how to play kayak pond?

[Ron ︻气デ 一]

I give up. I was challeged and came up short. then I played again and after collecting 5-6 ducks I had no score. I gave up. I threw them food until they dove under (didnt matter)
I did figure out throw food at the diamonds to get fish there - but I "TESTED" a red one and it made the fish swim away - how to get them back?

TANKS: I hate that I can't find ammo when I need it. I tend to try and stay in the area, but after I get closer to the ammo boxes the white banner disappears and I often can't find it when I need it. Frustrating.

[76561198295368552]

You need to drop off the ducks to the nice ladies on the shore to get coins. Try to get as many as you can in a single trip before sunset, as the ducks will eventually need to fly back to their nest. And as for diamonds, remember that "red" often means "stop" ... give the fish some time to remember how to swim and focus on diamonds that increase your score.

The disappearing beacon in Tank is by design, meant to draw you in the general direction of power-ups but challenge you to look around once you get there. Maybe the white-and-brown ammo boxes are too hard to find against the white-and-brown terrain, though!

[76561198295368552]

Talked to Rob, your friendly neighborhood designer, and he made a couple tweaks for our next build that should help:

- reduced the time it takes fish to recover from a red gem (now 10 sec, was 25 sec).
- reduced the distance at which ammo beacons begin fading out (was 150, now 80)

[Ron ︻气デ 一]

great. The ducks though - I had them with me and when I turned around they were gone. also when it says 40 or 50 of their heads when I add another is that 50 per duck or 10 x 5 ducks?

[76561198295368552]

Let's chat over email – the designer is interested in seeing how folks try to work these things out themselves, so I think he'd appreciate if I don't get into too much detail here. But I'd love to hear others chime into this thread with their own concerns (or discoveries!).

[Ron ︻气デ 一]

work things out - is fine is exploring, but if going after best score - it's not fun to guess while pedddling your ahrse off. = ) I did much better thanks - but I did loose fish at night - without red spot. Maybe in the dark I paddled through a lilly pad? It was really to dark to see.

Still not sure how someone got >3000.

I also just worked my tail off in tanks. (great fun) but man - at 2500 they all gang up on me and I don't seem to stand a chance. I then notice that the leader has a VZ before his name. No fair if the programmer is playing. He created they way they think and attack.


I use to have a friend that would ALWAYS beat me at Othello (reversi). So I got it on computer to practice and it always beat me. So I got into the code and read the program. the computer nor my expert friend - ever beat me again. = ) Same for the guy that's programming the tanks!

REALLY WOULD LIKE A RADAR since they seem to "APPEAR" right behind me.
At least I'd then see a red BLIP pop up behind me so I could make a turn.

STILL best part - I just had a ENJOYABLE 60 minute work out that I would not have had without the challenges coming in email.

The BEST excersize equipment is the ITEM that GETS USED.

[76561198295368552]

Aw, we gotta test the things somehow! But I can suggest taking the "VZ" players off the leaderboards if that makes more sense. We're also discussing how to adjust tank AI so that they shouldn't be directly behind you, as turning 180 degrees is no good, especially if it means losing head tracking. I'll pass on the radar suggestion, too.

As for 3000 in Kayak, I wonder if that's actually a bug ... you can get 1000 from dropping off 10 ducks, but I don't know how you could do that three times before the sun sets...

[Ron ︻气デ 一]

Your talking to teh guy that owned a stand up BATTLEZONE coin op arcade game in his family room back in the day... as well I was beta tester for Battlezone II from Activision a few years later. Now I see someone has 50,000 ? that just can't be possible without exploiting some sort of bug. I still do it to get excersize first and fore most. I wondered about sitting my tank in one of the brick wall areas (blocked) from all directions but one and just picking off tanks - but that wouldn't require any peddling. That's still my priority over top score. For this reason I'm hoping that more peddling stats are added to the game (heart rate etc) much like we see when clicking the left trigger during the cycling game. STRAVA is popular - but has such stats which make it difficult to cheat or expoite a weakness in the program. For example sometimes my GPS sends auto speeds to strava. (luckily) my cadence and heart rate was zip - so it's clear that its not something I'm trying to pass off on strava as a real ride (and in fact was a mistake in not turning off the garmin 500. = )

Since the WORKOUT is really the ultimate goal. Maybe include heartrate, average speed etc over the couse of the match so be able to compare workout time, performance and caleries burned in addition to score. OR best yet - incorporate these things into the final score! Taking more weight from the workout rather than how many coins or apples you touched.

