'Twas fun, though I can't claim to comprehend every little trick you've done there. But with this kind of mobility I'd watch it even if it were only comprised of the platforming minigame.
Hey all. I have some possible improvements in case anyone wants to implement/look into them.
Thanks for posting them. However, since you have already posted these improvements in the TMNT3 thread, which is the proper place to post them, please continue all discussion there.
Submission threads are only to be used for discussion of that particular submission, and duplicate posts are frowned upon in any case. Please take note.
Given that the observable universe is smaller than the entire universe, what kind of "evidence of any boundaries or wraparounds" would you expect to see?
Well, I'm not the one looking, but there has been astronomical research into finding evidence of curvature, e.g. in the form of repeating regions of the sky (in particular, CMB patterns). There were promising results, but as far as I know, nothing of the sort was confirmed in the end.
There is no definite answer to that, but astronomers have looked into it for decades and so far have seen no evidence of any boundaries or wraparounds. Not even a trace thereof. So it's either actually infinite or so big it is functionally infinite.
I made the thread title more descriptive.
Also make sure—both now and in the future—that you state the BizHawk version and the core you're using (BizHawk has two GBA cores).
Also don't mention any ROM sites (this is a very strict rule and you will not be warned again).
So how am I gonna solve it? Several people prepared to see this run rejected, several people said it'd be very bad to combine branches, several people said singular branches look similar, and now after measuring everything we currently have, Sonic is the least unique singular branch.
What about this idea, though?
moozooh wrote:
So since it functionally is a lower-glitch, more-sightseeing any%, it should be published in a separate branch, but eventually replaced with a proper low-glitch, more-sightseeing any%, also played with solo Sonic.
This way the run gets published, kaan55 is happy, and and the branch is put to good use (at least in perspective). Since a low-glitch run would also be solo Sonic anyway, it can be easily repurposed with little further justification necessary (especially if kaan55 does it himself and/or a new S+T any% is submitted by that time). Since a low-glitch run would barely overlap with any other category, it'd have to be a separate branch anyway, so might as well start it now. You can even preemptively put it in the verdict that a low-glitch Sonic run would be able to obsolete this one.
Regarding glitchless/low glitch runs. That actually ties into this topic. I was considering making some myself at some point in the future, but after this ordeal I’m afraid of what may happen if I do so.
Please do! There are many of us who appreciate competently done low-glitch runs of games that have been thoroughly broken otherwise. I promise you that both feos and myself do. I will personally come and gush all over it in the submission thread. :D
Also, while feos may propose unexpected (and occasionally disagreeable) solutions, he's always looking for input and is open to discussion. You shouldn't treat his proposals as the final say on the matter; in fact he is inviting further discussion precisely because the answer is not obvious and hence not yet decided. He's already said it before that the last thing he wants is players quitting over unnecessary decisions. So voice your disagreements, argue your case, and he will try to come up with a better decision.
It's actually explained (albeit in a roundabout fashion) right there where you saw it.
The password (BCDF) allows one to start at stage 1b, "Day of the Tentacle", the bonus stage that you can also play after stage 1 if you choose so (as the run does), hence being able to repeat the stage. This gives the following options.
1. Play the bonus stage twice (1b → 1 → 1b → 2...). This adds ten extra victims at the cost of, well, playing the bonus stage twice.
2. Play stage 1, then go to the bonus stage. (1 → 1b → 2...), which is what the TAS does. This skips the extra victims but avoids repeating content.
3. Play the bonus stage first, then skip it the second time around (1b → 1 → 2...). This is slower than the previous option because 1b has a lot more ground to cover, and you won't have the Speed Shoes for it if you start with it.
I think option #2 is the most sane choice because getting the victim count higher at the cost of using a password and playing the same stage twice is a dubious goal. The game doesn't track victim count in a percentage form, but the spirit of a 100% category is fully preserved here already as the run saves all victims in every stage the game has.
There's also the issue that this run is the most optimized any% to date, so there is definitely a merit in that, but when the regular Sonic & Tails any% is inevitably updated with the new tricks from this run, the difference between the two will probably be the least pronounced among all the categories. Tails is mainly used for the skips, with the rest of the movement being identical, so most of the run is still the same, and there's a certain redundancy to that.
So since it functionally is a lower-glitch, more-sightseeing any%, it should be published in a separate branch, but eventually replaced with a proper low-glitch, more-sightseeing any%, also played with solo Sonic.
What I really don't understand is why even hoard TP in the first place when you can install a fully functional bidet attachment for like $50–70 and use, like one roll a month. It's more hygienic and easily pays for itself within a few years. There are even models with built-in dryers, so you might as well drop TP usage entirely.
I think talking about this again is counterproductive, we already stated our limitations about using hawk on discord/forum several times.
Porting the Sonic TAS Tools and full Linux support are already underway (or close to it), but is there a link to a post with performance targets, missing/uncomfortable workflows (aside from the missing STT), or other specific requirements?
I've always felt like a solo Sonic run would be best suited for a low-glitch branch, considering the degree of carnage enabled by adding Tails. I'm sure there's an audience for a branch like that, and with the game already being broken every which way it's likely growing over time, rather than shrinking. The currently published 100% run by marzojr kinda fails to cater to it—both because the Chaos Emerald bonus stages inherently drop its entertainment value and because it only forgoes one zipping mechanic out of like half a dozen available.
By this point, I've pretty much lost interest in glitched runs of this game; watching terrain scroll by every couple seconds while a character is teleporting or clipping through, and then watching a stage-end score tally/cutscene that is almost as long as the entire stage gets old after a while.
