• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Lumines: Electronic Symphony |OT| Shake Ya Body

tokkun

Member
nooooooo~!!!! this game is broken!!!!!!!!!!!!

fu**in avatar abuse mang!! slow down blocks, tap back to 100%, repeat as necessary,

99999999999 scores for all!!!!

I knew it would be this way when Mielke said they were trying to make it more approachable to casuals than Lumines 1.
 

TripOpt55

Member
That is definitely a bummer. I only use my chain one maybe once or twice a game. Kind of wish there weren't avatar abilities now.
 

Purexed

Banned
Best way to do this is to patch in a new mode and leaderboard for "Classic" Lumines, and remove the cap on the score.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Best way to do this is to patch in a new mode and leaderboard for "Classic" Lumines, and remove the cap on the score.

That would work. Actually I forget but don't timed & master both not have avatar abilities? Still lots of ways to get your high-score fix in.
 

Jonnyram

Member
It's pretty stupid oversight. It really makes global leader board pointless. I stopped using avatar completely and still avg 1.5-2m but I have almost no incentive to play Voyage any more.
I don't understand this sentiment. You've done it to yourself.
I mean, I know the trick, but I'm still not gonna do it.
I just play Voyage for the awesome mix of tunes, and my high score is relative to my peers anyway.
If any of my friends have 9,999,999, I'm just gonna ignore them because they are exploiters. Simple, really.
 

Himself

Member
Best way to do this is to patch in a new mode and leaderboard for "Classic" Lumines, and remove the cap on the score.

This would be great.

I don't have the game yet, but I don't really like the sound of these avatar abilities. Can you turn them off?
 

zoku88

Member
Well thats weak. Looks like the biggest issue is the ability to tap to gain avatar power, which I always felt was a bit distracting from the actual gameplay. Just patch that out and wipe the leader boards.

Wait, what? I didn't know you could do that.
 

Nert

Member
I just hit around 3 million without using avatar abilities. It's kind of a downer to see how easy it is to abuse them, though : /
 

RuGalz

Member
I don't understand this sentiment. You've done it to yourself.
I mean, I know the trick, but I'm still not gonna do it.
I just play Voyage for the awesome mix of tunes, and my high score is relative to my peers anyway.
If any of my friends have 9,999,999, I'm just gonna ignore them because they are exploiters. Simple, really.

Lol you make it sound like I thought really hard to come up with the exploit. I didn't even know about avatar ability until my friend told me. It just immediately hit me afterwards. I only ever used avatar ability for 2 of all the games I have played.

My friends' scores while using avatar are a fraction of my score without, so there's no comparison there. I like the tunes so I'll buy the soundtrack. But there's no point comparing my legit score to the global scoreboard because of exploits; therefore I have little reason to spend hours grinding through those sessions.
 

lantus

Member
Finally figured out the trick for X blocks, it's going to take some practice but I think I can improve my score much more now. :)
 

Cartman86

Banned
I suck. I am basically mashing the back touch to a beat. A very fast beat, but it's still in time with the song, and as a result I use a ton of avatar abilities, but I haven't gotten over 500,00 yet.
 

Jonnyram

Member
Lol you make it sound like I thought really hard to come up with the exploit. I didn't even know about avatar ability until my friend told me. It just immediately hit me afterwards. I only ever used avatar ability for 2 of all the games I have played.

My friends' scores while using avatar are a fraction of my score without, so there's no comparison there. I like the tunes so I'll buy the soundtrack. But there's no point comparing my legit score to the global scoreboard because of exploits; therefore I have little reason to spend hours grinding through those sessions.
Sorry, I thought you were saying you'd got 9,999,999 :p
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
I tried the trick and got 5.5 mil so quickly. Haha, so awful.

I'll probably just stick to Master Mode for actual competition
 

Milkman

Member
Hiyo. Am logging in for the first time in 2 years purely for Wario64's benefit, to let him know that I am listening, but have just been slammed after returning from last week's media tour to San Francisco.

Regarding the lack of the Platinum Trophy, Wario64 and the rest of the Internet are correct: There isn't one. I was mistaken about the Platinum, and will explain the lack of one.

