Posts for Baxter

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
AUS wrote:
Eh, I find the BLJless totally arbitrary, while not necessarily a bad thing, I just don't see the point in not using it.
The point of not using it is to provide a movie that is different from the published movies. The categories 0 star and 120 stars are not under discussion, and a 70 star run that would use BLJs will basically feature exactly the same content as a 120 star run, but with the 50 slowest stars cut out. I don't think it's likely for such a 70 star movie to even be published, as it adds nothing new, in terms of content, to the site.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Mitjitsu wrote:
One major issue needs to be addressed here and thats the fact that the game can be beaten using HSWKs. BLJless run seems a bit arbitary to me.
Why is arbitraryness bad, when it can be well-defined, and provides something entertaining and significantly different than what is currently available?
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
I think the label "70 Stars, BLJless" is a pretty good one. "70 Stars" should be read as "does not glitch past star doors", since this is (I think) the only definition in which the number 70 makes sense. "BLJless" means that no BLJs will be used in the TAS. This restriction has little to do with the "70 Stars" part of the label, but is inserted for the sole purpose of making a movie that offers significantly different content compared to the two published TASes. Then there is the discussion if there are better possible restrictions. Well, maybe there are, maybe there are not. If someone submits a 120 star BLJless run, then maybe the majority is in favor of that movie obsoleting this one. For now, I do not see any reason why that should keep this movie from being published.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Great news! We made some good progress with the TAS. Level 4-3 was just completed along with the 200.000th frame and the 460.000th rerecord. This means that we finally completed more levels than Spezzafer did in his famous WIP. It also means that we completed exactly half of the number of levels in this 100% TAS (27/54). There is a long way to go, but we also came a long way ;). This is a list of the frame differences of our WIP compared to Spezzafer's:
Level  Saved  Total 
1-1      283    292
1-2      112    404
1-3      232    636
1-4      286    922
1-5       14    936
1-6      468   1404
1-7      713   2117
1-8      757   2874
RESET   1256   4130
2-1    -2099   2031
2-2     1381   3412
2-3      150   3562
2-4     1736   5298
2-5     1524   6822
2-6      500   7322
2-7      857   8179
2-8      837   9016
RESET   1328  10344
3-1      138  10482
3-2      418  10900
3-3      251  11151
3-4      474  11625
3-5       61  11686
3-6     1110  12796
3-7      448  13244
3-8      279  13523
RESET   1392  14915
4-1      655  15570
4-2      195  15765
This should in no way be seen as diminishing Spezzafer's effort: we have more tools, more people, and not to forget, his WIP to compare to. He did a great job, and his WIP was very helpful, so many thanks! (We'll be able to use zvsp's test movies to compare to in world 5 and onwards.) We decided for a small change in the WIP releases we had originally planned. We will release 3 levels this time, each from a different world: 2-5: smv, youtube 3-5: smv, youtube 4-1: smv, youtube
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
I got a desync in round 7. Always nice to see someone who wants to make a TAS of this game :). I'd really like a good submission of this game. Unfortunately, I do think the quality of your wip is very subpar. I don't think the laser is used optimally, and it suffers heavily from the syndrome where it takes a long time to find the right angle to hit the last block. Genisto also ran into this problem quite a bit in his NES TAS, and I improved his movie by over 4 minutes, partly because I did my best to avoid this. It unfortunately requires a lot of work to deal with this problem. Sometimes, a setup that does not look good in the beginning can be cleared very fast in the end. It takes a LOT of work to produce a high-quality Arkanoid TAS. (I'm not sure if the 40 rerecords are the actual amount you used, but even 4000 would be a very low number of rerecords for the levels that you completed.) I don't mean to discourage you; I wish you the best of luck. If you have some questions, feel free to ask :).
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Programming in real-time (looks like some ideas are borrowed from TASing...) Link to video
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Accepted this: there were no "no"- or "meh"-votes, and the first game in the series also has both a 1-player and 2-player TAS published.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Does this 4 frame improvement over your previous version really need a new submission? That submission file was updated quite a few times... why not once more?
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Pretty neat 'universe'-application. Link to video
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
CoolKirby wrote:
I like how the Goat Herding real-time record's "author's comments" contain the text "This is flawless and absolute perfection" when you just beat it by 0.16 second.
