Made a TAS comparison video comparing the newest WIP and the old WIP I made back then in VBA. Since both WIPs end up in the same stage I wanted to know how much we've improved.
Movies files being compared: v2 - v1
Encode:
Link to video
Some technical details:
-These movie files were made in different emulators (BizHawk with mGBA core for v2 and VBA for v1) which emulates the game differently. Like much less lag frames for VBA which results in faster cutscenes, slightly different FPS, etc.
-When I was doing the TAS in VBA, I wasn't going for the Forms because I had to exclude the Ultimate Form, but in the new TAS, we are going for the Forms except Ultimate. Which explains some time loss during some stages (like Elemental Golems for example) to acquire them.
-Some significant rod zips have been found since the time I made the TAS on VBA, saving a significant amount of time compared to the old WIP. This also means a route change on when to get the elves in the resistance base with the new zip in the Ciel room that warps you to the Nurse Room, since we already have to go there anyways after beating the first set of bosses it was ideal to get it at this moment.
Movie File: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/45201094099038554Link to video
NOTE: The encode above includes the whole TAS, with cutscenes being cut.
I have to say that im sorry for the huge delay, I will be a father in less than a week from now so I have been quite busy with some personal stuff, and with work too. McBobX have been quite busy too with exams.
As for the TAS, we have been working closely with Hetfield90 and Flameberger with small improvements in all the stages made so far, we implemented Wall Boost and Chain Swings in every place possible, improved the Panter Flauclaws, Phoenix Magnion and Hyleg Ourobockle bossfights and some other small savings I can't remember and we also beat Kuwagust Anchus.
-Kuwagust Anchus: This stage is pretty linear at the beginning, we beat the midboss and we found a nice chain rod zip that allows us to skip the E-Golem fight to get the elves saving a lot of time. Once we get into the Ciel Hacking autoscroller, we have to protect her for 90 seconds, and this is the perfect place to get the Erase Form (ricochet 30 shots with the Shield), and since we are ahead the Any% TAS in term of weapon xp, we decided to not farm extra xp. So we ended up only using Rising Slash because it does not cause lag frames and used the Shield to ricochet the shots we had to be sure that EVERY enemy is defeated by the saber and not by a ricochet shot, otherwise that would be wasted xp. Afterwards, we picked one last elf before escaping the shuttle. Where we find Kuwagust Anchus, kinda easy bossfight due to having both Chargin Saber and Rod.
Elves: 42/81
Skills: 5/10
Forms: 5/8
Tanks: 1/2
Made a comparison video between the new TAS vs the old one. With it you can clearly see the differences between them. I'll leave here the description of the video:
This is a TAS Comparison made between the new TAS and the previous record that was held by compterbird. This comparison only focuses on stages, so there are other small comparisons in the Resistance Base and cutscenes but those should be minor most of the time. Take into consideration that the old TAS was made in VisualBoyAdvance and the new one in BizHawk which implements different emulation cores, this results in very small differences in lag frames differences and cutscenes in particular.
The format is the following:
On each screen, on the top you will see the timer both in time and frames (it resets in every stage). Below the TAS authors. In the middle you get the difference per section and in total (left vs right). In each section (determined by me) whoever gets first will pause until the other one catchs up so most of the time they are in sync for a better viewing, at this point is when the difference in time are calculated. Audio is also split up, on your left speaker/headphone you will hear the left screen and vice-versa.
Obviously voting yes, since I was near the runners on the development of this TAS. Congrats to both Hetfiel90 and Flameberger on this long project. Will be preparing an encode and will be uploaded soon.
Have to say that this run is looking pretty awesome so far, keep it up man. Kinda funny how you can open a locked door with the lock in the other side of the door.
Well done Rolanmen1! Very impressive.
I still don't like Bishawk because it desyncs every version. I had to download the old version to watch your movie, but it's worthy.
Oh, im very sorry, should've said the BizHawk version from the start lol. Perhaps we'll try to make it sync with the most recent version once we finish using TAStudio, shouldn't be too hard.
NOTE: The encode has been uploaded in the original post above.
