This topic is for the purpose of discussing #2168: nineko's Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles "competition levels" in 02:57.75

All of my previous TASes have been rejected. This time I tried harder, and I really think this is at least decent. Not perfect? Maybe. Feel free to obsolete it eventually. But I felt that the Competition Levels deserved some love. Encode. edit: fixed the encode

While watching it, I compared the times to the ones at the Sonic Center, and the only one you beat was Balloon Park... Is Sonic just slower on almost every stage? Also, isn't the max amount of revs 6?

Though I don't trust those "records" you're talking about -- there is no proof at all, and even if there were screenshots, you can fake them. Anyway, I really liked this TAS and also how you abused Baloon Park :D

Not trusting the top records is fine (in fact, there's several I don't entirely trust either...). However; 11 people have faster Azure Lake times 22 people have faster Chrome Gadget times (but I think this uses Tails, which I'm assuming has an advantage) 7 people have faster Desert Palace times Unless there's some huge conspiracy, I would think that at least some people have faster times. And most importantly, there's videos on the site of faster Azure Lake and Desert Palace times using Sonic.

And you are randomly bashing me, because? Did I do something wrong to you? Tell me, because it seems so. It seems that the only purpose of your life is to see this submission rejected. Now that's constructive criticism! You have 4 posts, dude, you used literally half of them to say that someone is better than me. Well, thanks. All I know is that there aren't speedruns of the competition levels neither here nor on SDA, so I decided to make one, and it doesn' t look half bad. You're welcome to get those people to submit a run and obsolete mine, of course. But apparently nobody ever bothered to make a serious submission here, so for now my one is the only serious effort in that direction. Also, 2:06:91 < 2:21:18. Let's compare things in the same category. If "Ghost" submitted a 5-levels run now, my run would be 14 seconds faster. Therefore better. Furthermore, I wrote this even in the submission itself: "Contains Speed/Entertainment Tradeoffs".

You have 4 posts, dude, you used literally half of them to say that someone is better than me. Well, thanks.

Does this mean you'll take me seriously because I have 153? If so, listen up.

Also, 2:06:91 < 2:21:18. Let's compare things in the same category.

Right. Let's compare things in the same category indeed. 2:06:91 > 1:58:77. (The Total category also adds the single lap total.)

Furthermore, I wrote this even in the submission itself: "Contains Speed/Entertainment Tradeoffs".

Right, but the only level you said might have been suboptimal was Balloon Park (which, ironically, is probably the closest to optimal of all five).

But apparently nobody ever bothered to make a serious submission here, so for now my one is the only serious effort in that direction.

While this may be true, it doesn't mean your run should be accepted for publication.

And you are randomly bashing me, because?

He's not bashing you, nowhere in his posts did he make any sort of personal attack. One of the first things you should do before submitting a TAS is to make sure it beats non-assisted times, especially if it's for a well known series like sonic games.

One of the first things you should do before submitting a TAS is to make sure it beats non-assisted times, especially if it's for a well known series like sonic games.

I did, here and on SDA. I didn't know about that other website :(

And all he did was point out the existence of TSC, and was in no way bashing you. He brought up very valid points in a very approachable way, and you immediately jumped on him because you assume he has some sort of personal vendetta against you, when it's much more likely that he just really likes sonic.

Maybe I should just give up altogether. I spent countless hours on this run, playing everything in frame advance mode trying several times looking for the optimal strategy, but apparently I suck anyway. Since this submission isn't optimal, my only chance is that it's considered at least entertaining, but I already know it won't be the case... Oh well, I tried.

I didn't know that there were competition levels in S3, so this is the first time I've seen them. Here are my thoughts on the TAS: Although the run itself was mostly dashing, it was short and the levels were varying enough to keep me entertained. I'm not a big Sonic-fan, but I think a competition levels TAS might be a good addition to this site. One thing that bothered me a little was that there were only stuff happening on half the screen, but of course that's just the way these levels work. Oh well. In terms of quality, not having played much Sonic but watched a whole lot of TASes, I thought this held good quality overall (I couldn't spot any mistakes in the run). It's probably not as optimized as the other Sonic runs on this site, but still pretty optimized. Hopefully those guys at Sonic center can share some of their strategies, if any of those faster times were with Sonic. Anyway, I vote 7.2 for entertainment (as I said, I'm not a big Sonic fan), and abstain for techinical.

Isn't the game called Sonic R? I'm probably thinking of another game.

Isn't the game called Sonic R? I'm probably thinking of another game.

That's a whole nother game. As for this run, I'm sorry, but I can't give it high marks, given that The Sonic Center has runs with faster times and video proof of it too (Azure Lake with Sonic beats your time in your TAS). And with 4/5 levels beating you, I'm sorry, but there isn't enough speed/entertainment trade off to make it acceptable to me, especially given how short this run is. Link to videos: http://www.soniccenter.org/videos/sonic_3

I spent countless hours on this run, playing everything in frame advance mode trying several times looking for the optimal strategy,

If you are spending "countless hours", yet have only 1200 rerecords, something is not right. Perhaps it is your keyboard controls. I wrote a guide some time ago explaining where keys should be located: http://tasvideos.org/GenericTips.html . Perhaps it is your knowledge of the game. Remember that knowledge is everything. Persistence is nothing without knowledge. It is highly recommended to know a game before making a TAS of it. This includes watching the existing S3&K runs carefully, and searching for existing records, especially if the game has a timer mode. Some of it will include trial and error by TAS, but as you TAS, you gain experience, and it is so much easier if you know the game.

om, nom, nom... blech, stale!