Posts for Tub

Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
This run looks very optimized, with good planning and execution, including a spiffy new Baby Metroid Escape. Well done, Saturn! As for the question of publication, I think it should be linked from the any% page, but not published in a separate category. Routes By now, the routes are as follows: to red brinstar PBs -> phantoon -> high jump + E-Tank -> SB -> Wave -> Ridley -> Ice -> Kraid -> Maridia -> Draygon -> Plasma -> Tourian to red brinstar PBs -> phantoon -> Kraid + E-Tank -> SB -> Wave -> Ridley -> Ice -> Maridia -> Draygon -> Tourian The ingame-run collects two additional items and does Kraid later. (The realtime run has to do Kraid earlier for the E-Tank, since the E-Tank near the high jump is obviously skipped.) This results in two large detours, a slightly quicker Kraid kill and a faster fight against Mother Brain. Everything else looks similar, with minor alterations in room strategies, partially due to differences in items (HJ/Varia), partially due to different needs for manipulating door transitions and lag, and partially due to stylistic choices. It's hard to tell which one looks "better": the high jump allows for a nicer exit after ridley, but makes for a clumsy jump in the pre-wave room, so it all evens out. Note that this was different when we had two any% runs published. Back when we decided to keep those runs separate, the routes had major differences. The arguments that warranted separation back then may not hold any more. Tricks Does this run have any unique tricks or situations the other run cannot show off? I could only find one instance where Saturn's run truly surprised me: the improved Baby Metroid-Escape. However, that's a trick that could be applied to all unglitched runs and thus wouldn't warrant a separate category. Since the runs only feature minor differences and don't have their unique tricks to show off, I don't think publishing both is beneficial for the site. ingame vs. realtime Of course one might argue that we should feature the ingame-run on the frontpage, and have it obsolete the any% run. It's difficult to tell which one is more optimized since the runs diverge after a few door transitions, and only a handful of SM TASers could spot inaccuracies at this level of optimization in either run. This run adds ~85 seconds of boring stuff like door transitions, menus, item-jingles, elevators and delayed frames in order to lower the ingame-timer by ~51 seconds. While removing playing time is always a noble goal, doing so by adding a disproportionate amount of non-playing-time still doesn't sound like a good idea to me. In addition to that, IMHO it looks more impressive to run through the game without having to grab the big guns. Most of the savings come from the Mother Brain fight. But I'd prefer to see two minutes of well-timed wave PB combos to one minute of detours for plasma and one minute of senseless plasma spamming. So altogether, I remain convinced that the realtime category serves this game better. The short form of this post is a "Meh" vote.
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Heh.. I was just looking for different applications of the CF trick when my mind went to the maridia tube. It's only 1 block high, right? If you glitched through that, would there be water on the other side? ..then I remembered that somewhere during the crystal flash, you're bound to drop a power bomb. Drat! :( I found only one place besides GT, but this one will be difficult: gravity without phantoon and xray: Things needed for this to work:
  • The required rooms are all working without killing phantoon. They should be, but you never know.
  • The door leads to the expected room. (The bridge you travel through appears to be a different room, because it has an extra enemy, so who knows?)
  • You can somehow time a CF up there. Space Jump or wall jumps won't help since you can't re-spin after unmorphing, and there's no ground near you. If this is possible at all, it'll have to be done as part of a very tricky IBJ sequence.
Considering that this has been possible with xray for ages, I'm not sure it's worth it. Unless someone considers glitching through a 1-block floor to be less "glitchy" than xray-climbing behind a closed door. Even if possible, it's useless in any% and low% (no grapple, not enough ammo) and 100% (need to kill phantoon and clear WS anyway). It might be useful in an RBO, if you relabel it as "reverse boss order except for phantoon who is totally skipped and we didn't feel like doing Kraid either because we don't need varia any more". Meh.
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
ElectroSpecter wrote:
I would like to be able to say, "Gee, I've killed this enemy 128 times, and still haven't gotten my 1 / 64 drop, the chances of that are xxxxxx!" and totally nerd out.
FYI, you don't get to "nerd out" unless you were able to do the math yourself. Just saying. :P
Warp wrote:
You might want to revise that result. (Hint: The correct number is something like 10-198%.)
