAKE UP PEOPLE! IT'S JUST A GAME! Might as well enjoy it while playing! And for the full enjoyment of the game, IMHO, you need to get some variety, using all the different ships to try and see which fits you the best. You know, in purE, more than in any previous wipEout, each ship really feels different to drive, not just accel and handling wise, but also forcing a different racing line. It's like the difference between driving a roadster or a suburban, for example. And personally, I don't like the driving feel of the zone ship at all. Also I don't like the feel of the triakis, and the feisar is too responsive for me. And when you say -'those who pick the fast teams do so because the faster team gets the best time, makes the game faster, adds challenge (generally, thanks to the common terrible steering)'- I say you're wrong. First of all I don't know why you are saying the steering is generally terrible in w'o'' games, I always found wipEout's steering spot on and the most distinctive and unique I have seen in any videogame. And secondly, as I can say from my own experience with ghosting so far, you get one hell of a kick out of beating a zone ship ghost with your supposedly slower favorite team, in my case assegai. Team devotion adds a LOT to this game I feel.

[Lance]

.
he probably means that the fastest ships commonly have poor steering/maneuverability. like Icaras, and Qirex in the games where it is very fast like 2097 and WO3
.

[lunar]

I`m going to use the fastest ship for the given course/class in TT - after all, for me, TT is about getting the fastest time I can and hopefully trying to beat other human`s times. But if the Zone ship isn`t always the fastest, as EH says, I`ll be really pleased. I haven`t played the game enough to work this out for myself yet. I`m not going to use zone for races though - that would be pretty tedious getting wasted all the time and barrel-rolling myself to death. I also love the feel of Qirex and other default ships much more than Zone. It would be tedious to use zone for everything, and the ship balance is a lot better than many of us, including me, have given credit for in the past.

OnTopic - best zone is 41 on Pro Tozo, which is the only course I`ve played beyond just getting golds. You have to love the names of the zone tracks.

Has anyone worked out how the zone scoring system works yet? My high score is only for zone 38. I`ve worked out there`s a big bonus to be had for perfect laps, and I got 8, I think, in that race - a lot more than my highest zone race. I`m not sure that you score faster for travelling faster like in Fusion, or if there are any bonuses available apart from PLs. Also does your shield level have an influence on the score, like in Fusion? I`ve noticed also that you can replenish your shield if you get perfect zones - at least I think this is what does it.

I`m not going to play this zone mode as much as Fusion zone mode. Its very cool but my eyes go out of focus after a few races and it takes a while to get them back again. Also the rest of the game is worth our time too, as we all know by now.

[Dimension]

Yeah ElHabib, I was referring to the faster ships having terrible steering, the enjoyment in WO for me personally comes from mastering ships like the Qirex and icaras since they're so hard to control, it makes the eventual perfet races you get all the more meaningful. but meh, whatever, you enjoy the game(s) for what you want out of them and I'll enjoy them for what I want out of them, it's a case of each to their own. :wink:

Lunar, this zone scoring thing, do you mean that your score isn't the number of zones you've gone through?[/still doesn't have the game] :|

[lunar]

The ultimate objective of zone is meant to be to get the highest score possible. In zone you have a score counter on the screen which increases all the time you are "racing" - and the higher zone you reach the longer it runs, and the higher your score goes, obviously. But this doesn`t mean the highest zone will necessarily have the highest score as there ways to get bonuses, such as flying Perfect Laps. In Fusion you could increase the rate of scoring, there were more bonuses and there was a multiplier, but I think in Pure you just need PLs to get the big bonuses and a good score.

[eLhabib]

Yeah ElHabib, I was referring to the faster ships having terrible steering, the enjoyment in WO for me personally comes from mastering ships like the Qirex and icaras since they're so hard to control, it makes the eventual perfet races you get all the more meaningful.

I understand that, and I feel the same way, but the zone ship ISN'T HARD TO CONTROL AT ALL. It has the best steering of all ships, that's why you can't put it in one line with 'hard' fast ships like icaras.

[Chill]

The ultimate objective of zone is meant to be to get the highest score possible. In zone you have a score counter on the screen which increases all the time you are "racing" - and the higher zone you reach the longer it runs, and the higher your score goes, obviously. But this doesn`t mean the highest zone will necessarily have the highest score as there ways to get bonuses, such as flying Perfect Laps. In Fusion you could increase the rate of scoring, there were more bonuses and there was a multiplier, but I think in Pure you just need PLs to get the big bonuses and a good score.

I just thought this would be used when zoners are getting the same zones as each-other and can't get ahead, they'd take their last largest score and use these points instead of zones.

[lunar]

I think the zone scoring works like this:

Perfect Lap: 2000 points
Perfect Zone: 1000 points
Speed Pad: 100 points

I don`t think bonuses are affected by your zone, speed or shield strength. The points counter runs at a constant speed too, as far as I can tell, so getting good scores is very much about flying clean at the speeds you can more or less handle. An extra couple of zones at the end, when you`re slamming the walls and generally being out of control (I`m assuming everyone does this), won`t get you many points.

[Sven]

hmmm....I would have hoped the rate of scoring depended on speed. That speed and zone don't affect the score seems pretty odd, and defeats the purpose of Zone mode, imo. I think the whole purpose should be to see how fast you can go...

[lunar]

Of course I could be wrong about the rate of scoring being constant, but I don`t think so. Its pretty suicidal to look at your score counter over zone 20, though.

The scoring puts the emphasis more on how fast you can go while still being in control, rather than just how fast you can go in the end, but they are two sides of the same coin. If you can get PLs and Perfect Zones at 25, for example, you`re going to get a better score, and survive longer, than someone who begins to lose accurate control at 20. My last few laps are usually so ragged I don`t deserve to score many points for them.

