Opinions: is there a way out of this?
I like my chances much, much better waiting them out, as opposed to just going for it on the conveyor and hoping it turns out okay.
I'm a bit late chiming in on this clip, but I just had a chance to check it out. I agree, this is a tough spot on the conveyor screen, and you were correct not to proceed up onto the conveyor right away due to the timing of how fast the fireballs made it down onto the conveyor.
A couple of things I might have done slightly differently -- first, I'll sometimes try to be slightly "aggressive" about trying to hang out on the top rung of that ladder just a hair longer, trying to wait for that pie to clear and watching to see if the fireballs move out of the way to try for a "delayed free pass" or even a "delayed hammer grab" depending on the situation. Although, in this case I probably would not have done that.
Once retreating back to the bottom, in this particular case I probably would not have drifted towards the bottom right corner like what happens in the video for pretty much the exact reason that happens. I know that might seem a bit results-oriented, and maybe it is, but I think I would tend to try moving a step or two to the left to about where the purse is to leave myself with more options. When this sort of thing happens, you really do have to quickly take inventory of which direction the conveyor is moving and whether or not it is going to switch directions soon (take a quick peek up to Kong's position and direction of motion). What you want to try to do is to plan an escape where the direction of the conveyor will be helping you instead of hindering you as in the case of what happened here. This can be a little counterintuitive in cases like this where there are two fireballs on the left side, but in a way you sort of want to be working your way to the left here.
One of the things you can try to look for visually happens right at the beginning of the sequence at around 0:10 into your clip, right around the time that you reach the bottom of the ladder. The rightmost fireball on the bottom conveyor, moving towards the right, passes beyond the top of the left inner bottom ladder. For me, again somewhat counterintuitively, this is often a trigger for me to begin moving to the left from Jumpman's current position. The position of the 2nd fireball complicates this decision considerably in this case since it could potentially continue to the right and down the left inner bottom ladder. Because of this, I'd probably be just inching a small amount to the left, near to where the purse was located until something changes. But, the first fireball passing beyond that spot is significant due to some of the subtle fireball behavior tendencies in the game. First, fireballs move faster to the right than they do to the left. Second, fireballs climb ladders while moving to the right, but not while moving to the left (unless they just rebounded off of an edge). So, the likelihood of that fireball doubling back and decending down that left inner bottom ladder has significantly reduced, while the possibility of continuing to the right half of the screen and eventually decending either of the right side bottom ladders has raised. IF the fireball movements were exactly as seen in this clip (which of course they wouldn't be as soon as game inputs are changed), I could see myself possibly climbing up the far left bottom ladder at around 0:19 and then possibly escaping from there. It would go about like this:
0:09 -- begin climbing the ladder. See the fireballs decending towards the conveyor and the pie coming out, preparing to climb back down if the fireballs don't do something very favorable right away.
Next, a 3rd fireball drops into the middle structure making any chance for a free pass much more risky. Begin climbing back down.
0:10 -- Fireballs reverse and begin moving to the right. Climb to the bottom of the ladder and wait.
0:11 -- One fireball has crossed over the top of the left inner bottom ladder. Take a quick step left. Watch the OTHER fireball.
Next, both fireballs are moving left and have moved back to the left of the top of the left inner bottom ladder. Go back to the right and prepare to begin climbing the same ladder again.
0:12 -- The fireballs are splitting. One has again moved right of the top of the left inner bottom ladder and the other has gone left toward the edge of the screen. Move left to the center of the screen and begin to evaluate the possibility of climbing up the left inner bottom ladder between the two fireballs -- the presence of two MORE fireballs on the center structure near the left side prize need to be watched very carefully now.
0:13 -- The fireball has moved left again -- "Mirror" this by moving right again, looking to climb up the right inner bottom ladder. Again, watch the two OTHER fireballs above.
0:14 -- Similar situation to 0:12 in that the fireballs are splitting again. However, this situation is actually somewhat improved due to the OTHER two fireballs moving to the right side of the center structure. Again, move left to the center of the screen, anticipating starting up the left inner bottom ladder. Note that the direction of the conveyor is now reversing.
