Posts for TheAxeMan

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Posted: 9/10/2012 1:45 AM
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TheAxeMan
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It's nice to beat the current run and overall this looks good. I think there should be another pass before publishing though. Am I missing something or is not powering up to the sword early a mistake? In the final miniboss rush you use all the magic on the last griffin monster when it looks like it may have been helpful to use some magic on the others. So while this is nice I think we should hold out for another pass at this game.
Posted: 9/5/2012 4:55 AM
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TheAxeMan
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Awesome! Would it be possible to speed up the unseen fight by dying a couple more times in turbo tunnel?
Posted: 8/17/2012 3:07 PM
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TheAxeMan
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Awesome improvement. Would have thought that one of us would have checked at some point whether it was faster to powerup before the bonus level, it seems obvious in hindsight. Goes to show that there are still improvements to be found even in very tightly optimized movies. As a bonus you get more points having fun with the fireballs.
Posted: 8/10/2012 5:01 PM
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TheAxeMan
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Hey, could we link the name generator program from the movie page? I noticed that no one is downloading that but the counter for the Crystalis script that is on the published page is still going up.
Posted: 8/10/2012 4:58 PM
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TheAxeMan
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Thanks Max, I love hearing stuff like this. I think the extras really add a lot to TASing. A good game is an amazing interactive combination of art and technology and I think a good TAS should capture that. I don't know about every input format, but fm2 supports embedded comments. It takes some work to write those comments up. But with all the work it takes to make the TAS in the first place it is worth it. If you enjoy the technical details you should check out my Crystalis run in the emulator with the author's notes lua. By the way, this is the discussion board for the older version of the run.
Posted: 8/2/2012 1:25 PM
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TheAxeMan
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I think "no cannons" is a good category but "uses all powerups" should not be tied in. An "All big coins" run would go through all powerups at some point I think. At any rate I have to vote no because it is clearly not optimized in many places. You've put some thought into this but there is much more to be done.
Posted: 7/15/2012 4:50 AM
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TheAxeMan
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Glad everyone likes this and is having fun with the name generator. I set up the generator so the order on that screen is the final order after the party is down to one survivor. According to the google code stats more people have actually downloaded the optimization code than the name generator. So I was wondering if I could get some feedback. Is it easy to understand? Could simulation like this help on other games? Any other python fans? I originally did this in python to practice the language and now make my living coding in python. For anyone interested in making some other run with different classes or some other goal like including class change this code should be a good start. I don't plan on making any other versions myself though.
Posted: 7/14/2012 5:58 AM
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TheAxeMan
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This is awesome! Does the wrap save time on the cloud thing at the end or is that just to show off?
Posted: 6/23/2012 4:43 AM
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TheAxeMan
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Excellent run, glad I could be helpful. This should definitely be published to obsolete the current run. As far as known improvements, maybe you can make a game resources page or post them for posterity.
Posted: 6/16/2012 4:18 PM
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TheAxeMan
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This looks well done and is as entertaining as you'd expect a Ninja Gaiden run to be. Biggest differences seem to be on bosses which was sometimes interesting. Sorry, but I don't think it's significantly different enough to publish. Not familiar with the (J) version but that could be interesting.
Posted: 6/13/2012 2:14 PM
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TheAxeMan
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Check out the preview for the upcoming album on http://ocremix.org/. Their (awesome) preview video uses footage from my run. It's pretty generic and I don't think anyone else would notice. I'm quite honored because I often listen to OCR while TASing but it would be nice to get an attribution or special thanks for myself or this site.
Posted: 6/11/2012 4:02 AM
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TheAxeMan
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This was awesome! Great find with the time lord. I'll see if I can find out anything about the RNG. Finishing each battle with one spell and getting the gold from fewer chests would be nice. Of course the game itself is really crappy but there weren't many RPGs back then so we wasted a lot of time in Sosaria.
Posted: 6/6/2012 12:09 PM
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TheAxeMan
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DarkKobold wrote:
Aren't you supposed to go through dungeons to get runes?
