Dear Fine Sweepers,
when I first released the game on Steam on May 25th last year, I never would’ve dreamed that Fine Sweeper would one day have more than 30,000 players! Thanks to everyone for playing and for your feedback and support. You gals & guys rock and I couldn’t be happier!
During its lifetime the game had some downs as well, such as a long-standing exploit that would allow players to progress quickly without effort among other little cracks cheaters would squeeze through. As of version 1.1.3.74 this exploit has been fixed but over the months some questionably obtained hi-scores polluting the leader boards have accumulated.
Time for operation “Clean Sweep” and start with a tabula rasa, a clean slate for everyone. If you have any questions about when and how this happen, please see the FAQ at the end of this announcement.
Some players also suggested to reset the scoreboards and / or overhaul the scoring system. I meant to revisit the scoring in Fine Sweeper for quite a while now but I was busy trying to get a Linux version up and running which in the end didn't work out (see this thread)
[img=http://pixelprophecy.com/games/finesweeper/promo/announcements/2016-01-20-headline.png]
You probably want to know what will change, what will happen to your saved games or achievement progress and so on. I have compiled a FAQ on the bottom of this article to answer the most pressing questions. For anything else, please post in the forum and I will update this FAQ here.
Introduction to the new Scoring System
In the old scoring system, players are awarded points for:
- Opening a tile
- Correctly flagging a bomb (on level completion)
- Picking up items
Also, there’s a score penalty for stepping on a bomb or an incorrectly placed flag (the latter only on game over, naturally)
The new system will keep most of these in place but also factor in the time it takes you to finish a board, reduce luck-based bonuses and add rewards for the most focused of players.
Let’s have a look in detail:
Heart containers (both empty and full) have a very rare chance of dropping when you open a tile. If you were lucky, you got a lot of points; the game wouldn’t reward how well you were doing, it just awarded you a random bonus, essentially. And that’s not quite fair.
In the new system
- an Empty Heart Container will grant you no points,
- a Full Heart Container counts as much as a regular Heart (but still fills your lives),
- a standard Heart counters precisely the score penalty of stepping on a bomb, just like before.
[img=http://pixelprophecy.com/games/finesweeper/promo/announcements/2016-01-20-new-score-keeping.png]
But: If you finish a level keeping any dropped items untouched, they will give you double their points on level completion, but you can’t pick them up anymore.
It’s about time
In the old system, the timer was only used for the “Need 4 Sweep” achievement. It was such useless beyond level 7 that one player even suggested an option to turn it off.
Time is the most important new factor. Time matters now.
[img=http://pixelprophecy.com/games/finesweeper/promo/announcements/2016-01-20-hourglass.png]
Like in the good old DOOM, every level has a par time to beat based on the average time it took the game’s developer, moi, to complete the level without being in a particular hurry. Hence, my par times are not hard to beat.
Should you take longer to solve a level, no biggie, you won’t get punished.
However, if you beat the par time, even by a mere millisecond, you are awarded a fixed bonus for once. Additionally, the difference between your time and the par time in milliseconds gets added to your score. I’d say that’s a nice bonus for being fast. Maybe I’ll even have that bonus on a multiplier, so being faster on higher levels earns you even more points.
Another exciting addition will be the “No Flags used”-bonus.
[img=http://pixelprophecy.com/games/finesweeper/promo/announcements/2016-01-20-bonus.png]
Finishing a level without placing any flags is the granddaddy of score bonuses because it will compensate the additional time it takes to click every tile individually (thus missing the par time) since chording/stride clicking doesn’t work without flags. (Should you already consider flagging like usual and clearing them all shortly before completing the level, well, I have bad news for you.)
The “No Flags” bonus gets invalidated if you place a flag just once in a level, even if you clear it again. I have to be strict on this. An active “No Flags” bonus will be indicated by an icon on the UI. If it’s still active on completing a level -- Ka-ching!
This bonus opportunity is reset after every level, so if you placed flags on one level and advance to the next, there you will be given another chance to clear it without planting flags.
This scoring system will affect all game modes. Only the Custom Mode won’t feature the new timer element.
[img=http://pixelprophecy.com/games/finesweeper/promo/announcements/2016-01-20-ui-mockup.png]
I guess that’s all for now. If you have any questions, suggestions and/or feedback, please post it in the forums where it’s easier to quote and reply and such.
Fine Sweeping!
[img=http://pixelprophecy.com/games/finesweeper/promo/announcements/2016-01-20-faq.png]
FAQ: Leaderboard Wipe
Will I lose my place on the leaderboard?
Yes. Both the Campaign and Classic Mode leaderboards will reset for all players.
Can I download or save my place on the leaderboards before the reset?
The only way possible I see is to open the Leaderboards display on the title screen and take a screenshot [F12 by default], but you will have to start from 0 like everyone else.
When will the leaderboard wipe happen?
As of now it's the 4th of Mar 2016, at 9pm. UTC (see here for your local time equivalent)
Also, an in-game notice with a countdown on the title screen will inform you of the reset, starting 14 days before it happens.
Will I lose my achievements?
No. Any achievements unlocked will stay unlocked. Also, your progress for certain achievements (Flagging 50k bombs, stepping on 5000 bombs, etc.) will remain.
FAQ: New Scoring System
Will my saved game work after the update?
While I’m inclined to say “it should,” I can’t guarantee it. As soon as I know, I will update this FAQ entry here. But let’s say for now that your saved game is lost when the new build goes live.
When will the new build go live then?
When it’s done :) Sorry, I don’t know yet, but I think the best time to make it go live is a few days before the leaderboards reset so all players can familiarize themselves with it before "it counts" officially.
How can I tell whether I am running a build of the game with the new scoring system in place?
The new scoring system will up the secondary version number of Fine Sweeper from 1.1.3.xx to 1.2.0.xx (the xx is the internal build number). You can find the version number by clicking on “Credits” on the lower right on the title screen.