When we were formulating the full trophy list, we actually had a *massive* list of possible trophies. There are two trophy types: small scale, and large scale. The scale doesn't seem to have anything to do with the scale or scope of the game (i.e. puzzle game vs. an MMO), it's all down to what the developer chooses to do. Personally I wanted to go large scale, to give people lots of things to try and achieve, from simple score-based achievements, to how many times you could loop the Voyage mode, to countless other variations ranging from simple for newcomers to insane for veterans.

However, after retooling the concept internally, by the time we put our foot on the gas and went into full production, we actually had less than 6 months to complete the game, which despite Lumines being 'just a puzzle game' was actually a tremendous amount of work, because we weren't just dealing with regular milestones, but also various other internal milestones, in which our team was putting in massive amounts of overtime. As I learned during the process, the QA testing period was incredibly detailed --as any tester can attest to-- and the decision was made to go 'small scale' for trophies, because not only would they all need to be individually tested, the more we added, the more things would need to be translated into EFIGS languages, and the more potentially game-breaking bugs could surface; which wasn't worth the risk of missing our ultimate deadline -- Vita launch.

The director of the game --and I'm not trying to assign any sort of blame here-- having looked at the trophy 'rules' for PlayStation 3 games, and saw that Platinums were automatically unlocked by obtaining the rest of the trophies in the game, assumed that it would also be the same with Vita. As our first Vita title, we were learning a lot of things on the fly, and saw no reason to assume there would be any change for Vita trophies (for the record, I haven't checked if automatic Platinums are indeed unlocked on PS3 by this method; it's just the understanding we had at the time). So when people began asking if LES would feature a Platinum trophy, and I asked our director who told me "Yes, we have a Platinum, but it's unlocked automatically once people obtain the rest," and so I answered in kind on the PS Blog where the soundtrack was announced.

As I have since discovered, our information was inaccurate, and I apologize to people who thought they would receive a Platinum. There is no reason we would exclude it, but just didn't realize it wouldn't unlock. The reason I hadn't explicitly said 'you obtain it by unlocking the rest of the trophies' was because we thought people would unlock it automatically, and wanted to retain a small element of pleasant surprise.

I realize that a Platinum is desirable by a lot of game players, and am looking into whether we can add one, and how much work it would take. These things are never as simple as you might think, due to submission, testing, and certification processes, but I am checking into it. I would hope that you enjoy the game regardless, but I regret this oversight. If we are able to add a Platinum, I'll be sure to update things here, on our Facebook page, and via Twitter. Thanks for understanding.
 

teepo

Member
most importantly, what's the word on dlc?

amazing that the best game in the series, and my new personal favorite q game took only 6 months.
 

Snuggles

erotic butter maelstrom
Kewl, thanks for the detailed and honest response. The game should have a plat, but in the end it's not that big of a deal. Even with the crappy trophy set, it's an awesome game, probably the best of the launch. I'm more interested in new skins and new modes than the trophy situation.
 

Toki767

Member
The Platinum situation sounds like an honest mistake. I don't know that I would ever be able to Platinum Lumines, but more trophies would certainly be welcomed if you could add them somehow. I like the thought of having a large list of trophies to unlock.
 
I don't mind the platinum error. I do f***ing mind the fact that I've now watched the damn credits 5 times and the trophy still wont unlock. I've also used avatar items 450 times and that stupid trophy won't unlock either.
 

Cookie18

Member
I'm in love with this game and I can't believe I've never played a Lumines before.

The platinum trophy not being there sucks but if it helped the game not be riddled with bugs then I guess that's all right.

It would be cool if you guys could find a way to add a platinum and/or add trophies with DLC down the line.
 
The director of the game --and I'm not trying to assign any sort of blame here-- having looked at the trophy 'rules' for PlayStation 3 games, and saw that Platinums were automatically unlocked by obtaining the rest of the trophies in the game, assumed that it would also be the same with Vita. As our first Vita title, we were learning a lot of things on the fly, and saw no reason to assume there would be any change for Vita trophies (for the record, I haven't checked if automatic Platinums are indeed unlocked on PS3 by this method; it's just the understanding we had at the time). So when people began asking if LES would feature a Platinum trophy, and I asked our director who told me "Yes, we have a Platinum, but it's unlocked automatically once people obtain the rest," and so I answered in kind on the PS Blog where the soundtrack was announced.

lol, hilarious if true.

