Posts for sgrunt

sgrunt
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I personally believe this style of game is only a marginally acceptable style of game to TAS; the only real benefit of using tools for this genre is for luck manipulation. It's also relatively difficult to keep track of what's going on if you're unfamiliar with the game (as I am). That having been said, we do have a precedent of accepting well-constructed runs of this nature (the GBA Fire Emblem run comes to mind), and there were definitely moments where you managed to lose me completely (which is a good thing in my books; breaking the game tends to result in significantly improved times, after all). I am leaning towards a weak yes vote, for the additional reason that I know this run was developed with significant input from those more familiar with the game and therefore likely to be particularly entertaining to those people. By the way, this appears to be your first submitted TAS. So, congratulations!
sgrunt
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Randil wrote:
You're all probably well aware of this, but I thought I should tell you just in case: a lot of movies have the tag "N/A" now for some reason (see the NES movies for example). I'm guessing it should be possible to write a script that simply removes this tag from the movies that has it.
For the record, N/A is two tags, and represents "does not start from a saved state" and "uses no passwords". We'll remove them as we work through the movies, if they're not wiped in this fashion.
Post subject: Confidence (cf:ce) formula
sgrunt
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I've noticed a discrepancy between what the submissions queue claims is the formula for calculating the confidence (cf:ce) percentage and the formula the site actually seems to use. After some experimentation, I've concluded that the following formula is in use, and I'm posting it here for reference (both my own and everyone else's): cf:ce = floor(100% * min( 1, ((abs(yes - no) / (yes + no + meh)) + 0.7 * (yes + no + meh / 12)^1.1 )/(1.7)) (This should actually be readable for those people whose browsers can't render MathML, by the way. If there's interest, I can render this formula in TeX or something similar so that it's even more readable.) EDIT: EDIT2: The old picture was hard to read, so I enlarged it.
sgrunt
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I was about to point to nitsuja's S3&K runs before other people came along for non-use of the Hydrocity 2 glitch - then I remembered that that was a time-saving death, not time-saving damage. I suppose there are certain games where a no-damage run would be considered more entertaining, but I can't think of any examples to that effect.
sgrunt
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Almost forgot to mention this here: After some discussion on IRC, I've started a tracking page to help us assign blocks of movies to recategorise to editors that want to help out with the project. If you want to claim a block, go right ahead...
sgrunt
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I went and looked at nitsuja's runs in comparison to this run, and the others exhibit a much higher degree of precision and entertainment. In particular, item collection is manipulated to a much greater degree there (in the SB2 run several bomb and flame powerups are collected before the end of the first level to your one and one, a feat it takes several levels to do here). I spotted at least one bomb which didn't seem to do anything of substance and one instance where you go to collect an item at the end of a level instead of going to the exit which is just appearing (this is 1-5, I think). Without trying very hard, I was able to achieve 2:28 unassisted on the first level (without the use of the clock stop item, as seen in the run; without seeing it in the run I'd estimate a time of about 2:26). (By the way, use the same version of the emulator as for the run to see that). Basically, it's clear to me that this run doesn't exhibit the level of technical polish needed to be publishable. I must vote no on this, but I would encourage you to continue to experiment with the game and see if you can achieve a higher level of precision than seen here. By the way, the movie file claims it's for Super Bomberman 3, but it plays back normally on 4. EDIT: Apparently, that unassisted run of 1-1 is 419 frames faster than axelito's attempt. Draw your own conclusions.
sgrunt
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Initially I wasn't sure this was a good game choice for TASing; the gameplay did not seem to me to be particularly compelling. However, there are just enough unusual tricks and glitches (suiciding at the bosses to save time; zipping using the gears in Big Ben) to keep this at least somewhat interesting and push this into a weak yes vote from me.
sgrunt
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It would be a good idea to restart the run regardless, as most modern SMS/GG runs use Dega's MAME core instead of the older Doze core (the two don't sync with each other).
sgrunt
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Lex wrote:
I realize this wouldn't be entertaining, but would it be technically faster to wait a while before beating the level so the score tally doesn't take FOREVER?
wwmarx did that in an even older submission, for the record. It looks very bad, and is inconsistent with our goals for other Sonic runs.
sgrunt
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mklip2001 wrote:
Also, in the Labyrinth boss battle, is it possible to get Robotnik to spawn twice in a row in the bottom pit? It seems like you could deal hits a lot faster there.
