Madness in the Mall : the all formats MegaMall challenge!

[infoxicated]

All formats? you say....

Correct!

This is the All Formats Mega Mall challenge.... or Madness in the Mall as it will be promoted!

To take part in this challenge you will need a copy of Wipeout 3 PAL, NTSC or Special Edition (PAL). As has been hinted above - this is an All Formats challenge.

Your one remaining participation requirement is that you must already have times posted in the times tables here at WipeoutZone.

So, here's how it's going to work....

This challenge is an improvement challenge. I'm not looking for you to gain the fastest time on the tables. I want you to improve on your time that's already in the database. It is a challenge against yourself - the fastest of the fast will need to elevate themselves that much higher than those at the back of the field who haven't been as focused before.

The rest of the rules are the Wipeout Pilots Association/WipeoutZone official rules of All AI ships and weapons switched on. This challenge is to be done in race mode, using any ship you choose to improve your record.

The closing date is Friday the 12th of April.

The person who has improved by the highest percentage over their previous lap time will win a prize.

Your fastest lap time should be posted to infoxicated@wipeoutzone.com by midnight GMT on the closing date. I have already taken a snapshot of the tables as they currently exist, so don't even think about popping in a slow time so you can thrash it later on! ;)

Any questions you might have should be posted below.

[Lance]

~
so this is purely for laptime in singlerace mode? no overall racetime?
^

[infoxicated]

Fastest Lap time in Single race, 12 ships racing, weapons activated, no cheats activated, no flip tracks - you must be turning left at the spiral! ;)

[vincoof]

Does "All formats" means "Vector/Venom/Rapier/Phantom" ?
If so, how is computed the "overall" performance ?

[JABBERJAW]

already did a perfect race on that one, probably couldn't even improve 3 seconds. that's ok though.

[Hybrid Divide]

Bad Bad Bad Bad

I haven't posted any times yet!

What am I gonna do?!

I know I should have started posting those times.

[Wiseman]

LOL, all I can apply for is Rapier, since that's the only one I have times for in Mega Mall SR. :lol

Oh well, at least it's a class I know I could improve a lot in. :lol

[Wamdue]

Ive posted times mainly for Manor Top, I cant recall ive ever raced Mega Mall to beat any records. Am I still able to join this challenge?

[AmishRobot]

It seems I didn't get around to posting a Phantom time yet. I hope Vector, Venom & Rapier classes count.

And seeing as how my previous times really suck, it looks like I've actually got a shot to do well! By the end of the week, I'll look like this: :o

[infoxicated]

Ahhhh! I made a mistake - I was in such a rush to get this posted last night that I forgot to mention I only wanted times for Venom class.

Makes it more accessible, as there are people who cant play at Phantom *cough* Thruster *cough*!

I also forgot to mention that only ONE set of times will be accepted. Don't e-mail me tomorrow then have a rest until the night of the deadline and send me another mail with improvements. Wait until you've shot your bolt and believe you cant go any faster.

Sadly if you don't have times in already, then it kind of throws a spanner in the works. However, you could always take part and practice the track anyways and see if you can beat the folk who are taking part in the improvement challenge.

Incidentally, this is the first in a series of this type of challenge. So it kind of makes sense to get your times put in to the tables in all speed classes for as many tracks as you can. That will mean you don't miss out in future :)

[jmoid]

this sounds cool! pity i've lost all my w3 skills
*pictures an icaras bumping it's way round the spiral*
:)

[FoxZero]

crap! now i gotta get my playstation back from my neighbor!
definitely an underdog challenge here! this = cool!

[Lance]

~
FoxZero: lucky for you he didn't pick Rapier class, you're an Overdog there. :)

i don't know about Thrusty's ability to play phantom class, but i [cough couGGH cough coFF COUGH hack wheeze COFF ergg.... bleah]
um... thanks for choosing Venom, Rob.
^

[infoxicated]

As if you didn't need any more incentive to participate than raw pride, the prize for this series of challenges will be a copy of the Wipeout 3 soundtrack, especially mixed for Arcade magazine (I believe), that was a hot topic a short while ago.

[JABBERJAW]

I'll have to put up some really slow times for the rest of the races I haven't done :lol: Maybe in the mark of 5-6 minute venom times :lol: If you did a vector race, everyone would have a chance and then you could set it for best time. Just a thought. I think most of the times would be very close.

