User:Belthazar451/Forage scoring

Some thoughts on forage scoring. Anyone else is free to add their own thoughts.


 * Basic three-piece clears are completely worthless.
 * Clearing two crates with the same move (a combo) generates a message reading "X crates cleared!"
 * Having crates clear in succession (a chain) generates "Double!", "Triple!" messages, etc
 * The larger a crate, the more it's worth.
 * Chains don't noticeably increase the size of the text
 * Combos do
 * Getting a chest combo off a piece combo doesn't change anything - piece combos are still worthless.

Darvid's Input
(Forum banned, so you get me here) Note that there is a difference in text size depending on whether your crate combo has a tile combo in the middle. in a 1x1 - 2x2 - TILES - 2x2 clear, the second 2x2 shows larger text than the third.

Also note that a simultaneous clear has much larger text than a combo, but it only appears once. Here are a few theories that I don't give much weight too, but have been parts of my brainstorming over the last week.
 * THEORY: Crates cascade like sails (good), but tiles cascade like bilge (bad).
 * THEORY: A new chain is started each time you clear some tiles, so tiles between crates cause you to start the count over. (unlikely given that it would be covered by the bilge tiles)
 * THEORY: The size of the text is larger for simultaneous clears because both crates are being counted in one score. If you were to add the scores of steps one and two of a combo, you would get a similar (or possibly identical) score.
 * THEORY: It's really interesting to note that unlike in sails and SF, the size of the text at any step in a combo is dependent on the value of the steps before. In SF and sails, the donkey step has a specific text size that isn't dependent on what exactly leads up to it.
 * THEORY: Another possibility is that the scores for each step in a combo actually depend on the ones before, and are added (or multiplied in separately. So instead of scoring a 1*1 + 2*2 on a 1x1-2x2 combo, you'd score a 1*1 + 2*(1+2).

Overall, the weird things that need to be explained are:
 * the text size drop when tiles are cleared in a combo
 * the various values of simultaneous clears versus combos given both the text size and the number of times scoring words appear for each
 * the ginormous size text you get when you do a simultaneous pair of crates as the first step of double, as opposed to the size you get when it's just a single crate in the first step.
 * the fact that different simultaneous clears get different text sizes.
 * the varying size of the words "double" and "triple" on identical-looking clears. Do those words indicate score, or just the "Crate Cleared" words?

Darvid's Current Master Theory
There is no concept of a "combo" as in bilge. All clears are treated as "cascades" as in sails or swordfighting. In the case of a simultaneous clear, "combos" are translated into "cascades" somehow (possibly left to right). When tiles are used as a step, they make the value go down, since a bilge-like penalty is applied.

Some screenshots shown below. I'm missing a lot of neccesary screenshots because my trigger finger is too slow. Or too fast, on occasion. Some before shots would have been helpful too, if only to help me remember what on earth was going on.