Posted: 1/13/2015 5:43 AM
Post subject: Pieces
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TeighMart
Joined: 8/8/2014
Posts: 3
Started working on this game a couple months ago. It's a really fun little puzzler, fairly easy for my first TAS though there's a ton of complex AI/optimization that makes it scale in difficulty quickly. I'm not sure if this would make for a great watch, but please let me know if there is interest from the community. Current WIP beating the first boss: Link to video Also this is my first ever post on this site, so hi everyone!
Posted: 1/13/2015 4:40 PM
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ars4326
He/Him
Experienced player (778)
Joined: 12/8/2012
Posts: 706
Location: Missouri, USA
Hi, TeighMart! As I like to extend to all newcomers, welcome to the community. That was some real pwnage you did on the first boss, lol. Does the AI start to get quicker than that, in the later stages? Otherwise, I could picture this being a fairly enjoyable watch; a good part due to the speed used to complete the picture puzzles. While I'm honestly not sure if it would end up being a Moon-tier or Vault-level run (and I personally see nothing wrong with having a Vault run), I'm interested in seeing a full TAS made, regardless. Looking forward to more WIPs :)
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - 1 Corinthians 2:9
Posted: 1/13/2015 7:24 PM
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Omnigamer
Player (37)
Joined: 2/16/2012
Posts: 282
Hello, I'm definitely interested in something for Pieces. There are some important things to consider though, that may take quite some time to investigate, the main one being RNG Mechanics. This will matter a lot for determining puzzle piece order, and probably somewhat for the helper as well. If it can be manipulated so that you get a lot of the upper pieces early on then you can probably gain some good time. But I'm sure there's also a tradeoff in terms of helper efficiency, since you can still move faster to the lower spots, so maybe a higher turnover rate is better by leaving the top spaces empty. I think there's one other power that may be helpful as well, if I remember right you just click on a piece and it flies to its location. Again, just needs lots of testing. Overall I think this should be a lot of fun to optimize though. Figuring out how to manipulate the RNG will go a long way.
Posted: 1/17/2015 3:54 AM
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TeighMart
Joined: 8/8/2014
Posts: 3
Good to see some other folks interested in this game. I'll go ahead and answer some questions/provide more info then. - The AI does get much faster/aggressive as the game goes on. This will make me need to counter their attacks later on but most powerups can be used without any timeloss so it won't be a big problem. - Puzzle piece order is attached to each picture so it never changes for a given puzzle. - It is more beneficial to have Help place bottom blocks as it take 12 more frames for him to place a piece than me (disregarding that it also moves exactly half as fast). - The other powerup you're talking about is Auto which places pieces for you but limits the speed to 2 pixels per frame (My move speed while holding a shoulder button is 4 pixels per frame) so it's very slow and can't be used in tandem with Help. I'll keep posting with more info as I think of it.
Posted: 1/20/2015 4:51 PM
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Omnigamer
Player (37)
Joined: 2/16/2012
Posts: 282
The puzzle pieces are really always in the same order for each picture? That seems like a poor design decision, but I guess it simplifies things. Are the specific puzzles always fixed as well, or can they vary for each boss? That makes sense for the Auto powerup then. I wouldn't completely disregard it however; there may be some situations in which it can save some frames, especially if you are close to finishing but don't have enough special meter to get helper, or helper would be ineffective in the remaining time. I'm pretty sure you can't, but just to double-check your cursor is locked when you select a piece with Auto, correct?