I haven't played this in a long time, so I'm out of practice, but I should still be able to help with this. On turn 1, you can let the sub attack your battleship and the rockets attack your lander, which might get you closer to Sami's SCO power.
Also, did you record any of the first 4 (EDIT: I said 5 earlier because I forgot we hadn't done Andy's Time yet) missions, or were those all redone by me and completely unchanged after that?
Some Fire Emblem-style cursor fiddling (hopefully non-noticeable, but you guys will probably see it) made the AI attack twice more, which gave me the SCO earlier than I'd expected (in fact, I had to redo the whole thing because I attacked the sub without realizing the meter was already full).
Not as tightly optimized as I'd like, but here it is:
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/413335899/advwars2.vbm
I haven't fiddled with the video for a long time, so I can't answer that last question of yours, but my guess is that I haven't redone them.
EDIT: On later thinking, I guess I should probably redo it so I get the run credit all for myself. *evil laugh*
Ok, I watched the run & observed some mistakes.
In the 1st map, you should change the display settings ASAP, as the speed of waking increases...(this goes for Blue Moon too). On day 3, do you have to move the 3rd infantry at all? I mean, is it the same to move & attack or is it faster to just attack? Because you would only open the infantry's menu once instead of twice...
On map 2, in the 1st day, do you really need to load the infantry on the APC & can't you move a little away the Artillery, so it won't refill the Artillery...
Map 3, did you tried to look for a HQ capture? You could use the Copters as shields while the infantry captures... Or is it slower? (I guess is slower, but I wanted to ask :P)
Map 4 seems ok, apart from the Mech capturing, is is the same as just not capturing? I don't remember if it was in this map or not, but you seem to press L to switch many times, can't you combine L with the directional arrows?
In map 5, if you're going for a HQ capture, can't you sacrifice the Battleship? I mean, don't block the path of the submarine & let him hit the ship. I think you're 6,000 G damage short if I'm not mistaken...
BTW, what is the movie aiming for? (apart of beating the game ASAP) Are you planning on getting a perfect S rank too, or days, other?
Here are some memory address that might help you out:
03004080,1u,Days
020232E0,4u,Power Meter 1p
0202331C,4u,Power Meter 2p
02023358,4u,Power Meter 3p
02023394,4u,Power Meter 4p
020232C0,4u,Money 1p
020232FC,4u,Money 2p
02023338,4u,Money 3p
02023374,4u,Money 4p
03003FCD,1u,FoW flag
PS: I think you already know, but is good to be sure. Do you do know how does the Power Meter fills or not?
Ok, I watched the run & observed some mistakes.
In the 1st map, you should change the display settings ASAP, as the speed of waking increases...(this goes for Blue Moon too). On day 3, do you have to move the 3rd infantry at all? I mean, is it the same to move & attack or is it faster to just attack? Because you would only open the infantry's menu once instead of twice...
Somehow I never noticed the connection. I'm not sure why I moved the third infantry either. Also, you probably already noticed your typo, but the enemy is Black Hole.
On map 2, in the 1st day, do you really need to load the infantry on the APC & can't you move a little away the Artillery, so it won't refill the Artillery...
The infantry really needs to be loaded on the APC, or else he can't reach the enemy HQ until day 5. You're right about the APC supplying the artillery. The movement to do that is probably a few frames faster anyway.
Map 3, did you tried to look for a HQ capture? You could use the Copters as shields while the infantry captures... Or is it slower? (I guess is slower, but I wanted to ask :P)
An earlier WIP had a victory by HQ capture. Routing the enemy turned out to be faster.
Map 4 seems ok, apart from the Mech capturing, is is the same as just not capturing? I don't remember if it was in this map or not, but you seem to press L to switch many times, can't you combine L with the directional arrows?
Capture is the first option in the menu, so it's either faster or the same speed. (I can't remember offhand, since it's been too long.) As for combining L with the directional arrows, remember that L works differently in this game than in Fire Emblem. Using L is almost always faster if you want to move multiple units.
In map 5, if you're going for a HQ capture, can't you sacrifice the Battleship? I mean, don't block the path of the submarine & let him hit the ship. I think you're 6,000 G damage short if I'm not mistaken...
I agree.
BTW, what is the movie aiming for? (apart of beating the game ASAP) Are you planning on getting a perfect S rank too, or days, other?
I'm not sure, but it probably involves playing every mission and getting a 300-point S rank.
Here are some memory address that might help you out:
03004080,1u,Days
020232E0,4u,Power Meter 1p
0202331C,4u,Power Meter 2p
02023358,4u,Power Meter 3p
02023394,4u,Power Meter 4p
020232C0,4u,Money 1p
020232FC,4u,Money 2p
02023338,4u,Money 3p
02023374,4u,Money 4p
03003FCD,1u,FoW flag
Some of these should be useful. I think I also posted the RNG state somewhere in this thread, which may or may not be useful. I also remember watching unit HP values at some points.
PS: I think you already know, but is good to be sure. Do you do know how does the Power Meter fills or not?
