different quality releases won't really help here due to the usage of BitTorrent for distribution. There'd probably be seeding trouble and lower download rates when the available seeders are split between different quality avis.
We can use archive.org for direct links as SDA does, too, but nothing can match BT's speed when there are a couple of Swedes with 100 mbit upload rate. :D
SDA offers various sizes mainly because there's both no way to satisfy everyone with just one encode and no way of doing a manual encode, either.
However, you can do the latter with TAS movies if you want to, and with very little trouble. If you can't or don't want to, the quality/size ratio can hardly be better with TASVideos encodes. Not to mention that every SDA encode is bloated so much that it's almost painful to try to stuff some of the high/insane quality runs onto DVD+Rs.
Umm, Upthorn, the thing is that NecroVMX watches even the runs he doesn't like and votes "no" on them if they have glitches he doesn't like. Apparently, getting inside a wall in this game sucks, and exploiting numerous glitches in your S3&K run doesn't. Go figure.
(The moral of the story: don't argue with NecroVMX, it's pointless.)
Since the Super Metroid Tricks page is asking for discussions on various routes, I will post a route that I developed and believe to be the fastest route for an any% run aiming for real time. I have done quite a bit of testing and have some good experience TASing this game. My route idea can be found here http://img441.imageshack.us/my.php?image=herootdmetroidroutewv0.jpg.
The image shows my intended route and the damage data for all the bosses as well.
That's a very interesting route, especially considering there's so little backtracking involved. And I really didn't hope for such a quick response for that suggestion I put up on the TODO, so it was a pleasant surprise as well. :D
hero of the day wrote:
Since this aims for real time, there are some less obvious choices that I made.
I should say, the choices are indeed surprising, especially such as skipping both Space Jump and HJ boots. That will really slow you down in vertical and some horizontal rooms, and I'm not sure not taking the Space Jump is going to compensate it. Come to think of it, you'll gain about 20 seconds with nearly a half of it lost on doing a gravity jump to get to the exit from Draygon's room, then a bit more later in Maridia, then a bit more for not being able to space boost in the first Crateria room to the left of the ship (which would also allow for going through the bomb-block blockade painlessly without having to stop and recharge), then a bit more in the third metroid room and Tourian eyedoor room. Summed together, I see it about as much as 20 seconds, if not more.
Anyhow, the setting of items, their order and methods of traversing the areas remind me pretty much of Saturn's RBO run or a low% one. The fact that you won't be using the fastest known methods to dispose of Phantoon, Ridley and Mother Brain due to the lack of all the required items, coupled with noticeably slower travelling is sure a bit daunting, and this of course will have its impact on the entertainment value, although less backtracking and waiting for door transitions/item acquisition fanfares might make up for that.
hero of the day wrote:
I know Saturn is working on an any% improvement currently, and it will surley be one of the finest runs ever made, but I know his goal is to get the in game timer as low as possible. I would like to see how low the real time can get, which is why I made this route.
Since you said you had some good experience TASing this game, and already made most of the tests and route planning, I'll ask you: how much time will it take you to make this run? As we know, Saturn will be away for his duties for the whole next year, and he'll still need to make about 2/3 of his run after he returns. As we also know, his route will be faster in-game time (which is prevalent in the case with Super Metroid, due to numerous reasons) and more entertaining for the same reasons. You have enough time to make this run and have it published until then, which is also twice as good since having such an outdated run for one of the most popular and TAS-happy games doesn't make any good for the site. So will you do it?
So when she's facing left, her "front foot" is the left foot? And when facing right the front foot is right foor? And if they're tied up somehow, does it mean that when running right I have to press B (on SNES) everytime her right foot "front foot" is touching the ground?
Yes. Yes, right foot. Yes, when going right. Yes, when touching the ground. Yes, you may want to press it a bit beforehand to catch the right moment. :)
Watch JXQ's run with input display on, and slow it down as he's about to charge a spark in short distance, if that helps.
You can try shortening the distance further if you watch Samus's running animation closely: the special frames are closely tied to it and thus only occur when her "front foot" is touching the ground.
I mean exactly one-button (or button combination) save to/load from a slot. I shuffle through my states very often, since I'm using four at a time while TASing (one at a safe spot, one at the beginning of a complex sequence, two more for general purposes — testing variations in the span of several frames). Of course, it would be much longer for me to pick a slot, and then use it — especially if I alternate between them a lot.
Hmm, yes, you're right.
In addition to that, here's my personal wishlist for the next version:
1) there should be separate hotkeys for different savestate slots (it's MUCH handier to load them with one buttonpress each, not to switch between them each time);
2) all the hotkeys including save/load states should be freely configurable — and in one menu, not scattered across 3-4 different ones;
3) frame advance should ideally work exactly like in snes9x (since it's pretty much perfect in there), and it shouldn't mess up the graphics at all;
4) how about a more minimalistic GUI as a separate option? I sure think many people will be happy about it.
Somehow I found this run to be a little less entertaining than the previous two. Hmm, strange.
You used some interesting angles in Bowser stages, although the switching was noticeably sporadic (like the first throw in final bowser). Also, I still don't like that "zoom out as much as possible" trend you started with your first version. Camera clip while glitchsliding up the mountain looked awful.
But it is a yes vote.
However, if storybook-style games have been accepted and published , such as Deja-vu, Shadowgate, or The Uninvited, you can't really hold the fact that this is menu based against the run.
Well, it doesn't really matter if they've been accepted; the fact is that I don't like watching furious menu action half the time of the run. It just isn't interesting to me as a viewer, hence the vote. The strategy, however, is indeed great.
Quite a well thought-out strategy you got there, I couldn't think of any possible improvement to it, other than the password part: while you seem to have chosen the smallest letter count, is it also the shortest possible word to type in (as in, with the letters close enough to each other to save time scrolling through them)?
On the other hand, it was rather dull to watch, especially considering a lot of boring menu navigation and such, even though it was short. So I think I'll vote meh.
Anyway, give or take, I like your thoroughness. Do you have any other projects currently?
No-one did. It's just that it doesn't actually show how "perfect" a movie is. Remember SprintGod's S3&K run with 160K rerecords? Got improved by 10 minutes. Or Bisqwit & Shinryuu's Rockman 2 with more than 220K rerecords not counting endless BisqBot's bruteforce attempts? Got improved by several seconds without using any bots at all, with much less rerecords. So, apparently, rerecord count hardly tells anything aside from approximate measures of how thorough the author was.
Hey man I was just voicing my opinion...you don't have to be so mean about it. I figured people usually brought up games in the forum because of its TAS potential...sorry
I just found it a bit rude to voice the opinion while completely missing the point of both the hack itself and this thread at all. Both due to inattention, I suppose.