I don't think you are doing justice to his comments, as he also speculates that a TAS may be able to do it in less than 15 seconds. He was clearly talking about an RTA, and even then it just seems to be a statement to provoke people to give it a try, as he also states it might be possible to get it down to a time of 15.20.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Hmm, some things that stood out: 7891: Why did you take damage here? This can surely be avoided. (You also placed the bomb higher than needed to open the cave I think, but you may have just done this as you had to wait for the right randomness in the moneygame anyway.) 12834: You don't need to place any bomb until you are in the room where you HAVE to kill enemies to advance. You can easily get bombs there, without nearly costing as much time as getting extra bombs here. (So the bombs at 13610 and 14059 should also be avoided.) 13610: Again, no bomb here. This costs a lot of time. Not taking damage at 12430 and 14388 will make the hearts unneeded, and taking damage does not nearly save as much time as avoiding having to wait for a bomb to explode. 14795: It's nice that one bomb kills all enemies, but not being able to move on right away is a pity. If it is due to randomness, ok... although a different strat with 2 bombs and continuous walking forward would be faster (if possible). If it was just to avoid being damaged by the enemy, using your sword may be an option, or maybe taking damage.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Ugh, how did I miss that? :S
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
My question wasn't so much about what was different, but more about why those things are particularly interesting. Throwing the second player, planning when to die and show up again, and beating the bosses in a fast way all seem to be things that would make the run more interesting... I am asking because of submissions such as these: http://tasvideos.org/1660S.html The general rule is that when a 2-player run is slower, there are often two versions, as the 1-player version is the fastest game completion, and the 2-player version adds interesting 2-player gameplay. In this case, the 2-player TAS is faster though... This is just a rule of thumb, and I am not saying that it applies in this case... but that's why I am asking why these different aspects are more interesting. I don't know how many of the people who voted yes took this into consideration when voting, so some opinions on this would be nice. I did see that AnS wrote in the previous 1-player submission that he was in favor of 2 published movies for this game.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Could you specify exactly which parts are copied from klmz's TAS, and which parts you TASed yourself?
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Why are the differences compared to the 2-player TAS particularly interesting so that this game deserves two published movies?
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
TASeditor wrote:
Is it wrong to ignore damage boosting, since I sat three weeks for one damage boost and didn´t got it.
Well, people tend to forget that luck manipulation in a TAS does not mean that you always can get the game to behave exactly like you want. A damage boost saves about 12-13 frames, assuming you can replenish the heart without losing any time iirc. The more frames you have to waste manipulating the enemy movement, or slowing down to touch the enemy, the less the damage boost will be worth it, and the bigger the chance it is not worth it because manipulating a heart or a fairy could also cost frames. Some times, you just have to accept that the way the game behaves is just not favorable for a damage boost from that particular enemy. This shouldn't get you stuck for weeks, and maybe there is a better opportunity ahead. I don't hope that you meant ignoring damage boosting in general though... they should definately be included in that TAS.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Very nice TAS, voting yes.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
There is a lot of running, but that's a good thing with graphics like these ;). There was luck manipuation involved while running, planning involved for items and fights, and cool over-the-top bossfights. Voting yes.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
TASeditor wrote:
Can someone tell me, how I should optimal manipulate the enemies behaviour. I know that the enemies behavior depends on frames and Links position. It's so annoying sitting 2 days for one enemy. Is there some better method, than just trying.
No, there is nothing really that you can do besides trying a lot. Try pressing select at different positions, and for different amounts of time times until you get what you want or are happy with. You have to make a plan before you enter the room how many bombs you want to use, and which enemies you want to hit with it. Also note that hitting the sword at the same frame as an explosion does the damage of both. Good luck :).
