Are you good at ant mania?

[Amneris]

ClosingTime, you should post that picture to the high scores thread (http://www.webkinzinsider.com/forum/...re-t62945.html)!

[partygrace01]

Closing time, I would love to see some of these tips. Are you using a super slow computer?

[ClosingTime]

I will be honest...I am currently visiting friends in Denver and am using their computer, and it is faster than the one I usually play on. This is the first time I have played on a computer that was this fast. I only had time to play a few games, but my average of these 3 games was a few hundred below my normal average. I have played on slower computers though also, so my high score is definitely not solely because of a super slow computer, because mine is not...but I can't see scoring that high on this faster computer.

If that means my previous scores I submitted should be taken down, I would understand that. I am really good at that game though

I don't have much time for tips right now...but one quick one I always do is keep an eye on the top, bottom, right, and left of the screen...to see which ones are clear of ants...then I travel around the board on the outsides...swoop into the middle to get the foods..and then head back to the perimeter. It is way easier to only have to dodge ants coming in one direction, then to try to travel the middle and face ants from all sides. As you go on, they add ants to the edges, and then I just adjust accordingly. But some games, I can go for a long time before they block off all of the edges.

There are a few other tips/tricks that I will post when I can (along with either a video or some screen shots), but this is an easy one that may help out some.

[CrystalFlute]

My average is 220. The highest I ever got was probably around 325, but usually I get in the low 200's

[partygrace01]

Originally Posted by ClosingTime

I will be honest...I am currently visiting friends in Denver and am using their computer, and it is faster than the one I usually play on. This is the first time I have played on a computer that was this fast. I only had time to play a few games, but my average of these 3 games was a few hundred below my normal average. I have played on slower computers though also, so my high score is definitely not solely because of a super slow computer, because mine is not...but I can't see scoring that high on this faster computer.

If that means my previous scores I submitted should be taken down, I would understand that. I am really good at that game though

I don't have much time for tips right now...but one quick one I always do is keep an eye on the top, bottom, right, and left of the screen...to see which ones are clear of ants...then I travel around the board on the outsides...swoop into the middle to get the foods..and then head back to the perimeter. It is way easier to only have to dodge ants coming in one direction, then to try to travel the middle and face ants from all sides. As you go on, they add ants to the edges, and then I just adjust accordingly. But some games, I can go for a long time before they block off all of the edges.

There are a few other tips/tricks that I will post when I can (along with either a video or some screen shots), but this is an easy one that may help out some.

I would have to see a video first. I have tried your plan and there are way too many variables for that to work. Even on the slowest computers I find it difficult to score over 800 points. I would love to see the proof so that you can prove me wrong. Show me, thy master of ant mania.

[bwicker]

I have played over 2000 times on my computer and average around 240 points per game. My high score on my computer is 852 and I have had maybe 2 other games that went up into the 780 range. It's very rare. I must have what I call an "open side", where there are no ants within a certain distance from one or two of the sides. That way I can go against the side wall and only have to worry about ants coming from one direction.

Having said that, I just stayed in a hotel that had a slow computer network. It made playing some games impossible. It made navigating around Webkinz too slow to enjoy. However, I tried Ant Mania one time. It was extremely slow, so i was able to manuever the ant where it needed to go. My final score was 927. This was just one game. I felt that if I could play a sample of games on that computer I would be able to score over 1,000 on a regular basis. the game took about 15 minutes to play. It was almost too slow to bother with, except for the fact that I was interested in the scoring possibilities.

remember the ants slow down as more and more ants appear on the screen.

I'm convinced now that there is an optimum computer speed that will leave the game playable in 7 to 8 minutes and allow for scores over 1,000. I also believe that any scores up in that range must be done on a slow computer. At 800 points there are some 75 ants on the screen along with 4 spiders.

[partygrace01]

Originally Posted by bwicker

I have played over 2000 times on my computer and average around 240 points per game. My high score on my computer is 852 and I have had maybe 2 other games that went up into the 780 range. It's very rare. I must have what I call an "open side", where there are no ants within a certain distance from one or two of the sides. That way I can go against the side wall and only have to worry about ants coming from one direction.

