DrD2k9: First off, hi, thanks for submitting an input file to the site. Please don't be discouraged by the negative reaction - there are many reasons that people seem to be voting against your particular submission, and I would like to try to explain why in a way that doesn't offend anyone.
Secondly, please note the "edit" button that is always available to you if your post is the most recent. That's there so that you don't double post, which, while not something we frown upon here, is general Netiquette.
Thirdly, the point of this post:
You seem to be misconstruing ais523's comments as insults when they are actually observations and criticisms. Instead of repeating all of the words here and creating a bloated post, I just want to drill down on one point: your goal choice. Seeing all combinations of kills in the game is, as has been pointed out, something that a YouTube video might showcase. Similarly, it's something that the developers of the game added to chess that makes it, as a game, stand out against all other chess games. There is no superhuman skill involved in making a Rook capture another Rook to tick off that particular combination in the "captured" matrix, especially when you set up the board beforehand.
Therefore, the other S in TAS must be considered - superplay is out, speedrun is in.
And that turns checking all of the boxes in the matrix into a separate kind of puzzle - how do you tick all of the boxes the fastest? The solution you present gets the job done in roughly 18.5 minutes. Then FractalFusion comes along and solves the problem in just over 14.25 minutes. Thus you are losing on the speedrun aspect as well. That happens when something gets into the submission queue. People go over what you have done, comment and criticize, and there's a resolution.
Nobody's words in this thread have been intended to hurt you. None of them have called your skill as a TASer into question. They have talked exclusively about the submission's goal choice and some disappointment about aiming for the goal while ignoring time, and one member demonstrated how to achieve the goal in less time.
Finally, I want to address these directly:
DrD2k9 wrote:
On a slightly unrelated note: I personally would love to learn more about the technological side of coding, video games, and TASing. But I like to do things methodically, and I honestly have no idea where or how to begin.
To that, we have a Game Resources section on the site that contains a lot of interesting information about TASing, and there are many books about how to learn Java, Python, C, and other languages if you want to start thinking about programming, even casually. Personally, writing your own code and deciding how to structure data helps to inform about how other people might structure their data, which helps when you're using RAM Search to track down memory addresses. "It seems reasonable to store the player's X position closely to the Y position," is definitely something I've said, and it has helped trim down search results. People on this forum are generally friendly and helpful if you ask informed questions, so please don't hesitate to use them.
DrD2k9 wrote:
Even if/when my TAS attempts are rejected by the community, I still feel a sense of accomplishment in something I approach as a hobby, because I've still done something I would never have been able to achieve while playing a game normally.
This is true - you did the thing, and nobody can take away from you the fact that you did the thing. This is not an attempt at sarcasm, this is an honest statement. You tried, you contributed, you put in the hours. The next time you try to TAS something, you will have some skills, some knowledge, and some awareness of potential pitfalls; you can only improve from here.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
Body price is $B$4
Nature price is $B$5
Blood price is $B$6
Soul price is $B$7
For the rest, you want to start by highlighting E2 and multiplying by $B10 (note the lack of a $ beside 10) and then copying and pasting down the column.
$ is basically "anchor" - no matter where you copy the formula to, whatever follows the $ will remain fixed.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
After a lot of time being frustrated with my progress, and then starting over with a new route plan (I tried using a bunch of magic along the route with the intention of collecting the Glove, which would increase the Dagger's damage from 5 to 7 and let me kill the white mage enemies in four hits instead of six. Unfortunately, that didn't pan out because saving one swing across eleven enemies didn't make up for the two additional screen transitions required to collect it), I'm now basically following Lord Tom's room routing. However, I've managed to save 117 frames by the end of the first dungeon/tower! Progress!
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/34354022453190386Link to video
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
Saturn, all of this fighting back and forth is getting tiring. Just release your gods damned tax returns input file so that comparative work can continue with the game.
Comparing against a video is a serious pain in the ass, especially when there are timing issues involved, and if the inputs line up, as you say, then working from an input file is going to be much more reliable than working from a video.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
Here's a rather difficult level that I finally managed to upload after a few months of attempts: World Kaizo-1.