[Lance]

~
i would love to have that CD, but i'm not far enough back in laptime to have any shot at it. i think James/AmishRobot has got a good chance amongst the NTSC lot. i've not looked at PAL and PAL SE yet.
^

[infoxicated]

Who says the next challenge will be based around the same rules?! :lol: :wink:

[Wiseman]

Now he tells me! http://www.angelfire.com/anime/animotakuworld/images/smiles/burn.txt

Oh well, at least that means I can focus on the Kordera challenge and the Porta Kora challenge more now. :lol

[oggob]

hmmmm.......sounds interesting... pity I used Icarus for Vemon, don't know how good my times really are.

As for the loss of W3O skills, not sure about that, but have lost the 2097 skills, threw that in for about 20mins last night, TT - Piranha, Talons Reach - couldn't break 25sec for a lap! :o :x :roll: Now that's struggling!

[AmishRobot]

i think James/AmishRobot has got a good chance amongst the NTSC lot.

So what exactly are you trying to say, Lance? :lol:
:wink:

[Lance]

~
i'm saying you're lucky that Rob picked a course and class that you haven't really worked on yet. now if he had picked venom class at sampa run, i might have a chance of competing for that CD. i have the worst time listed there, i'm more than 16 seconds behind the evil Jay, my nemesis, the spear in my holy ribcage, the.... um... my racing buddy. [2:02, Jay?! holy f__k!]

oh, well, maybe the next challenge...
^

[AmishRobot]

Yeah, I'm just messin' with yer head. I'm sorry, it's what I do... i'm good at it. Must be why i'm single too, because i'm too damn pretty for it to be anything else! :roll: :D

And you were right. Last night I put in a little effort, and made a dramatic improvement in my time. I won't say exactly how much for fear of someone trying to "Price is Right" me, (most everyone here is quite trustworthy, but - like leaving a twenty on the coffe table when friends are over - why give good people a reason to go bad.) but I think I've got a shot.

[Brother Laz]

Slightly OT - spiral in Phantom WO3

But then again, here is where the CHAMPS gather!

How the F am I supposed to get down that spiral alive in Phantom W3SE with the Icaras? I go over the jump, airbrake and hard left and *WHAM* against the roof and *BANG* back onto the track *THUNK* into the wall. The alternative is to push the nose down but that increases my turning radius and I scrape along the wall all the way down before hitting it hard near the end. I can't imagine that this place cannot be taken at full speed... what's the secret? :) <---innocent n00b smile

(Edit: wrote 'CHIMPS' :) )

[AmishRobot]

Well, first off, I doubt there are many people here (even pros) who would dare lay claim to making it through the spiral cleanly with anything close to regularity. It's among the toughest sections of track in the whole series. Based on my limited ability, here's what I've found.

Rule #1: You can't make it at full speed with an Icarus. It's not possible.
Rule #2: Nose down! It's tough when you're steering with a D-pad, but it tightens your steering radius, and you'll make it through at a lot faster speed.

The best method I've found is to turn hard left, and let off the gas. You'll be basically sliding sideways to the outer wall. When you get close to the wall, tap the gas and it will pull you to the inside. Tap the airbrakes as needed to slow down if necessary, and if your angle gets too wide. The trick is go fast enough that the inertia is always pulling you toward the outer wall, but not fast enough that it actually succeeds.

If all else fails, pray for an autopilot! :lol:

Hopefully someone else has some better advice. Where's Al when you need him?

[science]

pertaining to the shoulder buttons... namco cheated us. ive had my negcons apart several times, both black and white, and only the right shoulder button is analog. the left one has a contact just like the d pad or A and B buttons. why, i dunno. maybe to save money, maybe because there wasnt room inside the controller. but there ya go. left shoulder button is a fraud.

and pertaining to the spiral in megamall, Phantom class with Icarus... it is possible to nail it at full speed. its not easy, but its possible. heres the best advice i can offer. after you take the little jump that leads you into the spiral, left airbrake early and hard to throw your ship into the spiral. once your in, stay within the arrows in the middle of the track. if you can do that, its almost automatic that you stay off the walls. if you go outside of them, chances are youll end up understeering or oversteering into the walls.
the easier way to make your way down is to hold onto the left airbrake the whole way down. it keeps you at a reasonable speed and it doesnt take any time for the engine to spool back up at the end. unfortunately, taking the spiral this way isnt as fast as the first method i mentioned.

