Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
keithPlayzStuff wrote:
I would search for minor improvements but because bloon hitboxes are RNG they wouldn't sync, which seems quite frustrating.
Does the checksum match? Not having it sync is a bit concerning.
Edit: I misunderstood, he meant finding an improvement could desync later levels from RNG.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
Had a few thoughts about publications and not sure where best to put them.
Utilising the chapters feature on YouTube would be quite convenient for viewers, especially for movies with a long intro or loading.
Also I think many viewers have no idea how much information there is in the submission comments about the movie. Some publications mention it in the description, but otherwise it's difficult to find for someone unfamiliar.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
ThunderAxe31 wrote:
In stage 28, I noticed that you left an array of balloons untouched on the bottom. Wouldn't save time to break those instead of the ones close to the top? Because the dart would take less time to get to the edge of the screen.
If I understand correctly, it's because there are frozen bloons in that collection.
I improved level 48 by 100 frames by collecting the third pac-man earlier. I had to add 1 frame to the title screen to get it to sync for me. I did try some other routes on 48 but couldn't beat this, you might want to try as well as other pac-man levels potentially.
User movie #638200852969535922
Edit:
Link to video
Also, the description has a small error: "sobble_p completes all 50 levels as fast possible."
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
Firstly, whatever happens with the version differences this is an objective 2 frame improvement over the current submission. This was an accident in the process of testing other versions, I don't know yet if I'll look for other improvements.
My previous TAS ran the same on any version, but there some differences here. There are 4 major versions of the game distinguished by the title screen:
1. Astro Barrier (2006)
2. Thinicetrobarrier (2008)
3. Astro Barrier (anywhere from 2008-2013, irrelevant for now)
4. Astro Barrier (2014) (it might have actually been late 2013, also irrelevant for now)
As I said last time, I prefer 2006 mainly for superficial reasons: it requires less modification to run, it looks nicer (or at least, more authentic for a retro-style game), and it actually has an end screen. However, later versions appear to be faster:
1. Pressing Enter at the start of the game goes straight to level 1, skipping the tutorial screen (-3f)
2. The targets on level 1 are in a slightly different starting position, but this can be worked around (0f)
3. After level 5 a continue button pops up as the rest of the game was restricted to members in 2010. While clicking this loses a couple frames, it's possible to shoot at this point and so get a better setup for level 6. (-6f)
Result is 3838 frames. After making the changes above, everything else synced, so I doubt there are any other relevant differences, but I haven't confirmed. I talked a bit here about running the modern version and why it's annoying. If the text was implemented properly it would add 1 frame at start.
Link to video
Also to note, this TAS doesn't sync on Thinicetrobarrier because the hitboxes for the final level's targets are different.
So yeah, this is more confusion and doubt that I didn't really want.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
Not sure if these submissions are looking for entertainment feedback. I like the game and enjoy watching it, but none of my enjoyment comes from TAS elements.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
Randomno wrote:
I do have a few thoughts about the description/categories in the publication
I avoided listing any more back then at the risk of sounding ungrateful, but I feel like now is as good a time as any.
It's a bit misleading to say Herbert's Revenge is "based on the online Flash game with the same name". This comes from dekutony's original submission where he said "This is a game based on the online Flash game with the same name", but the online game is Club Penguin. The current description implies the online game is Herbert's Revenge.
The description says "It also beats the previous movie by about 05:14.18 minutes." because of a holdover from the previous description. Either "about 5 minutes", or no "about ... minutes".
I'm not sure Uses warps is an applicable tag. It was brought up in the judgement of the original game. I was leaning towards Notable improvement and Heavy glitch abuse, but I don't know what the expectations for those tags are and I'm not too fussed about it.
Nice improvement. Not sure why I overlooked it as I used the left-to-right route in my original TAS. I probably discarded it because of the bad positioning in level 31.
I improved 2 more frames, one in 31 tutorial screen, and one at the end of 34, the latter already present in the first iteration.
https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/637925854264873202
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
TheAmazingAladdin wrote:
What's hash for AstroBarrier2006.swf?
The only AstroBarrier.swf i could find gave me green screen of death.
Unmodified: 8aee05393b84fe6bf317542179de30fa
Modified (deleting all of frame 1 script): 3aaf5908619acebee62389e3cff88abf
The green screen suggests you didn't remove the domain check. If you don't want to do that I suggest using thinicetrobarrier.swf, md5 is 7a6248dc6f6e8124b9112a02e4c56310.
Edit:
So, AstroBarrier2006 is very hard to find. If you're using the modern version that is most easily found, you should:
In DefineSprite 39, frame 1, change the variable on line 22 to be true. This removes the membership check to allow you to proceed past level 5.
In frame 1 (of the whole SWF), remove the security check on line 14.
This will give you a functioning version for playing back the TAS, but none of the text will be loaded. To do that you would either need to further edit the SWF, or download all the files used for Astro Barrier, run bootstrap.swf on libTAS instead of AstroBarrier.swf, and modify the TAS slightly because the game will now load at a later frame. There do exist standalone versions of (modern) Astro Barrier but I'm not sure how much modification is required.