DA15-0000-02A8-57FC
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
Even in light of the submission comments being updated, I wish to maintain my "no" vote as a "no" vote. An optimized run of plain Sisters mode, even in Normal, would likely be entertaining for all of the reasons Samsara mentioned, but this "best of both worlds" (crazy damage bonus, none of the challenge) fusion does not entertain me.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
This line seems a lot disingenuous, given that you are using New Game+ through a glitch, and not playing through normal mode on a raw file like that run does.
Maybe, but I started attacking Legion and Mummy Man earlier and used corner boost while going up as often as I can. This run is technically more optimized than the run on Nicovideo for sure.
Quite honestly, and without a trace of sarcasm, I look forward to reading the detailed submission notes where you talk about these types of movement improvements, and not the comparisons due to damage.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
This line seems a lot disingenuous, given that you are using New Game+ through a glitch, and not playing through normal mode on a raw file like that run does.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
I have to vote "no" here. Watching Stella and Loretta glide effortlessly over the entire game wasn't interesting, and watching the player fire useless shots into the air for no reason made me think this was more of a playaround than an actual speed attempt.
While the bosses are killed as quickly as possible, and the path seems to be optimal, I just didn't find this run as entertaining as the landbound characters. Sorry, Fortranm.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
FractalFusion and Masterjun, I am always happy to see people having fun with 142857, because it is easily one of my favourite numbers. (Well, more specifically the decimal expansion of 1/7.)
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
Ah, how unfortunate. Thanks for clarifying.
(Inconveniently, if wrapping from the right dumps you in water, the raft could be skippable if you had the ladder, which is sadly contained in level 4.)
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
That was a delight to watch, but I am left with one question: is it possible to vertical wrap into 4 instead of walking up and taking the raft, and, if so, would that not save a bit of time?
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
I've done it. Heck, I practiced it in SMB All-Stars against the wall in 1-2. Granted, I didn't manage it with any level of consistency, but getting a feel for the pixel to initially jump on helps a lot.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
While dragging A upwards, auto-saving triggered, and when auto-saving was done, A was drawn for every frame in the movie.
Workaround: Ctrl + Z still works to undo the last action.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
What you are probably looking for is Lua, and specifically Lua scripting.
There is a script that people talk about from time to time (the name and creator of which are escaping me at the moment) that seems close to what you want.
With that said, RAM Search and RAM Watch are your friends, if you have a bit of a sense of what you are looking for, and if not, searching the fora for Lua-related things may turn up the exact thing you are looking for.
Welcome to TASVideos, and welcome to TASing.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
What I remember from months ago was that it was just a matter of additional wait frames at the beginning of the input file. The whole of the gameplay was unaffected.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
TASing on a VM is exactly like TASing on a regular computer - the difference is instead of running Hourglass and your game on this computer, you're basically running Hourglass and your game in an emulator (I say "basically" for the sake of simplicity) and that emulator is using part of your computer to be Windows XP or Linux or an Apple ][ or whatever.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
At least I don't have to redo the submission comments.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
The virtual machine (VM) would have Windows XP installed on it. It shouldn't matter which virtual machine system you use (Hyper-V, VMWare, VirtualBox, etc.)
However, you may need to turn virtualization on in your actual machine's BIOS.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
A bit more information would be helpful: Are you running the game through Steam?
Is it some executable you acquired from elsewhere on the internet?
Which version of Hourglass are you running?
An official build?
An interim build?
Something you compiled yourself?
Is the game otherwise running correctly? (Music and graphics are correct?)
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
You fly through the Great Armor boss door (frame ~20900) and through Julius's door (frame ~27675); is there a reason why you don't fly through Graham's door and collect the Black Panther soul without killing him? (Is he required to be killed so that Chaos shows up at the end?)
Because we cannot. Bat glitch needs specific landforms, which doesn't exist in Graham's room.
Oh, that's unfortunate. :( Still, a fantastic run, loved every frame.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
You fly through the Great Armor boss door (frame ~20900) and through Julius's door (frame ~27675); is there a reason why you don't fly through Graham's door and collect the Black Panther soul without killing him? (Is he required to be killed so that Chaos shows up at the end?)
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
