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Fantastic run! World 5-Tower must have been MISERABLE for you. Did you have some kind of tool to help you see where you were going?
Yes vote from me...even if your new improvement is going to be outdate this run like a day.
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I finally decided to move on to Metal Man! This stage saves 50 frames over v1.0.
Regarding the Item 2 section: unless I've set something up wrong, I believe I've saved 9 frames over inputs copy/pasted from the 2010 TAS. It's because they couldn't quite catch up to the tip of the Item 2 after jumping over the tin can man, whereas I could. That's the only reason I can come up with for why that happens!
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Yet more timesave. I shaved 33 frames off the previous buster fight with an alternate strategy. Every time I think I'm ready to move on, I come up with another idea that saves yet more time...so I think I'm gonna sit on this one for a couple days before I call it optimal.
I plan to post a userfile with all my attempted strategies in the branches.
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Now this is a cool fight! There's only one problem: it's 95 frames slower than the buster fight...
There's no way to deal damage to him when he's charging, so you're forced to wait until he hops. That's the main reason this fight is so slow.
Speaking of buster fights...
Link to video
I've managed to save 18 frames from the previous fight, which saved 18 frames from the previous fight. Weird coincidence!
I can't seem to find a way to get behind him without taking damage or wasting a lot of time, so this seems to be the best solution. Letting him charge to the left (like the 2010 TAS) isn't an option, because buster shots have much smaller hitboxes than crash bombs, so I can't shoot him when he's down there. I also had trouble dodging the second boomerang shot in a timely manner; perhaps I could manipulate a higher jump and see if that works out.
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No worries! And you're right, he takes 14 hits from either weapon. The air fight would look something like this:
Link to video
I wasted 4 shots throughout the stage for entertainment purposes, so in reality, I have more than enough ammo to pull this off.
Dodging those quickarangs presents a problem, since it allows Quick Man to get up on the ledge, which is bad.
Once again I manipulated a high jump so I could dodge the first quickarang throw. The 2010 TAS does not, so I'll have to figure out if that's doable in this run. Not sure if they use the boss timer pause glitch thing to manipulat that jump.
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As far as the snipers go, it's extremely close. The air shooter route saved 6 frames, until I discovered an optimization that only works for the buster route; now buster is 1 frame faster. You can check branch 8 in the userfile if you want to see for yourself. I plan to make a comparison video at some point, though.
As for the boss fight...is that feasible? Can you defeat Quickman in a reasonable amount of time with the air shooter? The only comparable TAS I could find was the 2003 TAS, where they switch to buster for the fight.
I think the way to go is to shoot him at the beginning of a high jump, so the second tornado hits him on his way up, but I haven't fully explored this idea.
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v2.0 is in the works! I felt motivated to start on this rather than finish v1.0, although I still do plan on finishing both versions. v2.0 is the version I ultimately intend to submit.
I've already managed to save 142 frames in Air and Quick alone.
Currently, I'm not super confident about my Quick fight, even if it's 18 frames faster than v1.0. I don't know if the pattern used in the 2010 TAS will be viable, because buster shots have smaller hitboxes than crash bombs.
userfile linkLink to video
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I believe I've discovered a new subpixel optimization technique! I don't see it mentioned anywhere in this thread, and it definitely isn't used in the 2010 TAS, but it's possible the supixel savants in here have discovered it since the previous TAS. I apologize if this is already known.
User movie #48877130464294925
The details are in my userfile, but the gist is this: it's not always optimal to brush up against a wall when turning around. My movie demonstrates this by shaving 3 frames off the 2010 Flash Man segment (technically it's 1 frame + a door frame rule); I'd bet there are about 10 frames to be saved with this throughout the run.
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Just to post my thoughts:
I'm looking into handling Wily 2 more like the regular TAS. That is, Wood for the drills, Time Stopper for the mashy spike plates. If this is faster, it will leave me with a total of 2 extra Item 1's.
I plan to use one in the alien fight to get onto that secret ledge.
I might use the second for a quicker ascent in Boobeams, or in the infamous "hold up" screen in Wily 1.