Next time try to read the documentation included with the sdk.
 

Barrett2

Member
I haven't played Lumines in 5 yrs. Wasn't aware of back touch functionality, or what the power ups even did. Got 550,000 in my first game yesterday. Really impressed by the skins / visuals. I was worried I'd be bored with just 'more Lumines,' but damn does it look great on OLED.
 

Alchemy

Member
Hiyo. Am logging in for the first time in 2 years purely for Wario64's benefit, to let him know that I am listening, but have just been slammed after returning from last week's media tour to San Francisco.

Regarding the lack of the Platinum Trophy, Wario64 and the rest of the Internet are correct: There isn't one. I was mistaken about the Platinum, and will explain the lack of one.

When we were formulating the full trophy list, we actually had a *massive* list of possible trophies. There are two trophy types: small scale, and large scale. The scale doesn't seem to have anything to do with the scale or scope of the game (i.e. puzzle game vs. an MMO), it's all down to what the developer chooses to do. Personally I wanted to go large scale, to give people lots of things to try and achieve, from simple score-based achievements, to how many times you could loop the Voyage mode, to countless other variations ranging from simple for newcomers to insane for veterans.

However, after retooling the concept internally, by the time we put our foot on the gas and went into full production, we actually had less than 6 months to complete the game, which despite Lumines being 'just a puzzle game' was actually a tremendous amount of work, because we weren't just dealing with regular milestones, but also various other internal milestones, in which our team was putting in massive amounts of overtime. As I learned during the process, the QA testing period was incredibly detailed --as any tester can attest to-- and the decision was made to go 'small scale' for trophies, because not only would they all need to be individually tested, the more we added, the more things would need to be translated into EFIGS languages, and the more potentially game-breaking bugs could surface; which wasn't worth the risk of missing our ultimate deadline -- Vita launch.

The director of the game --and I'm not trying to assign any sort of blame here-- having looked at the trophy 'rules' for PlayStation 3 games, and saw that Platinums were automatically unlocked by obtaining the rest of the trophies in the game, assumed that it would also be the same with Vita. As our first Vita title, we were learning a lot of things on the fly, and saw no reason to assume there would be any change for Vita trophies (for the record, I haven't checked if automatic Platinums are indeed unlocked on PS3 by this method; it's just the understanding we had at the time). So when people began asking if LES would feature a Platinum trophy, and I asked our director who told me "Yes, we have a Platinum, but it's unlocked automatically once people obtain the rest," and so I answered in kind on the PS Blog where the soundtrack was announced.

As I have since discovered, our information was inaccurate, and I apologize to people who thought they would receive a Platinum. There is no reason we would exclude it, but just didn't realize it wouldn't unlock. The reason I hadn't explicitly said 'you obtain it by unlocking the rest of the trophies' was because we thought people would unlock it automatically, and wanted to retain a small element of pleasant surprise.

I realize that a Platinum is desirable by a lot of game players, and am looking into whether we can add one, and how much work it would take. These things are never as simple as you might think, due to submission, testing, and certification processes, but I am checking into it. I would hope that you enjoy the game regardless, but I regret this oversight. If we are able to add a Platinum, I'll be sure to update things here, on our Facebook page, and via Twitter. Thanks for understanding.

Well good job on getting this game done in six months, despite the avatar abuse it represents the franchise very well. I can't imagine such a short dev time, I've been working for two+ years on our current project. Content scope is a huge difference, but such a brisk development pace must be both intense and refreshing after ship.

I'm actually really curious what the testing process was for the avatar powers versus what was added late in development specifically to show off potential capabilities of the Vita. Avatar powers in general aren't terrible broken on their own, but its really the back touch tapping that breaks things and it feels like it might have been added at a point in development that prevented much testing.

And I'm really curious on if you guys intended the shuffle block to be beneficial in near failure states or detrimental to players that have some solid towering going on so it acts as a hazard, since it fills both roles really well currently.
 

tokkun

Member
Is the game hard enough that you can't get 9,999,999 if you don't use avatar powers? Or is it like Lumines 1 where it never gets fast enough to die once you're good at the game?
 
