Posts for Toothache

Posted: 9/22/2009 12:01 AM

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Toothache

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Yeah, it seems the various attacks do cause different damage: Front laser: 1 full bar Contact with boss (anywhere) 1/2 bar Ground dust attack: 1/2 bar Rear shell attack: 1/2 bar The best news is I have worked out a way to hit with every single frame on the first Rolling Thunder. What's more interesting is that I've actually discovered that Dragon Frye's Fireballs actually do damage over time if they are fired close. It seems they cause 500 damage/frame, and the most I've managed to get so far is 7 frames of damage. I'll keep working on it to see if I can increase DF's damage even further. EDIT: Stage 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Chvy3nUT8 Only thing I need to fix here is not getting the Potion at the end of the first part of the stage. Otherwise, this is pretty much as fast as possible for this Stage. A lot of side-trekking for items, but they all play an important part in finishing this stage quickly, mainly for the boss. The invincibility fairy makes getting through the middle part of 5-2 easier, although it does work out a bit slower overall it means I can get through there without taking damage. EDIT: Time for an update! First things first, I am completely ignoring the invincibility fairy. I never liked the idea of picking it up, because it does waste time over the stage, but it saves 1 and a half health bars. (1 by going through a flame jet that cannot be leaped over, and half by jumping into the giant mole creature near the steam jet that cannot be killed fast enough). I have refined the first half of the stage along the long corridor gauntlet, saving another 1/2 health bar and 19 frames total over the first half of the level. Further improvements came from jumping over or through most of the flame jets in the second half of the level, avoiding the invincibility fairy (wastes far more time than it would save), and improving the boss further. On the subject of the Boss, I have removed Thunder Raven's appearance completely, (+900 damage is not worth the frames wasted bringing her in) and optimised the damage taken and dealt even further, by carefully positioning Dragon Frye in the most optimal places for his fireballs. It seems 8 frames is the most you can get, and at 1500 damage per frame maximum, this leaves a possibility of 12,000, close to a quarter of the boss's HP alone. Maximum damage isn't always possible because the positioning has to be frame perfect, but I do get Dragon Frye to contribute damage 3 times in total, the main damage coming from Alisia's Rolling Thunder's, each adding just over 19,000 damage. This makes the boss's HP of just over 52,000 seem pretty pathetic in comparison, even though he has the second highest HP of the bosses in this game, and in a normal game would take several passes to finish off. I have even finished the boss with more health left again, so I can avoid getting another potion (I chose to get the one near the area with the third Thunder Level Up this time, but that can be easily removed). I'll post another WIP once the potion situation is fixed, and that will have completely optimised this Stage finally! After that, it is onto the fun little maze of Stage 6!

Posted: 9/21/2009 6:49 PM

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Toothache

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (276)

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Apologies for the late update, had something of a life recently, so I've not been working on this a lot until lately. Thanks to both Dammit and ElectroSpecter, both of these were really helpful. I followed the earlier suggestion of making a second Stage 5 attempt but keeping full health for the boss. Overall, I lost 250 frames across the stage by doing that, but I discovered I can more than make that up in the boss fight itself. As far as I can tell, using these scripts I can now work out the damage for the monster attacks, at least for the L3 ones I've been using: Dragon Frye: 1000 per fireball Ball Of Fire: 200 for initial hit on an enemy, 100 damage per frame of contact with enemy Thunder Raven: 300 damage per attack Yeah I was shocked too - Dragon Frye is the most damaging, at least by the straight numbers. BOF's damage-over-time ability is very useful in the early stages of play and against relatively weak enemies, but it pales later in the game where things have a lot of HP to play with. Unlike the other monsters BOF does not need to recharge to do damage, although its charge determines when it actually takes damage. Thunder Raven's attack, despite it being apparently weaker than DFs, can contact the entire screen (and a slight bit beyond it, I discovered) with its damage, so it is more useful for large packs of weak enemies. The slow recharge for its attack isn't helpful either. I never bothered to test Boomerang Lizard, but at this point in the game it wont be worth including, at least not in this run. Onto the L5 Boss itself. I have not found the optimal way of beating it yet, but I at least have discovered the way to do the most damage. The brain that pilots the machine is the weak spot, so I need to take damage, and then attack within the machine itself at that point to hit with as many frames of Rolling Thunder as possible. With the assistance of the summon monsters, I can possibly do this with only 3 RTs, initial testing at least suggests that will be possible, but the proof is in the pudding. I may not need full health for the boss either. Just contacting the boss does 1/2 a health bar of damage, and not the full health bar as I initially thought. I get hit twice per Rolling Thunder in damaging the boss though. This boss will end up kind of the same as the L2 Boss, except it is moving and has more HP, making it more tricky to plan. This does mean, however, I can probably redo the stage for the third time and optimise the health selection. I actually included the invincibility fairy this time around, even though it was found to be slower overall, so I will probably bypass that and the health potion in that area for a start. Did I mention this was my most hated stage already? :-( But I'm not giving up! It has been taking longer than expected, but I'm back on it now. Hopefully I should have a completed Stage 5 for you to view in the next few days.

