Joined: 2/26/2007
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Detonator, why not try sending MUGG your setting file for your emulator. If it changes any of his settings, and the flicker is gone, we could find out what settings must be turned on/off for this movie to work. I don't remember the emulator's setting filename off the top of my head, so can't help you there.
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
Joined: 6/26/2007
Posts: 147
It could be an issue with the video settings. Try switching to OpenGL rendering. It may happen only on certain types of video cards too. Sometimes things have problems on ATI or Nvidia cards only.
Joined: 2/14/2007
Posts: 128
detonator300 wrote:
I remember I used advanced Splash Bros. on Queen Bean's hands in my segmented amateur TAS that I made for my little brother.
No, no, no -- you completely misunderstood me. Don't bother wasting time attacking Queen Bean's hands. Use the advanced version of Splash Brothers to directly attack her head right off the bat. Luigi will have to waste his turns hammering Queen Bean (to prevent her getting close) or jumping on a random hand (if Queen Bean getting close enough to punch you ends up wasting less time). The thing is that Queen Bean herself resists hammer attacks, meaning that they will always do only 1 damage to her. She takes normal damage from jump attacks, but with that crown on her head, she's considered "spiky". But the advanced version of Splash Brothers, while doing slightly less damage than the normal version, allows you safely jump on spiky enemies. In fact, you do double damage on such enemies! So you don't need to waste time destroying Queen Bean's hands, and then suffering her long "bean spit" attacks -- just go for her head right off the bat! The issue is learning the advanced version of Splash Brothers before the fight. This may involve Luigi using just normal attacks on some of the earlier boss fights so that Mario can get a few extra uses of Splash Brothers in. Or, possibly enter a random encounter to practise it -- Luigi can always run from battle after Mario attacks.
Joined: 3/22/2008
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Location: Finland
So that's what you meant. It seems useful, as Queen Bean doesn't get time to attack with her bean bounce attack. The advance problem might be quickly solved. In my amateur TAS I used Splash Bros. lvl 3 on all bosses beginning from Tolstar. I got the advance in battle against Dragohoho. However, it might be possible to luck manipulate to get it earlier, I just don't yet know is it even possible.
Metalheads are the only ones to survive.
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detonator300 wrote:
So that's what you meant. It seems useful, as Queen Bean doesn't get time to attack with her bean bounce attack. The advance problem might be quickly solved. In my amateur TAS I used Splash Bros. lvl 3 on all bosses beginning from Tolstar. I got the advance in battle against Dragohoho. However, it might be possible to luck manipulate to get it earlier, I just don't yet know is it even possible.
I'm sure, you learn the advanced moves by using the normal ones a certain number of times.
Dragondarch's notes on SDA wrote:
-Mario needs 19 uses of Splash Bros. to learn the Advance version
Joined: 3/22/2008
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Does anybody know a way to discover the correct frame for "Lucky!" hit? I'm not a very good memory searcher myself.
Metalheads are the only ones to survive.
Player (80)
Joined: 7/7/2008
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Have you tried every frame you can?
Joined: 3/22/2008
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Location: Finland
Nah. I'm just lazy and I just want to know if there is a faster way. :)
Metalheads are the only ones to survive.
Joined: 2/26/2007
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detonator300 wrote:
Nah. I'm just lazy and I just want to know if there is a faster way. :)
Hitting the load savestate button faster.
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
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detonator300 wrote:
Does anybody know a way to discover the correct frame for "Lucky!" hit? I'm not a very good memory searcher myself.
Me neither, but you could test if a certain frame you entered a fight and got a lucky hit is still valid if you act differently before entering that particular fight (like entering the screen sooner or later, or open up the menu and close it). So you can see if it's determined by a timer or a more complex system. A high stache value results in more frequent lucky hits.
Joined: 3/22/2008
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MUGG wrote:
A high stache value results in more frequent lucky hits.
I do know that the stache stat is the "luck" of the character. I myself have thought of giving the level up extra points to stache every other time and to pow every other so the "Lucky!" hits do more damage (like all other hits). Btw, for the record I haven't gotten any "Lucky!" hits before Stardust Fields so I'd like to know is getting them possible before that.
Metalheads are the only ones to survive.