Or, maybe I'll find a way to get good MadWidth/MadHeight on that one unavoidable bullet in Wily 4, so I can use an Item 1 to dodge the final Sniper Joe like I originally intended!
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Progress update, and a couple questions:
Link to video
I'm currently deliberating over the Item 1 route, here. Do you think it will be worth it to take the extra hit from the Sniper Joe and use the spare Item 1 in the alien fight? That seems like the best Item 1 usage to give up, if I had to pick one.
I was also wondering about the route in the boss rush. Why is it that real-time runners do an order that minimizes weapon switches, while the TAS does an order that minimizes distance? Shouldn't one route theoretically be faster in both cases?
Edit: Shit. The Guts Tank fight...I just realized you can shoot him every other frame. Shooting from a distance, I genuinely believed he could only be damaged every 3 frames. Each quick shot you see represents the earliest possible frame he can be hit from that position.
Interestingly, I realized this mistake when I noticed that, in the current "zipful" TAS, the Guts fight sounds different. You can hear one more frame of audio for each shot!
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I found a good frame to get hit on the upper ledge, but it forces me to delay my crash bomb by quite some time. I also found a good frame to get hit by the final Sniper Joe outside (leaving me with an extra Item 1!!!!!), which ends up being 338 frames faster...
I imagine these arbitrary frames are going to be different in the final run, so I may decide to just pick one and move on for now.
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Progress update!
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I'm stuck on the Boobeams. finalfighter's script is proving to be extremely useful, but I just don't know how to manipulate these "Mad" values to be what I need without wasting substantial amounts of time. They seem to cycle through these weird outlier values that I don't know how to make them hit.
I'd appreciate any pointers you MadWidth Masters might have.
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So I was pushing on through the Wily stages, and I have a question:
Look at the current TAS (exactly 20 minutes in, if the link didn't work).
The way they coordinate warp there--should that be considered a "zip?" I know that same trick in Cut Man's stage is banned for Mega Man 1 zipless, so perhaps I should try to find a way around it. But I'm not really sure.
Edit: Hmmm...I may have answered my own question. Any% RTA runners go for this coordinate wrap, but Zipless runners do not. I'll assume it's banned in this category.
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This was pretty samey to me. I felt like I saw everything there was to see by about the second stage, even if the ceiling bonks and pause buffering were pretty cool. But that's a criticism of this particular game, not the amount of skill and effort you put into the run.
A solid Meh from me. Could've been a Yes if this game were more varied...but it's not :/
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So I'm not aglasscage, Shinryuu, FinalFighter or pirohiko...but I've got a WIP run for you guys. It's zipless, and plays up to the beginning of Wily 2. It's a little rough around the edges, but I think it's a good start.
Link to video
I'd love to hear what you guys think! Plus, I could use some advice. Mostly for the Quick Man fight, but also for Item 1 routing.
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Wanted to post my art% proof of concept. The drawing system is super clunky and limited, so I think it's really fun to watch the little cursor draw out decent-looking art with cold and calculated precision. With a good artist or community submissions or something, I think this could be a fun little freerun.
I was also toying with the idea of making a narrative where Potato Brains are shit artists (played by me in real time), but it just isn't the same when you can't hear the offending artist justifying his incomprehensible strokes :/
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Hate to be a bother, but has anyone had an issue with the scroll wheel randomly deciding to jump ahead by several thousand frames, instead of the usual 6? This happens to me seemingly at random, usually when scrolling up.
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Hmm. On 2.2.2, it looks like I can only select two rows at a time, and can only affect them with the arrow keys; I think the ability to select more would be useful. The "paint brush" thing and arrow nudging are definitely pretty useful! Thanks for the tip.
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What's the recommended way to use virtual pad with TAStudio? Currently, I can only figure out how to use it with "Record input" enabled, which is an exercise in extreme frustration as I accidentally overwrite inputs and can't undo them (clearly I need to set a bigger undo stack, but still).
It'd be nice if I could fiddle with aX and aY for a given frame via virtual pad, rather than typing out byte values.