No, that's the number of "getting the 1% drop every single time!". For the chance of getting no drop in 100 attempts, 0.99^100 ~ 36% is correct.
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
What would you gain from doing Norfair before Maridia? The current 100% run's route is: speedbooster -> crocomire/grapple -> wrecked ship -> maridia -> norfair, so you'll only switch the last two. Doing so means: Norfair without plasma, fewer super missiles and without space jump. Do you know any Screw Attack tricks that would speed up Maridia? Skipping the statue before GT doesn't seem faster, either. You skip the cutscene, but you take a detour and add a Crystal Flash (including ammo farming). The any% does maridia last, because it doesn't need to pick up maridia's items and can easily leave through maridia's upper exit. A 100% run won't have that option, you'll end up near the glass pipe anyway. Switching Norfair and Maridia doesn't seem to have any impact on the route (besides switching those two), but would make Norfair slower. Did I miss anything?
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Eye Of The Beholder wrote:
Edit 2: hum... Iirc that damn statue can only be activated to have acces for that missile after getting the Space Jump, right? So now a route that cleans all Norfair before going to Maridia... but iirc you had to use the space Jump to reach the right place to activate the Crystal Flash animation.
It looks like it would be possible with a walljump instead, but the "no horizontal movement"-requirement makes this somewhat tricky.
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
huh, that's odd. I tried doing exactly that in Metroid: Super Zero Mission to get the last item, but found [url=http://m2k2.taigaforum.com /post/are_these_glitches_new2.html]this post by Kejardon[/url]:
Crystal flash in mid-air: I'm pretty sure there's a check to make sure Samus isn't moving, either, but I don't remember one for Samus being on the ground. It might be possible with a frame perfect trick to get a crystal flash in mid-air. I'd have to check. I don't see what use it would be though. There'd be air beneath you, and so you'd simply fall instead of getting through a ceiling.
..so I stopped trying. :/
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
After rewatching a couple of times, here are a few questions: Couldn't you have bombjumped all the way back to crocomire after its e-tank? Or would that have been too slow, i.e. missing croc's return? I'm curious to see how you're going to deal with lower norfair with the amount of items you have. Lacking beams, you'll need to manipulate both energy and PBs (possibly supers) for ridley, lots of 'em. And you cannot spend more time farming energy than picking up the gauntlet e-tank would have taken. I can only assume you have a plan and/or a testrun already done for that? You didn't use NameSpoofer's method of entering norfair through the exit. Are you confident your route is faster, or was is merely a stylistic choice to avoid xray-glitches? The thing at 19550 frames.. looks like a CWJ done on flat ground o_O Does that work anywhere else in the game?
m00
Post subject: Re: Kinda Weird Math Question
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Tanooki Teabag wrote:
is there a generally accepted way to denote an individual digit's place?
No, since "digits" are not an inherent property of numbers. That we're talking in base10 is a social convention, not a mathematical one. Usually, if you're interested in digits, you'd formally introduce (and name) the base10 representation first. Something like this: Let: a = \sum_{i=0}^{\infty} a_i * 10^i, 0 <= a_i <= 9 be a number and its base10 representation. Whether you use ai or ai or a(i) or a[ i] or something else is up to you.
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Tricks that were never used before? In Super Metroid? Awesome!
m00
Tub
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
A few questions:
  • You're using a glitch to damage enemies more often than you should. How does it work? Is it similar to the glitch in Portrait of Ruin, where you overflow the "Last hit by"-list?
  • Near the beginning, you're spending some time killing stuff. Some of it can be attributed to the need for hearts, but some enemies are killed without gaining any hearts, and some hearts are wasted killing enemies that do not need to die. Do you actually need the exp? Why?
  • Do you actually enter dracula's room for a couple of frames in the middle of the run? It looked like you did, but the emulator didn't allow me to rewind to check.
  • I really think you should have taken the time to visit your furniture room, take a seat in that comfortable chair, sip a tea, contemplate whether to save the world and destroy your furniture, or the other way around.. That was the point of collecting all the furniture, wasn't it? The minor change in the ending is skipped through, anyway.
