Posted: 8/23/2012 8:36 PM
Post subject: Skill Gap: How much skill is needed?
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Guernsey
Joined: 8/3/2008
Posts: 254
I know that there are some games that require skill especailly platformers, bullet hell shooters and fighting games but how much skill is required to TAS such games?
Guernsey Adams Pierre
Posted: 8/23/2012 9:24 PM
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TASeditor
Editor, Skilled player (1506)
Joined: 7/9/2010
Posts: 1317
Glitchy TAS of 2015 NES TASer of 2014 Speedy TAS of 2014 NES TAS of 2013
You should know about glitches. But real gamer skills aren't required.
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Posted: 8/23/2012 9:38 PM
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Derakon
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
The skills required to make a TAS are thinky-puzzly skills, not twitchy-reactiony skills. In particular, most TASes require a lot of planning -- figuring out what route to take, what resources are needed, when they can be replenished, etc. ahead of time so you don't waste time grabbing things you don't need, but also don't waste time because you didn't have something that would have been useful. The ability to find important memory addresses is generally helpful (e.g. for maximizing horizontal velocity). Finding glitches is also a skill, though I don't know how you'd go about training it aside from just TASing a lot and having some idea of how most videogames are written.
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Posted: 8/23/2012 10:38 PM
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moozooh
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
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Aside from very selected few, bullet hell shooters are, at large, very forgiving compared to certain shooter titles from 80s and 90s. Very few platformers require skill per se unless you're deliberately playing them in a hard way (i.e. speedrunning), and even then it mostly boils down to muscle memory rather than conscious keypresses. I'm surprised you didn't mention early FPS games, many of which were actually pretty damn hard regardless of your goals, or strategy games where quick and precise micromanagement can decide the end of most battles. In virtually all cases what is referred to as skill in a video game is obtained through learning, observation, and repetition. To obtain skill you need to be very goal-oriented, learn from past mistakes, and drill everything you have problems with until everything predictable is accounted for. You also need to be observant to see how the game reacts to your actions and draw conclusions as to how you can manipulate it to your advantage. With TASing, it's pretty much the same: learning, observation, and repetition will eventually lead you to optimal or near-optimal results in a largely similar manner. The only major difference is that when you're TASing you can treat any game as an infinitely rewindable turn-based puzzle that doesn't involve reaction time, so you have more opportunity to be observant and try different things over and over until you're satisfied. I hope that answers your question.
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