Movie File: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/43162087684747553Link to video
-- Stage by Stage Comments --
-Poler Kamrous: Since we already have Shield Boomerang equipped, we went for Defense Form (20 kills with the Boomerang Throws) and we manage to get it just before the Ice Golem bossfight to equip Chain Rod for the zips we have found in this stage.
-Hyleg Ourobockle: This stage is complicated to get any of the forms, so we decided to not go for a Form in this stage, we have to backtrack to pick an elf on top of the start of the stage. We've found a really cool zip that zips Zero into the subtank. We got charged saber on the bossfight.
Resistance Base Break: After clearing the previous 4 missions, we have to talk to Ciel and return back to talk to Elpizo, but we break that with another zip in the Ciel Room that warps into the Nurse Room, from there with another 2 new zips we collect 2 elves (we can't do this after the intro stage, so this is the best moment to do).
-Elemental Golems: This is the best stage to go for Power Form (30 pulls with the Chain Rod) since we have to pull 3 crates for 2 elves, so we went for it. We also found out, that you can pull an object from the shortest possible distance even if the object doesn't move at all, it is quite hilarious. We also acquired Charged Rod in the last pull to be used in the Golems bossfights.
Elves: 38/81
Skills: 4/10
Forms: 4/8
Tanks: 1/2
Movie File: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/42410173451764034Link to video
With this we (McBobX and me) gladly present to you our new project, a 100% TAS which includes All Cyber-Elves, All Forms*, All Ex-Skills and All Subtanks.
How do we get all of this:
-Cyber Elves (81): Some elves can be acquired by killing a specific number of enemies on a specific stage, and others by killing a specific midboss and others are in specific crates which holds the elf that needs to be destroyed.
-Forms (9): Can only be obtained at the end of a mission and can only get ONE per mission. Need to accomplish a specific task (for example: destroying 50 enemies with the Buster) and at the end you are rewarded with the Form. You can't get any Forms in the Intro Stage.
-Ex-Skills (10): Upon beating a mission while having A or S Rank, you are rewarded with an Ex-Skill. After the Intro Stage, the next 10 missions gives you a Ex-Skill (except the Elemental Golem Stages).
-Sub-Tanks (2): They are in Hyleg Ourobockle and Burble Hekelot stages, you just grab them. There are 2 extra tanks that you can get by using 2 specific Cyber-Elves (we will only collect them).
* Ultimate Form is skipped because in order to get it, you need to use every single Cybel Elf before going into the Final Stage. And there are some Cyber-Elves that requires to be fed up with E-Crystals. This whole process would normally take an hour and it is not pleasant at all.
-- Stage by Stage Comments --
-Intro Stage: In this stage you can't get weapon experience so we used the Buster all along for normal enemies and a combination of Buster and Saber for bosses. Nothing special to say about it.
-Panter Flauclaws: The ideal stage to level up the Saber to get Triple Slash Combo that helps a lot on bosses, it has a good amount of pair of enemies that you can hit with the Saber in the same frame (giving 2 XP for one hit) and in the midboss section you can farm Saber XP effectively (Second Slash gives 2 XP instead of 1). We also got the Rise Form in this stage (25 Jump Slash Kills) since it is the only usefull Form.
-Phoenix Magnion: One of the longest stages in 100%. Since we won't be using the Buster in the whole game, we decided to go for X Form here (50 Kills with Buster) since it is ideal since you have to destroy 30 small bots near the end of the stage. Here you can see 2 very cool Wall Zips that is done using the Chain Rod. Afterwards we equipped Shield Boomerang for the last 2 midbosses and for the bossfight, this is the only way to beat Phoenix in 4 combos this early in the game.
Elves: 17/81
Skills: 2/10
Forms: 2/8
Tanks: 0/2
The difference in Sigma 2! Too bad the mavericks are too slow otherwise =[
Gate 1 and Gate 2 are both lost causes as well, right?
Yeah. In Gate 1 both Falcon Armor and Blade Armor can do the skip on the magma area with the ice block glitch and in Gate 2 Blade Armor can do a very fast High Max fight. So, lost cause.