  • Can someone remind me please? How many castles are there exactly? I keep forgetting. :p
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Watching the emulator movie on Linux+Wine is often difficult, if not impossible at all. That's why I prefer to use encodes for most platforms. Nowadays, downloading them is much faster then updating my wine environment, having the latest gecko installed, possibly upgrading the emulator and then watchin with frameskip=2 because it's too slow otherwise. But of course, "kids these days", there were times when we didn't have encodes at all until a movie was accepted, and I'm thankful for the work the encoders do in their spare time. Forcing anyone to do anything is a no-go. There's still one point I have to agree on:
It's also annoying to have to check a topic multiple times before an encode is embedded into the OP
It's not immediately obvious when an encode was added, since the thread isn't marked as new on edits, nor will the "View unread posts"-link tell you about it. Would it be possible to extend the submission system to mark submission threads that contain an encode? It might be as simple as a two-line heuristic in TVA's forum module:
if (stripos('[video', $submissiontext) !== false)
  $posttopic = "(encode) $posttopic";
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
A measurement was made that would, if correct, indicate that neutrinos travel very slightly faster than c. So one (or both) of the following is true: a) Neutrinos travel faster than c b) the measurement was flawed. Even the authors of the recent paper consider b) more likely. They make this very clear in their paper, if anyone bothers to read it. They published their results to gain help with finding the error, or to get someone else to independently verify the experiment. They did not announce any scientific breakthrough. But since that's quite boring, a lot of media are slapping on a tacky headline and spreading claims that none of the authors ever made. Then some forum posters repeat the same nonsense. Luckily there has been an independent measurement of neutrino speeds quite a while ago: http://io9.com/5843112/faster-than-light-neutrinos-not-so-fast
Now consider a supernova explosion. In particular, consider Supernova 1987A: This was an explosion about 160,000 light years from earth. The thing is, the neutrinos and the photons from the explosion reached us at almost exactly the same time. In the cause of intellectual honestly, I need to point out that the neutrinos were detected first, by about 3 hours, but this is because the envelope of the explosion was optically thick and the photons had to bounce around a while, while the neutrinos just streamed right out. But how much of a delay between neutrinos and photons would we expect if the OPERA result applied? (delta) t = 2 x 10^-5 * 160.000yr = 3.2 years In other words, if the effect really were this large, we would have seen the neutrinos from SN 1987A way back in 1984. Yeah, we would have noticed that.
Which is just another hint that the recent results are due to measurement error. Either way, more research needs to be done to either find the errors or confirm the findings. Until that's done, the prudent assumption is that neutrinos continue to travel at c, and that the hype around the new paper is completely unsubstantiated.
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
I stand by my previous no vote due to game choice.
m00
Tub
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Running to the right? Walljumping? Running on top of the level? Not finding a princess at the end? There's this other game that already did all that, with superior gfx. The only thing this run offered over the current SMB publications are the traps, but those are barely visible since they're avoided anyway. On the other hand, SMB skillfully dodges koopa, fish and fireballs, which is much more entertaining than a floor disappearing half a screen behind the player. Voted no due to game choice.
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
I suppose if you have money to burn and there's this really really cool PS3-exclusive game you absolutely want to play... then sure, that game may be worth an extra 250€ for the hardware. But just getting one for the sake of having one is kinda useless, with two good gaming platforms already at your disposal. In other words, you can save a lot of money by NOT asking about the best PS3 exclusive games out there. If you don't know them, you won't miss them. ;)
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Oel-Boy wrote:
Concerning american english: here in germany we are also taught british englisch. this is going so far that american expressions are sometimes even rated as mistakes
huh? I'm german too, and back when I was in school we switched between BE and AE depending on the teacher we had at the time. Some teachers had learned BE, others AE, and they'd teach as they know it. As such, no points were deducted for using the "wrong" english, we only had to be consistent in our usage.
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
There's no real free will as long as this board has moderators, right? The bad news is, there is no scientific way to prove or disprove the concept of free will. The good news is, it doesn't matter. The assumption that we do have a free will is a good approximation to use in our day-to-day-lives. Assuming the converse will just lead to bad poetry and awful haircuts.