EDIT: Note that I'm not specifically advocating for a category cap or anything like that. But if it is decided that we only have a total of 8, I'd rather have a no-holds-barred, maximum speed run and a low-glitch solo Sonic run which we still don't have instead of the current 100% and this run (which is, for all intents and purposes, a Sonic and Tails any% without Tails), because the latter two don't fully commit to a particular style of gameplay.
Heck, some of the most extrovert people out there may have the worst possible depression episodes imaginable, up to the absolutely worst possible outcome.
Oh yeah, this is actually way more common than it seems at first. Many charismatic and seemingly outward people, including actors, stage performers, and comedians, have struggled with depression and loneliness to the point where they either took their life or died to some silly incident, alone, with no-one noticing until way after the fact.
The most devastatingly common mistake is to assume that a person who tends to joke and laugh a lot in social situations must be happy and mentally healthy. Just read some of the obituaries for people like Robin Williams or Keith Flint: you'll often see people (even those claiming to be their friends!) genuinely surprised that such a fun, clever, and charming person would actually be unhappy enough to commit suicide. The combination feels completely counterintuitive because the funny guy™ is very often an outward persona constructed over multiple formative years of mental self-defense against pain, anger, and anxiety. It isn't insincerity per se, but rather a way of perceiving and projecting (the more absurd aspects of) the world that makes it more tolerable. Laughing is by far the oldest, most common way to do so. When a person is laughing, they are, broadly speaking, projecting a message that they are okay and feel at least somewhat secure about the subject—this message can be deceptive even to the person in question. Very often a funny guy™ naturally strives to give other people a good time to vicariously enjoy the world through their eyes, or protect them from the same sort of darkness that gnaws at him, or fulfill a social obligation of not being a downer—all without being deliberate or even conscious about it.
This sort of stealth depression is difficult to notice because such counterintuitive behavioral patterns successfully mask it for everyone involved. Speaking from experience, there are several possible traits to look out for in funny guys™:
* humor growing darker, more self-depreciative, and/or more cynical over time
* malfunctioning empathy, uncaring attitude, desensitization to taboo subjects
* tendency towards a highly reclusive behavior, especially following intensely social situations
* history of drug or alcohol addiction/abuse
* history of abusive or otherwise codependent relationships
* tendencies towards reckless behavior and/or extreme sports
* tendencies towards body modification (tattoos, piercing, etc.) or sexual deviations
* tendencies towards chronic procrastination or other commitment issues
If you have a friend who is generally fun to be around but also exhibits some of those traits, pay more attention to them and maybe try to get to know them better. Much like Rick, they might actually be in great pain and longing for human connection.
I don't know about 39 minutes (it didn't look like a full 3 minutes were spent without using shoes where it could be helped), but one thing I'd definitely look into when planning the improvement to this run is listing everything (most notably weapons/items) that advance RNG so that shoes can be received from loot boxes without delays. The Pandora's Box (the golden chest item) can certainly be used for this purpose when there are no enemies around.
Anyway, good run and an awesome (and overdue) improvement.
That's correct.
And one of the biggest problems right now is that there isn't enough factual data to make confident claims about things that aren't apparent, hence the wording like "not believed to be a major driver", etc. You wouldn't believe the amount of conflicting statements, generalizations, and outright fantasies I see when scouring the web for new information.
Welcome.
The most recent Snes9x version that has any rerecording tools is v1.52-rr-r185.
Do note that if you intend to make a submission, it will be judged per the Movie Rules. A very long playaround is extremely unlikely to be accepted on entertainment merits (the fighting game playarounds currently published on the site are 5 to 30 minutes long). And if it isn't made on a rerecording emulator, it will fail our general quality standards right off the bat. You're free to post your work in a relevant game's forum thread, and/or on YouTube, though.
I have heard rumors about Folding@home not working well for Laptops, do you reccomend laptop usage?
Laptops generally aren't what I'd call beefy computers and they are prone to power- or heat-based throttling (especially if the fan ducts haven't been cleaned recently or at all). This brings their performance further down, which is why they aren't the best choice for folding. Even if you do keep the F@H client running, it may not receive high-priority work units since those are more urgent and require quick processing to be meaningful. Same applies to tablets and phones.
Yours is a decent one, so you could potentially fold high-priority WUs on it, but I'm mainly referring to computers in well-ventilated cases with modern 4+ TFLOPS graphics cards (think GTX 1060/1650S and higher) and/or 12+ thread CPUs which aren't too strained by crunching math. I'll add the note to the OP.
(For the record, I'm currently folding on an i3-8350K @ 4.8 GHz and a GTX 1080 in a high-end tower case.)
Big post update and some good (?) news.
If there are any gamers™ among you, or just people with beefy computers and not much to do with them, I've just set up a TASVideos Folding@Home team, of which I am currently the sole member. If you feel the quarantines and lockdowns have deprived the planet of some major global warming contribution, you can help heat it back up while doing some protein simulations that may or may not help understand the virus and develop cures. More info in the opening post.
Yeah, that's specifically why I only post all the COVID-related memery and talk about my country's own (for the most part exceedingly poor) handling of the epidemic on Discord and keep this thread for the serious and on-point stuff. So, even though people have been sensible thus far (thank you!), I'd still like to put it into words and ask everyone to keep the thread meme-free at least until this thing is behind us.
With that said, I have an update to the OP coming in the next few hours, with some more recent news, data references and a new section.
