Before posting the update, I want to apologize for the incredibly long time it took me to work that update up. I did a big mistake near the end of the raft scene, which made me lose all the long and boring raft scene ... I got discouraged and waited some days before restarting that part ...
Here it is:
* UPDATE *
The current progress goes up to the door of the Diamond Mines. There wasn't much work done since the last upgrade (apart from the new "server" which hosts my files, which is now my personal computer).
Here's the link: http://halamantariel.homeip.net/iog_wip.zip
Rom name and version: Illusion of Gaia (U) [!].smc
Please post any comments about the current progress.
It all depends on what emulator you use ... I suggest you use the latest release of Snes9x (if that's not already the case) which is located at http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=25682#25682
I suggest you use the option "Use WIP1 timing".
In every case, I would love to see the current WIP of you run. Could you post the link so we could all watch your progress?
I don't think that the author's name changes the viewers opinion in any way ... If a time attack is boring, it's boring, even if it's made by the greatest time-attacker of all times. And frankly, I've never seen in the workbench a commentary such as "This is a (author's name) run, so I vote YES. I didn't watch it, but since it's (author's name), it's good. YES!!!"
I don't see the point of making ALL submissions anonymous.
However, I think it could be a good idea to add a checkbox in the submission form so that people wanting to be anonymous have the choice of being anonymous or not. I personnaly don't know why someone would want to be, but it would be a good thing to make this a CHOICE, and not an obligation.
I think a Harvest Moon game would be quite boring to watch ... Watching a boy running around, planting seeds, cutting trees, etc... for a LOT of time... that would be boring. Plus: On the SNES version, the night is infinite. That means you can spend 4 real days playing the same damn night if you want to...
Harvest Moon is a bad idea for time attacks I think. What "silly" means, is "bad idea", in my opinion.
This one received a YES vote from me.
The only problem I could possibly see, is the boss fight in the prison. I don't know if you could have used different weapons other than the horn. It got quite anoying after 4 or 5 horns...
Other than that, perfect run! Very well done!
I believe boss damage in this game only varies based on the character you use: 1 damage each hit from Will, 2 from Freedan and 3 from Shadow.
Although I'm almost sure you're right, this still needs to be tested. When I come up with a result, I'll let you all know.
Oh .. and I think Tim was Will's name in the Illusion of Time version of the game. It's not the first time he names him Tim instead of Will ...
You should try recording with the Improved v4 Snes9x ... it's a lot better in all aspects of recording AND playing AND not-desynching. It has a lot of cool features that are very useful for time-attacks.
You should check this out ..
After some testing, I found out that I could go through the first invincible bug by swinging the "sword" (it's a flute, actually) while running at it. However, by doing that, I still have to wait for the bug in the stairs to go away since I can't go through it from any angle whatsoever. I just have to wait for him to go away.
In the current movie (link in an earlier post), you see that I can't go a single frame faster while waiting for the third bug (the one down the stairs). In fact, I don't even appear to wait. I guess that was just a lucky coincidence :)
All in all, no, I can't go faster in this section. Not even a single frame.
However, is there anywhere you could go faster by taking a hit? Those invincible bugs in the first dungeon? Also, is the psycho dash really faster for the dart-spitting head on top of the block thing? Could you take a hit and place the block without killing it?
For the bugs in the first dungeon, only the second one (the one I skipped) was skippable (is that a word?). And no, I can't take a hit and go through it, because taking a hit pushes Will away and I can't walk through it before the "invincible timer" goes down.
About the dart-spitting head on top of the block, no, I can't walk through it. It acts like a wall. You can't get hurt by touching it, only by it's darts. So the Psycho Dash is definetly faster.
TheAxeMan wrote:
I forget exactly when you get your damage restored
Damage is restored when a) Talking to Gaia or b) Getting a health upgrade.
And by the way ... I'd definetly prefer NOT taking any damage at all. In my opinion, a zero-damage run is a lot better, at least for this game.
**EDIT: READ AT THE END, THERE'S AN UPDATE!**
OmnipotentEntity wrote:
After getting the leg of Yak you run forward for a split second.
This is because I grab the leg of yak while running. The action of running then continues after the long text message, and it takes me only 6 frames to change directions and running again. This is faster than stopping in front of the container and returning afterwards.
OmnipotentEntity wrote:
When you charge for the Phycho Dash for a long time (near frame 56xxx), you pause in front of one of the statues, could that have been avoided by starting your turn on the one before sooner?
These "pauses" are in fact a collision with those "statues" and I can't help it. Collision with these statues occur twice in this room. If you try and play that part frame by frame, you'll see what I mean.
OmnipotentEntity wrote:
At frame 63xxx after you finish running that long way you could have taken the diagonal and saved some time if I'm not mistaken.
If you mean right after the "switch" (orange thingy), yes I think it could have saved some very small time, but still ... you're right. I'll have to redo the run from this point. Thanks for pointing this one out! :)
OmnipotentEntity wrote:
Most of the places where you run backwards to slow down faster you can also run to the side (or up or down) and same some time.
I did it where it helped me save some time.
---------------
** UPDATE! **
I redid the corner turn Omni spoke of, around the little orange switch, and rerecorded the rest of the movie since I don't know how to hexedit a specific section of the movie yet. Here's the link to the new and improved movie, which stops right after beating Castoth (the same point as in the other movies): *** LINK *** (note that the URL always stays the same, so you can't download old versions, except for the old, old version in which I fought with enemies to get STR upgrades ... I'll delete this one in a few days.)
