Post subject: Manipulating luck...help please
Joined: 9/2/2007
Posts: 16
Location: Patchouge<Ny
hi i'm snesfanboy i'm kinda new to Tas i need help on how to manipulate luck in Sparkster for the snes i've been using the mod version and well i'm kinda like a rookie
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
Location: Away
I don't know what exactly determines the randomness in Sparkster, but this might be a good read: http://tasvideos.org/LuckManipulation.html.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Joined: 9/2/2007
Posts: 16
Location: Patchouge<Ny
thanks
ctu
Joined: 9/20/2007
Posts: 22
Darn trying to learn how to manipulate luck looks very hard. Guess I won't betrying to make any speed runs in the foreseeable future.
Reviewer, Active player (277)
Joined: 12/14/2006
Posts: 717
Best way to learn is by doing, and don't worry if it's bad. Everyone's first run is bad.
nfq
Player (93)
Joined: 5/10/2005
Posts: 1204
ctu wrote:
Darn trying to learn how to manipulate luck looks very hard. Guess I won't betrying to make any speed runs in the foreseeable future.
i thought it was hard too before i understood that "luck-manipulation" was just a confusing word that usually means using save states until you get a good result.
ctu
Joined: 9/20/2007
Posts: 22
nfq wrote:
ctu wrote:
Darn trying to learn how to manipulate luck looks very hard. Guess I won't betrying to make any speed runs in the foreseeable future.
i thought it was hard too before i understood that "luck-manipulation" was just a confusing word that usually means using save states until you get a good result.
Really, thats all it is? Darn thats not that hard at all :P guess now all I got to workon is being able to do some of these glitches I seen here and I mioght be able to do something cool
Editor, Active player (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
nfq wrote:
"luck-manipulation" was just a confusing word that usually means using save states until you get a good result.
Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. However, for some games you may need to investigate deeper what exactly allows the consequences to your actions to be different. In most games, usually just doing some action at different time or otherwise varying your input will accomplish the desired changes in the variations behavior. It is nothing abnormal: it is not about making the game do things it would never do. It is just about making the rare occurance become a tangible reality. For example, if the boss has 7/8 chance of shooting a laggy projectile towards you and 1/8 chance jumping timidly, you may want that it just jumps. And to do that, you just simply test different inputs, loading savestate again and retrying, until it complies. http://tasvideos.org/LuckManipulation.html tells more. Edit: Okay, turns out I'm better at confusing than at clarifying :P
Joined: 8/27/2006
Posts: 883
Actually, luck manipulation can be like in shining force, pressing different button at different frame can result in have a critical, or a double critical. But there is a catch, to be more effective, you have to go deeper in the game, and read the code behind it to understand what is the exact formula of the action you want. Like pressing a button changes some value in the ram, reading those values and making calculation, you can determine if the enemy will miss and if you will do a critical.
nfq
Player (93)
Joined: 5/10/2005
Posts: 1204
ZeXr0 wrote:
Actually, luck manipulation can be like in shining force, pressing different button at different frame can result in have a critical, or a double critical.
in such case i use a macro to test all the frames.
But there is a catch, to be more effective, you have to go deeper in the game, and read the code behind it to understand what is the exact formula of the action you want.
i know but it's too hard to understand. i would like to know how to get 8x barbarians in phantasy star in every random encounter, and not test a million times with save states.
nesrocks
He/Him
Player (241)
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
Yes most games are quite easy to manipulate by trial and error on each section separatelly. But manipulating luck on other games won't be as simple. Take Yo! Noid for example. Manipulating luck on this game is complicated, because what you do on the first level has consequences throughout the whole game, since the manipulation is based on score/time/bonus acquired. So creating the best manipulation requires a lot of testing, creating various movies that finish the game in fast time for a good material to work on. The only way to find out is trying, and you have to have fun while doing it, or else you won't get far. The result doesn't matter (for the process) as long as you're having fun with the discoveries.