So after doing the Shadow Armor run, I was curious as how much faster/slower is it compared to Falcon Armor, so after some calculating, Shadow Armor remains useless for a TAS :(
Link to video
Shadow Armor is an interesting armor to play around with, its buster shot (or shurykens) can go into three directions (straight, diagonal up and diagonal down) and it is random. It does not have mid-charge buster and its charged buster is a powerful (yet, can lag the game a lot) saber slash with a crescent tip that can deal huge amount of damage. X cannot use any weapon acquired. Its Giga Attack is the most powerful of all but has a big start delay. It can do a high jump to stick to the ceiling (just like Zero with Hyoroga) and can shoot shurykens down. It can also stick on walls without sliding down, touch spikes without dying and even wall jump out of them (you cannot do this normally).
For a speedrun or TAS point of view it is not the ideal armor to go since it does not have any weapons (like Yammark Option) to pass through enemies really fast like X normally can. Therefore, I equipped Buster+ and Speedshot to speed up the enemy sections, even though, sometimes the shurykens fly where you do not want them.
The charged buster is powerful but prone to heavy lag since it can hit multiple times (each hit causes four frames of lag). I did found out that by using it in the air and try different times, I can make it hit only once (though, sometimes it was faster to get two hits). This is heavily useful in boss refights.
In addition, the Saber Walljumping Trick is also different, you cannot walljump until the Saber animation ends so you cannot walljump as fast, fortunately, Shadow Armor saber animations are faster which means shorter animation time.
Gate 1, Parts Equipped: Hyper Dash, Hyper Barrier, Buster+, Speedshot, Quick Charge and Weapon Recover
Since it cannot use weapons, I had to use the traditional magma area pass through with Hyper Barrier to save a good amount of time. In addition, in the Nightmare Mother bossfight, I can burn RNGs faster because its buster does burn a RN. I managed to beat it in one cycle using its Giga Attack twice by using Weapon Recover (Giga Attack freezes them, so I get longer cycles using it).
Gate 2, Parts Equipped Hyper Dash, Jumper, Hyper Barrier, Buster+, Speedshot, Quick Charge and Power Drive
In order to do the totem skip, I had to use the Jumper Part, otherwise, it is impossible to do it with this armor. For High Max, destroyed its shield with the charged saber and then used Power Drive to beat him faster. In the second part, you can see that by not having weapons, this armor is slower since you have to avoid enemies or get hit by them to pass through. For the Gate fight, used shyrukens to manipulate him and charged saber to destroy the balls, I also used its Giga Attack to destroy 2 balls with it, it is faster since you don't get lag (but harder to manipulate). Sometimes I ended up using shurykens instead since he is harder to manipulate when he has low HP.
Final Stage, Parts Equipped: Hyper Dash, Buster+, D-Converter, Ultimate Buster.
Equipped Ultimate Buster to get faster bossfights and D-Converter to get the Giga Attack faster (6 hits vs 8). Used the Giga Attack on Mijinion to avoid a lot of lag. Left Sheldon to fight later to fill Giga Attack with the other bosses. Scaravich fight was fun. Shark fight is a bit hard since he moves a lot, had to get hit to fill up my Giga Attack. Went back to Sheldon and finished filling up the Giga Attack to use it on him, his final form causes too much lag. Manipulated Phoenix to stay down for a faster fight. The rest is self-explanatory. For Sigma 1, it is faster to use Giga Attack and for Sigma 2, charged saber for the win.
Hey guys! I'm the one making the 100% TAS of MMZ3. Here comes the WIP:
User movie #41884508689682888
Current rate of progress:End of Blazin Flizard
Improvement:427 frames faster than current record
This looks pretty good, im looking forward to see this finished. One question though, I noticed in some corridors you press "right" twice to dash after a finished dash, isn't this slower than doing a small jump and then dash again?
No, actually keeping dash in this way is as fast as a small jump. What's more, using this trick when zero is on a conveyor belt running forward makes a total acceleration.