[lunar]

Well I was wrong about the rate of scoring being constant. The score increases faster as your velocity increases; as you can see when you cross a speed pad. The difference isn`t much though - the way forward is still to forget about speed and go for PL bonuses. At one point my highest zone was 49, but a 43 run had a higher score. My best zone now is 52.
.

[Chill]

Good for you. :wink:

[calphshowoffcalph] :wink:

It's certainly interesting that zone 43 could come up higher than zone 49, perhaps their is some use in this stuff. :twisted:

[Sven]

I think I liked the Fusion Zone scoring system better...

I'm wondering what zone Al has gotten to. Didn't he hit like zone 68 in fusion or something?

[Lance]

.
more like a hundred in Fusion, i think. he may have been the first one to hit 100
.

[lunar]

Al got well over 100 I think, but a bit behind Hellfire and Oggob. They were the only ones who got to the hundred AFAIK. I wonder if Pure zone mode has an achievable max speed or if it just gets quicker until it really is impossible to keep the ship on the deck/off the walls.

Sven, I liked the Fusion scoring better too, as there was a real necessity to hit speed pads until you got multiplier x99. You couldn`t chicken out, and had to make sure you hit them all. But this zone mode is pretty good, and just as satisfyingly scary I think.

[Lion]

heh, so far I have the first 2 golds in zone, but both were achieved by my ship detonating and crossing the invisible line to make the announcer say "zone 25"
I'm improving though, it's extremely satisfying to see the impossible come within reach :D

[Sven]

But this zone mode is pretty good, and just as satisfyingly scary I think.Yeah, this zone mode is good. I like doing it better than anything in Fusion. And the speed makes my eyes bleed up at Zone 35 and whatnot. It's just that Fusion's scoring was better.

[JABBERJAW]

I was the first to hit 100(101 actually) during a contest, but 124 was my max before I quit. oggob got 151 and hellfire got 130 or so I think.

[Hellfire_WZ]

That was a good contest that was. You thinking of doing a similar thing for Pure?

[JABBERJAW]

when I actually start playing it maybe. :D We should probably wait for everyone to be able to puchase pure.

[Dimension]

Are peeps still playing Zone mode much? I've played a little over 2 hours of it now, though i'm still way off the pace, my best zone being 35 (at Coridon 12 with 39927 points). Looks really cack next to the times posted in the arena challenge (and lunar's above lol) :)

[lunar]

35 in only two hours is pretty good. For someone who likes manly, high-speed type racing....well there`s nothing "girly" about zone. I haven`t played it for a week or so since reaching zone 57. Def has reached 60 and I want to catch up sometime but I`m currently relearning the game after going back to using the stick/nub thing. I think I`ll need it at the big cojones classes but can`t really decide. Not sure I`ll get round the sharp turns in zone without the d pad, but the stick should be better on those long curvy bits and lining up for the jump on Syncopia.

[Dimension]

You're right lunar, there's nothing girly about zone mode... balls of steel when the zones have ticked up a bit ;)

That penultimate bend at Syncopia is a real doozy, the blue reflection/light-ish thing down the dead centre of the track I find is a good way point early on (rather than the solid stripes further out,) but by zone 30 that's still not a lot of help :banzai

My zones are getting better... slightly, now i've got to 43 (65235) @ coridon 12. Still work to be done!

[Badboyfg]

My highest zone is 49 up to date

[Hellfire_WZ]

Slowly working my way up now. Had a couple more goes and reached Zone 40 on Pro Tozo with 60000 points dead-on. Unfortunately I can't see myself being as good at this one as I was at Fusion. Only one working eye + small screen = one hell of a hard time. Fusion wasn't so bad because of the full size screen, but I'm really finding it difficult to see the corners approaching and have a bad habit of turning too late. I guess time will tell.

[Lance]

.
only one working eye? i hope it's not permanent. what happened?
.

[Hellfire_WZ]

My left eye is extremely blurred, so I can't make out any fine detail with it. Has been for as long as I can remember. I've had it checked out and the eye itself is fine, so I think the optic nerve is screwed. It's pretty weird actually, I've got 20:10 vision in my other eye! I'm fine with high-res graphics, but it's making life a little difficult with the PSP.

[Lance]

.
hmm... possibly more difficult because of being so close to the PSP screen.

i am highly nearsighted and often wear a contact lens in only one eye so i can read up close with the uncorrected one and can avoid the inconvenience of attempting to do things with reading glasses. but there are awkward distances at which i can not see well with either eye. i have almost no focussing range anymore since my eyes got old back when i was 41.

you certainly do remarkably well in Fusion zone relative to anyone. to do it with a bit of a vision problem is even more remarkable. congrats! :)
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[Hellfire_WZ]

Thanks :wink: But it definitely illustrates what a difference a high-res screen makes. Slowly getting used to the smaller screen now though. Just had another shot on Pro Tozo and managed to hit Zone 47, the side shift is proving a real asset.

[Dimension]

Managed to get to zone 59, though 60 is still eluding me for some reason. Plus I only reached 111557, dunno how ben managed 121000 in only 60 zones :clap Check out this top speed though: 1435 kph, 47 kph faster than ben :P

Weird that everyone seems to be maxing out in the top end of the 50s, the numbers in between shoot by quickly, I only ever recorded a single 70k score and no 60k scores, but these zones are just getting impossible to scale IMO :|

[Kansas]

I got to 24 on my first try. :)

[Hellfire_WZ]

Not bad for a first try, I think I managed 31 on mine. Takes time to get used to, give the side shift a try in the corners and you'll get much further. I'm giving Zone a rest for the time being, I'm trying for the 164 golds right now. Only Phantom class and Rapier Classic tournament left so I'll be back in Zone mode pretty soon.