User File #72984198483406959

It would be best to post this improvement in the submission forum and request the delay there.

What is the improvement, and Why ask for a delay if the improvement is complete?

And also, how is this new file 16 seconds faster when you’re only recording 44 frames of improvement?

the comparison table isn't fully complete. It only shows for level 1, and I am writing more in a few moments.

also, I did post in the submission forum as well, stating the delay request.

I think I can give some general TASing advice here that should help you out immensely with optimization: I'm seeing a lot of time losses in those tables, which tells me that you're not directly comparing to any of your previous WIPs. Spikestuff pointed this out as well, some of your fastest levels were from earlier WIPs. This tells me that you're powering through the full game in one sitting, taking a faster final time as an improvement even if some individual sections within may be slower than previous attempts. I'm aware you're an RTA runner, so I see this approach to TASing as an inherently RTA-guided one. The thing is, TASing is much more flexible than RTA, it requires a different approach to optimize.

I counted the total frames of improvement in the comparison tables, and it comes out to an even 450, so theoretically you should be able to optimize the WIP further by 300+ frames. Take note of where and why you're losing frames and see if it's avoidable, and avoid those timelosses if they are indeed avoidable. Something I do when I look into improving runs is I have a separate emulator window open with that run in it, allowing me to directly compare what I'm doing with what was done before. I'll go through both my WIP and the run I'm improving section by section, checking framecounts and ensuring that I'm either beating or matching previous times. If I'm losing frames somewhere, I can see where I'm losing them by cross-referencing the older run, and adjust my current WIP accordingly. This also helps me figure out where unavoidable time losses are and why they're happening, so I can explain them when the time comes. I also do individual sections multiple times before moving on to make sure that I'm squeezing out every possible frame, using TAStudio branches for each attempt and comparing with myself while working.

Take note that I'm not trying to be harsh here, and that nobody on the site means to be outwardly insulting or dismissive when they give critique like this. Formal site submissions have kind of a high barrier to entry, they're explicitly meant to be heavily studied and critiqued, and such critique has happened to hundreds, even thousands of past submissions. I can definitely apologize on behalf of people for their tone: We've had a lot of issues in the past with submissions that tend to put people on edge, especially given how passionate we are about TASing, but that doesn't excuse the tone that was taken with your some of your submissions. That being said, they were giving legitimate advice as well, and the poor tone shouldn't necessarily invalidate that advice.

To end on a positive note, your dedication is incredibly admirable (just having 10+ attempts on Stone Protectors alone is some crazy dedication), and I appreciate that you're focusing on much lesser known games with little-to-no representation on TASvideos. I definitely feel the community needs more people like that, so hopefully we're not scaring you away. I'd love to see you keep improving and submitting runs, and possibly interacting more with the community in the future.

I've been comparing the 18:58.22 to the new TAS I am making currently, and supposedly I'm about 16 seconds faster, which is amazing. It's certainly difficult to work on a project by myself, without other people directly helping, because I'll never know if I am truly fast enough based on what I am seeing and trying to describe. I do try to go at it screen by screen, and have made some decent improvements, but, are those improvements good enough? Maybe, maybe not, and I won't know if they can be good enough due to the fact that I'll always (at least for now) be working on this version alone with actual input.

I do want to interact with the community more, but, not sure how to approach it the best way possible. I don't wanna shove my work in other peoples faces if they have other things to do, and I am very self concious about how and why I interact with others, because I don't know them personally or how they will act towards me.

I do love the site, and I love what it represents, but, I sometimes feel wery of the way I present myself and my projects to others, I don't know if I can be greatful and happy knowing that what I 'could' be doing is better, espeically if that 'could' is never known with a visual or helpful representation.