If I remember correctly, it's equal to the monetary amount of damage dealt to you by opponents in combat plus half the monetary amount of damage you dealt to opponents in combat. One star starts at some value (7000 G? It's been far too long to remember), and the value needed for a star increases every time you use a power.
OK, lots of things I didn't know about.
First, the goal. I originally meant it to be like:
Primary: Short number of turns
Secondary: Shortest real-time, if it doesn't interfere with the primary goal
I didn't quite factor S-Rank in it. We should decide whether a perfect run (S on all missions) or a fastest-at-all-costs run is faster. As we're in a TAS site, the sacrifice everything route does seem to be better.
This entertainment/speed thing is very complicated in such a run...
BTW, I didn't quite get what goroh meant by "waking" (on second thinking, I don't understand anything :P), however this does mean there are bad things on the first stage (which would mean a complete redoing of the thing. argh.)
I will probably edit this post once I figure more things out.
EDIT: After some testing with samurai's addresses, it seems that a star fills at around (or exactly) the 9000 G mark. The filling is exactly as Nitrodon said.
BTW, I didn't quite get what goroh meant by "waking" (on second thinking, I don't understand anything :P), however this does mean there are bad things on the first stage (which would mean a complete redoing of the thing. argh.)
this game is pretty fun until it starts to get so hard that you can't even beat it with save states (mission 20 or so). it makes you realize that hitler wasn't such a bad person, he just had tried to play this game too much so he went crazy
Hi, I'm new
I just wanted to throw some stuff out there:
damage is indeed random, it can vary by as much as 2 points in some circumstances. Each unit's health is out of 100, but it only shows out of 10. I _think_ that when you heal a unit it resets to a multiple of 10 but this is very easily checked with memory watching.
I'd really like to see a good run of this game, but to distinguish it as a TAS I think it needs to go for real-time, so moving many units per turn may not be optimal. This would create more interesting strategy too.
I also think that this run needs to be taken very slowly. At one point I was really into it, and like chess, I don't think there's a real "best strategy". The AI can be manipulated by many different factors and there are so many options. That said, in the missions where it's possible, HQ capture is almost always faster, especially when aiming for real time.
Is there lua scripting for VBA rerecording yet? I would love to take this, but I have a feeling that this will be a terrible and tedious run without using a bot to work through the possibilities.
i'm on the final missions against sturm on this game and would like to see a TAS of this.
are there still sync problems with replays in this game? if not, anyone interested in maybe tackling this game as a group? the missions are pretty much independent of each other so we should be able to divide the workload among several people to get it done.
I find it surprising that neither of the two Advance Wars games have yet to have a completed TAS. Whats the hold up?
And yes I'd like to see a tas done on this game.
First, this is a long game. It can easily take 2+ hours, which is somewhat annoying.
Second, this is a strategy game, which means that planning an 'optimal' strategy is a lot of work.
And third, the constant button pressing makes this hard to TAS frame-perfectly.
I think someone playing at, say, 10% speed would be able to finish a run quite easily (seeing as I took a week to beat it on normal speed), but I'm not sure if it would meet this site's standards on any of those three accounts (length, strategy and accuracy of playing).
The point originally was to show how bad such a rushed run would be, but I think Andy's Time turned out to be quite good, despite the C-Rank (getting S-Ranks was never the goal anyway, although I think it looks pretty). So, Andy's Time:
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1118487179/advwars2.vbm
The reason probably is that you try to play it with a correct ROM, because this one runs with a screen about mode 7...
If is not that, well I used VBA 1.7.2 re-recording v21 & was able to watch the WIP :)
As for the run, so far so good. Keep it up fetofs :)
The reason probably is that you try to play it with a correct ROM, because this one runs with a screen about mode 7...
TASes should be made with a clean ROM, with no scene intros or anything like that; I hope the WIP can be edited to remove just the input that was used to banish the intro.
I found the (U) ROM without the intro hack, and the movie plays without desynch if the first 422 frames are removed. (The hacked intro uses the start button once, and the game accepts the start button on frame 52.)
This was posted in page 2 -- now that I finally found a good ROM, I can confirm it holds for the first two missions (not exactly 422 frames though). I'll use it from now on.
When I finish hex-editing (if it's possible, that is), I'll edit the first post to add the new WIP.
EDIT: Nitrodon was right, it seems. Hex-editing exactly 422 frames out makes it sync on the rom without the intro hack. I've updated the first post with the link.
If somebody didn't notice the sneaky editing of the first post, the new video completes Show Stopper and "nearly" completes Duty & Honor. There is little remaining, so by tomorrow that mission should probably be done...
PS: Does anybody find it strange that those two missions alone are longer than the other 9 combined?
PPS: Even if I don't complete this movie, perhaps this could go in tas history as the worst frame/real time ratio ever =P
If is not that, well I used VBA 1.7.2 re-recording v21 & was able to watch the WIP :)
As for the run, so far so good. Keep it up fetofs :)