That's Quest of the Avatar. I like this plan. Sorry, I don't know about time lord stopping things. Is this different from the stop spell?
Posted: 5/21/2012 2:29 AM
Post subject: Solar Eclipse
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TheAxeMan
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Anyone else watch the solar eclipse today? It is also my birthday today so I kept thinking about the opening of Aria of Sorrow. I was disappointed when I didn't get any special powers or get transported to Dracula's castle. I guess you have to view it from a Japanese shrine. It wasn't a total eclipse and from where I am we didn't see the full disc but it was still pretty neat.
Posted: 5/10/2012 4:46 AM
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TheAxeMan
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The run looks well planned and executed, very nice. Yes from me. Overall the game is pretty crappy but the super high jumping and freeze gun/spear combo makes for a unique feel. For those who don't know anything about this game, it is Nintendo hard near its hardest. Powering up your jump height, gun spread, spear strength and length is kinda neat, but the drop rate of those powerups is pathetic and you lose it all when you die. It might have been a much cooler game if they had smoothed that out.
Posted: 4/15/2012 3:19 PM
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TheAxeMan
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I think it will be slower and not necessarily more interesting. Are there are any places where it will force interesting new strategies?
Posted: 4/14/2012 4:32 PM
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TheAxeMan
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IronSlayer wrote:
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area
Ah, there you have it. Socially, the west coast is like a completely different country from the midwest where I grew up and went to school. I am much happier now in the Bay Area and I'll never move back. There are reasons beyond jobs for the net migration out of the area.
Ferret Warlord wrote:
People talk about stigmas...
Yeah, I do worry about that, even when people are otherwise very accepting. You also need to worry about not pitying yourself. That's why these days I sort of go on a need-to-know basis. Even if I can't completely hide it, most people will just assume that I'm a bit eccentric. But I definitely don't mind discussing it if there's a good reason. Like preventing other tragedies like Zidanax.
Posted: 4/14/2012 6:37 AM
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TheAxeMan
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IronSlayer wrote:
As a fellow also living in the US, I have to disagree with all of this.
If what I said before is wrong then great. I've been out of college for a few years now and hopefully things have gotten better. One school I went to had very poor coverage on account of being in a small town and having no medical campus. There was a small, limited service student health center with a limit on the number of free clinic visits you got. I also hope you are right about the mental health stigma going away. I think things are definitely better among younger people. Unfortunately we have a lot of stubborn older folks who are less accepting yet control many of our institutions. I am probably a bit jaded because my parents are in that group. We definitely have health resources in the US but accessing them is not as easy as it should be. Ease of access is also not very equal at all. Dealing with something like this is never easy but can be much harder in some situations. Anyway, glad you like my runs! One of my motivations in TASing is to stick with a big project to prove to myself that I have my disorder under control. I also want to prove that us moody people can do amazing things. Not just to earn the respect of deniers but also to inspire other moody people to work harder at managing their disorders.
Posted: 4/13/2012 7:38 PM
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TheAxeMan
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Yeah, light therapy takes me from severe depression to functional depression. It helps but it's no substitute for real sunlight. Apparently it works for most people though. Higher latitude does affect things but in the Pacific Northwest US cloud cover is really the killer (literally in some unfortunate cases). Unless you are a vampire you probably don't like cloudy days. But if you have SAD then it becomes a serious health issue! There are also some extra challenges in the US. We don't have universal health insurance yet, so college students like Zidanax are often uninsured or underinsured. Americans assume that the early 20s are a healthy age but it happens to be when disorders like this often begin or pick up. Check out 'A Beautiful Mind' for a well-known example. Another American problem is that there is a huge stigma associated with mental health issues. So if you have depression you not only need to overcome your lack of motivation but also figure out how your health insurance works and decide who you can trust with your secret. You end up either hiding a big part of yourself or distancing yourself from everyone. Everyone rushes to help out the guy in a wheelchair but we look the other way and avoid those with mental issues.