and finally, pertaining to the challenge, i cant believe i pulled all my times off the record tables that werent at phantom speed. most of my runs at those speeds are first run records from when i first bought the game. i could probably pull minutes off of some of those times... oh well, maybe i should put them back up for the next challenge. ;)

[infoxicated]

Vincoof Wrote:

I've got two times. One is pretty good in WO3 and the other is pretty bad in WO3SE (the time diff is around 3secs). What should I do ?
The reason of such a difference is simple : I trained alot in WO3 back in the earlier days of W3PA, but I didn't get the chance to train in WO3SE (I just entered the best of the 8 scores I had to do to unlock the Venom prototype).
Thanks in advance for the advice.
Well, whichever one you've improved most upon would stand. It's up to you, really - I cant rule out either time.

[xEik]

It's a shame I already made the jump from pre-Wipeoutzone to post-Wipeoutzone times in Venom class. Otherwise the price would be mine (or not :oops: )
Did you know that in some tracks the difference from my times before I found Wipeoutzone and now is more than 40 seconds? :o

[Task]

A very interesting challenge, but I know for sure I'd never be able to win it.
What I am looking forward to learning is just how much room for improvement I've got on this track. MegaMall is one of the few tracks that I've seriously tried to perfect, and I doubt I could squeeze another second out of my Vector/Venom times.
Now y'all should go work on proving me wrong! Beat 1:30 and 2:00...
Then I can ask you how you did it. :P

Lance: You think my 2:02 on Sampa Run is good? I'm pretty sure I can pull off 1:55 or so, just have a look at my TT time. My SR tends to be 3 seconds slower than my TT.
Of course, since there's a healthy margin of 5 seconds between me and 2nd place, I haven't yet bothered to get a better time there.

[infoxicated]

The easy way to enter times for this competition (or even if you were not elegible, but still want to place yourself against the participants) is to enter your new times on the times tables this week. With the deadline being midnight Friday BST.

Or, if you'd prefer a secret ballot style of entry, you can e-mail me your times by the deadline to the usual address - infoxicated@wipeoutzone dot com. (this doesn't mean I'll stick them on the tables for you!)

I'll collate the results over the weekend and have the winner(s) notified on Monday. The most improved pilot(s) will receive a specially mixed CD featuring the music from Wipeout 3.

Best of luck for the final three days. :)

[Thruster2097]

Thrusties inability to play at phantom level.
is that so???
if the truth be told, it is not really an inability, but more of an utter dislike.

Just a small note for the winner, the CD's #6 track is an early remix of the fusion track, "down the river" by Hong Kong Trash. I guess it was supposed to be included in wipeout3, but never quite made it past the cutting room floor.

[infoxicated]

Heh! :)

Just going by what you said a year ago!

[Thruster2097]

heh, well a year is a long time by any person's standards (well, except geologists, but its debatable wether or not to actually call them people)
If Pierre Belmondo was to witness an hour of my phantom laps, he would probably say something along the lines of.... "Sporadic bursts of excellence that appear from nowhere, that are unfortunatley backed up with nothing" ...or something similar, but in French.

Anyways, thankyou for being considerate about us lesser-members of this fine establishment. If I can get a better lap done by tommorow, you will know about it!

[infoxicated]

Ok - that's it - just past midnight BST - the Maddness in the Mall, Mega Mall all formats challenge is over - I'll post the results as soon as I've worked them all out.

Thanks to all who took the time to improve their records! :)

[infoxicated]

In what is becoming a WipeoutZone tradition, we have joint winners in the Mega Mall challenge!

Congrats to Pietro Loconte and James McVay - blowing away their personal bests by 10.72 and 11.46 seconds respectively - sensational performances from the pair of them.

James and Pietro have been awarded a specially mixed copy of the Wipeout 3 soundtrack for their efforts.

Thanks again to all who took part. :D

[Lance]

.
congratulations to both of you!

[see there james, i told you that you had a great shot at it] :D
.

[AmishRobot]

You most certainly did! :D

And congratulations to Pietro, as well. His accomplishment is nothing to sneeze at. (Hell, at that speed, a sneeze would throw you into a wall!) I almost feel guilty about beating him.

...almost. :wink:

[TRO]

Thanks a lot of your compliments. Then, I had managed a hard work because I am in habit to phantom class, and change class was very difficult.

Hei, I think that James will not stop to amaze, than just good luck to all pilots (me too!!!!!). 8) [/b]