Arcen Games

General Category => Tidalis => : jello July 30, 2010, 12:12:09 PM

: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: jello July 30, 2010, 12:12:09 PM
Playing the Steam version of Tidalis, I stumbled upon the achievements of course. ;)

One of which is "Chains of Chains Mk III": Clear 500 Blocks in a Single Chain. How are you supposed to do that? The board can be 12 blocks wide and 12 block high, which leads to a maximum of 144 blocks present at once. I can imagine that it's possible to clear 1,000 blocks in one combo for "Combo Annihilator Mk III", but 500 blocks in one chain?!

Seeing the collectibles' (non-)purpose in Tidalis, I'm already thinking it might be similar with this... but un-achievable achievements would be just rude. :P
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: Fiskbit July 30, 2010, 12:49:46 PM
While the thought of a 'You'll Never Achieve This!' achievement really amuses me, I assure you that this it is possible to get this. With most achievements, you see the achievement and the way you go about getting it is clear. The challenge in these comes from knocking that achievement off the list. For this one, the challenge comes mainly from figuring out how to get the achievement, and then (less-so, if you do it right) from getting the achievement. I'd like to see if people can figure out how to do it (to my knowledge, no one has done so yet) rather than the answer just being given away. ;)
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: Spikey00 July 30, 2010, 04:46:04 PM
So I'm assuming you have to constantly drop blocks while ensuring you continue the chain(?[?])?
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: eRe4s3r July 30, 2010, 05:00:41 PM
Mhh that wouldn't work - you still only have 144 free spaces and even if you managed to mark them all while the fell down - when something gets deleted its no longer 1 chain. Only way i could imagine for it to work is with eaters although am not even sure a marked block that gets eaten still counts
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: Fiskbit August 01, 2010, 04:49:35 AM
Well, according to Steam, someone figured this one out. Congrats to that person. :)
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: Rob August 01, 2010, 08:18:48 AM
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Lavatein/stats/Tidalis

Just "To The Moon!" to go now
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: eRe4s3r August 02, 2010, 04:11:54 AM
I demand a hint!  ;D
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: Fiskbit August 02, 2010, 12:22:47 PM
You'll need to make a level in the level editor to do this. It's basically impossible in any of the levels already in the game. :)
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: jello August 02, 2010, 03:49:36 PM
That's what I thought already. But still: You can't make the board larger than 12*12. :/ And editing the level file with a text editor doesn't work either [or I'm doing it wrong].
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: Fiskbit August 03, 2010, 01:26:22 AM
No, you don't need to do any level editing outside of the game itself. That would be too cruel. :P It's true that you can't have a board larger than 144 blocks, but you can get around this with regard to chain size. Keep in mind that the number of blocks in a chain never goes down, and that as long as a chain still has streams on the screen, that chain continues to exist. There are a few things ('things' encompasses game mechanics, game modes, blocks, and that sort of thing) in the game that have the interesting side effect of allowing you to make chains larger than the number of blocks that can fit on the screen at once, and together with some effort and a few helpful blocks and modes, they let you have chains of arbitrary size.
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: RCIX August 03, 2010, 01:48:28 AM
I'll take a shot soon; Tidalis is downloading right now :)
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: triggerman602 August 03, 2010, 11:57:22 AM
Is there any way to remove the randomness of block directions when they spawn and take out the two way blocks?
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: Ixiohm August 03, 2010, 04:45:19 PM
I did it ;D

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197995787284/stats/Tidalis?tab=achievements (http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197995787284/stats/Tidalis?tab=achievements)

It took some experimenting and I think it can be done with a few different setups. I got similar results myself with a few similar setups, in the end it took three or four attempts รก 5 or 10 minutes on the winning setup before I nailed it.