Hey guys! I'm the one making the 100% TAS of MMZ3. Here comes the WIP:
User movie #41884508689682888
Current rate of progress:End of Blazin Flizard
Improvement:427 frames faster than current record
This looks pretty good, im looking forward to see this finished. One question though, I noticed in some corridors you press "right" twice to dash after a finished dash, isn't this slower than doing a small jump and then dash again?
Any of you guys interested in doing a Z2 100% TAS with me? (Take in mind that I will be using BizHawk for this)
I think I can go for it too. I can even do both Any% and 100% simultaneously if possible. I'm gonna join you, I don't like BizHawk as much as VBA, but will work on BizHawk for this one if you want to. I'd like to do Any% on VBA.
Great! Any way we can actively talk about this? You are not frequent at IRC, Facebook? Let me know.
Was kinda confused about the "100%" tag because in this game you don't collect anything, I would rather this category to be labeled as "all endings" or something alike.
About the run, it is somewhat interesting since you showcase characters not used in any of the TAS. But in the other hand, very repetitive and gets boring pretty fast. I'm voting Meh (wich is sad since I love this game and it being part of my childhood).
Decided to copy/paste this here so it won't get lost for future use.
Decided to make some sort of item display for 100% TASes of this game, that displays all obtainable items such as: Reploids per stage, armor parts, tanks and heart containers, and show overall percentage. As a bonus added life up, energy up and general parts (these are bonus since you get them by rescuing reploids). You can download the script and the sprites needed here. Feel free to ask anything about it if you want to use this.
Link to video
Decided to make some sort of item display for 100% TASes of this game, that displays all obtainable items such as: Reploids per stage, armor parts, tanks and heart containers, and show overall percentage. As a bonus added life up, energy up and general parts (these are bonus since you get them by rescuing reploids). You can download the script and the sprites needed here. Feel free to ask anything about it if you want to use this.
Link to video
Nice to see X beat this game (instead of Zero) for a change. Though the WARNING sequences and fighting Dynamo over and over is entirely the game at fault. If it would just let you exit from a secondary area...
Oh, and nice to see you back, Rolanmen1.
Long time no see my friend, likewise, thought you wasn't arround anymore.
Oh, so you can just do him infintely ? that's odd. i was seriously wondering after the 3rd time like...why the hell does he keep coming back ..
i thought it was "zero, dyanmo, high max ...then no one else"
It's been forever since i last played X6, so i forgotten :(
Yes, he will come back infinitely, you can get 9999 Nightmare Souls with one character and then do the same with the other.
In fact, they scripted 16 different dialogues for Dynamo. 8 for X per stage and 8 more for Zero per stage. If you get to fight him in a stage you have fought him with the same character there will be no dialogue.
voted yes because it's way too entertaining to see X's less known exploits and powers
lxx4xNx6xxl wrote:
Looking forward to this been watching all your WIP's so far!!!
kuja killer wrote:
that was really nice. i enjoyed watching it from beginning to end. :)
GoddessMaria wrote:
That was very intertaining to watch! For some reason, I loved the Yammark fights most. Great job as usual, Rolanmen1!
Voting Yes for entertainment.
Thanks for the positive comments, it means a lot to me.
andypanther wrote:
I can see why this game is not very popular. What hurt the entertainment value for me were the many dialogue sequences that would often result in additional loading screens. It really makes you miss the days of one sentence-stories. The boss fights were also a problem because they kept re-using that Dynamo guy.
On the positive side, seeing the TAS go through those hordes of enemies in a fake difficulty-setting was very satisfying. I also liked how fast faced the TAS was, whenever it didn't have to stop to clear text boxes. Overall, I'm giving it a weak yes.
Yeah, I totally accept that, sometimes I just wish the boss to show up instead of that annoying WARNING signal lol. Dynamo actually serves a purpouse in the game (not for the TAS, but for a casual/normal player), and it is that he gives 600 Nightmare Souls per fight so you can fight him to get 9999 of them without continously destroying Nightmare enemies wich gives just 8. With 9999 Nightmare Souls, the character unlocks the UH rank (Ultimate Hunter) and can equip 4 Parts + 1 Limited Part.