Having said that, I just stayed in a hotel that had a slow computer network. It made playing some games impossible. It made navigating around Webkinz too slow to enjoy. However, I tried Ant Mania one time. It was extremely slow, so i was able to manuever the ant where it needed to go. My final score was 927. This was just one game. I felt that if I could play a sample of games on that computer I would be able to score over 1,000 on a regular basis. the game took about 15 minutes to play. It was almost too slow to bother with, except for the fact that I was interested in the scoring possibilities.

remember the ants slow down as more and more ants appear on the screen.

I'm convinced now that there is an optimum computer speed that will leave the game playable in 7 to 8 minutes and allow for scores over 1,000. I also believe that any scores up in that range must be done on a slow computer. At 800 points there are some 75 ants on the screen along with 4 spiders.

My score of 956 was done on a medium speed computer. I have a high score of 865 on a FAST computer which has an AMD Athlon 8000 dual core processor, with a GeForce 8800GT graphics card and the fastest internet speed available (15,000 kbs.) The problem with these scores is that if i could play on a pokey computer like the one you used at the hotel, I too could score well over 1000 points on a regular basis. On my computer, the ants do not slow down as the game moves on, making a lower score, but making me a better player. These scores really mean nothing unless we all played on the same computer. I could use a 486 and score 2500 points if I was patient enough. This is why I suggest filming your scores to see if you are playing at a decent speed. If the computer is deemed too slow by our panel of judges, the score shouldn't count. The huge variable in this equation is whether or not closing time found a loophole that none of us have found yet, making a score of over 1500 possible. This would mean over well 80 ants and approximately 6 or 7 spiders coming at you at once. It is not humanly possible to navagate through these, so they must have some odd strategy that works. I am eagerly awaiting a video of this strategy and how slow/fast their computer is. The former high score of 1005 seems obtainable, but 1500 appears not to be by the way I play.

---------- partygrace01 added 4 Minutes and 22 Seconds later ----------

My score of 956 was done in 6 minutes and 40 seconds, which I found slow, so I can't even imagine what the 15 minute game must have been like!

---------- partygrace01 added 9 Minutes and 7 Seconds later ----------

Just one more thing. On the video of my 956 score there appears to be 37 ants on the board and not the 70 something you had suggested Bwicker. I seriously doubt they decided to be nice to me and give me only 37 ants to your 70 something at that high of a score!

[bwicker]

I misspoke regarding the 75 ants. I was counting the number of pieces of food you would have to eat and mistakenly equated that to the number of ants. You are right that there aren't but about 35 to 40 ants, but my point was that there are so many ants it becomes difficult to even figure out a way through them. Even with all the time in the world, once the number of ants gets high enough there wouldn't be a way to survive.

I don't know how good you are versus myself. I only know that when I got on the computer at the hotel it was readily apparent that scores in the 1,000 point range would be the average. Remember, I said that there were games that became unplayable due to the graphics processing speed. Ant Mania became more of a tactical game than just having to use reflexes just to survive.

[partygrace01]

Originally Posted by bwicker

I misspoke regarding the 75 ants. I was counting the number of pieces of food you would have to eat and mistakenly equated that to the number of ants. You are right that there aren't but about 35 to 40 ants, but my point was that there are so many ants it becomes difficult to even figure out a way through them. Even with all the time in the world, once the number of ants gets high enough there wouldn't be a way to survive.

I don't know how good you are versus myself. I only know that when I got on the computer at the hotel it was readily apparent that scores in the 1,000 point range would be the average. Remember, I said that there were games that became unplayable due to the graphics processing speed. Ant Mania became more of a tactical game than just having to use reflexes just to survive.

It is apparent we both are quite good at this game! At that slow speed it was probably more like chess than ant mania. I am just confused at how it would even be possible for a score of over 1500 taking into account the amount of ants and spiders you would have to navigate through. Even with the slowest computer available it doesn't make sense given the fact it would be highly unlikely all 4 of the side lanes wouldn't have at least 1 ant there long before you reach 1500, making closing times strategy no good at that point. Help us understand Closing time. If they are using a slow enough computer like the one you used at the hotel, i suppose maybe it would be possible to score that high. On any kind of moderately fast computer or faster it just doesn't seem possible.

[partygrace01]

Haven't heard from you Closing Time. Do you have any video of your lofty Ant Mania scores?