[76561198295368552]

50,000 is possible in some games – I see Leviathan scored that high in River Run, which is indeed doable. (It's double the 2nd place score from one of our alpha testers, but Leviathan has also scored the most virtual Km this period. LOTS of VirZOOMing lately!) Top score potential varies quite a bit from game to game, though. (Leviathan has the current top score in Lotus Pond at about 4300; I just scored a bit over 4100 as part of a challenge this morning.)

As for scoring methods, I'll pass this along to the team, though I should note that we have to be very careful about how we present and allow interaction with workout stats. We don't want to offer something like "get an achievement for getting your heart rate this high" and encourage dangerous behavior. We're still working out how to best integrate things like pedaling resistance into scoring.

[Ron ︻气デ 一]

I wonder what Im missing. Like MAYBE in River run, maybe it's not as important for score to "GET ALL" enemies? maybe keep speed up so they never hit you and just keep going long run... I just found the "LEGEL CHEAT" in pegasus gates. LUCKILY I could see others ghosts... I noticed what I thought was cheating, but then I learned what teh blur bar was for at the top. And using it to cut the track adds another element. I was 2nd until I came down to late and missed a gate = (

I think maybe if the apples in pegasus gates were 10 each it might be more attractive to follow teh course?

Were there recent tweaks? things seemed a bit better over all. Else maybe the other players were online? I could see another score climbing as mine did. It's more fun with others... if I saw GHOST horses does that mean that they are ONLINE RACING NOW? or was it their last run?
(I think the later since I saw myself too)?

[76561198295368552]

Oh my, yes, that's precisely how Gate Race is intended to be played – it's a constant risk/reward between "do I stay on the track and eat apples" vs. "do I get to fly now? I WANT TO FLY." No cheating involved. :)

If you see another player's avatar and it's translucent, it means that's a recording of their run. (You see these in friend challenges.) You may even see your own high score ghost in a challenge. I think it only happens in some games – not sure there's much to be gained by having the road crowded with ghosts in Jailbreak!

[Spyder17]

I haven't figured out how to actually collect the ducks yet.

[Ron ︻气デ 一]

paddle close - they'll quack and a score will appear over their heads. They will then be part of your gaggle of ducks until you padle over by a grandma.

[Gothic Lollipop]

I figured out the duck thing on my first play (maybe because I played the tutorial that's compatible with just the dual shock 4 controller before I got the bike), but found it confusing after the sun set and the diamonds appeared (though I did like that part a lot, just as a relaxing experience - I kind of wish there was just a freeplay mode that would let me paddle around the lake without worrying about the game part at all - unless there is one, and I just haven't found it yet - I actually just got the bike yesterday). I do appreciate the whole "let people explore and figure it out themselves" aspect, but I think that for that to work, there needs to be more feedback. I couldn't tell if I was picking up the diamonds or what...maybe just because of previous experiences as a gamer I interpreted a diamond as a pick up and that's not what it's meant to be? I did figure out I could feed the fish, but I wasn't sure why or when I was supposed to do that.

[Gothic Lollipop]

Update: So after reading this thread I've figured it out, and I ended up number 15 on the leader boards. This makes me think there's probably a lot of people who haven't figured it out, because I'm never that high up on leader boards for anything :P

[76561198295368552]

I am passing along this feedback! We're still updating this game from time to time based on comments. One thing that has come up is that it would make a huge difference if the fish didn't always seem to be behind you...