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Old Castle Fireworks Game Instructions

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  #1  
Old 05-27-2005, 10:13 PM
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Castle Fireworks Game Instructions

These are the instructions given IN GAME for the Castle Fireworks mini-game



A new guide can be found at http://www.disneysonlineworlds.com/i...stle_Fireworks

Last edited by Batleth; 03-28-2007 at 12:00 AM..
  #2  
Old 05-27-2005, 10:20 PM
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I want to make a quick suggestion about this game:

Using the arrow keys to select the firework is really awkward. Having separate keys for each firework would be better. Function keys, maybe.

What would really rock would be to have the mouse wheel select the firework.

A third option would be to have all available firework types show on the control pointer, that way you could shift slightly to pick the right one. It would also be possible then to pick more than one at once, maybe have a special bonus for doing that.

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  #3  
Old 06-04-2005, 07:48 PM
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An Analysis of Castle Fireworks Scoring

I was curious to know exactly how the scoring works in the Castle Fireworks game. I haven't seen any posts on this topic, so I decided to do a little research. I will present my findings here.

It appears that a score between 0 and 1000 is earned for each firework. Based on the score, a descriptive word is displayed. The following table lists the approximate range of scores and the associated description.

Code:
   RANGE    DESCRIPTION
----------  -----------
  1 -  200  OOPS
200 -  400  OK
400 -  800  GOOD
800 -  950  AWESOME
950 - 1000  FLAWLESS
Note that OOPS is just the description for a range of scores. I don't believe that it's possible to get OOPS when you click the correct firework, but it is possible to click the wrong firework and not get OOPS.

If my theory that each firework has a maximum value of 1000 points is correct, then we can determine the highest possible score. The following table lists the number of fireworks in each stage.

Code:
LEVEL  STAGE  NUMBER OF FIREWORKS
-----  -----  -------------------
  1      1            13
  1      2            15
  1      3            19
  2      1            16
  2      2            15
  2      3            23
  3      1            15
  3      2            19
  3      3            26
  4      1            22
  4      2            23
  4      3            27
  5      1            24
  5      2            22
  5      3            36
The number of fireworks listed for Level 5, Stage 3 may be incorrect. It is difficult to count them all when they appear so quickly.

From the previous table, we see that the highest possible score after Level 1 is 47,000. After Level 2, 101,000. After Level 3, 161,000. After Level 4, 233,000. And finally, the highest possible score after Level 5 is 315,000.
  #4  
Old 06-22-2005, 09:43 PM
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Updated Analysis: Includes New Stars!

I was pretty worried when I heard that VMK tweaked the Fireworks game this morning. While it might be fun to see a new pattern of fireworks eventually, they tweaked the gameplay itself by adding little stars to each firework's animation sequence. Presumably, this is to give newer players a better hint as to when the fireworks are about to disappear (the fireworks still blink, but the star is much easer to see). These stars appear for a split second right before each firework is about to disappear (see below):



The first game I tried today with these new stars, I hated it. HATED IT! I found the stars to be really distracting, and rather than helping me to know when each firework was about to disappear, it messed up my timing and I ended up missing a lot more than normal. However, after playing several (and several more) games today, I am ready to announce the following:

I love the new stars!

I thought I'd take the opportunity to tell you the ways I think you can use the new stars to your advantage (and a few additional tips on things to avoid).

1) If you are reasonably new, you might want to consider just watching a round to get the new timing down. Watch how long each firework lasts before disappearing, and note when the star first appears and how long it lasts. Notice that certain colors last a bit longer than others before disappearing (pink pretzel and yellow cluster), while the green spiral lasts just slightly longer than the others (but not as long as pink and yellow). I think the rest are all the same, although the Grand Finale in Stage 5-3 seems to disappear faster than normal.

2) Do not expect to be able to wait until you see the star, and then try to click the firework. Your reaction times will be good enough to pull this off some of the time, but not all of the time. To make the best use of the stars, you still need to anticipate when the star should appear. Then, as soon as you see the star appear, you should immediately click the firework. This will give you plenty of points and an "Awesome!" score. If you're risky or really good, you can try to go for the "Flawless!" too by leaving the star on the screen for a split second.

3) Do not put the cursor directly over the fireworks! You can miss them completely and they will still explode. If you put the cursor just off to the side like I did in the screenshot above, you will have a much clearer view of the star and know when to click. Don't get sloppy and miss them by too much though.

One final disclaimer...sometimes you will play a round and the timing will just be off. I think this is a function of your computer, how many people are in the game, and how many people are online. If that happens, I'd recommend just starting a new game.

