Playing Fast is Not Stylish

[Twiggy McGee]

No, I am not here to read a novel, or a pamphlet, on stupid ways to break the game that were not intended. I do not care about any "current meta", because this is not a MOBA, or a deckbuilder. This is a FPS. I'm also not looking for advice, nor am I complaining about difficulty or any lack of ability to achieve P rank on any level. I've P ranked the first two difficulties and I'm happy with that. This is about point and rank systems. Apparently I have to point these things out because this fanbase..... wow do y'all get defensive.

Normally, FPSs only have time limits, and beat-em-ups like Devil May Cry or Metal Gear Rising have style scores, and maybe a timer that's normally not stupidly tight but it does count toward the point total or grade at the end. Ultrakill is no different in this general sense.

However, I rarely see a title that completely separates time from technique the way Ultrakill does. Instead of a point total that lowers based on time taken, it just straight up boofs your nootle with its middle fiddle for taking a certain amount of "too long" to beat a level. It generally takes longer to rack up enough style points to earn P rank. However, this threatens the grade at the end because that's not based on a total point value, but three entirely separate values being time, kill count, and style. Normally, a game will subtract points for taking too long, but you can make up for it with enough style. Give and take, with you being the one to decide how you get that high grade. This gives a level of player agency that allows us to decide whether we want to earn a high rank through speed, technique, or a balance of both. Ultrakill demands you balance both, every time.

The faster you are, the harder it is to even tell what's happening. There's no real point in being fast if the objective is to also be "stylish", because style is all about showing off. Swag strats in speedrunning reduce speed, or outright halt the pace of the game, in the majority of cases. Otherwise it's optional or just an extremely difficult but effective technique. Even in racing, the more stylishly you drive, the less focused you are on reaching the end goal, and things like drifting unnecessarily lower the velocity of the car. The objective of being fast is not to be stylish. It is instead to be efficient. Style is not efficient. I could go on about fashion, but I don't need to at this point.

I've noticed one unavoidable thing in all the hours I've played this. The closer I get to the time limit on a level, the higher my points end up being by the end of it. This is because I'm taking the time to wrench every point I can out of every enemy. There seems to be a sweet spot between the time limit and point value where I have to hit it just right in order to get P rank, on any level. If I take too much time, I fail the time limit, but I have way more than enough style points. However, if I just play the level as fast as possible, the style points often fall embarrassingly short. Time-taken / techniques-used ratios are also slightly different for each level, but ultimately this game demands you balance the two of them perfectly. This reduces agency. Personally, I'd consider that an unnecessary frustration to add to the existing difficulty, as well as bad design, just because it does in fact reduce agency from what would otherwise be a more self-determined playstyle.

I didn't really mean for this to turn into a complaint, but I can't help it. It's annoying that how fast I beat a level doesn't ever help the score, but how long it takes definitely hurts the final grade.

[super 7]

Originally posted by Hireraror:

Originally posted by Isabelle:

Why on earth would I want to discuss anything at all with you?

You're wrong, for the record, but I simply will not waste my time on explaining why.

Why did you waste your time responding in the first place if you're right about everything? Gay is an insult, and if you knew "the record" you would be familiar with that. You sound young. You probably also think I'm hetero and right-wing.

♥♥♥♥ is not an insult, nor is it rude. Talk about marginalization while I'm the one getting censored for using it correctly. Rude people can say anything and get it banned just because the person is rude, regardless what words they're using. Cry about the fact that rude people exist though and see where that gets you.

And here we have exactly why he didnt want to explain to a 5 year old why gay is not an insult, if the "your mom" insult didnt already give away your age this for sure did.

He didnt want to explain it to you because he knows you get pissed off easily and that you just cover your ears when any argument is made against you, "how am i angry?" well lets see here: "I didnt complain about the back cramps your mom gave me" in response to Blaixen's argument, "You can read books to get better at reading" in response to my advice, "You probably also think im right-wing and hetero" in response to somebody refusing to argue with you, Is that not enough proof that youre a little upset?

[super 7]

Originally posted by Hireraror:

Originally posted by A 2008 Toyota Corolla:

And here we have exactly why he didnt want to explain to a 5 year old why gay is not an insult, if the "your mom" insult didnt already give away your age this for sure did.

I aged myself with my perspective on vocabulary, actually. You literally just came here to be negative.

Also Isabelle is a female name. Go back to Japan. Why is a car here in the first place? I bet you're not even insured.

Well youre not even old enough to drive me, so shush
"You literally just came here to be negative" Oh did i? What about the advice i gave you that literally instantly got met with "oh yeah btw you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ suck at reading lmao ", did a little bit of advice really piss you off that much?

[Twiggy McGee]

Originally posted by A 2008 Toyota Corolla:

Originally posted by Hireraror:

I aged myself with my perspective on vocabulary, actually. You literally just came here to be negative.

Also Isabelle is a female name. Go back to Japan. Why is a car here in the first place? I bet you're not even insured.

Well youre not even old enough to drive me, so shush
"You literally just came here to be negative" Oh did i? What about the advice i gave you that literally instantly got met with "oh yeah btw you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ suck at reading lmao :gdeasy:", did a little bit of advice really piss you off that much?

You still have not contributed in the slightest to the intended conversation.

[super 7]

Originally posted by Hireraror:

Originally posted by A 2008 Toyota Corolla:

Well youre not even old enough to drive me, so shush
"You literally just came here to be negative" Oh did i? What about the advice i gave you that literally instantly got met with "oh yeah btw you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ suck at reading lmao ", did a little bit of advice really piss you off that much?