All in all, I saved 2 frames compared to the movie where I didn't "cut the corner right". My theory is that it didn't save any frames at all, and that the 2 frames I saved were in the Castoth fight, in which I managed to NOT get hit at all (Hey! My run is now a zero-damage run!), and that saved me 2 frames where I couldn't attack at all.
All this re-recording for saving 2 frames .... but hey! I'm really proud of making this a zero-damage time attack! I'll try to keep this up until the end... (I know this post is awfully long ... sorry for that)
I would LOVE to see a King of Dragons run! I played this game when I was still a little kid and I had a lot of difficulties going through the levels. I never completed the game, as far as I can remember.
I think there should be a fastest time run too, since IMO, run aiming for score usually aren't as entertaining.
---
Those were my two cents.
You never know ... in most (if not all) games, though, programmers didn't even THINK of "protecting" their games against left+right or up+down, since a normal controller could never input left AND right at the same time (unless it's completly trashed or something).
You never know what could happen. You should test it yourself to get the best answer for this question.
I hate double posting ... but since nobody replied for a long time on this topic ... I'm going to double post :)
*update*
In the first version of my movie, I went to pick up all the STR upgrades I could so that I could beat Castoth with the fastest time possible. However, I found out that I didn't need a single STR upgrade since in both cases, I dealt 2 HP of damage per hit to Castoth. Plus, after beating a boss, I receive all the upgrades (health, str and def) that I could have picked up before beating that boss. At least, that's the case for Castoth.
Enough talking! I redid the whole movie from start to end of Castoth! Here's the new movie: ***LINK***. All in all, I saved 7542 frames. The "old" version was 20:57, the new one is 18:51. I saved 2 minutes and 6 seconds.
Enjoy!
*EDIT*: After thinking this out ... the "new" time attack may be my final run, no more a test run. So when posting comments about it, think of it as a final run. This means that after finishing this, I will submit it.
1 - Final score doesn't matter if the time attack isn't score-oriented (doesn't aim for the maximum score which, obviously, is the case here. This game does NOT aim for maximum score) So no, score doesn't matter.
2 - Yes you are supposed to end the movie as soon as you don't need any input to view the end movie.
Perhaps you got a corrupted download.
Try redownloading.
I don't think this is his problem ... from what I've read, the problem seems to be the audio, since when he turned it off, everything was fine.
What I'd suggest is try to turn off an audio option after another until it stops freezing. When it doesn't freeze at all, you've found the option that makes it freeze (woah ... not sure if I'm clear when saying that)
I load the rom, start the movie, and than turbo until the the movie is past Bowser's castle. After I unturbo, the movie plays fine for about five seconds and than 'freezes' (The whole program freezes and I have to ctrl+alt+del). I'm going to check the frame counter now, and than just try to play the movie w/o FF and see if it makes a difference.
Like I have said in a previous post:
Try unselecting the "sync samples with sound CPU" box. This options make all my games freeze at some random point. Must be a problem some CPUs have handling this option ... I dunno ... but since I unselected this option, everything's fine.
Try unselecting the "sync samples with sound CPU" box. This options make all my games freeze at some random point. Must be a problem some CPUs have handling this option ... I dunno ... but since I unselected this option, everything's fine.
nitsuja wrote:
Why did you heal with a froggie drink when fighting the cake? It didn't do any damage at all after that.
He heals in order to survive/not to heal in the next boss battle, which is in the sunken ship against the octopus (don't remember it's name ... if it has one)
So far, I don't need to pick up a single upgrade since the damage done to Castoth is the same with the STR upgrades than without any STR upgrades. This means that the best route I should take for the first "part" of the game is simply a run-through.
Yes, you do get all the upgrades you could have picked up before that boss when you kill it. Just look at my health bar after I defeat Castoth: The exact frame I kill it, my health gets 5 updates at once (increasing to 6½ points, was 4 points). I verified how many health upgrades I could get before getting to Castoth, and I counted exactly 5. This means that yes, we get all the upgrades we could get when we defeat bosses. At least, it's true for Castoth. I'll see later if it does the same for each and every boss.
I voted no because the run looks more like a speed run then a time attack. Also:
Guidelines wrote:
Be accurate.
Don't miss your target.
Don't have slow reactions. Act as soon as possible. Don't stand still for even 0.2s, if it is not necessary. Redo it until you succeed. Yes, it does take some time to get it right.
Criticize yourself.
Replay and review your movie cynically (or at least objectively). Look at everything that could be improved. Then improve it.
Also:
WhyAndHow wrote:
What kind of movies are these?
These are movies of various console games being played extraordinarily using an emulator with savestates and slowdown as a tool.
All in all, I think you must remember that this site is for time attacks, not speed runs. However, to insert some positivism in this post (because my goal isn't to destroy you, it's to encourage you into doing a better run), redoing this run using the tools provided (slowdown, frame advance, etc) and following the guidelines WILL make this movie a good movie to watch.
For optimization, what's the least amount of Str upgrades you can get and still beat the boss before he gets all laser eyed?
I just checked that up ... and without collecting a single STR upgrade before fighting Castoth, I do the exact same damage (2 points per hit).
I was very surprised to find this ... Apparently I don't need to kill a single enemy (except for those who block my way and those who unlock paths)
Thanks for asking the question, Omni! I'll have to restart my run from scratch .. :S
Why don't you time your attacks sometimes? Is this for lag or luck manipulation purposes?
Timed attacks (double-attacks, if I could say so) take more frames and are uneeded earlier in the game since the enemies die from a single hit. Timed attacks would simply be longer, and in a time-attack, speed is the key.