Post by BatHeart on Mar 22, 2015 19:57:20 GMT
I wondered whether it was too soon to start a topic such as this. These are still the early days of Base Race, and maybe nobody has got any great tactical thoughts to share yet.
I am certainly not by any means the best player here, and wouldn't dream of trying to say "do it like this" or "focus on that".
On the other hand, I have played a few of these now, so although I wouldn't admit to being skilled, I might be at the point where I can share some of my experiences, and see if anyone else would like to join in the discussion.
The hardest thing for me was always going to be coming in with a competitive time in the race stage. Of course, in the very first test runs, nobody really knew what a good time was, so I had to make wild guesses (An hour will win it! Can I get under 2 hours?) Even now, each challenge varies in difficulty and in the complexity of what you have to get done, so what is a good time for one month may be either mediocre or brilliant for the next. Up to a point, that is. We do know that each challenge has a time limit of 160 mins - 2 hours 40 mins. So I guess half of that time would always be a very reasonable attempt! I certainly have not got close to that yet.
It does seem that the winner of the race section of the challenge finishes in somewhere between 1 hour and 1 hour 45. Interestingly, the winners have certainly not had perfect runs, and might have been in with a chance of a 1 hour finish time had things gone a little more smoothly. It might not be very many months before we start seeing the winning time come down to that kind of level!
Most of that challenges seem to involve certain items that can be collected from the surface, others that have to be mined from deep underground, and often there are some that involve a trip nether-side. The boundaries between some of the item collection locations are always a bit blurred (iron and coal, for example, could be surface, underground or very deep). Also, there will sometimes be special structures around (temples, mineshafts...) which can provide certain objects.
I have found it useful (for me, maybe not for everyone) to check the raw items list that Edd provides in advance, and make my own notes on which locations I would expect to get each of them from.
This kind of leads on to a plan of which places to visit in which order to get most of the collection done. This most certainly was not part of my early games! I was much less organised, and more easily confused. It isn't a sure-fire recipe for success, however! I had a carefully drawn-up plan in the Feb challenge, only to get totally bogged down in the nether for 40 minutes - after which I had lost my nerve and almost any momentum towards the finish that I had to start with. Ha!
I think those are my main learnings from the first few Base Race runs that I have taken part in: being better organised, and trying to achieve things against a self-imposed set of times. That, and not dying too often!
So, if anyone else has any thoughts that they would like to add - either from newcomers or from veterans of 3 or 4 campaigns (like me LOL!) - then that would be great to see.
Like Edd was saying in his latest video, let's use the forum more, for all kinds of different things. That way it will really start to take off!
I am certainly not by any means the best player here, and wouldn't dream of trying to say "do it like this" or "focus on that".
On the other hand, I have played a few of these now, so although I wouldn't admit to being skilled, I might be at the point where I can share some of my experiences, and see if anyone else would like to join in the discussion.
The hardest thing for me was always going to be coming in with a competitive time in the race stage. Of course, in the very first test runs, nobody really knew what a good time was, so I had to make wild guesses (An hour will win it! Can I get under 2 hours?) Even now, each challenge varies in difficulty and in the complexity of what you have to get done, so what is a good time for one month may be either mediocre or brilliant for the next. Up to a point, that is. We do know that each challenge has a time limit of 160 mins - 2 hours 40 mins. So I guess half of that time would always be a very reasonable attempt! I certainly have not got close to that yet.
It does seem that the winner of the race section of the challenge finishes in somewhere between 1 hour and 1 hour 45. Interestingly, the winners have certainly not had perfect runs, and might have been in with a chance of a 1 hour finish time had things gone a little more smoothly. It might not be very many months before we start seeing the winning time come down to that kind of level!
Most of that challenges seem to involve certain items that can be collected from the surface, others that have to be mined from deep underground, and often there are some that involve a trip nether-side. The boundaries between some of the item collection locations are always a bit blurred (iron and coal, for example, could be surface, underground or very deep). Also, there will sometimes be special structures around (temples, mineshafts...) which can provide certain objects.
I have found it useful (for me, maybe not for everyone) to check the raw items list that Edd provides in advance, and make my own notes on which locations I would expect to get each of them from.
This kind of leads on to a plan of which places to visit in which order to get most of the collection done. This most certainly was not part of my early games! I was much less organised, and more easily confused. It isn't a sure-fire recipe for success, however! I had a carefully drawn-up plan in the Feb challenge, only to get totally bogged down in the nether for 40 minutes - after which I had lost my nerve and almost any momentum towards the finish that I had to start with. Ha!
I think those are my main learnings from the first few Base Race runs that I have taken part in: being better organised, and trying to achieve things against a self-imposed set of times. That, and not dying too often!
So, if anyone else has any thoughts that they would like to add - either from newcomers or from veterans of 3 or 4 campaigns (like me LOL!) - then that would be great to see.
Like Edd was saying in his latest video, let's use the forum more, for all kinds of different things. That way it will really start to take off!