I'd pay for a remake of Shinin'. Seems like a perfect fit for a new system. First PSP experience I ever had, and it was glorious
 
I'm a lowly junior so I can't make a new thread and I;m also not an idiot so i won't bump and old one. I thought this was general enough and not too off topic to post here:

I absolutely love the original Lumines (own it for PSP and iphone) and I've been playing it obsessively on and off. I picked it up again since this new one came out and there's something bothering me.

Do I suck at Lumines? I mean, my highest score is in the 40,000s and i feel like i'm above average at it, but when i see people post scores in the 6 or even 7 digits, i get discouraged.

Is there a rookie mistake that I'm possibly overlooking? Is my situation (avid, above average player never breaking into the 100,000 range) common?
 

Ridley327

Member
I'm a lowly junior so I can't make a new thread and I;m also not an idiot so i won't bump and old one. I thought this was general enough and not too off topic to post here:

I absolutely love the original Lumines (own it for PSP and iphone) and I've been playing it obsessively on and off. I picked it up again since this new one came out and there's something bothering me.

Do I suck at Lumines? I mean, my highest score is in the 40,000s and i feel like i'm above average at it, but when i see people post scores in the 6 or even 7 digits, i get discouraged.

Is there a rookie mistake that I'm possibly overlooking? Is my situation (avid, above average player never breaking into the 100,000 range) common?

This is the best place to start, really:

People only getting 50k must not know...

2129796-Xnx3m_super.png


...although, I am only getting 150k by knowing that.
 
This is the best place to start, really:

I am totally aware of that technique and use it all the time. But you're right in that bing a common oversight. It took me a while to realize i could do that until I first tried the puzzle mode in the original Lumines (about a year ago)

Is there no hope for me GAF? ;-;
 

Ridley327

Member
In the history of arcade-style puzzle games like Lumines, I don't think anyone ever starts out well. Lumines is definitely one of the more wily ones because it doesn't follow a linear sequence of progression like Tetris does, where speeds for the major aspects of the gameplay (the deleter and the block drop rate) don't neccesarily correspond with one another. Once you understand the basics of how to make blocks and combos, it's a matter of working on making blocks and combos faster, and then faster still. It's ultimately a matter of practice, even if it means swallowing a bit of your pride and retrying on a skin that's giving you problems just so you have a better grasp on what you need to be concentrating on.
 
I am totally aware of that technique and use it all the time. But you're right in that bing a common oversight. It took me a while to realize i could do that until I first tried the puzzle mode in the original Lumines (about a year ago)

Is there no hope for me GAF? ;-;

I am not an expert on the game either - I top out at about 200k (which I feel is good for me).

Another tip is to make sure you are watching the timeline going across, and make sure you time drops to fit the most amount 'clears' of into each cross of the timeline make. Some people never really pay attention to the timeline, but paying close attention means you will get bigger combos.

Also, in regards to the above trick, don't just use it everything use see one available, try and make sure there is one of each color available at all times.

I am sure others will give better tips, but those are the best I can.
 

Alchemy

Member
Won't happen. If they could, they would have already released Lumines 1 to PSN so we could play it on Vita.

I think that is more of an issue with initial licensing agreements though and how the pertain to digital distribution right? Wouldn't be it possible for them to draw up new licensing agreements for a new release since it wouldn't be re-releasing old stuff and just making new stuff? Please? :( Don't crush my dreams.
 

Ridley327

Member
I think that is more of an issue with initial licensing agreements though and how the pertain to digital distribution right? Wouldn't be it possible for them to draw up new licensing agreements for a new release since it wouldn't be re-releasing old stuff and just making new stuff? Please? :( Don't crush my dreams.

Ubisoft stopped printing boxed copies entirely, which would suggest that whatever licensing deal they had in place with the licensed tracks for the game in the west expired.
 

Himself

Member
How many tracks does Lumines Live share with the original Lumines? It sucks if we won't ever get the original as a download as I hear it's basically got the best track list of the series and I don't own a PSP. I love the tunes in Live and it's the only Lumines I've played.
 
Top Bottom