Player (80)
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[quote="detonator300"][quote="MUGG"] A high stache value results in more frequent lucky hits. [/quote] I do know that the stache stat is the "luck" of the character. I myself have thought of giving the level up extra points to stache every other time and to pow every other so the "Lucky!" hits do more damage (like all other hits). Btw, for the record I haven't gotten any "Lucky!" hits before Stardust Fields so I'd like to know is getting them possible before that.[/quote] I was just about to say the same thing.
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Are you sure, the stache value raises damage given by lucky hits and not only the frequency? If it does, it's probably only a matter of some few damage points anyway, so I wouldn't improve the stache value. (On the other hand, it increases money you sell things for. The SDA run does this later in the game.) Btw, I remember a glitch I encountered when I was playing Mario + Luigi back then. I was messing around with the walls behind the throne in Bowser's Castle. And suddenly, I was beamed up till the top of the screen. If this could be reproduced anywhere, it could allow for some sequence breaks (for example, to enter the final room directly, without having to fight all the Bowser kids.) Or maybe, it just works with the bulges in the walls... I'm looking forward to WIPs.
Joined: 3/22/2008
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MUGG wrote:
Are you sure, the stache value raises damage given by lucky hits and not only the frequency? If it does, it's probably only a matter of some few damage points anyway, so I wouldn't improve the stache value. (On the other hand, it increases money you sell things for. The SDA run does this later in the run.) Btw, I remember a glitch I encountered when I was playing Mario + Luigi back then. I was messing around with the walls behind the throne in Bowser's Castle. And suddenly, I was beamed up till the top of the screen. If this could be reproduced anywhere, it could allow for some sequence breaks (for example, to enter the final room directly, without having to fight all the Bowser kids.) Or maybe, it just works with the bulges in the walls... I'm looking forward to WIPs.
1) No, I'm not sure the stache stat increses "Lucky!" damage. 2) Bowser's kids are known as the Koopalings. 3) Nice glitch you found. Maybe I should research a bit to see if it's possible to abuse it.
Metalheads are the only ones to survive.
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So about my sprite flickering issue... I uploaded a vid for reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkmClqbE8xc And if someone doesn't have this problem, please tell me! I don't think this has anything to do with my PC's specifications or emulator settings... (I didn't touch any settings but the input configuration and hotkeys.) I tried messing around with all the settings in VBA, but the problem remains. And... is there any progress going regarding M&L TASing?
Joined: 3/22/2008
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Ah yes, that's the one. I didn't remember this but sprite flickering does indeed occur for me as well in that part of the Stardust Fields (me and my poor memory). But if I remember right it's not necessary to use them. I'll have to try which is faster, getting some coins without using them or getting some (possibly) faster, ignoring the lag. Also, the tas is making fairly steady progress, although I haven't worked on it very frequently.
Metalheads are the only ones to survive.
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I just remembered that the NES MM1 runs had been granted an emulator modification for those flickering magnet beams (?) for better watching. There may possibly be someone who's willing to create an emulator modification for M&L... just an idea...
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So I decided to finally post my unfinished run. I made it somewhere in 2008/2009 but I didn't come around to posting it for some reason... It will run on VBA 21 but is has most of those emulation glitches (sprite flickering, emulation lag, glitched graphics after a cutscene in the university, inaccurate emulation of the Peach guidance sequence). These emulation glitches & the inoptimal route are the reasons why this run is discontinued and I won't work on this game until the emulation glitches get fixed. Comments: I'm obtaining many mushrooms so I can deal much damage later on in the game when acquiring the mush badge in the toad town and using the hammer spin bros attack (which as you might know can deal ~60 individual attacks). The mush badge adds hitpoints for every mushroom you have in your inventory (mushroom = .199, super mushroom = .25, ultra mushroom = .299) so the hammer spin attack can deal MUCH damage in one go. I figured that it wasn't worth collecting some mushrooms that take too much time to get as they are too far off the route. If I redo this WIP someday, I will need to make a lot of testings as to which mushrooms to get and see what's better: collect many mushrooms and kill bosses in 1 attack vs. collect a few mushrooms and kill bosses in ~3 attacks. I planned to beat the final boss in one attack but collecting mushrooms takes almost 2 or 3 minutes which is too much. This run is also very closely derived from the SDA run. I used advanced chopper bros on the queen which saved a lot of time. The battle against Cackletta (in the university) was the best luck ever. She didn't attack me at all for 3 or 4 rounds. Part1 Part2 Part3 Part4 Part5 Part6 Part7 Check my userpage for the movie file. See here for tricks and glitches.