Hope this helps!
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Last edited by MrGenie; 05-03-2006 at 02:19 AM..
  #5  
Old 06-29-2005, 08:28 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AliceInVMK
I'm not quite sure, but I think the green spiral fireworks disappear just as slowly as the pink and yellow fireworks.
Ive dont some research and didnt calculate the exact times but the fireworks explode in this order(From Fastest To Slowest):

1.The orange star(the one you have from the start)
2.The Red Saturn like planet
3.The Turqoise Star
4.The Blue paired stars(Last Stage of the 5th Level)
5.The purple swirl
6.The green circles
7.The Three Pink Rings
8.The three yellow dots

This should help you know which fireworks to eliminate first.
  #6  
Old 07-01-2005, 08:45 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruen
No sound means your computer is using lessing resources. I still lag like crazy whenever there are more than two explosions occuring but i can trace the single alot better.
I've decided to post my special trick for reducing lag...can't promise this will work for you, but I went from lagging in about 75% of games to 0% of games so I can't complain. Okay...

I spent a while trying to figure out why fireworks seems to lag some games but not others. Was it because too many people were in VMK? It always seemed better to me the last fifteen minutes of the night, so I thought that could be a possibility. This led me to a somewhat related idea, but different...maybe it was due to the number of people in the fireworks lobby when the game starts. Well, I have tested this out in probably 20-30 games, and for me at least this is the trigger. Might not help you if you just lag in general in VMK, but if your lagging is primarily in Fireworks, try this:

1) Enter any lobby and click on "Play" to get in a queue for the next game.

2) When the timer hits about 20 seconds before the game starts, go to the VMK map, check the "Advanced Mode" box, and enter an empty Fireworks Lobby.

3) Quickly click "Play" again to get back in the same game right before it starts. Hopefully, nobody else will enter your lobby before you start.

If you've seen me acting erratic in the fireworks lobbies over the past week or so, this is why. Hopping into empty lobbies right before the game starts has eliminated my lagging in basically every game I have played since I started doing this. Note that regardless of which lobby you are in, all lobbies feed to the same Fireworks game session. Thus, if you are looking to play against some friends, don't worry about being the same lobby as them.

Hope this helps!
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  #7  
Old 07-20-2005, 05:42 PM
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Video!

Some of you may know WDWTigger72 (aka WDWTiggerRT) in VMK...if you've browsed the fireworks high scores list anytime in the last month, it's hard to avoid him since he's usually at the top and currently hold the best all-time score and 8 of the 10 best all-time scores. At any rate, WDWTigger has created a video of one of his best games (more than 280,000) points, and MisterToad has graciously offered to host this video. WDWTigger didn't make this video to show off; that is completely unlike him (and certainly his high scores speak for themselves ). I think I put him up to the idea of a video in hopes that it might help me to make a few subtle tweaks to my game, and I think that everyone can benefit from it too. If nothing else, it's just fascinating to watch somebody dominate the fireworks game to this extent.

Click here for a direct link to the movie. You'll probably want to right-click and select "Save" rather than trying to open it directly in your browser since the file size is fairly large (can't quite recall, but I it's about 37 MB...sorry dial-up users).
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Last edited by MrGenie; 07-23-2005 at 03:50 AM..
  #8  
Old 07-27-2005, 01:17 AM
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Arrow Tips On How To Score Higher In Fireworks Game

I hope this help! I posted some tips that I used to score really high in the game my max score was 265,000. So here are some things I used to help me do better. Everthing in this game has to do with memorization.

Tips in getting a good score in fireworks:

1) If you play a bunch of times, you will realize that the routine is always the same. Try to memorize it because that is the best way not to waste time in missing a firework.
2) Memorize the order of the firework symbol so that way you do not have to look up and down which waste time when trying to click all symbols.
3) On order to get the word flawless, you must wait until the white stars starts flashing. When it is flashing wait for 2-3 seconds then click it as fast as u can and u will get either awesome or flawless.
4) Everything here is all about memorization. The Max score I got on Level 1 is 44,000 which is when I got all but one with all flawless.

If you get flawless each of those fireworks can score up to 949 if flawless I believe.

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  #9  
Old 07-27-2005, 03:23 AM
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Technology Analysis Fireworks

UPDATED: 07/31/2005
Virtual Magic Kingdom game playing has two different perspectives technical perspective and strategical perspective. This post provides more technical information regarding your physical computer system when playing Virtual Magic Kingdom. The following breakdown provides some background information for non-technical users:

GB, Gbps or GHz = Gigabyte, Gigabyte per second, Giga Hertz (1,000,000,000)
MB, Mbps or MHz= Megabyte, Megabyte per second, Mega Hertz (1,000,000)
KB, Kbps or KHz= Kilobyte, Kilobyte per second, Kilo Hertz (1,000)

NOTE: Think of the above numbers in dollars the more you have the better.