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Lots of news and a WIP! First of all, Carl Sagan joined NxCy and me, so this TAS will have three authors! Carl Sagan joined when we were about halfway level 2-2 (after redoing). As for our current progress, we are currently halfway level 3-3, exactly where we were at the time when walljumping was discovered little over a year a go. We have been redoing from level 1-6, including walljumps, and lots of other stuff we've discovered. We now release the WIP up to level 2-8 before walljumps were discovered. This will be the last 'old' WIP. The next WIP will be the redone levels up to 2-4. Even though you may have seen the levels up to 2-4 of the old wip, there is every reason to look out to these upcoming WIPs. World 2 is filled with a wide variety of improvements:

Old WIP vs Spezzafer's WIP | New WIP vs Spezzafer's WIP | New WIP vs Old WIP
Level  Saved  Total        | Level  Saved  Total        | Level  Saved  Total
  1-1    283    292        |   1-1    283    292        |   1-1      0      0
  1-2    112    404        |   1-2    112    404        |   1-2      0      0
  1-3    232    636        |   1-3    232    636        |   1-3      0      0
  1-4    286    922        |   1-4    286    922        |   1-4      0      0
  1-5     14    936        |   1-5     14    936        |   1-5      0      0
  1-6    345   1281        |   1-6    468   1404        |   1-6    123    123
  1-7    716   1997        |   1-7    713   2117        |   1-7     -3    120
  1-8    711   2708        |   1-8    757   2874        |   1-8     46    166
RESET     -1   2707        | RESET   1256   4130        | RESET   1257   1423
  2-1  -2694     13        |   2-1  -2099   2031        |   2-1    595   2018
  2-2    338    351        |   2-2   1381   3412        |   2-2   1043   3061
  2-3    141    492        |   2-3    150   3562        |   2-3      9   3070
  2-4    319    811        |   2-4   1736   5298        |   2-4   1417   4487
  2-5    215   1026        |   2-5   1524   6822        |   2-5   1309   5796
  2-6    505   1531        |   2-6    500   7322        |   2-6     -5   5791
  2-7    295   1826        |   2-7    857   8179        |   2-7    562   6353
  2-8    516   2342        |   2-8    837   9016        |   2-8    321   6674
RESET      5   2347        | RESET   1328  10344        | RESET   1323   7997
  3-1    118   2465        |   3-1    138  10482        |   3-1     20   8017
  3-2    329   2794        |   3-2    418  10900        |   3-2     89   8106
(Note that a minus sign means frames lost. Particularly noticeable is 2-1, where spezzafer used a 1-1 warp and we didn't, and some redone levels that had no improvements, but slightly worse randomness.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1058159427/yi100-nxcy_baxter_WIP2-8_complete.smv (These comments point out what is different compared to Spezzafer's WIP, the new WIP is not taken into account.) 2-5 In the train section, the direction the train is facing was changed by taking a different route for a frame. This scrolled the screen which makes the enemies move later, allowing to use a shorter route without getting hit. Other saved frames came from optimization, particular not being hit by bubbles at the very end of the level. Time saved in 2-5: 215 frames Total time saved: 1026 frames 2-6 Big timesaver in the first room, skipping the detour to get the 3 red coins behind the gate. An egg was fired while the gate was offscreen before it was spawned, at exactly the right moment Yoshi drops down so that the egg was already behind the gate, and in time for the 3 red coins to spawn and be hit by the egg. The enemy challenge room was done when first going past it, saving the time it takes for the door to drop down. Time saved in 2-6: 505 frames Total time saved: 1531 frames 2-7 Various optimizations in movement, egg- and star collection. Time saved in 2-7: 295 frames Total time saved: 1826 frames 2-8 Improvement in arrow lift usage. A glitch lets you get on top of the lift again after spitting it out, even if your vertical position is below the lift. It only works if you pick up the arrow lift and jump at the same frame. This glitch saved time in two rooms in this level. The pot containing the first key was hit by more eggs, making it move faster for a longer period of time. Time saved in 2-8: 516 frames Total time saved: 2342 frames
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
TASeditor wrote:
Sharing a WIP now, would make no sense, because it´s very smiliar to the any% I improved the 3rd dungeon a bit, but now I have trouble with the money making game.
Err, improved it? Looks to me as if the first 1:40 of the movie you uploaded is an exact copy of the any% TAS. After that I think the quality of the movie unfortunately decreases. This is especially noticeable in the rooms where you have to defeat enemies (3:53-4:12). Those 2 rooms are cleared nearly 5 seconds faster in the any% run. Think you can improve them? I don't want to sound harsh or discourage you; I really wish you the best of luck. Just want to avoid a "you should have said so earlier". It may also be a good idea to lay out and discuss the route you are planning to take. There are many options and other people may come up with things you never even considered. I for instance investigated the option of skipping the blue candle and picking up the red candle instead for the any% TAS. That seemed to be slower for the any% TAS, but in a 100% TAS, where you have to pick up the red candle anyway, it may very well be a good option.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Good to see this TAS is moving along nicely :)
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Good luck! I'd love to see a TAS of this (I'll have to wait for encodes though).
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Hell yeah I would watch a full run. I've been pestering people to make one for years! The thing I'm looking forward to in a full run are the levels though, and seeing the various items being used. I'm not particularly interested in the boss battles. This is why I am against using the password that you used; it skips exactly what I am interested in! This is why I am voting no. I would love to see a full run of the game! I also do not think the reason why you used the (J) version of the game is a very good one. The technical quality of the movie looks pretty good though :)
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821