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There is a wall glitch that the author used in Part 6. It can maybe be used to skip Bowser's castle and I'm investigating its usefulness apart from that now. However, it only works in the Japanese version. How it works: Have Mario use fire on Luigi and fall off a ledge. If done correctly, you can continue walking without having to wait for Mario to reach the ground. Now, while walking, Mario will be in a glitchy state which allows to enter walls by switching between Mario and Luigi. Strangely, this timer problem is still present in the Japanese version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzCe-kyNOJ4 Maybe it can not be used to skip Bowser's castle after all. I'm not sure how the author of the Nicovideo TAS did it. I'm currently trying to retrieve the VBM file. If we can't retrieve the .VBM file, testing the glitch and verifying the Bowser castle skip will get a lot harder... I actually experienced a similar glitch in the (E) version by chance while messing around in the final boss room at the throne, but I couldn't reproduce it. I confirmed that this glitch doesn't work in the (E) version. Skipping much of the end of the game actually might defeat my idea of collecting mushrooms and using Mush badge since there are hardly any bosses left in the game now, so it won't be useful to use that strategy.. Video demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1u4167KfXc
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New investigation shows that the game-over sequence happens if you save & reset the game. Therefore, the Bowser Castle skip is legit and will work if you play through the game at least without using savegames. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/998438481/a.vbm (ROM: Mario & Luigi RPG (J).gba) EDIT: Skipping some parts about the 1st Star Bean Piece. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgqsV1lULwg EDIT2:
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Ok, I'm done testing. The glitch can be used
  • to skip some parts of the 1st Star Bean Piece (saves ~8 minutes).
  • to skip some parts of 'Joke's End' (saves ~10-15 minutes) One can test how much can be skipped here during making the TAS. I didn't succeed in going through the last door without opening it...
  • to skip Bowser's Castle (saves ~16 minutes)
Maybe it can even be used in other places or in order to travel faster in general. The game is very sequence-break friendly. A new TAS will be 2:30~2:45 hours long.
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http://pastebin.com/W8bqQQBd Mario & Luigi Superstar saga lua script, for testing, TASing, comparison etc. I'm not very good at lua, hence why it only contains gui.text lines and other simple things, but it will suffice for the TAS I'm working on. Version differences between the Japanese and English versions are documented here: http://themushroomkingdom.net/mlss_j2e.shtml http://themushroomkingdom.net/mlss_guide.shtml Edit: Fixed a mistake with the NEXT value. Edit: Added advanced bros attack counters. Edit: Added accurate mushbadge bonus values. Mushrooms*0.078 Supermushrooms*0.098 Ultramushrooms*0.117 Maxmushrooms*0.199 Edit: Probably final version of the lua script. I added what I hope to be the RNG addresses (at least their values change whenever RNG changes, so that should suffice).
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Editor, Expert player (2373)
Joined: 5/15/2007
Posts: 3940
Location: Germany
TAS Route test movie (Only posted here for reference, it doesn't show the actual route that's gonna be used) To provide some details, Luigi is going to get POW upgrades instead of HIGE upgrades after Trunkle. I got BrosRock, though I planned not to get it in the TAS, but I accidentally sold it in the test movie. So I corrected memory values at frame 500,000. (Use this lua script if you plan to play back the test movie, else it will desync at Helmie). Also, I'm going to get ~ 20 extra mushrooms on the route up till Fungitown. I'm not gonna get Greed Wallet, because the 10 mushrooms (13 mushrooms are worth 1.0 mushbadge attack bonus point) and the 1170 extra coins at the end (worth 3.7 mushbadge points) aren't worth the ~2 minutes detour. Regarding the 3.7 extra mushbadge points, I can kill Bowletta and Cackletta with either 10.0 or 14.0 mush bonus points in 2 rounds. I'm having some trouble working the Cackletta battle out, since Dragondarch used some nifty strat that I can't manage to reproduce - it might be impossible on the Japanese version. I stored most of the information in a private thread I started at SDA with Dragondarch, but I don't feel like pasting it all here (since some of the information expired or is unnecessary, and it's in fact a ton of text that probably nobody is gonna read through...). Maybe you can expect a TAS within 2011, else in mid 2012.