Mmmmm I've never gotten to level 99. And I agree that it's a hard
trick to learn, but it's pretty easy to execute once you learn it.
<p>
And executing the trick doesn't really take good timing, it only
takes a good reaction time. When you throw the ice block up to be
changed, all of the ice blocks on the screen will change to regular
blocks - After you see this happen, you have about 3 tenths of a
second or so to grab the ice bubble back. I mean it's a long enough
time that you can react, you don't have to memorize the timing or
anything.
<p>
And I still don't understand your point about choosing between a
Level 25 combo+clear or a Level 30 combo without clear? I mean, if
you have the skill to do a level 30 combo, then using up one ice
block to start the clearing trick isn't going to keep you from doing
a level 30 combo.
<p>
Let's pretend that you have 90 assorted bubbles, and you're super-
smart and you can set them up into 30 groups of 3 for a level 30
combo, without the cheat. That's easy enough to understand.
<p>
This next part is very difficult to understand! So please read
slowly, re-read, I don't know. It's tough to explain.
<p>
Now let's pretend that you have 90 bubbles and you're cheating. You
can use six of them to set up a level 2 combo. You start the combo,
and you throw the ice bubble on top of the second level in your
combo, and grab it back. The "Nothing" object blows up, for the
second level in your combo. Now you throw back the bubbles you've
picked up, they blow up.
<p>
By cheating, you've made a level 3 combo with only 7 bubbles, leaving
you 83 to make whatever combo you want. Don't forget that no matter
what now, everything will blow up, and you will get an all clear
bonus. Now assuming you're still perfect, you could use the 78 of the
83 remaining bubbles to add 26 levels to your combo (for a level 29
combo total so far). But wait! Now the clearing trick kicks in. If
you're still perfect, you've left 1 of each bubble left (that's why
you only used 78/83 of your total bubbles above) and this will give
you 5 extra levels to the combo, making it a level 34 combo, PLUS you
still get the all clear bonus.
<p>
The "All-Clear" cheat is definitely not some sort of a scoring
penalty, as you make it seem, Matt. There are NO circumstances under
which you can get a higher level combo by not using the trick. If you
still believe there are, then I challenge you to show me one, via
screen shot or something.
<p>
If my explanation is too confusing, I would be willing a few
screenshots and walking everyone through it graphically - It may help.
--
apieper@vt.edu
This is a five-day, majority wins vote and will expire on March 20 at 2359 GMT. Thanks for your vote 
KISS.