Posted: 9/15/2009 10:35 AM

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Toothache

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (276)

Joined: 4/30/2009
Posts: 791

I'm not bad myself

Posted: 9/8/2009 11:35 PM

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Toothache

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (276)

Joined: 4/30/2009
Posts: 791

I remember playing this game, and it was hard as nails. Great job with this TAS, a yes vote from me.

Posted: 9/8/2009 3:12 PM

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Toothache

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Viddler seems to have the unfortunate side-effect of only showing every 5th frame or thereabouts, making it a very stuttery video.

Posted: 9/1/2009 8:11 PM

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Toothache

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More Castlevania goodness. Easy yes vote from me.

Posted: 8/28/2009 8:34 AM

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Toothache

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Stage 5 itself is complete, however the boss is giving me trouble. It has an unusual hit box, as well as having high HP. I can get 2 RTs on each pass though, which helps with the damage, by my reckoning I should be able to kill it on the second pass. The unusual thing about the boss is that Alisia's normal attack seems to hit in places where the Rolling Thunder appears to miss, and I decided to take enough damage that I am at half a health bar at the boss (meaning 1 hit from anything the boss has will kill me). Bear in mind I am doing this boss 'blind' as it were when it comes to finding the RAM address for the boss HP (I've tried several times to find the right address but there are too many addresses which change to pinpoint the right one). I may need to go back into the level and preserve more health, this would make the level slower but probably make the boss much faster. In between the passes the boss makes there is a long wait, so if I can take damage and kill it in one pass (theoritically it is possible, but that unusual hit box doesn't help matters) I would likely save more time overall. As for the invincibility fairy in 5-2, it is still present in hard mode, but it would take a fair bit longer to get because of the backtracking involved afterwards.

Posted: 8/19/2009 9:32 PM

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Toothache

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Yay encode!! Thanks PureRok. Any particular reason for the unusual flight method of the Nikitas in the Raven fight? I assume it fixes him in place so you can just safely spam the rockets.

Posted: 8/15/2009 3:49 PM

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Toothache

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Ah, B.O.B., I remember this game well. The Mega Drive/Genesis version is the better version for speedrunning, for sure. However I have several issues with the run itself. First of all, too much time is wasted getting the REMOs, you got a lot more than you needed in certain places and even spent time getting into crawlspaces for superfluous REMOs. Similarly, you got a lot more of the best weapons than you needed, so optimising the collection of ammo is another factor. The rest of the run looks great though, but I'm going to give it a Meh vote because it can be improved simply by planning more carefully Ammo/REMO collection and maybe using REMOs in other places.

Posted: 8/15/2009 7:31 AM

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Toothache

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mz wrote:

I answered that here: http://tasvideos.org/forum/p/210096. (Short version: it's not very useful.) Comparing mine with darkwasabi's run, he had one fight less so far. I wonder why he didn't get that extra fight there (at 7:20 in Part 4); he doesn't seem to walk or anything, and I tried various things to skip it, but couldn't find anything. (And I'm already watching the RAM addresses for danger, offsync, and stepID...)

Probably because he has saved a few times and you haven't.

Posted: 8/10/2009 8:56 AM

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Toothache

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Yes, you can target yourself with status. Of course, it may just be a byproduct of only having 2 members in the party at this point rather than 3, so I don't know how much easier it would be with a full party, even if you do inflict status on yourself. At least status doesn't go away at the end of a battle, so you can use this trick multiple times to get some higher health Limits

Posted: 8/10/2009 8:10 AM

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Toothache

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I'm not paid enough to think for you, you'll have to start thinking for yourself from this point. Although, if you are struggling with this kind of choice, then maybe TASing isn't for you.

Posted: 8/10/2009 8:04 AM

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Toothache

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I think the particular ROM might be the problem. I've tried it with the (UE) version which is the only one I could get my hands on, and it desynched with that.

Posted: 8/10/2009 8:02 AM

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Toothache

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Do a game that no-one has done before.