Posted: 4/13/2012 5:47 PM
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TheAxeMan
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I finally found this and it's so sad! It really hit me when I realized that his last post was a discussion with me about his Lufia run. Man, I was really looking forward to that. He was clearly a real smart guy to be able to put together a run for that game. I'm tempted to continue his work but don't have time right now. Coincidentally, I have spent a lot of time in Corvallis myself. The weather averages only 100 sunny days a year, almost all of them from June-Sept. So by "spring" the rain gets really painful. Famously, Kurt Cobain's suicide was in Seattle on April 5. Anyway, if you have or suspect you have any mental health problem you need to take care of yourself! I was about the same age as Zidanax when I finally figured out that I have a severe form of Seasonal Affective Disorder. It took a lot of work and some significant changes to my life (moving to someplace with nicer weather) to manage it, but it was all worth it. If you can control your mood swings you really can do anything. If you want to be an ally to us moody people I suggest just being a little more sensitive in general. Depression magnifies any perception of social rejection. Keep in mind that you can't see the other person online. Also, give us moody people some extra space. Sometimes we just need to be alone to wait out our mood swings.
Posted: 4/6/2012 3:53 AM
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TheAxeMan
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Thanks, Bisqwit. You bring up a good point in that a Final Fantasy TAS is not going to be an exciting watch the same way an action-adventure or platformer is. It's more about inspiring thought exercises about what is possible and how everything works or just zoning out for an hour or so and enjoying the music and art of the game. It reminds me of something a math professor said about a complex mathematical theorem that isn't computationally practical: the exciting thing is simply that it exists. So yeah, I was motivated to make this run because I wanted it to exist. From the comments and votes it sounds like that's enough for a lot people.
Posted: 4/5/2012 7:16 AM
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TheAxeMan
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Sure, there's other ways you can get a victory besides bane sword. They just aren't as fast. You could use HOLD to paralyze or conf staff to confuse it. Or MUTE and then attack while manipulating it to use magic. These are all going to be really slow on bosses with 1000+ hp though. Not sure which one is going to be best. Maybe a solo red mage that can use one of those spells and equip a decent weapon. Conf staff makes for long turns and bosses don't do much damage to themselves. Problem with using FEAR any more than I do here is that every boss has max morale and will take 4 FEARs. This run does get to use a few different strategies: RUSE, HARM, mage staff. Sorry, there's not much more variety in this game. NES RPGs are pretty simple.
Posted: 4/4/2012 1:52 AM
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TheAxeMan
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If you are really curious about the little dock trick you can check out my scripts. Once you get ffPathfinder working it is easy to add steps somewhere and see how it affects encounters.
Bobo the King wrote:
Was there any gear that you used only in your Fighter run that you could have sold off in your White Mage run?
Dragon sword sells for 4000 gold, not enough to make a difference. Silver armor in the same room is worth about the same. There is some other treasure in Dwarf Cave but none of it sells for enough to bother. It's the time needed to pick it up that is painful. Selling is not as bad since I have to go to the Crescent Lake weapon shop anyway. Short sword in Marsh cave only sells for 275G so I am much better off getting the house with my extra steps.
Posted: 4/3/2012 3:05 PM
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TheAxeMan
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Bobo the King wrote:
As for solo Thief, I hope you like extensive level grinding in your TASes.
Because of luck manipulation, a solo thief wouldn't need to grind. He would just take a long time against some of the bosses. Unless you disallow BANE sword, but that would be a problem for any class. The extensive grinding would actually be for WARP or EXIT. Since they are level 5 and 6 magic it would take quite a bit more than just the bosses to get enough xp to use them on time. And for EXIT you need to do class change. The extra xp in this run comes very easily because it isn't needed until near the end. Getting that much xp earlier would take a lot more time.
Posted: 4/1/2012 12:47 AM
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TheAxeMan
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Thanks. Chaos is immune to everything. So the chance of any effect working is 3 in 256, just like BANE.
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