Good luck all, in solving it :)
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: Fiskbit August 04, 2010, 04:03:17 AM
triggerman: No, there's not, unfortunately. My original solution for this required changing block directions as quickly as I could. :)

Ixiohm: Congrats! I actually figured out a much better way of doing this tonight than my old solution, basically making the 500 block chain happen all on its own after you've started it, which is awesome. If you play a more active role with it, you can also ensure that the chain doesn't ever end and also make it go significantly more quickly (I hit 1000 blocks in well under 2 minutes). You'll find a nasty surprise when you reach 1000 blocks, though, in the current versions. :P
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: triggerman602 August 05, 2010, 02:31:06 AM
Well iv found a viable method. Its painstakingly difficult but has gotten me to 350 on one occasion. I know it will eventually work out if i keep at it.
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: triggerman602 August 07, 2010, 05:05:03 AM
I DID IT!!! I tried a few different methods but in the end i found a way that was quite easy did it no problem.
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: TimeTorrent August 10, 2010, 02:56:46 AM
There's actually a glitch if you get far too many.  If once you hit the thousandth block  ;D, the game crashes.  I found this highly entertaining, so I've done it a few times.
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: jello August 10, 2010, 07:39:53 PM
I still don't have a clue how to get it. :/ Well, maybe a clue but then my non-existent skill comes into effect. :D

I guess, there's always this one achievement I'm not able to get although everyone else does. ;)
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: BobJustBob August 12, 2010, 09:55:24 PM
Whoo, I got it! I just had to find the right mix of special blocks and items in custom mode.
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: triggerman602 August 13, 2010, 01:27:38 AM
Now that iv done it, I'm super curious as to how other people have done it.
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: Draco18s August 17, 2010, 02:43:32 PM
Spoilers.

:Custom game, one color.  Set up the entire board to clear itself except the top line.  Make that line create as many chain inputs as possib(eg, streams that will go up) and then as that top line falls, hold the >>> button.  Edit: even better.  Use Zen mode.  It's almost entirely self sustaining.:
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: triggerman602 August 18, 2010, 02:11:59 AM
Spoilers.

:

                       :

:I'm not sure how that would work. How is that clearing the blocks at the bottom without finishing the chain?:

My way

:custom Zen map with all one colour, lots of colour poppers and molasses-streams items. Always have Molasses activated so that streams last a long time and let blocks fall threw them. Use the colour poppers to remove all the blocks and have a new batch fall. Slow streams still have to travel 3 spaces so they will easily last long enough for more blocks to fall threw them. Rinse and repeat.:
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: Draco18s August 18, 2010, 11:48:28 AM
:I'm not sure how that would work. How is that clearing the blocks at the bottom without finishing the chain?:

:The blocks left at the top not streamed are allowed to fall, thus creating more streams.  Without the ability to combo the maximum number of blocks is 144.  My fun yesterday doing this in zen mode caused a "mere" 400,000,000 point combo.  I did of course, have to exit, and then lose a game to get my achievements.:
:As for special blocks, I only used the four-way split and the extended range ones.:
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: Fiskbit August 18, 2010, 01:16:16 PM
:Draco18s, I don't really follow your method; this is for 500 blocks in a single chain, but your method sounds like it's going for as many blocks as possible in a single combo, which doesn't require trickery (though it definitely benefits from it). When your large chain finishes and the blocks on top drop and fire streams upon landing (thus continuing the combo), you're back to square 1 in terms of large chains. Unless I'm missing something, you won't get a chain of more than 144 blocks.

My best method for doing this uses zen trampoline with 400 frequency red, 200 frequency eater, and a flood item. You can clear the starting set of blocks or just put some eaters at the top of the screen to get everything started. Then you just use the flood item and watch the magic. Before this, I was doing zen trampoline with 400 red, 200 eater, 200 quad repeater and making new blocks that fell point to the opposite side of the screen so they'd cover the maximum area and thus would be more likely to hit a block or quad repeater. The new one is better because it just requires one click and then it should do its thing indefinitely.:
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: Draco18s August 18, 2010, 03:56:07 PM
Oh right chain v. combo.

Whoops.  I'll have to check on that on.
: Re: 500 Blocks in One Chain - How?
: Draco18s August 18, 2010, 07:24:29 PM
Ah ha.

:Color bombs + Cans of Beats + Flood + Eater:  I just threw an unhandled exception error for hitting 1000 blocks in a chain.