You still have not contributed in the slightest to the intended conversation.

Ive already said WHY I havent contributed anything, care to read for once?

[BlaixenU]

Bait used to be believable

[Twiggy McGee]

Originally posted by BlaixenU:

Bait used to be believable

What do you think I'm baiting for? Having a conversation about points and ranking systems in an Ultrakill community post?

[SHOCKOUT]

Originally posted by Hireraror:

Originally posted by BlaixenU:

No no, he's right.

This entire tangent revolves around the fact that OP can't fathom needing to also be efficient to be considered stylish because otherwise he'd be able to sit in one corner farming style in the most boring yet technical way imaginable. Races punish stylishness because races are centered around only speed, whereas ULTRAKILL is a game that incentivizes efficiency and style. What that means is that you are being forced to use your whole arsenal to not only rack up more style, but to also more efficiently kill stuff. Sure, taking your time will increase style in cases, but isn't that your fault for not being skilled enough to get enough style otherwise? If P-Ranking is too hard for you, then just practice with earlier levels, or just don't p-rank if the entire premise seems unfun to you (as is evident by his post).

Speedrunning almost never reaches the S style requirement because the point of speedrunning is to forego any care of style in favour of finishing the level as fast as possible under the given constraints. You can also be running around only using the revolver and shotgun and get a fast time, but that's punished by freshness because ultimately you yourself aren't generating stylish gameplay. You're ignoring style in favour of going faster, which will automatically result in a worse style result. It's common sense. You play bad you get bad results. If you tryhard you're probably not going to get what you want because you're putting an excess of effort in something you're not currently capable of.

That's not to say your complaint of time being proportional to style isnt true. That is correct in every applicable way, but that's the challenge. The challenge for you to squeeze out more style in less time, which in turn increases the amount of style you generate per unit time (in other words, more stylish in realtime). By improving in styling, you're basically increasing the density of stylish stuff you do. You might start off only projectile boosting and ricoshooting, not generating alot of style, but the more you go on and learn that other weapons offer great utility along with resetting the freshness meter, you start using those in your "combos" and overall start building up more style than before.

The solution? play more, and play more in a way that's encouraged by the game. Can't appease the game unless you abide by the game.

You could have just said "git gud" and it would have gotten the same lack of a point across. Instead you chose to claim I cannot fathom being efficient with style. I was making an overall point about the separation of style and speed in the level rank. I didn't say anything about sitting in a corner spamming broken weapons, because you gotta at least be airborne to get a consistent x3 multiplier. I also didn't say I refuse to use every weapon, let alone the variants. That has nothing to do with efficiency anyway because you'd be distancing yourself from everything and it would in fact be boring to limit the arsenal. I didn't complain about the style meter, weapon swapping, movement, practice, or the back cramps your mom gave me.

You have a skill issue with communicating.

This is why someone made a meme guide about how to not be gay from playing this game. Literally just avoid the community. Unfortunately I'm gay.

No ♥♥♥♥.

Ok
Git gud

[Twiggy McGee]

Originally posted by RandomGuy:

Ok
Git gud

thank you for your straight-forward approach to not contributing anything useful

[super 7]

Originally posted by Hireraror:

Originally posted by RandomGuy:

Ok
Git gud

thank you for your straight-forward approach to not contributing anything useful

*Sees person contributing something useful* "you have a skill issue with communicating btw i ♥♥♥♥♥♥ your mom"
*Sees advice* "read a book lmao"
*Sees someone not taking them seriously* "BRO WHY ARENT YOU CONTRIBUTING ANYTHING!?!?!?"

People would actually argue with you if you didnt start crying like a little baby every time

[NimrodAbsolution⁧⁧98]

Originally posted by BlaixenU:

The challenge for you to squeeze out more style in less time -...

you can have 10x the required score but if you're 2s above the allotted time when you do it, you get a failing rank.
In one actual 1-3 run I got 4x the required score but was 30s over, 1/16th too late

[Anya]

word, i aint reading allat. way shorter ways to say youre bad at the game and dont have the patience to get better.

[BlaixenU]

Originally posted by Got a job for you, 621:

word, i aint reading allat. way shorter ways to say youre bad at the game and dont have the patience to get better.

honestly so based

[Twiggy McGee]

Originally posted by linguini:

TLDR; The harsh punishment for not meeting the time limit is in place to push players to experiment more and discover new ways to utilise the games arsenal in order to beat the level that much faster while maintaining their style score.

I think you're being defensive because you're assuming I'm being more negative than I actually am. Stating things I have observed in a matter-of-fact way is not the same as ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on the game. I'm not ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about difficulty or mechanics. I did not ask for advice, and I didn't even say I wasn't able to achieve full P ranks on every level. Calm the ♥♥♥♥ down. This post is not a grenade you have to throw yourself on to protect Hakita.

Call it a rant or whatever, but I was just branching out and making observations about how point and ranking systems relate to each other over the course of a level. I don't hate the system the way it is, but to be fair there is no actual reward for going above and beyond to raise style points above what is needed for S rank, nor to lower the time far beneath the S rank for that. Also, the "punishment" isn't really that harsh to be completely honest.

[Twiggy McGee]

Originally posted by Got a job for you, 621:

word, i aint reading allat. way shorter ways to say youre bad at the game and dont have the patience to get better.

It probably wouldn't matter if you did read it, because half the people that bothered to still don't understand that's not what this post is about.

[Twiggy McGee]

Originally posted by BlaixenU:

honestly so based

You don't understand what "based" means. Why are you even still here? Oh, right, to be AIDS.