0:15 -- Unfortunately, the fireball is drifting back to the left and so we must move back towards the right to somewhere around the position of the prize again. The location of the 3rd fireball up on the center structure is problematic again.
Next, that 3rd fireball is decending to the conveyor. This is now a huge problem and chances of survival are low. It's time for a split second decision. Based on the position of the three fireballs, it would appear that bailing out to the right corner is now preferable -- however, with the conveyor moving in that direction and the tendency of fireballs to drift to the right, that could be just as dangerous as all of our other (poor) options. Believe it or not, we CAN justify running LEFT at this juncture. Let's assume we decide to run left again, at least to the center of the screen to leave our options open for as long as possible.
0:16 -- Still inching left, hoping that middle fireball doesn't climb down the left inner bottom ladder right now.
0:17 -- Luckily, the fireball has passed over the ladder and has joined up with the 3rd fireball centrally. At this point I am now running left, beyond the inner ladder and towards the outer ladder.
0:18 -- A lucky break, two fireballs decend the two inner ladders just as we begin climbing up the left outer bottom ladder.
0:19 -- Another pie comes out, delaying our ascent. While waiting for the pie to pass, a quick check up to Kong's position shows us that we should have enough time to drift to the left side center structure ladder before the next reversal if we are not delayed any further. The third fireball, which could have caused problems from it's position on the conveyor towards the right side of the screen, has just reversed back to the right. It could still get us from there, but the chances are low and it's time to get aggressive and go for the escape.
0:20 -- We have reached the conveyor just behind a pie. The fireballs have now caused a new interesting puzzle. We are getting chased from behind so there's no going back down. The 3rd fireball is now going back UP the right side of the center structure, which could potentially hinder our escape up the left side. We need to quickly think of a Plan B, just in case. We can now try to work our way to the hammer. Notice that the fireball climbing up the far right side back up to the conveyor level could beat us to that position, especially if we have to deal with the reversal before we get there. We can also prepare ourselves to climb back DOWN the left inner bottom ladder, again, being mindful of the pies during the reversal.
0:21 -- Gameplay ends here so it's unclear what could have happened from there. Given all of the choices, I'd probably risk climbing up the left side center structure ladder at this point and hope for the best.
Anyways, even though we think of these sorts of situations as "screwings", these are the sorts of puzzles that the game presents us with that make it both fun and challenging -- the replay value is very high due to these sorts of scenarios. The key when something like this happens is to not panic and immediately have a positive attitude that you WILL make it through the screen and begin to work on finding the "best" solution. Based on both knowledge and experience it is possible to get a better "feel" for how to deal with these situations and players should actively take each opportunity that something like this comes up to work on improving their game instead of just giving up.
When a "survival" situation like this comes up, the "best" solution is the one that constantly gives the player the highest probability of survival. Probabilities are constantly at play in this game. There are certain probabilities for a fireball to reverse at a reversal point, to climb down a ladder in a given situation, for a fireball to travel a certain distance (skipping over some number of decision points), and so on. It's important to execute the maneuver that gives the player the best probability for survival right up until the end.
I see deaths occur all of the time when panic at the last moment prevents the player from making the "best" decision. Suppose a fireball is chasing you and you continue running and you steer a barrel right down onto your head. Well, let's think, if you had simply stopped just before the ladder, there might be a 50% chance that the fireball will reverse before getting to you (assuming it has to cross a decision point) -- and yet by steering a barrel into your face you have a 75% chance of death. Or, you could jump towards the ladder and let go of the controls, perhaps getting yourself to another decision point for that fireball so now it has 2 chances to reverse and let you off the hook -- but at the same time you've now introduced a 25% chance that the barrel comes down the ladder on its own and kills you. Or, you could try turning around and jumping over the fireball -- which has some other survival rate in that given situation. In moments like that when there is no 100% survival solution, it's important to avoid panic and continue to find the "best" solution during that split second when it still matters what you do.
Pie factory and rivet situations are often like this, only more complex. The "best" solution is usually less clear and open for debate. But screwings DO become less deadly with more experience so it is clear that some solutions are indeed better than others, even if we don't always know what they are.