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
+teleport is right out. Getting +teleport on a staffmod is lvlreq 18 and Sorceress only. At that point, the sorc might just dump points into the skill itself. Getting +teleport for any class is Enigma only, lvlreq 65 and very difficult to manipulate, even with TASing tools. Charges are possible, but only feasible on a 2h-staff. (There are no rings with teleport charges. On Amulets and Circlets, the level requirement is 48. Orbs are sorceress only. The unique Spellsteel and the set item Naj's Puzzler have lvlreqs 47 and 43, respectively.) On a 2h-staffs, lvlreq is 24, and it's 30 charges until you need to repair. Too late for a normal mode run. I suppose you could try an Assassin 100% run with teleport charges on nightmare and hell. Though the rune or gold drops to repair the charges would be huge, and the slower casting times of assassins will be noticeable.
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
I've experienced loss of cookies, too, despite a large expiration time. It appears to happen when the server is flakey, possibly because some PHP scripts didn't finish executing. Since I never notice until it's too late, I can't provide headers or anything though.
m00
Tub
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Great run, what else could I vote but "yes"? I love the manipulated enemy AI and your ability to squeeze clones through places they weren't meant to go. If a run on this game manages to surprise me several times, then you did well. on 25.03.2006 Atma wrote:
the minish cap run is barely 2/5ths done, and will be done after i finish this (I swear Tub).
Thank you Tompa, for finally freeing Atma from his promise. Another five years and I might have gotten slightly impatient :p
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
SoulCal wrote:
With a game like RE4 though, I bet more people would be interested in the final game timer more than a frame count.
Actually, I'm not interested in either. Comparing TASes to speedruns is moot, anyway. I just want to see an awesome run. Precise headshots, insane lucky drops, clever strategies and possibly a glitch here and there, and I'm happy. So far, I like what I'm seeing. In other words, I'm hoping you'll continue regardless of loading time inaccuracies. If a comparison to console speedruns is important to you, research about the ingame timer should reveal methods to account for the differences. Does dolphin have a memory watch function? Figuring out the ram address of the ingame timer might be a good first move.
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
first-world problems, tasvideos edition:
  • I've lost a frame on level 3, but can't find where exactly.
  • Someone voted 'no' on this awesome submission and we don't know who or why.
  • The RNG isn't giving me the numbers I like.
  • The site rules need to be changed to resolve a slightly ambiguous wording of a minor point, but the admins aren't taking my complaints seriously enough.
  • This stupid cutscene isn't skippable.
  • I want to watch this submission, but there's no encode yet.
  • Nobody has done a TAS of my favourite childhood game yet, and I can't be bothered to do one myself.
  • The judge's verdict on this submission is wrong!
  • We've been discussing about religion for seven pages now, and they still haven't accepted my views as the obviously correct ones.
  • There's like 5 hours of new speedruns on the net, but I don't have time to watch them today.
  • My hard drive failed and I lost all my save games.
  • Someone spotted an improvement in level 2 but I'm already at level 8.
  • I should be in bed right now, but instead I'm posting in some offtopic forum.
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
If you're interested in actual problems of cryonics, start with the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryonics In short: there's no evidence that the freezing is reversible, there's no evidence that the freezing process doesn't destroy critical pieces, it's just taking a guy's money, putting him in a freezer and leaving the rest as an exercise to future generations. But this thread isn't about the feasibility of cryonics, it's a question about the appeal of trading half your lifespan for the ability to live in the future.
erokky wrote:
My apologies to Lex and Tub for slightly editing the topic after you both posted.
I noticed your edit after I posted, but since my answer doesn't rely on the actual timeframe, I didn't bother to update.
m00
Tub
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Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
sweet, well done!
m00
Tub
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Nothing beats being the poor mock in a "caveman in modern times" comedy. No thanks. Waking up in 2111 would mean that my computers are obsolete, my knowledge is obsolete, everything I've done in my life has been forgotten[1], and I'll be living in a society that has no use for me or my skills. I couldn't work for a living and I doubt I'd be entitled to welfare[2]. I wouldn't even be interesting to historians - we live in a digital age, information can be retained for as long as we like, and in 2111 a standard search engine is likely to yield better answers about 2011 events than I would. [1] well, probably still stored in a database somewhere, but nobody cares. [2] That's assuming that humanity at large doesn't change too much. Waking up in a utopian paradise with no shortages (and as such, no currency system) is very very unlikely when extrapolating the current state of earth's natural resources. Waking up in a post-apocalyptic wasteland is far more likely, and I'm no good at hunting two-legged rats and scorpions.
m00