Posted: 8/10/2009 7:49 AM

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Toothache

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I TAS without a gamepad and I do just fine, it isn't necessary. In fact, I find it slightly more natural. Also on some emulators you can have the emu hold down certain keys for you so the 3 button limit doesn't even matter either. Rather than getting people to suggest a game for you, I would personally choose a game you are familiar with, have played to completion a few times and know some of the secrets of the game, including if possible a glitch or two. Oh, and most important of all bring patience, and a lot of it. Try and retry everything until you are sure you cannot do it faster, then move on to the next thing.

Posted: 8/10/2009 7:40 AM

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Toothache

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Water is good as a temporary measure until you get Tornado. I think for a faster time, beating the spider bot the only time you are required will be the best thing, since there aren't many GF abilities that are worth it by the time you get there for a speedrun. Getting Card ASAP will be helped by beating Ifrit and fighting the Fastilochians on the beach (6 AP each). Of course, getting some of the refine-mods will help for getting the magic you need, but they can be done as you go

Posted: 8/9/2009 7:06 PM

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Toothache

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z1hI5yRc6g Found an example video. Squall here uses Blind and Silence status to trigger Renzokuken at somewhat higher health than you'd expect

Posted: 8/9/2009 6:47 PM

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Toothache

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I was wondering this myself. I'm sure, like anything 'random' that it can be manipulated to occur instantly rather than having to press circle, I'm guessing that will be one of the many things where a bot will be needed to find the right frame to start the previous limit on so the next time you can act you get a Limit.

Posted: 8/9/2009 6:19 PM

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Toothache

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http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php/topic,5106.1275.html darkwasabi already broke the Random Encounters, you can find some pretty detailed stuff about it here. There's probably plenty more in that thread, but at 93 pages there is a lot to sift through. I suggest you try reading as much of this topic as you can, especially the parts pertaining to RC avoidance. I believe the RAM addresses for Danger Values and so on are also listed somewhere in this thread.

Posted: 8/5/2009 10:16 AM

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Toothache

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How about the repeating boss problem, have you discovered a solution for that? Otherwise you'll only be getting as far as Air Buster and stopping for a long while until that problem is fixed. Forget Lua for now, get that fixed first.

Posted: 8/5/2009 8:40 AM

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Toothache

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AndyD wrote:

can't you avoid the battle on your way out? why did you jump off the train late? by doing this you have to walk down way more screens you should try hacking the ram for address which causes the boss fight to repeat itself

Jumping off the train at the earliest point is faster, since if you jump off later you have a long conversation between Jessie, Barret, Tifa and Cloud before the jump. Also you need to wait in the mid-point of the train before the timer restarts. And since you can avoid all encounters in the part before entering the hole, it does turn out faster.

Posted: 8/2/2009 6:56 AM

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Toothache

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Going into Knux's Ice Cap 1 boss might be a bit slower, but is the Knuckles Ice Cap 2 stage faster for Sonic, or is doing the regular route faster?

Posted: 7/30/2009 9:34 AM

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Toothache

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Vykan12 wrote:

I want to see a Fire Emblem Thracia 776 TAS, I might even start working on one as soon as I finish my Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn SDA speedrun.

This, and FE4 as well would both be cool to see. I'd be willing to give you a hand with FE5, I'm something of a fan myself of the FE games, and we both have a mutual friend in Mekkah, I'm sure he can help too.

Posted: 7/27/2009 4:08 PM

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Toothache

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Ok, I watched this video. The amount of times you stopped running and just stopped is pretty high to call this a speedrun. You can do this entire game a lot faster with just average TASing, let alone average normal playing. There are some rerecords which suggests you do understand how they work, but don't for some reason see the need to perfect every action (like for example, jumping and falling fast off the side from inside the first pipe rather than just walking off) Not only does this fail to beat the current published run of any description (minus the No B category), it even fails to beat the current real-time speedrun on SDA. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz3SzHaThQ8 <- something for your viewing pleasure, to put into perspective.

Posted: 7/26/2009 9:13 PM

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Toothache

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Yeah I've been looking over the Special Stages myself. Stage 1 probably has no improvements, it is a simple enough stage. Stage 2 has the slight improvement I illustrated in my previous post. Possibly more based on planning trips over the dividing areas designated by the red spheres The stage with six sets of 9 + 4 individual blue spheres certainly has room for improvement, I think. Again, it follows the same principle as the second stage improvement - going over all the spheres in the block rather than just tracing the outside, which as shown can be slightly slower. Avoiding rings for the count up may be good for reducing the count-up time, but it comes at the cost of saving overall more time in the actual special stages themselves. Stage 7 could be improved by continuing to run backwards into the last set of blue spheres at the end of the level rather than turning around. There are probably similar improvements based on these observations in the other special stages. This is only coming from a casual observation and I've not really studied close enough an improved route for any of the stages, minus the minor improvement to the end of SS 2 I discussed.