Given all this, I would definitely recommend using Thinicetrobarrier if you can't find the 2006 version.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
I've come across this game a few times over the years and always forget the name, so I didn't realise I was familiar with it until I started watching. I'm wondering why this is Linux and not Flash?
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
I also preferred the WIP for the most part. There's probably some references I missed so I wanna wait for the submission comments. Couple of thoughts though:
This TAS clearly has to be viewed as a sequel to the existing TAS, because of the references to it
There are also references to the TASVideos site redesign
Both these make me wonder how well the TAS would age on the site, if it were published to obsolete the existing movie.
Edit: Oops, I'm too late. Hope to see another attempt at this though :D
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
Samsara wrote:
To clarify, I'm assuming this means that the game pre-determines two lines from a pool of 3 or more that can randomly play after a puzzle, and that manipulating the absolute fastest line each time would both require manipulating it into being one of those two lines while also manipulating it to appear in the first place?
Pretty much.
If so, have you figured out what influences these things?
Nope, between the two selected voice lines, we only manipulate by waiting a few frames before finishing the puzzle, or doing the puzzle differently. I tried repeatedly starting the puzzle at different points but never got it to change the chosen two. I only know it's possible from when I was resyncing the TAS.
Also, is there an estimate on how much time could be saved from this?
These are Layton's three lines. The second loses 21 frames over the first, and the third loses 46 frames over the second (the third never appears in the TAS). The difference is similar (but probably smaller) for the other characters. I haven't checked how many times a sub-optimal voice line appears in the TAS.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
CasualPokePlayer wrote:
EDIT: Ok that site doesn't actually seem to post the solutions to those puzzles, but rather just reports the records of them (without any public proof). Not sure how to proceed with this now.
Based on the original submission Archanfel will provide their solution if you can actually contact them. No idea about Jorge.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
Should this game be renamed? Box art and manual say "The Amazing Spider-Man: Web of Fire".
(I was wondering what the earliest alphabetical game when including the system ID would be, if not being indexed by "The", it would be this :P)
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
I do have a few thoughts about the description/categories in the publication, but the most significant would be the "Contains speed/entertainment tradeoffs" tag. This was carried over from the old TAS (where it was used somewhat dubiously), but I did not lose any time for entertainment purposes in this movie.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
The movie description is outdated
30,000 points are needed to get the mini-sub which has double attack power. Because of this, a regular encounter is substituted for a Jaws encounter, so that Jaws can be hit for more points.
These aren't in the latest movie, right? How much time do they save?
The first one is the 134 frame, and the second is the 104 frame.
I double-checked and all the improvements posted in this thread are in the current submission.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
Link to video
Nice run. This TAS forgoes the mini-sub unlike previous TASes including those by Chambers_N.
Are the previous TASes on your channel (the 3:03 and and TAS history video) intended to be human theory or just less optimised versions of this?
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player
(403)
Joined: 2/11/2018
Posts: 200
-134f from rerouting Rookie's section in mission 9.
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/74122613379829144
If this were to be set to delayed I think there's a good chance I would have no further improvements. I'm sure they exist (even if only minor frame improvements from inexperience and resyncing) but I haven't been combing through the entire TAS and I don't plan to. It's quite easy in this game to edit earlier sections and a few times during making the 100% TAS (which is almost entirely copied from this TAS) I've had a few ideas for different strategies.
Ultimately I can't guarantee if I will or won't have any further improvements, so all I can say is I'm not specifically looking for them. If there is a new strategy found I will attempt to incorporate it but otherwise I won't be making any changes.
EDIT: Videos of the larger improvements for anyone interested
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWhk1O5XWs4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXocaIrBUps
1. Astro Barrier (2006)
2. Thinicetrobarrier (2008)
3. Astro Barrier (anywhere from 2008-2013, irrelevant for now)
4. Astro Barrier (2014) (it might have actually been late 2013, also irrelevant for now)
As I said last time, I prefer 2006 mainly for superficial reasons: it requires less modification to run, it looks nicer (or at least, more authentic for a retro-style game), and it actually has an end screen. However, later versions appear to be faster:
1. Pressing Enter at the start of the game goes straight to level 1, skipping the tutorial screen (-3f)
2. The targets on level 1 are in a slightly different starting position, but this can be worked around (0f)
3. After level 5 a continue button pops up as the rest of the game was restricted to members in 2010. While clicking this loses a couple frames, it's possible to shoot at this point and so get a better setup for level 6. (-6f)
Result is 3838 frames. After making the changes above, everything else synced, so I doubt there are any other relevant differences, but I haven't confirmed. I talked a bit here about running the modern version and why it's annoying. If the text was implemented properly it would add 1 frame at start.
Link to video
Also to note, this TAS doesn't sync on Thinicetrobarrier because the hitboxes for the final level's targets are different.
So yeah, this is more confusion and doubt that I didn't really want.
User movie #638198112091871221