(1) I have a logitech mx500 optical mouse which I find fantastic. Moving up/down/left/right is extremely smooth with an optical mouse. The connection into my computer system is by usb. There are a few computer systems within our home and I have found the tracking ball mice to be difficult to use. Tracking ball mice actually have more resistance when moving up/down/left/right. Many people use a wireless mouse, unfortunately I do not own a wireless mouse device so I cannot comment too much. The only thing I can say is wired lines have always been faster than wireless lines. If your a gamer you probably want a mouse with an actual wire connection (i.e. usb) and optical/laser.

(2) The computer system I use is extremely fast with loads of memory. A dual xeon pentium 4 processor 3.391GHz, and 2GB Physical Memory. The computer system is a Dell Dimension 8400. This may work with other operating systems but on windows xp you can do the following:

* Click on Start|Run
* Type in winmsd
* Click on Ok button
* Review the "Processor" and "Total Physical Memory"

A fast computer system definitely helps greatly with any game, especially having lots of physical memory and fast processor. My fast computer still utilizes roughly 30% processor when playing virtual magic kingdom, so the game is definitely client heavy. For example, We have another system 333MHz pentium II processor and 384MB Memory...It is dog slow playing vmk. Literally walking across the screen the character looks more like a strobe light or skipping motion. The following thumbnail provides a before playing vmk and after playing vmk processor utilization snapshot:



(3) The fast computer system above actually has a network cable plugged right into our firewall/cable modem. There is very little lag, if any lag, when playing fireworks game on this computer. The other three systems vary in processor speed and memory (A) 1.6GHz Processor/1GB Physical Memory (B) 1.1GHZ Processor/500MB Physical Memory (C) 333MHz Processor/384MB Physical Memory, but all have wireless network cards connecting into my firewall. The wireless network cards definitely cause a delay when playing virtual magic kingdom. This goes back to my saying wired lines are faster than wireless lines. Wireless technology is great, but the technology is not there yet for really fast communication speeds.

(4) Cable modem or dsl fast speed lines are almost a must playing online games. The cable company (comcast) has really fast download speeds...Running a bandwidth test I was running at 3.48Mbps. If you have a phone modem the fastest you can go is probably about 56Kbps...Figuring this out my cable modem is roughly 62 times faster. The following web site provides some great information regarding cable modems and dsl (digital subscriber lines):

(1) Cable vs DSL - Guide To Choosing The Right Broadband Connection
(2) The Lowdown On DSL
(3) The Inside Skinny On Cable
(4) DSL vs Cable: The Death Match
(5) Straight Facts For DSL/Cable

There are some great web sites out there regarding what processor speed, phyiscal memory, wireless cards, pcmcia cards, etc do for your computer with good explanations. I would recommend looking at cnet.com because they go over everything within technology and have some good articles. I know computers are pretty expensive especially when going high end, but wanted people to see what computer system I am playing with.
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Last edited by WDWTigger72; 07-31-2005 at 07:07 PM..
  #10  
Old 07-27-2005, 02:51 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Califgirl
Thanks WDWTigger72,
That explains why I seem to go so slowly, compared to your video. I'm using a laptop which adds it's own dimesion of difficulty. I was wondering how you changed curser symbols so quickly, and now I know. Unfortunately, I'll never be able to duplicate that. However, watching your game and all the other hints will help make fireworks a little less frustrating for me.

I do have a question on moving up to the next levels. Sometimes I'll score my personal best after a level, and still not move up, when I had advanced to the next level before with a lower score. What's up with that? That is what makes the game so frustrating for me. Are there any standards for getting to the next level? A certain number of points or something? If I have to play 'against' WDWTigger72 or other fireworks hot-shots I'll never have a chance.

Thanks again for all the great tips!
Relax and enjoy life (even Fireworks!)
Califgirl
Thats really a great question and I actually had to watch the fireworks video again to answer this. There can be up to 100 players within a fireworks game, but if at least 10 people are waiting for five minutes the game will start. The "Level Results" after level 1 only shows the top 15 players on the scoreboard. If you had 100 players then only the top 15 players would be shown on the "Level Results" screen. The "Level Results" screen is that little pause for 10 seconds when scoreboard shows and you move from level 1 to level 2. I noticed the following when watching this video:

After Level 1 = The top 15 players moved on in the video (There have been times I have seen some top 15 players be returned to the lobby, especially when playing with less than 15 people...So this maybe score based)
After Level 2 = The top 10 players moved on in video (Other players are returned to lobby this maybe standings based)
After Level 3 = The top 6 players moved on in video (Other players are returned to lobby this maybe standings based)
After Level 4 = The top 5 players moved on in video (Other players are returned to lobby this maybe standings based)
After Level 5 = All scoring results are shown for top 15 players

