How is that a reason for specific publication order?

Usually the any% TAS gets published quicker before other TASes.

Not when there are so many consecutive improvements.

Not when there are so many consecutive improvements.

Ah I see where you're coming from now. I understand that. The Abe speedrunning community have been very active recently finding these new strats but I doubt there will be any more improvements to come any time soon.

How many times within the last 2 submissions of this branch was an improvement considered final?

How many times within the last 2 submissions of this branch was an improvement considered final?

There was 4 in the last one and 2 in this one.

When so many iterations were honestly considered final within such a short period, we can conclude that none of them was actually final.

When so many iterations were honestly considered final within such a short period, we can conclude that none of them was actually final.

Well, I'm hoping that no new strats are found in the future so I won't have to update this movie file again.

It’s usually best to wait it out when more improvements have been discovered. If you are too quick to submit while in the middle of these findings, you’re obviously going to have conflicting files later down the line. It isn’t fair to staff members here to keep having them work through it every single time. I personally try to keep my improvements for certain games spaced out, both because more improvements may be discovered and because it doesn’t stress out staff members.

Why do you need to?

Here's what I imagine the full workflow for a publication to be, using my own judging as a base. I can't speak accurately for the publishing part, so someone more knowledgeable please correct me where I'm wrong:

1. A submission comes in 2. A Judge claims the submission 3. The Judge watches the submission in emulator to verify sync 4. The Judge rewatches the submission more closely for optimization issues 5. If necessary, the Judge reaches out to the submitter to ask questions 6. If necessary, the Judge waits for audience feedback to come in 7. The Judge accepts the movie 8. A Publisher claims the movie 9. The Publisher dumps the full movie from power on to the desired endpoint (usually post-credits, one full loop of the ending music, but every game is different) 10. Samsara realizes she has to summarize all of this and comically wipes an anime sweatdrop from her brow while saying "Hoo boy!" 11. Depending on the game (again, every game is different), the Publisher adjusts an AviSynth file to ensure that the entire run is captured and presented accurately 11a. This may include dealing with upwards of 100 or even more distinct AVI files if the game is prone to resolution switching or if it's just really quite incredibly long, in which case these AVI files need to be stitched together. If the resolutions differ, they need to be adjusted so they're all the same resolution, otherwise they can't be encoded 11b. Three distinct encodes need to be made as well, two downloadables at console resolution and an HD streamable encode for YouTube that I believe is at least 4k and occasionally goes up to 8k 12. Needless to say, this takes a LOT of time, and Publishers have always been pretty understaffed, so they're working pretty much constantly to keep the workbench moving 13. Of course, the encoding isn't the only part. After the several hour/day encoding process (JUST the encoding, for the record, not counting the steps taken leading up to it), the encodes need to be uploaded to the proper areas (archive.org for downloadables, YT for HD), the publication screenshot needs to be taken and optimized (and occasionally chosen by the Publisher themselves if there's nothing recommended), and everything needs to be pushed to the site once it's all ready and processed

This is a several day process all-in-all, and that's not only per submission, but it could potentially be per improvement to a submission. Every time a new improvement file is posted, the workflow resets back to #3 from wherever it's at, as the Judge has to re-verify sync and re-judge the entire run to ensure that the improvement is valid. In cases where the publication process has already started, a new improvement could invalidate days of work. In cases like this, where the previous run was still on the front page before the new improvement came in, that's essentially invalidating all of the work done by the staff on the previous run.

It isn’t fair to staff members here to keep having them work through it every single time. I personally try to keep my improvements for certain games spaced out, both because more improvements may be discovered and because it doesn’t stress out staff members.

This is exactly my attitude towards it, both as a TASer and as a Judge. You want to make absolutely sure there's no more improvements before working on and submitting a new run, as it helps the staff immensely, particularly the Publishers, who as I mentioned are already understaffed and overworked enough as it is, and you want to spend as much time as possible working on these improvements yourself to ensure you gain as much time from them as possible. This could mean anything from optimizing new strategies to applying them all throughout the run. Spacing out submissions and improvements also helps the Judges as well, or at least it helps me, as I feel more confident knowing a run has a lot of time put into it, and I feel less obliged to spend several days re-TASing parts of a game to see if there are other improvements that can be slotted in. It even helps the audience, as it's clear Oddworld has seen a lot of feedback fatigue as of late due to the sheer number of new submissions and miniscule improvements over the years. In short... Don't rush. Not every improvement has to be implemented and submitted as it's found. Build up a stockpile of improvements, re-analyze the entire run to see if there are other places where these improvements can help save time, and submit a few months down the line when you have a sizable time improvement. The audience will appreciate having noticeable improvements to watch out for, the Judges will appreciate not needing to constantly re-watch, re-check and re-judge 6 improvements over the course of a month, and the Publishers will appreciate not having to interrupt and restart their time-consuming workflow.

Anyone has a screenshot suggestion for this iteration?

Anyone has a screenshot suggestion for this iteration?

When Abe does one of the new strats.

Which is?????

At 4:06 when Abe jumps from a roll with the Slog.

This eh?

This eh?

Yeah that one.

It's super hard to even see the character. Is there any better place?

It's super hard to even see the character. Is there any better place?

Yeah, I concur the contrast of that screenshot is pretty bad and kind of hurts my eyes.

Feos, you or others can decide on the screenshot if people say it's too dark for them you can find someone in the game that's not.

This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [4293] PSX Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee by Samtastic in 12:59.96

Feos, could you add ‘Manipulates luck’ to this one as the bees are luck based and in an RTA run it takes dozens of attempts in an any% run to get the bees to follow Abe and get damaged enough to do the second part.