The spawn pattern there appears to be fixed as bottom, left, right, repeat - every run I have ever seen has that spawn pattern.
Techokami wrote:
I don't know what controls [the Bridge Zone boss'] spawn pattern.
I do. It's dependant on Sonic's direction. IIRC, Robotnik tries to attack from behind.
Disagree - Sonic's facing left for the second spawn and Robotnik still spawns on the left. I did try several tactics along these lines to vary the spawn pattern and didn't see any changes; I suspect it's set at (pseudo-)random. Thanks for the positive feedback, all!
sgrunt
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Obvious yes vote. More importantly, here's an encode, and here it is on DM. EDIT: Due to several requests I'm replacing the encode; hold tight, as it'll be available shortly. EDIT2: New encode available.
sgrunt
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I am glad you are working on an improvement. However, if you are, you should cancel this submission.
sgrunt
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On that note: In two days I'll be on holidays; I'll have my laptop with me, but not likely to do any encoding with it (I burnt out a fan in my laptop the last time I drove it that hard). For that matter, I'm not sure if the internet connection I'll have there will lend itself to seeding, so...
sgrunt
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Here's some concept sprites. I really don't expect any of these to be used except as inspiration (the ones towards the left look noticeably smaller than the ones on the right, for one, and most look smaller than the lucky trophy above).
sgrunt
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Here's a variant on the clover:
sgrunt
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I don't think I'm skilled enough to cover all of the award pictures, but here's an attempt at the Lucky TAS trophy (two versions, for gold dice and not gold dice):
sgrunt
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GH2 in 0:20 for the curious... EDIT: Behold... Bridge 1 in... 0:17!!!
sgrunt
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This looks like a reasonable game choice, but I have concerns about the level of technical precision in this run; there are things such as the jumping around on vines in the third stage and what looks like taking an unnecessary hit during the second boss fight. Plus, you state in the submission text that
Submission text wrote:
I think 3 first stages can be improved very easy
Can you give some justification for the above, in particular why there are "very easy" improvements you chose not to go back and make?
sgrunt
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Can we hear more about the approach you used to get that time and/or see the run? I think it would be informative.
sgrunt
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Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
sgrunt
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Randil apparently missed his own 1 in-game frame improvement to the run here. In any case, this run doesn't beat all existing records without adequate explanation and should not be published. No vote. EDIT: Need I mention that this run has been beaten?
sgrunt
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No vote. This cancelled submission is 27 frames faster and achieves a time of 3870 in stage 4 (even if it does worse by an equivalent amount in stage 5). While I try to encourage new runners as much as the next guy, please do the research first before coming to the submission queue. It'll save everyone much hassle.
sgrunt
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SprintGod, because I didn't say it before, thanks for drawing these glitches to our attention. In case people don't want to wait for you to get started... Everyone, I give you GH1 in 0:18 at long last. EDIT: I did GH2 too and got 0:21, but then realised I hadn't been using the speed trick in mid-air. I'll probably go back and redo the both of them. EDIT2: Although using the speed trick in mid-air improves things frame-wise, it also impacts the timer in an extremely unpredictable way (lag, possibly?) and I'm unable to achieve 0:18 using it thus. EDIT3: I was looking at the wrong frame count - the frame count for using the trick in mid-air vs. not using it in mid-air was... exactly the same, yet the timer was different. What's more amusing is that frame-wise, my old run is superior! I guess the trick causes lag in addition to improving in-game time (which should be our target, in any case). EDIT4: GH2 in 0:21, plus GH3.
sgrunt
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SprintGod wrote:
Anyway, just thought I'd better post to stay "Stop right there" for the following reasons[...]
Funnily enough, something like this happened the last time I tried running a Sonic game, too. I was partway through Labyrinth 2 when I saw this and can upload the WIP to the end of Labyrinth 1 if anyone wants to see it.
sgrunt
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There's an "ending", but no credits sequence. It goes back to the "where is your data stored?" menu.