Between scenes players returned to lobby will notice their member name in a pink/purple color...Players moving into the next round will notice their member name in whitecolor. The feedback above has only been provided based on the video, if anyone knows some of these answers for sure please let me know and I will update this post. Unfortunately, The fireworks instructions do not provide a good description regarding moving into the next level.
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Last edited by WDWTigger72; 07-27-2005 at 07:33 PM..
  #11  
Old 08-01-2005, 06:14 PM
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Level Stage 1
Target Points Stage 2
Target Points Stage 3
Target Points
1. Fantasyland 10,000 23,000 36,000
2. Adventureland 48,000 60,000 75,000
3. Tomorrowland 87,500 100,000 112,500
4. Frontierland 125,000 140,000 165,000
5. Park View 170,000 185,000 200,000
Targets for getting 200,000 points

Level Stage 1
Target Points Stage 2
Target Points Stage 3
Target Points
1. Fantasyland 12,000 26,000 40,000
2. Adventureland 55,000 70,000 85,000
3. Tomorrowland 100,000 115,000 130,000
4. Frontierland 145,000 160,000 180,000
5. Park View 200,000 220,000 240,000
Targets for getting 240,000 points
  #12  
Old 08-22-2005, 06:49 PM
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Castle Fireworks Game has been changed!

You're right WDWTigger72. Scoring sometimes seems arbitrary regardless of centering the cursor. It is sometimes very inconsistent whether or not you receive the maximum 1000 pts.

They altered the fireworks game today! The game still shoots the firework shells in almost the same sequence/pace but they have switched around the types of firework shells. I'd say I saw anywhere from 20% - 40% of the fireworks being switched around. Sometimes I've had Rounds 1 & 2 of Frontierland be exactly the same and some rounds may have no changes at all.

They may have done it to level the playing field for the newer players and the unpredictability of the firework shells makes the game a little more competitive to get the top spot.
  #13  
Old 08-22-2005, 07:38 PM
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The following are things I would like to test in the new fireworks game (kudos if any of you beat me to them ):

1) Do you still get the fireworks pin for scoring at least 240,000 points and losing (if you've already received a fireworks pin, you would have to test this on another account)?

2) Is it possible to get the fireworks pin by scoring at least 240,000 points and winning yet? Yavn told me a few weeks ago they are working on this.

3) How many new variations of the game are there? Does it seem random each time, or did they just substitute fireworks in some of the levels? If there are a limited number of game variations, how many levels are affected by each, and what is the earliest way to identify which version you are playing?

4) Do the gameplay mechanics of the scoring seem the same? (with the last revision, they tweaked how long the stars stay on screen and/or the time window for getting a flawless score...I'm curious if it is still the same).
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Old 08-22-2005, 10:53 PM
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Please see my answers below regarding the fireworks game:

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrGenie
The following are things I would like to test in the new fireworks game (kudos if any of you beat me to them ):

1) Do you still get the fireworks pin for scoring at least 240,000 points and losing (if you've already received a fireworks pin, you would have to test this on another account)?

Just confirmed another player definitely received the fireworks magic pin and losing within the game. This player has never received fireworks magic pin before, so it looks like the fireworks magic pin scoring systems has stayed the same. The next game I played I actually won the fireworks magic over 240,000 and losing game under a mule account. Played one more time scoring over 240,000 and losing, but did not receive magic pin.

2) Is it possible to get the fireworks pin by scoring at least 240,000 points and winning yet? Yavn told me a few weeks ago they are working on this.

No! This has not been fixed yet as my very first game under mule account I scored well over 240,000 points but did not receive fireworks magic pin. One thing I did notice is I did receive two fireworks level 2 pins under different games. Not sure if this is a bug, or a change to the game.

3) How many new variations of the game are there? Does it seem random each time, or did they just substitute fireworks in some of the levels? If there are a limited number of game variations, how many levels are affected by each, and what is the earliest way to identify which version you are playing?

This question is a little bit harder because what I have seen is some stages/scenes have stayed exactly the same, but the next game you play that stage/scene may actually be a little different. The fireworks definitely look to be around the same area, but the firework just maybe different. It makes a little bit of a nuissance when you memorized the patterns before, so you will just have to adjust to this.

4) Do the gameplay mechanics of the scoring seem the same? (with the last revision, they tweaked how long the stars stay on screen and/or the time window for getting a flawless score...I'm curious if it is still the same).

The scoring system still seems to be exactly the same, pretty much the longer you wait the higher your score for each individual firework. This does not look to have changed at all.
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Old 10-12-2005, 03:05 PM
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A suggestion for those trying to score over 240,000 for the first time, concentrate on getting all the fireworks first, after you pretty constitent about only missing a few on each level then try to up the score you get for each firework. That worked for me
 

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